Loisy died in 1940 and his devoted disciple, Miss Maud Petre, died in December', 1942. In the pages of this book she attempts to explain the Abba’s religious standpoint by copious citations from his writings, adding her own comments, verily those of a disciple. Just over forty years have elapsed since the publication of L'Evangile et l’Eglise took the ecclesiastical world by storm and, with its sequel Autour d’un petit livre, was condemned by the Holy See in 1903. Loisy declined to submit.

What a tragic story it is ! Nor is the telling of it by his devoted disciple less so. For while endeavouring to preserve her independence, she is plainly in full sympathy with the master’s main contentions. I have read her pages twice if not thrice, and—harsh though it may seem—the word ‘egoist,’ applicable to master and disciple alike, keeps recurring to the mind.

As Miss Petre herself says : ‘Loisy lived by mind rather than by heart, and mental agreement was, for him, essential to friendship.’ Hence the breach, first with Duchesne, then with von Hugel: ‘his Memoires testify to his sensitiveness and inability to endure contradiction patiently.’ Pius X, to whom Loisy had appealed, saw this clearly : ‘I have received a letter from Loisy; but while his appeal is addressed to my heart, his letter was not written from his own heart.’