that prices, like wages, should remain as they had been before the pestilence." It is, moreover, difficult to understand how the employers suffered more than the laborers under the statute.
The book is not without traces here and there of careless writing. Thus on page 3 the somewhat startling statement is made that "the dead king had lately shown . . . rare energy". So Isabella, the wife of Edward II., is described (p. 292) as " a woman of strong character . . . with [a] lack of morals and scruples". Other instances might be cited which fall under lapses of taste. It certainly does not do Bruce justice to call him a "clever adventurer" (p. 262), or Owen Tudor, a "traitor" (p. 414).
It is unfortunate that the plans of the editors do not allow more space for foot-notes in this excellent series. It is not only that the author frequently needs the foot-note to justify his position, but to satisfy the reader that he is getting the result of scholarly care and is not being led astray by the vagary of the author or the carelessness of the proof-reader. Note, for example, in the present work the group of dates connected with the series of brilliant exploits of the Scots of the years 1312-1315, where there is considerable divergence from the ordinary dates. So too one should like to know if the author has anything more than the questionable authority of Villani to support his "three small cannon" which Edward "dragged about" with him in his Crecy campaign (p. 364). So also in the light of the somewhat extensive literature upon the Black Death and the widely divergent views of creditable authors, the simple assertion that this dreaded pestilence was the bubonic plague (p. 370) is hardly sufficient. Still more to the point is the account of the battle of Poitiers. Here the author quite justly rejects Froissart and follows le Baker, yet not altogether, since his narrative is also influenced by Chandos Herald, particularly in his efforts to trace the movements of the two armies. But Chandos Herald, as well as Froissart, especially since the publication in 1899 of Denifle's Désolation des Églises, has also fallen under disfavor. In a note added to the appendix the author promises to justify his narrative later. It is to be hoped that this may be done, but there are a lot of other statements that one would also like to see justified or at least supported by foot-notes for the guidance of the student.
The book is accompanied by the customary bibliography and also by three useful maps.
The thesis which Professor Dejob maintains in the book under consideration is that, contrary to the general impression disseminated by writers like Burckhardt and Voigt, the fourteenth century in Italy was one of profound and simple faith, of sincere attachment to pope, clergy, and monastic orders. The critics who have argued from the
