260 REVIEWS OF BOOKS April as ' Pelbeworth ' for ' Pebbeworth ' (p. 125), ' Derceford ' and ' Chadifle ' for 'Derteford' and ' Chadisle ' (p. 165), ' Mandone ' for ' Maudone ' (p. 201), 4 Petto ' for ' Pecco ' (p. 266), and a few more. ' Hymuttone ' (p. 3) should be ' Hymultone ', i. e. Himbleton, near Droitwich. The church of ' Bliche * (p. 125) cannot be identified with any church upon which the prior and convent had a claim at any time unless, perhaps, it should be ' Wiche ' for Droitwich. In the title of the document on p. 127, referring to Meyseyhampton, 1 the consolidation of the church ' should be more accurately ' the con- solidation of the rectory and vicarage of the church '. On p. 45 ' to provide for ' the clerk named ' from the church ', though not wrong, could be rendered more clearly as ' to make provision to ' him ' of the church '. To the list of episcopal manor-houses on p. 34, Blockley, Henbury, North wick, and Withington should be added : a deed of Bishop Orleton (pp. 241-2) is dated at Withington. It is going too far to describe the pro- cedure indicated on pp. 152 and 206 as a circumvention of the Statute of Mortmain : actual circumvention of the statute was a different thing from straightforward means taken to procure the licences for alienation of property which were its necessary consequence. A reproduction of a leaf of the register opposite the title-page shows that the registrar of the monastery in 1305-6 was Adam of Cirencester, whose name appears in the list of monks present at the election of the prior in 1317. The bishop of Worcester contributes a short preface from which the formal phraseology used by his predecessors is conspicuously absent : in his warm appreciation of Dr. Wilson's industry he speaks for all readers of the book. A. Hamilton Thompson. Der Anteil der Schweizer an den Italienischen Kriegen, 1494-1516. Band I. Von Ernst Gagliardi. (Zurich : Schalthess, 1919.) Wherever the Swiss become conspicuous in the fifteenth and early sixteenth century it may safely be assumed that they had no business to be there. Far from being a simple, patriotic people fighting for their homes, they were aggressive and acquisitive, coveting pay, plunder, or land at their neighbours' expense. Their defeat by Carmagnola at Arbedo in 1422 was the penalty for one of many attempts to reach the Italian lakes. Their victorious war against Charles the Bold began in unwarranted aggression against Savoy and Franche-Comte, though they pleaded, as did their German kinsfolk of recent years, that they were acting on the offensive-defensive. This war was, indeed, as the author of this yolume shows, by no means the origin of the military, migratory spirit, which is later more generally known, though it served to intensify it. The main importance of Charles VIII's Italian expedition was in fact a change, not in the habit of foreign adventure, but merely in its geographical diversion from west to south. The part played by the Swiss mercenaries in this and the following campaigns is adequately treated by the author, especially in relation to the numbers employed, though doubtless much detail could have been added, had he ransacked Italian sources as thoroughly as he has Swiss. This, however, in spite of his title, is not the real subject of
