The Juggler of Our Lady A Medieval Legend adapted by H. O. Blechman (review)

138Franciscan Studies In the second chapter the author foUows step by step the entire curriculum of Walram's studies and especially the various disputations and sermons and such Uke at the final stage of his promotion. This latter part is exceptionaUy well done. Fr. Ciasen leads the reader, with the help of the Statuta of the University of Cologne and the documents in Walram's autograph , through all the performances the young doctor had to undergo; or rather, he gives an interpretation of the documents with the help of the Statuta. In any case, he succeeds in giving us a vivid description of Walram 's activities. In the third chapter he deals with the professors mentioned in the documents , viz. Arnold von Cloetinge, Arnold van Doom, Gottfried Schlüssel O. P., Heinrich von Xanten, Johann Schlechter, O. F. M., Johann von Wachtendonck and Johann von Winningen, O. P., and also of Walram's socii, that is, his feUow students, viz. Bernhard von Galen, Gottfried van Loo, O. Carm., Heinrich von Emmerich and Heinrich von Werl, O. F. M. This third chapter is of especial interest because of its wealth of biographical and bibliographical material. The fourth chapter consists of an edition of the disputations and Principia, etc. It shows that Walram was mostly interested in questions of grace and moral theology; another sign that at this time speculative theology was slowly giving ground to practical theology. Father Clasen's work will at least make the reader realize that the scholasticism of the Fifteenth Century needs as much study as that of the Fourteenth , and that we are only beginning to bring the Ught of research into this era of change and confusion. Father Ciasen has succeeded in effectively dispelUng the darkness for a definite time and place. It is only by this type of work that we can hope to make the thought of the Fifteenth Century clear and understandable. As the learned author has shown by his careful edition of the documents, it is not by the intuitions of prejudiced historians, but by the hard labor of painstaking researchers that we can come to appreciate the achievement of the much-maligned and much-ignored Fifteenth Century scholasticism. Philotheus Boehner, O. F. M. Franciscan Institute The Juggler of Our Lady. A Medieval Legend adapted by H. O. Blechman (New York: Henry Holt & Co., [1953]; no pagination). As the sub-title says the book renders a medieval legend of the juggler, who did not find any happiness, neither in the world nor in the monastery, until on Christmas day the Blessed Virgin publicy recognized the merits of his juggling, his only skill. The written reproduction of the legend is kept down to a strict minimum, but the drawings, partly in color, give quite an original, though modern, interpretation of the medieval version. Eligius M. Buytaert, O. F. M. Franciscan Institute. ...