So vast is the material to be controlled, digested and presented in the work of preparing a manual of Church History for the use of students in colleges, seminaries and universities or for the enlightened portion of the general public, the historian who undertakes the task is always confronted with the problem of knowing what to leave out as non-essential details or events of secondary importance and what to include as matter of capital importance to an understanding of the story of the Church of Christ. He must carefully steer the course between the Scylla of the dry hard rocks of a lifeless series of dates and events and the Charybdis of the full flowing tide of a narrative too extensive for the student to master within the time allotted. For this reason, a really first class manual of Church history is rather rare. As a rule, authors include either too little or too much.
Dom Poulet has apparently hit upon the happy medium. The success attained by his manual is attested by the fact that since its first publication his manual has now reached its fourth edition in the French original.
The work is the ripe fruit of many years teaching of the subject to ecclesiastical students, for whose use it is primarily intended, although for that reason it is no less suitable for either the college group or the cultivated public.
Approach to the vast amount of material involved and the orientation of the student or reader is rendered easier by excellent synoptic and chronological tables....
The paramount requirements of a manual of instruction are clarity, conciseness and precision. To this ideal Dom Poulet has strictly adhered. He has set aside secondary details, without at the same time omitting anything of importance. The development of dogmas is given an important place. The theological quarrels and controversies are exposed exactly and amply. As would be expected from the pen of a Benedictine, the history of the liturgy receives due attention. The text of the two volumes is easy to read; the style sober, correct and elegant. - ✠ Most Rev. Thomas K. Gorman, D.D., Bishop of Reno, Docteur en Sciences Historiques (Lovan.), February 14, 1935