CHARLES THE MARTYR
SIR,—If I were guilty of the muddled thinking Mr. Quintin Hogg ascribes to me, I should not be "facile"; " ; I should be what some members of the community would call "plain daft." No serious theologian, or simple Mile student for that matter, believes that the glorious company of heaven will be composed only of the canonised, or those deserving canonisation. I hope to arrive myself. I hope to meet Mr. Hogg. But neither of us, I imagine, regards ourselves as candidates for canonisation. The Church never said that Peter was a saint when he was cursing out a denial of his Lord, nor Mary Magdalene when (as is believed) she was a loose woman of the streets, nor Augustine when he was keeping a concubine and breaking his good mother's heart. The Church holds that the grace of God had such power with them that they afterwards became, in this life, shining reflections of their Lord, and all the more powerful In their example because of what they had previously been. But—and this Is the difficulty of those who claim sanctity for Charles Stuart—a man can- not be a saint and a double-crosser at the same time.—Sincerely yours, Westminster Central Hall, S.W.1. W. E. SANGSTER.
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