The Pope has issued an Encyclical which will take a
high place among memorable Papal announcements. It is obviously directed to those who have taken part in. recent congresses to discuss reunion, and in particular, we may suppose, to the principals in the conversations at Malines. Lord Halifax has just issued a report of those conversations from the Anglican point of view. He finds a good deal of common ground, but his findings are surely shattered by the Encyclical. The Papal attitude towards the assertion of the validity of Anglican orders is- a complete rejection of the claim. Such an outcome, after all, was only to be expected. Papal doctrine is exclusive, and that exclusiveness is at once the strength and the weakness of the Roman Church. There is strength because there is simplicity and overwhelming confidence ; there is weakness because no appeal is allowed to reason.
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