STEPS TOWARDS - REUNION.* FATHER DUGGAN, who is, or was, "Catholic

Priest of Maid- stone," puts on his title-page the text, " Compel them to come in that My house may be full." And his book is, in fact, an invitation of the broadest and most liberal kind to all "who profess and call themselves Christians." His steps do not, it is true, take him any way along the road in which he might expect to meet Lord Halifax and his friends. He has n000u. cession to make about the validity of Anglican Orders; in fact, he does not mention the subject. We have no right to put opinions into his mouth which he does not express, but we should not be surprised to learn that he attaches very little importance to the matter. And, indeed, the Roman acknow- ledgment of the validity, if it could have been made, would have gone a very little way towards bringing about a real and effective reunion. The Anglican views on succession present as great an obstacle to the non-episcopal communions, as do the Roman to the Anglican Church. Even if Presbyterian Orders, and with them the Wesleyan, could be ack-nowledge4 the Congregationalists would still remain outside. Could comprehension go a step further and take in these, there would be still left bodies which are as fruitful in good works, and in all that satisfies the Apostolic definition of "true religion," as the most legitimately descended of Churches.

Nevertheless, Father Duggan's book justifies, we think

• Steps Towards Reunion. By the Rev. J. Duggan, London: Kagan Pic,

Trend). and Ou. the title which he has given to it. It is a distinct advance to that deeper and broader unity, which already exists among those to whom Christ is more than any form of Christianity, which, we hope, will one day, though "far off in summers that we shall not see," find its expression in the visible and practical form of a great Christian com- monwealth.

"The Council of Jerusalem," says our author, "gave liberty to Christians, but now every Council takes some liberty away." That sentence expresses broadly the object of his book. He makes a complaint not unlike to that which St. Peter made at that Council when he reproached the Judaisers with seeking to lay upon the Gentiles a burden which the Jews had never been able to bear. Scientific theologians have laid such a burden on the consciences of Christians, a burden which weighs down those who are within the pale, which keeps those that are without it from entering. Every age, he says, has had its errors. First there was the Judaising error, which the Jerusalem Council condemned. Next came the age of allegorical interpretation. Father Duggan specifies an example, the mystical numbers, which, he says, it would have been considered "rash and uncatholie " to disregard. He goes on

" The third period is the one in which we live, the age of theologians. It is not likely that this age has not its errors, if the Fathers and the Apostles had theirs. To begin with, there is party spirit now. That cannot be otherwise since there are rival classes of theologians; in dogma there are Thomists and Scotists, to mention no others; in morals there are Redemptorists and Jesuits, and many others might be mentioned. But the main error in which all theologians more or less agree is that the science and analysis of religion is as important as religion ; that the explanation of a mystery (which, of course, never is an explanation, for mysteries cannot be explained) is as necessary for salvation as the mystery itself ; that men must live according to the opinions of theologians, even when theologians differ among themselves, as they constantly do, for there is no question debated by moral theologians on which there are not at least two opinions, so that it is a marvel how moral theology came to be called a science; that it is right to exaggerate the authority of the Church, the importance of obligations or duties, and the guilt of sin. In a word, exaggeration seems to be the sin of theolo- gians and the sin of this age. Unfortunately, it is not merely a domestic sin, for it has driven many out of the Church."

The idea thus courageously expressed our author expands in his second chapter, entitled "Scientific Religion." "It would be a step towards the reunion of Christendom, if we could abandon scientific religion." The doctrine of the Real Presence suggests a significant example. "The accidents [of the bread and wine] remain without a substance, and the sub.

stance of the Body of Christ without accidents." That is a compendious statement of transubstantiation. But how many Christians know what is meant by " substance " and "accident" ?—

" Is it necessary for salvation to know how a substance differs from an accident ? No theologian would dare to say, ' Yes.' Then how can it be necessary for salvation to know that in the Blessed Eucharist the accidents have no subject ? But the Church always teaches everything that is necessary for salvation. There- fore, no man is excluded from salvation, and no man should be excluded from the Church, for not understanding these scientific explanations of things that still always remain mysteries even to the theologians who give these explanations. Let such wisdom be spoken in universities, and in colleges, and among the perfect. And let those who cannot agree form separate schools, not sepa- rate churches. What can be more displeasing to God, or cause more scandal among men, than that those who know thoroughly that their duty is to love one another should hate each other, not because one has done any harm to the other, but merely because the one understands less than the other ? It is as though men should hate each other for speaking different languages. And this really is the case, for the language of the learned is an un- known language to the unlearned. Yet this is what has divided Christendom l" Chap. 3 deals with "Catechisms," and may be passed over as dealing with a matter of internal economy which concerns the Roman Catholic community rather than those who are

without. It will be sufficient to say that it is a vigorous attack on the "Penny Catechism." "Our penny catechisms," he says, "should be abridgments of that of the Council of

Trent," i.e., "while omitting much that is in the Tridentine

Catechism, should contain nothing that is not in it." We might get an eminently reuniting manual in that

way. Chap. 4, "The Consequences of Exaggeration," will be found to be of more general interest, though this also

chiefly concerns Father Duggan's own Church. Most of the observations deal with matters of discipline and con-

duct, though there is an emphatic declaration on one point of dogma :— "The truth of a definition is one thing, and the prudence of in is another. Will any one dare to say now that it was prudent tc. add Pilioque to the Creed ? Would the Fathers who did it have. done it if they had foreseen a schism of a thousand years ? That seems to be the test of a definition and of its necessity ; if it is. right to make it, no matter what the consequences may be. There are some truths about which the Church must say : Non. possumus non logui. There are others about which she can say Possumus non loqui."

The author goes on to criticise various abuses,—the centralisa- tion of authority in Rome, the abuse of spiritual threats, the unnecessary multiplication of the clergy--" many priests live solely by the offering that is made to them for their daily Mass" (not, however, in England)—the unauthorised addition of " Obedience " or a third rule to Poverty and Chastity.

When we come to chap. 5, "Means and Ends," we find what is really the essence of Father Duggan's contention. We must give his own words :—

"There is only one sense in which that is true Dzulla salts% extra Ecclesiam]—viz., that the organisation of the Church has the power of giving grace, and that no other organisation

has that power. But it does not follow that God cannot give grace without any organisation. And the Church has power to forgive sins, but it does not follow that sine,

cannot be forgiven in the same way as before the Church existed. Men in the true Church have from Christ power to, teach, and to teach nations, power to bind and to loose, power to forgive sins, power to give grace, power to govern, a promise that, He will be with them always, a promise of the guidance of the Holy Spirit. These are powers and promises that no man pos- sesses outside of the Church. They make salvation much easier-

inside than out. But they do not make it impossible outside. It is a confusion of means and ends to say otherwise. For the best.

means are in the Church—viz., Faith and hope, and government and guidance, and so forth. But all these are worth nothing unless they lead to charity, and charity is certainly not confined to the Church, for of all Christian nations, and in fact of all the, nations in the world, England has the greatest charity an& the most good works. All faith is a means towards charity,. and if it does not lead to charity it is of no use at all. For what advantage is it to believe and to know everything that Christ

revealed and the Church teaches, if we bate one another on account of those things ? That is the state of Christendom now.. We hate one another, and excommunicate one another, and deny the possibility of salvation to one another, on account of the faith which was given to us for no other purpose than in order that wee might be united in charity ! Since this state of things is evidently wrong, let us begin by acknowledging that salvation is possible for all men. If we lay stress on that point we shall' feel that we are all working for the same end in this world—viz.,,

charity, and for the same ;end in the next world—viz., eternal salvation. Then we shall see that our quarrels about the means —viz., about points of faith—do not matter much, especially as- regards scientific, abstract, and unpractical points. Emulation and co-operation in works of charity would come next. If Catholics could only take the lead in works of charity, especially if our authorities would devote to that all the energy they devote. at present to abstract questions of faith, reunion would not be far off."

We must pass over many highly interesting incidental refer- ences to matters about which, though very little is said within. the pale of the Roman Communion, there is, it is clear, not a little searching of hearts. Our own extremists in the matter- of Fasting Communion would do well to see what he has to- say on this point. It is hardly a satisfaction, but certainly a. solace, to find that our prayers, before yielding to the constraint of a conga d'elire, have very close parallels in Roman practice. The chapter on Scripture, under the heading of "Holy Scripture not a Rule of Faith," is fall' of common-sense, and, we may add, courage, though the' writer is sometimes a little embarrassed by his posi- tion. Of the famous Tridentine declaration for the Vulgate-

he writes :—

" Concerning the edition of the Sacred Books,' the Council does not declare what edition is authentic, but only what edition must be taken as authentic pro authentiea habeatur. There were many editions and many disputes. The Council put aside all. disputes, and chose out one edition—viz., the Old Latin Vulgate. Both decisions are practical and disciplinary decisions. They are not dogmatic definitions. For there is evidently no revela- tion as to the authenticity of all the books that are in the. Canon of Scripture, or of the lack of authenticity of the booka that have been excluded, or of the authenticity of the Old. Latin Vulgate."

Perhaps there is just a suspicion of special pleading here.. On the whole, Father Duggan expresses himself with a most admirable and instructive candour.