The Times of Thursday publishes two declarations of import- ance
upon the subject of the recent Ritualist decisions. In one, a great number of eminent clergyman and laymen, headed by Bishop Chapman, Bishop Hobhouse, and Bishop Macdougall, advise their brethren to submit to the decision of the Ordinary in regard to the points of ritual touched in the Ridsdale judgment, but express their belief that the only final solution will be the exercise by the Church of her right to deal with ceremonial through Convocatien ".with the consent of Parliament." ,The only defect of this declaration is the omission of the words " a Reformed " before Convocation ; but the second, signed by 41,200 clergymen and laymen, including Dr. Pusey, Dr. Liddon, -Bishop Jenner, and eight Peers, throws over the laity altogether. The petitieners declare "that they cannot in conscience accept 'such an arbitrary reversal of the plain directions of the Prayer-book, any more than they can recognise in ,foro eonscientim the authority in spiritual matters of the Court from:which the decisions proceed." They therefore, like the submissionista, ask for a revival of Convoca- tion, but add that all such questions must be mttled by it "apart from all secular intervention." That is, of course, equivalent to a mere prayer for the disestahlishrnent of the Church, or indeed, to one for the disestablishment of the State, which settles every day—in decieions on trust-deeds—what are and what are not the doctrines of bodies wholly- disconnected from the-State.
Previous page
