21 MAY 1927, Page 18

Will the Deposited Book Restore Order in the Church? By

the Right Rev. E. A. Knox, D.D. (Price 3d.) We can

only return the answer No to Bishop Knox's query, if controversialists of utterly opposed views, such as the author and Mr. Dark, persist in discovering in the New Use what Is not there, and was never meant to be there. We can go by one safe rule, and by that only : the expressed mind of the two Archbishops that no change of doctrine is intended,

and the general body of opinion in the Convocations which have passed the Alternative Book by majorities which included the considered vote of many representative Evan- gelical Churchmen. We deplore the issue of unauthorized little books of so-called " Catholic " teaching and devotion as much as Dr. Knox does—there is a ghastly passage cited on p. 16 of his tract from a booklet, Joy in Heaven, describing the pains of purgatory—but Dr. Knox has been a Diocesan himself, and when he asks, "Will the Bishops take action ? " it is fair to inquire how he coped in his own diocese with the publication or sale of such things, and to deny that they in any way interpret the New Use. For the rest, some of his quotations from the Royal Commission bear re-reading, but it is a pity when he objects to " illegal lights . . . on the Holy Table." They were used at the coronation of William and Mary, have a long sanction of " user " behind them, were authorized by the Lincoln judgment, and at least not interfered with by the Judicial Committee on appeal. The tract in general raises many old controversies, and does not make for peace.