A CANDID ANGLO-CATHOLIC.

UNDER the misleading heading, " A Gigantic Evangelistic

Campaign," a portion of the provincial Press is publishing somewhat highly-coloured accounts of the propaganda by

which the work of the recent Anglo-Catholic Congress is

being extended in country districts. The enthusiasm of those engaged in this propaganda is great. They are dis- satisfied with " the stifling atmosphere of' the Church" ; their object is " the conversion of England to Christianity " ; they enjoy the support of " some of the most spiritually minded of the Bishops " ; they have an excellent opinion of themselves ; their accents are those of authority ; they.

never think, they always know. The movement which they represent is an important one. It will not, indeed, touch

either the masses or the lay intelligence of the country. But it is influencing to an increasing extent that small but restless' and energetic section of Churchmen who, because of the indifference of the normal Englishman to such matters, at once dictates to and makes Bishops, " manages " the Diocesan Conferences and the National Assembly-, and

legislates for the Church.

Under these circumstances Mr. W. L. Knox's "-account of

the position of those who are commonly called Anglo- Catholics ' " supplies a real need. The author is not an all-round reactionary ; a Roman Censor would demur to not a few of his opinions. But on the nature and claims' of what he calls " The Church " he is uncompromising ; and his candour contrasts favourably with the reserves and " econ- omics " of opportunist Churchmen. " He is for King George," said the Jacobite, Shippen, of Walpole, "and I am for King James. But these men with lace cravats and full bottomed wigs are neither for King George nor King James." Mr. Knox's allegiance is beyond question.

" There is nothing that lies so near to the heart of English Catholics as the hope of reunion with the rest of Western• Christen- dom. Since the time of Pusey the leaders of the Catholic' move- ment have sought for some means of ending the-disastrous breach between England and the chief Bishop of the Christian Church, the successor of the Prince of the Apostles."

He admits that there are obstacles ; the chief of them being " the predominance of non-Catholic points of view in the highest quarters of the F.nglish Church." Another is clerical celibacy. " Among English Catholics the position is difficult. Many Priests have taken advantage of the per- mission to marry granted by the Church of England ;

while there are many more who married after their ordination, but before they had fully grasped the Catholic Faith." A third is the Bull of Leo XIII., Apostolicae Curae (1896), pronouncing Anglican Orders invalid. If, however, this were insisted upon, " it seems that the Lambeth Conference would be prepared to recommend, if necessary, the acceptance

of ordination by the Clergy of the English Church in such a form as to set aside all doubts which Rome might feel."' The -writer passes lightly over " the conception of authority generally prevalent in the Church of Rome," which, though it was formally defined at the Councils- of Trent and the Vatican, he regards (erroneously) as " more particularly " held by English Roman Catholics. At present the English laity, he admits, would probably refuse to give up the' English Liturgy and Communion in both kinds. This attitude on their part may not, he suggests, be permanent ; and he seems to regard a Uniate Church as a temporary solution of the difficulty. Such a proposal rests on a misunderstanding

of the facts. The circumstances of England are too unlike those of the countries in which Uniate Churches are found to admit of any parallel between the cases. In the East, where semi-civilized populations move en masse, the incorporation

of a religious body, whose beliefi and practices are otherwise Catholic, into the Papal Church is conceivable. Here it is not so. As a nation, we are not, in any sense of the word, Catholic ; and, on the Western level of civilization, however low its culture, where religion is concerned, action is individual. Nor can Rome compromise in dogma. Leo XIII. would have affiliated the late Father Hyacinth Loyson to a Uniate rite, and so, indirectly, have recognized his marriage. But he insisted, and could not but insist, on his acceptance of the Vatican Dogma of Papal Infallibility, and it was on this point that negotiations broke down. The Matins " Conversations " show how difficult it is to get English divines to see this. But whether they see it or not, it is so ; and " things are what they are." Mid, as a fact, there would be no demand for a Uniate Church in this country.

Our seceders and would-be seceders would be more Papal than the Pope and more Roman than Rome.

As might have been expected, Mr. Knox is a keen Revisionist. But his outspokenness will- scarcely commend" him to his party, which he completely gives away. How often have those of us whose unwilling lot it has been to attend Ruri-decanal

and Diocesan Conferences been assured by official speakers that the proposed. revision in no way bore on doctrine, and

was without theological significance. Mr. Knox is more honest :- " The services of the Book of Common Prayer, though capable of a Catholic interpretation, are very ill-suited: to be the means of expressing Catholic devotion. As regards the Eucharist, the doctrines of the Real Presence and the Sacrifice of the Mass are implied, but not insisted on with the clearness which is needed in order to concentrate on them the devotion of the faithful."

While the Prayer-book services were in possession, and familiar to the people, departure from them was difficult : but the present century " has witnessed a great decline in the formal and conventional churchgoing which was formerly characteristic of English religious life." Now is the wrecker's chance !' Why remain " tied down to a series of liturgical formulas which are very ill-adapted to express Catholic- beliefs, and lack the attractiveness and variety of the devotional methods of the Roman Church• ? "

" The last twenty years have witnessed the decisive victory of those who see that the task of converting the English people to- the Catholic religion cannot be accomplished without a complete revision of the English Liturgy in a. Catholic sense, and the general introduction of the full system of Catholic devotion, as it has been developed by Western'Catholicism since the Reformation."

The word " since " should be noted. It is not to the Catholic- ism of the Middle. Ages, but to that of the intolerant and decadent Counter-Reformation that we are invited to return. Mr. Knox has, no doubt unconsciously, rendered a real service