The Exeter Reredos case has been decided by the Privy
Council with its usual good-sense. Lord Batherley delivered judgment on Thursday, reversing the decision of the Dean of Arches as regards the Bishop's jurisdiction and visitatorial right over the fabric of the Cathedral,—which the judgment of the Dean of Arches had contested,—but in all other respects sus- taining his judgment. The general drift of the decision was that the law disallowed images in Edward \l.'s reign only as causes of superstition, and because it was then not possible to distinguish between images which were made the occasions of superstitious worship and images which were not. Now it is pos- sible to draw this distinction, indeed it is hardly possible to suppose that images in Protestant churches are made occasions for superstitious acts at all. Accordingly there is to be no legal idolatry in having a carved screen or reredos in our churches, as, of course, there is no spiritual idolatry in anybody's feeling about such ornaments. That is one good cobweb cleared away, at all events. One of the most popular types of modern superstition is the superstitious fear of ancient forms of superstition, dead for good, and entirely unrevivable. We might possibly find an Englishman or two capable of worshipping a steam-engine or a telegraph with a superstitious worship, but not one anywhere capable of feeling the like sentiment towards a statue.
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