27 OCTOBER 1877, Page 3

At the same Conference a dispute arose on the subject

of the reform of Convocation, one speaker wishing to deny the laity any voice in respect of doctrine, even in the Church body of the future. This resolution, however, was defeated in favour of one Which simply delayed the question for the present, but it is clear that many clergymen think the laity as absolutely incompetent to judge the doctrine of their Church as a merchant, for instance, might be held to be to judge a technical point in law or a technical point in physiology. That view can never hold in a Protestant Church. It was the laymen who made the Reforma- tion, not the priests. If theology be too technical for the laity to understand, it is too technical also for the redemption of men.