The Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol addressed his clergy in
the Bristol Cathedral on Thursday, on the present danger of the Church of England, and again at Cirencester yesterday, on the more special subject of Confession. He contrasted with some force the apparently increased life within the Church,— the almost universal revival of frequent communions for in- stance,—with the alarms which the Church appears to suffer from the serious dangers of lawlessness, caballing, and 'eacerdotalism. It was on sacerdotalism, however, that the Bishop spoke moat at length. But though we have read atten- tively all he said, we are still not quite clear of his real view on the subject of Confession. He says that the Church does not encourage, but rather discourages private confession to her priests, that " her rule is pastoral counsel and consolation, and that it is only when this is found to be utterly unavailing, or when sickness is casting on the penitent its shadows, that she :sanctions confession and the extreme exercise of her committed powers." In other words, the Bishop appears to mean that the Anglican priest has the power to absolve, but is only permitted to use it to individual penitents, and with a knowledge of the indi- vidual guilt to be absolved, when either other means of appeasing the conscience fail, or sickness is serious. Are we right, then, in supposing Dr. Ellicott to hold that sacerdotalism, in its objec- tionable sense, consists not in believing in the supernatural power .of the priesthood to absolve,—which he admits,—but in the wish to use it without the constraints and limitations which the Anglican rules suggest ?
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