PAUL VI
SIR,—The Pope's adoption of the name of Paul has surely a significance which has escaped optimistic ecumenicists.
Paul I is famous for having defended ecclesias- tical orthodoxy regarding the doctrine of the Trinity and the veneration of images against the Eastern Church. Paul II opposed the humanist tendencies of the Renaissance, punished the Communistically- inclined Fraticelli and energetically prosecuted heretics. Paul Ill's monument in history is the Council of Trent which established the fundamental truths of Catholicism against the German Protestants. (No Protestant today is likely ever to subscribe to the Tridentine Creed, which Catholics hold.) Paul IV accused even Cardinal Pole who had reconciled England to the Faith under Mary I of latitudinarian leanings and summoned him to appear before the Inquisition: and Paul V solemnly condemned in two Briefs the anti-Catholic legislation of King James I.
If there is any name in the history of the Papacy which stands in opposition to what is popularly supposed to have been the policy of John XXII1, it is Paul.
HUGH ROSS WILLIAMSON
193 Sussex Gardens, W2
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