5 FEBRUARY 1870, Page 3

A numerously signed memorialwas presented to the Archbishops of Canterbury

and York the other day praying for relief in the case.of Athanasian Creed. The memorialists wished either that 'may' should be substituted for shall' in the rubric ordering its use,—a sort of permissive bill, enabling clergymen to abstain from damnation if they please, and also to indulge in it if they please,—or that the damnatory clauses should be omitted, or that the authorized 'explanation' of these clauses should be given. (What, by the way, is "the authorized explanation " ?) The Archbishop of York expresses himself,—in. very cautious and archiepiscopal terms,—as favourable to some measure of relief. And as doubtless the Archbishop of Canterbury is of the same way of thinking, there seems some chance of the Church of Eng- land:being relieved from this incubus at no distant date. Surely it has long been quite impossible to reconcile even the existence of the Anglican Church with the old doctrine that all heresy is sin ?