It seems a pity that Mr. Calderon's picture of "Elizabeth
of Hungary's Great Act of Renunciation" should have been purchased for the nation by the Chantrey trustees, before they were aware of the displeasure with which it would be regarded by the Queen's Roman Catholic subjects. The weight of authority even amongst Protestant scholars, is decidedly against the interpretation of the old chronicler which Mr. Calderon has adopted. The Catholics regard the picture as an imputation on their Church that she does not value the virtue of modesty in women. Yet as a matter of fact, no tradition is stronger in the Catholic Church than that women should never enter church with even the bare head which St. Paul prohibited. If it is immodest among Catholics for women even to take the covering off their head, it certainly is very unlikely that they would approve the much greater immodesty which Mr. Calderon has understood the chronicler of Elizabeth's life to impute to her. However, the Chantrey trustees declare that they have no power to undo what they had done,—it was done, we believe, before the Academy opened,—and the Duke of Norfolk's protest on behalf of the Catholic Union has simply elicited the statement that Mr. Calderon, far from meaning to hurt the feelings of Catholics, supposed that he was commemorating a great act of Catholic piety.
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