A DEFINITION SUPPLIED
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sin,- -The Rev. A. C. Downer's definition of a Low Churclunan is correct, as far as it goes. - A Low Churchman (in the eight- eenth century) was (usually) in politics a Whig, in doctrine a Latitudinarian, to which should be added that he was, on the question of Church and State, of Erastian tendencies. Hoathley- was a typical Low Churchman. In the latter part of the nineteenth century opponents of Evangelicals commonly called them Low Churchmen, but the appellation was stoutly resented. The Evangelicals combined with strong faith in the Church as the Elect—the Body of Christ—stout support of the State Church, the national form of faith and worship. Their relations with Nonconformists were far from friendly, except on the common platform of the Bible Society. The Church Missionary Society was a notable manifestation of their com- bination of allegiance to the principles of the Church of England with their belief that spiritual work could only be done by spiritually minded men. They could not accept the fact of Ordination as evidence of qualification of missionary enterprise. Their faith in the Elect Church of God made them, from one point of view, ultra High Churchmen. In the Traetarian doctrine of Apostolical succession, and, as it seemed to them, mechanical transmission of ministerial gifts, they had no faith at all. But they did believe that it was their duty to (they their Bishops, and were more loyal to them than the Ritualistic successors of the Tractarians.
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