[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sin,-.--Mr. Downer will find
the definition of "Low Churchman ". which he desires in the New English Dictionary. It is : " A' member of the Church of England holding opinions which give a low place to the authority and claims of the episcopate and priesthood, to the inherent grace of the Sacraments and to matters of ecclesiastical organization, and these differ rela- tively little from the opinions held by Protestant Noncon- formists. The term, invented as an antithesis to High Church- man, was in the early part of the eighteenth century used as an equivalent to Latitudinarian: Afterwards it fell into disuse but was revived in the nineteenth century, when the desig- nation High Churchman had obtained a new currency as applied to those who inclined to the theology and ritual of pre-Reformation times. For this latter use Low Churchman has for the most part been viewed as equivalent' to Evan- gelical, and has rarely been applied to Members of the Broad Church School. . . . E.g., 1708 Phenix II, Pref. 13: It shows the first rise of that party which were afterwards called Latitudinarians, and are at this day our 'Low Churchmen.' " —Yours, &C., 2 Raymond Buildings, Gray's Inn. .
CLEMENT F. ROGERS.
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