THE OLD CATHOLICS. [To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:]
Sin,—Your article in the Spectator of August 14th on the Old Catholics seemed to show some misunderstanding of the
principles of Roman Catholics, and I trust you will pardon a few words of criticism. You admitted that before the Vatican Council Papal Infallibility was at least a prevalent "pious opinion," and yet you added that disbelief in it had been an "article of faith" to some Catholics. No doubt the expression was used in a popular sense; strictly speaking, both disbelief and belief in the dogma were opinions before the definition. I need hardly point out that there is all the difference in the world between such an opinion and a real article of faith ; the one is supported merely by historical or other evidence, -which, in caws of this kind, are very rarely absolutely conclusive, while the other is inextricably bound up with a. Catholic's staunchest convictions as to his whole relations with God. A man, then, may give up even a strongly held opinion, "without trifling with his conscience," when he is face to face with fresh evidence of an overwhelm- ing weight though of a different nature. Then, again, the article seems to imply that the faith of a Catholic consists in the holding of a string of dogmas, one or more of which can be omitted for particular reasons without injury to the rest. I am convinced, however, that all Roman Catholics would agree that there is a central unifying principle, submission to the authority of the Church. They cannot help, therefore, considering a body of Catholics which refuses to submit to that authority when it has clearly spoken, as heretical, even though they may possess Bishops, priests, and the Sacrament
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