The Bishop of Monmouth should have stirred up the ecclesia-
stical historians by his defiant declaiation that the Church of England is not Protestant. Strictly speaking he may be right, though that seems a little doubtful, but in any case is more involved than common usage and convenience ? The Oxford Dictionary defines Protestant as " Member or adherent of any of the Christian bodies that separated from the Roman communion in the Reformation." It is surely a matter of history that what is now the Church of England did separate from the Roman communion, and remains separated from it. It is, of course, a part of Christ's Holy Catholic Church; so is the Roman Catholic Church. But it is convenient, not to say essential, to have a word which describes Christians in this country who are not Roman Catholics. What other word is there than Protestant ? It is quite true that in the first instance it bore a negative signification, but it would be archaic to fasten that sense on it at this time of day.
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