REUNION WITH ROME.* Oust readers will remember that something less
than twenty years ago an effort was made to bring about a rapprochement between the Roman and Anglican Churches. Pope Leo XIII. appointed a commission to examine the question of the validity of Anglican Orders. If this could be answered in the affirma- tive it was felt that a first step of very great importance would have been taken. Mr. T. A. Lacey in his Roman Diary has already told us something about the negotiations which took place, and now Lord Halifax, who justly claims that "no one is in a position to give so complete an account of the matter" as himself, completes the story. He tells us of the high hopes with which the enterprise was undertaken, of the profound disappointment with which its final failure was received, and of the causes to which that failure is to be attributed. First of these comes the Pope. He begins, it is certain, with a favourable disposition. Had circumstances favoured he might have carried it to a successful issue. There have been Popes who would have done it had they been so minded. But he was not able to resist the opposing influences ; for one thing there was his advanced age ; he was in his eighty-seventh year when the fatal Bull .Apostolicae Curae was published. Then there was the Roman Curia, a body which is of a political rather than a spiritual temper ; finally there were personal influences actively or negatively hostile, the most potent being, according to Lord Halifax, . Leo XIII. and Anglican Orders. By Viscount Halifax. London : Long. AIM and Co. [12s. Gd. not.] Cardinal Vaughan and Archbishop Benson. Here, then, we have at full length the narrative of the affair, a narrative of much interest now, and certain to furnish valuable material to the Church historian of the future. This is not the place to discuss so wide a question. Still one cannot help speculating as to the results which would have followed had the issue been other than it was. First, we cannot but think there must have been a great secession from the Anglican Church. How many of us are ready, to take one point, to acquiesce in giving the title of Co-Redemptrix to the Virgin Mary P Then there would have been a final and hopeless breach with all the non-episcopal bodies. There is much to be said by those who see prudence rather than weakness in Archbishop Benson's inaction.
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