ECCLESIASTICAL ADAPTATION.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIB,—In your August 16th number the reviewer of Towards Reunion says: "It is difficult to reconcile the kind of unity which she [the Church of Rome] imposes upon her adherents with adaptation and movement and life." May I suggest that this is a misapprehension of the nature of Roman unity? It is true that the Holy See refuses to compromise upon what she has declared or believes to -be de fide; but of course it is difficult to see how, consistently with basing herself on Revelation, she could adopt any other attitude. Outside this limit, however (and even within it, until any given question has been closed), surely the whole history of the Roman Communion has been one of life, adaptation, and movement. The Holy Liturgy is said in no less than nine languages : Latin, Greek, Rumanian, Slavonic, Georgian, Arabic, Coptic, Armenian, Syriac. Each country or Church has " local customs "; there are an infinite variety of devotions, optional and suited to different cases; and there is scope -for every temperament or vocation. The remark of Macaulay, about how different would have been the fate and reception of George Fox andLady Huntingdon had they lived in Catholic surroundings, will not be forgotten.—I am, Sir, &c., J. W. POYNTER. 106 Gillespie Road, Highbury, N. 5.
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