The Bishops have addessed a joint letter of admonition to
the clergy, which was published on Monday. The con- dition of the Church causes, they say, very great anxiety in those to whom by God's will its government is appointed. "All antiquity is united in teaching that this burden is laid upon them, and if any doctrine can be called Catholic it is that the Bishops have a right to call on all the clergy to follow the godly admonitions and submit themselves to the godly judgments of those who arc set over them in the Lord. Those who refuse such obedience are practically setting up a form of government which is distinctly not episcopal, and they cannot claim that they are guided by Catholic principles or treading in Catholic paths." If it is a grave offence to disobey an individual Bishop, it is a still graver one to reject the judgment of the Bishops as a body. But the Bishops as a body now put forth the duty of sub- mitting to the decisions of the Archbishops, The Church is in need of reform, but so long as even only in a few instances submission to authority is refused, all progress in the direc- tion of reform, and especially in that of self-government, is hindered. Finally, the Bishops appeal to the clergy to free the Murals "from the injury and discredit which she suffers when men see within her cases of persistent disregard of her constituted authorities."
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