THE APPEAL OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH.
The Appeal of the Anglican Church. By the Rev. Arthur Galton. (Dover Street Book Store. 2s. net.)—Mr. Galton has stated in this volume with much ability and in a temperate spirit the arguments by which the Anglican position is sup- ported. The special occasion of the book is the "Appeal to the First Six Centuries," in which many of different schools of thought in the Church have hoped to find a meeting-point. Dean Waco in the introduction which he has furnished gives us his definition of this Appeal. Positively, ho adopts the language used by the Lower House of Convocation, "an appeal to the general practice of the Catholic Church in the first six centuries." Negatively, he says that "it does not mean, and never could have meant, that any practice that found any countenance in those centuries ought to be regarded as admissible within the Church of England." Each practice must be shown to be conformable to Scripture, and suited to the needs and habits of modern society. But is not this to reduce the Appeal to almost nothing ? The test of conformity to Scripture opens the way to endless con- troversy. The Appeal might as well be to sixteen as to six centuries, if the Scriptural test is to be insisted upon. Something of the extremes of Mary-worship, and possibly Transubstantiation, might be disposed of. (As to the latter, however, we find in the •sixth century legends that imply Transubstantiation, the wine actually turned to blood of which traces are found.) But surely it might be contended that if the Appeal moans anything, it means that Gregory the Great, the "Fourth Doctor" of the Western Church, is an authoritative person. And here is a true story of Gregory. A monk under his rule had been deprived by his command of the Sacraments, and died, it may be said, excommunicate. Gregory then reconsidered the case, and ordered the Eucharist to be celebrated daily for the dead man's soul. At the end of thirty days the spirit of the deceased appeared, and declared that he was released from penalties. Are we prepared to admit such a practice as this ? And yet to shut it out practically shuts out the sixth century, of which Gregory was typically representative.
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