LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
['Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. The most suitable length is that of one of our " News of the Week" paragraphs. Signed letters are given a preference over those bearing a pseudonym, and the latter must be accompanied by the name and address of the author, which will be treated as confidential.—Ed. THE SPECTATOR.] CHRISTIANITY AND COMMUNISM [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—May I be permitted to say, in reply to Lord Clonmore, that he can obtain proof that the Holy Eucharist was cele- brated on Italian tanks from the Press Photographic Agencies of Fleet Street? My own pictures of it were cut from a news reel. Further proof of the Roman Church's support of war is provided in The Illustrated London News of October 31st, which published an excellent photograph of a R.C. priest
pronouncing the benediction of that Church upon Spanish rebels who subsequently have slaughtered some 200 non- combatant women and children in Madrid.
Mr. Plant affirms that Roman Catholics condemn only Protestant versions of the Bible—the Wycliffe, or earliest, English translation of which is dated 1382. Can either he or Father Corbishley explain, then, why, in 1229, the Council of Toulouse passed the following decree ?
" We prohibit also the permitting of the laity to have the books of the Old and New Testament, unless anyone would wish, from a feeling of devotion, to have a psalter or breviary for Divine Service, or the Hours of the Blessed Mary. But we strictly forbid them to have the above•mentioned books in the vulgar tongue." (Labbe, Councils, Part 1, Tom, 2. Paris, 1671.) Furthermore, does he think that the following extracts from certain Roman versions of the Bible and Te Dewn possess " the seal of authenticity " ?
PSALM IXXXiii " Truly God is loving to Israel, even to such as worship and venerate his Mother."
PSALM lxviii: " Let Mary arise, let her enemies be scattered." TE DEUX : " We praise thee, the Mother of God, we acknowledge thee, Mary the Virgin," Ste. (Opera Bonacentura, Tom. vi, p. 491.)
The Early Church unreservedly denounced mariolatry, poly- theism and image-worship. Thus :
ST. EP.mnArrus (A.D. 315) says : " Although Mary is most excellent and holy, and to be honoured, yet she is not to be worshipped. She is not given unto us for adoration. (Ep. Hier., Tom. ii, p. 144.)
Even centuries after Christ's time images such as are springing up like mushrooms in our Protestant churches today were anathematised by the better types of Christian leaders.
ST. AUGUSTINE (A.D. 354) said : " It is utterly unlawful to erect such image to God in a Christian Church.' (Ep. de Fide et Syn., c. 7.) LACTANTIUS (A.D. 260) declares : " There is no doubt there is no religion where there is an image." (Divin. Inst.,e. xviii, lib. ii.) ST. AMBROSE (A.D. 260) writes : " Our Church knows no vain shapes or figures." (De Fuga Saeculi, c. iii.)
These three men would certainly be horrified were they able to see the extent to which their successors have, in this matter, degenerated spiritually. They would find, in addition to the Reserved Sacrament illegally set up in our cathedrals and churches, graven images as innocent-looking as it is possible to make them, images calculated to attract the worshipper as morphia attracts the neurotic. Never have such images been acknowledged by their addicts as idols. They are " sacred effigies," or, as Lord Clonmore describes them, " holy statues." They are, of course, illegal in the positions in which they are placed—upon altars, credence tables, praying stools, it.c. History and the derelict remains of such images scattered over the face of the earth show conclusively enough what an irresistible fascination these unlawful images have always possessed for priestly perverters of the Sacred Word. It must be admitted, however, in extenuation that our churches were not for the most part designed to house Protestantism. They are the tabernacles, so to speak, from which mediaeval error was cleansed, and in their countless altar spaces; niches for images, darkened windows and other heretical featureS, they constitute a standing temptation to the clergy to revive that error and, by vitiating the laity's better judgement, seduce them to share their transgression.
Some of your correspondents have deplored the persecution of Spanish nuns. No one could regret this persecution more than the writer or be more ready to pay tribute to the unselfish acts of charity performed by nuns as a class. It cannot be denied, however, that they allow theMselves to be made the dupes and catspaws al the priests. 'Upon them devolve such hateful tasks as collecting and marshalling innocent children into idolatrous processions, even infants scarcely old •enough to walk (as the photographic records of these processions show), grasping ribbons attached to graven images on wheels to prove, as it were, their conversion to polytheistic idolatry. Should not those nuns who have suffered chastisement reflect upon their actions, not in the light of sacerdotal or monastic tradition, but in the light of those unchanging Truths, revealed by God centuries before Christ's coming, but to which, never- theless, He invariably gave His endorsement ?
The Anglo-Catholic intention to bring the English Church once again under Roman obedience •, may appeal to some minds, but to the overwhelming mass of English Churchmen, to say nothing of English Protestants as a whole, it is repugnant in the highest degree and not worth serious discussion.—Your
obedient servant, W. A. I'ownu., Captain. R.A.F. Staff College, Andover.
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