SCRUTAMINI SCRIPTURAS"
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I must apologise for writing upon matter contained in one of your book reviews in your issue of December 8th. My excuse must be that the matter I am criticizing is not review matter as such. The sentence at which umbrage might fairly be taken by a certain percentage of your readers is the opening one of Miss Evelyn Underhill's review entitled
" Scrutamini Scriptures " : " A devout Roman Catholic lately said to me ' I think I must buy a New Testament. It's only a small book, but it is useful to have one. Some- times we have to read it as a penance.' " Whilst quite ready to admit that Catholics, as well as others of this generation, do not- read the Scriptures suffi- ciently and that therefore a reading of them may often be a salutary penance, I feel that the remark may easily cause some annoyance to many Catholic readers on account of its implication. For the implication is made that the New Testament is a dead letter to Catholics in particular ; other- wise, why single out Catholics ? And than this nothing could be falser.
Much of the Catholic Church's chief liturgical function—
the Mass—is made up of readings from the Scriptures. Her preachers are exhorted to choose as their Sunday sermons homilies on the Scriptures. The Divine office consists mainly of readings from the Scriptures. The Catholic Church authorizes the issue of complete New Testaments and individual Gospels as cheaply as possible. And recent Popes have by special decrees fostered the daily reading of the New Testament. Thus the statement quoted in the best of faith by Miss Evelyn Underhill must seem rather a noxious one to very many Catholic-readers.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Old Serjeant's Inn Chambers, 5 Chancery Lane, W .C. 2.
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