THE NAKED TRUTH.* Pus Bishop of ;Hereford is probably the

one Bishop to whom the genuine layman listens. The reason is that, when he

Teaks, he speaks plainly ; and that he does not speak unless he has something to say. This reprint of a forgotten pamphlet by one of his forgotten predecessors has a more than antiquarian interest ; it bears intimately on the questions before the Church

of to-day. It may seem strange to find a Caroline Bishop taking the ground of a modern Broad Churchman. Politically, Croft was a Royalist and a High Tory. But his circumstances had been such as to give him a larger understanding of religious

affairs than was then, or is now, common among English clergymen. He had been educated a Roman Catholic—at Douai,

St. Omer, and finally at the English College at Rome. The result was a certain European outlook. The provincialism of the English episcopal mind was foreign to him ; he had the sense of proportion which the Anglicanism of Convocation and

the Church House lacks. Lambeth is a force quoad nos ; but quoad nos only. When it has spoken, the last word has not been said.

" Fear of Popery, and a sense of the spiritual destitution of his diocese, were the influences which carried Croft into the camp of the Moderates," Bishop Henson tells us. The same motives may well lead men in the same direction :to-day. The war policy of the Vatican has shown that the temper and aims of Rome are still what they were in the seventeenth century, and the pseudo-Catholicism of the Church Party is an even

greater danger to English religion. While " destitution " is scarcely too strong a word to apply to the state of many parishes: the poverty of the average benefice is still " miserable " ; " the ecclesiastical system is full of anomalies and practical abuses " ; its " inefficiency is apparent and extreme."

Croft's vi:.,.of the situation was a common-sense one. With Jeremy Taylor, he would restrict credenda to fundamentals,

and their formulation to the words of Scripture :

" There hath not been a greater plague to Christian Religion than School-divinity. Nothing hath caused more mischief in the Church than the establishing new and many Articles of Faith. When the Christian Doctors fell to cunning disputing, introducing new forms of speech and nice expressions of their own coyning, great Discords, Wars and Confusions soon followed. Had that most Prudent and most Pious Constantine pursued his own intentions to suppress all disputes, and all new questions of God the Son, both Ho-moue-fan and Hornoiausian, and commanded all to acquiesce in the very Scripture-expressions, without any addition, I am confident the Arrien beresie had soon expired."

The Bishop's attitude as to the ritual controversy will commend itself to the lay mind. While "Subjects," he thinks, "are bound in Conscience to conform to the established Ceremonies of that

Church whereof they are members, unless there be anything flatly against the Word of God," yet

" it is a childish or effeminate kind of Devotion to be zealous in any ceremonial observance, which masculine spirits are apt to despise. Wherefore let us leave it to woman and children to contend about ceremonies : let it be indifferent to us whether this, or that, or no ceremony ; whether kneel, or not kneel ; bow, or not bow ; Surplice, or no Surplice ; Cross, or no Cross ; Ring, or no Ring. Let us give glory to God in all, and no offence to our Brethren in any thing."

The threat of secession to Rome, which brings the Bishops of our own time to heel, had no effect on Croft's more manly piety. Then, as now, this insolent threat was the weapon of enthusiasts against counsels of moderation, and against the recognition of that lay religion towards which men of the wiser and better sort were moving. There was no English Church Union in the seventeenth century ; but the temper that troubles Israel was already in evidence :

" These men will most passionately (and pardon me if I say uncharitably and irreligiously) cry, ' Away with these Idiot Sectaries and mad Phanaacia I We will not leave one ceremony," nor any one line of our Common-Prayer Book to gain thousands of them. No ; if you alter that, we will rather leave the Church. and go to the Papists Mass.' If these be not as simple Sectaries and mad Pharmacia as any whatsoever, let God and his .holy Angela judge."

Croft's judgment as to Episcopacy was that of the beat Anglican divines : " I am as zealous for the preserving of this Primitive way as any man. Yet I cannot by any means consent to them who would have Episcopacy to be a distinct Order ; nor can I think the Ordination of a Priest made by Priests invalid."

Confirmation " is no Sacrament " ; nor is there any reason why it should be conferred only by Bishops, " inferior Ministers performing other offices superior to it." Of the Courts Spiritual, " Good God ! " he exclaims, " what a horrid abuse is this of Divine Authority ! " ; while, " as for the Triennial and Circuity

Visitations, 'tis a meer -money business to pay proeurations to Bishops, fees to Chancellors, Registers, &c." The good Bishop would not, it is clear, have stood for what is now known as " Life and Liberty." The Temple was dear to him, as it was to George Herbert : but his vision went beyond it ; and of the Heavenly 'City he would have said with the Seer of the Apocalypse : " I saw no Temple therein." Nor can we doubt that he would have been of the mind of his energetic successor in desiring

the appointment of a strong Royal Commission to inquire into and repair the breaches of Zion :

"Wherefore," he concludes, " I humbly conceive the $ishops, with the rest of the Clergy, are bound in oonseience to implore Assistance of both Houses of Parliament to Petition His Majesty for the redress of these abuses by Pious Laws."