EPISCOPACY AND CATHOLIC TRADITION.
(To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") SIR,—In your issue of December 13th " R. W." appeals to Bishop Lightfoot as " the greatest Biblical scholar that Britain has produced for many a year," and quotes from the Bishop's essay on the Christian Ministry appended to his Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians. May I refer "R. W." M the late Dr. R. C. Moberly's Ministerial Priesthood for a criticism of Bishop Lightfoot's essay ? As; however, "R. W." appeals to Lightfoot, to Lightfoot let us go. The Preface to the first edition of the Commentary is dated 1868, but in the Preface to the sixth edition, dated many years afterwards (1881), the Bishop says "While disclaiming any change in my opinion, I desire equally to disclaim the representations of those opinions which have been put forward in some quarters. The object of the essay was an investigation into the origin of the Christian Ministry. The result has been a confirmation of the state- ment: in the English ordinal : It is evident unto all men diligently reading the Holy Scripture and ancient authors
that from the Apostles time there have been these orders of Ministers in Christ's Church, Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.' " The Rectory, Inveraray, 4rgyll.
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