On Wednesday the Archbishop of Canterbury received a very important
deputation representative of the clergy who have signified their adhesion to the principle suggested by the Dean of Canterbury, that nothing can be accepted as truly catholic which cannot claim the general assent and observance of the Christian Church before the end of the sixth century. Among the deputation were the Deans of Canterbury, Norwich, and Wells, Archdeacon Bevan, and Professor Sanday. The Dean of Canterbury, who was the first speaker, pointed out how he and those who were acting with him hoped to find in an appeal to antiquity a means of healing the present misunderstandings and discontents in the Church. " They felt that an appeal to the general assent and observance of the Church of the first six centuries, while securing their continuity with primitive times, would sufficiently secure them against Romish errors, always providing that the authority of Holy Scripture was regarded as supreme, and as the indispensable touchstone of every tradition. As Bishop Cosin expressed it in his account of ' The Catholic Religion of the Realm of England' ' We subjoin tradition to Scripture in such a sense that it must be always subordinated to Scripture, and in all things congruous with it."
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