In the Times' correspondence as to Mr. Orby Shipley's case,
a very interesting argument has been raised as to the so-called rule of Vincentius, that Catholic truth is the truth held semper, ubique, ab omnibus. Literally speaking, there is no such Catholic truth at all, and " A Perplexed Layman," in Thursday's Times, makes very short work of this equally famous and useless test :—" To sum up, then, this rule of Vinceutius, as explained and limited by Canon Carter, it comes to this,—the Catholic faith is that which has always and everywhere been held by all' who have kept within the pale of Catholic tradition,' and who have expelled from that pale all who happened to differ from them, who, never- theless, still claim to be as good Catholics as those who expelled them, and who by so doing prevent the decree which expelled them from ever acquiring that Catholic assent which is essential to its acceptance by a true Catholic ; and the ' all ' who thus remain within the Catholic pale are not absolutely all, but only more or less ' of the ' all ;' and whenever they have been less,' and not • more,' they have preserved the Catholic faith by disobeying the Vincentian rule, which is thus proved to be itself lacking in that very element of Catholic assent which, we are told, conditions the belief of all Catholics." It is hardly possible to imagine a more cruelly destructive, and yet just, analysis of any formula, than that. The rule of Vincentius is not a test, but a plausible excuse for the absence of a test.
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