the beck and call of every embarrassed historian, a sort of deus ex machina, which is invoked to settle any problem which cannot be readily solved by ordinary methods of rational investigation. The gibe is thoroughly deserved. Yet, with the fear of it before our eyes, we do not hesitate to invoke it in order to explain that intense antagonism to Rome which characterised the workings of the brains of our forefathers. Our national character, moulding our institutions, shaping our ends, resented all attempts to undermine it. In this undermining there was, in the considered opinion of our forefathers, no deus ex machina equal to the Pope.

It is a law of mechanics that to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The Church of England throughout the sixteenth century affords a conspicuous example of the working of this law. There is the labour of the great Reformation Parliament, and there is also the Act of the Six Articles. There is the legislation of an Edward VI., and there is also the legislation of a Mary I. If there is a Hooker, there is also a Hooper. The Puritan reaction at last came at the end of Elizabeth's reign, and its depth was proportional to the exaltation of the doctrine which had gone before. The mightier the wave, the greater is the stretch of sand ultimately left exposed. The example of Francis of Assisi raises his followers to a pinnacle beyond the reach of mankind; but the work of the satirist and the record of the annalist agree in their evidence that the friars of the sixteenth century were as much below the level of good men as their predecessors were above it. Through the mouth of Pericles, Thucydides praises the Athenians for the exact qualities which, in the eyes of Demosthenes, they utterly lack. The energy of the Athenians of one century was as much above the normal level as that of their descendants of the next century was below it. There were many changes in the spirit

of Anglicanism, many experiments, before its great via media was reached. There are many swings of the pendulum backwards and forwards before the repose of the mean is reached.

There is a divine event towards which the Anglican Communion is moving, but it is still far off, still slow in coming. For the reformers of the sixteenth century the drums never sounded, the banners never fluttered, the cheers of victory never rent the air. A larger measure of success was vouchsafed to the men of the seventeenth century. Still, their work was incomplete. In literature the crown of success falls to many. Gibbon is not the only historian to conclude his life's work in such calm detachment that he may meditate upon the last sentence among the acacias in a starlit garden at Lausanne. In life, especially the life of religion, it is otherwise. The thoughts of Cranmer and Hooker must have been bitter when they saw their labours were not destined to completion. What were the last thoughts of Raphael that Good Friday, nearly four hundred years ago, as he gazed at his "Transfiguration"? It is the fate of the reformer during the sixteenth century that he sees his task unfinished. A Cranmer shatters an old building standing in the way. A Hooker adds foundationstones. The next three centuries have succeeded in raising the stately edifice of Anglicanism.

NOTE

One of the underlying causes of the English Reformation was the deep-seated dislike manifested by the people to the Ecclesiastical Courts, which instituted minute and vexatious inquiry into breaches of moral discipline. Cf. Archdeacon Hale's little known Precedents and Proceedings (London, 1847). For the unpopularity of this jurisdiction Chaucer provides earlier evidence.

III

ROME AS UNREFORMED

BY

G. G. COULTON, M.A. CAMB., HON. LITT.D. DURHAM

FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

66

AUTHOR OF CHRIST, ST. FRANCIS, AND TO-DAY,"

66 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE BIBLE," ETC.

ΙΟΙ

SYNOPSIS

Exclusiveness of the Roman Hierarchy and its peculiar conception of truth which can only end in estranging more thoughtful minds. Censorship and newspaper propaganda. Restrictions laid on even the greatest scholars. The fatal claim of Infallibility. Cardinal Newman and Acton on historical falsehoods. Cardinal Manning typical of the Ultramontane attitude towards history. This leads logically to intolerance. Even the modern Roman Church has never abandoned its mediaeval claim to inflict death. But, since she is now debarred from the use of this weapon in practice, her principles tempt her to tamper with truth. The Priest as Physician of Souls. Falsehoods taught in the seminaries. Essentially sectarian nature of modern Roman Catholicism. Its impenitent libels upon other Communions contrasted with the comparative readiness of others to abandon untenable falsehoods. Ask him to commit it to writing." The Physician of Souls again. Why are his patients rather less healthy than others? The failure of Infallibility in practice as contrasted with what was expected of it in 1870. History condemns the exclusive pretensions of the Roman Hierarchy; so also do modern statistics. Hopeless failure of the censorship system. Realities are abandoned for the sake of superficial successes.

III

ROME AS UNREFORMED

IN Switzerland, where Protestants and Roman Catholics are exceptionally equal in numbers and friendly to each other, the outward resemblances are striking between one village congregation and another. At Protestant Adelboden, as at Roman Catholic Argentières, the church is packed on Sunday, and the natural meeting-time for the peasants is after service. Protestants and Roman Catholics worship one God; but at bottom there is a deep division. One party may intermarry with the other only under the strictest limitations ;1 even after many concessions to the modern spirit, the Roman Catholic is commanded by his Church to treat the outsider with ancient Jewish exclusiveness; but for the ineradicable spirit of passive disobedience, these two parties would live in almost continual enmity. And the paradox is, that the party insisting on these exclusive terms is apparently

1 These are the latest prescriptions of Canon law, fundamentally revised by order of Pius X. and Benedict XV. "The Church doth most severely prohibit, everywhere, the contract of matrimony between two baptized persons whereof the one is Catholic and the other of an heretic or schismatic sect; and, if there be any danger of the perversion of the Catholic spouse or the children, let the marriage itself be forbidden even by divine law. The Church gives no dispensation for this impediment of mixed marriages (1) unless just and weighty causes urge it; (2) unless the non-Catholic spouse give a guarantee for removing the peril of perversion from the Catholic spouse, and both husband and wife give such guarantees for baptizing and educating all the children in the Catholic faith alone; (3) unless there be a moral certitude of the fulfilment of this guarantee. Let such guarantees be regularly demanded in writing. The Catholic spouse is bound by the obligation of prudently caring for the conversion of his or her spouse." (Codex Juris Canonici Benedicti Papae XV. auctoritate promulgatus. Rome, Vatican Press, 1917: canons 1060-62.)