The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 1894.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 143, 16 June 1894, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 1894.

For t_« canst that lacks assistant, For t_e -wrong that needs resistance, Far th« future in ths distance Ani ths good that ire can do.

We are not inclined to attach much importance to the cable message informing us that the Pope is about to issue an encyclical, to the ADglican Bishops inviting them to recognise his jurisdiction. That such a measure is in contemplation is within the bounds of possibility, although it will probably be found that the report owes its origin to the inventive genius of some news correspondent. The only thing that gives colour to it is that Leo XIII. has a great fondness for issuing encyclicals on all sorts of subjects, and it may have occurred to him that this would be a good means of feeling the pulse of the English Church, and ascertaining how much truth there is in the glowing reports that he frequently receives from members of his own communion, to the effect that there is a growing disposition on the part of Anglicans to be brought once more within the Papal fold. That the Pope earnestly desires to see England once more in communion with the see of Rome we can easily believe. This has been the dream of Popes, sleeping and waking, for the last 300 years. The method of securing it has varied in different ages, but the object aimed at has been always the same. England was so long one of the most important tributaries oi the Holy See, that the Papal authorities could not for a long time believe' that the revolt against the spiritual authority which took place in the 16th century could be other than a temporary one. The Court of Rome had been so long accustomed to hold undisputed sway over the consciences of men that it entirely under-rated the spirit of religious and political liberty that, with the revival of. learning, was pouring into Europe. Hence the limited insight which the Vatican had into the causes that were stirring the nations to shake off the Papal authority to which they had so long tamely submitted. The Papal writers of the 16th century, when dealing with the English Reformation for example, can find no deeper causes to account for it than the anxiety of a sovereign to obtain a divorce, and of greedy courtiers to plunder Church property. They overlook the fact that the' Church had failed to fulfil her mission and had become an engine of oppression so great that the cry of the whole people was that drastic measures of reform were needed. We cannot defend many tyrannical acts that were committed by the Government during the revolutionary hurricane, but nothing is clearer than that in the blows he dealt at the ecclesiastical system King Henry VIII. had with him the sympathy of the vast majority of the nation, It must be admitted, too, that in their attempts to induce England to submit once more to the Roman yoke, the Papal authorities have shown a singular lack of judgment. More than one golden opportunity has been afforded, as if only to prove how incapable they were of understanding the genius and aspirations of that noble race over which they aspired to exercise spiritual control. There never was a more magnificent chance for healing, the breach in the English Church than the Papal authorities enjoyed after the extravagance and lax habits of the leading reformers had disgusted the nation during the reign of the boy-king Edward. When Mary, with her weil-known Catholic sympathies ascended the throne, there was a strong revulsion in favour of the ancient faith. The Papal authority was re-established, mass was said in the churches, and the clergy restored once more to office and influence. Under the most favourable circumstances it would have been no doubt impossible -to check for any length of time the growth of Protestantism, but if the rulers of the Church had been content

to make some salutary refonnL thei might have escaped the hurricane tK eventually overtook them. But in toxicated with power, it is notpttban. too much to say that in that short space of five years, the infatuated policVof ' the Pope and his Legate, carried oat by the wretched Queen, did more t0 alienate the minds of the English::'' people from the Church of Rome than had been accomplished by the writings I and preaching of reformers since the ' inception of Protestantism. Since thai ' time, James 11, is the only Romn Catholic who has filled the Englisl j throne. He, too, had a magnified 1 opportunity of doing something for hit fellow-Catholics, but, with similar in. iatuation, he merely succeeded by his arbitrary measures in rousing his snb« jects to a still more frantic hatred of the Church he championed. * In the present century the Catholic authorities have had the opportunity afforded of endeavouring by amow peaceable methods to convert the English people. The Catholic Emancipation Act removed the disabilities under which the adherents of that faith had so long suffered, and a growing spirit of toleration has done much to smooth down the bitterness that one? existed. It was customary for Catholic priests to predict that as soon as a fair field was allowed them for propagating their doctrines, and people had no reason to fear that if they became Catholics they would be socially ostracised, there would be a great accession to the adherents of the Church of Rome. When the Romish hierarchy was re-established in the kingdom. Cardinal Wiseman wrote in ecstacy that England was once more restored to the ecclesiastical firmament, and there" was a general expectation throughout the Papal world that the influence of the Romish religion would soon.be felt far and wide throughout the Empire. Pope Leo, who realises the important part the Anglo-Saxon race is destined to play in the world, is not satisfied with the progress his Church is making in England. If he examines figures, he finds that it does little more than keep pace with ihe increase of population. The fact that a few • Anglican parsons, or some odds and ends of the aristocracy, join the Church of Rome does not count for much. The Pope is far too wise a roan to suppose that public opinion is much influenced by the action of a feir curates or sprigs of noble families. He cannot be blind to the fact thai the great heart of the English people :$ is not with him. The Anglican Church and the Nonconformists pursue their respective missions, but, however divided in other respects, they are united in their hostility to Rome. This is the state of things the Pope would remedy, but we do not think he has the ghost of a chance. If he should issue such ttg£ encyclical as the cablegram intimatesji-j the English prelates will prdbabml simply resent it. Even if they we'll inclined to parley the remonstrances ; of an indignant nation would soon swell into an uproar. Although] the feeling of bitterness which once" existed among large divisions of the Protestant Churches towards Roman Catholicism has happily become very much modified, it is still easy to revive a cry which in these days of toleration should be laid aside in the harmonious combination of all Christian bodies against the common enemy of unbelief.