ANGLICAN ORDERS.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9499, 19 August 1896, Page 6

ANGLICAN ORDERS.

\ AD VKUTI3EMKNT. 3

. TO THE KDITOR OV Tltf! PRESS. SIR, —As the public will have ample time to draw their inferences from the action of Father Salvador in publishing a, private correspondence without my knowledge or permission, I will now publish, for the'sake of those who cave to know, the reasons why I quoted the names of Bossuet and Liguori amongst a large number of Romans who have spoken'or written in favour of Anglican Orders. Those who have rend mj* pamphlet will know that I never attempted to quote originals, nor did I ofier in my letters to do so, even if Father Salvador fulfilled my conditions. I had to roty upon the veracity of Roman Catholic translators, but if they are not to be relied upon for truth that is not my fault. My only object in offering the following information to the interested {rablic is to pi-event any weak-minded people >eing led away by the skilful attempt to twist my . statement and obscure the main point, viz., Can the authority of Bossuet and Liguori be used in supporting Anglican Orders ? Testimony of Bopsuet, Bishop of Meaux, and Liguori to Anglican Orders. The Very Rev. P*>re Fr de Riberolles, some time Abbot of St. Genevieve, certified j by a declaration that he frequently heard ' Bossuet say " If tho Episcopal succession in England under the Government of Crom- j well was well proved, which ho had not | sufficiently examined, there was no difficulty about the validity of tho English ordinations, arid that their Hishop3 and Priests were as j truly ordained as ours. Date of certificate, I May 20th, 1726. Tere Cnldnguez after--wards declared that Bishop Bossuet had no doubts about the succession in Cromwell's time, all his difficulties having been entirely .cleaved up. To Pore Mavcella, cure of ,S. Jacques dv Haut-Pas in Paris, Bishop Bossuet stated in 1699 that if tho English "clergy would submit to Rome they would only require to ho "reconciled** and ••rehabilitated." In 1685 Bossuet wrote to his particular friend, Pere Jean Mabillon, 0.5.8., of the Abbayc do Saint Germain dcs Pres in Paris (a celebrated liturgiologist), that he "had no difficulty about the ordinations made in the time of Edward and Elizabeth notwithstanding the pretended suppression s>f the sacrifice and priesthood among the ■English." (See " Succession of Bishops in the Church of England. Unbroken," Harrington, pp. 3-6.) Pere Courayer also testifies that Bishop Bossuet "was much inclined to this side" (i.e., the Anglican), andquotes the wordsof this prelate:—"lt is contended that the succession of the (Anglican) ordination was inter' runted. The English maintain the con* ' trary; and as to. the succession at the begin-.-aing of the schism, they maintain that there is no difficulty, and iv this they seem to be in the right." (See "Dissertation on the Validity of tho Orders of the English aud . of the Succession of the Bishops of the Anglican Church, Sec," Z. P. F. Ie Courayer. Editors introduction, p. xxxv. Ed. 1844. -{See also author'B appendix, Article I. Letter from the late M. J. Ben Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, to Dom John Mabillon, dated Germigny, August 12th, 1685. For Bossuet's attitude towards the English Church, see Dr. Liddon's preface to the English translation of Professor Reusch's Report of the Re-union Conference at Bonn, 1874, pp. x, xiw) Liguori speaks of the Prelates occupying Sees by virtue of the Orders,conferred in Edward VI. reign as "Catholic Bishops." He makes the admission in the course of an attack upon the English Church, and does not hint at re-ordination. " Mary likewise proclaimed the innocence of Cardinal Pope, and requested Julius ILL to send him to England as his Legate o latere. He arrived soon after, and, at the request of the Queen, reconciled the Kingdom again to the Church, "and absolved it from schism on the "Vigil of St. Andrew, 1554 ; . . confirmed ■■ in tlieir sees the Catholic Bishops, though installed in the time of the sdiism, and recognised the neio sees established by Henry. All this was subsequently confirmed by Paul IV." *•* The History of Heresies and Their Refutation, or the Triumph of the Church," translated from the Italian of S. Alphonsus M. Liguori by the Right Rev. Dr. Mullock, 'Bishop of Newfoundland (second edition Dublin, 1857), eh. xii. sec iii. pp. 343-344; Liguori makes no mention of the Nag's Head Fable or of any spurious consecration or ordination, but throughout speaks of the Anglican Prelates simply as "Bishops."— Yours, &c, A. W. AVKftUJJ.