THE CHURCH AND NATION BUILDING

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2974, 11 January 1917, Page 6

THE CHURCH AND NATION BUILDING

tin-,—in 'Ivicsday morning's paper you published a letter written in a vovy itoo sj>\v\t by t\\o llev. Mr. Whib/ej', in irJiidi he endeavours to correct Valher Lockington in Ins recent address 07) "The Church and JVation Building." i- His efforts tu claim {or tVio Church of V England iho credit of Magna. Charta are 1 rather obscure. Ho speaks of the "nail tional Church of England" as if it were , a separate church, aud this, I under- - stand; but then hb says "it was always - part of the Catholic Church," and this s bewilders me. In the reign of Jokn, i lie says: '"She was tinder the domiuaf tion of the Roman Church. 1 -' Does he - refer to the spiritual order or to the e temporal order, or to both? An ivn- - portaiit matter which throws great r light on the question of Innocent 111 e and Magna Charta. The quotation from Magna Char-la i that "the Church of England bo free, ■- etc." is. not to the point, as the a freedom \claimed is freedom from intern ference by the King in episcopal elect f.ions ancfordinary church government; i to secure the church from undue State control. (See M'Kechnie "Magna 1 Charta" and Davis "England under the Normans and Angevins.") The phrase "Church of England" - (Anglicaiia Ecclesia) found in the bes ginning and end of Magna Charta, re- > fers legally, according to "Statutes of - the Realm," solely to the clergy of the s country, and not to any organised body - of the clergy and laity in England. r The freedom claimed then by the Church "we now possess," says Mr. « Whihley. If by "we" he means the 1 present national Church %( England, I am afraid his claim is too great, for f no less aii authority than the "Church ,- Times," in a recent issue, says: ". . . l recent appointments to vacant sees 1 have caused many churchmen to ask - themselves afresh, whether the church - would not do well, at any cost, to _rer cover for herself the right of rejection t as well as that of election wliieli she .' enjoyed in other days." Before dealing with other issues - raised by your correspondent, I would c like to have a definite, statement_ on - this point: Prior to the Reformation, - was the church in England subject to j the Pope or not? T" 6 . correot answer to this will settk the dispute betweenI Father Lockington and himself.—l am, etc.. C'F- ; January 10. 1917. '