POLLEX DE ECCLESIA ANGLICANA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9262, 16 January 1889, Page 6

POLLEX DE ECCLESIA ANGLICANA.

The gauntlet's down, I wait the foe ! —New Song. TO THE EDITOR.

Sir,To discuss with " Pollex" the question of the validity of Anglican orders would be in accordance neither with my position nor my sense of duty. Therefore, though I am one against whom his challenge lies, for this cause, and no other, must I for my part let him hold the lists. But still I do not think that the golden rule, JVe sutor ultra crepidam, will quite apply to mc, if I venture to point out a certain blemish in his line of reasoning. It is this : He first assumes as true that which is false, and then proceeds to found an argument upon his own assumption. It does not require the " touch of the Ithuriel spear of colonial intelligence" to enable me to estimate correctly the value of the conclusion he arrives at by such a process as that. My turgid English power of discrimination will suffice. Let me try to expose the erroneous nature of his premises. First, that the Church of England is a Protestant Church, and then that she is what he calls a " separationist" from the Church of Rome. An honest man, with no reason to disguise his name, who calls himself Smith is not Jones because other people choose to call him Jones. The Church of England has never called herself by any other name for a thousand years : neither before the Reformation nor since. The word Protestant is unknown in her authoritative documents ; by which I mean her Prayer-book, her articles, and her constitution. Nor has she, as a Church, ever uttered one word of "protest" against any religious body whatever, Roniin or non-Roman. On the contrary, " Pollex " will find, if he cares to look, that when ro-arranging her affairs after a great crisis in her history she expressly declares "in these our doings we condemn no other nation, nor prescribe anything but to our own people only, for we think it convenient that —other people should mind their own business, and leave us to mind ours. True it is that some three hundred years ago she has said "the Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in this Realm of England." (Article 37.) And he hasn't. But this doesn't sound much like " protesting." And so it seems to me that those her children who go fussing about " protesting" here and " protesting" there are doing precisely what their Church would not have them do, and what she will not do herself. Why then call her Protestant, "Pollex"? and accontuate your meaning by " errors of Popery" in inverted commas, as though that were a phrase " familiar in her mouth as household words." As to the Church of England being a " separationist" from the Church of Rome, "Whore was your Church before the Reformation?" asks "Pollex." Where was your face before it was washed? 0, "Pollex." Do you remember that neat thing in repartee I formally assert, as a matter of history, as fact, that " the present Church of England is, as regards identity, succession, and continuity, the same Church which existed in England for ages before the Reformation, though under different circamstances. Her identity as such is no more affected by the changes through which she has passed, and the reforms of which she has been the subject, than the identity of the British Crown, or the identity of Parliament is affected by the changes, modifications, and reforms of which they have been the subjects during the course of some hundreds of years." After her reformation "she remained in her Bishops and clergy the same Church, they holding their positions and exercising their offices as before her Re-formation ; established in the same churches, the same parishes, and holding the same endowments so far as the Church had not been despoiled of them." The Public Library is as free to " Pollex " as it is to me. He can verify my assertions for himself if he cares to take the trouble. Sound conclusions cannot possibly proceed from unsound premises. lam really sorry that " Pollox" did not remember this, because though he has long been my weekly guide, philosopher, and friend, etc., I shall henceforth experience a sense of insecurity when I road him, fearing lest his information on any subject may prove as nebulous as ib is with regard to that upon which he treats in last week's "Calamo Current*."—• lam, &c, E.G.V. January 14, 1889.