THE ENGLISH CHURCH AND THE SPANISH REFORMERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9726, 23 January 1895, Page 6

THE ENGLISH CHURCH AND THE SPANISH REFORMERS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Will you please allow me to add something to that interesting " Summary of Recent Events" furnished by your correspondent "Delta." Perhaps the desire to make his summary brief has led him to omib reference to that particular poinb which is the crux of the whole position. At the Lambeth Conference of 1888 the Bishops of the Anglican communion passed unanimously the following resolutions :— "That, with regard to the reformers in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal, struggling to free themselves from the burden of unlawful terms of communion, we trust that they may be enabled to adopt such sound forms of doctrine and discipline, and to secure such catholic organisation as will permit us to give them a fuller recognition. That, without desiring to interfere with the rights of Bishops of the Catholic Church to interpose in cases of extreme necessity, we deprecate any action that does nob regard primitive and established principles of jurisdiction and the interests of the whole Anglican Communion." The forms of doctrine and discipline adopted by the Spanish Reformers have not, as yet, been authoritatively pronounced, such as would enable the Church of England to give them full recognition. Hot was their case pub forward as one of extreme necessity. And yet, notwithstanding the foregoing resolutions—framed specially in view of the whole position, with a supreme contempt for primitive and established principles of jurisdiction, the Archbishop of Dublin deliberately intrudes himself into a diocese of another branch of the Catholic Church, and wilfully assists in the creation of a schism. What is the consequence? Why this. That the Church of Ireland is practically forced to recognise this reformed communion in Spain, while the Church of England may very possibly, under existing circumstances ab least, be unable bo do so. The Church of Ireland is in full communion with England. So here you have a paradox. A = B and B= C, yet A and C are not equal. If Delta" had not been so anxious that his summary should be brief, no doubt he would have told us that other people besides Lord Halifax and the English Church Union viewed the action of His Grace of Dublin with grave concern. He would have told us, for instance, that all the superior, and very many of the inferior clergy of the diocese of Oxford, had addressed their Bishop on the subject. I have before me a copy of their memorial, in which they set forth, 'amongst other causes for anxiety, " the absence of * any clear justification for such irregular proceedings," and "the apparent inconsistency of such action with the express wishes of the Lambeth Conference of 1888."

" Delta'' rejoices at the facility with which His Eminence Cardinal Vaughan "shatters the lofty pretensions," etc. (good old jargon) "of the Romanising sections of the Church of England." But then you' know, sir, the Cardinal no doubt, with equal facility, could shatter the lofty pretensions, nay the entire structure, of the famous Protestant religion. Now, if he dealt a blow like that, what would " Delta" do.—l am, etc., Gamma.