RELIGIOUS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 772, 17 December 1886, Page 6

RELIGIOUS.

We regret to learn that a clergyman has been committed for trial for solemnising matrimony between a couple under age, -without license, publication of banns, or the consent of the parents ; but after he had .given a promise not to celebrate a a marriage between the two. Apart from the offence of which he has been guilty, and which will be decided before a lawful court, his example may serve as a warning to the clergy to be very careful that all legal requirements are complied with. The law has a rio-ht to be strict in such matters ; but we fear° it does not come within the scope of the preparation for holy orders which most young men receive to be properly instructed in the rudiments of Church law, nor even in those details with which they will be concerned when they have entered the priesthood. —Church Review,

The Belgian Government has not addressed any formal remonstrances to the Vatican relative to the decree of the Inquisition forbidding magistrates to grant divorces, as/the law permits in Belgium. The Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs has, however, had some conversations on the subject with the Papal Nuncio at Brussels. It is quite certain that neither public opinion in Belgium nor the Belgian Ministry will ever . admit this new pretension of the Papal See, which would paralyse the execution ot the laws of the country. Any judges not willing to administer those laws in their integrity will simply have to resign. Of the 280 English Presbyterian churches, 240 have temperance societies. Bishop Hannington, who was so cruelly murdered on the borders of Uganda, is to be succeeded a"s Bishop of Central Africa by Henry Perrott Parker of India. In Tunis, Africa, there are from 150 to 200 Protestants, and a Protestant chapel is to be erected shortly. The Bey has made a gift of a beautiful lot of land, and the people have collected 5000 francs ; about 1500 more are needed. It is said that the Catholic _ Church has promulgated a decree threatening with the severest discipline of the church those magistrates and officers of State in France who shall venture to apply the law of divorce passed eighteen months ago by the French Parliament. A proposal is on foot to hold an djcumenical Conference of Wesleyans in 1891. The minutes of the Conference, which have just been issued, state that an influential committee of lay and clerical Wesleyans will meet during the year to consider the subject. The minutes also authorise the trustees to dispose of the Centenary Hall in Bishopsgate-street, London. A few j ears ago they refused £120,000. There has been, it is stated, a great awakening among the Boers (Dutch settlers) of Natal, South Africa. They have beemso busy with prayer meetings that the worldly have complained that they have spoiled the annual races,. The leader among the converts is a Mr Nel, who says he can count over two hundred in his sparsely settled district who have experienced a change of heart. The work was a very quiet one, beginning without the agency of evangelistic meetings. Those awakened showed great anxiety for the heathen Kaffirs, and many natives have been converted. In 1822 the Institute of the Propaganda was established in Rome, and since that time 220,000,000 lire have been expended in its work, resulting in the establishment of 270 new bishoprics and prefectures. In 1822 there were only twelve Roman Catholic Bishops in Asia—namely, six in China and six in India, Now India with Ceylon has twenty-six Archbishops and 1200 priests, and in Farther India, China, and Japan 1,500,000 Catholics are under the spiritual care of fifty apostolic vicars, and 1400 missionaries. Before 1822 there was no Bishopric on the whole continent of Africa. Now we find there are two Archbishops, twelve Bishops, seventeen vicars, and sixteen prefects. The strongest growth is reported from the American Continent. In British America, where sixty-three years ago there were but two Bishops, are now reported thirty Bishops, 2000 priests, and 2,000,000 Catholics, t Australia has twenty-three bishoprics. ■/ -v-. '