"THE PRIEST IN ABSOLUTION."

New Zealand Tablet, Volume v, Issue 232, 12 October 1877, Page 13

"THE PRIEST IN ABSOLUTION."

The Times of July 7 comments as follows upon the resolution passed at a meeting of the clergymen forming the Society of the Holy Cross :—: — J The Ritualistic Society responsible for « The Priest in Absolution, has held its promised meeting or "chapter," and the resolutions it passed, accompanied by a me morial, were laid before the Upper House of the Convocation of Canterbury. The result will at least serve to clear the ground, and render it evident what are the issues with which we have to deal. In one respect these gentlemen must be a lowed the credit of standing to their colours. In deference to the desire expressed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, they have resolved that no further copies of the book be supplied, but they have come to this resolve, " while distinctly reprobating the unfair criticisms which have been passed on the book, and without intending to S3S any condemnation of it." The bishops have upon this ver> proper % expressed their opinion" that the society has neither repudiated nor effectually withdrawn from circulation that work," Tfie resolution, in fact, amounts to a distinct declaration that the society fully adhered to the principles of the book. In three other resolutions the/ go on to say they hold "that the Church of England teaches that confession l » n^. a . ? atter of com P ul8 <»y obligation ; but they maintain also that all Christian persons have liberty and right to make their confessions as frequently as they need for their own souls ; " and they add that "daily experience in their parishes convinces them more and more of the importance of this provision of the Church for the recovery of the sinner and the consolation of the penitent." There is no mistaking what this means. These clergymen have " daily experience "of receiving confessions ; they encourage them in every way short of teaching that they are of " compulsory obligation ;" and the manner m which these confessions are conducted is correctly described in " The Priest in Absolution." The « pain " and disapprobation with which one or two membera of tbe society were affected when they

learnt, as they said, for the first -time tho contents of this book are by no means shared by the society as a whole. On the contrary, its directions are distinctly endorsed by their approval, and they denounce the criticisms which have been passed upon it as unfair. This declaration must have one important effect. It transfers the interest of the controversy from the book itself to the society of clergymen which thus formally adopts it. What the bishops and the public are now concerned with is not a mere manual, however objectionable, but the existence in the Church of England of a body of clergymen, some of them holding posts of authority — one of the Regius Professors at Oxford is stated to be among them— who formally adopt the principles and the practice embodied in the book, and who avow tbat they are doing their utmost to inculcate them. Tis henceforth a wholly subordinate matter what becomes of the book, and it is of no importance whether the society withdraw it from circulation or not. All these clergymen are doubtless well aware that there is plenty more of the same kind where this came from, ready for the use of any one who knows a little French or Latin ; and. at all events, they are sufficiently impregnated with its principles to maintain and extend the knowledge and practice of them. It is to be hoped that the bishops will keep their minds fixed on this fact, and not allow themselves to be diverted by any side issues. It is henceforth not worth their while inquiring what becomes of this manual : but it is their bounden duty to adopt every [measure which their office allows to suppress these practices within their dioceses. If any further motive were needed it would be found in such an illustration of what this system comes to as was supplied by the Archbishop of Canterbury. He read extracts from one of a " Series of Books for the Young, edited by a Committee of Clergymen." This book recommends that the teaching it contains should bo inculcated upon " children at the age of six or fiix-and-a half years." At that tender age tho little children arc to be told that " it is through the priest, aud the priest only, that the child must acknowledge his sins, if he desh-crf that God should forgive him," The poor little thing is to be frightened into submission by being told of other children who had concealed their sins, and had been tormented with remorse, and who " if they had died in that state would certainly have gone to the everlasting firea of hell." If the child is too modest, or does not know how to confess, ho ie to tell the priest and "he will question you." The archbishop denounced such vile practices as these with the vigour which became him. It is, however, comparatively a small matter to 6ay that any person who disseminates this book " revolutionises the wholo system of the Church upon the subject of coufession.' Such persons do much more. They outrage the first instmcts of English nature, and they should be scouted as persons who are in a conspiracy to corrupt every innocent and healthy impulse in. the young. Pew things, however, could illustrate more forcibly the extent to which these poisonous practices have spread than that a book such as tins should, according to the title page, be in its eighth thousand. It is evidently somewhat late in the day for the bishops to do "what may appeal- tobe^heirduty in the endeavours to counteract this conspiracy," as the archbishop called it, "against the doctrine, the discipline, and tho practice of our reformed Church." But they may be quite sure that unless tliey can get rid of these "conspirators" —be they good or bad— the people of England will before long make short work of the institution which shelters them.