CATHOLIC OR PROTESTANT ?

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXV, Issue 12, 23 July 1897, Page 11

CATHOLIC OR PROTESTANT ?

The following very excellent comment on the question whether the Anglican Church should be called Catholic or Protestant we take from the Universe, and recommend our readers to preserve it for future reference when they hear members of the English Church in these colonies affecting to be " Catholics, but not Roman Catholics " :—: —

Mr. Forse objects to the Law Establishment being called the Protestant Church. Why, it is impossible to say. His assertion that it is " repeatedly called Catholic in the Book of Comm6n Prayer," is incorrect, as we ventured to tell him in our last. But how is it that he forgets that on all solemn occasions Anglicanism is invariably spoken of as the " Protestant Church of England"' f The words, " and of Ireland," msed to be added before that accursed injury and insult to the Catholic population of Ireland was cast down amid the jeers of Europe. But will Mr. Forse contradict u« here ? We scarcely can think so, if he is at all up in his reading. Let us set before him one or two instances in support of what we have said.

We suppose that the words spoken at the Coronation, when all England and Europe were represented, and where, perhaps, every dignitary of the Anglican sect obtained a place, may be taken- as good evidence of what, in the world 'b judgment, is the right name to affix to the " English religion." Well, then, what was it called on June 28, 1837 (the Coronation Day of her Majesty), in the pre* sence of peers, Commons, judges, archbishops, bishops, deans and prebends? We beg to call the attention of Mr. Forse to the following :—: —

The Archbishop : Will yon solemnly promise and swear to maintain the Protestant reformed religion established by law, and will you preserve the doctrine of the Church of England and Ireland 1 Queen : All this I promise to do. The Archbishop imitated the prayer-book in the above by omitting the word " Catholic."

Is Mr. Forse old enough to remember the scare occasioned by what was stupidly called " The Papal aggression " ? If so, can he remember so much as once hearing Anglicanism called Catholic ? We are sure he cannot. It was all Protestant and nothing else "our Protestant reformed Church" "our threatened Protestant faith," etc. AH day long, whether the speaker were a bishop,ia dean, a Prime Minister or some hack sophist and rascal generally — such as Jock Cumming, or "Murdering McNeal" or an empty-headed baronet like Sir Robert Inglis — nothing but Protestant. Hark to her Majesty's Prime Minister (Russell) writing to the so-called Bishop of Durham (the notorious letter which caused the former's overthrow) :

1. The late aggression of the Pope upon our Protestantism the liberty of Protestantism has long been enjoyed in England the Bishop of London has openly reprehended those clergymen who are leading their flocks to the verge of the precipice. 2. Our Protestant communion is said to be unsound — certain of our clergy are adopting principles which were renounced 'by the Anglican Church, and all that is distinctive in Protestant doctrine and Protestant worship has disappeared .... render harmless any attempt to weaken the Prote'tant faith.

The above is the Archbishop of Canterbury writing to his archdeacona and clergy— no mention of Catholic except to denounce the word.

When the city of London and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge on December 10, 1850, laid before the Queen, "the expression of their indignation at the endeavour of the Pope ; " their gratitude was expressed on account of a variety of things— namely, for " the Protestant faith and the Reformation, and the royal supremacy." To which the Queen replied, " I heartily concur with you in your attachment to the Protrst/int faith."

The address of the Court of Common Council contained these words :—: —

We are grateful to your Majesty for the Scriptural Protestant faith . . . .we witness with deep regret unauthorised innovations in the worship of the Protestant Church of England ; we rely on you, assisted by the authority of Parliament, to maintain our Protestant faith and worship. We cannot pay much for the above aldermanic and civic addresses, but, as poor Sir Peter Laurie {(Dickens's Alderman Cate) was one of the chief '' movers " in the affair, everything may be excused.

Xext came the (> City-Lieutenancy " in brilliant uniform, who " begged Her Majesty to prevent the perversion of the consciences of the people of this Protestant kingdom." After all these the poor wearied Queen had to go through the task of receiving the University deputations. These gentlemen were most furiously Protestant, and never Baid a word in support of Mr. Forse's dream that the prayer-book "repeatedly calls the Church of England Catholic" Probably they were better informed than is Mr. Forse. What they did say was this : We profess the doctrine of our Reformed Church, the Protestant Church of England.

And then they all sat down to a handsome lunch at Windsor Castle. But none of them, either before or after luncheon, not even Sir Peter, so much as dreamt that the Law Establishment was Catholic or that the Book of Common Prayer ever said that it was. Yet both of these "chimeras have been buzzing," if not in vacnum, at least in the brain of Mr. Forse, of Trinity College, Cambridge.

A favourite story of Sir Andrew Lusk is that of an old Essex lady who wrote to him after he had passed a heavy sentence on a man for cruelty to a donkey, " thanking him in her own name and in that of all the donkeys in England,"