AXfJLICAX CHCKCIIKS. 



15 



adequate performance of the duties, arid llial a 

 'godly discipline' for tin- laity lie establi-hcd. /I". 

 /'(if/'oiHif/r : Tliat all transfer- l.y salt- <>(' next pres- 

 entations and advowsnns lie made illegal, but that 

 where patronage is transferred to a diocesan trust 



fined in V) reasi>n;il)li' compensat ion may lie 

 given. I'. Fiitiittri': 'J'hat in each diocese a di- 



n trust he funned to receive and administer 

 diocesan and parochial endowments on lines similar 

 to those on which the ecclesiastical commissioners 

 administer their trust." 



The Validity of Anglican Orders. It had been 



understood for several months in the Church of 



England and in the world at large that the papal 



was engaged in an investigation of the title 



of Anglican orders to recognition by the pontiff and 



Ionian Catholic Church. The bull announcing 

 the result of this investigation was determined upon 

 July Ki. then withheld two months for further and 

 more mature deliberation, and was published in the 

 middle of September. It represents concerning the 

 occasion fur instituting the inquiry, that, while the 

 opinion and practice of the Church had maintained 

 the view that the true sacrament of orders as in- 

 stituted by Christ had lapsed in England when the 

 new rite for conferring orders was instituted under 

 Kdward VI. yet a controversy had recently sprung 

 up in which "not only certain Anglican writers, 

 but some few Catholics, chiefly non-Knglisli." had 

 spoken in favor of the validity of English orders. 

 It therefore became "not inopportune" to re-exam- 

 ine the question. Twelve men noted for their 

 learning and ability, "whose opinions in this matter 

 were known to be divergent." were appointed to 

 discuss the matter, and given access to all the ac- 

 cosible documents, under the presidency of one of 

 the cardinals; their acts and evidences to be re- 

 viewed by the cardinals of the council. The bull 

 embodying the result of these proceedings begins 

 with a review of the policy of the Church in regard 

 to Anglican orders, showing that Popes Julius III 

 and Paul IV had refused to recognize the Ed wardine 

 rite at the time of its institution, and that the in- 

 variable practice of the Holy See had been in con- 

 formity with the position they thereby assumed. 

 Hence the question should have been considered 

 already settled, and Catholic writers could only in 

 ignorance have regarded it as still open. Examin- 

 ing the Anglican rite, the Pope marks the distinc- 

 tion between the matter and the form, or that which 

 is ceremonial and that which is essential, and finds 

 that "the words which until recently were com- 

 monly held by Anglicans to constitute the proper 

 form of priestly ordination, namely. Receive the 

 Holy (ihost.' certainly do not in the least express 

 the sacred order of priesthood, or its grace and 

 power, which is chiefly the power ' of consecrating 

 and offering the true body and blood of the Lord ' 

 in the service of the mass. This form had. indeed, 

 afterward added to it the words 'for the office and 

 work of a priest.' etc.. but this rather shows that 

 the Anglicans themselves perceived that the first 

 form was defective and inadequate. But even if 

 this addition could give to the form its due signifi- 

 cation, it was introduced too late, as a century had 

 elapsed since the adoption of the Edwardine ordi- 

 nal : for as the hierarchy had become extinct, there 

 remained no power of ordaining. In vain has help 

 been recently sought for the plea of validity from 

 the other prayers of the same ordinal. For. to put 

 aside other reasons which show this to be insufficient 

 for the purpose in the Anglican rite, let this argu- 

 ment suffice for all, that from them has been de- 

 liberately removed whatever set forth the dignity 

 and office of the priesthood in the Catholic rite. 

 That form consequently ought not to be considered 

 apt or sufficient for the sacrament which omits what 



it ought essentially to signify. . . . So ji 

 pa-s that as the sacrament of orders and true 

 priesthood of Christ were utterly eliminated from 

 the Anglican rite, and hence the priesthood is in no 

 wise continued truly and validly in the episcopal 

 consecration of the same rite, for tin- like reason, 

 then-fore, the episcopate can in no way be truly and 

 validly conferred by it. and this the more so because 

 among the duties of the episcopate is that of ordain- 

 ing ministers for the holy eucharistic sacrifice." 

 The bull further discusses more at length the inten- 

 tion with which the changes referred to were made 

 in the Anglican ordinal, as being deliberately to re- 

 move and strike out all clear mention of the sacri- 

 fice, of consecration to the priesthood, and of the 

 power of consecrating and offering sacrifices, and 

 pronounces vain all attempts to remedy this removal 

 by amendment or by offering interpretations of the 

 ritual agreeable to the Catholic doctrine. "It is 

 clear." it says, that not only is the necessary "in- 

 tention wanting to the sacrament, but that the 

 intention is adverse to and destructive of the sacra- 

 ment. Wherefore," the decree concludes. strictly 

 adhering in this matter to the decrees of the pontiffs 

 our predecessors, and confirming them more fully 

 and. as it were, renewing them by our authority, of 

 our own motion and certain knowledge, we pro- 

 nounce and declare that ordinations carried out ac- 

 cording to the Anglican rites have been and are 

 absolutely null and utterly void." An invitation 

 follows to Anglicans to seek salvation in the Roman 

 Catholic Church. 



Several months before this bull was issued, but 

 while the subject was supposed to be under consid- 

 eration in the papal court, the Archbishop of York 

 took the occasion of an address to the clergy of his 

 diocese to pronounce the talk of any overtures hav- 

 ing been made on the part of the Church of England 

 to the see of Home "the merest newspaper gossip." 

 Whatever overtures had been made, he said, had 

 come from Home itself in the form of encyclical 

 letters promoted by a motive with which all might 

 sympathize, and written in a spirit which all must 

 admire, but burdened with conditions impossible of 

 acceptance by those who are blessed with the spirit 

 of freedom and have been brought out of the dark- 

 ness of error into the clear light and knowledge of 

 the truth. It was not true, either, that there had 

 been any application to the Pope from the side of 

 the Church of England with a view to obtain the 

 recognition of the Church of England's position in 

 the Church of Christ. The inquiry now being held 

 respecting Anglican orders owed its first impulse to 

 the writings of Homan Catholics themselves. On 

 the part of the Church of England there was not. 

 and had not been a shadow of doubt, nor would 

 they be one whit the better or wor-e as regards their 

 holy orders, whatever the opinion of the Church of 

 Rome might be. It was true that this might greatly 

 affect the prospect of Christian reunion, but it was 

 that and that alone which gave the question its in- 

 tere-t and importance. 



Church Congress. The thirty-sixth Church 

 Congress met at Shrewsbury, Oct. 6, under the 

 presidency of the Bishop of Lichfield. The presi- 

 dent in his opening address presented a review of 

 the history of the diocese of Lichfield from the in- 

 stallation of the first Archbishop of Mercia by King 

 Off a. in A. D. 787, described the progress of the 

 Church in the diocese during the past sixty years, 

 and discussed the subjects of the unity of Christen- 

 dom and the position of the English Church. The 

 discussions, by the reading of appointed papers and 

 the impromptu addresses of voluntary speakers, 

 which occupied the succeeding sessions of the Con- 

 gress concerned the subjects of "The Idea of a Na- 

 tional Church, both as the Expression of the Xation 



