MODERNISM : ITS ORIGIN AND TENDENCIES. 



127 



infallible rule, and to possess infallible Divine guidance. Once 

 more, in liis " Letter," he allows that " the Eonjan communion 

 may be no more than the charred stump of a tree torn to pieces by 

 gales and rent by thunderbolts " ; that " she may Ije and probably 

 is* more responsible for all the schisms than the schismatics 

 themselves " ; though he admits that this is " too elliptical an 

 expression " (note 8). When he explains that by the Church 

 be means " Churchmen," he makes confusion worse confounded. 

 For in the first place what he said was not " the (Jhurch," but 

 '• the Roman communion." And next, does he mean by " Church- 

 men," the members of the Church, or is he using the word in the 

 loose and inaccurate fashion which is so common even among 

 tliose who should know better, as indicating the clergy or the 

 hierarchy ? 



However, he goes on to say that all this will not prevent the 

 Eoman communion from standing for the principle of 

 Catholicity, the ideal of a spiritually united humanity centred 

 round Christ in one divine society." It is here that those who 

 are not members of the Eoman Ciiurch will be inclined to join 

 issue with him. If the Eoman Church hns adulterated the 

 true faith to such an extent as to be largely, at least, responsible 

 for the schisms which have taken place, how does this " ideal " 

 fit in with her treatment of persons, validly baptized into the 

 Catholic Church according to the formula ordained by Christ 

 Himself, and thrust out by ecclesiastical intolerance, pride, or 

 arrogance, sometimes to die excommunicate and accursed, and 

 perhaps after being handed over to the secular arm." Or if the 

 rulers of a church, presumed as an organization, remember, to be 

 infallible, have presented the spectacle of the gravest scandals, 

 frequently unpunished and screened by their brethren, if they 

 have been so frequently stained with the ciimes of "avarice, 

 ambition, and licentiousness " (p. 49) ; what becomes of the 

 unfortunate lay folk who have been encouraged to sin by the 

 example of their teachers, whose voice, e.r Jiypothcsi, should be 

 to them as the voice of God Himself ? 



Dr. Tyrrell's attitude to his Church in the face of such 

 damning facts as he has himself admitted certainly needs some 

 explanation. If the Church of Eome, while professing supreme 

 authority and even infallilulity a.s a Church, has so grievously 

 and persistently misled tnose who have looked up to her for 

 guidance, how, we who are outside her may fairly ask, can an 

 honest man remain any longer within her pale ? " Come out 



* The italics are mine. 



