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WALES AN1) WELSHMEN. I

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IN PARLIAMENT.I

A REMARKABLE FEAT OF STRENGTH.

[No title]

A SNUB TO ANGLICANS.

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A SNUB TO ANGLICANS. We have been requested by an esteemed corres- pondent to reproduce the following article, which appeared in the Daily News i-Cardinal Vaughan has dealt the Anglicans a heavy blow by denying, in toto, the validity of their orders. The occasion of it is an editorial statement in The Church Review to the effect that the Cardinal had al- luded to Anglican clergymen as "priests." The matter was brought under the Cardinal's notice with a request for information as to his having thus acknowledged the validity of Anglican orders." Anglicans must have awaited the answer with a trembling hope. Roman Catholic orders are recognised in their Church. A Catholic priest, who wishes to enter the priesthood of the Anglican communion, enters without re-ordina- tion. Was Rome about to return the compliment after her long persistence in regarding the Angli- can person as merely a good layman who had gone wrong ? The answer came quickly, and therefore mercifully, as beseemed its tenour, for it was a sentence of doom. There is no validity in Angli- can orders. The Cardinal has no recollection of having referred to the Anglican clergy as prie-ts. If he ever did so, it was a mere slip of the tongue. He has the kindliest feeling towards them, and other heretics-the term of course is not his-but that is a very different matter. The sentiments of charity and sincere respect which we feel for the many zealous and estimable men who labour in the ministry of the Anglican and Dissenting bodies are, happily, a matter altogether indepen- dent of any recognition of canonical status. Upon the latter subject, the mind and attitude of the Catholic Church was abundantly clear." Of the 1,200 bishops who form the Roman Episcopate, the Cardinal does not know even one U who would admit for a moment the validity of Anglican orders." On this point, he says, the Catholic Church has pronounced by her deeds, even more emphatically than by her words. She has never admitted pn Anglican clergymen to the priestly office, without giving him most plainly to under- stand, by the very ceremony itself, that she does not recognise in the Anglican body the posses- sion of Apostolical succession, or a valid priest- hood." it is a heavy stroke, especially in the coupling of Anglican with Dissenter, as a brace ol wild men whom no orthodox priest can be ex- pected to admit to his fellowship. Alt ough Dr. Vaughan denies orders to bis erring brethren, he does not d» ny them the hope of a better world. His illustrious predecessor in the See of Westmin- ster expressly allowed it. In a famous controver- sy with Dr. Pusbey, he laid down the comforting doctrine that a man is not to be held penally re- sponsible through eternity for failing to be a Catholic when he can show that it was not hit own fault. Here, surely, should be all that the Anglicans can really want. They may plead that they are what is called inculpably non-Apostolic. When they feel sure of the immunities derived from such a declaration, they can afford to regard the rest as of no account. It is about of a plec. with their denial of the term Reverend to their own Dissenting brethren. Who need care ? We are not at all sure that they stop short at that denial, or that they are anything like so Liberal in regard to future arrangements as the Cathi lies are to them. This should be enough. If it is not, the wild justice of revenge is not altogether denied to the offended communion. The Angii. cans may still persist in patronising the Roman Catholics as but a new set of modern dissidents under an old name. For purposes cf controversy the Anglican can be as unctuous as the Cardinal, and can give wound tor wound by assuring the Catholics of Rome that they are not such bad fel- lows after all. This used to be his favourite attitude. He could talk of himself as a terrestrial ancient of days, and regret the rage for innovation which led, not to his separation from Rome, but to Rome's from him. Anglicans take their priestly position very seri usly. They have shown it in many a cruel disability inflicted on men who like to think that religious ministrants, like re- ligion itself, are not exactly things made with hands. For them to be without a valid ordination is to be without everything. They must r so- lutely continue to pity Cardinal Vaughan until he the error of his ways.

» THE CHURCH IN EAST LONDON.

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