ness.

'What was it that so gripped the mind in the story of this Catholic family? Surely not their strength, but their weakIt was their passivity, so to speak-their lying at the mercy both of the militant intriguing Catholicism which used and exploited them, and of the militant Protestantism which made them suffer; it was this which touched us.' ('Helbeck,' Pref. pp. xiii, xiv.)

Much was lost in the process-taste, temper, education, the arts and refinements of life. But much was retained and intensified-loyalty to what was believed to be truth, a certain fragrance of devotion, and an unconquerable will. The feature of the book that is most true to life is the equilibrium maintained between the loss and the gain. Not all Helbeck's nobility of temperament saved him from certain obvious and displeasing weaknesses, which revealed a new element in his character, something small and ugly, that was like the speck in a fine fruit, or, rather, like the disclosure of an angry sore beneath an outward health and strength.' The feud between the Church and criticism is of long standing. But it is pleasant to know that there were Catholics who did justice both to the intention and the execution of the book.

'While Father Clarke, in the "Nineteenth Century," was hotly and bitterly attacking the book as unjust to Catholic faith and practice, my father, the most devout and obedient of Catholics wrote to me-"This, I think, should gratify you. A Dublin priest whom we really know to be a good man, and a man of some culture, called a day or two ago. He said that he had just finished 'Helbeck,' and had read it with very great interest and admiration. What touched him was the beauty of Laura's character, the atmosphere of absolute purity and moral goodness' in which she lives and moves, and the compatibility of which with the 'Everlasting No,' which her intellect had embraced, he had before doubted." (Ib. Pref. p. xviii.)

'Eleanor' introduces us to a Catholicism of a very different type. The scale on which the Church exists and acts is larger than that of any other religious society. In England even, side by side with the dignified and austere Catholicism of Helbeck,' we have that of 'Casting of Nets'; in Italy we have the officialism of the Curia, Obey, my friend, obey! There is no more to be said '; the à peu près of Mme Variani, and the cynicism of

the rétrograde éclairé, represented by Manisty, but commoner in than outside the Church.

6.66

"Is that fair?—to stand outside slavery-and praise it?" Why not?-if it suits my purpose."' ('Eleanor,' p. 158.) The distinctive note of clericalism, as a party, is here. For its programme and methods M. Laberthonnière's 'Positivisme et Catholicisme' may be referred to. By anyone who would estimate the religion of the Latin countries the position, paradoxical as it seems, must be taken into account.

In Eleanor' the Modernist controversy meets us. Father Benecke, like so many scholarly priests, is suspended and deprived of the sacraments for saying 'what every educated man in Europe knows to be true (p. 389). A conflict of this nature is bound to arise when a religion of feeling passes out of its original shape and becomes, over and above this, a religion of ideas. For the first ideas with which it associates itself will be rudimentary, and will at the same time have a tendency to become stereotyped, because a certain fixity is a condition of their apprehension by the popular mind. The further this stereotyping process has been carried, the more acute is the conflict between the old and the new. So long as a Church has not withdrawn herself from the stream of life, 'solvitur ambulando' is a fair answer. Facts are more than theories. The Westminster Confession, to take an example, is uncompromising; but the Churches of the Westminster Confession interpret it, pass Declaratory Acts, and live. But the constitution, the formulas, and (what is more important than either) the genius or law of the Roman Church exclude such solutions, and tie her to her past. And this 'in sensu præteriti'; the logic of the system is too closely knit to admit of accommodation; it is 'all or nothing'; 'either-or.' The fallibility of the Infallible may be demonstrated, but the demonstration is inadmissible. For the Church the Pope remains infallible; hence a deadlock. Lord Acton puts it forcibly. 'It has never been my fortune to meet with an esoteric Ultramontane. I mean, putting aside the ignorant mass, and those who are incapable of reasoning, that I do not know of a religious and educated Catholic who really believes that the See of Rome is a safe guide to salvation. In short, I do

not believe there are Catholics who, sincerely and intelligently, believe that Rome is right and that Döllinger is wrong.'

When the distinction between exoteric and esoteric is pressed to this point, the notion of unity, which lies at the heart of Catholicism, disappears. The weakness of Modernism, in many respects so characteristic a product of the modern mind, is its refusal to face this fact. The attempt to evade it gives a certain impression of insincerity, an impression which the all but universal acceptance of the anti-Modernist oath by persons whose opinions are notorious, has done much to confirm. There are exceptions. Benecke, like Father Tyrrell, was true to conscience. But at what a price!

""You see a man dying of hunger and thirst! He cannot cheat himself with fine words. He starves!"

'She stared at him, startled-partly understanding.

"For forty-two years," he said, in a low pathetic voice, "have I received my Lord-day after day-without a break. And now they have taken Him away-and I know not where they have laid Him." ("Eleanor,' p. 389.)

Superficial solutions of the difficulty have been offered. "The North will never understand the South-never! You can't understand our à peu près. You think Catholicism is a tyranny, and we must either let the priests oppress us, or throw everything over-board. But it is nothing of the kind. We take what we want of it, and leave the rest. But you!if you come over to us, that is another matter! You have to swallow it all. You must begin even with Adam and Eve!"' (Ib. p. 307.)

This view of the matter is found at times in unexpected quarters. There is a current seminary story to the effect that two priests, who had been in the habit of discussing theological questions, agreed that the first to die should, if possible, return to give his friend the benefit of his enlarged outlook. He appeared, telling the other to put his questions shortly, as he could not stay long. 'Quid de moribus?' Taliter qualiter,' was the answer. Quid de dogmatibus?' 'Omnino aliter,' he replied emphatically, and disappeared. It is a timely corrective to over-certainty. But it suggests Bishop Blougram rather than St Paul.

* Letters of Lord Acton to Mary Gladstone,' p. lv.

6

The second distinction will not take us very far. The standards of the Church are the same for all. They may be enforced more rigorously on priests than on laymen, and taken more literally by converts than by born Catholics. But a belief which rests on the loose thinking and indifference of its adherents is in an evil way. Nor will a popular policy, were such to be adopted-and under the present Pontificate the tide sets strongly in the other direction-save the situation.

'La plus sage des politiques, la plus généreuse sollicitude pour les classes populaires n'assureraient pas . . . l'avenir du catholicisme, si le catholicisme, qui, étant une religion, est d'abord une foi, se présentait sous les apparences d'une doctrine et d'une discipline opposées au libre essor de l'esprit humain, déjà minées par la science, isolées et isolantes au milieu du monde qui veut vivre, s'instruire et progresser en tout.' (Loisy, 'Autour d'un petit livre,' p. xxv.)

'Richard Meynell' is a romance of Anglican Liberalism. It is of the nature of a prophecy; and prophecy is moulded by the personality of the prophet. In the Dawn of All' a popular Roman Catholic writer has sketched the future of the world as Catholics, presumably, wish to see it. There is little in common between this work and 'Richard Meynell.' But it is probable that in each case the writer has seen what he was desirous of seeing; the vision goes beyond what is warranted by the facts. Whatever may be the case with the large outlines, it is doubtful whether the details of Mrs Ward's ideal reconstruction of the English Church will commend themselves to Liberal Churchmen, or at least to such of them as possess the historical sense. The question of Prayer-book revision is urgent-how urgent those who have practical experience of the existing services know. But the wise architect retains as far as possible the distinctive features of the old structure. This was the principle on which the compilers of the liturgy proceeded; it is the principle, it may be hoped, on which its revisers will proceed. Mrs Ward's description of the new service book (p. 45) recalls a well-known Congregational chapel in which the minister reads selections from the New Testament in Dr Weymouth's translation.' Dr Weymouth's translation may be, and no doubt is,

excellent; but his name is incongruous, and taken in conjunction with the names of the Evangelists and that of St Paul, strikes a jarring note. The Liberal clergy will not break the law-this would be to adopt the platform of their opponents-nor will they innovate. In spite of here and there a dark corner and an inconvenient passage, most of us would rather live in an historical house-into which, however, we should introduce bathrooms and electric light-than exchange it for a villa run up by a speculative builder, and fitted with every modern convenience. So in religion. The traditional element is not to be dismissed out of hand. It is often better to explain than to expurgate, and to interpret than to change.

Both in Richard Meynell' and in 'Robert Elsmere Mrs Ward does less than justice to the historical Broad Church party. It had, and has, its limitations. It was academic; it had a certain aridity; its work was to a great extent indirect. But it kept knowledge alive; and knowledge, after all, is a necessary condition of theology and, in the long run, of religion, take what shape it will. The Liberal English Churchman stands in a great succession. He differs in two vital respects from the Catholic Modernist; the ground on which he stands is solid, and his hands are free. He may have faith in the future; for the stream on which he is launched flows to no inland bay or land-locked channel, but to the open There the venture of life awaits him. The position cannot be better stated than in Mrs Ward's words.

sea.

'Suddenly, as a shaft of light from the descending sun fled ghostlike across the plain, touching trees and fields and farms in its path, two noble towers emerged among the shadowscharacters, as it were, that gave a meaning to the scroll of nature. They were the towers of Markborough Cathedral. Meynell pointed to them as he turned to his companion, his face still quivering under the strain of feeling.

"Take the omen! It is for them, in a sense-a spiritual sense-we are fighting. They belong not to any body of men that may chance to-day to call itself the English Church. They belong to England-in her aspect of faith-and to the English people!"' (Richard Meynell,' p. 73.)

ALFRED FAWKES.