The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-21 00:00:00

niE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 21, 1869.

GLOBE THEATRE-ROYAL.
MIS EVE/WM at 7, BREACH OF PROMISE. At 8.15, the
new Comedy, PROGRES : Messrs. Billington, H. Neville, T.
Clarke, Parselle, Westland, E. Marshall; Mesdames Lydia
Foote, Hughes, Berend, and Mrs. Stephens.

ROYAL STRAND THEATRE.
Sole Lessee and Manageress, Mrs. Swanborough.
THIS EVENING. at 7.30, AMONG THE BREAKERS: Mr
Clarke. THE TOODLES. And THE PILGRIM uF LOVE
Messrs. E. Terry, Bruce, &c.; Mesdames Richardson, Newton,
Fosbrooke, &c.

ROYAL ALHAMBRA PALACE. THREE BALLETS
Promenade Concert. Band of 60. Begin at 8. ls. Boa-office
open from 11 to 4.

CHRISTY MINSTRELS, St. James's Hall, Every Night, at 8
Wednesdays and Saturdays, at 3 and 8 all the year round.

ZOOLOGICAL G NRDENS, Regent's-park, OPEN daily (ex-
cept Sundays). Admission, ls.; on Mondays, Cd. Children
under twelve. 6.1_

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Qji Aftitt.
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ancestry back to apostolic days, and probably
to an apostolic founder. He belonged to the
school of NEWMAN and PUSEY rather than to that of
LITTLEDALE and MACKONOCIIIE.

The Bishop's relations with the diocese which he
administered so long were of a very varied character.
It would be easy enough, by selecting only one class
of events in his career, to make him out the wisest
and greatest prelate of his times. It would be scarcely
less easy, by fixing the eye solely upon another class
of events, to make him out one of the worst adminis-
trators that a diocese was ever encumbered with.
On the one hand he deserves all praise for
the vigour with which he corrected abuses.
On the other hand, there are actions of his
which no apologist can defend. Chief and
foremost of the abuses was the frequency of
non-residence on the part of the parochial clergy.
Some of the worst offenders, like the late
Dean STANHOPE, of Buryan (who read himself in in
1815, and never went near his parish again, though
he lived for more than fifty years afterwards, and
drew more than £l,OOO a year from his living)
the Bishop was not always able to touch. But
in other cases ho was firm, severe perhaps ; but
who shall say unjustly severe ? The conse-
quence is that never before has the diocese
seen so many of its parishes ruled by their own
incumbents. The Bishop was equally vigorous with
respect to infrequent services and celebrations of the
Holy Communion. There was many a church when
he first took charge of the see which was opened
only every other Sunday, and in which the Com-
munion was administered only twice or thrice a year.
Under his supervision these scandals have almost,
if not entirely, ceased. Quite recently, when it
was pointed out that in several churches a bad and
wholly illegal custom prevailed of charging a fee for
baptism,, the Bishop, then close upon 90 years of ago,
caused enquiries to be made through the diocese, and
vigorously reprobated and forbade the abuse. To the
Bishop belongs also the credit of reviving diocesan
synods, although his own advanced age prevented
him from continuing them. He, too, it was who
fought the battle of his order when a patron proposed
to appoint to a living a person whose credentials were
not satisfactory. In all these ways he sheaved energy
such as few, if any other bishops, have shewn, and for
these things let him have all praise.
But there is another side, or rather another mani-
festation of the same side. The Bishop not only acted
vigorously because he believed himself in the right,
but he could not admit the possibility of persons who
differed from him being otherwise than in the wrong.
Therefore his decision must be upheld at all costs, not
because it was his, but because it was, he believed,
the decision of the Church, and essential to her
well-being. The theory advocated by so many
able men that the English Church is a body containing
men of different schools of thought, he could not
even conceive, much less receive. There was but one
right theology, there were many false theologies. A
faithful chief pastor must maintain the first, must
denounce the second. Hence his great controversy
with Mr. GORHAM, Hence his resolve to rend
the Church in twain, and drive out the Low
Church party en masse, rather than admit
that the doctrine of baptismal regeneration
was an open question. Theologians have learnt to
see that the English Church is essentially a church
of comprehension and toleration—a give-and-take
Church,—and that directly parties become too sharply
divided, too bitterly opposed,--directly there ceases to
be a modus vivendi—it is not this or that party which
will secede or be expelled, but the Church itself
which will be broken up. Bishop PHILLPOTTS did
his best to bring about that result, but his efforts pro-
duced exactly the opposite result. It was his doing that
the highest court in the kingdom declared the holders
and the deniers of baptismal regeneration equally at
liberty to remain in the Church, just as it was the
doing of the bishop whose death immediately pre-
ceded his which made the inspiration of Scripture
an open question. There is one other unfavourable
characteristic which we must not Pass over. The
Bishop was unquestionably a nepotist, and his
irs to obtrun possession of Church patronage
were worthy rather of a third-ruto att., +l of
first-rate divine. Perhaps even here there is something
to be said in way of palliation. He loved patronage
becaused it enabled him to present men whose views
he approved ; in other words, men who he thought
would do service to the Church. But he was too apt
to forget the precept which forbids the doing of evil
to secure: good.
On the whole the Bishop was a very remarkable
man. He was not the man to win affection, but he
was the man to extort admiration for his pluck. He
had few friends, many admirers, and we fear several
foes. He was, as we have said, unique, and we do
not wish to see his analogue. Vigour is not all that
is needed in ruling men. It must be tempered with
gentleness. The enunciation of truth is not all that is
required in a chief pastor ; it must be spoken in love.
It is to be hoped that the diocese so long administered
by a bishop who ought to have been a Lord Chan-
cellor will now have for its head one who will be
something less of a RHADAMANTIIUS, something more
of a shepherd.

THE POPE TO DR. CUMMING.

The reply of Pope Pius IX. to Dr. Cumming has arrived
at last. It is not addressed to the minister of Crown-
court ; no reference oven is made to the doctor's letter.
The reply is sent "to our venerable brother Henry Edward
Archbishop of Westminster ;" and runs as follows :—" We
have seen from the newspapers that Doctor Cumming, of
Scotland, has inquired of you whether leave will be given
at the approaching council to those who dissent from the
Catholic Church, to put forward the arguments which
they think can bo advanced in support of their own
opinions ; and that, on your replying that this is a
matter to be determined by the Holy See, he has written
to us upon the subject. Now, if the inquirer knows
what is the belief of Catholics with respect to
the teaching authority which has been given by
our Divine Saviour to His Church, and therefore
with respect to its infallibility in deciding questions which
belong to dogmas or to morals, ho must know that the
Church cannot permit errors which it has carefully con-
sidered, judged and condemned, to be again brought under
discussion. This, too, is what has already been made
known by our letters. For, when we said, "it cannot be
denied or doubted that Jesus Christ Himself, in order that
He might apply to all generations of men the fruits of His
redemption, built here on earth upon Peter His only
Church, that is, the one, 3 catholic and apostolic
Church, and gave to him all power that was necessary for
preserving whole and inviolate the deposit of faith, and for
delivering the same faith to all peoples, and tribes, and
nations,' we thereby signified that the primacy both of
honour and of jurisdiction, which was conferred upon
Peter and his successors by the Founder of the Church, is
placed beyond the hazard of disputation. This, indeed, is
the hinge upon which the whole question between Catho-
lics and all who dissent from them turns ; and from this
dissent, as from a fountain, all the errors of non-Catholics
flow. "For, inasmuch as such bodies of men are destitute
of that living and divinely-established authority, which
teaches mankind especially the things of faith and the rule
of morals, and which also directs and governs them in
whatever relates to eternal salvation, so these same
bodies of men have ever varied in their teaching and
their change and instability never cease." If, therefore,
your inquirer will consider, either the opinion which is
held by the Church as to the infallibility of its judgment
in defining whatever belongs to faith or morals, or what
we ourselves have written respecting the primacy and
teaching authority of Peter, he will at once perceive that
no room can bo given at the Council for the defence of
errors which have already been condemned; and that we
could not have invited non-Catholics to a discussion, but
have only urged them "to avail themselves of the oppor-
tunity afforded by this Council, in which the Catholic
Church, to which their forefathers belonged, gives a new
proof of its close unity and invincible vitality, and to
satisfy the wants of their souls by withdrawing from a
state in which they cannot be sure of their salvation." If,
by the inspiration of Divine grace, they shall perceive their
own danger, and shall seek God with their whole heart,
they will easily cast away all preconceived and adverse
opinions ; and, laying aside all desire of disputation,
they will return to the Father from whom they have long
unhappily gone astray. We, on our part, will joyfu:ly
run to meet them ; and embracing them with a father's
charity, we shall rejoice, and the Church will rejoice with
us, that our children who were dead have come to life
again, and that they who were lost have been found. This
indeed we earnestly ask of God; and do you, Venerable
Brother, join your prayers to ours. In the meanwhile, as
token of the Divine favour and of our own especial
benevolence, we most lovingly give to you and to your
diocese our Apostolic blessing. Given at St. Peter's, in
Rome, this 4th day of September, 1569, in the 24th year
of our Pontificate.—PorE Pius IX."