The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-20 00:00:00

PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICISM.

A remarkable illustration has within these
last few days been once more afforded, of the
widely contrasting systems, and sentiments
engendered by the systems, of Protestantism
and Catholicism. The occasion was that pre-
sented by the annual meeting of the Protestant
Reformation Society at Willis's Dancing
Rooms, St. James's, under the presidency of
the veteran but irrepressible Admiral Vernon
Harcourt. Among the principal speakers Col-
lected together upon the platform, was the
Rev. Dr. Cumming, altogether unabashed, it
would seem, by the non-fulfilment of his many
reiterated prophecies. The illustration we are
referring to, however, as having been given
anew of the diametrically opposite character
and tendencies presented to view by Pro-
testantism when contrasted with Catholicism
y
was so given, it may be observed at once,
neither b Admiral Vernon
Harcourt nor yet
by the Rev. Dr. Cumming. The illustrator
and embellisher afresh of that already toler-
ably notorious fact was, in truth, one of the
bishops of the English Church Establishment.
The particular member of the Protestant
Ripon,the h
Hierarchy thus alluded to, being no other than
the Bishop ofaccording
Romet o
has whom—toan
begin with—"
essentially political aspect, being closely iden-
tified," said the Bishop of Ripon, " with poli-
tical positions in which she,
the Church of
Rome, always seeks to obtain an ascendancy."
Without pausing to discuss this particular
question as to the essentially political aspect
imputed to the Catholic Church, and repu-
! diated, oddly enough, in regard to Protest-
antism, by one of the chiefs of a Church always
spoken of by Cobbett, according to its own
proper name, style, and title (in italics) as the
Church by law established—not established by,
Christ, but by law established—we shall con-
tent ourselves with passing on at once to what
we have more especially selected from among
the Bishop of Ripon's remarks at Monday's
meeting, in Willis's Rooms, as the subject-
matter of our present observations and com-
mentaries. " We could not attain the truth,"
said the Bishop of Ripon, at this portion of
his harangue ; " we could not attain the truth
by ridicule or by acrimonious controversy."
Adding, " This society "—remember he was
addressing
himself to the Protestant Reforma-
-404 society-=." Thy Society ad itself against

any such course as unworthy of the sacred
cause with which it had to deal." Yet, im-
mediately after this—rather incongruously, to
say the least of it—the Bishop of Ripon went
on to remark that " He believed that the more
firmly, closely, and fully a Roman Catholic
held to the distinctive features of his religion,
to that degree was he going from the pure
Word of God, and running the risk of ever-
lasting damnation." Observe ! this future
lot of " eternal damnation" is, in the belief of
the Bishop of Ripon, the all but inevitable lot
of every Roman Ca'tholic because of—what ?
Because of his " more firmly, closely and fully,
holding to the distinctive features of his re-
ligion." Protestantism, through one of its
bishops, speaks with that toleration ! Catholi-
cism, on the other hand, as we all know,
asserting on the contrary its own supernal
knowledge of the everlasting condemnation
incurred by such as abjure the truth through
remaining out of its pale—with a saving clause
invariably applicable to those who do so in
invincible ignorance. It is not the simple
fact of their " closely, firmly, fully holding to
the distinctive features of their religion," of
their schismatical or heretical belief; which
condemns them, it is their repulsion of the
truth, it is their rejection of the faith, it is
their abjuration of Catholicism—they them
selves the while not being iu invincible
ignorance. There is toleration if you will,
accompanied by a logical and loyal adherence
to the indivisible unity of Truth. But the
inconsistencies of Protestantism are not merely
as in this instance superficial, they are in-
grained and ineradicable. They are indicated
as such, in point of fact, by the very title
assumed to themselves three centuries ago by
their originators as significative of their general
aim and tendencies. Disintegrated as the
Establishment is already in a great measure,
riven asunder as it is even now in view of all
men—here the High Church, here the Low
Church, here the Ritualists, here the Evan-
gelicals—a disposition has of late been mani-
festing itself "in certain quarters" a half-ex-
pressed, but sufficiently manifest, disposition to
repudiate that same distinctive title, the title
of Protestant—this arising, of course, from a
tardy sense of its incongruity, as the designa-
tion of an establishment assuming to be the
exponent of the truth of Christianity. Con-
scious of this disposition within the Estab-
lishment to repudiate the title of Protestant,
the Bishop of Ripon, when referring to the
inadequate aid accorded to the Society, some
of the supporters of which he was addressing
at Willis's Rooms on Monday, observed, that—
" One reason was that the very name of it was
objectionable in the highest degree to a large
number occupying a certain quarter. They
hated," he said, " the very word Protestant,
they designated reformation' as schism.'
But," exclaimed the Bishop of Ripon, " they
gloried in the word Protestant, and rejoiced in
the glorious Reformation." That avowal being
the sum total apparently of the speaker's yin-
' dication of both the word Protestantism and
the word Reformation ! Each of those words
having a distinctly negative character —each
a something going before it, a
of them implying
something older and antecedent—a something
to be Protested against, a something to be Re-
formed. That Something being, in reality, the
Church of Christ, the Church Catholic, the
Church that, according to the divine dictum,
never can by possibility fall into error, never
can admit of the requirement of Reformation,
never can have the gates of hell prevail against
it, having the Spirit of God with it, on the con-
trary—the Paracite, the Redeemer Himself,
even to the end of theworld. No wonder that
" a large number, occupying a certain quar-
ter" (to adopt the phrase of the Bishop of
Ripon), evidence at last an anxiety to drop
out of view both the word Protestant and
the word Reformation ! For, was it not wisely
written centuries ago by Cummianus, in his
Epistle De Controversaria Paschali, " Quid
pravius sentire potest de ecclesia matre quam
si dicarnus : Roma errat, Hierosolyma errat,
totus mundus errat ; soli . . . Britones rectum
sapiunt ?"--Westininster Gazette.