The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-25 00:00:00

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CONVERSIONS TO ROMANISM.
The secession of Mr. Capes, a clergyman of Bridgwater,
from the Protestant to the Romish Church, occurred a month
or two ago, and excited considerable attention, especially as
he had but recently exhibited his zeal for the English Estab-
lishment by erecting and endowing a 'magnificent chapel• of.
ease, of which he was the popular minister. Last week wet
copied an account from a provincial Contemporary, to th,e
effect that a highly. respectable inhabitant of Bridgwater (x.
Mr. Poole), with his three sisters, had followed the example
of Mr. Capes, and were become duly recognished members of
the Church of Rome. We looked upon this as an unfortu-
nate but not unnatural sequence to the defection of an erring
shepherd, some of who e flock would be very likely to be
affected by his altered views. But the communication of a
correspondent informs us, that with respect at least to the
sisters of Mr. Poole, this inference is not sustained, in-
asmuch as they have been for a year and a half past
resident at Ilfracombe, and consequently far removed
from the ministry of Mr. Capes. But that is not all;
while sojourning at Ilfracombe they have been in-
mates cf the family of the curate of the parish, the Rev.
Spencer Northcote, who is a near relative (a brother-
in-law), and who happens to be deeply tinctured with the'
views of the Pusey and Newman school, a sufficient
proof of which will be accepted in the fact that Le went
purposely to Oxford on the occasion of the late degradation
of the author of the "Ideal Church," to give his suppoat
to
Mr. 'S\ ard,whose subsequent conversion to Popery- is ao-
tori us. We have learnt als,, that during the recent stay
of Dr. Pusey at Ilfracombe (in whose congenial soil, by Hie-
invitation of the vicar and with the sanction of the bishop,
the doctor has been suffered, both last year and this, to exer-
cise his ministry, from which lie was interdicted by the high
authorities of Oxfiird, as a punishment for . his heresy),
among his most favoured and intimate associates were Mr-
Northcote and his sisters-in-law. These circumstances, aitt
well as the questionable character of Mr. Northcote's preach--
ing, and the partiality and intention he has shown to indi-
vidual members of the Roman Catholic communion, have
induced very painful apprehensions in the minds of many
of the truly Protestant members of the Church at Ilfra,
mac, who consider that the vicar is bound to ascertain .
the fidelity of his curate, and to protect the congregation
from the insidious effects of a semi-Romish ministry, of
whose pernicious tendency the secession of the 'Misses
Poole is an admonitory instance. Such, at least, is the opi-
nion of the esteemed correspondent who writes us. But
knowing the leaning of the vicar, which has been too pad.
pable for 3-ears past to admit of question, we confess we:
wonder that the slightest expectation should be entertained
of his interposition to correct •an evil to which his own
example has given the greatest possible encouragement. We
would recommend the Protestant portion of the congregation at
Ilfracombe to appeal at once to the Bishop ; and if lie be not
more tolerant of Romanism than he is of the mildest form of
Protestant Dissent, they will not appeal to him in vain. A
case precisely in point occurred not long ago in the west of
Cornwall. A clergyman of established character, whose
Protestantism and piety were alike above suspicion, was
reported of to the Bishop that he permitted, or did not pre-
vent, a member of his family going occasionally to a
Wesleyan chapel ; and so was his Lordship moved with
indignation at such an act of infidelity to the Church,
that although he had just before been himself coquetting
with the Wesley-ens, and inviting them to return
to the bosom of the Establishment, lie at once and
peremptorily withdrew the clergyman's license, and he
was compelled to quit the diocese. In vain did he plead
the right of private judgment to his family, and inability
to restrain his children ; the Bishop met him with a quo-
tation from Timothy—" If a man know not how to rule his
own house, how shall he take care of the church ;" and the
clergyman • was silenced. If so severe a penalty were the
just demerit of a minister, Hmself unsuspected, who merely
allowed his wife r daughter (still remaining members and
regular attendants at the church) to make a casual visit to
the Wesleyans—a body which had so little departed from the
Establishment in doctrine that the Bishcp could-see no diffi-
culty whatever in the way of its return to the unity of the
Church; what less than deprivation and degradation can be
the punishment of him whose adherence to the Protestant
faith is doubtful, and who has been so far unable (if even
desirous) to keep his family within the pale of the Church,
that not less than three of the inmates of his house have
gone over, en masse, not to a Protestant Dissenting sect, but
to a corrupt establishment from which it was the boa-4 of the
English Church that she was reformed, and which the Bishop
formerly delighted to stigmatise as superstitious and idola-
trous? We shall be curious to hear the result of his Lord-
ship's acquaintance with this fact, and to see by what ca-
suistry he will elude the exercise of discipline to which former
precedent and profession alike blind him.—North Devon
Journal.