The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-12-22 00:00:00

CORRESPONDENCE

CATHOLIC AND POPISH FORMS OF ABSO-

LUTION

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD

SIR Your contemporary, the

fercury, in its leading

Lou zuLn uir., tons modestly reminds its readers
and the community at large of the invaluable services which
it has from time to time conferred :—" In the course of our
occasional animadversions on the speeches and sermons of
the most rampant of the no-popery party, w•e have repeatedly
nnt the inconsistency of their sarcasms

upon certain
doctrines which the Protestants hold in common with the
Roman Catholics, if there be any tn2aning in words
Amongst these are the doctrines of transubstantiation ar
the power of the minister to absolvP tent

e pen'. from their
sins." And again, further on :—" We assert, however,
that if there be any meaning in words, the power of the Pro-
testant minister, to forgive sins, is as unequivocally re-
cognised by the Protestant church as by the Catholic priests,
and we proceed to the proof." Then your contemporary, in
the way of " proof," gives two of the three forms of absolu-
tion as they stand in our Apostolic and Catholic Liturgy ;
but, for reasons best known to the writer, favours not the
public with the popish forms as they exist in the Rituale
Ronzanum. The " article" winds up with the following
" flourish of trumpets :"—" We have also shewn, on a for-
mer occasion, that another tory oracle, Bishop Philpotts,
has expressly admitted that the ministers of the Established
Church are invested with authority TO FORGIVE THE CRIMES
of penitent sinners; and with a Protestant bishop and the
Rev. Hugh M`Neile on our side, we have little to fear fro•
the attacks of the minion fry of the Courier, Mail
STANDARD."

It would appear, however, that the writer of the above is
not disposed to content himself with the services which he
then vouchsafed ; for in the Mercury of last Friday he in-
dulges his readers with a " brief reiteration," in the way of
stirring up their recollection, thus :—" We have often
pointed out the inconsistency and indecency of ridiculing the
Roman Catholic doctrines about the real presence, and the
power of the priests to forgive human sins, when our (1.)
own liturgy unequivocally recognises precisely the same doc-
trines, as we have proved by quotations from the Protestant
Prayer-book. &c. &c."

Now, sir, I have no right—nor have I the disposition—to
impute to the writer of the extracts cited above a wilful sup-
pression of the Romish forms of absolution, for "I would
rather imagine him to be ignorant that there existed any
differences between them and those of our own church ; but
at the same time I cannot help expressing my deep regret
that he did not consult the Romish formulary, to which I
have already adverted, ere he ventured to put forth state-
ments calculated to widen, still more, the breach between
churchmen and dissenters.

With your permission, then, I shall now give the three
forms of absolution, as they are to be found in our Book of
Common Prayer, and place in juxtaposition with them the
forms used by the Romish priesthood, as extracted from the
Rituale Romanum now before me
The form of

Absolution in Forms of Absolution in
•or, after the ROMISH CHURCH.
'—BOOK