The sun., 1896-10-18
Cardinal Vaughan on the Papal Bull
Against Anglican Orders.

recent number of the London Tablet
contains leader, evidently from the pen OF
Cardinal VAUGHAN, on the bull 1post0licCy
Cure, wherein LEO Mi. reaflirms the de-
cree of CLEMENT NJ. in GoRDoN's case, de-
clarlng the invalidity Of Anglican orders
The decision was, on the whole, tri-
umph for the Cardinal, for he from
the outset opposed the French ecclesiastics
who, desiring to assist the efforts OF a
certain party in the Anglican Church for
corporate reunion with the Church of Rome.
contended that there was ground for re-
examination of the matter. We use lam
guage somewhat qualified, because the
Cardinal himself had laid great stress
upon the alleged invaldity of Archbishop
PARKER'S conservation, whereas LEO XIII.
points out that no weight was at
tached to that particular case in the
judgment rendered by CLEMENT XI., nor is
any weight assigned to it in the present
bull The Cardinals position is thus far
vindicatcd, however. that the invaldity of
Anglican orders is once for all asserted by
the Pope for the reason that the Edward
inc Ordinal was defective in form and in
intention.
1t is in temperate and concliatory terms
that the Cardinal refers to the close Of
controversy, which was conducted on his
part with remarkable earnestness and
energy. He maintains that no Catholic,
who has any intimate or accurate knowledge
OF the religious situation in England, can
doubt that this latest act of the Holy See is
destined to be productive of real and
permanent good for the very work of
ra,nipp Nphirl, nd nf Jn
lidity of Anglican orders had at heart. He
believes that by the bull ApoStOlicB Gu
rCE more has been done for the eau Sc OF re-
union than could have been achieved by
years of amiable and well-meant overtures
which, proceeding upon n basis theologi-
cally and historically unsound, could
only, in the long run, have resulted in dis
appointment and failure. For the future,
both for those who are to come to the |
Church OF Rome, and to those who are to help
them to come, the path is, more than ever
before. made plain. straight, and unmistak-
able. Henceforth the impossibility of COR
porate reunion will be universally recog-
nized; only by the process OF individual |
conversion, the process which has had such |
remarkable results in the persons Of NEW |
MAN, MANNING, and their followers, can re- |
union be effected.
While, however, there 10 no note of exal- |
tation in the Cardinals article, he does not |
seek to pallate the crushing force with which |
the Papal bull demolshes the hopes of a |
certain party in the Anglican Church, that |
Its claim of solidarity with the Catholic |
Church universal might receive measure |
of recognition from the head of the Church |
of Rome. The members Of the Low Church, |
or Evangelical element in the Angli- |
can body. have, of course, no reason |
to regret the decision of LEO Kill, for he |
has merely declared that they do not possess |
orders in the Roman Catholic sense which |
they themselves vehemently discajm. 1t is
pointed out, on the other hand, in the
1dbtet-we quote the passage word for
word-that in the front rank of |
the Anglican communion there are
others who have established an inalien-
able claim upon our sympathy, inso-
much as amid all the difficulties and
of their surroundings,
they have shaken themselves free from some
of the most soul-depressing traditions Of the
Reformation, and have risen to at least a
partial conception Of the beauty and truth OF
the Church's teaching upon the eucharist
and the priesthood, and have felt the charm
OF that divine nObleSSG which we all love
and appreciate in the title OF Catholic"
The Cardinal adds that such men, when
they have not logically sought these