Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-12-22
DOM GASQUET TO
NEW YORK CRITIC.
Second Phase of the English
Reformation Discussed in
Advent Sermon.


A. Gasquet, president of the
English Benedictines, said In his ser
mon at st. Patrick's Cathedral yes
terday that those who pray for
Christian unity should face the facts
frankly If their prayer is to be any
thing more than sentiment. 1t was
the last of his series of four sermons
on the English reformation.
"The main lines of departure from
the Catholic faith along which the
moved" he said, were
those which I have indicated. A re-
turn can only be contemplated by
frankly facing the issues. Today we
find men OF the highest intelligence
and good faith claiming to have the
same Christian sacrifice and the same
sacrificing priests as the Catholic
church. and they are using cont
munion service from which of set
purpose every notion of oblation and
sacrifice has been ruthlessly removed,
and their ministers are ordained by
an ordinal which designedly was COM
posed to express the rejection of the
sacrifcial character of the Christian
priest. The prayer for Christian
unity must go up from every heart,
but IL it Is to be something more
than sentiment, the facts must be
faced frankly and with courage
MAINLY there were only three prin-
ciples of the Catholic church which
were attacked by the upholders of
the reformation doctrines. The papal
supremacy over the church, the safe
guard of unity of faith and mark of
the church Christ established in this
world; the Christian sacrifice of the
mass, attacked and swept away by
the reformers, and the priesthood In
It's sacrificial character, which was
the necessary consequence of the
eucharistic doctrine upheld by the
German and English reformers.
There were. of course, many minor
points of Catholic belief and prac-
tise which were attacked and de-
stroyed in the days of the reforma-
ton; SUCH for example, as the devo-
ton to the Mother of, God and the
saints, and the long established Gus
tom of blessed ashes and candles and
the creeping to the cross on Good
Friday"
Second Reformation Phase.
In reply to one of Abbot Gas
DUETS sermons DR.. Ernest M. Stires,
of st. Thomas's Church, challenged
him to discuss the second phase of
the reformation at the beginning of
the reign of Elizabeth, and this was
the subject for the historical part of
Abbot Gasquet's sermon yesterday
He said that religious difficulties re-
vived with Queen Mary's premature
death. At first 1t was not generally
known whether Elizabeth would re-
main stanch to the old religion or
favor the new. although there were
suspicious that she was inclined to
the latter.
"She was welcomed as sovereign by
all parties, Catholic as well as Prot
estant, and no one now, believe,
credits the silly story that she was
forced into the arms of the reformers
by the refusal of the Pope to recog-
nlze her as lawful queen.
Zone of the first measures proposed
to Parliament at the beginning of the
new reign was the act of royal SUI
prefnacy. Its object was, of course,
| to do away with the spiritual SUI
premacy of the Pope, and substituted
that of the crown, and a stringent
oath was to be required Of all holding
any office In the State. By this every
adherent of the old faith was deliber-
ately excluded from any and every
position I'm the Church and State.'
Abbot Gasquet said that the unfet-
tered Church of England, the bishops,
clergy and teaching bodies, boldly de-
clared for the old Catholic faith, but
that the power was in the hands Of
those who desired the Alteration of
religion" and that the alteration was
effected mainly by three acts of Par
lament. The substitution of the com
munion service for the mass, he said,
was passed by majority of three
votes and without the support of a
single spiritual peer, the bishops to
the last man opposing the bill. There
can be no doubt" said the speaker,
that had not ten sees been vacant
at the time the attempt to change the
religion a second time would have
been defeated"
The second Parliamentary recon-
struction of religion was followed by
systematic attempts to stamp out the
Catholic priesthood and by centuries
of persecution In which hundreds of
priests were put to death by law for
having said mass.
ut was the mass that mattered,"
said Abbot Gasquet, quoting one of
the present English cabinet minis
ters. Looking back to those days OF
darkness and despair 1t seems i'm
possible to believe that any remnant
of those who would not bow their
knees to Baal could survive the sys-
tenn by which 1t was hoped TO crush
them. And when liberty of conscience
was at last accorded 1t was more in
the spirit Of compassion than in any
expectation that they could revive
and live again that 1t was given. AS
well might the world think that the
worship Of Pan or of Jupiter would
spring again into life as that the poor,
despised dying Catholics could grow
once more into a position of respect
and influence, reasserting and pub
Ilnl.r tla.. aniYalk,n la2 fha