Peace Egging

Extract

On Easter Tuesday a rebuke, which reads amusingly, was administered to Cardinal Bourne by the Anglican Bishop of Durham. In a sermon at York on Easter Sunday, the Cardinal reminded his hearers that only those who are in communion with Rome can claim to be legitimate successors of St. Paulinus, Archbishop of York. The Anglican Bishop, in reply, virtually reprimands His Eminence for neglecting his Easter Duties—as these are understood in Durham nowadays.

‘Controversy between the Churches,’ says his Lordship, is a lamentable spectacle .... Anglicans can understand the Roman position, and they do not resent it; but there are times and places in which differences between the Churches ought not to be insisted upon, and many, both Anglicans and Romans, must I think agree with me that Holy Week and Easter, during which the minds of all Christians are fastened upon the central verities of the Christian religion, respecting which all Christians are one, is a time in which the voice of controversy should be silent.’

He is a bold Bishop who ventures to think that many Anglicans must agree with him upon any question which involves the central verities of the Christian religion. There are, however, occasions when, without being at all rash, even an Anglican Bishop may presume that not many but all Romans must agree with him. One such occasion is when an Anglican Bishop speaks sound common sense; for all Romans are obliged, under pain of ceasing to be Romans, to agree with sound sense whencesoever it comes. Another occasion is when an Anglican Bishop hits upon some deep truth which is beyond the range of commonsense, and finds himself stating something with which all