A recent meeting, at which, with a Cardinal presiding, several Anglicans agreed to talk over with Catholics possibilities of reconciliation between the Church of England and the Church of Rome, brought me the great honour of being asked to examine Bishop Gore’s pamphlet, Catholicism and Roman Catholicism, Three Addresses delivered in Grosvenor Chapel in Advent, 1922 (London, Mowbray, 1923). This pamphlet was chosen because it provides a basis for discussion by reason of its clearly defining the position of Anglicanism with regard both to the Church of Rome and Continental Protestantism, and also because it sets out with clearness and moderation the complaints brought against us.

An Oxford man, and until recently Bishop of Oxford, but now living in London in order to devote himself exclusively to theology, Dr. Gore has a personality which exercises great attraction in England. In Anglicanism we may distinguish a Right, a Left and a Centre Party; Dr. Gore belongs to the Right by the relative completeness of his dogmatic beliefs, by his ‘Catholicism’ (in the sense in which that term has been widely used in the Church of England since the Oxford movement), but he does not belong to the extreme Right whose taste for Roman practices is well known, and he has not failed on many occasions to say perfectly clearly that the path he is following does not lead to Rome. He says so again in the present moment a man becomes a Christian, he is incorporated into a community, and is under the obligations that such an incorporation involves. A new covenant is established, not between God and individuals, but between God and a visible Church.

With the possible exception of Norway and Finland there is no country in the civilized world so profoundly non-Catholic as Sweden. One talks vaguely of Holland and Sweden as both Protestant countries, but at least every third Dutchman is a Catholic, while there is not one among a thousand Swedes. Sweden has, in fact, a population of nearly six million souls, of whom not three thousand are Catholics. There are two little churches in Stockholm, one at Gottenburg, one at Malmo, and there are lowly chapels in one or two of the smaller towns scattered at huge intervals about this enormous, sparsely populated country. In all there are not more than eight or nine Catholic places of worship in Sweden, and there actually exist only two priests of Swedish birth. At Stockholm resides the Vicar Apostolic, who is a German, as are the majority of the priests in Sweden. Those at Gottenburg and Malmo are, however, Dutch. One of the two Swedish priests, a zealous and energetic man and an excellent linguist, edits the one Swedish Catholic newspaper, a monthly periodical, Credo, which has excited the interest and obtained the blessing of Cardinal Bourne, a gracious message from whom was printed in its pages last Christmas.

Under the heading, ‘A Wonderful Demonstration,’ the English Churchman for April 19 gives an account of a meeting held at the Albert Hall nine days previously, announced as a ‘Great Protestant Appeal against the proposed Royal Visit to the Pope and to demand the withdrawal of the Envoy to the Vatican.’ The gathering ‘was a magnificent one.’

and according to another authority, the Protestant Woman, the announcement of the royal visit ‘has stirred them to their depths.’

Carthage should be a name to conjure with. Yet ‘delenda est Carthago’ has received more than literal fulfilment. Even the Punic wars of which we heard so much as schoolboys have faded from men’s memories, and perhaps few of us would care to have to date them from memory.

Some few weeks ago there appeared in the papers a notice to the effect that a Franco-American archaeological expedition was being fitted out for the fuller, excavation of the great city of Hannibal and Scipio, of Tertullian, Cyprian and Augustine, ‘celsa Carthago,’ ‘civitas ampla et illustris.’ One newspaper report before us speaks of the ‘ruins of Carthage which have for so long been at the mercy of casual souvenir-hunters, speculative builders and Arab tribesmen.’ It might be gathered from this that little or no systematic excavation of the site had been carried out of late. Archæologists, of course, know better. They are well aware of the wonderful work done by Père Delattre who for many years has toiled among the ruins, and who, despite scanty funds and little support, has enriched our knowledge as well as the museums of Carthage. It would be idle to summarise his work here. Suffice it to say that he has laid bare various Punic cemeteries, which have afforded us a glimpse of early Phoenician civilization such as would never else have been suspected. He has also done much to extend our knowledge of Christian Carthage. Now, it is of Christian Carthage that we want to learn more. An archæologist, perhaps inevitably, wants to get back as far as he can; it is a human instinct. But we should like to urge the present expedition to concentrate its efforts on Christian rather than Punic Carthage.