How can Catholics say that Anglican orders are invalid when the Anglican Bishop of Liverpool was welcomed by the Catholic Archbishop and Lord Mayor, and when the latter at the civic reception said "In Liverpool the new Bishop would find many avenues for his activities. . . ." 2—(R. H., Liverpool.) When a new Emperor ascends the throne of Japan, 'other sovereigns send him congratulations. The Emperor of Japan claims descent from the SunGod. Do the courtesies of the other sovereigns imply admission of this claim? Catholic doctrine is so clear that it should be evident that our cordiality to non-Catholic religious leaders does not imply any change in it. The validity of Anglican orders is not relevant, as a non-Catholic religious leader is equally so whether he happens to have valid Christian orders or not. The Lord Mayor's use or the word " bishop" is consistent with rejection of Anglican orders: it is the official title of an Anglican bishop, and is correctly used by Catholics without implying the possession of the priestly powers instituted by Christ, just as a materialist would call any bishop a " bishop " without any thought of admitting even the possibility of such powers.
Is in not the duty of married people to " increase and multiply " ? (J. M.)
Yes, but this does not mean that married people are in duty bound to have the maximum possible number of children. There may be good and weighty reasons which justify a certain limitation in the size of one's family, (hough, of course, this may not be achieved by immoral means. It would be wrong, however, to suppose that every small family or childless marriage is the result of deliberate resttiction. Children arc nee, as it were, irritable; they are still a blessing on marriage that God has not yielded entirety to man's control, and many a couple that is childless and a family that is small would not willingly be so.
TWO GOOD NAZIS
Ste,---At a time when the mentioning of " good Germans " draws storms of protest it must seem very daring to talk of " good Nazis." But the fact is that I have known two. Yoa could not help getting to know Nazis in a country which was invaded and partly infested with them. If I happened to have experiences with very bad ones, I might not be alive now to tell the tale. The fact is that among the many I came across were two men who —personally gentle, sensitive and helpful, one of them of more than average intelligence—proressed a faith of terror, cruelty and despair. Why do 1 want to mention this ? Not to
ask for favours for such men 1 Them might not be so many of them and they certainly would not care for a gentle treatment from their enemies.
only want to point out that ICeducation is not such a simple problem. Making German school children recite daily or weekly some sort of international creed Will not solve it. ant convinced that the right approach to it will just keep the middle between merely sentimental patronising and the regime of bleak rear.
By merely sentimental fraternisation I mean fraternisation which is not prepared to pay the full price.
LYDIA FURTMLILLER.
(Refugee from Austria.)
THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH
Ste.—Mr. Mortimer hay put the case for the Supremacy of Parliament better than I could ; but I did not, as he suggests, " imagine (any) conflict " between King and Prelate ! As I sec it, the latter is merely the nominee of the Crown, which for four centuries has stolen, or tiled to steal, by thc instrumentality of Parliament, a purely Papal prerogative. Henry did bludgeon his bishops. except St. John Fisher. into a stunned acquiesceece; but they were fully awake when crafty Cecil. by sheer trickery. secured a Parliamentary majority of the " infallible three " for Elizabeth's re-enacted supremacy " of the realm, as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes as temporal," and the Bench of Bishops then faced deprivation, exile, and prison, rather than betray anew their sacred trust.
The " continuity theory " has been, of course, quite demolished by modem non-Catholic historians, the latest of whom, Sir Wm, Holdsworth, 0.M., K.C., died only last January. In Vol. I of his great History of English Law he exposed the brazen way in which the Tudor Statutes " manufacture history upon an unprecedented scale. . The Tudor settlement of the relations or Church and State was a characteristically skilful instance of the Tudor genius for cleating a modern institution with a medieval form." After showing how " a good statutory root of title " was formed " to create the illusion that the new Anglican Church was indeed the same institution as the medieval
Church." be says " the historical worthlessness of Henry's theory was finally demonstrated by the greatest historian of this ceettny, a consummate lawyer and a dissenter from the Anglican as well as flom other Churches." —Professor Maitland.
J. G. BADGER.
Glade Nook, Marlow,
THE VINCENT McNABB VARIETY
S111,—Here is an idea for a memorial to Fr. Vincent McNabb:
Let some Catholic farmer or agricultural expert produce a new brand of fruit or vegetable and name it after Er. McNabb.
Would it not be rather appropriate if, eating a nice juicy apple, crime pon(lewd that it was called a " Vincent NcNabb "?
LAWRENCE DEVANEY.
13, Brutasehe Terrace, Street, Somerset,