VII. THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND IS PROTESTANT.

Answer. The Church of England is nothing of the sort. If you look through the Prayer book you will see that she never calls herself so, and that she invariably claims to be a part of the One Catholic Church. But you say most people who call themselves members of the Church of England regard themselves as Protestants. A little boy was once stolen from his parents by wolves and was brought up in the society of those beasts. He thus learned to be immodest, to run on all fours, to eat meat raw, and to howl. But he was found by some good people, and after a few years was educated and lost his wolfish propensities. Now English

Churchmen have been brought up amongst Protestants, and have learned all their peculiar and not over-nice heresies, and have forgotten that they were by their baptism made Catholic Christians of the Church of God. By degrees they are shaking off and unlearning their Protestantism and becoming good Catholics. But they have just as much right to say that they are Protestants and not Catholics as that little boy would have had to have protested that he was a wolf and not a human being. The Church of England lays claim to holding the Catholic Creeds, to having the Catholic Sacraments, and to retaining the Catholic Ministry, about all which Protestantism cares not a straw, but which are the essentials of a Church.

case.

'VIII. I BASE MY FAITH ON THE BIBLE.

Answer. So does the Church, so does every oneof the multitude of Protestant sects; and as each interprets the Bible differently, one only can be right. The Church, we hold, is the interpreter of Holy Writ. Without a judge men are sure to interpret it awrong. The private judgment of Muncer found in the Scriptures that titles of nobility and great estates are impious usurpations, contrary to the natural equality of the Faithful, and he invited his followers to examine if this were not the They examined into the matter, praised God, and then proceeded by fire and sword to extirpate the impious and possess themselves of their properties. Private judgment made the discovery in the Bible that established laws were a permanent restriction on Christian liberty; and behold, John of Leyden, throwing away his tools, put himself at the head of a mob of fanatics, surprized the town of Munster, proclaimed himself King of Sion, and took fourteen wives at a time, asserting that polygamy is Bible liberty, and the privilege of the Saints. During the seventeenth century an immense number of fanatics appeared in England, sometimes together, and sometimes in succession, intoxicated with extravagant doctrines gathered by them from their Bibles, the fierce ravings of Fox to the silly profanity of "Praise God Barebones." Piety, reason, and

good sense seemed to be extinct on earth. All quoted the Scriptures, all pretended to have had inspirations, and all indeed had equal claims to them. The fanatics condemned science as a pagan invention, and schools and universities as antiChristian. During this time, the enthusiasm for prayer, preaching, and the reading of the Sacred Book was at the highest point; everybody prayed, preached, and read, but nobody listened.

The recollection of these events should suffice to prove the mistake of supposing that the Sacred Scriptures, without note or comment, in the hands of all, are a sufficient guide to truth; the Bible thus used is not useless only, but dangerous to morality and truth.

IX.

PROTESTANTS ARE BETTER THAN
CATHOLICS.

Answer. That is untrue. Where Protestants are good and pious, as indeed many are, it is in spite of their errors. Where Catholics are vicious and immoral, it is in spite of their religion.

But let us come to facts. We will quote statistics from the publications of the Statistical Society (1864-5).

The proportions of illegitimate births in

Scotland (Protestant) is 10 in 100.

Saxony (P)
Wirtemberg (P)
Hanover (P)

Ireland (Catholic) under 3 in 100
Spain (C)
Sardinia (C)
Belgium (C)

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In the country districts of Catholic France, 4 in every 100 are illegitimate. In Orthodox Russia, only 2 in every 1,000, whilst in Protestant Iceland as many as 15 in every 100. It is to be noticed that in Ireland the proportion of illegitimate births is not made up from the Catholic, but from the Protestant population, and that the Belgian proportion comes nearly entirely from the capital, Brussels, which is a fashionable resort of all kinds of people. Again

In England (P) 1 in every 41 violates the law, 1 in 45 is a criminal.

Among "violators of the laws" is included those who are imprisoned for political reasons, by "criminals" those who are guilty of crimes.

X. CATHOLICISM LOVES TYRANNY.

Answer. Catholics may have been sufficiently foolish as to support tyrants, sometimes, but Protestants have done just the same. But tyranny is ruin to Catholicism, whilst Protestantism thrives under it. The Catholic Church has lost through its having been taken in hand for political purposes by kings and emperors.

The Church is by her constitution essentially a constitutional government (see p. 130). When the state established the Church, it seized on some of her privileges, it assumed the power of appointing her Bishops, who had been hitherto elected by the Church, and left to the Church only the form of acquiescing in the appointment. The consequence has been that the worst, and lowest in moral tone, have been those who have been, as a general rule chosen by the State to rule the Church. The Crown, has naturally enough selected persons who it knew would not oppose its tyrannical encroachments, But this has been the ruin of the Church, and has lost her thousands of her sons. Liberty, and freedom from State domineering, are essential to the well-being of the Church. Before establishment, she converted Europe; enthralled by the Crown, she lost half of the people she held. Of late, revolutions and democratic movements have taken an antiChurch direction, because, unfortunately, the Church has been bound up with the power of the Crown, and in attacking autocracy, liberal movements have battered down the Church as well. If the monarchs of the Christian world had not tied the Church to their doors, as a dog to bark at intruders on their sacred rights, those who oppose the Crown would not have thought it necessary to stifle the dog before ransacking the palace.