Think of it! Heresy, because the official view of the Church herself! Heresy, because the teaching of the English Reformers who gave us our Prayer Book and formulated all our principles and doctrines! Heresy, because the teaching of the Reformers, and not of the Tractarians and present-day "Catholics"! Heresy, because directly opposed to the doctrines of those who openly tell us that the whole object of their movement is to "correct the mistakes of these men"-to overthrow the work of the "miscreants" that reformed (?) the Church of England, who framed our Prayer Book, Ordinal, Articles, and, in fact, all the official formularies of the Church! If this be heresy, we are certainly glad to be accused of it, as with all the English Reformers behind us, and practically every great prelate in the Church of England from the days of Cranmer downward to the Oxford Movement heartily endorsing us, we feel that, after all, we are in fairly good company. Now why assume this inconsistent, and utterly indefensible position? Why should not "Catholics" come out squarely and openly to the world, and say, Yes, we know that this is not the teaching of the English Reformers, or of that Church whose doctrines and formularies they framed? We know that it is not the teaching of their Prayer Book, their Ordinal, their Articles, or any of their official documents. We know, in fact, that what we teach is not the teaching of the Church at all. We do not pretend, therefore, to represent the official attitude of this Church in any of these matters we are advocating. We know that our view of the Episcopate and its necessity to the being of a Church, is not the official teaching either of the Church of England or of her daughter, the Protestant Episcopal Church. We freely recognize the fact also that our view of the extent and character of the Church Catholic, founded as it is upon a theory of the Episcopate distinctly antagonistic to that held by the Reformers, is equally as opposed to the official view of the Church. As a further consequence of all this we do not hesitate to say that the proposed title, "The American Catholic Church," which we are now asking you to adopt, is a title whose significance can never be made to harmonize with the fundamental principles of this Church. We freely admit all this. We do not attempt to advocate all these measures in the name of this Church, as representing her official views at all. On the contrary, we realize clearly that the official position of this Church, fixed as it has been by men that were any thing but "Catholics," can never be said to countenance our "Catholic" doctrines. We do not wish to mislead any one, therefore into thinking that we stand for the official doctrines of this Church in what we now teach and advocate. On the contrary, we wish it clearly understood that we are not in sympathy with the authorized tenets of this Church. We believe that the men who framed the Prayer Book, the Ordinal, the Articles, and in fact all the official formularies of the Church, were men who were anything but qualified for such a task. Not to speak of their personal characters, which, to say the least, were far from

We

admirable, they were utterly ignorant of the true Catholic doctrine of the ancient Church, and in seeking to "reform" the abuses of their day, they made a botch of the whole undertaking. In short, we believe that their work was anything but a success. believe that the whole Reformation, so called, was a great mistake, and what we propose here and now to do is to "correct the mistakes" of these ignorant fanatics. We want to substitute for your present official, but none the less, erroneous doctrines, the true Catholic Doctrines of antiquity. We say openly, we wish to change the fundamental principles of this Church, and make them conformable to what we conceive to be the teaching of the primitive, undivided Church. Why not come out squarely and say this, rather than pretend, as they are now doing, that they contemplate no change of fundamental principles whatever and that they are really loyal to all the essential doctrines of this Church? How can they consistently assert that "by such change there was (is) intended no changed relationship. wards the principles established by and through the Reformation of the Church of England as those principles are enshrined in the Book of Common Prayer," which they did not hesitate to do at the last Convention at Cincinnati, and simultaneously to persist in declaring that the Reformation was a great blunder, the English Reformers, in particular, a set of "miscreants," and that they propose to "correct the mistakes" of these "base traitors," which "mistakes" have been "enshrined in the Book of Common Prayer"

to

and are everywhere manifest in all the official formularies of the Church. This kind of argument will not do. It is as plain as daylight from the statements of "Catholics" themselves, we repeat, that they regard the Prayer Book, Articles, and, in fact, all the formuaries of the Church as "the product of an uncatholic age," and that their avowed object is to change these products of the Reformation, fundamentally. As one of the first, and more radical steps in this direction, they propose to change the name of the Church itself, to get rid of the miserable word "Protestant" (the root of the whole evil), and to substitute, in place of the present title, that of "The American Catholic Church"-a name which commits this communion to a view of the Episcopate and of the Church Catholic absolutely irreconcilable with the view of the English Reformers, and absolutely irreconcilable with the official doctrinal, and historic position of this Church.

If they would be consistent, then, "Catholic" Churchmen must cease to claim that by such Change of Name they do not intend in any way to alter the “principles established by or through the Reformation of the Church of England," while simultaneously asserting that "the principles of the Reformation are things to be repented of with tears and in ashes," and that their whole object is "to correct the mistakes of the Reformation." We repeat, this kind of logic will not do. They must take one side or the other. They must either stick to their Cincinnati Resolution, and show that the proposed Name "The American Catholic Church"-involves no doctrine that is contrary to the teachings of the English Reformers, and the standing official doctrines of this Church; or else they must unequivocally repudiate this solemn covenant of 1910, and adhere loyally to the repeated declarations of their leaders, that their purpose is to tear out root and branch the principles of the (Protestant) Reformation, which though the authorized, official doctrines of the Church to-day, are the product of an "uncatholic" age the work of "miscreants," and "traitors" to the primitive Faith. We have demonstrated that the former is impossible (the task we set out to accomplish), we leave it to them, therefore, to deny logically, if they can, that their whole object is to overthrow the official doctrines of the Church, framed by the Reformers of the Sixteenth Century, reaffirmed by the Revisors of 1662, and again by our own Convention of 1789. In short, we leave it to them logically to deny, if they can, that their object is to overthrow the Foundation principles of this Communion.