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were made, not by the papacy, but by councils. Therein the episcopate to which our Lord committed the faith gave its testimony as to what it was that was committed to it; and its decrees, sent forth to the whole Church and recognized by the universal episcopate became binding on the faithful. This normal mode of expression was rendered impossible by the divison of Christendom; but already, when the division took place, the faith had long been sufficiently stated. Conciliar action could still express the mind of the local church, enact discipline and take measures to safeguard the faith. It is this, the true Living Voice of the Church, that the papacy has deliberately set itself to suppress. It has, wherever its power has extended, made councils subordinate to the papacy and the organs of its action. It has suppressed the episcopate as an organ of the Church's self-expression. The episcopate to which the Lord committed the faith and which for centuries gave testimony to the faith committed to it, is, in the Roman communion, no longer a representative of the Body of Christ, but a representative of the papacy. Roman bishops are simply papal lieutenants sent out to do the will of the Pope. The legitimate Living Voice wherever the papacy has power has been silenced.

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NOTE.- The Roman official documents are collected in Denzinger's "Enchiridion." Denny, "Papalism" (London, Rivingtons, 1912) is an unanswerable criticism of the papal position. Puller, 'The Primative Saints and the See of Rome" (New York, Longmans, 1914) is valuable. No one interested in the subject can afford to miss W. J. Sparrow Simpson, "Roman Catholic Opposition to Papal Infallibility" (Milwaukee, The Young Churchman Co., 1910). Perhaps the best brief book is George Bayfield Roberts, "The Papal Question" (London, Pitman & Sons, 1914).

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III

CATHOLICITY

'HAT we have to attach any adjective to the word Church in order to distinguish true from false and to avoid confusion is an indication of human failure to attain a divine ideal. It ought to be enough to describe ourselves as members of the Church or as Christians, or, as the first disciples described themselves, as "those of the Way." But such a designation to-day only calls out the question: the question: "What Church?"

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What sort of Christians?" Orthodox describes those who so designate themselves as separate from the majority of Christians whom they regard as having departed from the Faith. Roman emphasizes the extension of an usurped authority over a large part of the Christian West. Protestant embodies an historical reference, and calls up to minds to-day an amorphous theological body of belief. Protestant Episcopal joins an historical reminiscence to a note of the Church, producing a name of small significance. The sad thing is that when we think of ourselves as Chris

tians we should automatically think of ourselves as separate from other Christians. Yet perhaps it is as well to be reminded of our sins and the sins of our fathers.

There are words which have degenerated to a sectarian significance which in themselves have from the beginning no such meaning. They are words which seek to express qualities of the Body of Christ. Catholic is a word of such primary meaning which has been degraded to the sectarian level. Back of the divisions of Christendom we seek to find a common ground, or body of belief and practice, which underlies those groups of Christians, at least, who have held fast the Creeds, the Sacraments and the Ministry of the Church from the beginning. One aspect or quality of this underlying ground is that which we designate as Catholicity. It is the meaning of this word that we have now to examine. Though we give our ecclesiastical organization a corporate name (Protestant Episcopal) when we speak of the Church as a corporation existing in the United States of America; when we think of it as a spiritual fact, as the Body of Christ; when as members of it we come before God in worship, we speak of the Catholic Church. In this assertion we do not mean to deny the claim of others to the quality of Catholicity we do not assert

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that we are all the Catholics that there are; but we do assert our right to be called Catholic and to be members of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

The original meaning of this word Catholic is universal or general; and the temptation has been to limit the ecclesiastical meaning of it by its etymology rather than define it by its use. It has been defined as indicating extension merely, so that the Catholic Church is described as that which extends throughout the world, and the test of Catholicity has been found in numbers and geographical distribution. "Embracing all Christians," a dictionary rather foolishly says. But when we remember that the Church never has extended throughout the whole world, and that it had the least extension when first the term came into use, we feel that extension cannot be the important element in the meaning.

The word makes its appearance in Christian. literature about the year 110, in the Epistle of S. Ignatius to the Church in Smyrna (cap. 8). "Wherever the bishop appears, let the congregation be present; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church." In the account of the martyrdom of S. Polycarp, c. 150 A. D., the holy Martyr is represented as praying for "the whole Catholic Church throughout the world”

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