appalled. The difficulty is, of course, greatly augmented, when the body out of which the movement for that adjustment proceeds is the one of the three on which the two others look down, and which is far more different from either than either of them is from the other. If a further surplusage of difficulty be needed, it is found in the fact that within that third body itself exists a large school, who look upon the desire to unite with Rome in any form as sinful, and who must, pari passu, be conciliated, unless the 'Unity of Christendom' is to determine in the break-up of the Church of England.
It is hardly possible to believe that a fair poll of the inner intentions with which the various members of the Association accepted their membership, would reveal a joint basis of action, sufficiently stable to stand a really crucial stress. Some good people have, no doubt, joined the body from impulse rather than logic or learning, and would therefore be the more easily frightened or chilled off when it became necessary to reason or to diplomatise. Others may have persuaded themselves that it only needed a little quiet explanation, to induce the 'Patriarchs' of Rome and Constantinople to sit down with the Archbishop of Canterbury, happy in the joint practice of a developed Anglicanism—acceptable alike to the 'Gesu' and to Exeter Hall. Many of the rest, while they uttered 'unity,' muttered under breath, 'Cathedra Petri,' and played with the Association as a machine made to hand wherewith, at the cost perhaps of a few non-essential concessions, to bring a rich fresh harvest into the garners of the Holy Roman Church, Others again looked into the exclusive past and deemed Christianity anchored on the rock of the changeless East. We blame none of these sections: all would be equally sincere from their respective points of view. Before there could be any reasonable hope of bringing Rome to unity, Rome must be brought to think no worse of us than she does of the 'Photian schism' or the 'Armenian heresy.'
But this is not all. Christian unity being the object, how dare we overlook that vast Armenian Church, and the other smaller Eastern episcopal bodies, who (however incomplete their profession of the Catholic faith) ostensibly possess Orders and Sacraments? Yet, the Association, if its Secretary may be trusted, seems to ignore them. Furthermore, would it be a satisfactory 'Unity' if there were any large bodies, calling themselves Christians, outside the pale of the visible United Church? Still, we cannot discover that the Association has taken, or intends to take, steps to win co-operation from those millions of Protestants in the British Islands, on the Continent, in America, and in Australia, who, although devoid of the Apostolic succession, believe in, and
