OCR Text |
Show Disestablishment and Disendowmertt. (London Catholic Times.) With the Increase of the chances of a liberal government, the question of, dis-establishing the Church of England Eng-land has once again come to the front. And a correspondent in the Guardian has elicited a letter from the' Rev. Mr. Donovan, --vicar of Garton, Hull, which deserves special notice for its candor. Speaking of the Catholic clergy who were compelled by Queen Elizabeth either to apostatize or leave their livings, liv-ings, he says: "Thus men who had been brought up in a Church in full communion with Rome, were required, under pain of deprivation, to renounce not only t'le Papal Supremacy, but to condemn' Transubstantiation, Purgatory, Purga-tory, adoration of images and relics, invocation of saints, the sacrfice of masses, etc." If this was not disestablishment disestab-lishment and disendowment of the old religion, I cannot conceive what it was. The pious persons who presented lands and tithes to the mediaeval Church were mainly influenced by the. desire that masses and prayers should be said for - their souls. How indignantly would they demand their property back If they found it enjoyed by men who considered masses for the dead 'blasphemous 'blas-phemous fables and dangerous deceits'.' de-ceits'.' " |