Untitled - Rore Sanctifica

194 Postscript on Catholic Unity.
sanguine temperament exaggerated the hopeful
signs of approximation on the part of Anglicans
in 1841 we need not now enquire ; there can
not be two opinions among those who know
anything of the facts as to the surprising ad
vance which has been made during the quarter
of a century since
elapsed.
Even in
dealing with bodies like the
" Evan
gelical Church
:
of Prussia, which have wholly
broken with the
past and scarce retain a sem
blance of real ecclesiastical organization, cor
porate action would be the most natural, per
haps the only available method of procedure :
and accordingly overtures to that effect have from
time to time been made to them, as in Bossuet s
days, and would no doubt be made again should
a favourable opportunity arise. How much
more is this true of a body which has preserved
so much of its traditional character and hier
archical organization as the Church of England,
and puts in a claim which cannot be dismissed
without full and thorough sifting to the pos
session of a true priesthood. Corporate Heunion
may be difficult of attainment, but no
(p. 244) that two years ago Dr. "
Pusey meditated secession."
Of course if Dr. Pusey has privately communicated this
information to the reviewer, there is no more to be said ;
only if so his private and public utterances must be in
rather remarkable contradiction to each other. Most
people would have supposed that, if there was one man
living to whom, reasonably or unreasonably, the idea of
secession had not occurred, that man was Dr. Pusey.