Untitled - Rore Sanctifica

232 Corporate He-union.
far back as the year 1841, the writer of
this Essay induced His late Eminence Cardinal
Wiseman to publish his remarkable Letter,
addressed to the late Earl of Shrewsbury,
in favour of this Corporate Ke-union. To
the principles avowed and advocated in that
Letter, His Eminence never ceased to adhere,
as he testified to the same writer only a
few w^eeks before his death. But when in
the year 1857 this great movement first began
to assume a definite
shape,* the writer of
this Essay addressed a letter to the Cardinal
Prefect of the Congregation de Propaganda
Fide, informing His Eminence, that such a
scheme was entertained for the Organic and
Corporate Re-union of the Anglican with the
Catholic Church, and that though ~ there was no
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immediate prospect of any practical result, still
that the party in the Anglican Church who
advocated such a Union was an increasing
party, while the old High Church party, 011
whose co-operation they would ultimately rely
for assistance and success, constituted a majority
of the Anglican Hierarchy and Clergy. The
writer then went into minute details to explain
the facts upon which his statements were
grounded,
and he concluded his letter with
asking whether such a scheme would be likely
* The Association for the Promotion of the Unity of
Christendom was established in 1857. Vide Appendix I.