Untitled - Rore Sanctifica

xlvi
Introductory Essay.
M. Gondon says:* "We shall be told perhaps
that the ensemble of the facts and documents
which we cite do not explain very clearly the
ways and means whereby the union desired,
sought, proposed, may be effected. This may
be true in a certain sense, but (and it is of
moment to pay attention to it) this is the least
important side of the question.
"When Anglicans and Catholics shall be
agreed as to the principles, when they shall
understand one another 011 the points of doc
trine, the Re-union will realise itself of itself ;
and, if it is to be collective, the difficulties,
which may now seem insurmountable, will re
solve themselves by a logical consequence of
the common understanding on the fundamental
principles.
"No one can question but that England is
very really in the way to return to its ancient
faith ; but as soon as one enquires how this
Re-union of the Churches is to be realised, one
finds oneself met by two opinions.
"According to the one, the return of the
nation to the worship of its fathers can only be
the work of time, and this revolution is to w r ork
itself out gradually, through individual and in
sulated conversions, conversions already very
numerous, and which, in the last thirty years,
* De la Beunion de 1 eglise d Angleterre Protestante
a 1 eglise Catkolique. Avant. Propos, p. ix.