Legacies of a Catholic Archbishop

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 29, 16 July 1903, Page 29

Legacies of a Catholic Archbishop

Few of those among our Protestant friends, who are fond of quoting Biblical ' chapter and verse' against the Church, may be aware (says the ' Sacred Heart Review ) that it was Catholics who made it possible for them to do so. Of course without the Catholic Church there would be to-day no Bible to quote from anyway ; but as to the division of the Sacred Scriptures into ehapteis and verses — that is said to have b>'en done by C.ndmal Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, though some authorities ene the credit to Cardinal Hugo about the year 3 240. Be that as it may, howev ci it is not the only thing: for which the Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury was .remarkable. Among the other legacies he left to the wot Id in general is the liqhi house He was the first to found a society for s\ putting fixed lights on dangerous headlands to yuide ships safely on their way. He called it the Cuild of St. Clement and the Most Holy Trinity ; and Trinity House, which now rules all English lighthouses, is its direct descendant, owing its origin and its name to him. Nor is this all we have to remind us of his life and labors. He is still more closely related to us, who are Americans, since he is the historic father of our liberties He it was who led the English barons ;n; n Kino: John's reign to wring from that tyrannical morjirch the Magna Charta ; and the constitution of the T'n.ted States is the robust offspring of that great charter of the peoples' rights and liberties.