That III-Timed Challenge

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 39, 24 September 1903, Page 18

That 111-Timed Challenge

4 ' It is rather a pity,' says a Dunedin secular paper, 4 that Bishop Nevill could not have allowed the Romans to elect their Pope without issuing what was practically a challenge to fight, seeing that the Catholic hierarchy allowed the installation— or whatever they call it — of the last Archbishop of Canterbury to proceed without comment. The Bishop and Dean Burke have apparently both been training hard on a Eusebius-Irenaeus-Tertul-lian diet, and the combatants entered the ring with the betting about evens. To those who are in a position to judge, the fight ought to be awarded to the Dean, his logic being weightier and his knowledge of the subject being better than that of his opponent.'

In connection with the question in dispute between Dean Burke and Bishop Nevill (the Roman Episcopate of St. Peter) we may quote an editorial utterance from a recent issue of the ' Living Church,' an organ of Bishop Nevill's co-religionists, the Protestant Episcopalians, in the United States. It takes the shape of an answer- to a correspondent, and runs as- follows :— 4 N.S.B.— The Roman claim that St. Peter was Bishop of Rome rests on early tradition, dating from the second century. That, with St. Paul, he was instrumental in founding the Church in that city is almost beyond dispute. Beyond that, it is wholly impossible to say what were the respective local relations of the two Apostles to the Church of Rome. The tradition that St. Clement was ordained by St. Peter as Bishop of the See rests- on at least a probable foundation. The exact length of St. Peter's residence in Rome, which is given by modern Roman controversialists, is little more than a guess, and is almost certainly much overstated.' Bramhall, Lardner, G rotius, Liebnitz, Hall, Palmer, and other learned Protestant historians and divines are not so coy, half-hearted, and fact-shy as the ' Living Church.' They assert the Roman episcopate of St. Peter 4 sans phrase.'