The Church of History

New Zealand Tablet, Volume 08, 8 October 1908, Page 10

The Church of History

It takes a veiy drastic mis-handling of the facts of history coupled with a poorly developed sense of h.nuor, to take seriously the historical joke' which clai.ns for th, Anglican Establishment an cc-jlesiastical ' continuity ' with the Catholic Church o? old England. This pretty bit of historical romance formed the subject of a disccurse which was sumrratily reported in a recent issue ol a Taranaki contemporary. To the readers of that summary whose eyes may U\l upon .this page, we conmend the following extract from a_ review of Panke's History of the lopes, which was recently contributed to the London Daily Chromcle by a lot.rned English P.otestant. Mr. George Sampson It .s a simple, fact, • writes Mr. Samp on, 'that in the history of Europe ,he Chun h of Rome, is the Church of the centr-, the other bodies being merely provincial institutions. The Ohur-h of hastory is not the Church of England, nor ,he Wasleyzn Methodic Connexion, nor the Society of Fucnds, nor the Union of Ethical Societies. The Church of history is the Church of Rome as Newman asserts in the passage where he sadly admits hat the unbeliever Gibbon" is our oi.ly worthy ecclesiastical h.stonan But I will go further, and say that the Church of Knghsh history is the Church of Rome; for it gave us our ca.hed-als, set ,he fo.m of our pr^ers, marked out our parishes 'aught us our duty to the poor, r<uise d Mv , aw; and learn ; jn R , won us much of our liberty, and laid the foundation of our last our centuries of progress. Without knowing something of th,, great Chu.ch, you can understand very linle of EngHsh history, and to minimise the historic importance of the Paoac because you happen to be a Protestant, is as stupid as to •i..mnu.,e the h.stonc ,mpo.(a,,ce of the House of Austria because you happen to be an Englishman.'