Journal in France in 1845 and 1848 with Letters from Italy in 1847: Of Things and Persons Concerning the Church and EducationAllies, T. W. (Thomas William)
Religion
Journal in France in 1845 and 1848 with Letters from Italy in 1847: Of Things and Persons Concerning the Church and Education
Allies, T. W. (Thomas William)
France -- Church history -- 19th century; Italy -- Church history -- 19th century
Of the vast number of English men and English women who have travelled
on the Continent in late years, comparatively few, I imagine, have
deemed it worth their while to give much thought and attention to the
action of the Church in the countries they have visited. Doubtless all
have entered the material fabrics of Roman Catholic worship, but
generally it has been to treat them as public monuments, rather than
as "the house of prayer for all nations." But how many of those
travellers who enjoy leisure and independence have made it their study
to understand those manifold institutions for the education of the
clergy or the laity, for the consolation of the suffering, for the
instruction of the poor and outcast, or for the advancement of the
interior life, by which the Church christianises the world, and lays
hold of the heart of humanity? I am not now expressing an opinion
whether the whole Roman system be true or false, pure or corrupt; I am
looking at it simply as a _fact_. And in this view, perhaps, there is
no object on the face of the earth so worthy of contemplation by the
thoughtful mind as the Roman Church. As an English Churchman, I do not
think it truthful, honest, christian, or safe, to shut my eyes to such
a _fact_ existing in the world. It seems to me that one ought to
endeavour to understand it. Those who strive to rekindle ancient
animosities, those who take not the trouble to understand doctrines as
taught by their professors, but wilfully misconceive and mis-state
them; those even who rest contented in a state of separation, do they
not sin against Him, who in the days of His humiliation prayed to His
Father, "that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I
in Thee, that they also may be one in Us; that the world may believe
that Thou hast sent Me." Do they in the least realise the fact that
the Church of England considers the Church of Rome to be quite as
truly a part of the Church Catholic as she is herself?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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