I do not deny that _obligare ad aliquid_ frequently means _to oblige a person to do something_; but I deny that it does or, construed with all the context, _can_ mean this in the particular passage. I would beg you to consider the whole chapter, which, I really must say, is turned, not only into something fearful, but into something quite absurd by the construction you give it. Only reflect on the frightful incongruity of any one commanding another to commit sin in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the person of whom this is required complying through love and a desire of all perfection. I hope you will say that this had escaped your notice, not tell me that to urge it is begging the question. Pray read the entire chapter in accordance with the version Catholics give of the passage in question, (if that is to be called a version which simply declares its meaning,) and I still entertain a hope that you will discover its excellent purport and intention. I may observe, though I do so with some diffidence, as I have almost forgotten my grammar, that in order to make the passage bear the sense which you put on it, the pronoun “ea” should be, not in the plural but the singular, as I presume you refer it to “peccatum mortale vel veniale,” which is disjunctive; and then should be, not _id_ but _hoc_. I find that many Protestant writers have repudiated, or at least not adopted, the bad meaning. Thus, Steinmetz in his Novitiate says: “Part vi., c. 5.—Where it is decided, that the guilt of sin attached to disobedience when the superior commands in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, or in virtue of obedience.”—_Novitiate_, p. 98, 2nd ed. 1847. And in his History of the Jesuits, he does not, so far as I have been able to find, say anything different. I might say more in vindication of the Constitutions of the Jesuits, but I think I have said enough to justify an expectation that you will be convinced of the incorrectness of your statement. As to what you say at the end of your letter, permit me to remark, that I abandoned no positive doctrine [in which I had been trained], in embracing the Catholic faith; and as to the hope which you very kindly express, that the Lord may guide me into the way of truth, I must tell you that when God led me in a remarkable manner into His Church, which is “the ground and pillar of the truth,” He put me on that way, and that it “is the way,” {14} I have an internal and external assurance which, I know, cannot be had in protestantism. I remain, my dear Sir, Yours faithfully, HENRY WALLER. Rev. Edward Hoare. * * * * * Ramsgate, Dec. 22, 1851. My dear Sir,