benefit; and with his exquisite sense of proportion would have certainly got it all right. But whatever exceptions may be taken to the design, its effect even externally would have been one of unspeakable grandeur, while internally there could be no question of its almost magical loveliness. On this point all authorities agree. The late Mr. Petit speaks of it as the noblest interior in the world,' with an exquisite alternation of light and shade, certainly unobtainable in Gothic architecture, and a perspective of length not surpassed by the finest buildings' in that style. Mr. Fergusson acknowledges that the interior would probably have been as superior to that of the present church as the exterior would have been inferior.' Dean Milman expresses his admiration of the first design,' while Mr. Penrose, in a note to the Dean's Annals,' calls attention to the unrestricted burst of vision through the noble diagonal vistas' presented to the eye in every direction, on passing from the comparatively narrow vestibule to the vast dome area beyond.

6

As all who read these pages cannot have seen Wren's model, and some who have seen it may have forgotten it, it may be well to mention its leading features. The ground plan exhibits a Greek cross of equal arms, with a domed vestibule at the west end, fronted by a magnificent portico of eight lofty Corinthian columns with two in the recess behind. The exterior has one order throughout, instead of two, as in the present cathedral. It is consequently free from the objection justly brought against that, that the upper order is a mere screen wall raised to hide the upper tier of windows and the flying buttresses. The central cupola, of the same diameter as that of the existing church, is supported like that on eight arches, each of which opens into a compartment covered with a smaller cupola. These cupolas are lighted from above, the effect of which would have been inconceivably fine. The consequence of this arrangement of eight compartments surrounding the central area, instead of four only as in the existing St. Paul's, is that the four intermediate arches have a meaning and a purpose, the absence of which is one of the chief blots of the present interior. The adoption of the Greek instead of the Latin cross, and the comparative shortness of the eastern limb, also removes another practical defect in Wren's cathedral, viz. the great distance between the congregation gathered in the vast auditorium' beneath the dome and the officiating clergy and choir in their stalls, and from the altar, thus enabling all to take a more intelligent part in the daily worship and to share more devoutly in the high Eucharistic celebrations.

The more Wren's model is examined, the deeper the conviction grows that no architect has ever, while preserving the old cathedral idea, so well realised and so admirably provided for the changed requirements of the Reformed Anglican cathedral worship. With the

Annals of St. Paul's, p. 403.

Ibid. note 1.

modifications in these requirements which two centuries have rendered necessary, and which Wren would have been the first to grasp and carry into effect, no plan could be better suited for the needs of a cathedral planted in the midst of a vast mercantile and labouring population; none would conduce more to its practical usefulness, and consequently to its true popularity, as the great mother church of the city and diocese, where all, from the highest to the lowest, would always find a place, unite in the services of the church in their stateliest and most elevating form, hear the word of God read and preached, and have frequent opportunities from the earliest hour of receiving the Holy Communion. A great opportunity presents itself to Liverpool churchmen. I trust they will not let it slip.

EDMUND VENABLES.

THE ORDER OF CORPORATE REUNION.

MOVEMENTS in favour of Reunion have not been unknown during the existence of the Established Church. In the reign of Charles the First, one of these, under much opposition, made considerable progress, enlisting many active and zealous adherents. Its true nature and character were from time to time faithfully reported at Rome, and such active interest was then taken in it, even by high ecclesiastics, that the fable of the Pope having offered a cardinal's hat to Archbishop Laud was then first formulated. But the proposal for Reunion-though it had for supporters Goodman, Bishop of Gloucester, and Montagu, Bishop of Chichester, on the English side, and Gregorio Panzani and Franciscus à Sancta Clara on the Roman-turned out abortive, and failed; while neither the attempts of the Nonjurors nor that of Archbishop Wake succeeded any better. Narrow in their conception, frequently, but national in their scope, and often hampered in their action by mere political considerations, these promoters of reunion failed, and perhaps deserved to fail. The evils of disunion, and the further mischief of division being continually subdivided by division, were great and pressing; but no one who could be called an ecclesiastical diplomatist appeared prepared to grapple with such evils on principle, and this by a bold and determined action.

The Order of Corporate Reunion-the first open and systematic attempt to face bravely the danger and difficulties of divisions-was founded quite recently, on the 8th of September, 1877. That feastday was exactly the twentieth anniversary of the original institution of the well-known sodality of prayer for this much-desired object—the 'Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom.' There was therefore a marked propriety in the selection of the anniversary named, when the platform of action was to be henceforth occupied in addition to that of prayer. The origin of the Order thus arose :-A certain number of persons within the pale of the Establishment realised keenly the distasteful fact that those rulers and guides who by their rank, office, and opportunities, ought to have been actively engaged in defending things spiritual within that community, were evidently doing nothing of the kind: some of them, in fact, the very reverse. Many of the chief rulers obviously defended little else than

their own authority and temporal possessions. Church rates had been. duly abolished; the Conscience Clause deliberately allowed; the Divorce Bill had become law; the Elementary Education Act had been passed; and subsequently the whole machinery for any exercise of episcopal jurisdiction throughout England efficiently destroyed, by the simultaneous abolition of the Canterbury Court of Arches, the Chancery Court of York, and all the episcopal and archidiaconal courts of each and every diocese at one fell swoop,' through the setting-up of a new judge in a new court created alone by a recent Act of Parliament. They furthermore started with the assumption, if such it be, that the divisions of the Reformation era, by which the English Church-cut off from visible communion with the rest of Christendom-has remained ever since isolated and impotent because of its isolation, are a great practical curse, causing a vast waste of energy, continual disputations, and still more divisions: and that no more pressing nor lofty duty lies before the baptised than active cooperation and earnest work to secure visible Corporate Reunion.

As the chief Rulers of the O.C.R., describing the situation, have formally and officially stated:

Now it is found, to the sorrow and shame of many, that the spiritual freedom of the Church, together with the actual jurisdiction of its Episcopate, is practically extinct. And having been forced by the invasion and active power of these evils to investigate more closely the whole history and condition of the Established Church since the Tudor changes, certain other defects and abuses have become evident to the Founders of this Order, which urgently call for remedy. The evils deplored, and which have to be contended with, are these :

1. Extreme confusion in organisation and discipline.

2. Grave diversity of doctrinal teaching.

3. Lapse of spiritual jurisdiction.

4. Loss of the spiritual freedom of the Church.

5. Uncertainty of sacramental status, arising from the long-continued prevalence of shameful neglect and carelessness in the administration of Baptism, contrary to the directions contained in the Book of Common Prayer.

6. Want of an unquestioned Episcopal Succession.

These six points may be passed by now; because the first four, being admitted facts, will be incidentally but broadly discussed further on; while Nos. 5 and 6 will demand at greater length specific and due consideration-for it was mainly because of these that the policy of the O.C.R. was first formulated, and afterwards duly defined and defended.

In the summer of 1877 a solemn preliminary Synod was duly held in London, consisting of certain representative clergy of the Established Church, a Promotor Fidei, with a notary public. It was summoned for the Feast of the Visitation B.V.M. Mass in English, according to the ancient Salisbury rite-a rite which had remained disused for three centuries and more—was said at daybreak, and all present communicated. This deliberate liturgical

restoration was an avowed protest against the tyranny and injustice of those who had robbed the national Church of its most sacred treasure, and had substituted for it the mongrel, mutilated, and bald service for the Lord's Supper now in public use. It was effected, too, for the O.C.R., by competent spiritual authority. After Mass was ended, the Synod was formally constituted in perfect and complete accordance with ecclesiastical rule and custom. The foundations of the new Order, strictly confined to members of the Church of England, were then laid with all foresight, discretion, and care. The fundamental principle of Christianity, Baptismus est janua sacramentorum, long ago embraced by all who co-operated to found the Order was then distinctly acted upon. All who could not produce direct, definite, and conclusive proof of having received certain valid baptism, had that sacrament administered to them sub conditione. A mere baptismal certificate from an ordinary book of registers, considering past and current neglect, was held to be clearly insufficient. Thus of each and every member of the Order of Corporate Reunion it could be certainly predicated that he was a Christian.

The Pastoral of the Order, which contains its principles most carefully and temperately stated, is reported to have been accepted unanimously by those who took part in the constituent Synod referred to. After the Veni Creator had been said, and all the due formalities of holding a Synod observed, the Pastoral was carefully considered, sentence by sentence and word by word; and was eventually adopted in its integrity by the united acclamations of all the members of the Synod.

It is said to have been first promulgated about two months afterwards, on the morning of the foundation-day, the 8th of September, 1877, from the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral by competent authority, in the face of credible witnesses. Anyhow, it was then despatched to all the English bishops, deans, and proctors in Convocation, to the Holy Father, and to many distinguished Catholic prelates and theologians in various countries. Except the single sentence containing an appeal to a General Council-which from a Roman Catholic standingpoint was inadmissible-its tone and terms secured a wide and almost universal commendation.

As to the position described, and as regards the four crucial points already set forth, the following sentences of that Pastoral serve to show, by admitted facts, something of the evils which the O.C.R. seeks to overcome and remove:

Without entering into needless details, it will suffice for us to point out that things have come to such a pass as that every vestige of distinct corporate entity has utterly disappeared from the Church. This is seen in the mode of nomination, the so-called 'election' and 'confirmation' of bishops; in the scandalous oath of homage taken by them on appointment; in the erection of new sees and the division of existing dioceses, as those of Oxford and Peterborough in the sixteenth century, and Ripon, St. Albans, and Truro in recent times; in the mode of appointment to these new sees by royal letters patent alone; and lastly, in the Public