High-Church Claims

Annotation

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. At the same time a serious danger had to be avoided. No concessions could be made to error beyond the acknowledgment of sincere belief that it was unconscious. To have allowed it to possess a single mark or element of Catholicity, to have admitted a particle of the specious theory of apos tolic succession, silent, unrecognized communion with the Church, and possession of sacramental power by the national establishment, would have been both false in theology and pernicious in prac tice. It would have encouraged a delusion which, undisturbed, might have laid many asleep in a fatal contentment who now repose in peaceful security in the bosom of their Mother the Church. No real love for those involved in this state could be shown except by energetic endeavors to snatch them from it. Whoever, therefore, wished to be truly their best friend, had to make up his mind to appear their most unrelenting opponent.