The Holy Father’s lately-issued Encyclical with its clear statement of the doctrine of the unity of the Church based upon the primacy of jurisdiction of the See of Peter, comes as an opportune commentary upon the Report of the Malines Conversations now at last published. The plan of these Conversations was to proceed by way of affirmation—to bring forward the points upon which agreement could be reached and to shelve, at any rate for the time being, the attempt to come to any conclusions upon questions where there was likelihood of radical disagreement. As the Report proceeds we become increasingly conscious of the presence of a fundamental difference of outlook underlying such agreement as was reached. To the Anglican representatives the unity of the Body of Christ’ is something desirable but unattained ; to the Catholics it is an existing fact and a necessary presupposition. This is the crux of the whole question. The corporate union of the Church of England with the Holy See, the ultimate object envisaged by the Conversations, were it ever to come about, would not be the re-joining of two separated parts of the Body of Christ, it would be the uniting of a schismatic member to the one and indivisible Body.

This, implicit in the Malines Report, which did not publish negative conclusions, is reiterated by the Holy Father in his Encyclical. And to this the Anglican theologians cannot bring themselves to assent.

Yet for those who see the finger of the Holy Ghost in the perplexing story of the Anglo-Catholic Revival there is much cause for encouragement in the reading of this Report.