A Grammarians Funeral is possibly one of Browning’s best known poems, and one which provides a useful introduction to his work as a whole. To begin with, the subject is typical; the grammarian is a man of intense energy and determination who has devoted his life to the pursuit of an unattainable goal. As such he is a figure who affords Browning an opportunity for doing what he can do well. Time and again Browning chooses themes which allow him to exercise his skill in describing violent emotion and strenuous activity. Not that his range can be entirely restricted to any simple formula: one has only to recall Andrea del Sarto, ‘the weak-eyed bat’, and the deft strokes with which his mood of fatalistic apathy is evoked. Nevertheless, the fierce exultation of the Epilogue to ‘Asolando’ and Prospice, the grimly amusing pent- up fury of the Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister, the searing jealousy of The Laboratory, the bitter hatred of The Confessional, the boisterous enthusiasm of Fra Lippo Lippi and the desperate exhilaration of How they brought the Good News are sufficient indication how well grounded is the common association of Browning with strong feelings and vigorous effort. The poem is rich, moreover, in examples of those technical devices which he employs to express themes of this kind. The distorted syntax, which wrenches words from their normal order, frequently with the aid of parenthesis, produces a broken, abrupt, breathless rhythm which is characteristic of his style;

Last December a conference of the War Resister’s International was held at Gandhigram in South India, which I was invited to attend. I was only able to go on the last day, but I felt that the meeting was significant both for its timing and for its setting and for the conclusions to which it came. I was glad to find that there were two or three other Catholics present, including a priest sent by his bishop from Belgium. Catholics are not generally supposed to be favourable towards pacifism, but it is obvious that the threat of nuclear war calls for a radical change in our attitude to war, and it seems inevitable that there will be an increasing number who will feel obliged to take up a pacifist position in regard at least to nuclear war. The timing of this meeting was significant because the W.R.I. is an international organization without any religious basis, yet clearly it was felt that the birth of Christ was something which is relevant to the issue which faces all men to-day, and I must say that I was impressed by the spiritual attitude which was shown by the majority of the delegates. The setting also was significant because clearly it was felt that the country of Mahatma Gandhi was the country in the world which could best be expected to offer some guidance on the supreme problem which faces our generation.

It is surely no accident that the two most important books to be discussed here are products of the ecumenical debate; they are important, that is, not merely for professional ‘ecumenicists’ but for theologians generally. The point made by Père Congar many years ago, that Catholic theologians have something to learn from non-Catholic theology, is being verified in particular examples of constructive theological work, in a response to the insights of faithful dissident Christians which takes those insights seriously and positively and seeks critically to assimilate them into a fuller Catholic theology rather than to controvert them merely from what can now be recognized as often too narrow a basis. How intimate the debate has become abroad may be seen from the remarkable collection of studies offered to Otto Karrer on his seventieth birthday, edited by Maximilian Roesle, O.S.B., and Oscar Cullmann. In this large volume of nearly seven hundred pages, Catholic and Protestant writers pair off with each other to study in turn topics which have for centuries been regarded as purely controversial; Catholic writers include Vögtle, Schlier, Geiselmann, Küng, Jedin, Mörsdorf, Fries, Alois Müller, Sartory, and among the Protestants are Asmussen, Stauffer, von Allmen, Stählin, to mention only names known to me. The long study of Peter and the ‘rock’ text by the Protestant Johannes Ringger is particularly striking; it is an extraordinary fact that Catholic theologians, even since the appearance of Cullmann’s Peter (recently published in a revised German edition), have been much more interested in the apologetic case for Peter than in his theological significance, which is not, after all, exhausted in the Vatican decrees which define it.

The Second Council of the Vatican remains the most important single issue in what may be called religious public opinion in the German-speaking countries. Little of the unbounded optimism that followed the Pope's first announcement remains, but there is a great deal of sober interpretation of such information as is available, and numerous articles have been written on topics likely to be discussed by the Council.

The Herder-Korrespondenz, vol. 15, No. 7 (April 1961), pp. 312-323, contains statistics of the personnel concerned with the preparatory work for the Council, and an analysis of the statistics. The tables are detailed, showing such matters as position in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, nationality, membership of religious orders, membership of the Roman Congregations, special expertise, etc. It is deduced that the following matters are likely to be treated: the Episcopal Office, (it will be remembered that this was on the agenda for the first Vatican Council, but the item was not reached), the shortage of priests, the difficulties, particularly those of recruitment, of the religious orders, the reforms needed to adjust the orders of women to the present age, the administration of the Sacraments of Matrimony and Penance, the liturgy, the position of the laity. It is noted that the officials of the Curia form a high proportion of those concerned with the preparations, but it is pointed out that this is, for administrative reasons, inevitable. It is hoped that the Council will not get bogged down in details, but will deal with essentials, and there is a plea for more publicity and information.

All but five of Father Houghton’s sixty-three years of priesthood were spent in the care of a small and scattered missionary centre in the unobtrusive way of life forced on priests by the still-active penal code; a seclusion however that undoubtedly made possible the literary activity which was a marked characteristic of the Catholic clergy in the half-century preceding the Act of Emancipation. On literary grounds more than a score of Father Houghton’s clerical contemporaries have been included with him in the Dictionary of National Biography, whilst at least an equal number appear in Gillow’s extensive Bibliographical Dictionary of English Catholics. When we reflect that the total number of priests in England during Houghton’s life never exceeded four hundred, it can be seen that the percentage of those who wrote was very high. Moreover, there must have been many studious priests who from an excusable diffidence never published what they wrote. One remembers that even so industrious a scholar as the eminent historian Père Mandonnet admitted his dislike of putting pen to paper, leaving on his desk when he died a note with these words: ‘Lire, joie; penser, délices; écrire, supplice’.

Father Houghton was born in 1736 in the hundred of West Derby, Lancashire, where his family, a branch of the Catholic family of Hoghton Tower, near Preston, had lived for some generations. In baptism he received the names of William and Narcissus, the second one for its classical flavour being much to his taste in later life and he kept it in constant use.

Last year’s Conference for the discussion of Ecumenical Questions was held at Gazzada near Milan from September 19 to 23. Over seventy representatives were present, among them many names well known in ecumenical work, including two English priests, a Dominican and a Jesuit. The general theme of the Conference was ‘differences compatible with Catholic unity.’ It met under the presidency of Cardinal Bea, and Mgr J. G. Willibrandts was in the chair. The discussions and conclusions of this Conference are not at present for publication, but it may be said that there was much scope at it for the frank expression of opinion, and the chief point that emerged was that under the unity of the Church’s de fide teaching there is room for differing points of view and complementary traditions in both theological thinking and liturgical practice, not only as between East and West but also within the Latin rite itself. Cardinal Montini, Archbishop of Milan, visited the Conference, and Cardinal Alpink was also present at it.

Following up our promise, given in the Ecumenical Survey in the January number, we print here a communication from an Anglo-Catholic deeply interested in work for unity between her own members within the Church of England; and especially between Anglo-Catholics and Evangelicals.

A letter addressed to Abbé Couturier of Lyons, and printed by his executor, makes clear that the resolve of one Anglican religious community to engage in conversations with their evangelical brethren was a by-product of his eirenic visit to that community in 1937.

A child who passes his eleven-plus examination can learn Latin free of charge till he is eighteen. A child who does not pass this test can still learn Latin till he is eighteen, if his father will pay for him to go to an independent or direct grant school. If a candidate cannot pass a university entrance examination in Latin, not even the offer of a fee of a thousand pounds a year can secure a university place for him.

When parents make great sacrifices in order that their children shall learn a particular subject, be educated in the religious tradition of the family, whether it be Jewish, Catholic or Quaker, or have the opportunity of being taught in small classes, they are often accused of ‘contracting out’ of their social obligations. There are at least two menacing assumptions behind this question-begging stock phrase which need to be brought into the open. Recently a weekly columnist wrote, ‘Influential people buy their children out of the public system.’ Since each university is autonomous, the question of contract is forced into some curious acrobatics where the payment of students’ fees is concerned. The passing of an examination at eleven entitles a child to a free grammar-school education, whether the parents be rich or poor. The passing of a university entrance examination at present entitles a young man or woman to a free university education only if the parents are relatively poor. The family problems involved in this situation have been faced in the report of the committee on grants to students which met under the chairmanship of Sir Colin Anderson.

From time to time, we read in the Press of attempts by trade unions to enforce a so-called closed shop. More often than not, it is really a union shop that is being sought, whereby all workers in an establishment are required to join the appropriate trade union: a closed shop implies that only workers who already belong to the union can be considered for engagement in the first place. The subject is one which arouses strong feelings on both sides. On the one side, it is regarded as a natural right of the trade unions, and, on the other, as a gross interference with the liberties of the individual citizen. The argument is not confined to Britain. It has long been a subject of debate in the United States, where the closed shop is illegal under the Taft-Hartley Act, but the union shop is permitted by Federal law, though it may be banned by State law. On several occasions, attempts have been made to introduce ‘right to work’ laws which would ban the union shop in the State concerned. For the most part, Catholics have been prominent in their opposition to these moves to ban the union shop, and have shown greater unity on this issue than have English Catholics. The subject is clearly an important one, and calls for careful and dispassionate study in the light of moral principles and the realities of the world in which we are living.

The Second Council of the Vatican continues to exercise religious opinion in Germany and Austria. The Herder-Korrespondenz, vol. 15, No. 2, Nov. 1960, pp. 80-83 gives a survey under the title Vorschau auf das ökumenische Konzil. People expect great things of it, but there is a note of anxiety lest it be too timid and miss some of its opportunities.

The dominant event of 1960 in Germany was the Eucharistic World Congress in Munich. A very full report is contained in the Herder-Korrespondenz, vol. 15, No. 1, Oct. 1960, pp. 7-34. Details are given of its programme, meaning, the sermons preached, its liturgical shape, and details of the help given by the Evangelical Christians in particular with accommodation. It was noted that the Archbishop of Paderbom stayed with the Evangelical bishop of Bavaria, and that several Spanish priests stayed with pastors’ families. No. 2, Nov. 60, reports on pp. 91-94 Evangelical reactions to the Congress. These were in many cases appreciative, but doubts were expressed about the spiritual value of mass events, requiring enormous organization.

During the Congress, a Una Sancta Feier was held in Munich, i.e. a meeting between Catholic and Evangelical theologians. The leading address was given by Otto Karrer, the well-known advocate of Christian unity. He explained certain doctrines concerning the Eucharist to which Protestants object particularly strongly and showed that Luther and Calvin were perhaps closer to the Catholic position than is generally realized.

Of articles concerning the Orthodox Church, we may mention a note in the Herder-Korrespondenz, vol. 15, No. 3, Dec. 1960 on pp. 115-117 on the possible reasons for postponement by one year of the proposed pan-orthodox conference in Rhodes.

The Algerian war has left so deep a wound in French life that it is rarely realized in this country that the end of the war would be by no means the end of the story. The problems of conscience created by a revolutionary war are scarcely going to be resolved by a particular armistice, and a recent issue of Informations Catholiques Internationales provided concrete evidence of the effect of the war on many of the young Frenchmen who have served in it. An enquiry conducted by priests of the Mission de France, themselves concerned with the pastoral care of soldiers serving in Algeria, underlined the appeal of the Cardinals and Archbishops of France last October for a recognition of the absolute rights of conscience in refusing to co-operate in positive evil. And the ‘reflections’ of a young Catholic, on his return to France after two years in Algeria, under the title ‘A Clear Teaching to Deaf Ears’, provides impressive evidence of how little effect even official ecclesiastical condemnation of torture and other excesses of repression can have when ‘many no longer reason in terms of “Catholics” but in terms of “Catholics of the Left” or “Catholics of the Right”, as though it were a question of two Churches anathematizing each other, and who only select from the Church’s teaching what happens to coincide with their own principles’. It is significant that a recent number of Jacques Soustelle’s Vhitis sur I’Algerie publishes a letter from an officer serving in Algeria which attributes the Declaration of the French Bishops to the propaganda of ‘progressive’ priests,