• THE CONTINENTAL REFORMATION.
[To TEE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—It is a pleasure to acknowledge the welcome which your reviewer, in the Spectator of March 29th, extends to my "Continental Reformation," "as far as" my "proper sub- ject is concerned " ; and when he makes use of his opportunity to place me side by side with Bishop Sanderson, even for the sake of contrast, in a matter of opinion, I have no reason to complain. But, on a question of fact, should not a reputation for accuracy be as dear to a critic in the Spectator as it is to his victim ? I need not notice his statement that "the Six Articles Act was passed in 1533." That may have been a slip for 1539, and it may not have been his slip. But in taking exception to my assertion that " the Hemician doctrinal standard was recovered" under Elizabeth, it looks as if he had omitted to take account of the context, and so failed to distinguish the doctrinal standard in question from
the special doctrines held, at one time or another, to be com- patible with it. No doubt Henry thought that the Six Articles were compatible with it, for the standard itself was reaffirmed in 1543 while the Statute of Six Articles was in force. But the Elizabethan reformers did not think so, and those particular doctrines disappeared. Yet they also, in 1559 and 1571, reaffirmed the doctrinal standard of 1536 and 1543 all but verbatim, and this is all that I have said. I did not say anything to imply that the Six Articles are " part of Anglican doctrine and discipline."—I am, Sir, &c.,
[The date "1533" was an error of the pen. The contrast of " opinion" between Bishop Sanderson and the statement quoted from "The Continental Reformation" is more impor- tant than Mr. Kidd seems to think. It shows how far he and his friends have moved from historic Anglicanism. As to the doctrinal standards of Henry and Elizabeth, is it possible that Mr. Kidd maintains that the Thirty-nine Articles set practically the same standard as the " Erudition of a Christian Man" ? How strange, too, the term " Henri- clan doctrine" ! Are we, then, to trace Anglican doctrine to Henry VIII. ? Will not the adversary ask with irresistible force,—" Where was your Church before Henry VIII. P "- THE WRITER OF THE NOTICE.1
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