. [To the Editor of TILE ScEet,vroa.]
SIR,—There are some statements in the second letter signed Patricia Gilbert-Lodge which do not seem to me altogether accurate.
(1) The writer says in regard to - Christianity that :" we
are still living on the results of the thoughts of fifteenth- century men who imagined that the earth was flat." We are doing nothing of the kind. The fifteenth century was an on the whole sterile age in Christian thought, with little influence on later-centuries. As regards Catholic Christianity,
I suppose that the most fertile and influential ages were those of St. Paul, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Cardinal Newman, none of whom lived in the fifteenth century. The Protestant theologians did not appear till the sixteenth.
(2) The 'Church is not " narrow " in implying that " principles are right, because Christ preached them," The Church believes that Jesus Christ is God made Man, and that his teaching is for that reason absolutely true.
(3) Why does the writer say that the Church excommuni- cates children born out of wedlock ? This is completely untrue.
(4) The writer says that " nearly all the churches are empty,". I do not venture to speak for other bodies, but on Sundays most Roman Catholic churches are uncomfortably full; At first sight my objections may seem a little pedantic, but I think that yout readers' will agree on second thoughts that inaccuracy detracts gravely from the value of an attack on Christianity.—I am, Sir, yours faithfully, CLONMORE.
Travellers' Club, Pall Mall, &W1.
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