The " Orthodox Catholics," as they call themselves in Prussia,
have taken a great step forward. It was announced at a recent meeting at Heidelberg that they had scoured the adhesion of two Dutch Catholic Bishops, Jansenists, belonging to a minute Dutch sect, which not being quite "schismatical," Rome is held to have acknowledged. This device, we fear, will be of little value. If the Apostolical succession is held to be of such importance, the Orthodox Catholics must wait for the adhesion of an admitted Bishop, and even then will be subject to the risk that his ordinations after excommunication will not be reckoned valid. If they are prepared to break with the Church Universal—and, right or wrong, in creating a German Church, they do break with it—they should be prepared to break with its " succession." Dissenting Catholicism is not possible, though nationalist Catho- licism is.
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