27 JANUARY 1956, Page 27

SIR,—I respectfully suggest that Canon Collins puts the wrong question.

It is not whether or no the use of force by the Inquisition was justified. It is a much more difficult one : were the Elizabethans justified in resorting to arms to keep the Inquisition out of this country? Of course all persecution is wrong. But surely that is a different question from the terrible dilemma of war. Canon Collins may be right. But I suggest it is a bigger problem than that presented by his letter. There is a political Inquisition today. Those methods we believe to be wrong. But that is a different problem from the use of force to restrain the spread of the persecution of the innocent.— Munster Park Methodist Church, Fulham, London, SW6