MADONNA-WORSHIP.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."1
SIR,—I notice that a compilation of Mr. Orby Shipley's, which he entitles " Carmine, Mariana : an English Anthology in Verse. In Honour of and in Relation to the Blessed Virgin Mary," is reviewed in the Spectator of November 1st under the heading, "An Anthology of Madonna-Worship." Surely, Sir, this kind of thing is inconsistent with your practice and traditions. One can perhaps find excuse for the Hyde Park orator who employs such terms as " Mariolatry " or "Madonna- worship," but it is impossible that the highly trained writers on the staff of the Spectator do not know for a fact that all Roman Catholics repudiate heart and soul the idolatrous suggestion conveyed by them. Sir, I think you cannot realise how much you hurt and discourage your numerous Roman Catholic readers and admirers by such lapses from your own high standards of good sense and fair play. I should also like to point out that the writer of the article on "Half-Beliefs," in the same number, displays an ignorance as to Roman Catholic views on the "vicarious efficacy of works of supererogation" that would debar a Roman Catholic child from admission to the Sacra- ments.. If people who are presumably interested in the questions of Roman Catholic practice and belief would make them subjeets of study rather than matter for vilification one Would be saved much dreary reading.—I am, Sir, S:c.,
Rouen. ARTHUR AUSTIN-JACKSON.
[We publish our correspondent's letter, but cannot open our columns to any discussion of the subject of his coin- munication.—En. Spectator.]
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