own Episcopate, loyal at the same time (in spirit) to yours: if we are not of the body of your Church, we belong at any rate to its soul."
After this vigorous declaration of principles and loyalty the reunionist felt justified in confessing the defects within the Anglican Communion of which he was painfully conscious.
"Need we, after all, be so very angry at being classed with Protestants—if it be true that we have been so—when at least half our brother Churchmen rejoice at it, and are never tired of proclaiming to the world that we are a Protestant Church, a creation of the sixteenth century, specially commissioned to wage war with the Papal anti-Christ to the end of time? Even regarding our Communion from the most favourable point of view, can we say that she has done very much during the centuries of her separation from the Holy See towards vindicating her Catholicity even in the Anglican sense of the word? Does she present herself to her Catholic brethren on the Continent in any very marked contrast to the Protestant sects?"
Thus there was at least in certain directions within the Anglican Communion a distinct readiness to respond to any overtures for unity. There was in addition a very wide-spread interest in the coming Council, not unmixed with curiosity and anxiety as to the steps which might be taken to bring the severed sections of Christendom nearer together.
By far the most penetrating and profound on the Anglican side was Dr Pusey. Perfectly clear and sure of his position, whole-hearted in his devotion to his own Communion, he insisted that the English Church must be treated collectively: as a portion of the Church Catholic, to be reunited; not as individuals,
