Before, England was a part of the Universal Church; and just as the
Church in Italy, France, and Spain, had, and still have, their
Cardinals, so England also was given its share of representation in
the Sacred College. We shall realise the inference to be drawn if we
consider what a Cardinal is. In the first place, he is one chosen
directly by the Pope; secondly, he is one of the Pope's advisers;
thirdly, when the Holy Father dies it is he, as a member of the Sacred
College, who has to elect a successor; furthermore, he swears
allegiance to the Sovereign Pontiff, and on bended knee, with his
hands on the Holy Gospels, he solemnly declares his adhesion to the
Roman Catholic Faith. No Anglican of the present day, no Protestant,
no one who is not an out-and-out Roman Catholic can be, or could ever
have been, a Cardinal, yet there were Cardinals here in the Church in
England, and, as we have stated, a long succession of them right up to
the time of the pseudo-Reformation. How can there be continuity and
spiritual identity between the Church _in_ England, which before that
change could and did have Cardinals, and the Church _of_ England
to-day, which can produce nothing of the kind? Cardinals or no
Cardinals is not a matter of great importance in itself, but it is
another "straw" which clearly shows the completely altered condition
of things.
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