That the attempt to which he is now devoting himself may come to
naught is my earnest desire; and then, when the Church, at length
recognizing the futility of compromise, acquires her complete,
severance from the secular power, she may turn to him for guidance
in the use of her new-born freedom.
III
_PAN-ANGLICANISM_
It is an awful word. Our forefathers, from Shakespeare downwards,
ate pan-cakes, and trod the pantiles at Tunbridge Wells; but their
"pan" was purely English, and they linked it with other English
words. The freedom of the "Ecclesia Anglicana" was guaranteed by
the Great Charter, and "Anglicanism" became a theological term.
Then Johnson, making the most of his little Greek, began to talk
about a "pancratical" man, where we talk of an all-round athlete;
and, a little later, "Pantheist" became a favourite missile with
theologians who wished to abuse rival practitioners, but did not
know exactly how to formulate their charge. It was reserved for the
journalists of 1867 to form the terrible compound of two languages,
and, by writing of the "Pan-Anglican Synod," to prepare the way for
"Pan-Protestant" and "Pan-denominational." Just now the "Lively
Libertines" (as their detractors style the promoters of "Life and
Liberty") seem to be testing from their labours, and they might
profitably employ their leisure by reading the history of their
forerunners half a century ago.
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