Absolutely Null and Utterly Void: The Papal Condemnation of Anglican Orders, 1896 by John Jay Hughes (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 389 thinking of man in a new way, and in a new way also of man's life in common. What does this understanding of the common good now indicate for canonical reform? There is a theory that a change in ecclesiastical law would set off a chaotic chain reaction of divorces; however, the canonical reform necessary to protect the innocent few need not be prejudicial to the attitude of the majority. This is exactly what Popes Gregory IX and Paul VI are against, if we read them correctly. The common good is their goal. Ours should be the same. St. Francis Seminary Loretto, Pa. BERNARD A. SIEGLE, T. 0. R. Absolutely Null and Utterly Void: The Papal Condemnation of Anglican 01·ders, 1896. By JoHN JAY HuGHES. Washington: Corpus Books, 1968. Pp. 348. $7.95. The Church of England-to alter Sir Winston Churchill's famous comment on the Kremlin-is a theological enigma within a paradox. When it finally emerged from the Elizabethan Settlement, it retained much of its medieval constitution and found itself in possession of a version of the Book of Common Prayer which enshrined in splendid English, and unresolved juxtaposition, various and diverse theological elements drawn from patristic, medieval, Lutheran and Zwinglian sources. Six different versions, if one counts those of 1604 and 1637, of this remarkable document have, as the Anglican scholar Gregory Dix remarked, proven to be " incompetent to provide for the Church of England a tolerable method of doing that which is the very center of its life for every Christian Church." Father John Jay Hughes, the author of what is the most recent in the very long list of works dealing with the enigmatic and paradoxical problems associated with Anglican orders, is evidently highly qualified for the exploration of just such problems. He comes from a distinguished clerical family; both his father and his grandfather were prominent among the clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. He himself was ordained a priest in that body in 1954. Six years later, however, he became a Roman Catholic and a teacher of theology in Germany where, in 1965, he was invited by the Bishop of MUnster to begin work for the doctorate in theology at the University of MUnster. Three years later he achieved what may very well be the first thing of its kind since the Reformation: he was conditionally ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood in the diocese of MUnster. This event, it should be observed, has no direct and immediate bearing 890 BOOK REVIEWS upon the question of the validity of Anglican orders. It was technically possible because an Old Catholic bishop was involved in the episcopal succession of the Protestant Episcopal bishop from whom Father Hughes had received his Anglican ordination in 1954. But it does put the author of Absolutely Null and Utterly Void in an unusual, if not enigmatic, position in current ecclesiastical life, just as it affords him a somewhat unique perspective with which to view the questions upon which he has chosen to write. Cardinal Newman, who knew more than a little about the matter, is quoted by Father Hughes as follows: The enquiry into Anglican Orders has ever been to me of the class which I must call dreary; for it is dreary surely to have to grope into the minute intricate passages and obscure corners of past occurrences in order to ascertain whether this man was ever consecrated, or that man used a valid form, or a certain sacramental intention came up to the mark, or the report, or register of an ecclesiastical act can be cleared of suspicion. On giving myself to consider the question, I have never been able to arrive at anything higher than a probable conclusion, which is most unsatisfactory except to antiquarians, who delight in researches into the past for their own sake. (p. 276) Father Hughes has done more groping " into the minute intricate passages and obscure corners of past occurences " than many who have ventured into the incredibly complex undertaking of dealing with the enigmas and paradoxes of Anglican ordinations. His present volume is primarily concerned with the history...