THE Dean of Durham is strangely behind the times. He is impressed by the fact that the Archbishop of Canterbury has preached from Calvin’s pulpit at Geneva, and to judge from his letter to the Times, Dr Welldon sees in the fact the promise of the reunion of Protestant Churches. We explained a fortnight ago that not only the pulpit but the church had been placed at the Archbishop’s service, a very different thing from an invitation to the Archbishop to take part in a Calvinistic service. As a matter of fact, the distinction of preaching from Calvin’s pulpit has been enjoyed by a good many persons; if we are not mistaken, Miss Maude Royden has been of their number. The sermons of British Nonconformists delivered from that pulpit do not seem to have done very much to compose Protestant differences, and in the circumstances the Dean’s reference to Calvin was ill-timed. Our Primate went to Geneva to support the League of Nations. The League is a secular attempt to undo Calvin’s work. No man has been more responsible than Calvin for setting the nations of Europe by the ears, for by his teaching he persuaded one set of Christians to despise and hate their Christian brethren as idolaters. The upas tree of Calvinism produced that very militarism which the Primate from Calvin’s pulpit eloquently condemned in the name of Catholicism.

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