THE origin of the Crimean war is said to have been in a squabble between some members of the Greek Church and some of the Roman Church, as to the custody of the keys of that which they designate the Holy Sepulcher, where the Lord was laid. The Emperor of Russia, as head of the Greek Church, and the Emperor of the French, as the Eldest Son of the Roman Catholic Church, thus found a pretext, the one against the other. The tendency of that war was to bring the East more into notice, and perhaps, in the course of God's providence, to give development to principles at work in Europe, political and ecclesiastical, beyond what many think. Protestant England took part with Roman Catholic France, and had to submit to be dragged in the wake of the Emperor's plans. But Protestant England had been busy, with other Protestant countries, about the Holy Land before that; and the proof of it, clear to all, was the Bishopric of Jerusalem.
The speculations of many minds were active as to the results of a bishopric in Jerusalem, and a bishopric upheld too, not by England only, but by European Protestantism as such. But my thoughts are upon another matter, connected with the Land too, and indirectly connected, more than at first sight may appear, with the hierarchical system of this country. The. A. P. U. C. is that to which I refer. What is the A. P. U. C?
I answer,-from " SERMONS ON THE RE-UNION OF CHRISTENDOM, by Members of the Roman Catholic, Oriental, and Anglican communions." The title-page has " Beati pacifici " as its motto; and the statement, "Printed for Certain Members of the Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom;" so that A. P. U. C. is the short for Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom, the first letters of the four words, Association, Promotion, Unity, Christendom.
Sermon 19. (on " The A. P. U. C.," signed A.) may
as well stand as my introduction to the subject. The italics are mine
.