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"None but men." Such is the rule concerning the servants of the Pope's household. But in 1886 one Teodolinda Banfi became housekeeper for Pope Leo XIII, remained under Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XL Retired last week by age (65*), placed in a steam-heated modern apartment across from the Vatican, she wept with loneliness, refused luxury in Milan, saying, "He may need my services again." Opportunism. The past week produced loud Episcopal dissent from the Roman Catholic satisfaction over its annulment of the marriage of the Duke of Marlborough to Consuelo Vanderbilt (TIME, Nov. 22). Up spoke first the brave Dr. Arthur Kinsolving (Episcopalian) of Baltimore, onetime rector in the New York Diocese where the Duke was wedded. "That girl was a happy and radiant bride when she went to the altar," said he, referring to the recent testimony of Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont, Consuelo's mother, that she, Mrs. Belmont, coerced her daughter. "I know some of the Vanderbilts personally. . . . There was no hint from any quarter that the bride was under compulsion." Later, amid applause of the Church of England Assembly, convened in London, the Bishop of Ripon bodingly warned: "Our church ought to be an obstacle to realization of the Papal dream. We have recently seen the degree of modern opportunism liable to be reached by a church which allows itself to become politically minded. . . . [The annulment] is an insult, whether calculated or not, to an old communion to which we are proud to belong." The charge of opportunism is understood to be a reference to the suspicion that Rome desires another English duke in the fold. For many years all England's 26 dukes, save only the Duke of Norfolk (Roman Catholic), have been Anglicans.

"Quitting--to preach." Thus Dr. James L. Gordon, eminent San Francisco Congregational pastor, clears, in the December Sunset Magazine, the mystery of his recent resignation from church ties. Dr. Gordon plans to establish a free lance pulpit in "some metropolitan city" where he can reach 3,000 at a time. He loves to preach. He will have no business notices at his meetings, "no joinings, no subscribing, no creeds." Said he: "The stage cannot supplant the pulpit and the newspaper cannot permanently overshadow it. The authority of the human voice, in its appeal to conscience, cannot be eliminated and must not be ignored."

*Rinaldo Jaccini, 81, has been coachman to five Popes; still drives the Vatican coach.