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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 22088 ***
+
+
+
+
+APOLOGIA PRO VITA SUA
+
+BEING
+
+A History of his Religious Opinions.
+
+BY
+
+JOHN HENRY CARDINAL NEWMAN.
+
+    "Commit thy way to the Lord and trust in Him, and He will do it.
+    And He will bring forth thy justice as the light, and thy
+    judgment as the noon-day."
+
+LONDON
+
+LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
+
+AND NEW YORK: 15 EAST 16th STREET
+
+1890.
+
+PRINTED BY
+
+KELLY AND CO., GATE STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS,
+
+AND KINGSTON-ON-THAMES.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The following History of my Religious Opinions, now that it is detached
+from the context in which it originally stood, requires some preliminary
+explanation; and that, not only in order to introduce it generally to
+the reader, but specially to make him understand, how I came to write a
+whole book about myself, and about my most private thoughts and
+feelings. Did I consult indeed my own impulses, I should do my best
+simply to wipe out of my Volume, and consign to oblivion, every trace of
+the circumstances to which it is to be ascribed; but its original title
+of "Apologia" is too exactly borne out by its matter and structure, and
+these again are too suggestive of correlative circumstances, and those
+circumstances are of too grave a character, to allow of my indulging so
+natural a wish. And therefore, though in this new Edition I have managed
+to omit nearly a hundred pages of my original Volume, which I could
+safely consider to be of merely ephemeral importance, I am even for that
+very reason obliged, by way of making up for their absence, to prefix to
+my Narrative some account of the provocation out of which it arose.
+
+It is now more than twenty years that a vague impression to my
+disadvantage has rested on the popular mind, as if my conduct towards
+the Anglican Church, while I was a member of it, was inconsistent with
+Christian simplicity and uprightness. An impression of this kind was
+almost unavoidable under the circumstances of the case, when a man, who
+had written strongly against a cause, and had collected a party round
+him by virtue of such writings, gradually faltered in his opposition to
+it, unsaid his words, threw his own friends into perplexity and their
+proceedings into confusion, and ended by passing over to the side of
+those whom he had so vigorously denounced. Sensitive then as I have ever
+been of the imputations which have been so freely cast upon me, I have
+never felt much impatience under them, as considering them to be a
+portion of the penalty which I naturally and justly incurred by my
+change of religion, even though they were to continue as long as I
+lived. I left their removal to a future day, when personal feelings
+would have died out, and documents would see the light, which were as
+yet buried in closets or scattered through the country.
+
+This was my state of mind, as it had been for many years, when, in the
+beginning of 1864, I unexpectedly found myself publicly put upon my
+defence, and furnished with an opportunity of pleading my cause before
+the world, and, as it so happened, with a fair prospect of an impartial
+hearing. Taken indeed by surprise, as I was, I had much reason to be
+anxious how I should be able to acquit myself in so serious a matter;
+however, I had long had a tacit understanding with myself, that, in the
+improbable event of a challenge being formally made to me, by a person
+of name, it would be my duty to meet it. That opportunity had now
+occurred; it never might occur again; not to avail myself of it at once
+would be virtually to give up my cause; accordingly, I took advantage of
+it, and, as it has turned out, the circumstance that no time was allowed
+me for any studied statements has compensated, in the equitable judgment
+of the public, for such imperfections in composition as my want of
+leisure involved.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was in the number for January 1864, of a magazine of wide
+circulation, and in an Article upon Queen Elizabeth, that a popular
+writer took occasion formally to accuse me by name of thinking so
+lightly of the virtue of Veracity, as in set terms to have countenanced
+and defended that neglect of it which he at the same time imputed to the
+Catholic Priesthood. His words were these:--
+
+    "Truth, for its own sake, had never been a virtue with the Roman
+    clergy. Father Newman informs us that it need not, and on the
+    whole ought not to be; that cunning is the weapon which heaven
+    has given to the Saints wherewith to withstand the brute male
+    force of the wicked world which marries and is given in
+    marriage. Whether his notion be doctrinally correct or not, it
+    is at least historically so."
+
+These assertions, going far beyond the popular prejudice entertained
+against me, had no foundation whatever in fact. I never had said, I
+never had dreamed of saying, that truth for its own sake need not, and
+on the whole ought not to be, a virtue with the Roman Clergy; or that
+cunning is the weapon which heaven has given to the Saints wherewith to
+withstand the wicked world. To what work of mine then could the writer
+be referring? In a correspondence which ensued upon the subject between
+him and myself, he rested his charge against me on a Sermon of mine,
+preached, before I was a Catholic, in the pulpit of my Church at Oxford;
+and he gave me to understand, that, after having done as much as this,
+he was not bound, over and above such a general reference to my Sermon,
+to specify the passages of it, in which the doctrine, which he imputed
+to me, was contained. On my part I considered this not enough; and I
+demanded of him to bring out his proof of his accusation in form and in
+detail, or to confess he was unable to do so. But he persevered in his
+refusal to cite any distinct passages from any writing of mine; and,
+though he consented to withdraw his charge, he would not do so on the
+issue of its truth or falsehood, but simply on the ground that I assured
+him that I had had no intention of incurring it. This did not satisfy my
+sense of justice. Formally to charge me with committing a fault is one
+thing; to allow that I did not intend to commit it, is another; it is no
+satisfaction to me, if a man accuses me of _this_ offence, for him to
+profess that he does not accuse me _of that_; but he thought
+differently. Not being able then to gain redress in the quarter, where I
+had a right to ask it, I appealed to the public. I published the
+correspondence in the shape of a Pamphlet, with some remarks of my own
+at the end, on the course which that correspondence had taken.
+
+This Pamphlet, which appeared in the first weeks of February, received a
+reply from my accuser towards the end of March, in another Pamphlet of
+48 pages, entitled, "What then does Dr. Newman mean?" in which he
+professed to do that which I had called upon him to do; that is, he
+brought together a number of extracts from various works of mine,
+Catholic and Anglican, with the object of showing that, if I was to be
+acquitted of the crime of teaching and practising deceit and dishonesty,
+according to his first supposition, it was at the price of my being
+considered no longer responsible for my actions; for, as he expressed
+it, "I had a human reason once, no doubt, but I had gambled it away,"
+and I had "worked my mind into that morbid state, in which nonsense was
+the only food for which it hungered;" and that it could not be called "a
+hasty or farfetched or unfounded mistake, when he concluded that I did
+not care for truth for its own sake, or teach my disciples to regard it
+as a virtue;" and, though "too many prefer the charge of insincerity to
+that of insipience, Dr. Newman seemed not to be of that number."
+
+He ended his Pamphlet by returning to his original imputation against
+me, which he had professed to abandon. Alluding by anticipation to my
+probable answer to what he was then publishing, he professed his
+heartfelt embarrassment how he was to believe any thing I might say in
+my exculpation, in the plain and literal sense of the words. "I am
+henceforth," he said, "in doubt and fear, as much as an honest man can
+be, concerning every word Dr. Newman may write. How can I tell, that I
+shall not be the dupe of some cunning equivocation, of one of the three
+kinds laid down as permissible by the blessed St. Alfonso da Liguori and
+his pupils, even when confirmed with an oath, because 'then we do not
+deceive our neighbour, but allow him to deceive himself?' ... How can I
+tell, that I may not in this Pamphlet have made an accusation, of the
+truth of which Dr. Newman is perfectly conscious; but that, as I, a
+heretic Protestant, have no business to make it, he has a full right to
+deny it?"
+
+Even if I could have found it consistent with my duty to my own
+reputation to leave such an elaborate impeachment of my moral nature
+unanswered, my duty to my Brethren in the Catholic Priesthood, would
+have forbidden such a course. _They_ were involved in the charges which
+this writer, all along, from the original passage in the Magazine, to
+the very last paragraph of the Pamphlet, had so confidently, so
+pertinaciously made. In exculpating myself, it was plain I should be
+pursuing no mere personal quarrel;--I was offering my humble service to
+a sacred cause. I was making my protest in behalf of a large body of men
+of high character, of honest and religious minds, and of sensitive
+honour,--who had their place and their rights in this world, though they
+were ministers of the world unseen, and who were insulted by my Accuser,
+as the above extracts from him sufficiently show, not only in my person,
+but directly and pointedly in their own. Accordingly, I at once set
+about writing the _Apologia pro vitâ suâ_, of which the present Volume
+is a New Edition; and it was a great reward to me to find, as the
+controversy proceeded, such large numbers of my clerical brethren
+supporting me by their sympathy in the course which I was pursuing, and,
+as occasion offered, bestowing on me the formal and public expression of
+their approbation. These testimonials in my behalf, so important and so
+grateful to me, are, together with the Letter, sent to me with the same
+purpose, from my Bishop, contained in the last pages of this Volume.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+This Edition differs from the first form of the Apologia as
+follows:--The original work consisted of seven Parts, which were
+published in series on consecutive Thursdays, between April 21 and June
+2. An Appendix, in answer to specific allegations urged against me in
+the Pamphlet of Accusation, appeared on June 16. Of these Parts 1 and 2,
+as being for the most part directly controversial, are omitted in this
+Edition, excepting certain passages in them, which are subjoined to this
+Preface, as being necessary for the due explanation of the subsequent
+five Parts. These, (being 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, of the Apologia,) are here
+numbered as Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 respectively. Of the Appendix, about
+half has been omitted, for the same reason as has led to the omission of
+Parts 1 and 2. The rest of it is thrown into the shape of Notes of a
+discursive character, with two new ones on Liberalism and the Lives of
+the English Saints of 1843-4, and another, new in part, on
+Ecclesiastical Miracles. In the body of the work, the only addition of
+consequence is the letter which is found at p. 228, a copy of which has
+recently come into my possession.
+
+I should add that, since writing the Apologia last year, I have seen for
+the first time Mr. Oakeley's "Notes on the Tractarian Movement." This
+work remarkably corroborates the substance of my Narrative, while the
+kind terms in which he speaks of me personally, call for my sincere
+gratitude.
+
+_May 2, 1865._
+
+
+
+
+I make these extracts from the first edition of my Apologia, Part 1, pp.
+3, 20-25, and Part 2, pp. 29-31 and pp. 41-51, in order to set before
+the reader the drift I had in writing my Volume:--
+
+    I cannot be sorry to have forced my Accuser to bring out in
+    fulness his charges against me. It is far better that he should
+    discharge his thoughts upon me in my lifetime, than after I am
+    dead. Under the circumstances I am happy in having the
+    opportunity of reading the worst that can be said of me by a
+    writer who has taken pains with his work and is well satisfied
+    with it. I account it a gain to be surveyed from without by one
+    who hates the principles which are nearest to my heart, has no
+    personal knowledge of me to set right his misconceptions of my
+    doctrine, and who has some motive or other to be as severe with
+    me as he can possibly be....
+
+    But I really feel sad for what I am obliged now to say. I am in
+    warfare with him, but I wish him no ill;--it is very difficult
+    to get up resentment towards persons whom one has never seen. It
+    is easy enough to be irritated with friends or foes _vis-à-vis_;
+    but, though I am writing with all my heart against what he has
+    said of me, I am not conscious of personal unkindness towards
+    himself. I think it necessary to write as I am writing, for my
+    own sake, and for the sake of the Catholic Priesthood; but I
+    wish to impute nothing worse to him than that he has been
+    furiously carried away by his feelings. Yet what shall I say of
+    the upshot of all his talk of my economies and equivocations and
+    the like? What is the precise _work_ which it is directed to
+    effect? I am at war with him; but there is such a thing as
+    legitimate warfare: war has its laws; there are things which may
+    fairly be done, and things which may not be done. I say it with
+    shame and with stern sorrow;--he has attempted a great
+    transgression; he has attempted (as I may call it) to _poison
+    the wells_. I will quote him and explain what I mean.... He
+    says,--
+
+    "I am henceforth in doubt and fear, as much as any honest man
+    can be, _concerning every word_ Dr. Newman may write. _How can I
+    tell that I shall not be the dupe of some cunning equivocation_,
+    of one of the three kinds laid down as permissible by the
+    blessed Alfonso da Liguori and his pupils, even when confirmed
+    by an oath, because 'then we do not deceive our neighbour, but
+    allow him to deceive himself?' ... It is admissible, therefore,
+    to use words and sentences which have a double signification,
+    and leave the hapless hearer to take which of them he may
+    choose. _What proof have I, then, that by 'mean it? I never said
+    it!' Dr. Newman does not signify_, I did not say it, but I did
+    mean it?"--Pp. 44, 45.
+
+    Now these insinuations and questions shall be answered in their
+    proper places; here I will but say that I scorn and detest
+    lying, and quibbling, and double-tongued practice, and slyness,
+    and cunning, and smoothness, and cant, and pretence, quite as
+    much as any Protestants hate them; and I pray to be kept from
+    the snare of them. But all this is just now by the bye; my
+    present subject is my Accuser; what I insist upon here is this
+    unmanly attempt of his, in his concluding pages, to cut the
+    ground from under my feet;--to poison by anticipation the public
+    mind against me, John Henry Newman, and to infuse into the
+    imaginations of my readers, suspicion and mistrust of everything
+    that I may say in reply to him. This I call _poisoning the
+    wells_.
+
+    "I am henceforth in _doubt and fear_," he says, "as much as any
+    _honest_ man can be, _concerning every word_ Dr. Newman may
+    write. _How can I tell that I shall not be the dupe of some
+    cunning equivocation?_" ...
+
+    Well, I can only say, that, if his taunt is to take effect, I am
+    but wasting my time in saying a word in answer to his calumnies;
+    and this is precisely what he knows and intends to be its fruit.
+    I can hardly get myself to protest against a method of
+    controversy so base and cruel, lest in doing so, I should be
+    violating my self-respect and self-possession; but most base and
+    most cruel it is. We all know how our imagination runs away with
+    us, how suddenly and at what a pace;--the saying, "Cæsar's wife
+    should not be suspected," is an instance of what I mean. The
+    habitual prejudice, the humour of the moment, is the
+    turning-point which leads us to read a defence in a good sense
+    or a bad. We interpret it by our antecedent impressions.
+
+    The very same sentiments, according as our jealousy is or is not
+    awake, or our aversion stimulated, are tokens of truth or of
+    dissimulation and pretence. There is a story of a sane person
+    being by mistake shut up in the wards of a Lunatic Asylum, and
+    that, when he pleaded his cause to some strangers visiting the
+    establishment, the only remark he elicited in answer was, "How
+    naturally he talks! you would think he was in his senses."
+    Controversies should be decided by the reason; is it legitimate
+    warfare to appeal to the misgivings of the public mind and to
+    its dislikings? Any how, if my accuser is able thus to practise
+    upon my readers, the more I succeed, the less will be my
+    success. If I am natural, he will tell them "Ars est celare
+    artem;" if I am convincing, he will suggest that I am an able
+    logician; if I show warmth, I am acting the indignant innocent;
+    if I am calm, I am thereby detected as a smooth hypocrite; if I
+    clear up difficulties, I am too plausible and perfect to be
+    true. The more triumphant are my statements, the more certain
+    will be my defeat.
+
+    So will it be if my Accuser succeeds in his man[oe]uvre; but I
+    do not for an instant believe that he will. Whatever judgment my
+    readers may eventually form of me from these pages, I am
+    confident that they will believe me in what I shall say in the
+    course of them. I have no misgiving at all, that they will be
+    ungenerous or harsh towards a man who has been so long before
+    the eyes of the world; who has so many to speak of him from
+    personal knowledge; whose natural impulse it has ever been to
+    speak out; who has ever spoken too much rather than too little;
+    who would have saved himself many a scrape, if he had been wise
+    enough to hold his tongue; who has ever been fair to the
+    doctrines and arguments of his opponents; who has never slurred
+    over facts and reasonings which told against himself; who has
+    never given his name or authority to proofs which he thought
+    unsound, or to testimony which he did not think at least
+    plausible; who has never shrunk from confessing a fault when he
+    felt that he had committed one; who has ever consulted for
+    others more than for himself; who has given up much that he
+    loved and prized and could have retained, but that he loved
+    honesty better than name, and Truth better than dear friends....
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    What then shall be the special imputation, against which I shall
+    throw myself in these pages, out of the thousand and one which
+    my Accuser directs upon me? I mean to confine myself to one, for
+    there is only one about which I much care,--the charge of
+    Untruthfulness. He may cast upon me as many other imputations as
+    he pleases, and they may stick on me, as long as they can, in
+    the course of nature. They will fall to the ground in their
+    season.
+
+    And indeed I think the same of the charge of Untruthfulness, and
+    select it from the rest, not because it is more formidable but
+    because it is more serious. Like the rest, it may disfigure me
+    for a time, but it will not stain: Archbishop Whately used to
+    say, "Throw dirt enough, and some will stick;" well, will stick,
+    but not, will stain. I think he used to mean "stain," and I do
+    not agree with him. Some dirt sticks longer than other dirt; but
+    no dirt is immortal. According to the old saying, Prævalebit
+    Veritas. There are virtues indeed, which the world is not fitted
+    to judge of or to uphold, such as faith, hope, and charity: but
+    it can judge about Truthfulness; it can judge about the natural
+    virtues, and Truthfulness is one of them. Natural virtues may
+    also become supernatural; Truthfulness is such; but that does
+    not withdraw it from the jurisdiction of mankind at large. It
+    may be more difficult in this or that particular case for men to
+    take cognizance of it, as it may be difficult for the Court of
+    Queen's Bench at Westminster to try a case fairly which took
+    place in Hindostan: but that is a question of capacity, not of
+    right. Mankind has the right to judge of Truthfulness in a
+    Catholic, as in the case of a Protestant, of an Italian, or of a
+    Chinese. I have never doubted, that in my hour, in God's hour,
+    my avenger will appear, and the world will acquit me of
+    untruthfulness, even though it be not while I live.
+
+    Still more confident am I of such eventual acquittal, seeing
+    that my judges are my own countrymen. I consider, indeed,
+    Englishmen the most suspicious and touchy of mankind; I think
+    them unreasonable, and unjust in their seasons of excitement;
+    but I had rather be an Englishman, (as in fact I am,) than
+    belong to any other race under heaven. They are as generous, as
+    they are hasty and burly; and their repentance for their
+    injustice is greater than their sin.
+
+    For twenty years and more I have borne an imputation, of which I
+    am at least as sensitive, who am the object of it, as they can
+    be, who are only the judges. I have not set myself to remove it,
+    first, because I never have had an opening to speak, and, next,
+    because I never saw in them the disposition to hear. I have
+    wished to appeal from Philip drunk to Philip sober. When shall I
+    pronounce him to be himself again? If I may judge from the tone
+    of the public press, which represents the public voice, I have
+    great reason to take heart at this time. I have been treated by
+    contemporary critics in this controversy with great fairness and
+    gentleness, and I am grateful to them for it. However, the
+    decision of the time and mode of my defence has been taken out
+    of my hands; and I am thankful that it has been so. I am bound
+    now as a duty to myself, to the Catholic cause, to the Catholic
+    Priesthood, to give account of myself without any delay, when I
+    am so rudely and circumstantially charged with Untruthfulness. I
+    accept the challenge; I shall do my best to meet it, and I shall
+    be content when I have done so.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    It is not my present accuser alone who entertains, and has
+    entertained, so dishonourable an opinion of me and of my
+    writings. It is the impression of large classes of men; the
+    impression twenty years ago and the impression now. There has
+    been a general feeling that I was for years where I had no right
+    to be; that I was a "Romanist" in Protestant livery and service;
+    that I was doing the work of a hostile Church in the bosom of
+    the English Establishment, and knew it, or ought to have known
+    it. There was no need of arguing about particular passages in my
+    writings, when the fact was so patent, as men thought it to be.
+
+    First it was certain, and I could not myself deny it, that I
+    scouted the name "Protestant." It was certain again, that many
+    of the doctrines which I professed were popularly and generally
+    known as badges of the Roman Church, as distinguished from the
+    faith of the Reformation. Next, how could I have come by them?
+    Evidently, I had certain friends and advisers who did not
+    appear; there was some underground communication between
+    Stonyhurst or Oscott and my rooms at Oriel. Beyond a doubt, I
+    was advocating certain doctrines, not by accident, but on an
+    understanding with ecclesiastics of the old religion. Then men
+    went further, and said that I had actually been received into
+    that religion, and withal had leave given me to profess myself a
+    Protestant still. Others went even further, and gave it out to
+    the world, as a matter of fact, of which they themselves had the
+    proof in their hands, that I was actually a Jesuit. And when the
+    opinions which I advocated spread, and younger men went further
+    than I, the feeling against me waxed stronger and took a wider
+    range.
+
+    And now indignation arose at the knavery of a conspiracy such as
+    this:--and it became of course all the greater in consequence of
+    its being the received belief of the public at large, that craft
+    and intrigue, such as they fancied they beheld with their eyes,
+    were the very instruments to which the Catholic Church has in
+    these last centuries been indebted for her maintenance and
+    extension.
+
+    There was another circumstance still, which increased the
+    irritation and aversion felt by the large classes, of whom I
+    have been speaking, against the preachers of doctrines, so new
+    to them and so unpalatable; and that was, that they developed
+    them in so measured a way. If they were inspired by Roman
+    theologians, (and this was taken for granted,) why did they not
+    speak out at once? Why did they keep the world in such suspense
+    and anxiety as to what was coming next, and what was to be the
+    upshot of the whole? Why this reticence, and half-speaking, and
+    apparent indecision? It was plain that the plan of operations
+    had been carefully mapped out from the first, and that these men
+    were cautiously advancing towards its accomplishment, as far as
+    was safe at the moment; that their aim and their hope was to
+    carry off a large body with them of the young and the ignorant;
+    that they meant gradually to leaven the minds of the rising
+    generation, and to open the gates of that city, of which they
+    were the sworn defenders, to the enemy who lay in ambush outside
+    of it. And when in spite of the many protestations of the party
+    to the contrary, there was at length an actual movement among
+    their disciples, and one went over to Rome, and then another,
+    the worst anticipations and the worst judgments which had been
+    formed of them received their justification. And, lastly, when
+    men first had said of me, "You will see, _he_ will go, he is
+    only biding his time, he is waiting the word of command from
+    Rome," and, when after all, after my arguments and denunciations
+    of former years, at length I did leave the Anglican Church for
+    the Roman, then they said to each other, "It is just as we said:
+    we knew it would be so."
+
+    This was the state of mind of masses of men twenty years ago,
+    who took no more than an external and common sense view of what
+    was going on. And partly the tradition, partly the effect of
+    that feeling, remains to the present time. Certainly I consider
+    that, in my own case, it is the great obstacle in the way of my
+    being favourably heard, as at present, when I have to make my
+    defence. Not only am I now a member of a most un-English
+    communion, whose great aim is considered to be the extinction of
+    Protestantism and the Protestant Church, and whose means of
+    attack are popularly supposed to be unscrupulous cunning and
+    deceit, but how came I originally to have any relations with the
+    Church of Rome at all? did I, or my opinions, drop from the sky?
+    how came I, in Oxford, _in gremio Universitatis_, to present
+    myself to the eyes of men in that full blown investiture of
+    Popery? How could I dare, how could I have the conscience, with
+    warnings, with prophecies, with accusations against me, to
+    persevere in a path which steadily advanced towards, which ended
+    in, the religion of Rome? And how am I now to be trusted, when
+    long ago I was trusted, and was found wanting?
+
+    It is this which is the strength of the case of my Accuser
+    against me;--not the articles of impeachment which he has framed
+    from my writings, and which I shall easily crumble into dust,
+    but the bias of the court. It is the state of the atmosphere; it
+    is the vibration all around, which will echo his bold assertion
+    of my dishonesty; it is that prepossession against me, which
+    takes it for granted that, when my reasoning is convincing it is
+    only ingenious, and that when my statements are unanswerable,
+    there is always something put out of sight or hidden in my
+    sleeve; it is that plausible, but cruel conclusion to which men
+    are apt to jump, that when much is imputed, much must be true,
+    and that it is more likely that one should be to blame, than
+    that many should be mistaken in blaming him;--these are the real
+    foes which I have to fight, and the auxiliaries to whom my
+    Accuser makes his advances.
+
+    Well, I must break through this barrier of prejudice against me
+    if I can; and I think I shall be able to do so. When first I
+    read the Pamphlet of Accusation, I almost despaired of meeting
+    effectively such a heap of misrepresentations and such a
+    vehemence of animosity. What was the good of answering first one
+    point, and then another, and going through the whole circle of
+    its abuse; when my answer to the first point would be forgotten,
+    as soon as I got to the second? What was the use of bringing out
+    half a hundred separate principles or views for the refutation
+    of the separate counts in the Indictment, when rejoinders of
+    this sort would but confuse and torment the reader by their
+    number and their diversity? What hope was there of condensing
+    into a pamphlet of a readable length, matter which ought freely
+    to expand itself into half a dozen volumes? What means was
+    there, except the expenditure of interminable pages, to set
+    right even one of that series of "single passing hints," to use
+    my Assailant's own language, which, "as with his finger tip he
+    had delivered" against me?
+
+    All those separate charges had their force in being
+    illustrations of one and the same great imputation. He had
+    already a positive idea to illuminate his whole matter, and to
+    stamp it with a force, and to quicken it with an interpretation.
+    He called me a _liar_,--a simple, a broad, an intelligible, to
+    the English public a plausible arraignment; but for me, to
+    answer in detail charge one by reason one, and charge two by
+    reason two, and charge three by reason three, and so on through
+    the whole string both of accusations and replies, each of which
+    was to be independent of the rest, this would be certainly
+    labour lost as regards any effective result. What I needed was a
+    corresponding antagonist unity in my defence, and where was that
+    to be found? We see, in the case of commentators on the
+    prophecies of Scripture, an exemplification of the principle on
+    which I am insisting; viz. how much more powerful even a false
+    interpretation of the sacred text is than none at all;--how a
+    certain key to the visions of the Apocalypse, for instance, may
+    cling to the mind (I have found it so in the case of my own),
+    because the view, which it opens on us, is positive and
+    objective, in spite of the fullest demonstration that it really
+    has no claim upon our reception. The reader says, "What else can
+    the prophecy mean?" just as my Accuser asks, "What, then, does
+    Dr. Newman mean?" ... I reflected, and I saw a way out of my
+    perplexity.
+
+    Yes, I said to myself, his very question is about my _meaning_;
+    "What does Dr. Newman mean?" It pointed in the very same
+    direction as that into which my musings had turned me already.
+    He asks what I _mean_; not about my words, not about my
+    arguments, not about my actions, as his ultimate point, but
+    about that living intelligence, by which I write, and argue, and
+    act. He asks about my Mind and its Beliefs and its sentiments;
+    and he shall be answered;--not for his own sake, but for mine,
+    for the sake of the Religion which I profess, and of the
+    Priesthood in which I am unworthily included, and of my friends
+    and of my foes, and of that general public which consists of
+    neither one nor the other, but of well-wishers, lovers of fair
+    play, sceptical cross-questioners, interested inquirers, curious
+    lookers-on, and simple strangers, unconcerned yet not careless
+    about the issue,--for the sake of all these he shall be
+    answered.
+
+    My perplexity had not lasted half an hour. I recognized what I
+    had to do, though I shrank from both the task and the exposure
+    which it would entail. I must, I said, give the true key to my
+    whole life; I must show what I am, that it may be seen what I am
+    not, and that the phantom may be extinguished which gibbers
+    instead of me. I wish to be known as a living man, and not as a
+    scarecrow which is dressed up in my clothes. False ideas may be
+    refuted indeed by argument, but by true ideas alone are they
+    expelled. I will vanquish, not my Accuser, but my judges. I will
+    indeed answer his charges and criticisms on me one by one[1],
+    lest any one should say that they are unanswerable, but such a
+    work shall not be the scope nor the substance of my reply. I
+    will draw out, as far as may be, the history of my mind; I will
+    state the point at which I began, in what external suggestion or
+    accident each opinion had its rise, how far and how they
+    developed from within, how they grew, were modified, were
+    combined, were in collision with each other, and were changed;
+    again how I conducted myself towards them, and how, and how far,
+    and for how long a time, I thought I could hold them
+    consistently with the ecclesiastical engagements which I had
+    made and with the position which I held. I must show,--what is
+    the very truth,--that the doctrines which I held, and have held
+    for so many years, have been taught me (speaking humanly) partly
+    by the suggestions of Protestant friends, partly by the teaching
+    of books, and partly by the action of my own mind: and thus I
+    shall account for that phenomenon which to so many seems so
+    wonderful, that I should have left "my kindred and my father's
+    house" for a Church from which once I turned away with
+    dread;--so wonderful to them! as if forsooth a Religion which
+    has flourished through so many ages, among so many nations, amid
+    such varieties of social life, in such contrary classes and
+    conditions of men, and after so many revolutions, political and
+    civil, could not subdue the reason and overcome the heart,
+    without the aid of fraud in the process and the sophistries of
+    the schools.
+
+    [1] This was done in the Appendix, of which the more important
+    parts are preserved in the Notes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    What I had proposed to myself in the course of half-an-hour, I
+    determined on at the end of ten days. However, I have many
+    difficulties in fulfilling my design. How am I to say all that
+    has to be said in a reasonable compass? And then as to the
+    materials of my narrative; I have no autobiographical notes to
+    consult, no written explanations of particular treatises or of
+    tracts which at the time gave offence, hardly any minutes of
+    definite transactions or conversations, and few contemporary
+    memoranda, I fear, of the feelings or motives under which, from
+    time to time I acted. I have an abundance of letters from
+    friends with some copies or drafts of my answers to them, but
+    they are for the most part unsorted; and, till this process has
+    taken place, they are even too numerous and various to be
+    available at a moment for my purpose. Then, as to the volumes
+    which I have published, they would in many ways serve me, were I
+    well up in them: but though I took great pains in their
+    composition, I have thought little about them, when they were
+    once out of my hands, and for the most part the last time I read
+    them has been when I revised their last proof sheets.
+
+    Under these circumstances my sketch will of course be
+    incomplete. I now for the first time contemplate my course as a
+    whole; it is a first essay, but it will contain, I trust, no
+    serious or substantial mistake, and so far will answer the
+    purpose for which I write it. I purpose to set nothing down in
+    it as certain, of which I have not a clear memory, or some
+    written memorial, or the corroboration of some friend. There are
+    witnesses enough up and down the country to verify, or correct,
+    or complete it; and letters moreover of my own in abundance,
+    unless they have been destroyed.
+
+    Moreover, I mean to be simply personal and historical: I am not
+    expounding Catholic doctrine, I am doing no more than explaining
+    myself, and my opinions and actions. I wish, as far as I am
+    able, simply to state facts, whether they are ultimately
+    determined to be for me or against me. Of course there will be
+    room enough for contrariety of judgment among my readers, as to
+    the necessity, or appositeness, or value, or good taste, or
+    religious prudence, of the details which I shall introduce. I
+    may be accused of laying stress on little things, of being
+    beside the mark, of going into impertinent or ridiculous
+    details, of sounding my own praise, of giving scandal; but this
+    is a case above all others, in which I am bound to follow my own
+    lights and to speak out my own heart. It is not at all pleasant
+    for me to be egotistical; nor to be criticized for being so. It
+    is not pleasant to reveal to high and low, young and old, what
+    has gone on within me from my early years. It is not pleasant to
+    be giving to every shallow or flippant disputant the advantage
+    over me of knowing my most private thoughts, I might even say
+    the intercourse between myself and my Maker. But I do not like
+    to be called to my face a liar and a knave; nor should I be
+    doing my duty to my faith or to my name, if I were to suffer it.
+    I know I have done nothing to deserve such an insult, and if I
+    prove this, as I hope to do, I must not care for such incidental
+    annoyances as are involved in the process.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+History of my Religious Opinions up to 1833
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+History of my Religious Opinions from 1833 to 1839
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+History of my Religious Opinions from 1839 to 1841
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+History of my Religious Opinions from 1841 to 1845
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Position of my Mind since 1845
+
+
+NOTES.
+
+Note A. On page  14. Liberalism
+
+     B. On page  23. Ecclesiastical Miracles
+
+     C. On page 153. Sermon on Wisdom and Innocence
+
+     D. On page 213. Series of Saints' Lives of 1843-4
+
+     E. On page 227. Anglican Church
+
+     F. On page 269. The Economy
+
+     G. On page 279. Lying and Equivocation
+
+
+SUPPLEMENTAL MATTER.
+
+1. Chronological List of Letters and Papers quoted in this Narrative
+
+2. List of the Author's Works
+
+3. Letter to him from his Diocesan
+
+4. Addresses from bodies of Clergy and Laity
+
+
+ADDITIONAL NOTES.
+
+Note 1, on page 12. Correspondence with Archbishop Whately in 1834
+
+2, on page 90. Extract of a Letter from the Rev. E. Smedley in 1828
+
+3, on page 185. Extract of a Letter of the Rev. Francis Faber about 1849
+
+4, on pages 194-196. The late Very Rev. Dr. Russell
+
+5, on page 232. Extract of a Letter from the Rev. John Keble in 1844
+
+6, on page 237. Extract from the _Times_ concerning the Author's visit
+to Oxford in 1878
+
+7, on page 302. The oil of St. Walburga
+
+8, on page 323. Boniface of Canterbury
+
+
+
+
+MY RELIGIOUS OPINIONS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+HISTORY OF MY RELIGIOUS OPINIONS TO THE YEAR 1833.
+
+
+It may easily be conceived how great a trial it is to me to write the
+following history of myself; but I must not shrink from the task. The
+words, "Secretum meum mihi," keep ringing in my ears; but as men draw
+towards their end, they care less for disclosures. Nor is it the least
+part of my trial, to anticipate that, upon first reading what I have
+written, my friends may consider much in it irrelevant to my purpose;
+yet I cannot help thinking that, viewed as a whole, it will effect what
+I propose to myself in giving it to the public.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I was brought up from a child to take great delight in reading the
+Bible; but I had no formed religious convictions till I was fifteen. Of
+course I had a perfect knowledge of my Catechism.
+
+After I was grown up, I put on paper my recollections of the thoughts
+and feelings on religious subjects, which I had at the time that I was a
+child and a boy,--such as had remained on my mind with sufficient
+prominence to make me then consider them worth recording. Out of these,
+written in the Long Vacation of 1820, and transcribed with additions in
+1823, I select two, which are at once the most definite among them, and
+also have a bearing on my later convictions.
+
+1. "I used to wish the Arabian Tales were true: my imagination ran on
+unknown influences, on magical powers, and talismans.... I thought life
+might be a dream, or I an Angel, and all this world a deception, my
+fellow-angels by a playful device concealing themselves from me, and
+deceiving me with the semblance of a material world."
+
+Again: "Reading in the Spring of 1816 a sentence from [Dr. Watts's]
+'Remnants of Time,' entitled 'the Saints unknown to the world,' to the
+effect, that 'there is nothing in their figure or countenance to
+distinguish them,' &c., &c., I supposed he spoke of Angels who lived in
+the world, as it were disguised."
+
+2. The other remark is this: "I was very superstitious, and for some
+time previous to my conversion" [when I was fifteen] "used constantly to
+cross myself on going into the dark."
+
+Of course I must have got this practice from some external source or
+other; but I can make no sort of conjecture whence; and certainly no one
+had ever spoken to me on the subject of the Catholic religion, which I
+only knew by name. The French master was an _émigré_ Priest, but he was
+simply made a butt, as French masters too commonly were in that day, and
+spoke English very imperfectly. There was a Catholic family in the
+village, old maiden ladies we used to think; but I knew nothing about
+them. I have of late years heard that there were one or two Catholic
+boys in the school; but either we were carefully kept from knowing this,
+or the knowledge of it made simply no impression on our minds. My
+brother will bear witness how free the school was from Catholic ideas.
+
+I had once been into Warwick Street Chapel, with my father, who, I
+believe, wanted to hear some piece of music; all that I bore away from
+it was the recollection of a pulpit and a preacher, and a boy swinging a
+censer.
+
+When I was at Littlemore, I was looking over old copy-books of my school
+days, and I found among them my first Latin verse-book; and in the first
+page of it there was a device which almost took my breath away with
+surprise. I have the book before me now, and have just been showing it
+to others. I have written in the first page, in my school-boy hand,
+"John. H. Newman, February 11th, 1811, Verse Book;" then follow my first
+Verses. Between "Verse" and "Book" I have drawn the figure of a solid
+cross upright, and next to it is, what may indeed be meant for a
+necklace, but what I cannot make out to be any thing else than a set of
+beads suspended, with a little cross attached. At this time I was not
+quite ten years old. I suppose I got these ideas from some romance, Mrs.
+Radcliffe's or Miss Porter's; or from some religious picture; but the
+strange thing is, how, among the thousand objects which meet a boy's
+eyes, these in particular should so have fixed themselves in my mind,
+that I made them thus practically my own. I am certain there was nothing
+in the churches I attended, or the prayer books I read, to suggest them.
+It must be recollected that Anglican churches and prayer books were not
+decorated in those days as I believe they are now.
+
+When I was fourteen, I read Paine's Tracts against the Old Testament,
+and found pleasure in thinking of the objections which were contained in
+them. Also, I read some of Hume's Essays; and perhaps that on Miracles.
+So at least I gave my Father to understand; but perhaps it was a brag.
+Also, I recollect copying out some French verses, perhaps Voltaire's, in
+denial of the immortality of the soul, and saying to myself something
+like "How dreadful, but how plausible!"
+
+When I was fifteen, (in the autumn of 1816,) a great change of thought
+took place in me. I fell under the influences of a definite Creed, and
+received into my intellect impressions of dogma, which, through God's
+mercy, have never been effaced or obscured. Above and beyond the
+conversations and sermons of the excellent man, long dead, the Rev.
+Walter Mayers, of Pembroke College, Oxford, who was the human means of
+this beginning of divine faith in me, was the effect of the books which
+he put into my hands, all of the school of Calvin. One of the first
+books I read was a work of Romaine's; I neither recollect the title nor
+the contents, except one doctrine, which of course I do not include
+among those which I believe to have come from a divine source, viz. the
+doctrine of final perseverance. I received it at once, and believed that
+the inward conversion of which I was conscious, (and of which I still am
+more certain than that I have hands and feet,) would last into the next
+life, and that I was elected to eternal glory. I have no consciousness
+that this belief had any tendency whatever to lead me to be careless
+about pleasing God. I retained it till the age of twenty-one, when it
+gradually faded away; but I believe that it had some influence on my
+opinions, in the direction of those childish imaginations which I have
+already mentioned, viz. in isolating me from the objects which
+surrounded me, in confirming me in my mistrust of the reality of
+material phenomena, and making me rest in the thought of two and two
+only absolute and luminously self-evident beings, myself and my
+Creator;--for while I considered myself predestined to salvation, my
+mind did not dwell upon others, as fancying them simply passed over, not
+predestined to eternal death. I only thought of the mercy to myself.
+
+The detestable doctrine last mentioned is simply denied and abjured,
+unless my memory strangely deceives me, by the writer who made a deeper
+impression on my mind than any other, and to whom (humanly speaking) I
+almost owe my soul,--Thomas Scott of Aston Sandford. I so admired and
+delighted in his writings, that, when I was an under-graduate, I thought
+of making a visit to his Parsonage, in order to see a man whom I so
+deeply revered. I hardly think I could have given up the idea of this
+expedition, even after I had taken my degree; for the news of his death
+in 1821 came upon me as a disappointment as well as a sorrow. I hung
+upon the lips of Daniel Wilson, afterwards Bishop of Calcutta, as in two
+sermons at St. John's Chapel he gave the history of Scott's life and
+death. I had been possessed of his "Force of Truth" and Essays from a
+boy; his Commentary I bought when I was an under-graduate.
+
+What, I suppose, will strike any reader of Scott's history and writings,
+is his bold unworldliness and vigorous independence of mind. He followed
+truth wherever it led him, beginning with Unitarianism, and ending in a
+zealous faith in the Holy Trinity. It was he who first planted deep in
+my mind that fundamental truth of religion. With the assistance of
+Scott's Essays, and the admirable work of Jones of Nayland, I made a
+collection of Scripture texts in proof of the doctrine, with remarks (I
+think) of my own upon them, before I was sixteen; and a few months later
+I drew up a series of texts in support of each verse of the Athanasian
+Creed. These papers I have still.
+
+Besides his unworldliness, what I also admired in Scott was his resolute
+opposition to Antinomianism, and the minutely practical character of his
+writings. They show him to be a true Englishman, and I deeply felt his
+influence; and for years I used almost as proverbs what I considered to
+be the scope and issue of his doctrine, "Holiness rather than peace,"
+and "Growth the only evidence of life."
+
+Calvinists make a sharp separation between the elect and the world;
+there is much in this that is cognate or parallel to the Catholic
+doctrine; but they go on to say, as I understand them, very differently
+from Catholicism,--that the converted and the unconverted can be
+discriminated by man, that the justified are conscious of their state of
+justification, and that the regenerate cannot fall away. Catholics on
+the other hand shade and soften the awful antagonism between good and
+evil, which is one of their dogmas, by holding that there are different
+degrees of justification, that there is a great difference in point of
+gravity between sin and sin, that there is the possibility and the
+danger of falling away, and that there is no certain knowledge given to
+any one that he is simply in a state of grace, and much less that he is
+to persevere to the end:--of the Calvinistic tenets the only one which
+took root in my mind was the fact of heaven and hell, divine favour and
+divine wrath, of the justified and the unjustified. The notion that the
+regenerate and the justified were one and the same, and that the
+regenerate, as such, had the gift of perseverance, remained with me not
+many years, as I have said already.
+
+This main Catholic doctrine of the warfare between the city of God and
+the powers of darkness was also deeply impressed upon my mind by a work
+of a character very opposite to Calvinism, Law's "Serious Call."
+
+From this time I have held with a full inward assent and belief the
+doctrine of eternal punishment, as delivered by our Lord Himself, in as
+true a sense as I hold that of eternal happiness; though I have tried in
+various ways to make that truth less terrible to the imagination.
+
+Now I come to two other works, which produced a deep impression on me in
+the same Autumn of 1816, when I was fifteen years old, each contrary to
+each, and planting in me the seeds of an intellectual inconsistency
+which disabled me for a long course of years. I read Joseph Milner's
+Church History, and was nothing short of enamoured of the long extracts
+from St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, and the other Fathers which I found
+there. I read them as being the religion of the primitive Christians:
+but simultaneously with Milner I read Newton on the Prophecies, and in
+consequence became most firmly convinced that the Pope was the
+Antichrist predicted by Daniel, St. Paul, and St. John. My imagination
+was stained by the effects of this doctrine up to the year 1843; it had
+been obliterated from my reason and judgment at an earlier date; but the
+thought remained upon me as a sort of false conscience. Hence came that
+conflict of mind, which so many have felt besides myself;--leading some
+men to make a compromise between two ideas, so inconsistent with each
+other,--driving others to beat out the one idea or the other from their
+minds,--and ending in my own case, after many years of intellectual
+unrest, in the gradual decay and extinction of one of them,--I do not
+say in its violent death, for why should I not have murdered it sooner,
+if I murdered it at all?
+
+I am obliged to mention, though I do it with great reluctance, another
+deep imagination, which at this time, the autumn of 1816, took
+possession of me,--there can be no mistake about the fact; viz. that it
+would be the will of God that I should lead a single life. This
+anticipation, which has held its ground almost continuously ever
+since,--with the break of a month now and a month then, up to 1829, and,
+after that date, without any break at all,--was more or less connected
+in my mind with the notion, that my calling in life would require such a
+sacrifice as celibacy involved; as, for instance, missionary work among
+the heathen, to which I had a great drawing for some years. It also
+strengthened my feeling of separation from the visible world, of which I
+have spoken above.
+
+In 1822 I came under very different influences from those to which I had
+hitherto been subjected. At that time, Mr. Whately, as he was then,
+afterwards Archbishop of Dublin, for the few months he remained in
+Oxford, which he was leaving for good, showed great kindness to me. He
+renewed it in 1825, when he became Principal of Alban Hall, making me
+his Vice-Principal and Tutor. Of Dr. Whately I will speak presently: for
+from 1822 to 1825 I saw most of the present Provost of Oriel, Dr.
+Hawkins, at that time Vicar of St. Mary's; and, when I took orders in
+1824 and had a curacy in Oxford, then, during the Long Vacations, I was
+especially thrown into his company. I can say with a full heart that I
+love him, and have never ceased to love him; and I thus preface what
+otherwise might sound rude, that in the course of the many years in
+which we were together afterwards, he provoked me very much from time to
+time, though I am perfectly certain that I have provoked him a great
+deal more. Moreover, in me such provocation was unbecoming, both because
+he was the Head of my College, and because, in the first years that I
+knew him, he had been in many ways of great service to my mind.
+
+He was the first who taught me to weigh my words, and to be cautious in
+my statements. He led me to that mode of limiting and clearing my sense
+in discussion and in controversy, and of distinguishing between cognate
+ideas, and of obviating mistakes by anticipation, which to my surprise
+has been since considered, even in quarters friendly to me, to savour of
+the polemics of Rome. He is a man of most exact mind himself, and he
+used to snub me severely, on reading, as he was kind enough to do, the
+first Sermons that I wrote, and other compositions which I was engaged
+upon.
+
+Then as to doctrine, he was the means of great additions to my belief.
+As I have noticed elsewhere, he gave me the "Treatise on Apostolical
+Preaching," by Sumner, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, from which I
+was led to give up my remaining Calvinism, and to receive the doctrine
+of Baptismal Regeneration. In many other ways too he was of use to me,
+on subjects semi-religious and semi-scholastic.
+
+It was Dr. Hawkins too who taught me to anticipate that, before many
+years were over, there would be an attack made upon the books and the
+canon of Scripture, I was brought to the same belief by the conversation
+of Mr. Blanco White, who also led me to have freer views on the subject
+of inspiration than were usual in the Church of England at the time.
+
+There is one other principle, which I gained from Dr. Hawkins, more
+directly bearing upon Catholicism, than any that I have mentioned; and
+that is the doctrine of Tradition. When I was an Under-graduate, I heard
+him preach in the University Pulpit his celebrated sermon on the
+subject, and recollect how long it appeared to me, though he was at that
+time a very striking preacher; but, when I read it and studied it as his
+gift, it made a most serious impression upon me. He does not go one
+step, I think, beyond the high Anglican doctrine, nay he does not reach
+it; but he does his work thoroughly, and his view was in him original,
+and his subject was a novel one at the time. He lays down a proposition,
+self-evident as soon as stated, to those who have at all examined the
+structure of Scripture, viz. that the sacred text was never intended to
+teach doctrine, but only to prove it, and that, if we would learn
+doctrine, we must have recourse to the formularies of the Church; for
+instance to the Catechism, and to the Creeds. He considers, that, after
+learning from them the doctrines of Christianity, the inquirer must
+verify them by Scripture. This view, most true in its outline, most
+fruitful in its consequences, opened upon me a large field of thought.
+Dr. Whately held it too. One of its effects was to strike at the root of
+the principle on which the Bible Society was set up. I belonged to its
+Oxford Association; it became a matter of time when I should withdraw my
+name from its subscription-list, though I did not do so at once.
+
+It is with pleasure that I pay here a tribute to the memory of the Rev.
+William James, then Fellow of Oriel; who, about the year 1823, taught me
+the doctrine of Apostolical Succession, in the course of a walk, I
+think, round Christ Church meadow; I recollect being somewhat impatient
+of the subject at the time.
+
+It was at about this date, I suppose, that I read Bishop Butler's
+Analogy; the study of which has been to so many, as it was to me, an era
+in their religious opinions. Its inculcation of a visible Church, the
+oracle of truth and a pattern of sanctity, of the duties of external
+religion, and of the historical character of Revelation, are
+characteristics of this great work which strike the reader at once; for
+myself, if I may attempt to determine what I most gained from it, it lay
+in two points, which I shall have an opportunity of dwelling on in the
+sequel; they are the underlying principles of a great portion of my
+teaching. First, the very idea of an analogy between the separate works
+of God leads to the conclusion that the system which is of less
+importance is economically or sacramentally connected with the more
+momentous system[2], and of this conclusion the theory, to which I was
+inclined as a boy, viz. the unreality of material phenomena, is an
+ultimate resolution. At this time I did not make the distinction between
+matter itself and its phenomena, which is so necessary and so obvious in
+discussing the subject. Secondly, Butler's doctrine that Probability is
+the guide of life, led me, at least under the teaching to which a few
+years later I was introduced, to the question of the logical cogency of
+Faith, on which I have written so much. Thus to Butler I trace those two
+principles of my teaching, which have led to a charge against me both of
+fancifulness and of scepticism.
+
+[2] It is significant that Butler begins his work with a quotation from
+Origen.
+
+And now as to Dr. Whately. I owe him a great deal. He was a man of
+generous and warm heart. He was particularly loyal to his friends, and
+to use the common phrase, "all his geese were swans." While I was still
+awkward and timid in 1822, he took me by the hand, and acted towards me
+the part of a gentle and encouraging instructor. He, emphatically,
+opened my mind, and taught me to think and to use my reason. After being
+first noticed by him in 1822, I became very intimate with him in 1825,
+when I was his Vice-Principal at Alban Hall. I gave up that office in
+1826, when I became Tutor of my College, and his hold upon me gradually
+relaxed. He had done his work towards me or nearly so, when he had
+taught me to see with my own eyes and to walk with my own feet. Not that
+I had not a good deal to learn from others still, but I influenced them
+as well as they me, and co-operated rather than merely concurred with
+them. As to Dr. Whately, his mind was too different from mine for us to
+remain long on one line. I recollect how dissatisfied he was with an
+Article of mine in the London Review, which Blanco White,
+good-humouredly, only called Platonic. When I was diverging from him in
+opinion (which he did not like), I thought of dedicating my first book
+to him, in words to the effect that he had not only taught me to think,
+but to think for myself. He left Oxford in 1831; after that, as far as I
+can recollect, I never saw him but twice,--when he visited the
+University; once in the street in 1834, once in a room in 1838. From the
+time that he left, I have always felt a real affection for what I must
+call his memory; for, at least from the year 1834, he made himself dead
+to me. He had practically indeed given me up from the time that he
+became Archbishop in 1831; but in 1834 a correspondence took place
+between us, which, though conducted especially on his side in a friendly
+spirit, was the expression of differences of opinion which acted as a
+final close to our intercourse. My reason told me that it was impossible
+we could have got on together longer, had he stayed in Oxford; yet I
+loved him too much to bid him farewell without pain. After a few years
+had passed, I began to believe that his influence on me in a higher
+respect than intellectual advance, (I will not say through his fault,)
+had not been satisfactory. I believe that he has inserted sharp things
+in his later works about me. They have never come in my way, and I have
+not thought it necessary to seek out what would pain me so much in the
+reading.
+
+What he did for me in point of religious opinion, was, first, to teach
+me the existence of the Church, as a substantive body or corporation;
+next to fix in me those anti-Erastian views of Church polity, which were
+one of the most prominent features of the Tractarian movement. On this
+point, and, as far as I know, on this point alone, he and Hurrell Froude
+intimately sympathized, though Froude's development of opinion here was
+of a later date. In the year 1826, in the course of a walk, he said much
+to me about a work then just published, called "Letters on the Church by
+an Episcopalian." He said that it would make my blood boil. It was
+certainly a most powerful composition. One of our common friends told
+me, that, after reading it, he could not keep still, but went on walking
+up and down his room. It was ascribed at once to Whately; I gave eager
+expression to the contrary opinion; but I found the belief of Oxford in
+the affirmative to be too strong for me; rightly or wrongly I yielded to
+the general voice; and I have never heard, then or since, of any
+disclaimer of authorship on the part of Dr. Whately.
+
+The main positions of this able essay are these; first that Church and
+State should be independent of each other:--he speaks of the duty of
+protesting "against the profanation of Christ's kingdom, by that _double
+usurpation_, the interference of the Church in temporals, of the State
+in spirituals," p. 191; and, secondly, that the Church may justly and by
+right retain its property, though separated from the State. "The
+clergy," he says p. 133, "though they ought not to be the hired servants
+of the Civil Magistrate, may justly retain their revenues; and the
+State, though it has no right of interference in spiritual concerns, not
+only is justly entitled to support from the ministers of religion, and
+from all other Christians, but would, under the system I am
+recommending, obtain it much more effectually." The author of this work,
+whoever he may be, argues out both these points with great force and
+ingenuity, and with a thorough-going vehemence, which perhaps we may
+refer to the circumstance, that he wrote, not _in propriâ personâ_, and
+as thereby answerable for every sentiment that he advanced, but in the
+professed character of a Scotch Episcopalian. His work had a gradual,
+but a deep effect on my mind.
+
+I am not aware of any other religious opinion which I owe to Dr.
+Whately. In his special theological tenets I had no sympathy. In the
+next year, 1827, he told me he considered that I was Arianizing. The
+case was this: though at that time I had not read Bishop Bull's
+_Defensio_ nor the Fathers, I was just then very strong for that
+ante-Nicene view of the Trinitarian doctrine, which some writers, both
+Catholic and non-Catholic, have accused of wearing a sort of Arian
+exterior. This is the meaning of a passage in Froude's Remains, in which
+he seems to accuse me of speaking against the Athanasian Creed. I had
+contrasted the two aspects of the Trinitarian doctrine, which are
+respectively presented by the Athanasian Creed and the Nicene. My
+criticisms were to the effect that some of the verses of the former
+Creed were unnecessarily scientific. This is a specimen of a certain
+disdain for Antiquity which had been growing on me now for several
+years. It showed itself in some flippant language against the Fathers in
+the Encyclopædia Metropolitana, about whom I knew little at the time,
+except what I had learnt as a boy from Joseph Milner. In writing on the
+Scripture Miracles in 1825-6, I had read Middleton on the Miracles of
+the early Church, and had imbibed a portion of his spirit.
+
+The truth is, I was beginning to prefer intellectual excellence to
+moral; I was drifting in the direction of the Liberalism of the day[3].
+I was rudely awakened from my dream at the end of 1827 by two great
+blows--illness and bereavement.
+
+[3] Vide Note A, _Liberalism_, at the end of the volume.
+
+In the beginning of 1829, came the formal break between Dr. Whately and
+me; the affair of Mr. Peel's re-election was the occasion of it. I think
+in 1828 or 1827 I had voted in the minority, when the Petition to
+Parliament against the Catholic Claims was brought into Convocation. I
+did so mainly on the views suggested to me in the Letters of an
+Episcopalian. Also I shrank from the bigoted "two-bottle-orthodox," as
+they were invidiously called. When then I took part against Mr. Peel, it
+was on an academical, not at all an ecclesiastical or a political
+ground; and this I professed at the time. I considered that Mr. Peel had
+taken the University by surprise; that his friends had no right to call
+upon us to turn round on a sudden, and to expose ourselves to the
+imputation of time-serving; and that a great University ought not to be
+bullied even by a great Duke of Wellington. Also by this time I was
+under the influence of Keble and Froude; who, in addition to the reasons
+I have given, disliked the Duke's change of policy as dictated by
+liberalism.
+
+Whately was considerably annoyed at me, and he took a humourous revenge,
+of which he had given me due notice beforehand. As head of a house he
+had duties of hospitality to men of all parties; he asked a set of the
+least intellectual men in Oxford to dinner, and men most fond of port;
+he made me one of this party; placed me between Provost This and
+Principal That, and then asked me if I was proud of my friends. However,
+he had a serious meaning in his act; he saw, more clearly than I could
+do, that I was separating from his own friends for good and all.
+
+Dr. Whately attributed my leaving his _clientela_ to a wish on my part
+to be the head of a party myself. I do not think that this charge was
+deserved. My habitual feeling then and since has been, that it was not I
+who sought friends, but friends who sought me. Never man had kinder or
+more indulgent friends than I have had; but I expressed my own feeling
+as to the mode in which I gained them, in this very year 1829, in the
+course of a copy of verses. Speaking of my blessings, I said, "Blessings
+of friends, which to my door _unasked, unhoped_, have come." They have
+come, they have gone; they came to my great joy, they went to my great
+grief. He who gave took away. Dr. Whately's impression about me,
+however, admits of this explanation:--
+
+During the first years of my residence at Oriel, though proud of my
+College, I was not quite at home there. I was very much alone, and I
+used often to take my daily walk by myself. I recollect once meeting Dr.
+Copleston, then Provost, with one of the Fellows. He turned round, and
+with the kind courteousness which sat so well on him, made me a bow and
+said, "Nunquam minus solus, quàm cùm solus." At that time indeed (from
+1823) I had the intimacy of my dear and true friend Dr. Pusey, and could
+not fail to admire and revere a soul so devoted to the cause of
+religion, so full of good works, so faithful in his affections; but he
+left residence when I was getting to know him well. As to Dr. Whately
+himself, he was too much my superior to allow of my being at my ease
+with him; and to no one in Oxford at this time did I open my heart fully
+and familiarly. But things changed in 1826. At that time I became one of
+the Tutors of my College, and this gave me position; besides, I had
+written one or two Essays which had been well received. I began to be
+known. I preached my first University Sermon. Next year I was one of the
+Public Examiners for the B.A. degree. In 1828 I became Vicar of St.
+Mary's. It was to me like the feeling of spring weather after winter;
+and, if I may so speak, I came out of my shell; I remained out of it
+till 1841.
+
+The two persons who knew me best at that time are still alive, beneficed
+clergymen, no longer my friends. They could tell better than any one
+else what I was in those years. From this time my tongue was, as it
+were, loosened, and I spoke spontaneously and without effort. One of the
+two, Mr. Rickards, said of me, I have been told, "Here is a fellow who,
+when he is silent, will never begin to speak; and when he once begins to
+speak, will never stop." It was at this time that I began to have
+influence, which steadily increased for a course of years. I gained upon
+my pupils, and was in particular intimate and affectionate with two of
+our probationer Fellows, Robert Isaac Wilberforce (afterwards
+Archdeacon) and Richard Hurrell Froude. Whately then, an acute man,
+perhaps saw around me the signs of an incipient party, of which I was
+not conscious myself. And thus we discern the first elements of that
+movement afterwards called Tractarian.
+
+The true and primary author of it, however, as is usual with great
+motive-powers, was out of sight. Having carried off as a mere boy the
+highest honours of the University, he had turned from the admiration
+which haunted his steps, and sought for a better and holier satisfaction
+in pastoral work in the country. Need I say that I am speaking of John
+Keble? The first time that I was in a room with him was on occasion of
+my election to a fellowship at Oriel, when I was sent for into the
+Tower, to shake hands with the Provost and Fellows. How is that hour
+fixed in my memory after the changes of forty-two years, forty-two this
+very day on which I write! I have lately had a letter in my hands, which
+I sent at the time to my great friend, John William Bowden, with whom I
+passed almost exclusively my Under-graduate years. "I had to hasten to
+the Tower," I say to him, "to receive the congratulations of all the
+Fellows. I bore it till Keble took my hand, and then felt so abashed and
+unworthy of the honour done me, that I seemed desirous of quite sinking
+into the ground." His had been the first name which I had heard spoken
+of, with reverence rather than admiration, when I came up to Oxford.
+When one day I was walking in High Street with my dear earliest friend
+just mentioned, with what eagerness did he cry out, "There's Keble!" and
+with what awe did I look at him! Then at another time I heard a Master
+of Arts of my College give an account how he had just then had occasion
+to introduce himself on some business to Keble, and how gentle,
+courteous, and unaffected Keble had been, so as almost to put him out of
+countenance. Then too it was reported, truly or falsely, how a rising
+man of brilliant reputation, the present Dean of St. Paul's, Dr. Milman,
+admired and loved him, adding, that somehow he was strangely unlike any
+one else. However, at the time when I was elected Fellow of Oriel he was
+not in residence, and he was shy of me for years in consequence of the
+marks which I bore upon me of the evangelical and liberal schools. At
+least so I have ever thought. Hurrell Froude brought us together about
+1828: it is one of the sayings preserved in his "Remains,"--"Do you know
+the story of the murderer who had done one good thing in his life? Well;
+if I was ever asked what good deed I had ever done, I should say that I
+had brought Keble and Newman to understand each other."
+
+The Christian Year made its appearance in 1827. It is not necessary, and
+scarcely becoming, to praise a book which has already become one of the
+classics of the language. When the general tone of religious literature
+was so nerveless and impotent, as it was at that time, Keble struck an
+original note and woke up in the hearts of thousands a new music, the
+music of a school, long unknown in England. Nor can I pretend to
+analyze, in my own instance, the effect of religious teaching so deep,
+so pure, so beautiful. I have never till now tried to do so; yet I think
+I am not wrong in saying, that the two main intellectual truths which it
+brought home to me, were the same two, which I had learned from Butler,
+though recast in the creative mind of my new master. The first of those
+was what may be called, in a large sense of the word, the Sacramental
+system; that is, the doctrine that material phenomena are both the types
+and the instruments of real things unseen,--a doctrine, which embraces
+in its fulness, not only what Anglicans, as well as Catholics, believe
+about Sacraments properly so called; but also the article of "the
+Communion of Saints;" and likewise the Mysteries of the faith. The
+connexion of this philosophy of religion with what is sometimes called
+"Berkeleyism" has been mentioned above; I knew little of Berkeley at
+this time except by name; nor have I ever studied him.
+
+On the second intellectual principle which I gained from Mr. Keble, I
+could say a great deal; if this were the place for it. It runs through
+very much that I have written, and has gained for me many hard names.
+Butler teaches us that probability is the guide of life. The danger of
+this doctrine, in the case of many minds, is, its tendency to destroy in
+them absolute certainty, leading them to consider every conclusion as
+doubtful, and resolving truth into an opinion, which it is safe indeed
+to obey or to profess, but not possible to embrace with full internal
+assent. If this were to be allowed, then the celebrated saying, "O God,
+if there be a God, save my soul, if I have a soul!" would be the highest
+measure of devotion:--but who can really pray to a Being, about whose
+existence he is seriously in doubt?
+
+I considered that Mr. Keble met this difficulty by ascribing the
+firmness of assent which we give to religious doctrine, not to the
+probabilities which introduced it, but to the living power of faith and
+love which accepted it. In matters of religion, he seemed to say, it is
+not merely probability which makes us intellectually certain, but
+probability as it is put to account by faith and love. It is faith and
+love which give to probability a force which it has not in itself. Faith
+and love are directed towards an Object; in the vision of that Object
+they live; it is that Object, received in faith and love, which renders
+it reasonable to take probability as sufficient for internal conviction.
+Thus the argument from Probability, in the matter of religion, became an
+argument from Personality, which in fact is one form of the argument
+from Authority.
+
+In illustration, Mr. Keble used to quote the words of the Psalm: "I will
+guide thee with mine _eye_. Be ye not like to horse and mule, which have
+no understanding; whose mouths must be held with bit and bridle, lest
+they fall upon thee." This is the very difference, he used to say,
+between slaves, and friends or children. Friends do not ask for literal
+commands; but, from their knowledge of the speaker, they understand his
+half-words, and from love of him they anticipate his wishes. Hence it
+is, that in his Poem for St. Bartholomew's Day, he speaks of the "Eye of
+God's word;" and in the note quotes Mr. Miller, of Worcester College,
+who remarks in his Bampton Lectures, on the special power of Scripture,
+as having "this Eye, like that of a portrait, uniformly fixed upon us,
+turn where we will." The view thus suggested by Mr. Keble, is brought
+forward in one of the earliest of the "Tracts for the Times." In No. 8 I
+say, "The Gospel is a Law of Liberty. We are treated as sons, not as
+servants; not subjected to a code of formal commandments, but addressed
+as those who love God, and wish to please Him."
+
+I did not at all dispute this view of the matter, for I made use of it
+myself; but I was dissatisfied, because it did not go to the root of the
+difficulty. It was beautiful and religious, but it did not even profess
+to be logical; and accordingly I tried to complete it by considerations
+of my own, which are to be found in my University Sermons, Essay on
+Ecclesiastical Miracles, and Essay on Development of Doctrine. My
+argument is in outline as follows: that that absolute certitude which we
+were able to possess, whether as to the truths of natural theology, or
+as to the fact of a revelation, was the result of an _assemblage_ of
+concurring and converging probabilities, and that, both according to the
+constitution of the human mind and the will of its Maker; that certitude
+was a habit of mind, that certainty was a quality of propositions; that
+probabilities which did not reach to logical certainty, might suffice
+for a mental certitude; that the certitude thus brought about might
+equal in measure and strength the certitude which was created by the
+strictest scientific demonstration; and that to possess such certitude
+might in given cases and to given individuals be a plain duty, though
+not to others in other circumstances:--
+
+Moreover, that as there were probabilities which sufficed for certitude,
+so there were other probabilities which were legitimately adapted to
+create opinion; that it might be quite as much a matter of duty in given
+cases and to given persons to have about a fact an opinion of a definite
+strength and consistency, as in the case of greater or of more numerous
+probabilities it was a duty to have a certitude; that accordingly we
+were bound to be more or less sure, on a sort of (as it were) graduated
+scale of assent, viz. according as the probabilities attaching to a
+professed fact were brought home to us, and as the case might be, to
+entertain about it a pious belief, or a pious opinion, or a religious
+conjecture, or at least, a tolerance of such belief, or opinion or
+conjecture in others; that on the other hand, as it was a duty to have a
+belief, of more or less strong texture, in given cases, so in other
+cases it was a duty not to believe, not to opine, not to conjecture, not
+even to tolerate the notion that a professed fact was true, inasmuch as
+it would be credulity or superstition, or some other moral fault, to do
+so. This was the region of Private Judgment in religion; that is, of a
+Private Judgment, not formed arbitrarily and according to one's fancy or
+liking, but conscientiously, and under a sense of duty.
+
+Considerations such as these throw a new light on the subject of
+Miracles, and they seem to have led me to reconsider the view which I
+had taken of them in my Essay in 1825-6. I do not know what was the date
+of this change in me, nor of the train of ideas on which it was founded.
+That there had been already great miracles, as those of Scripture, as
+the Resurrection, was a fact establishing the principle that the laws of
+nature had sometimes been suspended by their Divine Author, and since
+what had happened once might happen again, a certain probability, at
+least no kind of improbability, was attached to the idea taken in
+itself, of miraculous intervention in later times, and miraculous
+accounts were to be regarded in connexion with the verisimilitude,
+scope, instrument, character, testimony, and circumstances, with which
+they presented themselves to us; and, according to the final result of
+those various considerations, it was our duty to be sure, or to believe,
+or to opine, or to surmise, or to tolerate, or to reject, or to
+denounce. The main difference between my Essay on Miracles in 1826 and
+my Essay in 1842 is this: that in 1826 I considered that miracles were
+sharply divided into two classes, those which were to be received, and
+those which were to be rejected; whereas in 1842 I saw that they were to
+be regarded according to their greater or less probability, which was in
+some cases sufficient to create certitude about them, in other cases
+only belief or opinion.
+
+Moreover, the argument from Analogy, on which this view of the question
+was founded, suggested to me something besides, in recommendation of the
+Ecclesiastical Miracles. It fastened itself upon the theory of Church
+History which I had learned as a boy from Joseph Milner. It is Milner's
+doctrine, that upon the visible Church come down from above, at certain
+intervals, large and temporary _Effusions_ of divine grace. This is the
+leading idea of his work. He begins by speaking of the Day of Pentecost,
+as marking "the first of those _Effusions_ of the Spirit of God, which
+from age to age have visited the earth since the coming of Christ." Vol.
+i. p. 3. In a note he adds that "in the term 'Effusion' there is _not_
+here included the idea of the miraculous or extraordinary operations of
+the Spirit of God;" but still it was natural for me, admitting Milner's
+general theory, and applying to it the principle of analogy, not to stop
+short at his abrupt _ipse dixit_, but boldly to pass forward to the
+conclusion, on other grounds plausible, that as miracles accompanied the
+first effusion of grace, so they might accompany the later. It is surely
+a natural and on the whole, a true anticipation (though of course there
+are exceptions in particular cases), that gifts and graces go together;
+now, according to the ancient Catholic doctrine, the gift of miracles
+was viewed as the attendant and shadow of transcendent sanctity: and
+moreover, since such sanctity was not of every day's occurrence, nay
+further, since one period of Church history differed widely from
+another, and, as Joseph Milner would say, there have been generations or
+centuries of degeneracy or disorder, and times of revival, and since one
+region might be in the mid-day of religious fervour, and another in
+twilight or gloom, there was no force in the popular argument, that,
+because we did not see miracles with our own eyes, miracles had not
+happened in former times, or were not now at this very time taking place
+in distant places:--but I must not dwell longer on a subject, to which
+in a few words it is impossible to do justice[4].
+
+[4] Vide note B, _Ecclesiastical Miracles_, at the end of the volume.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Hurrell Froude was a pupil of Keble's, formed by him, and in turn
+reacting upon him. I knew him first in 1826, and was in the closest and
+most affectionate friendship with him from about 1829 till his death in
+1836. He was a man of the highest gifts,--so truly many-sided, that it
+would be presumptuous in me to attempt to describe him, except under
+those aspects in which he came before me. Nor have I here to speak of
+the gentleness and tenderness of nature, the playfulness, the free
+elastic force and graceful versatility of mind, and the patient winning
+considerateness in discussion, which endeared him to those to whom he
+opened his heart; for I am all along engaged upon matters of belief and
+opinion, and am introducing others into my narrative, not for their own
+sake, or because I love and have loved them, so much as because, and so
+far as, they have influenced my theological views. In this respect then,
+I speak of Hurrell Froude,--in his intellectual aspect,--as a man of
+high genius, brimful and overflowing with ideas and views, in him
+original, which were too many and strong even for his bodily strength,
+and which crowded and jostled against each other in their effort after
+distinct shape and expression. And he had an intellect as critical and
+logical as it was speculative and bold. Dying prematurely, as he did,
+and in the conflict and transition-state of opinion, his religious views
+never reached their ultimate conclusion, by the very reason of their
+multitude and their depth. His opinions arrested and influenced me, even
+when they did not gain my assent. He professed openly his admiration of
+the Church of Rome, and his hatred of the Reformers. He delighted in the
+notion of an hierarchical system, of sacerdotal power, and of full
+ecclesiastical liberty. He felt scorn of the maxim, "The Bible and the
+Bible only is the religion of Protestants;" and he gloried in accepting
+Tradition as a main instrument of religious teaching. He had a high
+severe idea of the intrinsic excellence of Virginity; and he considered
+the Blessed Virgin its great Pattern. He delighted in thinking of the
+Saints; he had a vivid appreciation of the idea of sanctity, its
+possibility and its heights; and he was more than inclined to believe a
+large amount of miraculous interference as occurring in the early and
+middle ages. He embraced the principle of penance and mortification. He
+had a deep devotion to the Real Presence, in which he had a firm faith.
+He was powerfully drawn to the Medieval Church, but not to the
+Primitive.
+
+He had a keen insight into abstract truth; but he was an Englishman to
+the backbone in his severe adherence to the real and the concrete. He
+had a most classical taste, and a genius for philosophy and art; and he
+was fond of historical inquiry, and the politics of religion. He had no
+turn for theology as such. He set no sufficient value on the writings of
+the Fathers, on the detail or development of doctrine, on the definite
+traditions of the Church viewed in their matter, on the teaching of the
+Ecumenical Councils, or on the controversies out of which they arose. He
+took an eager courageous view of things on the whole. I should say that
+his power of entering into the minds of others did not equal his other
+gifts; he could not believe, for instance, that I really held the Roman
+Church to be Anti-christian. On many points he would not believe but
+that I agreed with him, when I did not. He seemed not to understand my
+difficulties. His were of a different kind, the contrariety between
+theory and fact. He was a high Tory of the Cavalier stamp, and was
+disgusted with the Toryism of the opponents of the Reform Bill. He was
+smitten with the love of the Theocratic Church; he went abroad and was
+shocked by the degeneracy which he thought he saw in the Catholics of
+Italy.
+
+It is difficult to enumerate the precise additions to my theological
+creed which I derived from a friend to whom I owe so much. He taught me
+to look with admiration towards the Church of Rome, and in the same
+degree to dislike the Reformation. He fixed deep in me the idea of
+devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and he led me gradually to believe in
+the Real Presence.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There is one remaining source of my opinions to be mentioned, and that
+far from the least important. In proportion as I moved out of the shadow
+of that liberalism which had hung over my course, my early devotion
+towards the Fathers returned; and in the Long Vacation of 1828 I set
+about to read them chronologically, beginning with St. Ignatius and St.
+Justin. About 1830 a proposal was made to me by Mr. Hugh Rose, who with
+Mr. Lyall (afterwards Dean of Canterbury) was providing writers for a
+Theological Library, to furnish them with a History of the Principal
+Councils. I accepted it, and at once set to work on the Council of
+Nicæa. It was to launch myself on an ocean with currents innumerable;
+and I was drifted back first to the ante-Nicene history, and then to the
+Church of Alexandria. The work at last appeared under the title of "The
+Arians of the Fourth Century;" and of its 422 pages, the first 117
+consisted of introductory matter, and the Council of Nicæa did not
+appear till the 254th, and then occupied at most twenty pages.
+
+I do not know when I first learnt to consider that Antiquity was the
+true exponent of the doctrines of Christianity and the basis of the
+Church of England; but I take it for granted that the works of Bishop
+Bull, which at this time I read, were my chief introduction to this
+principle. The course of reading, which I pursued in the composition of
+my volume, was directly adapted to develope it in my mind. What
+principally attracted me in the ante-Nicene period was the great Church
+of Alexandria, the historical centre of teaching in those times. Of Rome
+for some centuries comparatively little is known. The battle of Arianism
+was first fought in Alexandria; Athanasius, the champion of the truth,
+was Bishop of Alexandria; and in his writings he refers to the great
+religious names of an earlier date, to Origen, Dionysius, and others,
+who were the glory of its see, or of its school. The broad philosophy of
+Clement and Origen carried me away; the philosophy, not the theological
+doctrine; and I have drawn out some features of it in my volume, with
+the zeal and freshness, but with the partiality, of a neophyte. Some
+portions of their teaching, magnificent in themselves, came like music
+to my inward ear, as if the response to ideas, which, with little
+external to encourage them, I had cherished so long. These were based on
+the mystical or sacramental principle, and spoke of the various
+Economies or Dispensations of the Eternal. I understood these passages
+to mean that the exterior world, physical and historical, was but the
+manifestation to our senses of realities greater than itself. Nature was
+a parable: Scripture was an allegory: pagan literature, philosophy, and
+mythology, properly understood, were but a preparation for the Gospel.
+The Greek poets and sages were in a certain sense prophets; for
+"thoughts beyond their thought to those high bards were given." There
+had been a directly divine dispensation granted to the Jews; but there
+had been in some sense a dispensation carried on in favour of the
+Gentiles. He who had taken the seed of Jacob for His elect people had
+not therefore cast the rest of mankind out of His sight. In the fulness
+of time both Judaism and Paganism had come to nought; the outward
+framework, which concealed yet suggested the Living Truth, had never
+been intended to last, and it was dissolving under the beams of the Sun
+of Justice which shone behind it and through it. The process of change
+had been slow; it had been done not rashly, but by rule and measure, "at
+sundry times and in divers manners," first one disclosure and then
+another, till the whole evangelical doctrine was brought into full
+manifestation. And thus room was made for the anticipation of further
+and deeper disclosures, of truths still under the veil of the letter,
+and in their season to be revealed. The visible world still remains
+without its divine interpretation; Holy Church in her sacraments and her
+hierarchical appointments, will remain, even to the end of the world,
+after all but a symbol of those heavenly facts which fill eternity. Her
+mysteries are but the expressions in human language of truths to which
+the human mind is unequal. It is evident how much there was in all this
+in correspondence with the thoughts which had attracted me when I was
+young, and with the doctrine which I have already associated with the
+Analogy and the Christian Year.
+
+It was, I suppose, to the Alexandrian school and to the early Church,
+that I owe in particular what I definitely held about the Angels. I
+viewed them, not only as the ministers employed by the Creator in the
+Jewish and Christian dispensations, as we find on the face of Scripture,
+but as carrying on, as Scripture also implies, the Economy of the
+Visible World. I considered them as the real causes of motion, light,
+and life, and of those elementary principles of the physical universe,
+which, when offered in their developments to our senses, suggest to us
+the notion of cause and effect, and of what are called the laws of
+nature. This doctrine I have drawn out in my Sermon for Michaelmas day,
+written in 1831. I say of the Angels, "Every breath of air and ray of
+light and heat, every beautiful prospect, is, as it were, the skirts of
+their garments, the waving of the robes of those whose faces see God."
+Again, I ask what would be the thoughts of a man who, "when examining a
+flower, or a herb, or a pebble, or a ray of light, which he treats as
+something so beneath him in the scale of existence, suddenly discovered
+that he was in the presence of some powerful being who was hidden behind
+the visible things he was inspecting,--who, though concealing his wise
+hand, was giving them their beauty, grace, and perfection, as being
+God's instrument for the purpose,--nay, whose robe and ornaments those
+objects were, which he was so eager to analyze?" and I therefore remark
+that "we may say with grateful and simple hearts with the Three Holy
+Children, 'O all ye works of the Lord, &c., &c., bless ye the Lord,
+praise Him, and magnify Him for ever.'"
+
+Also, besides the hosts of evil spirits, I considered there was a middle
+race, [Greek: daimonia], neither in heaven, nor in hell; partially
+fallen, capricious, wayward; noble or crafty, benevolent or malicious,
+as the case might be. These beings gave a sort of inspiration or
+intelligence to races, nations, and classes of men. Hence the action of
+bodies politic and associations, which is often so different from that
+of the individuals who compose them. Hence the character and the
+instinct of states and governments, of religious communities and
+communions. I thought these assemblages had their life in certain unseen
+Powers. My preference of the Personal to the Abstract would naturally
+lead me to this view. I thought it countenanced by the mention of "the
+Prince of Persia" in the Prophet Daniel; and I think I considered that
+it was of such intermediate beings that the Apocalypse spoke, in its
+notice of "the Angels of the Seven Churches."
+
+In 1837 I made a further development of this doctrine. I said to an
+intimate and dear friend, Samuel Francis Wood, in a letter which came
+into my hands on his death. "I have an idea. The mass of the Fathers
+(Justin, Athenagoras, Irenæus, Clement, Tertullian, Origen, Lactantius,
+Sulpicius, Ambrose, Nazianzen,) hold that, though Satan fell from the
+beginning, the Angels fell before the deluge, falling in love with the
+daughters of men. This has lately come across me as a remarkable
+solution of a notion which I cannot help holding. Daniel speaks as if
+each nation had its guardian Angel. I cannot but think that there are
+beings with a great deal of good in them, yet with great defects, who
+are the animating principles of certain institutions, &c., &c.... Take
+England with many high virtues, and yet a low Catholicism. It seems to
+me that John Bull is a spirit neither of heaven nor hell.... Has not the
+Christian Church, in its parts, surrendered itself to one or other of
+these simulations of the truth?... How are we to avoid Scylla and
+Charybdis and go straight on to the very image of Christ?" &c., &c.
+
+I am aware that what I have been saying will, with many men, be doing
+credit to my imagination at the expense of my judgment--"Hippoclides
+doesn't care;" I am not setting myself up as a pattern of good sense or
+of any thing else: I am but giving a history of my opinions, and that,
+with the view of showing that I have come by them through intelligible
+processes of thought and honest external means. The doctrine indeed of
+the Economy has in some quarters been itself condemned as intrinsically
+pernicious,--as if leading to lying and equivocation, when applied, as I
+have applied it in my remarks upon it in my History of the Arians, to
+matters of conduct. My answer to this imputation I postpone to the
+concluding pages of my Volume.
+
+While I was engaged in writing my work upon the Arians, great events
+were happening at home and abroad, which brought out into form and
+passionate expression the various beliefs which had so gradually been
+winning their way into my mind. Shortly before, there had been a
+Revolution in France; the Bourbons had been dismissed: and I held that
+it was unchristian for nations to cast off their governors, and, much
+more, sovereigns who had the divine right of inheritance. Again, the
+great Reform Agitation was going on around me as I wrote. The Whigs had
+come into power; Lord Grey had told the Bishops to set their house in
+order, and some of the Prelates had been insulted and threatened in the
+streets of London. The vital question was, how were we to keep the
+Church from being liberalized? there was such apathy on the subject in
+some quarters, such imbecile alarm in others; the true principles of
+Churchmanship seemed so radically decayed, and there was such
+distraction in the councils of the Clergy. Blomfield, the Bishop of
+London of the day, an active and open-hearted man, had been for years
+engaged in diluting the high orthodoxy of the Church by the introduction
+of members of the Evangelical body into places of influence and trust.
+He had deeply offended men who agreed in opinion with myself, by an
+off-hand saying (as it was reported) to the effect that belief in the
+Apostolical succession had gone out with the Non-jurors. "We can count
+you," he said to some of the gravest and most venerated persons of the
+old school. And the Evangelical party itself, with their late successes,
+seemed to have lost that simplicity and unworldliness which I admired so
+much in Milner and Scott. It was not that I did not venerate such men as
+Ryder, the then Bishop of Lichfield, and others of similar sentiments,
+who were not yet promoted out of the ranks of the Clergy, but I thought
+little of the Evangelicals as a class. I thought they played into the
+hands of the Liberals. With the Establishment thus divided and
+threatened, thus ignorant of its true strength, I compared that fresh
+vigorous Power of which I was reading in the first centuries. In her
+triumphant zeal on behalf of that Primeval Mystery, to which I had had
+so great a devotion from my youth, I recognized the movement of my
+Spiritual Mother. "Incessu patuit Dea." The self-conquest of her
+Ascetics, the patience of her Martyrs, the irresistible determination of
+her Bishops, the joyous swing of her advance, both exalted and abashed
+me. I said to myself, "Look on this picture and on that;" I felt
+affection for my own Church, but not tenderness; I felt dismay at her
+prospects, anger and scorn at her do-nothing perplexity. I thought that
+if Liberalism once got a footing within her, it was sure of the victory
+in the event. I saw that Reformation principles were powerless to rescue
+her. As to leaving her, the thought never crossed my imagination; still
+I ever kept before me that there was something greater than the
+Established Church, and that that was the Church Catholic and Apostolic,
+set up from the beginning, of which she was but the local presence and
+the organ. She was nothing, unless she was this. She must be dealt with
+strongly, or she would be lost. There was need of a second reformation.
+
+At this time I was disengaged from College duties, and my health had
+suffered from the labour involved in the composition of my Volume. It
+was ready for the Press in July, 1832, though not published till the end
+of 1833. I was easily persuaded to join Hurrell Froude and his Father,
+who were going to the south of Europe for the health of the former.
+
+We set out in December, 1832. It was during this expedition that my
+Verses which are in the Lyra Apostolica were written;--a few indeed
+before it, but not more than one or two of them after it. Exchanging, as
+I was, definite Tutorial work, and the literary quiet and pleasant
+friendships of the last six years, for foreign countries and an unknown
+future, I naturally was led to think that some inward changes, as well
+as some larger course of action, were coming upon me. At Whitchurch,
+while waiting for the down mail to Falmouth, I wrote the verses about my
+Guardian Angel, which begin with these words: "Are these the tracks of
+some unearthly Friend?" and which go on to speak of "the vision" which
+haunted me:--that vision is more or less brought out in the whole series
+of these compositions.
+
+I went to various coasts of the Mediterranean; parted with my friends at
+Rome; went down for the second time to Sicily without companion, at the
+end of April; and got back to England by Palermo in the early part of
+July. The strangeness of foreign life threw me back into myself; I found
+pleasure in historical sites and beautiful scenes, not in men and
+manners. We kept clear of Catholics throughout our tour. I had a
+conversation with the Dean of Malta, a most pleasant man, lately dead;
+but it was about the Fathers, and the Library of the great church. I
+knew the Abbate Santini, at Rome, who did no more than copy for me the
+Gregorian tones. Froude and I made two calls upon Monsignore (now
+Cardinal) Wiseman at the Collegio Inglese, shortly before we left Rome.
+Once we heard him preach at a church in the Corso. I do not recollect
+being in a room with any other ecclesiastics, except a Priest at
+Castro-Giovanni in Sicily, who called on me when I was ill, and with
+whom I wished to hold a controversy. As to Church Services, we attended
+the Tenebræ, at the Sestine, for the sake of the Miserere; and that was
+all. My general feeling was, "All, save the spirit of man, is divine." I
+saw nothing but what was external; of the hidden life of Catholics I
+knew nothing. I was still more driven back into myself, and felt my
+isolation. England was in my thoughts solely, and the news from England
+came rarely and imperfectly. The Bill for the Suppression of the Irish
+Sees was in progress, and filled my mind. I had fierce thoughts against
+the Liberals.
+
+It was the success of the Liberal cause which fretted me inwardly. I
+became fierce against its instruments and its manifestations. A French
+vessel was at Algiers; I would not even look at the tricolour. On my
+return, though forced to stop twenty-four hours at Paris, I kept indoors
+the whole time, and all that I saw of that beautiful city was what I saw
+from the Diligence. The Bishop of London had already sounded me as to my
+filling one of the Whitehall preacherships, which he had just then put
+on a new footing; but I was indignant at the line which he was taking,
+and from my Steamer I had sent home a letter declining the appointment
+by anticipation, should it be offered to me. At this time I was
+specially annoyed with Dr. Arnold, though it did not last into later
+years. Some one, I think, asked, in conversation at Rome, whether a
+certain interpretation of Scripture was Christian? it was answered that
+Dr. Arnold took it; I interposed, "But is _he_ a Christian?" The subject
+went out of my head at once; when afterwards I was taxed with it, I
+could say no more in explanation, than (what I believe was the fact)
+that I must have had in mind some free views of Dr. Arnold about the Old
+Testament:--I thought I must have meant, "Arnold answers for the
+interpretation, but who is to answer for Arnold?" It was at Rome, too,
+that we began the Lyra Apostolica which appeared monthly in the British
+Magazine. The motto shows the feeling of both Froude and myself at the
+time: we borrowed from M. Bunsen a Homer, and Froude chose the words in
+which Achilles, on returning to the battle, says, "You shall know the
+difference, now that I am back again."
+
+Especially when I was left by myself, the thought came upon me that
+deliverance is wrought, not by the many but by the few, not by bodies
+but by persons. Now it was, I think, that I repeated to myself the
+words, which had ever been dear to me from my school days, "Exoriare
+aliquis!"--now too, that Southey's beautiful poem of Thalaba, for which
+I had an immense liking, came forcibly to my mind. I began to think that
+I had a mission. There are sentences of my letters to my friends to this
+effect, if they are not destroyed. When we took leave of Monsignore
+Wiseman, he had courteously expressed a wish that we might make a second
+visit to Rome; I said with great gravity, "We have a work to do in
+England." I went down at once to Sicily, and the presentiment grew
+stronger. I struck into the middle of the island, and fell ill of a
+fever at Leonforte. My servant thought that I was dying, and begged for
+my last directions. I gave them, as he wished; but I said, "I shall not
+die." I repeated, "I shall not die, for I have not sinned against light,
+I have not sinned against light." I never have been able quite to make
+out what I meant.
+
+I got to Castro-Giovanni, and was laid up there for nearly three weeks.
+Towards the end of May I left for Palermo, taking three days for the
+journey. Before starting from my inn in the morning of May 26th or 27th,
+I sat down on my bed, and began to sob violently. My servant, who had
+acted as my nurse, asked what ailed me. I could only answer him, "I have
+a work to do in England."
+
+I was aching to get home; yet for want of a vessel I was kept at Palermo
+for three weeks. I began to visit the Churches, and they calmed my
+impatience, though I did not attend any services. I knew nothing of the
+Presence of the Blessed Sacrament there. At last I got off in an orange
+boat, bound for Marseilles. Then it was that I wrote the lines, "Lead,
+kindly light," which have since become well known. We were becalmed a
+whole week in the Straits of Bonifacio. I was writing verses the whole
+time of my passage. At length I got to Marseilles, and set off for
+England. The fatigue of travelling was too much for me, and I was laid
+up for several days at Lyons. At last I got off again, and did not stop
+night or day, (except a compulsory delay at Paris,) till I reached
+England, and my mother's house. My brother had arrived from Persia only
+a few hours before. This was on the Tuesday. The following Sunday, July
+14th, Mr. Keble preached the Assize Sermon in the University Pulpit. It
+was published under the title of "National Apostasy." I have ever
+considered and kept the day, as the start of the religious movement of
+1833.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+HISTORY OF MY RELIGIOUS OPINIONS FROM 1833 TO 1839.
+
+
+In spite of the foregoing pages, I have no romantic story to tell; but I
+have written them, because it is my duty to tell things as they took
+place. I have not exaggerated the feelings with which I returned to
+England, and I have no desire to dress up the events which followed, so
+as to make them in keeping with the narrative which has gone before. I
+soon relapsed into the every-day life which I had hitherto led; in all
+things the same, except that a new object was given me. I had employed
+myself in my own rooms in reading and writing, and in the care of a
+Church, before I left England, and I returned to the same occupations
+when I was back again. And yet perhaps those first vehement feelings
+which carried me on, were necessary for the beginning of the Movement;
+and afterwards, when it was once begun, the special need of me was over.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When I got home from abroad, I found that already a movement had
+commenced, in opposition to the specific danger which at that time was
+threatening the religion of the nation and its Church. Several zealous
+and able men had united their counsels, and were in correspondence with
+each other. The principal of these were Mr. Keble, Hurrell Froude, who
+had reached home long before me, Mr. William Palmer of Dublin and
+Worcester College (not Mr. William Palmer of Magdalen, who is now a
+Catholic), Mr. Arthur Perceval, and Mr. Hugh Rose.
+
+To mention Mr. Hugh Rose's name is to kindle in the minds of those who
+knew him a host of pleasant and affectionate remembrances. He was the
+man above all others fitted by his cast of mind and literary powers to
+make a stand, if a stand could be made, against the calamity of the
+times. He was gifted with a high and large mind, and a true sensibility
+of what was great and beautiful; he wrote with warmth and energy; and he
+had a cool head and cautious judgment. He spent his strength and
+shortened his life. Pro Ecclesia Dei, as he understood that sovereign
+idea. Some years earlier he had been the first to give warning, I think
+from the University Pulpit at Cambridge, of the perils to England which
+lay in the biblical and theological speculations of Germany. The Reform
+agitation followed, and the Whig Government came into power; and he
+anticipated in their distribution of Church patronage the authoritative
+introduction of liberal opinions into the country. He feared that by the
+Whig party a door would be opened in England to the most grievous of
+heresies, which never could be closed again. In order under such grave
+circumstances to unite Churchmen together, and to make a front against
+the coming danger, he had in 1832 commenced the British Magazine, and in
+the same year he came to Oxford in the summer term, in order to beat up
+for writers for his publication; on that occasion I became known to him
+through Mr. Palmer. His reputation and position came in aid of his
+obvious fitness, in point of character and intellect, to become the
+centre of an ecclesiastical movement, if such a movement were to depend
+on the action of a party. His delicate health, his premature death,
+would have frustrated the expectation, even though the new school of
+opinion had been more exactly thrown into the shape of a party, than in
+fact was the case. But he zealously backed up the first efforts of those
+who were principals in it; and, when he went abroad to die, in 1838, he
+allowed me the solace of expressing my feelings of attachment and
+gratitude to him by addressing him, in the dedication of a volume of my
+Sermons, as the man "who, when hearts were failing, bade us stir up the
+gift that was in us, and betake ourselves to our true Mother."
+
+But there were other reasons, besides Mr. Rose's state of health, which
+hindered those who so much admired him from availing themselves of his
+close co-operation in the coming fight. United as both he and they were
+in the general scope of the Movement, they were in discordance with each
+other from the first in their estimate of the means to be adopted for
+attaining it. Mr. Rose had a position in the Church, a name, and serious
+responsibilities; he had direct ecclesiastical superiors; he had
+intimate relations with his own University, and a large clerical
+connexion through the country. Froude and I were nobodies; with no
+characters to lose, and no antecedents to fetter us. Rose could not go
+a-head across country, as Froude had no scruples in doing. Froude was a
+bold rider, as on horseback, so also in his speculations. After a long
+conversation with him on the logical bearing of his principles, Mr. Rose
+said of him with quiet humour, that "he did not seem to be afraid of
+inferences." It was simply the truth; Froude had that strong hold of
+first principles, and that keen perception of their value, that he was
+comparatively indifferent to the revolutionary action which would attend
+on their application to a given state of things; whereas in the thoughts
+of Rose, as a practical man, existing facts had the precedence of every
+other idea, and the chief test of the soundness of a line of policy lay
+in the consideration whether it would work. This was one of the first
+questions, which, as it seemed to me, on every occasion occurred to his
+mind. With Froude, Erastianism,--that is, the union (so he viewed it) of
+Church and State,--was the parent, or if not the parent, the serviceable
+and sufficient tool, of liberalism. Till that union was snapped,
+Christian doctrine never could be safe; and, while he well knew how high
+and unselfish was the temper of Mr. Rose, yet he used to apply to him an
+epithet, reproachful in his own mouth;--Rose was a "conservative." By
+bad luck, I brought out this word to Mr. Rose in a letter of my own,
+which I wrote to him in criticism of something he had inserted in his
+Magazine: I got a vehement rebuke for my pains, for though Rose pursued
+a conservative line, he had as high a disdain, as Froude could have, of
+a worldly ambition, and an extreme sensitiveness of such an imputation.
+
+But there was another reason still, and a more elementary one, which
+severed Mr. Rose from the Oxford Movement. Living movements do not come
+of committees, nor are great ideas worked out through the post, even
+though it had been the penny post. This principle deeply penetrated both
+Froude and myself from the first, and recommended to us the course which
+things soon took spontaneously, and without set purpose of our own.
+Universities are the natural centres of intellectual movements. How
+could men act together, whatever was their zeal, unless they were united
+in a sort of individuality? Now, first, we had no unity of place. Mr.
+Rose was in Suffolk, Mr. Perceval in Surrey, Mr. Keble in
+Gloucestershire; Hurrell Froude had to go for his health to Barbadoes.
+Mr. Palmer was indeed in Oxford; this was an important advantage, and
+told well in the first months of the Movement;--but another condition,
+besides that of place, was required.
+
+A far more essential unity was that of antecedents,--a common history,
+common memories, an intercourse of mind with mind in the past, and a
+progress and increase in that intercourse in the present. Mr. Perceval,
+to be sure, was a pupil of Mr. Keble's; but Keble, Rose, and Palmer,
+represented distinct parties, or at least tempers, in the Establishment.
+Mr. Palmer had many conditions of authority and influence. He was the
+only really learned man among us. He understood theology as a science;
+he was practised in the scholastic mode of controversial writing; and, I
+believe, was as well acquainted, as he was dissatisfied, with the
+Catholic schools. He was as decided in his religious views, as he was
+cautious and even subtle in their expression, and gentle in their
+enforcement. But he was deficient in depth; and besides, coming from a
+distance, he never had really grown into an Oxford man, nor was he
+generally received as such; nor had he any insight into the force of
+personal influence and congeniality of thought in carrying out a
+religious theory,--a condition which Froude and I considered essential
+to any true success in the stand which had to be made against
+Liberalism. Mr. Palmer had a certain connexion, as it may be called, in
+the Establishment, consisting of high Church dignitaries, Archdeacons,
+London Rectors, and the like, who belonged to what was commonly called
+the high-and-dry school. They were far more opposed than even he was to
+the irresponsible action of individuals. Of course their _beau idéal_ in
+ecclesiastical action was a board of safe, sound, sensible men. Mr.
+Palmer was their organ and representative; and he wished for a
+Committee, an Association, with rules and meetings, to protect the
+interests of the Church in its existing peril. He was in some measure
+supported by Mr. Perceval.
+
+I, on the other hand, had out of my own head begun the Tracts; and
+these, as representing the antagonist principle of personality, were
+looked upon by Mr. Palmer's friends with considerable alarm. The great
+point at the time with these good men in London,--some of them men of
+the highest principle, and far from influenced by what we used to call
+Erastianism,--was to put down the Tracts. I, as their editor, and mainly
+their author, was of course willing to give way. Keble and Froude
+advocated their continuance strongly, and were angry with me for
+consenting to stop them. Mr. Palmer shared the anxiety of his own
+friends; and, kind as were his thoughts of us, he still not unnaturally
+felt, for reasons of his own, some fidget and nervousness at the course
+which his Oriel friends were taking. Froude, for whom he had a real
+liking, took a high tone in his project of measures for dealing with
+bishops and clergy, which must have shocked and scandalized him
+considerably. As for me, there was matter enough in the early Tracts to
+give him equal disgust; and doubtless I much tasked his generosity, when
+he had to defend me, whether against the London dignitaries or the
+country clergy. Oriel, from the time of Dr. Copleston to Dr. Hampden,
+had had a name far and wide for liberality of thought; it had received a
+formal recognition from the Edinburgh Review, if my memory serves me
+truly, as the school of speculative philosophy in England; and on one
+occasion, in 1833, when I presented myself, with some of the first
+papers of the Movement, to a country clergyman in Northamptonshire, he
+paused awhile, and then, eyeing me with significance, asked "Whether
+Whately was at the bottom of them?"
+
+Mr. Perceval wrote to me in support of the judgment of Mr. Palmer and
+the dignitaries. I replied in a letter, which he afterwards published.
+"As to the Tracts," I said to him (I quote my own words from his
+Pamphlet), "every one has his own taste. You object to some things,
+another to others. If we altered to please every one, the effect would
+be spoiled. They were not intended as symbols _è cathedrâ_ but as the
+expression of individual minds; and individuals, feeling strongly, while
+on the one hand, they are incidentally faulty in mode or language, are
+still peculiarly effective. No great work was done by a system; whereas
+systems rise out of individual exertions. Luther was an individual. The
+very faults of an individual excite attention; he loses, but his cause
+(if good and he powerful-minded) gains. This is the way of things; we
+promote truth by a self-sacrifice."
+
+The visit which I made to the Northamptonshire Rector was only one of a
+series of similar expedients, which I adopted during the year 1833. I
+called upon clergy in various parts of the country, whether I was
+acquainted with them or not, and I attended at the houses of friends
+where several of them were from time to time assembled. I do not think
+that much came of such attempts, nor were they quite in my way. Also I
+wrote various letters to clergymen, which fared not much better, except
+that they advertised the fact, that a rally in favour of the Church was
+commencing. I did not care whether my visits were made to high Church or
+low Church; I wished to make a strong pull in union with all who were
+opposed to the principles of liberalism, whoever they might be. Giving
+my name to the Editor, I commenced a series of letters in the Record
+Newspaper: they ran to a considerable length; and were borne by him with
+great courtesy and patience. The heading given to them was, "Church
+Reform." The first was on the revival of Church Discipline; the second,
+on its Scripture proof; the third, on the application of the doctrine;
+the fourth was an answer to objections; the fifth was on the benefits of
+discipline. And then the series was abruptly brought to a termination. I
+had said what I really felt, and what was also in keeping with the
+strong teaching of the Tracts, but I suppose the Editor discovered in me
+some divergence from his own line of thought; for at length he sent a
+very civil letter, apologizing for the non-appearance of my sixth
+communication, on the ground that it contained an attack upon
+"Temperance Societies," about which he did not wish a controversy in his
+columns. He added, however, his serious regret at the theological views
+of the Tracts. I had subscribed a small sum in 1828 towards the first
+start of the Record.
+
+Acts of the officious character, which I have been describing, were
+uncongenial to my natural temper, to the genius of the Movement, and to
+the historical mode of its success:--they were the fruit of that
+exuberant and joyous energy with which I had returned from abroad, and
+which I never had before or since. I had the exultation of health
+restored, and home regained. While I was at Palermo and thought of the
+breadth of the Mediterranean, and the wearisome journey across France, I
+could not imagine how I was ever to get to England; but now I was amid
+familiar scenes and faces once more. And my health and strength came
+back to me with such a rebound, that some friends at Oxford, on seeing
+me, did not well know that it was I, and hesitated before they spoke to
+me. And I had the consciousness that I was employed in that work which I
+had been dreaming about, and which I felt to be so momentous and
+inspiring. I had a supreme confidence in our cause; we were upholding
+that primitive Christianity which was delivered for all time by the
+early teachers of the Church, and which was registered and attested in
+the Anglican formularies and by the Anglican divines. That ancient
+religion had well nigh faded away out of the land, through the political
+changes of the last 150 years, and it must be restored. It would be in
+fact a second Reformation:--a better reformation, for it would be a
+return not to the sixteenth century, but to the seventeenth. No time was
+to be lost, for the Whigs had come to do their worst, and the rescue
+might come too late. Bishopricks were already in course of suppression;
+Church property was in course of confiscation; Sees would soon be
+receiving unsuitable occupants. We knew enough to begin preaching upon,
+and there was no one else to preach. I felt as on board a vessel, which
+first gets under weigh, and then the deck is cleared out, and luggage
+and live stock stowed away into their proper receptacles.
+
+Nor was it only that I had confidence in our cause, both in itself, and
+in its polemical force, but also, on the other hand, I despised every
+rival system of doctrine and its arguments too. As to the high Church
+and the low Church, I thought that the one had not much more of a
+logical basis than the other; while I had a thorough contempt for the
+controversial position of the latter. I had a real respect for the
+character of many of the advocates of each party, but that did not give
+cogency to their arguments; and I thought, on the contrary, that the
+Apostolical form of doctrine was essential and imperative, and its
+grounds of evidence impregnable. Owing to this supreme confidence, it
+came to pass at that time, that there was a double aspect in my bearing
+towards others, which it is necessary for me to enlarge upon. My
+behaviour had a mixture in it both of fierceness and of sport; and on
+this account, I dare say, it gave offence to many; nor am I here
+defending it.
+
+I wished men to agree with me, and I walked with them step by step, as
+far as they would go; this I did sincerely; but if they would stop, I
+did not much care about it, but walked on, with some satisfaction that I
+had brought them so far. I liked to make them preach the truth without
+knowing it, and encouraged them to do so. It was a satisfaction to me
+that the Record had allowed me to say so much in its columns, without
+remonstrance. I was amused to hear of one of the Bishops, who, on
+reading an early Tract on the Apostolical Succession, could not make up
+his mind whether he held the doctrine or not. I was not distressed at
+the wonder or anger of dull and self-conceited men, at propositions
+which they did not understand. When a correspondent, in good faith,
+wrote to a newspaper, to say that the "Sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist,"
+spoken of in the Tract, was a false print for "Sacrament," I thought the
+mistake too pleasant to be corrected before I was asked about it. I was
+not unwilling to draw an opponent on step by step, by virtue of his own
+opinions, to the brink of some intellectual absurdity, and to leave him
+to get back as he could. I was not unwilling to play with a man, who
+asked me impertinent questions. I think I had in my mouth the words of
+the Wise man, "Answer a fool according to his folly," especially if he
+was prying or spiteful. I was reckless of the gossip which was
+circulated about me; and, when I might easily have set it right, did not
+deign to do so. Also I used irony in conversation, when
+matter-of-fact-men would not see what I meant.
+
+This kind of behaviour was a sort of habit with me. If I have ever
+trifled with my subject, it was a more serious fault. I never used
+arguments which I saw clearly to be unsound. The nearest approach which
+I remember to such conduct, but which I consider was clear of it
+nevertheless, was in the case of Tract 15. The matter of this Tract was
+furnished to me by a friend, to whom I had applied for assistance, but
+who did not wish to be mixed up with the publication. He gave it me,
+that I might throw it into shape, and I took his arguments as they
+stood. In the chief portion of the Tract I fully agreed; for instance,
+as to what it says about the Council of Trent; but there were arguments,
+or some argument, in it which I did not follow; I do not recollect what
+it was. Froude, I think, was disgusted with the whole Tract, and accused
+me of _economy_ in publishing it. It is principally through Mr. Froude's
+Remains that this word has got into our language. I think, I defended
+myself with arguments such as these:--that, as every one knew, the
+Tracts were written by various persons who agreed together in their
+doctrine, but not always in the arguments by which it was to be proved;
+that we must be tolerant of difference of opinion among ourselves; that
+the author of the Tract had a right to his own opinion, and that the
+argument in question was ordinarily received; that I did not give my own
+name or authority, nor was asked for my personal belief, but only acted
+instrumentally, as one might translate a friend's book into a foreign
+language. I account these to be good arguments; nevertheless I feel also
+that such practices admit of easy abuse and are consequently dangerous;
+but then, again, I feel also this,--that if all such mistakes were to be
+severely visited, not many men in public life would be left with a
+character for honour and honesty.
+
+This absolute confidence in my cause, which led me to the negligence or
+wantonness which I have been instancing, also laid me open, not
+unfairly, to the opposite charge of fierceness in certain steps which I
+took, or words which I published. In the Lyra Apostolica, I have said
+that before learning to love, we must "learn to hate;" though I had
+explained my words by adding "hatred of sin." In one of my first Sermons
+I said, "I do not shrink from uttering my firm conviction that it would
+be a gain to the country were it vastly more superstitious, more
+bigoted, more gloomy, more fierce in its religion than at present it
+shows itself to be." I added, of course, that it would be an absurdity
+to suppose such tempers of mind desirable in themselves. The corrector
+of the press bore these strong epithets till he got to "more fierce,"
+and then he put in the margin a _query_. In the very first page of the
+first Tract, I said of the Bishops, that, "black event though it would
+be for the country, yet we could not wish them a more blessed
+termination of their course, than the spoiling of their goods and
+martyrdom." In consequence of a passage in my work upon the Arian
+History, a Northern dignitary wrote to accuse me of wishing to
+re-establish the blood and torture of the Inquisition. Contrasting
+heretics and heresiarchs, I had said, "The latter should meet with no
+mercy: he assumes the office of the Tempter; and, so far forth as his
+error goes, must be dealt with by the competent authority, as if he were
+embodied evil. To spare him is a false and dangerous pity. It is to
+endanger the souls of thousands, and it is uncharitable towards
+himself." I cannot deny that this is a very fierce passage; but Arius
+was banished, not burned; and it is only fair to myself to say that
+neither at this, nor any other time of my life, not even when I was
+fiercest, could I have even cut off a Puritan's ears, and I think the
+sight of a Spanish _auto-da-fè_ would have been the death of me. Again,
+when one of my friends, of liberal and evangelical opinions, wrote to
+expostulate with me on the course I was taking, I said that we would
+ride over him and his, as Othniel prevailed over Chushan-rishathaim,
+king of Mesopotamia. Again, I would have no dealings with my brother,
+and I put my conduct upon a syllogism. I said, "St. Paul bids us avoid
+those who cause divisions; you cause divisions: therefore I must avoid
+you." I dissuaded a lady from attending the marriage of a sister who had
+seceded from the Anglican Church. No wonder that Blanco White, who had
+known me under such different circumstances, now hearing the general
+course that I was taking, was amazed at the change which he recognized
+in me. He speaks bitterly and unfairly of me in his letters
+contemporaneously with the first years of the Movement; but in 1839, on
+looking back, he uses terms of me, which it would be hardly modest in me
+to quote, were it not that what he says of me in praise occurs in the
+midst of blame. He says: "In this party [the anti-Peel, in 1829] I
+found, to my great surprise, my dear friend, Mr. Newman of Oriel. As he
+had been one of the annual Petitioners to Parliament for Catholic
+Emancipation, his sudden union with the most violent bigots was
+inexplicable to me. That change was the first manifestation of the
+mental revolution, which has suddenly made him one of the leading
+persecutors of Dr. Hampden, and the most active and influential member
+of that association called the Puseyite party, from which we have those
+very strange productions, entitled, Tracts for the Times. While stating
+these public facts, my heart feels a pang at the recollection of the
+affectionate and mutual friendship between that excellent man and
+myself; a friendship, which his principles of orthodoxy could not allow
+him to continue in regard to one, whom he now regards as inevitably
+doomed to eternal perdition. Such is the venomous character of
+orthodoxy. What mischief must it create in a bad heart and narrow mind,
+when it can work so effectually for evil, in one of the most benevolent
+of bosoms, and one of the ablest of minds, in the amiable, the
+intellectual, the refined John Henry Newman!" (Vol. iii. p. 131.) He
+adds that I would have nothing to do with him, a circumstance which I do
+not recollect, and very much doubt.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I have spoken of my firm confidence in my position; and now let me state
+more definitely what the position was which I took up, and the
+propositions about which I was so confident. These were three:--
+
+1. First was the principle of dogma: my battle was with liberalism; by
+liberalism I mean the anti-dogmatic principle and its developments. This
+was the first point on which I was certain. Here I make a remark:
+persistence in a given belief is no sufficient test of its truth: but
+departure from it is at least a slur upon the man who has felt so
+certain about it. In proportion, then, as I had in 1832 a strong
+persuasion of the truth of opinions which I have since given up, so far
+a sort of guilt attaches to me, not only for that vain confidence, but
+for all the various proceedings which were the consequence of it. But
+under this first head I have the satisfaction of feeling that I have
+nothing to retract, and nothing to repent of. The main principle of the
+movement is as dear to me now, as it ever was. I have changed in many
+things: in this I have not. From the age of fifteen, dogma has been the
+fundamental principle of my religion: I know no other religion; I cannot
+enter into the idea of any other sort of religion; religion, as a mere
+sentiment, is to me a dream and a mockery. As well can there be filial
+love without the fact of a father, as devotion without the fact of a
+Supreme Being. What I held in 1816, I held in 1833, and I hold in 1864.
+Please God, I shall hold it to the end. Even when I was under Dr.
+Whately's influence, I had no temptation to be less zealous for the
+great dogmas of the faith, and at various times I used to resist such
+trains of thought on his part as seemed to me (rightly or wrongly) to
+obscure them. Such was the fundamental principle of the Movement of
+1833.
+
+2. Secondly, I was confident in the truth of a certain definite
+religious teaching, based upon this foundation of dogma; viz. that there
+was a visible Church, with sacraments and rites which are the channels
+of invisible grace. I thought that this was the doctrine of Scripture,
+of the early Church, and of the Anglican Church. Here again, I have not
+changed in opinion; I am as certain now on this point as I was in 1833,
+and have never ceased to be certain. In 1834 and the following years I
+put this ecclesiastical doctrine on a broader basis, after reading Laud,
+Bramhall, and Stillingfleet and other Anglican divines on the one hand,
+and after prosecuting the study of the Fathers on the other; but the
+doctrine of 1833 was strengthened in me, not changed. When I began the
+Tracts for the Times I rested the main doctrine, of which I am speaking,
+upon Scripture, on the Anglican Prayer Book, and on St. Ignatius's
+Epistles. (1) As to the existence of a visible Church, I especially
+argued out the point from Scripture, in Tract 11, viz. from the Acts of
+the Apostles and the Epistles. (2) As to the Sacraments and Sacramental
+rites, I stood on the Prayer Book. I appealed to the Ordination Service,
+in which the Bishop says, "Receive the Holy Ghost;" to the Visitation
+Service, which teaches confession and absolution; to the Baptismal
+Service, in which the Priest speaks of the child after baptism as
+regenerate; to the Catechism, in which Sacramental Communion is
+receiving "verily and indeed the Body and Blood of Christ;" to the
+Commination Service, in which we are told to do "works of penance;" to
+the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, to the calendar and rubricks,
+portions of the Prayer Book, wherein we find the festivals of the
+Apostles, notice of certain other Saints, and days of fasting and
+abstinence.
+
+(3.) And further, as to the Episcopal system, I founded it upon the
+Epistles of St. Ignatius, which inculcated it in various ways. One
+passage especially impressed itself upon me: speaking of cases of
+disobedience to ecclesiastical authority, he says, "A man does not
+deceive that Bishop whom he sees, but he practises rather with the
+Bishop Invisible, and so the question is not with flesh, but with God,
+who knows the secret heart." I wished to act on this principle to the
+letter, and I may say with confidence that I never consciously
+transgressed it. I loved to act as feeling myself in my Bishop's sight,
+as if it were the sight of God. It was one of my special supports and
+safeguards against myself; I could not go very wrong while I had reason
+to believe that I was in no respect displeasing him. It was not a mere
+formal obedience to rule that I put before me, but I desired to please
+him personally, as I considered him set over me by the Divine Hand. I
+was strict in observing my clerical engagements, not only because they
+_were_ engagements, but because I considered myself simply as the
+servant and instrument of my Bishop. I did not care much for the Bench
+of Bishops, except as they might be the voice of my Church: nor should I
+have cared much for a Provincial Council; nor for a Diocesan Synod
+presided over by my Bishop; all these matters seemed to me to be _jure
+ecclesiastico_, but what to me was _jure divino_ was the voice of my
+Bishop in his own person. My own Bishop was my Pope; I knew no other;
+the successor of the Apostles, the Vicar of Christ. This was but a
+practical exhibition of the Anglican theory of Church Government, as I
+had already drawn it out myself, after various Anglican Divines. This
+continued all through my course; when at length, in 1845, I wrote to
+Bishop Wiseman, in whose Vicariate I found myself, to announce my
+conversion, I could find nothing better to say to him than that I would
+obey the Pope as I had obeyed my own Bishop in the Anglican Church. My
+duty to him was my point of honour; his disapprobation was the one thing
+which I could not bear. I believe it to have been a generous and honest
+feeling; and in consequence I was rewarded by having all my time for
+ecclesiastical superior a man, whom, had I had a choice, I should have
+preferred, out and out, to any other Bishop on the Bench, and for whose
+memory I have a special affection. Dr. Bagot--a man of noble mind, and
+as kind-hearted and as considerate as he was noble. He ever sympathized
+with me in my trials which followed; it was my own fault, that I was not
+brought into more familiar personal relations with him, than it was my
+happiness to be. May his name be ever blessed!
+
+And now in concluding my remarks on the second point on which my
+confidence rested, I repeat that here again I have no retractation to
+announce as to its main outline. While I am now as clear in my
+acceptance of the principle of dogma, as I was in 1833 and 1816, so
+again I am now as firm in my belief of a visible Church, of the
+authority of Bishops, of the grace of the sacraments, of the religious
+worth of works of penance, as I was in 1833. I have added Articles to my
+Creed; but the old ones, which I then held with a divine faith, remain.
+
+3. But now, as to the third point on which I stood in 1833, and which I
+have utterly renounced and trampled upon since,--my then view of the
+Church of Rome;--I will speak about it as exactly as I can. When I was
+young, as I have said already, and after I was grown up, I thought the
+Pope to be Antichrist. At Christmas 1824-5 I preached a sermon to that
+effect. But in 1827 I accepted eagerly the stanza in the Christian Year,
+which many people thought too charitable, "Speak _gently_ of thy
+sister's fall." From the time that I knew Froude I got less and less
+bitter on the subject. I spoke (successively, but I cannot tell in what
+order or at what dates) of the Roman Church as being bound up with "the
+_cause_ of Antichrist," as being _one_ of the "_many_ antichrists"
+foretold by St. John, as being influenced by "the _spirit_ of
+Antichrist," and as having something "very Anti-christian" or
+"unchristian" about her. From my boyhood and in 1824 I considered, after
+Protestant authorities, that St. Gregory I. about A.D. 600 was the first
+Pope that was Antichrist, though, in spite of this, he was also a great
+and holy man; but in 1832-3 I thought the Church of Rome was bound up
+with the cause of Antichrist by the Council of Trent. When it was that
+in my deliberate judgment I gave up the notion altogether in any shape,
+that some special reproach was attached to her name, I cannot tell; but
+I had a shrinking from renouncing it, even when my reason so ordered me,
+from a sort of conscience or prejudice, I think up to 1843. Moreover, at
+least during the Tract Movement, I thought the essence of her offence to
+consist in the honours which she paid to the Blessed Virgin and the
+Saints; and the more I grew in devotion, both to the Saints and to our
+Lady, the more impatient was I at the Roman practices, as if those
+glorified creations of God must be gravely shocked, if pain could be
+theirs, at the undue veneration of which they were the objects.
+
+On the other hand, Hurrell Froude in his familiar conversations was
+always tending to rub the idea out of my mind. In a passage of one of
+his letters from abroad, alluding, I suppose, to what I used to say in
+opposition to him, he observes; "I think people are injudicious who talk
+against the Roman Catholics for worshipping Saints, and honouring the
+Virgin and images, &c. These things may perhaps be idolatrous; I cannot
+make up my mind about it; but to my mind it is the Carnival that is real
+practical idolatry, as it is written, 'the people sat down to eat and
+drink, and rose up to play.'" The Carnival, I observe in passing, is, in
+fact, one of those very excesses, to which, for at least three
+centuries, religious Catholics have ever opposed themselves, as we see
+in the life of St. Philip, to say nothing of the present day; but this
+we did not then know. Moreover, from Froude I learned to admire the
+great medieval Pontiffs; and, of course, when I had come to consider the
+Council of Trent to be the turning-point of the history of Christian
+Rome, I found myself as free, as I was rejoiced, to speak in their
+praise. Then, when I was abroad, the sight of so many great places,
+venerable shrines, and noble churches, much impressed my imagination.
+And my heart was touched also. Making an expedition on foot across some
+wild country in Sicily, at six in the morning, I came upon a small
+church; I heard voices, and I looked in. It was crowded, and the
+congregation was singing. Of course it was the mass, though I did not
+know it at the time. And, in my weary days at Palermo, I was not
+ungrateful for the comfort which I had received in frequenting the
+churches; nor did I ever forget it. Then, again, her zealous maintenance
+of the doctrine and the rule of celibacy, which I recognized as
+Apostolic, and her faithful agreement with Antiquity in so many other
+points which were dear to me, was an argument as well as a plea in
+favour of the great Church of Rome. Thus I learned to have tender
+feelings towards her; but still my reason was not affected at all. My
+judgment was against her, when viewed as an institution, as truly as it
+ever had been.
+
+This conflict between reason and affection I expressed in one of the
+early Tracts, published July, 1834. "Considering the high gifts and the
+strong claims of the Church of Rome and its dependencies on our
+admiration, reverence, love, and gratitude; how could we withstand it,
+as we do, how could we refrain from being melted into tenderness, and
+rushing into communion with it, but for the words of Truth itself, which
+bid us prefer It to the whole world? 'He that loveth father or mother
+more than Me, is not worthy of me.' How could 'we learn to be severe,
+and execute judgment,' but for the warning of Moses against even a
+divinely-gifted teacher, who should preach new gods; and the anathema of
+St. Paul even against Angels and Apostles, who should bring in a new
+doctrine?"--_Records_, No. 24. My feeling was something like that of a
+man, who is obliged in a court of justice to bear witness against a
+friend; or like my own now, when I have said, and shall say, so many
+things on which I had rather be silent.
+
+As a matter, then, of simple conscience, though it went against my
+feelings, I felt it to be a duty to protest against the Church of Rome.
+But besides this, it was a duty, because the prescription of such a
+protest was a living principle of my own Church, as expressed not simply
+in a _catena_, but by a _consensus_ of her divines, and by the voice of
+her people. Moreover, such a protest was necessary as an integral
+portion of her controversial basis; for I adopted the argument of
+Bernard Gilpin, that Protestants "were _not able_ to give any _firm and
+solid_ reason of the separation besides this, to wit, that the Pope is
+Antichrist." But while I thus thought such a protest to be based upon
+truth, and to be a religious duty, and a rule of Anglicanism, and a
+necessity of the case, I did not at all like the work. Hurrell Froude
+attacked me for doing it; and, besides, I felt that my language had a
+vulgar and rhetorical look about it. I believed, and really measured, my
+words, when I used them; but I knew that I had a temptation, on the
+other hand, to say against Rome as much as ever I could, in order to
+protect myself against the charge of Popery.
+
+And now I come to the very point, for which I have introduced the
+subject of my feelings about Rome. I felt such confidence in the
+substantial justice of the charges which I advanced against her, that I
+considered them to be a safeguard and an assurance that no harm could
+ever arise from the freest exposition of what I used to call Anglican
+principles. All the world was astounded at what Froude and I were
+saying: men said that it was sheer Popery. I answered, "True, we seem to
+be making straight for it; but go on awhile, and you will come to a deep
+chasm across the path, which makes real approximation impossible." And I
+urged in addition, that many Anglican divines had been accused of
+Popery, yet had died in their Anglicanism;--now, the ecclesiastical
+principles which I professed, they had professed also; and the judgment
+against Rome which they had formed, I had formed also. Whatever
+deficiencies then had to be supplied in the existing Anglican system,
+and however boldly I might point them out, any how that system would not
+in the process be brought nearer to the special creed of Rome, and might
+be mended in spite of her. In that very agreement of the two forms of
+faith, close as it might seem, would really be found, on examination,
+the elements and principles of an essential discordance.
+
+It was with this absolute persuasion on my mind that I fancied that
+there could be no rashness in giving to the world in fullest measure the
+teaching and the writings of the Fathers. I thought that the Church of
+England was substantially founded upon them. I did not know all that the
+Fathers had said, but I felt that, even when their tenets happened to
+differ from the Anglican, no harm could come of reporting them. I said
+out what I was clear they had said; I spoke vaguely and imperfectly, of
+what I thought they said, or what some of them had said. Any how, no
+harm could come of bending the crooked stick the other way, in the
+process of straightening it; it was impossible to break it. If there was
+any thing in the Fathers of a startling character, this would be only
+for a time; it would admit of explanation, or it might suggest something
+profitable to Anglicans; it could not lead to Rome. I express this view
+of the matter in a passage of the Preface to the first volume, which I
+edited, of the Library of the Fathers. Speaking of the strangeness at
+first sight, in the judgment of the present day, of some of their
+principles and opinions, I bid the reader go forward hopefully, and not
+indulge his criticism till he knows more about them, than he will learn
+at the outset. "Since the evil," I say, "is in the nature of the case
+itself, we can do no more than have patience, and recommend patience to
+others, and with the racer in the Tragedy, look forward steadily and
+hopefully to the _event_, [Greek: tô telei pistin pherôn], when, as we
+trust, all that is inharmonious and anomalous in the details, will at
+length be practically smoothed."
+
+Such was the position, such the defences, such the tactics, by which I
+thought that it was both incumbent on us, and possible for us, to meet
+that onset of Liberal principles, of which we were all in immediate
+anticipation, whether in the Church or in the University. And during the
+first year of the Tracts, the attack upon the University began. In
+November, 1834, was sent to me by Dr. Hampden the second edition of his
+Pamphlet, entitled, "Observations on Religious Dissent, with particular
+reference to the use of religious tests in the University." In this
+Pamphlet it was maintained, that "Religion is distinct from Theological
+Opinion," pp. 1. 28. 30, &c.; that it is but a common prejudice to
+identify theological propositions methodically deduced and stated, with
+the simple religion of Christ, p. 1; that under Theological Opinion were
+to be placed the Trinitarian doctrine, p. 27, and the Unitarian, p. 19;
+that a dogma was a theological opinion formally insisted on, pp. 20, 21;
+that speculation always left an opening for improvement, p. 22; that the
+Church of England was not dogmatic in its spirit, though the wording of
+its formularies might often carry the sound of dogmatism, p. 23.
+
+I acknowledged the receipt of this work in the following letter:--
+
+"The kindness which has led to your presenting me with your late
+Pamphlet, encourages me to hope that you will forgive me, if I take the
+opportunity it affords of expressing to you my very sincere and deep
+regret that it has been published. Such an opportunity I could not let
+slip without being unfaithful to my own serious thoughts on the subject.
+
+"While I respect the tone of piety which the Pamphlet displays, I dare
+not trust myself to put on paper my feelings about the principles
+contained in it; tending as they do, in my opinion, altogether to make
+shipwreck of Christian faith. I also lament, that, by its appearance,
+the first step has been taken towards interrupting that peace and mutual
+good understanding which has prevailed so long in this place, and which,
+if once seriously disturbed, will be succeeded by dissensions the more
+intractable, because justified in the minds of those who resist
+innovation by a feeling of imperative duty."
+
+Since that time Phaeton has got into the chariot of the sun; we, alas!
+can only look on, and watch him down the steep of heaven. Meanwhile, the
+lands, which he is passing over, suffer from his driving.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Such was the commencement of the assault of Liberalism upon the old
+orthodoxy of Oxford and England; and it could not have been broken, as
+it was, for so long a time, had not a great change taken place in the
+circumstances of that counter-movement which had already started with
+the view of resisting it. For myself, I was not the person to take the
+lead of a party; I never was, from first to last, more than a leading
+author of a school; nor did I ever wish to be anything else. This is my
+own account of the matter; and I say it, neither as intending to disown
+the responsibility of what was done, or as if ungrateful to those who at
+that time made more of me than I deserved, and did more for my sake and
+at my bidding than I realized myself. I am giving my history from my own
+point of sight, and it is as follows:--I had lived for ten years among
+my personal friends; the greater part of the time, I had been
+influenced, not influencing; and at no time have I acted on others,
+without their acting upon me. As is the custom of a University, I had
+lived with my private, nay, with some of my public, pupils, and with the
+junior fellows of my College, without form or distance, on a footing of
+equality. Thus it was through friends, younger, for the most part, than
+myself, that my principles were spreading. They heard what I said in
+conversation, and told it to others. Under-graduates in due time took
+their degree, and became private tutors themselves. In their new
+_status_, they in turn preached the opinions, with which they had
+already become acquainted. Others went down to the country, and became
+curates of parishes. Then they had down from London parcels of the
+Tracts, and other publications. They placed them in the shops of local
+booksellers, got them into newspapers, introduced them to clerical
+meetings, and converted more or less their Rectors and their brother
+curates. Thus the Movement, viewed with relation to myself, was but a
+floating opinion; it was not a power. It never would have been a power,
+if it had remained in my hands. Years after, a friend, writing to me in
+remonstrance at the excesses, as he thought them, of my disciples,
+applied to me my own verse about St. Gregory Nazianzen, "Thou couldst a
+people raise, but couldst not rule." At the time that he wrote to me, I
+had special impediments in the way of such an exercise of power; but at
+no time could I exercise over others that authority, which under the
+circumstances was imperatively required. My great principle ever was,
+Live and let live. I never had the staidness or dignity necessary for a
+leader. To the last I never recognized the hold I had over young men. Of
+late years I have read and heard that they even imitated me in various
+ways. I was quite unconscious of it, and I think my immediate friends
+knew too well how disgusted I should be at such proceedings, to have the
+heart to tell me. I felt great impatience at our being called a party,
+and would not allow that we were such. I had a lounging, free-and-easy
+way of carrying things on. I exercised no sufficient censorship upon the
+Tracts. I did not confine them to the writings of such persons as agreed
+in all things with myself; and, as to my own Tracts, I printed on them a
+notice to the effect, that any one who pleased, might make what use he
+would of them, and reprint them with alterations if he chose, under the
+conviction that their main scope could not be damaged by such a process.
+It was the same with me afterwards, as regards other publications. For
+two years I furnished a certain number of sheets for the British Critic
+from myself and my friends, while a gentleman was editor, a man of
+splendid talent, who, however, was scarcely an acquaintance of mine, and
+had no sympathy with the Tracts. When I was Editor myself, from 1838 to
+1841, in my very first number I suffered to appear a critique
+unfavorable to my work on Justification, which had been published a few
+months before, from a feeling of propriety, because I had put the book
+into the hands of the writer who so handled it. Afterwards I suffered an
+article against the Jesuits to appear in it, of which I did not like the
+tone. When I had to provide a curate for my new church at Littlemore, I
+engaged a friend, by no fault of his, who, before he had entered into
+his charge, preached a sermon, either in depreciation of baptismal
+regeneration, or of Dr. Pusey's view of it. I showed a similar easiness
+as to the Editors who helped me in the separate volumes of Fleury's
+Church History; they were able, learned, and excellent men, but their
+after-history has shown, how little my choice of them was influenced by
+any notion I could have had of any intimate agreement of opinion between
+them and myself. I shall have to make the same remark in its place
+concerning the Lives of the English Saints, which subsequently appeared.
+All this may seem inconsistent with what I have said of my fierceness. I
+am not bound to account for it; but there have been men before me,
+fierce in act, yet tolerant and moderate in their reasonings; at least,
+so I read history. However, such was the case, and such its effect upon
+the Tracts. These at first starting were short, hasty, and some of them
+ineffective; and at the end of the year, when collected into a volume,
+they had a slovenly appearance.
+
+It was under these circumstances, that Dr. Pusey joined us. I had known
+him well since 1827-8, and had felt for him an enthusiastic admiration,
+I used to call him [Greek: ho megas]. His great learning, his immense
+diligence, his scholarlike mind, his simple devotion to the cause of
+religion, overcame me; and great of course was my joy, when in the last
+days of 1833 he showed a disposition to make common cause with us. His
+Tract on Fasting appeared as one of the series with the date of December
+21. He was not, however, I think, fully associated in the Movement till
+1835 and 1836, when he published his Tract on Baptism, and started the
+Library of the Fathers. He at once gave to us a position and a name.
+Without him we should have had little chance, especially at the early
+date of 1834, of making any serious resistance to the Liberal
+aggression. But Dr. Pusey was a Professor and Canon of Christ Church; he
+had a vast influence in consequence of his deep religious seriousness,
+the munificence of his charities, his Professorship, his family
+connexions, and his easy relations with University authorities. He was
+to the Movement all that Mr. Rose might have been, with that
+indispensable addition, which was wanting to Mr. Rose, the intimate
+friendship and the familiar daily society of the persons who had
+commenced it. And he had that special claim on their attachment, which
+lies in the living presence of a faithful and loyal affectionateness.
+There was henceforth a man who could be the head and centre of the
+zealous people in every part of the country, who were adopting the new
+opinions; and not only so, but there was one who furnished the Movement
+with a front to the world, and gained for it a recognition from other
+parties in the University. In 1829, Mr. Froude, or Mr. Robert
+Wilberforce, or Mr. Newman were but individuals; and, when they ranged
+themselves in the contest of that year on the side of Sir Robert Inglis,
+men on either side only asked with surprise how they got there, and
+attached no significancy to the fact; but Dr. Pusey was, to use the
+common expression, a host in himself; he was able to give a name, a
+form, and a personality, to what was without him a sort of mob; and when
+various parties had to meet together in order to resist the liberal acts
+of the Government, we of the Movement took our place by right among
+them.
+
+Such was the benefit which he conferred on the Movement externally; nor
+were the internal advantages at all inferior to it. He was a man of
+large designs; he had a hopeful, sanguine mind; he had no fear of
+others; he was haunted by no intellectual perplexities. People are apt
+to say that he was once nearer to the Catholic Church than he is now; I
+pray God that he may be one day far nearer to the Catholic Church than
+he was then; for I believe that, in his reason and judgment, all the
+time that I knew him, he never was near to it at all. When I became a
+Catholic, I was often asked, "What of Dr. Pusey?"; when I said that I
+did not see symptoms of his doing as I had done, I was sometimes thought
+uncharitable. If confidence in his position is, (as it is,) a first
+essential in the leader of a party, this Dr. Pusey possessed
+pre-eminently. The most remarkable instance of this, was his statement,
+in one of his subsequent defences of the Movement, when moreover it had
+advanced a considerable way in the direction of Rome, that among its
+more hopeful peculiarities was its "stationariness." He made it in good
+faith; it was his subjective view of it.
+
+Dr. Pusey's influence was felt at once. He saw that there ought to be
+more sobriety, more gravity, more careful pains, more sense of
+responsibility in the Tracts and in the whole Movement. It was through
+him that the character of the Tracts was changed. When he gave to us his
+Tract on Fasting, he put his initials to it. In 1835 he published his
+elaborate Treatise on Baptism, which was followed by other Tracts from
+different authors, if not of equal learning, yet of equal power and
+appositeness. The Catenas of Anglican divines, projected by me, which
+occur in the Series were executed with a like aim at greater accuracy
+and method. In 1836 he advertised his great project for a Translation of
+the Fathers:--but I must return to myself. I am not writing the history
+either of Dr. Pusey or of the Movement; but it is a pleasure to me to
+have been able to introduce here reminiscences of the place which he
+held in it, which have so direct a bearing on myself, that they are no
+digression from my narrative.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I suspect it was Dr. Pusey's influence and example which set me, and
+made me set others, on the larger and more careful works in defence of
+the principles of the Movement which followed in a course of
+years,--some of them demanding and receiving from their authors, such
+elaborate treatment that they did not make their appearance till both
+its temper and its fortunes had changed. I set about a work at once; one
+in which was brought out with precision the relation in which we stood
+to the Church of Rome. We could not move a step in comfort, till this
+was done. It was of absolute necessity and a plain duty from the first,
+to provide as soon as possible a large statement, which would encourage
+and reassure our friends, and repel the attacks of our opponents. A cry
+was heard on all sides of us, that the Tracts and the writings of the
+Fathers would lead us to become Catholics, before we were aware of it.
+This was loudly expressed by members of the Evangelical party, who in
+1836 had joined us in making a protest in Convocation against a
+memorable appointment of the Prime Minister. These clergymen even then
+avowed their desire, that the next time they were brought up to Oxford
+to give a vote, it might be in order to put down the Popery of the
+Movement. There was another reason still, and quite as important.
+Monsignore Wiseman, with the acuteness and zeal which might be expected
+from that great Prelate, had anticipated what was coming, had returned
+to England by 1836, had delivered Lectures in London on the doctrines of
+Catholicism, and created an impression through the country, shared in by
+ourselves, that we had for our opponents in controversy, not only our
+brethren, but our hereditary foes. These were the circumstances, which
+led to my publication of "The Prophetical office of the Church viewed
+relatively to Romanism and Popular Protestantism."
+
+This work employed me for three years, from the beginning of 1834 to the
+end of 1836, and was published in 1837. It was composed, after a careful
+consideration and comparison of the principal Anglican divines of the
+17th century. It was first written in the shape of controversial
+correspondence with a learned French Priest; then it was re-cast, and
+delivered in Lectures at St. Mary's; lastly, with considerable
+retrenchments and additions, it was rewritten for publication.
+
+It attempts to trace out the rudimental lines on which Christian faith
+and teaching proceed, and to use them as means of determining the
+relation of the Roman and Anglican systems to each other. In this way it
+shows that to confuse the two together is impossible, and that the
+Anglican can be as little said to tend to the Roman, as the Roman to the
+Anglican. The spirit of the Volume is not so gentle to the Church of
+Rome, as Tract 71 published the year before; on the contrary, it is very
+fierce; and this I attribute to the circumstance that the Volume is
+theological and didactic, whereas the Tract, being controversial,
+assumes as little and grants as much as possible on the points in
+dispute, and insists on points of agreement as well as of difference. A
+further and more direct reason is, that in my Volume I deal with
+"Romanism" (as I call it), not so much in its formal decrees and in the
+substance of its creed, as in its traditional action and its authorized
+teaching as represented by its prominent writers;--whereas the Tract is
+written as if discussing the differences of the Churches with a view to
+a reconciliation between them. There is a further reason too, which I
+will state presently.
+
+But this Volume had a larger scope than that of opposing the Roman
+system. It was an attempt at commencing a system of theology on the
+Anglican idea, and based upon Anglican authorities. Mr. Palmer, about
+the same time, was projecting a work of a similar nature in his own way.
+It was published, I think, under the title, "A Treatise on the Christian
+Church." As was to be expected from the author, it was a most learned,
+most careful composition; and in its form, I should say, polemical. So
+happily at least did he follow the logical method of the Roman Schools,
+that Father Perrone in his Treatise on dogmatic theology, recognized in
+him a combatant of the true cast, and saluted him as a foe worthy of
+being vanquished. Other soldiers in that field he seems to have thought
+little better than the _Lanzknechts_ of the middle ages, and, I dare
+say, with very good reason. When I knew that excellent and kind-hearted
+man at Rome at a later time, he allowed me to put him to ample penance
+for those light thoughts of me, which he had once had, by encroaching on
+his valuable time with my theological questions. As to Mr. Palmer's
+book, it was one which no Anglican could write but himself,--in no
+sense, if I recollect aright, a tentative work. The ground of
+controversy was cut into squares, and then every objection had its
+answer. This is the proper method to adopt in teaching authoritatively
+young men; and the work in fact was intended for students in theology.
+My own book, on the other hand, was of a directly tentative and
+empirical character. I wished to build up an Anglican theology out of
+the stores which already lay cut and hewn upon the ground, the past toil
+of great divines. To do this could not be the work of one man; much
+less, could it be at once received into Anglican theology, however well
+it was done. This I fully recognized; and, while I trusted that my
+statements of doctrine would turn out to be true and important, still I
+wrote, to use the common phrase, "under correction."
+
+There was another motive for my publishing, of a personal nature, which
+I think I should mention. I felt then, and all along felt, that there
+was an intellectual cowardice in not finding a basis in reason for my
+belief, and a moral cowardice in not avowing that basis. I should have
+felt myself less than a man, if I did not bring it out, whatever it was.
+This is one principal reason why I wrote and published the "Prophetical
+Office." It was from the same feeling, that in the spring of 1836, at a
+meeting of residents on the subject of the struggle then proceeding
+against a Whig appointment, when some one wanted us all merely to act on
+college and conservative grounds (as I understood him), with as few
+published statements as possible, I answered, that the person whom we
+were resisting had committed himself in writing, and that we ought to
+commit ourselves too. This again was a main reason for the publication
+of Tract 90. Alas! it was my portion for whole years to remain without
+any satisfactory basis for my religious profession, in a state of moral
+sickness, neither able to acquiesce in Anglicanism, nor able to go to
+Rome. But I bore it, till in course of time my way was made clear to me.
+If here it be objected to me, that as time went on, I often in my
+writings hinted at things which I did not fully bring out, I submit for
+consideration whether this occurred except when I was in great
+difficulties, how to speak, or how to be silent, with due regard for the
+position of mind or the feelings of others. However, I may have an
+opportunity to say more on this subject. But to return to the
+"Prophetical Office."
+
+I thus speak in the Introduction to my Volume:--
+
+"It is proposed," I say, "to offer helps towards the formation of a
+recognized Anglican theology in one of its departments. The present
+state of our divinity is as follows: the most vigorous, the clearest,
+the most fertile minds, have through God's mercy been employed in the
+service of our Church: minds too as reverential and holy, and as fully
+imbued with Ancient Truth, and as well versed in the writings of the
+Fathers, as they were intellectually gifted. This is God's great mercy
+indeed, for which we must ever be thankful. Primitive doctrine has been
+explored for us in every direction, and the original principles of the
+Gospel and the Church patiently brought to light. But one thing is still
+wanting: our champions and teachers have lived in stormy times:
+political and other influences have acted upon them variously in their
+day, and have since obstructed a careful consolidation of their
+judgments. We have a vast inheritance, but no inventory of our
+treasures. All is given us in profusion; it remains for us to catalogue,
+sort, distribute, select, harmonize, and complete. We have more than we
+know how to use; stores of learning, but little that is precise and
+serviceable; Catholic truth and individual opinion, first principles and
+the guesses of genius, all mingled in the same works, and requiring to
+be discriminated. We meet with truths overstated or misdirected, matters
+of detail variously taken, facts incompletely proved or applied, and
+rules inconsistently urged or discordantly interpreted. Such indeed is
+the state of every deep philosophy in its first stages, and therefore of
+theological knowledge. What we need at present for our Church's
+well-being, is not invention, nor originality, nor sagacity, nor even
+learning in our divines, at least in the first place, though all gifts
+of God are in a measure needed, and never can be unseasonable when used
+religiously, but we need peculiarly a sound judgment, patient thought,
+discrimination, a comprehensive mind, an abstinence from all private
+fancies and caprices and personal tastes,--in a word, Divine Wisdom."
+
+The subject of the Volume is the doctrine of the _Via Media_, a name
+which had already been applied to the Anglican system by writers of
+repute. It is an expressive title, but not altogether satisfactory,
+because it is at first sight negative. This had been the reason of my
+dislike to the word "Protestant;" viz. it did not denote the profession
+of any particular religion at all, and was compatible with infidelity. A
+_Via Media_ was but a receding from extremes,--therefore it needed to be
+drawn out into a definite shape and character: before it could have
+claims on our respect, it must first be shown to be one, intelligible,
+and consistent. This was the first condition of any reasonable treatise
+on the _Via Media_. The second condition, and necessary too, was not in
+my power. I could only hope that it would one day be fulfilled. Even if
+the _Via Media_ were ever so positive a religious system, it was not as
+yet objective and real; it had no original any where of which it was the
+representative. It was at present a paper religion. This I confess in my
+Introduction; I say, "Protestantism and Popery are real religions ...
+but the _Via Media_, viewed as an integral system, has scarcely had
+existence except on paper." I grant the objection, though I endeavour to
+lessen it:--"It still remains to be tried, whether what is called
+Anglo-Catholicism, the religion of Andrewes, Laud, Hammond, Butler, and
+Wilson, is capable of being professed, acted on, and maintained on a
+large sphere of action, or whether it be a mere modification or
+transition-state of either Romanism or popular Protestantism." I trusted
+that some day it would prove to be a substantive religion.
+
+Lest I should be misunderstood, let me observe that this hesitation
+about the validity of the theory of the _Via Media_ implied no doubt of
+the three fundamental points on which it was based, as I have described
+them above, dogma, the sacramental system, and anti-Romanism.
+
+Other investigations which had to be followed up were of a still more
+tentative character. The basis of the _Via Media_, consisting of the
+three elementary points, which I have just mentioned, was clear enough;
+but, not only had the house itself to be built upon them, but it had
+also to be furnished, and it is not wonderful if, after building it,
+both I and others erred in detail in determining what its furniture
+should be, what was consistent with the style of building, and what was
+in itself desirable. I will explain what I mean.
+
+I had brought out in the "Prophetical Office" in what the Roman and the
+Anglican systems differed from each other, but less distinctly in what
+they agreed. I had indeed enumerated the Fundamentals, common to both,
+in the following passage:--"In both systems the same Creeds are
+acknowledged. Besides other points in common, we both hold, that certain
+doctrines are necessary to be believed for salvation; we both believe in
+the doctrines of the Trinity, Incarnation, and Atonement; in original
+sin; in the necessity of regeneration; in the supernatural grace of the
+Sacraments; in the Apostolical succession; in the obligation of faith
+and obedience, and in the eternity of future punishment,"--pp. 55, 56.
+So much I had said, but I had not said enough. This enumeration implied
+a great many more points of agreement than were found in those very
+Articles which were fundamental. If the two Churches were thus the same
+in fundamentals, they were also one and the same in such plain
+consequences as were contained in those fundamentals and in such natural
+observances as outwardly represented them. It was an Anglican principle
+that "the abuse of a thing doth not take away the lawful use of it;" and
+an Anglican Canon in 1603 had declared that the English Church had no
+purpose to forsake all that was held in the Churches of Italy, France,
+and Spain, and reverenced those ceremonies and particular points which
+were Apostolic. Excepting then such exceptional matters, as are implied
+in this avowal, whether they were many or few, all these Churches were
+evidently to be considered as one with the Anglican. The Catholic Church
+in all lands had been one from the first for many centuries; then,
+various portions had followed their own way to the injury, but not to
+the destruction, whether of truth or of charity. These portions or
+branches were mainly three:--the Greek, Latin, and Anglican. Each of
+these inherited the early undivided Church _in solido_ as its own
+possession. Each branch was identical with that early undivided Church,
+and in the unity of that Church it had unity with the other branches.
+The three branches agreed together in _all but_ their later accidental
+errors. Some branches had retained in detail portions of Apostolical
+truth and usage, which the others had not; and these portions might be
+and should be appropriated again by the others which had let them slip.
+Thus, the middle age belonged to the Anglican Church, and much more did
+the middle age of England. The Church of the 12th century was the Church
+of the 19th. Dr. Howley sat in the seat of St. Thomas the Martyr; Oxford
+was a medieval University. Saving our engagements to Prayer Book and
+Articles, we might breathe and live and act and speak, as in the
+atmosphere and climate of Henry III.'s day, or the Confessor's, or of
+Alfred's. And we ought to be indulgent to all that Rome taught now, as
+to what Rome taught then, saving our protest. We might boldly welcome,
+even what we did not ourselves think right to adopt. And, when we were
+obliged on the contrary boldly to denounce, we should do so with pain,
+not with exultation. By very reason of our protest, which we had made,
+and made _ex animo_, we could agree to differ. What the members of the
+Bible Society did on the basis of Scripture, we could do on the basis of
+the Church; Trinitarian and Unitarian were further apart than Roman and
+Anglican. Thus we had a real wish to co-operate with Rome in all lawful
+things, if she would let us, and if the rules of our own Church let us;
+and we thought there was no better way towards the restoration of
+doctrinal purity and unity. And we thought that Rome was not committed
+by her formal decrees to all that she actually taught: and again, if her
+disputants had been unfair to us, or her rulers tyrannical, we bore in
+mind that on our side too there had been rancour and slander in our
+controversial attacks upon her, and violence in our political measures.
+As to ourselves being direct instruments in improving her belief or
+practice, I used to say, "Look at home; let us first, (or at least let
+us the while,) supply our own shortcomings, before we attempt to be
+physicians to any one else." This is very much the spirit of Tract 71,
+to which I referred just now. I am well aware that there is a paragraph
+inconsistent with it in the Prospectus to the Library of the Fathers;
+but I do not consider myself responsible for it. Indeed, I have no
+intention whatever of implying that Dr. Pusey concurred in the
+ecclesiastical theory, which I have been now drawing out; nor that I
+took it up myself except by degrees in the course of ten years. It was
+necessarily the growth of time. In fact, hardly any two persons, who
+took part in the Movement, agreed in their view of the limit to which
+our general principles might religiously be carried.
+
+And now I have said enough on what I consider to have been the general
+objects of the various works, which I wrote, edited, or prompted in the
+years which I am reviewing. I wanted to bring out in a substantive form
+a living Church of England, in a position proper to herself, and founded
+on distinct principles; as far as paper could do it, as far as earnestly
+preaching it and influencing others towards it, could tend to make it a
+fact;--a living Church, made of flesh and blood, with voice, complexion,
+and motion and action, and a will of its own. I believe I had no private
+motive, and no personal aim. Nor did I ask for more than "a fair stage
+and no favour," nor expect the work would be accomplished in my days;
+but I thought that enough would be secured to continue it in the future,
+under, perhaps, more hopeful circumstances and prospects than the
+present.
+
+I will mention in illustration some of the principal works, doctrinal
+and historical, which originated in the object which I have stated.
+
+I wrote my Essay on Justification in 1837; it was aimed at the Lutheran
+dictum that justification by faith only was the cardinal doctrine of
+Christianity. I considered that this doctrine was either a paradox or a
+truism,--a paradox in Luther's mouth, a truism in Melanchthon's. I
+thought that the Anglican Church followed Melanchthon, and that in
+consequence between Rome and Anglicanism, between high Church and low
+Church, there was no real intellectual difference on the point. I wished
+to fill up a ditch, the work of man. In this Volume again, I express my
+desire to build up a system of theology out of the Anglican divines, and
+imply that my dissertation was a tentative Inquiry. I speak in the
+Preface of "offering suggestions towards a work, which must be uppermost
+in the mind of every true son of the English Church at this day,--the
+consolidation of a theological system, which, built upon those
+formularies, to which all clergymen are bound, may tend to inform,
+persuade, and absorb into itself religious minds, which hitherto have
+fancied, that, on the peculiar Protestant questions, they were seriously
+opposed to each other."--P. vii.
+
+In my University Sermons there is a series of discussions upon the
+subject of Faith and Reason; these again were the tentative commencement
+of a grave and necessary work, viz. an inquiry into the ultimate basis
+of religious faith, prior to the distinction into Creeds.
+
+In like manner in a Pamphlet, which I published in the summer of 1838,
+is an attempt at placing the doctrine of the Real Presence on an
+intellectual basis. The fundamental idea is consonant to that to which I
+had been so long attached: it is the denial of the existence of space
+except as a subjective idea of our minds.
+
+The Church of the Fathers is one of the earliest productions of the
+Movement, and appeared in numbers in the British Magazine, being written
+with the aim of introducing the religious sentiments, views, and customs
+of the first ages into the modern Church of England.
+
+The Translation of Fleury's Church History was commenced under these
+circumstances:--I was fond of Fleury for a reason which I express in the
+Advertisement; because it presented a sort of photograph of
+ecclesiastical history without any comment upon it. In the event, that
+simple representation of the early centuries had a good deal to do with
+unsettling me in my Anglicanism; but how little I could anticipate this,
+will be seen in the fact that the publication of Fleury was a favourite
+scheme with Mr. Rose. He proposed it to me twice, between the years 1834
+and 1837; and I mention it as one out of many particulars curiously
+illustrating how truly my change of opinion arose, not from foreign
+influences, but from the working of my own mind, and the accidents
+around me. The date, from which the portion actually translated began,
+was determined by the Publisher on reasons with which we were not
+concerned.
+
+Another historical work, but drawn from original sources, was given to
+the world by my old friend Mr. Bowden, being a Life of Pope Gregory VII.
+I need scarcely recall to those who have read it, the power and the
+liveliness of the narrative. This composition was the author's
+relaxation, on evenings and in his summer vacations, from his ordinary
+engagements in London. It had been suggested to him originally by me, at
+the instance of Hurrell Froude.
+
+The Series of the Lives of the English Saints was projected at a later
+period, under circumstances which I shall have in the sequel to
+describe. Those beautiful compositions have nothing in them, as far as I
+recollect, simply inconsistent with the general objects which I have
+been assigning to my labours in these years, though the immediate
+occasion which led to them, and the tone in which they were written, had
+little that was congenial with Anglicanism.
+
+At a comparatively early date I drew up the Tract on the Roman Breviary.
+It frightened my own friends on its first appearance; and several years
+afterwards, when younger men began to translate for publication the four
+volumes _in extenso_, they were dissuaded from doing so by advice to
+which from a sense of duty they listened. It was an apparent accident,
+which introduced me to the knowledge of that most wonderful and most
+attractive monument of the devotion of saints. On Hurrell Froude's
+death, in 1836, I was asked to select one of his books as a keepsake. I
+selected Butler's Analogy; finding that it had been already chosen, I
+looked with some perplexity along the shelves as they stood before me,
+when an intimate friend at my elbow said, "Take that." It was the
+Breviary which Hurrell had had with him at Barbadoes. Accordingly I took
+it, studied it, wrote my Tract from it, and have it on my table in
+constant use till this day.
+
+That dear and familiar companion, who thus put the Breviary into my
+hands, is still in the Anglican Church. So, too, is that early venerated
+long-loved friend, together with whom I edited a work which, more
+perhaps than any other, caused disturbance and annoyance in the Anglican
+world,--Froude's Remains; yet, however judgments might run as to the
+prudence of publishing it, I never heard any one impute to Mr. Keble the
+very shadow of dishonesty or treachery towards his Church in so acting.
+
+The annotated Translation of the Treatises of St. Athanasius was of
+course in no sense of a tentative character; it belongs to another order
+of thought. This historico-dogmatic work employed me for years. I had
+made preparations for following it up with a doctrinal history of the
+heresies which succeeded to the Arian.
+
+I should make mention also of the British Critic. I was Editor of it for
+three years, from July 1838 to July 1841. My writers belonged to various
+schools, some to none at all. The subjects are various,--classical,
+academical, political, critical, and artistic, as well as theological,
+and upon the Movement none are to be found which do not keep quite clear
+of advocating the cause of Rome.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So I went on for years up to 1841. It was, in a human point of view, the
+happiest time of my life. I was truly at home. I had in one of my
+volumes appropriated to myself the words of Bramhall, "Bees, by the
+instinct of nature, do love their hives, and birds their nests." I did
+not suppose that such sunshine would last, though I knew not what would
+be its termination. It was the time of plenty, and, during its seven
+years, I tried to lay up as much as I could for the dearth which was to
+follow it. We prospered and spread. I have spoken of the doings of these
+years, since I was a Catholic, in a passage, part of which I will here
+quote:
+
+"From beginnings so small," I said, "from elements of thought so
+fortuitous, with prospects so unpromising, the Anglo-Catholic party
+suddenly became a power in the National Church, and an object of alarm
+to her rulers and friends. Its originators would have found it difficult
+to say what they aimed at of a practical kind: rather, they put forth
+views and principles for their own sake, because they were true, as if
+they were obliged to say them; and, as they might be themselves
+surprised at their earnestness in uttering them, they had as great cause
+to be surprised at the success which attended their propagation. And, in
+fact, they could only say that those doctrines were in the air; that to
+assert was to prove, and that to explain was to persuade; and that the
+Movement in which they were taking part was the birth of a crisis rather
+than of a place. In a very few years a school of opinion was formed,
+fixed in its principles, indefinite and progressive in their range; and
+it extended itself into every part of the country. If we inquire what
+the world thought of it, we have still more to raise our wonder; for,
+not to mention the excitement it caused in England, the Movement and its
+party-names were known to the police of Italy and to the back-woodmen of
+America. And so it proceeded, getting stronger and stronger every year,
+till it came into collision with the Nation, and that Church of the
+Nation, which it began by professing especially to serve."
+
+The greater its success, the nearer was that collision at hand. The
+first threatenings of what was coming were heard in 1838. At that time,
+my Bishop in a Charge made some light animadversions, but they _were_
+animadversions, on the Tracts for the Times. At once I offered to stop
+them. What took place on the occasion I prefer to state in the words, in
+which I related it in a Pamphlet addressed to him in a later year, when
+the blow actually came down upon me.
+
+"In your Lordship's Charge for 1838," I said, "an allusion was made to
+the Tracts for the Times. Some opponents of the Tracts said that you
+treated them with undue indulgence.... I wrote to the Archdeacon on the
+subject, submitting the Tracts entirely to your Lordship's disposal.
+What I thought about your Charge will appear from the words I then used
+to him. I said, 'A Bishop's lightest word _ex cathedrâ_ is heavy. His
+judgment on a book cannot be light. It is a rare occurrence.' And I
+offered to withdraw any of the Tracts over which I had control, if I
+were informed which were those to which your Lordship had objections. I
+afterwards wrote to your Lordship to this effect, that 'I trusted I
+might say sincerely, that I should feel a more lively pleasure in
+knowing that I was submitting myself to your Lordship's expressed
+judgment in a matter of that kind, than I could have even in the widest
+circulation of the volumes in question.' Your Lordship did not think it
+necessary to proceed to such a measure, but I felt, and always have
+felt, that, if ever you determined on it, I was bound to obey."
+
+That day at length came, and I conclude this portion of my narrative,
+with relating the circumstances of it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+From the time that I had entered upon the duties of Public Tutor at my
+College, when my doctrinal views were very different from what they were
+in 1841, I had meditated a comment upon the Articles. Then, when the
+Movement was in its swing, friends had said to me, "What will you make
+of the Articles?" but I did not share the apprehension which their
+question implied. Whether, as time went on, I should have been forced,
+by the necessities of the original theory of the Movement, to put on
+paper the speculations which I had about them, I am not able to
+conjecture. The actual cause of my doing so, in the beginning of 1841,
+was the restlessness, actual and prospective, of those who neither liked
+the _Via Media_, nor my strong judgment against Rome. I had been
+enjoined, I think by my Bishop, to keep these men straight, and I wished
+so to do: but their tangible difficulty was subscription to the
+Articles; and thus the question of the Articles came before me. It was
+thrown in our teeth; "How can you manage to sign the Articles? they are
+directly against Rome." "Against Rome?" I made answer, "What do you mean
+by 'Rome?'" and then I proceeded to make distinctions, of which I shall
+now give an account.
+
+By "Roman doctrine" might be meant one of three things: 1, the _Catholic
+teaching_ of the early centuries; or 2, the _formal dogmas of Rome_ as
+contained in the later Councils, especially the Council of Trent, and as
+condensed in the Creed of Pope Pius IV.; 3, the _actual popular beliefs
+and usages_ sanctioned by Rome in the countries in communion with it,
+over and above the dogmas; and these I called "dominant errors." Now
+Protestants commonly thought that in all three senses, "Roman doctrine"
+was condemned in the Articles: I thought that the _Catholic teaching_
+was not condemned; that the _dominant errors_ were; and as to the
+_formal dogmas_, that some were, some were not, and that the line had to
+be drawn between them. Thus, 1. The use of Prayers for the dead was a
+Catholic doctrine,--not condemned in the Articles; 2. The prison of
+Purgatory was a Roman dogma,--which was condemned in them; but the
+infallibility of Ecumenical Councils was a Roman dogma,--not condemned;
+and 3. The fire of Purgatory was an authorized and popular error, not a
+dogma,--which was condemned.
+
+Further, I considered that the difficulties, felt by the persons whom I
+have mentioned, mainly lay in their mistaking, 1, Catholic teaching,
+which was not condemned in the Articles, for Roman dogma which was
+condemned; and 2, Roman dogma, which was not condemned in the Articles,
+for dominant error which was. If they went further than this, I had
+nothing more to say to them.
+
+A further motive which I had for my attempt, was the desire to ascertain
+the ultimate points of contrariety between the Roman and Anglican
+creeds, and to make them as few as possible. I thought that each creed
+was obscured and misrepresented by a dominant circumambient "Popery" and
+"Protestantism."
+
+The main thesis then of my Essay was this:--the Articles do not oppose
+Catholic teaching; they but partially oppose Roman dogma; they for the
+most part oppose the dominant errors of Rome. And the problem was, as I
+have said, to draw the line as to what they allowed and what they
+condemned.
+
+Such being the object which I had in view, what were my prospects of
+widening and of defining their meaning? The prospect was encouraging;
+there was no doubt at all of the elasticity of the Articles: to take a
+palmary instance, the seventeenth was assumed by one party to be
+Lutheran, by another Calvinistic, though the two interpretations were
+contradictory of each other; why then should not other Articles be drawn
+up with a vagueness of an equally intense character? I wanted to
+ascertain what was the limit of that elasticity in the direction of
+Roman dogma. But next, I had a way of inquiry of my own, which I state
+without defending. I instanced it afterwards in my Essay on Doctrinal
+Development. That work, I believe, I have not read since I published it,
+and I do not doubt at all I have made many mistakes in it;--partly, from
+my ignorance of the details of doctrine, as the Church of Rome holds
+them, but partly from my impatience to clear as large a range for the
+_principle_ of doctrinal Development (waiving the question of historical
+_fact_) as was consistent with the strict Apostolicity and identity of
+the Catholic Creed. In like manner, as regards the 39 Articles, my
+method of inquiry was to leap _in medias res_. I wished to institute an
+inquiry how far, in critical fairness, the text _could_ be opened; I was
+aiming far more at ascertaining what a man who subscribed it might hold
+than what he must, so that my conclusions were negative rather than
+positive. It was but a first essay. And I made it with the full
+recognition and consciousness, which I had already expressed in my
+Prophetical Office, as regards the _Via Media_, that I was making only
+"a first approximation to the required solution;"--"a series of
+illustrations supplying hints for the removal" of a difficulty, and with
+full acknowledgment "that in minor points, whether in question of fact
+or of judgment, there was room for difference or error of opinion," and
+that I "should not be ashamed to own a mistake, if it were proved
+against me, nor reluctant to bear the just blame of it."--Proph. Off. p.
+31.
+
+I will add, I was embarrassed in consequence of my wish to go as far as
+was possible in interpreting the Articles in the direction of Roman
+dogma, without disclosing what I was doing to the parties whose doubts I
+was meeting; who, if they understood at once the full extent of the
+licence which the Articles admitted, might be thereby encouraged to
+proceed still further than at present they found in themselves any call
+to go.
+
+1. But in the way of such an attempt comes the prompt objection that the
+Articles were actually drawn up against "Popery," and therefore it was
+transcendently absurd and dishonest to suppose that Popery, in any
+shape,--patristic belief, Tridentine dogma, or popular corruption
+authoritatively sanctioned,--would be able to take refuge under their
+text. This premiss I denied. Not any religious doctrine at all, but a
+political principle, was the primary English idea of "Popery" at the
+date of the Reformation. And what was that political principle, and how
+could it best be suppressed in England? What was the great question in
+the days of Henry and Elizabeth? The _Supremacy_;--now, was I saying one
+single word in favour of the Supremacy of the Holy See, in favour of the
+foreign jurisdiction? No, I did not believe in it myself. Did Henry
+VIII. religiously hold Justification by faith only? did he disbelieve
+Purgatory? Was Elizabeth zealous for the marriage of the Clergy? or had
+she a conscience against the Mass? The Supremacy of the Pope was the
+essence of the "Popery" to which, at the time of the composition of the
+Articles, the Supreme Head or Governor of the English Church was so
+violently hostile.
+
+2. But again I said this:--let "Popery" mean what it would in the mouths
+of the compilers of the Articles, let it even, for argument's sake,
+include the doctrines of that Tridentine Council, which was not yet over
+when the Articles were drawn up, and against which they could not be
+simply directed, yet, consider, what was the object of the Government in
+their imposition? merely to get rid of "Popery?" No; it had the further
+object of gaining the "Papists." What then was the best way to induce
+reluctant or wavering minds, and these, I supposed, were the majority,
+to give in their adhesion to the new symbol? how had the Arians drawn up
+their Creeds? was it not on the principle of using vague ambiguous
+language, which to the subscribers would seem to bear a Catholic sense,
+but which, when worked out on the long run, would prove to be heterodox?
+Accordingly, there was great antecedent probability, that, fierce as the
+Articles might look at first sight, their bark would prove worse than
+their bite. I say antecedent probability, for to what extent that
+surmise might be true, could only be ascertained by investigation.
+
+3. But a consideration came up at once, which threw light on this
+surmise:--what if it should turn out that the very men who drew up the
+Articles, in the very act of doing so, had avowed, or rather in one of
+those very Articles themselves had imposed on subscribers, a number of
+those very "Papistical" doctrines, which they were now thought to deny,
+as part and parcel of that very Protestantism, which they were now
+thought to consider divine? and this was the fact, and I showed it in my
+Essay.
+
+Let the reader observe:--the 35th Article says: "The second Book of
+Homilies doth contain _a godly and wholesome doctrine, and necessary
+for_ these times, as doth the former Book of Homilies." Here the
+_doctrine_ of the Homilies is recognized as godly and wholesome, and
+concurrence in that recognition is imposed on all subscribers of the
+Articles. Let us then turn to the Homilies, and see what this godly
+doctrine is: I quoted from them to the following effect:
+
+1. They declare that the so-called "apocryphal" book of Tobit is the
+teaching of the Holy Ghost, and is Scripture.
+
+2. That the so-called "apocryphal" book of Wisdom is Scripture, and the
+infallible and undeceivable word of God.
+
+3. That the Primitive Church, next to the Apostles' time, and, as they
+imply, for almost 700 years, is no doubt most pure.
+
+4. That the Primitive Church is specially to be followed.
+
+5. That the Four first General Councils belong to the Primitive Church.
+
+6. That there are Six Councils which are allowed and received by all
+men.
+
+7. Again, they speak of a certain truth, and say that it is declared by
+God's word, the sentences of the ancient doctors, and judgment of the
+Primitive Church.
+
+8. Of the learned and holy Bishops and doctors of the Church of the
+first eight centuries being of great authority and credit with the
+people.
+
+9. Of the declaration of Christ and His Apostles and all the rest of the
+Holy Fathers.
+
+10. Of the authority both of Scripture and also of Augustine.
+
+11. Of Augustine, Chrysostom, Ambrose, Jerome, and about thirty other
+Fathers, to some of whom they give the title of "Saint," to others of
+"ancient Catholic Fathers and doctors, &c."
+
+12. They declare that, not only the holy Apostles and disciples of
+Christ, but the godly Fathers also, before and since Christ, were endued
+without doubt with the Holy Ghost.
+
+13. That the ancient Catholic Fathers say that the "Lord's Supper" is
+the salve of immortality, the sovereign preservative against death, the
+food of immortality, the healthful grace.
+
+14. That the Lord's Blessed Body and Blood are received under the form
+of bread and wine.
+
+15. That the meat in the Sacrament is an invisible meat and a ghostly
+substance.
+
+16. That the holy Body and Blood of thy God ought to be touched with the
+mind.
+
+17. That Ordination is a Sacrament.
+
+18. That Matrimony is a Sacrament.
+
+19. That there are other Sacraments besides "Baptism and the Lord's
+Supper," though not "such as" they.
+
+20. That the souls of the Saints are reigning in joy and in heaven with
+God.
+
+21. That alms-deeds purge the soul from the infection and filthy spots
+of sin, and are a precious medicine, an inestimable jewel.
+
+22. That mercifulness wipes out and washes away sins, as salves and
+remedies to heal sores and grievous diseases.
+
+23. That the duty of fasting is a truth more manifest than it should
+need to be proved.
+
+24. That fasting, used with prayer, is of great efficacy and weigheth
+much with God; so the Angel Raphael told Tobias.
+
+25. That the puissant and mighty Emperor Theodosius was, in the
+Primitive Church which was most holy and godly, excommunicated by St.
+Ambrose.
+
+26. That Constantine, Bishop of Rome, did condemn Philippicus, then
+Emperor, not without a cause indeed, but very justly.
+
+Putting altogether aside the question how far these separate theses came
+under the matter to which subscription was to be made, it was quite
+plain, that in the minds of the men who wrote the Homilies, and who thus
+incorporated them into the Anglican system of doctrine, there was no
+such nice discrimination between the Catholic and the Protestant faith,
+no such clear recognition of formal Protestant principles and tenets, no
+such accurate definition of "Roman doctrine," as is received at the
+present day:--hence great probability accrued to my presentiment, that
+the Articles were tolerant, not only of what I called "Catholic
+teaching," but of much that was "Roman."
+
+4. And here was another reason against the notion that the Articles
+directly attacked the Roman dogmas as declared at Trent and as
+promulgated by Pius the Fourth:--the Council of Trent was not over, nor
+its Canons promulgated at the date when the Articles were drawn up[5],
+so that those Articles must be aiming at something else? What was that
+something else? The Homilies tell us: the Homilies are the best comment
+upon the Articles. Let us turn to the Homilies, and we shall find from
+first to last that, not only is not the Catholic teaching of the first
+centuries, but neither again are the dogmas of Rome, the objects of the
+protest of the compilers of the Articles, but the dominant errors, the
+popular corruptions, authorized or suffered by the high name of Rome.
+The eloquent declamation of the Homilies finds its matter almost
+exclusively in the dominant errors. As to Catholic teaching, nay as to
+Roman dogma, of such theology those Homilies, as I have shown, contained
+no small portion themselves.
+
+[5] The Pope's Confirmation of the Council, by which its Canons became
+_de fide_, and his Bull _super confirmatione_ by which they were
+promulgated to the world, are dated January 26, 1564. The Articles are
+dated 1562.
+
+5. So much for the writers of the Articles and Homilies;--they were
+witnesses, not authorities, and I used them as such; but in the next
+place, who were the actual authorities imposing them? I reasonably
+considered the authority _imponens_ to be the Convocation of 1571; but
+here again, it would be found that the very Convocation, which received
+and confirmed the 39 Articles, also enjoined by Canon that "preachers
+should be _careful_, that they should _never_ teach aught in a sermon,
+to be religiously held and believed by the people, except that which is
+agreeable to the doctrine of the Old and New Testament, and _which the
+Catholic Fathers and ancient Bishops have collected_ from that very
+doctrine." Here, let it be observed, an appeal is made by the
+Convocation _imponens_ to the very same ancient authorities, as had been
+mentioned with such profound veneration by the writers of the Homilies
+and the Articles, and thus, if the Homilies contained views of doctrine
+which now would be called Roman, there seemed to me to be an extreme
+probability that the Convocation of 1571 also countenanced and received,
+or at least did not reject, those doctrines.
+
+6. And further, when at length I came actually to look into the text of
+the Articles, I saw in many cases a patent justification of all that I
+had surmised as to their vagueness and indecisiveness, and that, not
+only on questions which lay between Lutherans, Calvinists, and
+Zuinglians, but on Catholic questions also; and I have noticed them in
+my Tract. In the conclusion of my Tract I observe: The Articles are
+"evidently framed on the principle of leaving open large questions on
+which the controversy hinges. They state broadly extreme truths, and are
+silent about their adjustment. For instance, they say that all necessary
+faith must be proved from Scripture; but do not say _who_ is to prove
+it. They say, that the Church has authority in controversies; they do
+not say _what_ authority. They say that it may enforce nothing beyond
+Scripture, but do not say _where_ the remedy lies when it does. They say
+that works _before_ grace _and_ justification are worthless and worse,
+and that works _after_ grace _and_ justification are acceptable, but
+they do not speak at all of works _with_ God's aid _before_
+justification. They say that men are lawfully called and sent to
+minister and preach, who are chosen and called by men who have public
+authority _given_ them in the Congregation; but they do not add _by
+whom_ the authority is to be given. They say that Councils called by
+_princes_ may err; they do not determine whether Councils called in the
+name of Christ may err."
+
+Such were the considerations which weighed with me in my inquiry how far
+the Articles were tolerant of a Catholic, or even a Roman
+interpretation; and such was the defence which I made in my Tract for
+having attempted it. From what I have already said, it will appear that
+I have no need or intention at this day to maintain every particular
+interpretation which I suggested in the course of my Tract, nor indeed
+had I then. Whether it was prudent or not, whether it was sensible or
+not, any how I attempted only a first essay of a necessary work, an
+essay which, as I was quite prepared to find, would require revision and
+modification by means of the lights which I should gain from the
+criticism of others. I should have gladly withdrawn any statement, which
+could be proved to me to be erroneous; I considered my work to be faulty
+and open to objection in the same sense in which I now consider my
+Anglican interpretations of Scripture to be erroneous; but in no other
+sense. I am surprised that men do not apply to the interpreters of
+Scripture generally the hard names which they apply to the author of
+Tract 90. He held a large system of theology, and applied it to the
+Articles: Episcopalians, or Lutherans, or Presbyterians, or Unitarians,
+hold a large system of theology and apply it to Scripture. Every
+theology has its difficulties; Protestants hold justification by faith
+only, though there is no text in St. Paul which enunciates it, and
+though St. James expressly denies it; do we therefore call Protestants
+dishonest? they deny that the Church has a divine mission, though St.
+Paul says that it is "the Pillar and ground of Truth;" they keep the
+Sabbath, though St. Paul says, "Let no man judge you in meat or drink or
+in respect of ... the sabbath days." Every creed has texts in its
+favour, and again texts which run counter to it: and this is generally
+confessed. And this is what I felt keenly:--how had I done worse in
+Tract 90 than Anglicans, Wesleyans, and Calvinists did daily in their
+Sermons and their publications? how had I done worse, than the
+Evangelical party in their _ex animo_ reception of the Services for
+Baptism and Visitation of the Sick[6]? Why was I to be dishonest and
+they immaculate? There was an occasion on which our Lord gave an answer,
+which seemed to be appropriate to my own case, when the tumult broke out
+against my Tract:--"He that is without sin among you, let him first cast
+a stone at him." I could have fancied that a sense of their own
+difficulties of interpretation would have persuaded the great party I
+have mentioned to some prudence, or at least moderation, in opposing a
+teacher of an opposite school. But I suppose their alarm and their anger
+overcame their sense of justice.
+
+[6] For instance, let candid men consider the form of Absolution
+contained in that Prayer Book, of which all clergymen, Evangelical and
+Liberal as well as high Church, and (I think) all persons in University
+office declare that "it containeth _nothing contrary to the Word of
+God_."
+
+I challenge, in the sight of all England, Evangelical clergymen
+generally, to put on paper an interpretation of this form of words,
+consistent with their sentiments, which shall be less forced than the
+most objectionable of the interpretations which Tract 90 puts upon any
+passage in the Articles.
+
+"Our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath left _power_ to His Church to absolve
+all sinners who truly repent and believe in Him, of His great mercy
+forgive thee thine offences; and by _His authority committed to me, I
+absolve thee from all thy sins_, in the Name of the Father, and of the
+Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen."
+
+I subjoin the Roman form, as used in England and elsewhere: "Dominus
+noster Jesus Christus te absolvat; et ego auctoritate ipsius te absolvo,
+ab omni vinculo excommunicationis et interdicti, in quantum possum et tu
+indiges. Deinde ego te absolvo à peccatis tuis, in nomine Patris et
+Filii et Spiritûs Sancti. Amen."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the sudden storm of indignation with which the Tract was received
+throughout the country on its appearance, I recognize much of real
+religious feeling, much of honest and true principle, much of
+straightforward ignorant common sense. In Oxford there was genuine
+feeling too; but there had been a smouldering, stern, energetic
+animosity, not at all unnatural, partly rational, against its author. A
+false step had been made; now was the time for action. I am told that,
+even before the publication of the Tract, rumours of its contents had
+got into the hostile camp in an exaggerated form; and not a moment was
+lost in proceeding to action, when I was actually fallen into the hands
+of the Philistines. I was quite unprepared for the outbreak, and was
+startled at its violence. I do not think I had any fear. Nay, I will
+add, I am not sure that it was not in one point of view a relief to me.
+
+I saw indeed clearly that my place in the Movement was lost; public
+confidence was at an end; my occupation was gone. It was simply an
+impossibility that I could say any thing henceforth to good effect, when
+I had been posted up by the marshal on the buttery-hatch of every
+College of my University, after the manner of discommoned pastry-cooks,
+and when in every part of the country and every class of society,
+through every organ and opportunity of opinion, in newspapers, in
+periodicals, at meetings, in pulpits, at dinner-tables, in coffee-rooms,
+in railway carriages, I was denounced as a traitor who had laid his
+train and was detected in the very act of firing it against the
+time-honoured Establishment. There were indeed men, besides my own
+immediate friends, men of name and position, who gallantly took my part,
+as Dr. Hook, Mr. Palmer, and Mr. Perceval; it must have been a grievous
+trial for themselves; yet what after all could they do for me?
+Confidence in me was lost;--but I had already lost full confidence in
+myself. Thoughts had passed over me a year and a half before in respect
+to the Anglican claims, which for the time had profoundly troubled me.
+They had gone: I had not less confidence in the power and the prospects
+of the Apostolical movement than before; not less confidence than before
+in the grievousness of what I called the "dominant errors" of Rome: but
+how was I any more to have absolute confidence in myself? how was I to
+have confidence in my present confidence? how was I to be sure that I
+should always think as I thought now? I felt that by this event a kind
+Providence had saved me from an impossible position in the future.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+First, if I remember right, they wished me to withdraw the Tract. This I
+refused to do: I would not do so for the sake of those who were
+unsettled or in danger of unsettlement. I would not do so for my own
+sake; for how could I acquiesce in a mere Protestant interpretation of
+the Articles? how could I range myself among the professors of a
+theology, of which it put my teeth on edge even to hear the sound?
+
+Next they said, "Keep silence; do not defend the Tract;" I answered,
+"Yes, if you will not condemn it,--if you will allow it to continue on
+sale." They pressed on me whenever I gave way; they fell back when they
+saw me obstinate. Their line of action was to get out of me as much as
+they could; but upon the point of their tolerating the Tract I _was_
+obstinate. So they let me continue it on sale; and they said they would
+not condemn it. But they said that this was on condition that I did not
+defend it, that I stopped the series, and that I myself published my own
+condemnation in a letter to the Bishop of Oxford. I impute nothing
+whatever to him, he was ever most kind to me. Also, they said they could
+not answer for what some individual Bishops might perhaps say about the
+Tract in their own charges. I agreed to their conditions. My one point
+was to save the Tract.
+
+Not a line in writing was given me, as a pledge of the observance of the
+main article on their side of the engagement. Parts of letters from them
+were read to me, without being put into my hands. It was an
+"understanding." A clever man had warned me against "understandings"
+some thirteen years before: I have hated them ever since.
+
+In the last words of my letter to the Bishop of Oxford I thus resigned
+my place in the Movement:--
+
+"I have nothing to be sorry for," I say to him, "except having made your
+Lordship anxious, and others whom I am bound to revere. I have nothing
+to be sorry for, but everything to rejoice in and be thankful for. I
+have never taken pleasure in seeming to be able to move a party, and
+whatever influence I have had, has been found, not sought after. I have
+acted because others did not act, and have sacrificed a quiet which I
+prized. May God be with me in time to come, as He has been hitherto! and
+He will be, if I can but keep my hand clean and my heart pure. I think I
+can bear, or at least will try to bear, any personal humiliation, so
+that I am preserved from betraying sacred interests, which the Lord of
+grace and power has given into my charge[7]."
+
+[7] To the Pamphlets published in my behalf at this time I should add
+"One Tract more," an able and generous defence of Tractarianism and No.
+90, by the present Lord Houghton.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+HISTORY OF MY RELIGIOUS OPINIONS FROM 1839 TO 1841.
+
+
+And now that I am about to trace, as far as I can, the course of that
+great revolution of mind, which led me to leave my own home, to which I
+was bound by so many strong and tender ties, I feel overcome with the
+difficulty of satisfying myself in my account of it, and have recoiled
+from the attempt, till the near approach of the day, on which these
+lines must be given to the world, forces me to set about the task. For
+who can know himself, and the multitude of subtle influences which act
+upon him? And who can recollect, at the distance of twenty-five years,
+all that he once knew about his thoughts and his deeds, and that, during
+a portion of his life, when, even at the time, his observation, whether
+of himself or of the external world, was less than before or after, by
+very reason of the perplexity and dismay which weighed upon him,--when,
+in spite of the light given to him according to his need amid his
+darkness, yet a darkness it emphatically was? And who can suddenly gird
+himself to a new and anxious undertaking, which he might be able indeed
+to perform well, were full and calm leisure allowed him to look through
+every thing that he had written, whether in published works or private
+letters? yet again, granting that calm contemplation of the past, in
+itself so desirable, who could afford to be leisurely and deliberate,
+while he practises on himself a cruel operation, the ripping up of old
+griefs, and the venturing again upon the "infandum dolorem" of years in
+which the stars of this lower heaven were one by one going out? I could
+not in cool blood, nor except upon the imperious call of duty, attempt
+what I have set myself to do. It is both to head and heart an extreme
+trial, thus to analyze what has so long gone by, and to bring out the
+results of that examination. I have done various bold things in my life:
+this is the boldest: and, were I not sure I should after all succeed in
+my object, it would be madness to set about it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the spring of 1839 my position in the Anglican Church was at its
+height. I had supreme confidence in my controversial _status_, and I had
+a great and still growing success, in recommending it to others. I had
+in the foregoing autumn been somewhat sore at the Bishop's Charge, but I
+have a letter which shows that all annoyance had passed from my mind. In
+January, if I recollect aright, in order to meet the popular clamour
+against myself and others, and to satisfy the Bishop, I had collected
+into one all the strong things which they, and especially I, had said
+against the Church of Rome, in order to their insertion among the
+advertisements appended to our publications. Conscious as I was that my
+opinions in religion were not gained, as the world said, from Roman
+sources, but were, on the contrary, the birth of my own mind and of the
+circumstances in which I had been placed, I had a scorn of the
+imputations which were heaped upon me. It was true that I held a large
+bold system of religion, very unlike the Protestantism of the day, but
+it was the concentration and adjustment of the statements of great
+Anglican authorities, and I had as much right to hold it, as the
+Evangelical, and more right than the Liberal party could show, for
+asserting their own respective doctrines. As I declared on occasion of
+Tract 90, I claimed, in behalf of who would in the Anglican Church, the
+right of holding with Bramhall a comprecation with the Saints, and the
+Mass all but Transubstantiation with Andrewes, or with Hooker that
+Transubstantiation itself is not a point for Churches to part communion
+upon, or with Hammond that a General Council, truly such, never did,
+never shall err in a matter of faith, or with Bull that man had in
+paradise and lost on the fall, a supernatural habit of grace, or with
+Thorndike that penance is a propitiation for post-baptismal sin, or with
+Pearson that the all-powerful name of Jesus is no otherwise given than
+in the Catholic Church. "Two can play at that," was often in my mouth,
+when men of Protestant sentiments appealed to the Articles, Homilies, or
+Reformers; in the sense that, if they had a right to speak loud, I had
+the liberty to speak out as well as they, and had the means, by the same
+or parallel appeals, of giving them tit for tat. I thought that the
+Anglican Church was tyrannized over by a mere party, and I aimed at
+bringing into effect the promise contained in the motto to the Lyra,
+"They shall know the difference now." I only asked to be allowed to show
+them the difference.
+
+What will best describe my state of mind at the early part of 1839, is
+an Article in the British Critic for that April. I have looked over it
+now, for the first time since it was published; and have been struck by
+it for this reason:--it contains the last words which I ever spoke as an
+Anglican to Anglicans. It may now be read as my parting address and
+valediction, made to my friends. I little knew it at the time. It
+reviews the actual state of things, and it ends by looking towards the
+future. It is not altogether mine; for my memory goes to this,--that I
+had asked a friend to do the work; that then, the thought came on me,
+that I would do it myself: and that he was good enough to put into my
+hands what he had with great appositeness written, and that I embodied
+it in my Article. Every one, I think, will recognize the greater part of
+it as mine. It was published two years before the affair of Tract 90,
+and was entitled "The State of Religious Parties."
+
+In this Article, I begin by bringing together testimonies from our
+enemies to the remarkable success of our exertions. One writer said:
+"Opinions and views of a theology of a very marked and peculiar kind
+have been extensively adopted and strenuously upheld, and are daily
+gaining ground among a considerable and influential portion of the
+members, as well as ministers of the Established Church." Another: The
+Movement has manifested itself "with the most rapid growth of the
+hot-bed of these evil days." Another: "The _Via Media_ is crowded with
+young enthusiasts, who never presume to argue, except against the
+propriety of arguing at all." Another: "Were I to give you a full list
+of the works, which they have produced within the short space of five
+years, I should surprise you. You would see what a task it would be to
+make yourself complete master of their system, even in its present
+probably immature state. The writers have adopted the motto, 'In
+quietness and confidence shall be your strength.' With regard to
+confidence, they have justified their adopting it; but as to quietness,
+it is not very quiet to pour forth such a succession of controversial
+publications." Another: "The spread of these doctrines is in fact now
+having the effect of rendering all other distinctions obsolete, and of
+severing the religious community into two portions, fundamentally and
+vehemently opposed one to the other. Soon there will be no middle ground
+left; and every man, and especially every clergyman, will be compelled
+to make his choice between the two." Another: "The time has gone by,
+when those unfortunate and deeply regretted publications can be passed
+over without notice, and the hope that their influence would fail is now
+dead." Another: "These doctrines had already made fearful progress. One
+of the largest churches in Brighton is crowded to hear them; so is the
+church at Leeds. There are few towns of note, to which they have not
+extended. They are preached in small towns in Scotland. They obtain in
+Elginshire, 600 miles north of London. I found them myself in the heart
+of the highlands of Scotland. They are advocated in the newspaper and
+periodical press. They have even insinuated themselves into the House of
+Commons." And, lastly, a bishop in a charge:--It "is daily assuming a
+more serious and alarming aspect. Under the specious pretence of
+deference to Antiquity and respect for primitive models, the foundations
+of the Protestant Church are undermined by men, who dwell within her
+walls, and those who sit in the Reformers' seat are traducing the
+Reformation."
+
+After thus stating the phenomenon of the time, as it presented itself to
+those who did not sympathize in it, the Article proceeds to account for
+it; and this it does by considering it as a re-action from the dry and
+superficial character of the religious teaching and the literature of
+the last generation, or century, and as a result of the need which was
+felt both by the hearts and the intellects of the nation for a deeper
+philosophy, and as the evidence and as the partial fulfilment of that
+need, to which even the chief authors of the then generation had borne
+witness. First, I mentioned the literary influence of Walter Scott, who
+turned men's minds in the direction of the middle ages. "The general
+need," I said, "of something deeper and more attractive, than what had
+offered itself elsewhere, may be considered to have led to his
+popularity; and by means of his popularity he re-acted on his readers,
+stimulating their mental thirst, feeding their hopes, setting before
+them visions, which, when once seen, are not easily forgotten, and
+silently indoctrinating them with nobler ideas, which might afterwards
+be appealed to as first principles."
+
+Then I spoke of Coleridge, thus: "While history in prose and verse was
+thus made the instrument of Church feelings and opinions, a
+philosophical basis for the same was laid in England by a very original
+thinker, who, while he indulged a liberty of speculation, which no
+Christian can tolerate, and advocated conclusions which were often
+heathen rather than Christian, yet after all installed a higher
+philosophy into inquiring minds, than they had hitherto been accustomed
+to accept. In this way he made trial of his age, and succeeded in
+interesting its genius in the cause of Catholic truth."
+
+Then come Southey and Wordsworth, "two living poets, one of whom in the
+department of fantastic fiction, the other in that of philosophical
+meditation, have addressed themselves to the same high principles and
+feelings, and carried forward their readers in the same direction."
+
+Then comes the prediction of this re-action hazarded by "a sagacious
+observer withdrawn from the world, and surveying its movements from a
+distance," Mr. Alexander Knox. He had said twenty years before the date
+of my Article: "No Church on earth has more intrinsic excellence than
+the English Church, yet no Church probably has less practical
+influence.... The rich provision, made by the grace and providence of
+God, for habits of a noble kind, is evidence that men shall arise,
+fitted both by nature and ability, to discover for themselves, and to
+display to others, whatever yet remains undiscovered, whether in the
+words or works of God." Also I referred to "a much venerated clergyman
+of the last generation," who said shortly before his death, "Depend on
+it, the day will come, when those great doctrines, now buried, will be
+brought out to the light of day, and then the effect will be fearful." I
+remarked upon this, that they who "now blame the impetuosity of the
+current, should rather turn their animadversions upon those who have
+dammed up a majestic river, till it has become a flood."
+
+These being the circumstances under which the Movement began and
+progressed, it was absurd to refer it to the act of two or three
+individuals. It was not so much a movement as a "spirit afloat;" it was
+within us, "rising up in hearts where it was least suspected, and
+working itself, though not in secret, yet so subtly and impalpably, as
+hardly to admit of precaution or encounter on any ordinary human rules
+of opposition. It is," I continued, "an adversary in the air, a
+something one and entire, a whole wherever it is, unapproachable and
+incapable of being grasped, as being the result of causes far deeper
+than political or other visible agencies, the spiritual awakening of
+spiritual wants."
+
+To make this clear, I proceed to refer to the chief preachers of the
+revived doctrines at that moment, and to draw attention to the variety
+of their respective antecedents. Dr. Hook and Mr. Churton represented
+the high Church dignitaries of the last century; Mr. Perceval, the Tory
+aristocracy; Mr. Keble came from a country parsonage; Mr. Palmer from
+Ireland; Dr. Pusey from the Universities of Germany, and the study of
+Arabic MSS.; Mr. Dodsworth from the study of Prophecy; Mr. Oakeley had
+gained his views, as he himself expressed it, "partly by study, partly
+by reflection, partly by conversation with one or two friends, inquirers
+like himself:" while I speak of myself as being "much indebted to the
+friendship of Archbishop Whately." And thus I am led on to ask, "What
+head of a sect is there? What march of opinions can be traced from mind
+to mind among preachers such as these? They are one and all in their
+degree the organs of one Sentiment, which has risen up simultaneously in
+many places very mysteriously."
+
+My train of thought next led me to speak of the disciples of the
+Movement, and I freely acknowledged and lamented that they needed to be
+kept in order. It is very much to the purpose to draw attention to this
+point now, when such extravagances as then occurred, whatever they were,
+are simply laid to my door, or to the charge of the doctrines which I
+advocated. A man cannot do more than freely confess what is wrong, say
+that it need not be, that it ought not to be, and that he is very sorry
+that it should be. Now I said in the Article, which I am reviewing, that
+the great truths themselves, which we were preaching, must not be
+condemned on account of such abuse of them. "Aberrations there must ever
+be, whatever the doctrine is, while the human heart is sensitive,
+capricious, and wayward. A mixed multitude went out of Egypt with the
+Israelites." "There will ever be a number of persons," I continued,
+"professing the opinions of a movement party, who talk loudly and
+strangely, do odd or fierce things, display themselves unnecessarily,
+and disgust other people; persons, too young to be wise, too generous to
+be cautious, too warm to be sober, or too intellectual to be humble.
+Such persons will be very apt to attach themselves to particular
+persons, to use particular names, to say things merely because others
+do, and to act in a party-spirited way."
+
+While I thus republish what I then said about such extravagances as
+occurred in these years, at the same time I have a very strong
+conviction that those extravagances furnished quite as much the welcome
+excuse for those who were jealous or shy of us, as the stumbling-blocks
+of those who were well inclined to our doctrines. This too we felt at
+the time; but it was our duty to see that our good should not be
+evil-spoken of; and accordingly, two or three of the writers of the
+Tracts for the Times had commenced a Series of what they called "Plain
+Sermons" with the avowed purpose of discouraging and correcting whatever
+was uppish or extreme in our followers: to this Series I contributed a
+volume myself.
+
+Its conductors say in their Preface: "If therefore as time goes on,
+there shall be found persons, who admiring the innate beauty and majesty
+of the fuller system of Primitive Christianity, and seeing the
+transcendent strength of its principles, _shall become loud and voluble
+advocates_ in their behalf, speaking the more freely, _because they do
+not feel them deeply as founded_ in divine and eternal truth, of such
+persons _it is our duty to declare plainly_, that, as we should
+contemplate their condition with serious misgiving, _so would they be
+the last persons from whom we should_ seek support.
+
+"But if, on the other hand, there shall be any, who, in the silent
+humility of their lives, and in their unaffected reverence for holy
+things, show that they in truth accept these principles as real and
+substantial, and by habitual purity of heart and serenity of temper,
+give proof of their deep veneration for sacraments and sacramental
+ordinances, those persons, _whether our professed adherents or not_,
+best exemplify the kind of character which the writers of the Tracts for
+the Times have wished to form."
+
+These clergymen had the best of claims to use these beautiful words, for
+they were themselves, all of them, important writers in the Tracts, the
+two Mr. Kebles, and Mr. Isaac Williams. And this passage, with which
+they ushered their Series into the world, I quoted in the Article, of
+which I am giving an account, and I added, "What more can be required of
+the preachers of neglected truth, than that they should admit that some,
+who do not assent to their preaching, are holier and better men than
+some who do?" They were not answerable for the intemperance of those who
+dishonoured a true doctrine, provided they protested, as they did,
+against such intemperance. "They were not answerable for the dust and
+din which attends any great moral movement. The truer doctrines are, the
+more liable they are to be perverted."
+
+The notice of these incidental faults of opinion or temper in adherents
+of the Movement, led on to a discussion of the secondary causes, by
+means of which a system of doctrine may be embraced, modified, or
+developed, of the variety of schools which may all be in the One Church,
+and of the succession of one phase of doctrine to another, while that
+doctrine is ever one and the same. Thus I was brought on to the subject
+of Antiquity, which was the basis of the doctrine of the _Via Media_,
+and by which was not to be understood a servile imitation of the past,
+but such a reproduction of it as is really new, while it is old. "We
+have good hope," I say, "that a system will be rising up, superior to
+the age, yet harmonizing with, and carrying out its higher points, which
+will attract to itself those who are willing to make a venture and to
+face difficulties, for the sake of something higher in prospect. On
+this, as on other subjects, the proverb will apply, 'Fortes fortuna
+adjuvat.'"
+
+Lastly, I proceeded to the question of that future of the Anglican
+Church, which was to be a new birth of the Ancient Religion. And I did
+not venture to pronounce upon it. "About the future, we have no prospect
+before our minds whatever, good or bad. Ever since that great luminary,
+Augustine, proved to be the last bishop of Hippo, Christians have had a
+lesson against attempting to foretell, _how_ Providence will prosper
+and" [or?] "bring to an end, what it begins." Perhaps the lately-revived
+principles would prevail in the Anglican Church; perhaps they would be
+lost in some miserable schism, or some more miserable compromise; but
+there was nothing rash in venturing to predict that "neither Puritanism
+nor Liberalism had any permanent inheritance within her."
+
+Then I went on: "As to Liberalism, we think the formularies of the
+Church will ever, with the aid of a good Providence, keep it from making
+any serious inroads upon the clergy. Besides, it is too cold a principle
+to prevail with the multitude." But as regarded what was called
+Evangelical Religion or Puritanism, there was more to cause alarm. I
+observed upon its organization; but on the other hand it had no
+intellectual basis; no internal idea, no principle of unity, no
+theology. "Its adherents," I said, "are already separating from each
+other; they will melt away like a snow-drift. It has no straightforward
+view on any one point, on which it professes to teach, and to hide its
+poverty, it has dressed itself out in a maze of words. We have no dread
+of it at all; we only fear what it may lead to. It does not stand on
+intrenched ground, or make any pretence to a position; it does but
+occupy the space between contending powers, Catholic Truth and
+Rationalism. Then indeed will be the stern encounter, when two real and
+living principles, simple, entire, and consistent, one in the Church,
+the other out of it, at length rush upon each other, contending not for
+names and words, or half-views, but for elementary notions and
+distinctive moral characters."
+
+Whether the ideas of the coming age upon religion were true or false, at
+least they would be real. "In the present day," I said, "mistiness is
+the mother of wisdom. A man who can set down a half-a-dozen general
+propositions, which escape from destroying one another only by being
+diluted into truisms, who can hold the balance between opposites so
+skilfully as to do without fulcrum or beam, who never enunciates a truth
+without guarding himself against being supposed to exclude the
+contradictory,--who holds that Scripture is the only authority, yet that
+the Church is to be deferred to, that faith only justifies, yet that it
+does not justify without works, that grace does not depend on the
+sacraments, yet is not given without them, that bishops are a divine
+ordinance, yet those who have them not are in the same religious
+condition as those who have,--this is your safe man and the hope of the
+Church; this is what the Church is said to want, not party men, but
+sensible, temperate, sober, well-judging persons, to guide it through
+the channel of no-meaning, between the Scylla and Charybdis of Aye and
+No."
+
+This state of things, however, I said, could not last, if men were to
+read and think. They "will not keep in that very attitude which you call
+sound Church-of-Englandism or orthodox Protestantism. They cannot go on
+for ever standing on one leg, or sitting without a chair, or walking
+with their feet tied, or like Tityrus's stags grazing in the air. They
+will take one view or another, but it will be a consistent view. It may
+be Liberalism, or Erastianism, or Popery, or Catholicity; but it will be
+real."
+
+I concluded the Article by saying, that all who did not wish to be
+"democratic, or pantheistic, or popish," must "look out for _some_ Via
+Media which will preserve us from what threatens, though it cannot
+restore the dead. The spirit of Luther is dead; but Hildebrand and
+Loyola are alive. Is it sensible, sober, judicious, to be so very angry
+with those writers of the day, who point to the fact, that our divines
+of the seventeenth century have occupied a ground which is the true and
+intelligible mean between extremes? Is it wise to quarrel with this
+ground, because it is not exactly what we should choose, had we the
+power of choice? Is it true moderation, instead of trying to fortify a
+middle doctrine, to fling stones at those who do?... Would you rather
+have your sons and daughters members of the Church of England or of the
+Church of Rome?"
+
+And thus I left the matter. But, while I was thus speaking of the future
+of the Movement, I was in truth winding up my accounts with it, little
+dreaming that it was so to be;--while I was still, in some way or other,
+feeling about for an available _Via Media_, I was soon to receive a
+shock which was to cast out of my imagination all middle courses and
+compromises for ever. As I have said, this Article appeared in the April
+number of the British Critic; in the July number, I cannot tell why,
+there is no Article of mine; before the number for October, the event
+had happened to which I have alluded.
+
+But before I proceed to describe what happened to me in the summer of
+1839, I must detain the reader for a while, in order to describe the
+_issue_ of the controversy between Rome and the Anglican Church, as I
+viewed it. This will involve some dry discussion; but it is as necessary
+for my narrative, as plans of buildings and homesteads are at times
+needed in the proceedings of our law courts.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I have said already that, though the object of the Movement was to
+withstand the Liberalism of the day, I found and felt this could not be
+done by mere negatives. It was necessary for us to have a positive
+Church theory erected on a definite basis. This took me to the great
+Anglican divines; and then of course I found at once that it was
+impossible to form any such theory, without cutting across the teaching
+of the Church of Rome. Thus came in the Roman controversy.
+
+When I first turned myself to it, I had neither doubt on the subject,
+nor suspicion that doubt would ever come upon me. It was in this state
+of mind that I began to read up Bellarmine on the one hand, and
+numberless Anglican writers on the other. But I soon found, as others
+had found before me, that it was a tangled and manifold controversy,
+difficult to master, more difficult to put out of hand with neatness and
+precision. It was easy to make points, not easy to sum up and settle. It
+was not easy to find a clear issue for the dispute, and still less by a
+logical process to decide it in favour of Anglicanism. This difficulty,
+however, had no tendency whatever to harass or perplex me: it was a
+matter which bore not on convictions, but on proofs.
+
+First I saw, as all see who study the subject, that a broad distinction
+had to be drawn between the actual state of belief and of usage in the
+countries which were in communion with the Roman Church, and her formal
+dogmas; the latter did not cover the former. Sensible pain, for
+instance, is not implied in the Tridentine decree upon Purgatory; but it
+was the tradition of the Latin Church, and I had seen the pictures of
+souls in flames in the streets of Naples. Bishop Lloyd had brought this
+distinction out strongly in an Article in the British Critic in 1825;
+indeed, it was one of the most common objections made to the Church of
+Rome, that she dared not commit herself by formal decree, to what
+nevertheless she sanctioned and allowed. Accordingly, in my Prophetical
+Office, I view as simply separate ideas, Rome quiescent, and Rome in
+action. I contrasted her creed on the one hand, with her ordinary
+teaching, her controversial tone, her political and social bearing, and
+her popular beliefs and practices, on the other.
+
+While I made this distinction between the decrees and the traditions of
+Rome, I drew a parallel distinction between Anglicanism quiescent, and
+Anglicanism in action. In its formal creed Anglicanism was not at a
+great distance from Rome: far otherwise, when viewed in its insular
+spirit, the traditions of its establishment, its historical
+characteristics, its controversial rancour, and its private judgment. I
+disavowed and condemned those excesses, and called them "Protestantism"
+or "Ultra-Protestantism:" I wished to find a parallel disclaimer, on the
+part of Roman controversialists, of that popular system of beliefs and
+usages in their own Church, which I called "Popery." When that hope was
+a dream, I saw that the controversy lay between the book-theology of
+Anglicanism on the one side, and the living system of what I called
+Roman corruption on the other. I could not get further than this; with
+this result I was forced to content myself.
+
+These then were the _parties_ in the controversy:--the Anglican _Via
+Media_ and the popular religion of Rome. And next, as to the _issue_, to
+which the controversy between them was to be brought, it was this:--the
+Anglican disputant took his stand upon Antiquity or Apostolicity, the
+Roman upon Catholicity. The Anglican said to the Roman: "There is but
+One Faith, the Ancient, and you have not kept to it;" the Roman
+retorted: "There is but One Church, the Catholic, and you are out of
+it." The Anglican urged "Your special beliefs, practices, modes of
+action, are nowhere in Antiquity;" the Roman objected: "You do not
+communicate with any one Church besides your own and its offshoots, and
+you have discarded principles, doctrines, sacraments, and usages, which
+are and ever have been received in the East and the West." The true
+Church, as defined in the Creeds, was both Catholic and Apostolic; now,
+as I viewed the controversy in which I was engaged, England and Rome had
+divided these notes or prerogatives between them: the cause lay thus,
+Apostolicity _versus_ Catholicity.
+
+However, in thus stating the matter, of course I do not wish it supposed
+that I allowed the note of Catholicity really to belong to Rome, to the
+disparagement of the Anglican Church; but I considered that the special
+point or plea of Rome in the controversy was Catholicity, as the
+Anglican plea was Antiquity. Of course I contended that the Roman idea
+of Catholicity was not ancient and apostolic. It was in my judgment at
+the utmost only natural, becoming, expedient, that the whole of
+Christendom should be united in one visible body; while such a unity
+might, on the other hand, be nothing more than a mere heartless and
+political combination. For myself, I held with the Anglican divines,
+that, in the Primitive Church, there was a very real mutual independence
+between its separate parts, though, from a dictate of charity, there was
+in fact a close union between them. I considered that each See and
+Diocese might be compared to a crystal, and that each was similar to the
+rest, and that the sum total of them all was only a collection of
+crystals. The unity of the Church lay, not in its being a polity, but in
+its being a family, a race, coming down by apostolical descent from its
+first founders and bishops. And I considered this truth brought out,
+beyond the possibility of dispute, in the Epistles of St. Ignatius, in
+which the Bishop is represented as the one supreme authority in the
+Church, that is, in his own place, with no one above him, except as, for
+the sake of ecclesiastical order and expedience, arrangements had been
+made by which one was put over or under another. So much for our own
+claim to Catholicity, which was so perversely appropriated by our
+opponents to themselves:--on the other hand, as to our special strong
+point, Antiquity, while, of course, by means of it, we were able to
+condemn most emphatically the novel claim of Rome to domineer over other
+Churches, which were in truth her equals, further than that, we thereby
+especially convicted her of the intolerable offence of having added to
+the Faith. This was the critical head of accusation urged against her by
+the Anglican disputant; and as he referred to St. Ignatius in proof that
+he himself was a true Catholic, in spite of being separated from Rome,
+so he triumphantly referred to the Treatise of Vincentius of Lerins upon
+the "Quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus," in proof that the
+controversialists of Rome, in spite of their possession of the Catholic
+name, were separated in their creed from the Apostolical and primitive
+faith.
+
+Of course those controversialists had their own mode of answering him,
+with which I am not concerned in this place; here I am only concerned
+with the issue itself, between the one party and the other--Antiquity
+_versus_ Catholicity.
+
+Now I will proceed to illustrate what I have been saying of the _status_
+of the controversy, as it presented itself to my mind, by extracts from
+my writings of the dates of 1836, 1840, and 1841. And I introduce them
+with a remark, which especially applies to the paper, from which I shall
+quote first, of the date of 1836. That paper appeared in the March and
+April numbers of the British Magazine of that year, and was entitled
+"Home Thoughts Abroad." Now it will be found, that, in the discussion
+which it contains, as in various other writings of mine, when I was in
+the Anglican Church, the argument in behalf of Rome is stated with
+considerable perspicuity and force. And at the time my friends and
+supporters cried out, "How imprudent!" and, both at the time, and
+especially at a later date, my enemies have cried out, "How insidious!"
+Friends and foes virtually agreed in their criticism; I had set out the
+cause which I was combating to the best advantage: this was an offence;
+it might be from imprudence, it might be with a traitorous design. It
+was from neither the one nor the other; but for the following reasons.
+First, I had a great impatience, whatever was the subject, of not
+bringing out the whole of it, as clearly as I could; next I wished to be
+as fair to my adversaries as possible; and thirdly I thought that there
+was a great deal of shallowness among our own friends, and that they
+undervalued the strength of the argument in behalf of Rome, and that
+they ought to be roused to a more exact apprehension of the position of
+the controversy. At a later date, (1841,) when I really felt the force
+of the Roman side of the question myself, as a difficulty which had to
+be met, I had a fourth reason for such frankness in argument, and that
+was, because a number of persons were unsettled far more than I was, as
+to the Catholicity of the Anglican Church. It was quite plain that,
+unless I was perfectly candid in stating what could be said against it,
+there was no chance that any representations, which I felt to be in its
+favour, or at least to be adverse to Rome, would have had any success
+with the persons in question.
+
+At all times I had a deep conviction, to put the matter on the lowest
+ground, that "honesty was the best policy." Accordingly, in July 1841, I
+expressed myself thus on the Anglican difficulty: "This is an objection
+which we must honestly say is deeply felt by many people, and not
+inconsiderable ones; and the more it is openly avowed to be a
+difficulty, the better; for there is then the chance of its being
+acknowledged, and in the course of time obviated, as far as may be, by
+those who have the power. Flagrant evils cure themselves by being
+flagrant; and we are sanguine that the time is come when so great an
+evil as this is, cannot stand its ground against the good feeling and
+common sense of religious persons. It is the very strength of Romanism
+against us; and, unless the proper persons take it into their serious
+consideration, they may look for certain to undergo the loss, as time
+goes on, of some whom they would least like to be lost to our Church."
+The measure which I had especially in view in this passage, was the
+project of a Jerusalem Bishopric, which the then Archbishop of
+Canterbury was at that time concocting with M. Bunsen, and of which I
+shall speak more in the sequel. And now to return to the Home Thoughts
+Abroad of the spring of 1836:--
+
+The discussion contained in this composition runs in the form of a
+dialogue. One of the disputants says: "You say to me that the Church of
+Rome is corrupt. What then? to cut off a limb is a strange way of saving
+it from the influence of some constitutional ailment. Indigestion may
+cause cramp in the extremities; yet we spare our poor feet
+notwithstanding. Surely there is such a religious _fact_ as the
+existence of a great Catholic body, union with which is a Christian
+privilege and duty. Now, we English are separate from it."
+
+The other answers: "The present is an unsatisfactory, miserable state of
+things, yet I can grant no more. The Church is founded on a
+doctrine,--on the gospel of Truth; it is a means to an end. Perish the
+Church, (though, blessed be the promise! this cannot be,) yet let it
+perish _rather_ than the Truth should fail. Purity of faith is more
+precious to the Christian than unity itself. If Rome has erred
+grievously in doctrine, then it is a duty to separate even from Rome."
+
+His friend, who takes the Roman side of the argument, refers to the
+image of the Vine and its branches, which is found, I think, in St.
+Cyprian, as if a branch cut from the Catholic Vine must necessarily die.
+Also he quotes a passage from St. Augustine in controversy with the
+Donatists to the same effect; viz. that, as being separated from the
+body of the Church, they were _ipso facto_ cut off from the heritage of
+Christ. And he quotes St. Cyril's argument drawn from the very title
+Catholic, which no body or communion of men has ever dared or been able
+to appropriate, besides one. He adds, "Now I am only contending for the
+fact, that the communion of Rome constitutes the main body of the Church
+Catholic, and that we are split off from it, and in the condition of the
+Donatists."
+
+The other replies by denying the fact that the present Roman communion
+is like St. Augustine's Catholic Church, inasmuch as there must be taken
+into account the large Anglican and Greek communions. Presently he takes
+the offensive, naming distinctly the points, in which Rome has departed
+from Primitive Christianity, viz. "the practical idolatry, the virtual
+worship of the Virgin and Saints, which are the offence of the Latin
+Church, and the degradation of moral truth and duty, which follows from
+these." And again: "We cannot join a Church, did we wish it ever so
+much, which does not acknowledge our orders, refuses us the Cup, demands
+our acquiescence in image-worship, and excommunicates us, if we do not
+receive it and all other decisions of the Tridentine Council."
+
+His opponent answers these objections by referring to the doctrine of
+"developments of gospel truth." Besides, "The Anglican system itself is
+not found complete in those early centuries; so that the [Anglican]
+principle [of Antiquity] is self-destructive." "When a man takes up this
+_Via Media_, he is a mere _doctrinaire_;" he is like those, "who, in
+some matter of business, start up to suggest their own little crotchet,
+and are ever measuring mountains with a pocket ruler, or improving the
+planetary courses." "The _Via Media_ has slept in libraries; it is a
+substitute of infancy for manhood."
+
+It is plain, then, that at the end of 1835 or beginning of 1836, I had
+the whole state of the question before me, on which, to my mind, the
+decision between the Churches depended. It is observable that the
+question of the position of the Pope, whether as the centre of unity, or
+as the source of jurisdiction, did not come into my thoughts at all; nor
+did it, I think I may say, to the end. I doubt whether I ever distinctly
+held any of his powers to be _de jure divino_, while I was in the
+Anglican Church;--not that I saw any difficulty in the doctrine; not
+that in connexion with the history of St. Leo, of which I shall speak by
+and by, the idea of his infallibility did not cross my mind, for it
+did,--but after all, in my view the controversy did not turn upon it; it
+turned upon the Faith and the Church. This was my issue of the
+controversy from the beginning to the end. There was a contrariety of
+claims between the Roman and Anglican religions, and the history of my
+conversion is simply the process of working it out to a solution. In
+1838 I illustrated it by the contrast presented to us between the
+Madonna and Child, and a Calvary. The peculiarity of the Anglican
+theology was this,--that it "supposed the Truth to be entirely objective
+and detached, not" (as in the theology of Rome) "lying hid in the bosom
+of the Church as if one with her, clinging to and (as it were) lost in
+her embrace, but as being sole and unapproachable, as on the Cross or at
+the Resurrection, with the Church close by, but in the background."
+
+As I viewed the controversy in 1836 and 1838, so I viewed it in 1840 and
+1841. In the British Critic of January 1840, after gradually
+investigating how the matter lies between the Churches by means of a
+dialogue, I end thus: "It would seem, that, in the above discussion,
+each disputant has a strong point: our strong point is the argument from
+Primitiveness, that of Romanists from Universality. It is a fact,
+however it is to be accounted for, that Rome has added to the Creed; and
+it is a fact, however we justify ourselves, that we are estranged from
+the great body of Christians over the world. And each of these two facts
+is at first sight a grave difficulty in the respective systems to which
+they belong." Again, "While Rome, though not deferring to the Fathers,
+recognizes them, and England, not deferring to the large body of the
+Church, recognizes it, both Rome and England have a point to clear up."
+
+And still more strongly, in July, 1841:
+
+"If the Note of schism, on the one hand, lies against England, an
+antagonist disgrace lies upon Rome, the Note of idolatry. Let us not be
+mistaken here; we are neither accusing Rome of idolatry nor ourselves of
+schism; we think neither charge tenable; but still the Roman Church
+practises what is so like idolatry, and the English Church makes much of
+what is so very like schism, that without deciding what is the duty of a
+Roman Catholic towards the Church of England in her present state, we do
+seriously think that members of the English Church have a providential
+direction given them, how to comport themselves towards the Church of
+Rome, while she is what she is."
+
+One remark more about Antiquity and the _Via Media_. As time went on,
+without doubting the strength of the Anglican argument from Antiquity, I
+felt also that it was not merely our special plea, but our only one.
+Also I felt that the _Via Media_, which was to represent it, was to be a
+sort of remodelled and adapted Antiquity. This I advanced both in Home
+Thoughts Abroad and in the Article of the British Critic which I have
+analyzed above. But this circumstance, that after all we must use
+private judgment upon Antiquity, created a sort of distrust of my theory
+altogether, which in the conclusion of my Volume on the Prophetical
+Office (1836-7) I express thus: "Now that our discussions draw to a
+close, the thought, with which we entered on the subject, is apt to
+recur, when the excitement of the inquiry has subsided, and weariness
+has succeeded, that what has been said is but a dream, the wanton
+exercise, rather than the practical conclusions of the intellect." And I
+conclude the paragraph by anticipating a line of thought into which I
+was, in the event, almost obliged to take refuge: "After all," I say,
+"the Church is ever invisible in its day, and faith only apprehends it."
+What was this, but to give up the Notes of a visible Church altogether,
+whether the Catholic Note or the Apostolic?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Long Vacation of 1839 began early. There had been a great many
+visitors to Oxford from Easter to Commemoration; and Dr. Pusey's party
+had attracted attention, more, I think, than in any former year. I had
+put away from me the controversy with Rome for more than two years. In
+my Parochial Sermons the subject had at no time been introduced: there
+had been nothing for two years, either in my Tracts or in the British
+Critic, of a polemical character. I was returning, for the Vacation, to
+the course of reading which I had many years before chosen as especially
+my own. I have no reason to suppose that the thoughts of Rome came
+across my mind at all. About the middle of June I began to study and
+master the history of the Monophysites. I was absorbed in the doctrinal
+question. This was from about June 13th to August 30th. It was during
+this course of reading that for the first time a doubt came upon me of
+the tenableness of Anglicanism. I recollect on the 30th of July
+mentioning to a friend, whom I had accidentally met, how remarkable the
+history was; but by the end of August I was seriously alarmed.
+
+I have described in a former work, how the history affected me. My
+stronghold was Antiquity; now here, in the middle of the fifth century,
+I found, as it seemed to me, Christendom of the sixteenth and the
+nineteenth centuries reflected. I saw my face in that mirror, and I was
+a Monophysite. The Church of the _Via Media_ was in the position of the
+Oriental communion, Rome was, where she now is; and the Protestants were
+the Eutychians. Of all passages of history, since history has been, who
+would have thought of going to the sayings and doings of old Eutyches,
+that _delirus senex_, as (I think) Petavius calls him, and to the
+enormities of the unprincipled Dioscorus, in order to be converted to
+Rome!
+
+Now let it be simply understood that I am not writing controversially,
+but with the one object of relating things as they happened to me in the
+course of my conversion. With this view I will quote a passage from the
+account, which I gave in 1850, of my reasonings and feelings in 1839:
+
+"It was difficult to make out how the Eutychians or Monophysites were
+heretics, unless Protestants and Anglicans were heretics also; difficult
+to find arguments against the Tridentine Fathers, which did not tell
+against the Fathers of Chalcedon; difficult to condemn the Popes of the
+sixteenth century, without condemning the Popes of the fifth. The drama
+of religion, and the combat of truth and error, were ever one and the
+same. The principles and proceedings of the Church now, were those of
+the Church then; the principles and proceedings of heretics then, were
+those of Protestants now. I found it so,--almost fearfully; there was an
+awful similitude, more awful, because so silent and unimpassioned,
+between the dead records of the past and the feverish chronicle of the
+present. The shadow of the fifth century was on the sixteenth. It was
+like a spirit rising from the troubled waters of the old world, with the
+shape and lineaments of the new. The Church then, as now, might be
+called peremptory and stern, resolute, overbearing, and relentless; and
+heretics were shifting, changeable, reserved, and deceitful, ever
+courting civil power, and never agreeing together, except by its aid;
+and the civil power was ever aiming at comprehensions, trying to put the
+invisible out of view, and substituting expediency for faith. What was
+the use of continuing the controversy, or defending my position, if,
+after all, I was forging arguments for Arius or Eutyches, and turning
+devil's advocate against the much-enduring Athanasius and the majestic
+Leo? Be my soul with the Saints! and shall I lift up my hand against
+them? Sooner may my right hand forget her cunning, and wither outright,
+as his who once stretched it out against a prophet of God! anathema to a
+whole tribe of Cranmers, Ridleys, Latimers, and Jewels! perish the names
+of Bramhall, Ussher, Taylor, Stillingfleet, and Barrow from the face of
+the earth, ere I should do ought but fall at their feet in love and in
+worship, whose image was continually before my eyes, and whose musical
+words were ever in my ears and on my tongue!"
+
+Hardly had I brought my course of reading to a close, when the Dublin
+Review of that same August was put into my hands, by friends who were
+more favourable to the cause of Rome than I was myself. There was an
+article in it on the "Anglican Claim" by Dr. Wiseman. This was about the
+middle of September. It was on the Donatists, with an application to
+Anglicanism. I read it, and did not see much in it. The Donatist
+controversy was known to me for some years, as has appeared already. The
+case was not parallel to that of the Anglican Church. St. Augustine in
+Africa wrote against the Donatists in Africa. They were a furious party
+who made a schism within the African Church, and not beyond its limits.
+It was a case of Altar against Altar, of two occupants of the same See,
+as that between the Non-jurors in England and the Established Church;
+not the case of one Church against another, as of Rome against the
+Oriental Monophysites. But my friend, an anxiously religious man, now,
+as then, very dear to me, a Protestant still, pointed out the palmary
+words of St. Augustine, which were contained in one of the extracts made
+in the Review, and which had escaped my observation. "Securus judicat
+orbis terrarum." He repeated these words again and again, and, when he
+was gone, they kept ringing in my ears. "Securus judicat orbis
+terrarum;" they were words which went beyond the occasion of the
+Donatists: they applied to that of the Monophysites. They gave a cogency
+to the Article, which had escaped me at first. They decided
+ecclesiastical questions on a simpler rule than that of Antiquity; nay,
+St. Augustine was one of the prime oracles of Antiquity; here then
+Antiquity was deciding against itself. What a light was hereby thrown
+upon every controversy in the Church! not that, for the moment, the
+multitude may not falter in their judgment,--not that, in the Arian
+hurricane, Sees more than can be numbered did not bend before its fury,
+and fall off from St. Athanasius,--not that the crowd of Oriental
+Bishops did not need to be sustained during the contest by the voice and
+the eye of St. Leo; but that the deliberate judgment, in which the whole
+Church at length rests and acquiesces, is an infallible prescription and
+a final sentence against such portions of it as protest and secede. Who
+can account for the impressions which are made on him? For a mere
+sentence, the words of St. Augustine, struck me with a power which I
+never had felt from any words before. To take a familiar instance, they
+were like the "Turn again Whittington" of the chime; or, to take a more
+serious one, they were like the "Tolle, lege,--Tolle, lege," of the
+child, which converted St. Augustine himself. "Securus judicat orbis
+terrarum!" By those great words of the ancient Father, interpreting and
+summing up the long and varied course of ecclesiastical history, the
+theory of the _Via Media_ was absolutely pulverized.
+
+I became excited at the view thus opened upon me. I was just starting on
+a round of visits; and I mentioned my state of mind to two most intimate
+friends: I think to no others. After a while, I got calm, and at length
+the vivid impression upon my imagination faded away. What I thought
+about it on reflection, I will attempt to describe presently. I had to
+determine its logical value, and its bearing upon my duty. Meanwhile, so
+far as this was certain,--I had seen the shadow of a hand upon the wall.
+It was clear that I had a good deal to learn on the question of the
+Churches, and that perhaps some new light was coming upon me. He who has
+seen a ghost, cannot be as if he had never seen it. The heavens had
+opened and closed again. The thought for the moment had been, "The
+Church of Rome will be found right after all;" and then it had vanished.
+My old convictions remained as before.
+
+At this time, I wrote my Sermon on Divine Calls, which I published in my
+volume of Plain Sermons. It ends thus:--
+
+"O that we could take that simple view of things, as to feel that the
+one thing which lies before us is to please God! What gain is it to
+please the world, to please the great, nay even to please those whom we
+love, compared with this? What gain is it to be applauded, admired,
+courted, followed,--compared with this one aim, of not being disobedient
+to a heavenly vision? What can this world offer comparable with that
+insight into spiritual things, that keen faith, that heavenly peace,
+that high sanctity, that everlasting righteousness, that hope of glory,
+which they have, who in sincerity love and follow our Lord Jesus Christ?
+Let us beg and pray Him day by day to reveal Himself to our souls more
+fully, to quicken our senses, to give us sight and hearing, taste and
+touch of the world to come; so to work within us, that we may sincerely
+say, 'Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and after that receive me
+with glory. Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth
+that I desire in comparison of Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth, but
+God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.'"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now to trace the succession of thoughts, and the conclusions, and the
+consequent innovations on my previous belief, and the general conduct,
+to which I was led, upon this sudden visitation. And first, I will say,
+whatever comes of saying it, for I leave inferences to others, that for
+years I must have had something of an habitual notion, though it was
+latent, and had never led me to distrust my own convictions, that my
+mind had not found its ultimate rest, and that in some sense or other I
+was on journey. During the same passage across the Mediterranean in
+which I wrote "Lead kindly light," I also wrote the verses, which are
+found in the Lyra under the head of "Providences," beginning, "When I
+look back." This was in 1833; and, since I have begun this narrative, I
+have found a memorandum under the date of September 7, 1829, in which I
+speak of myself, as "now in my rooms in Oriel College, slowly advancing
+&c. and led on by God's hand blindly, not knowing whither He is taking
+me." But, whatever this presentiment be worth, it was no protection
+against the dismay and disgust, which I felt, in consequence of the
+dreadful misgiving, of which I have been relating the history. The one
+question was, what was I to do? I had to make up my mind for myself, and
+others could not help me. I determined to be guided, not by my
+imagination, but by my reason. And this I said over and over again in
+the years which followed, both in conversation and in private letters.
+Had it not been for this severe resolve, I should have been a Catholic
+sooner than I was. Moreover, I felt on consideration a positive doubt,
+on the other hand, whether the suggestion did not come from below. Then
+I said to myself, Time alone can solve that question. It was my business
+to go on as usual, to obey those convictions to which I had so long
+surrendered myself, which still had possession of me, and on which my
+new thoughts had no direct bearing. That new conception of things should
+only so far influence me, as it had a logical claim to do so. If it came
+from above, it would come again;--so I trusted,--and with more definite
+outlines and greater cogency and consistency of proof. I thought of
+Samuel, before "he knew the word of the Lord;" and therefore I went, and
+lay down to sleep again. This was my broad view of the matter, and my
+_primâ facie_ conclusion.
+
+However, my new historical fact had already to a certain point a logical
+force. Down had come the _Via Media_ as a definite theory or scheme,
+under the blows of St. Leo. My "Prophetical Office" had come to pieces;
+not indeed as an argument against "Roman errors," nor as against
+Protestantism, but as in behalf of England. I had no longer a
+distinctive plea for Anglicanism, unless I would be a Monophysite. I
+had, most painfully, to fall back upon my three original points of
+belief, which I have spoken so much of in a former passage,--the
+principle of dogma, the sacramental system, and anti-Romanism. Of these
+three, the first two were better secured in Rome than in the Anglican
+Church. The Apostolical Succession, the two prominent sacraments, and
+the primitive Creeds, belonged, indeed, to the latter; but there had
+been and was far less strictness on matters of dogma and ritual in the
+Anglican system than in the Roman: in consequence, my main argument for
+the Anglican claims lay in the positive and special charges, which I
+could bring against Rome. I had no positive Anglican theory. I was very
+nearly a pure Protestant. Lutherans had a sort of theology, so had
+Calvinists; I had none.
+
+However, this pure Protestantism, to which I was gradually left, was
+really a practical principle. It was a strong, though it was only a
+negative ground, and it still had great hold on me. As a boy of fifteen,
+I had so fully imbibed it, that I had actually erased in my _Gradus ad
+Parnassum_, such titles, under the word "Papa," as "Christi Vicarius,"
+"sacer interpres," and "sceptra gerens," and substituted epithets so
+vile that I cannot bring myself to write them down here. The effect of
+this early persuasion remained as, what I have already called it, a
+"stain upon my imagination." As regards my reason, I began in 1833 to
+form theories on the subject, which tended to obliterate it; yet by 1838
+I had got no further than to consider Antichrist, as not the Church of
+Rome, but the spirit of the old pagan city, the fourth monster of
+Daniel, which was still alive, and which had corrupted the Church which
+was planted there. Soon after this indeed, and before my attention was
+directed to the Monophysite controversy, I underwent a great change of
+opinion. I saw that, from the nature of the case, the true Vicar of
+Christ must ever to the world seem like Antichrist, and be stigmatized
+as such, because a resemblance must ever exist between an original and a
+forgery; and thus the fact of such a calumny was almost one of the notes
+of the Church. But we cannot unmake ourselves or change our habits in a
+moment. Though my reason was convinced, I did not throw off, for some
+time after,--I could not have thrown off,--the unreasoning prejudice and
+suspicion, which I cherished about her at least by fits and starts, in
+spite of this conviction of my reason. I cannot prove this, but I
+believe it to have been the case from what I recollect of myself. Nor
+was there any thing in the history of St. Leo and the Monophysites to
+undo the firm belief I had in the existence of what I called the
+practical abuses and excesses of Rome.
+
+To her inconsistencies then, to her ambition and intrigue, to her
+sophistries (as I considered them to be) I now had recourse in my
+opposition to her, both public and personal. I did so by way of a
+relief. I had a great and growing dislike, after the summer of 1839, to
+speak against the Roman Church herself or her formal doctrines. I was
+very averse to speaking against doctrines, which might possibly turn out
+to be true, though at the time I had no reason for thinking they were;
+or against the Church, which had preserved them. I began to have
+misgivings, that, strong as my own feelings had been against her, yet in
+some things which I had said, I had taken the statements of Anglican
+divines for granted without weighing them for myself. I said to a friend
+in 1840, in a letter, which I shall use presently, "I am troubled by
+doubts whether as it is, I have not, in what I have published, spoken
+too strongly against Rome, though I think I did it in a kind of faith,
+being determined to put myself into the English system, and say all that
+our divines said, whether I had fully weighed it or not." I was sore
+about the great Anglican divines, as if they had taken me in, and made
+me say strong things, which facts did not justify. Yet I _did_ still
+hold in substance all that I had said against the Church of Rome in my
+Prophetical Office. I felt the force of the usual Protestant objections
+against her; I believed that we had the Apostolical succession in the
+Anglican Church, and the grace of the sacraments; I was not sure that
+the difficulty of its isolation might not be overcome, though I was far
+from sure that it could. I did not see any clear proof that it had
+committed itself to any heresy, or had taken part against the truth; and
+I was not sure that it would not revive into full Apostolic purity and
+strength, and grow into union with Rome herself (Rome explaining her
+doctrines and guarding against their abuse), that is, if we were but
+patient and hopeful. I began to wish for union between the Anglican
+Church and Rome, if, and when, it was possible; and I did what I could
+to gain weekly prayers for that object. The ground which I felt to be
+good against her was the moral ground: I felt I could not be wrong in
+striking at her political and social line of action. The alliance of a
+dogmatic religion with liberals, high or low, seemed to me a
+providential direction against moving towards Rome, and a better
+"Preservative against Popery," than the three volumes in folio, in
+which, I think, that prophylactic is to be found. However, on occasions
+which demanded it, I felt it a duty to give out plainly all that I
+thought, though I did not like to do so. One such instance occurred,
+when I had to publish a Letter about Tract 90. In that Letter, I said,
+"Instead of setting before the soul the Holy Trinity, and heaven and
+hell, the Church of Rome does seem to me, as a popular system, to preach
+the Blessed Virgin and the Saints, and purgatory." On this occasion I
+recollect expressing to a friend the distress it gave me thus to speak;
+but, I said, "How can I help saying it, if I think it? and I _do_ think
+it; my Bishop calls on me to say out what I think; and that is the long
+and the short of it." But I recollected Hurrell Froude's words to me,
+almost his dying words, "I must enter another protest against your
+cursing and swearing. What good can it do? and I call it uncharitable to
+an excess. How mistaken we may ourselves be, on many points that are
+only gradually opening on us!"
+
+Instead then of speaking of errors in doctrine, I was driven, by my
+state of mind, to insist upon the political conduct, the controversial
+bearing, and the social methods and manifestations of Rome. And here I
+found a matter ready to my hand, which affected me the more sensibly for
+the reason that it lay at our very doors. I can hardly describe too
+strongly my feeling upon it. I had an unspeakable aversion to the policy
+and acts of Mr. O'Connell, because, as I thought, he associated himself
+with men of all religions and no religion against the Anglican Church,
+and advanced Catholicism by violence and intrigue. When then I found him
+taken up by the English Catholics, and, as I supposed, at Rome, I
+considered I had a fulfilment before my eyes how the Court of Rome
+played fast and loose, and justified the serious charges which I had
+seen put down in books against it. Here we saw what Rome was in action,
+whatever she might be when quiescent. Her conduct was simply secular and
+political.
+
+This feeling led me into the excess of being very rude to that zealous
+and most charitable man, Mr. Spencer, when he came to Oxford in January,
+1840, to get Anglicans to set about praying for Unity. I myself, at that
+time, or soon after, drew up such prayers; their desirableness was one
+of the first thoughts which came upon me after my shock; but I was too
+much annoyed with the political action of the Catholic body in these
+islands to wish to have any thing to do with them personally. So glad in
+my heart was I to see him, when he came to my rooms with Mr. Palmer of
+Magdalen, that I could have laughed for joy; I think I did laugh; but I
+was very rude to him, I would not meet him at dinner, and that, (though
+I did not say so,) because I considered him "in loco apostatæ" from the
+Anglican Church, and I hereby beg his pardon for it. I wrote afterwards
+with a view to apologize, but I dare say he must have thought that I
+made the matter worse, for these were my words to him:--
+
+"The news that you are praying for us is most touching, and raises a
+variety of indescribable emotions.... May their prayers return
+abundantly into their own bosoms.... Why then do I not meet you in a
+manner conformable with these first feelings? For this single reason, if
+I may say it, that your acts are contrary to your words. You invite us
+to a union of hearts, at the same time that you are doing all you can,
+not to restore, not to reform, not to re-unite, but to destroy our
+Church. You go further than your principles require. You are leagued
+with our enemies. 'The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the
+hands of Esau.' This is what especially distresses us; this is what we
+cannot understand; how Christians, like yourselves, with the clear view
+you have that a warfare is ever waging in the world between good and
+evil, should, in the present state of England, ally yourselves with the
+side of evil against the side of good.... Of parties now in the country,
+you cannot but allow, that next to yourselves we are nearest to revealed
+truth. We maintain great and holy principles; we profess Catholic
+doctrines.... So near are we as a body to yourselves in modes of
+thinking, as even to have been taunted with the nicknames which belong
+to you; and, on the other hand, if there are professed infidels,
+scoffers, sceptics, unprincipled men, rebels, they are found among our
+opponents. And yet you take part with them against us.... You consent to
+act hand in hand [with these and others] for our overthrow. Alas! all
+this it is that impresses us irresistibly with the notion that you are a
+political, not a religious party; that in order to gain an end on which
+you set your hearts,--an open stage for yourselves in England,--you ally
+yourselves with those who hold nothing against those who hold something.
+This is what distresses my own mind so greatly, to speak of myself,
+that, with limitations which need not now be mentioned, I cannot meet
+familiarly any leading persons of the Roman Communion, and least of all
+when they come on a religious errand. Break off, I would say, with Mr.
+O'Connell in Ireland and the liberal party in England, or come not to us
+with overtures for mutual prayer and religious sympathy."
+
+And here came in another feeling, of a personal nature, which had little
+to do with the argument against Rome, except that, in my prejudice, I
+viewed what happened to myself in the light of my own ideas of the
+traditionary conduct of her advocates and instruments. I was very stern
+in the case of any interference in our Oxford matters on the part of
+charitable Catholics, and of any attempt to do me good personally. There
+was nothing, indeed, at the time more likely to throw me back. "Why do
+you meddle? why cannot you let me alone? You can do me no good; you know
+nothing on earth about me; you may actually do me harm; I am in better
+hands than yours. I know my own sincerity of purpose; and I am
+determined upon taking my time." Since I have been a Catholic, people
+have sometimes accused me of backwardness in making converts; and
+Protestants have argued from it that I have no great eagerness to do so.
+It would be against my nature to act otherwise than I do; but besides,
+it would be to forget the lessons which I gained in the experience of my
+own history in the past.
+
+This is the account which I have to give of some savage and ungrateful
+words in the British Critic of 1840 against the controversialists of
+Rome: "By their fruits ye shall know them.... We see it attempting to
+gain converts among us by unreal representations of its doctrines,
+plausible statements, bold assertions, appeals to the weaknesses of
+human nature, to our fancies, our eccentricities, our fears, our
+frivolities, our false philosophies. We see its agents, smiling and
+nodding and ducking to attract attention, as gipsies make up to truant
+boys, holding out tales for the nursery, and pretty pictures, and gilt
+gingerbread, and physic concealed in jam, and sugar-plums for good
+children. Who can but feel shame when the religion of Ximenes, Borromeo,
+and Pascal, is so overlaid? Who can but feel sorrow, when its devout and
+earnest defenders so mistake its genius and its capabilities? We
+Englishmen like manliness, openness, consistency, truth. Rome will never
+gain on us, till she learns these virtues, and uses them; and then she
+_may_ gain us, but it will be by ceasing to be what we now mean by Rome,
+by having a right, not to 'have dominion over our faith,' but to gain
+and possess our affections in the bonds of the gospel. Till she ceases
+to be what she practically is, a union is impossible between her and
+England; but, if she does reform, (and who can presume to say that so
+large a part of Christendom never can?) then it will be our Church's
+duty at once to join in communion with the continental Churches,
+whatever politicians at home may say to it, and whatever steps the civil
+power may take in consequence. And though we may not live to see that
+day, at least we are bound to pray for it; we are bound to pray for our
+brethren that they and we may be led together into the pure light of the
+gospel, and be one as we once were one. It was most touching news to be
+told, as we were lately, that Christians on the Continent were praying
+together for the spiritual well-being of England. May they gain light,
+while they aim at unity, and grow in faith while they manifest their
+love! We too have our duties to them; not of reviling, not of
+slandering, not of hating, though political interests require it; but
+the duty of loving brethren still more abundantly in spirit, whose
+faces, for our sins and their sins, we are not allowed to see in the
+flesh."
+
+No one ought to indulge in insinuations; it certainly diminishes my
+right to complain of slanders uttered against myself, when, as in this
+passage, I had already spoken in disparagement of the controversialists
+of that religious body, to which I myself now belong.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I have thus put together, as well as I can, what has to be said about my
+general state of mind from the autumn of 1839 to the summer of 1841;
+and, having done so, I go on to narrate how my new misgivings affected
+my conduct, and my relations towards the Anglican Church.
+
+When I got back to Oxford in October, 1839, after the visits which I had
+been paying, it so happened, there had been, in my absence, occurrences
+of an awkward character, compromising me both with my Bishop and also
+with the authorities of the University; and this drew my attention at
+once to the state of the Movement party there, and made me very anxious
+for the future. In the spring of the year, as has been seen in the
+Article analyzed above, I had spoken of the excesses which were to be
+found among persons commonly included in it:--at that time I thought
+little of such an evil, but the new views, which had come on me during
+the Long Vacation, on the one hand made me comprehend it, and on the
+other took away my power of effectually meeting it. A firm and powerful
+control was necessary to keep men straight; I never had a strong wrist,
+but at the very time, when it was most needed, the reins had broken in
+my hands. With an anxious presentiment on my mind of the upshot of the
+whole inquiry, which it was almost impossible for me to conceal from men
+who saw me day by day, who heard my familiar conversation, who came
+perhaps for the express purpose of pumping me, and having a categorical
+_yes_ or _no_ to their questions,--how could I expect to say any thing
+about my actual, positive, present belief, which would be sustaining or
+consoling to such persons as were haunted already by doubts of their
+own? Nay, how could I, with satisfaction to myself, analyze my own mind,
+and say what I held and what I did not hold? or how could I say with
+what limitations, shades of difference, or degrees of belief, I still
+held that body of Anglican opinions which I had openly professed and
+taught? how could I deny or assert this point or that, without injustice
+to the new light, in which the whole evidence for those old opinions
+presented itself to my mind?
+
+However, I had to do what I could, and what was best, under the
+circumstances; I found a general talk on the subject of the Article in
+the Dublin Review; and, if it had affected me, it was not wonderful,
+that it affected others also. As to myself, I felt no kind of certainty
+that the argument in it was conclusive. Taking it at the worst, granting
+that the Anglican Church had not the Note of Catholicity; yet there were
+many Notes of the Church. Some belonged to one age or place, some to
+another. Bellarmine had reckoned Temporal Prosperity among the Notes of
+the Church; but the Roman Church had not any great popularity, wealth,
+glory, power, or prospects, in the nineteenth century. It was not at all
+certain as yet, even that we had not the Note of Catholicity; but, if
+not this, we had others. My first business then, was to examine this
+question carefully, and see, whether a great deal could not be said
+after all for the Anglican Church, in spite of its acknowledged
+short-comings. This I did in an Article "on the Catholicity of the
+English Church," which appeared in the British Critic of January, 1840.
+As to my personal distress on the point, I think it had gone by February
+21st in that year, for I wrote then to Mr. Bowden about the important
+Article in the Dublin, thus: "It made a great impression here [Oxford];
+and, I say what of course I would only say to such as yourself, it made
+me for a while very uncomfortable in my own mind. The great speciousness
+of his argument is one of the things which have made me despond so
+much," that is, as anticipating its effect upon others.
+
+But, secondly, the great stumbling-block lay in the 39 Articles. It was
+urged that here was a positive Note _against_ Anglicanism:--Anglicanism
+claimed to hold, that the Church of England was nothing else than a
+continuation in this country, (as the Church of Rome might be in France
+or Spain,) of that one Church of which in old times Athanasius and
+Augustine were members. But, if so, the doctrine must be the same; the
+doctrine of the Old Church must live and speak in Anglican formularies,
+in the 39 Articles. Did it? Yes, it did; that is what I maintained; it
+did in substance, in a true sense. Man had done his worst to disfigure,
+to mutilate, the old Catholic Truth; but there it was, in spite of them,
+in the Articles still. It was there,--but this must be shown. It was a
+matter of life and death to us to show it. And I believed that it could
+be shown; I considered that those grounds of justification, which I gave
+above, when I was speaking of Tract 90, were sufficient for the purpose;
+and therefore
+
+I set about showing it at once. This was in March, 1840, when I went up
+to Littlemore. And, as it was a matter of life and death with us, all
+risks must be run to show it. When the attempt was actually made, I had
+got reconciled to the prospect of it, and had no apprehensions as to the
+experiment; but in 1840, while my purpose was honest, and my grounds of
+reason satisfactory, I did nevertheless recognize that I was engaged in
+an _experimentum crucis_. I have no doubt that then I acknowledged to
+myself that it would be a trial of the Anglican Church, which it had
+never undergone before,--not that the Catholic sense of the Articles had
+not been held or at least suffered by their framers and promulgators,
+not that it was not implied in the teaching of Andrewes or Beveridge,
+but that it had never been publicly recognized, while the interpretation
+of the day was Protestant and exclusive. I observe also, that, though my
+Tract was an experiment, it was, as I said at the time, "no _feeler_";
+the event showed this; for, when my principle was not granted, I did not
+draw back, but gave up. I would not hold office in a Church which would
+not allow my sense of the Articles. My tone was, "This is necessary for
+us, and have it we must and will, and, if it tends to bring men to look
+less bitterly on the Church of Rome, so much the better."
+
+This then was the second work to which I set myself; though when I got
+to Littlemore, other things interfered to prevent my accomplishing it at
+the moment. I had in mind to remove all such obstacles as lay in the way
+of holding the Apostolic and Catholic character of the Anglican
+teaching; to assert the right of all who chose, to say in the face of
+day, "Our Church teaches the Primitive Ancient faith." I did not conceal
+this: in Tract 90, it is put forward as the first principle of all, "It
+is a duty which we owe both to the Catholic Church, and to our own, to
+take our reformed confessions in the most Catholic sense they will
+admit: we have no duties towards their framers." And still more
+pointedly in my Letter, explanatory of the Tract, addressed to Dr. Jelf,
+I say: "The only peculiarity of the view I advocate, if I must so call
+it, is this--that whereas it is usual at this day to make the
+_particular belief of their writers_ their true interpretation, I would
+make the _belief of the Catholic Church such_. That is, as it is often
+said that infants are regenerated in Baptism, not on the faith of their
+parents, but of the Church, so in like manner I would say that the
+Articles are received, not in the sense of their framers, but (as far as
+the wording will admit or any ambiguity requires it) in the one Catholic
+sense."
+
+A third measure which I distinctly contemplated, was the resignation of
+St. Mary's, whatever became of the question of the 39 Articles; and as a
+first step I meditated a retirement to Littlemore. Littlemore was an
+integral part of St. Mary's Parish, and between two and three miles
+distant from Oxford. I had built a Church there several years before;
+and I went there to pass the Lent of 1840, and gave myself up to
+teaching in the Parish School, and practising the choir. At the same
+time, I had in view a monastic house there. I bought ten acres of ground
+and began planting; but this great design was never carried out. I
+mention it, because it shows how little I had really the idea at that
+time of ever leaving the Anglican Church. That I contemplated as early
+as 1839 the further step of giving up St. Mary's, appears from a letter
+which I wrote in October, 1840, to Mr. Keble, the friend whom it was
+most natural for me to consult on such a point. It ran as follows:--
+
+"For a year past a feeling has been growing on me that I ought to give
+up St. Mary's, but I am no fit judge in the matter. I cannot ascertain
+accurately my own impressions and convictions, which are the basis of
+the difficulty, and though you cannot of course do this for me, yet you
+may help me generally, and perhaps supersede the necessity of my going
+by them at all.
+
+"First, it is certain that I do not know my Oxford parishioners; I am
+not conscious of influencing them, and certainly I have no insight into
+their spiritual state. I have no personal, no pastoral acquaintance with
+them. To very few have I any opportunity of saying a religious word.
+Whatever influence I exert on them is precisely that which I may be
+exerting on persons out of my parish. In my excuse I am accustomed to
+say to myself that I am not adapted to get on with them, while others
+are. On the other hand, I am conscious that by means of my position at
+St. Mary's, I do exert a considerable influence on the University,
+whether on Under-graduates or Graduates. It seems, then, on the whole
+that I am using St. Mary's, to the neglect of its direct duties, for
+objects not belonging to it; I am converting a parochial charge into a
+sort of University office.
+
+"I think I may say truly that I have begun scarcely any plan but for the
+sake of my parish, but every one has turned, independently of me, into
+the direction of the University. I began Saints'-days Services, daily
+Services, and Lectures in Adam de Brome's Chapel, for my parishioners;
+but they have not come to them. In consequence I dropped the last
+mentioned, having, while it lasted, been naturally led to direct it to
+the instruction of those who did come, instead of those who did not. The
+Weekly Communion, I believe, I did begin for the sake of the University.
+
+"Added to this the authorities of the University, the appointed
+guardians of those who form great part of the attendants on my Sermons,
+have shown a dislike of my preaching. One dissuades men from
+coming;--the late Vice-Chancellor threatens to take his own children
+away from the Church; and the present, having an opportunity last spring
+of preaching in my parish pulpit, gets up and preaches against doctrine
+with which I am in good measure identified. No plainer proof can be
+given of the feeling in these quarters, than the absurd myth, now a
+second time put forward, 'that Vice-Chancellors cannot be got to take
+the office on account of Puseyism.'
+
+"But further than this, I cannot disguise from myself that my preaching
+is not calculated to defend that system of religion which has been
+received for 300 years, and of which the Heads of Houses are the
+legitimate maintainers in this place. They exclude me, as far as may be,
+from the University Pulpit; and, though I never have preached strong
+doctrine in it, they do so rightly, so far as this, that they understand
+that my sermons are calculated to undermine things established. I cannot
+disguise from myself that they are. No one will deny that most of my
+sermons are on moral subjects, not doctrinal; still I am leading my
+hearers to the Primitive Church, if you will, but not to the Church of
+England. Now, ought one to be disgusting the minds of young men with the
+received religion, in the exercise of a sacred office, yet without a
+commission, and against the wish of their guides and governors?
+
+"But this is not all. I fear I must allow that, whether I will or no, I
+am disposing them towards Rome. First, because Rome is the only
+representative of the Primitive Church besides ourselves; in proportion
+then as they are loosened from the one, they will go to the other. Next,
+because many doctrines which I have held have far greater, or their only
+scope, in the Roman system. And, moreover, if, as is not unlikely, we
+have in process of time heretical Bishops or teachers among us, an evil
+which _ipso facto_ infects the whole community to which they belong, and
+if, again (what there are at this moment symptoms of), there be a
+movement in the English Roman Catholics to break the alliance of
+O'Connell and of Exeter Hall, strong temptations will be placed in the
+way of individuals, already imbued with a tone of thought congenial to
+Rome, to join her Communion.
+
+"People tell me, on the other hand, that I am, whether by sermons or
+otherwise, exerting at St. Mary's a beneficial influence on our
+prospective clergy; but what if I take to myself the credit of seeing
+further than they, and of having in the course of the last year
+discovered that what they approve so much is very likely to end in
+Romanism?
+
+"The _arguments_ which I have published against Romanism seem to myself
+as cogent as ever, but men go by their sympathies, not by argument; and
+if I feel the force of this influence myself, who bow to the arguments,
+why may not others still more, who never have in the same degree
+admitted the arguments?
+
+"Nor can I counteract the danger by preaching or writing against Rome. I
+seem to myself almost to have shot my last arrow in the Article on
+English Catholicity. It must be added, that the very circumstance that I
+have committed myself against Rome has the effect of setting to sleep
+people suspicious about me, which is painful now that I begin to have
+suspicions about myself. I mentioned my general difficulty to Rogers a
+year since, than whom I know no one of a more fine and accurate
+conscience, and it was his spontaneous idea that I should give up St.
+Mary's, if my feelings continued. I mentioned it again to him lately,
+and he did not reverse his opinion, only expressed great reluctance to
+believe it must be so."
+
+Mr. Keble's judgment was in favour of my retaining my living; at least
+for the present; what weighed with me most was his saying, "You must
+consider, whether your retiring either from the Pastoral Care only, or
+from writing and printing and editing in the cause, would not be a sort
+of scandalous thing, unless it were done very warily. It would be said,
+'You see he can go on no longer with the Church of England, except in
+mere Lay Communion;' or people might say you repented of the cause
+altogether. Till you see [your way to mitigate, if not remove this evil]
+I certainly should advise you to stay." I answered as follows:--
+
+"Since you think I _may_ go on, it seems to follow that, under the
+circumstances, I _ought_ to do so. There are plenty of reasons for it,
+directly it is allowed to be lawful. The following considerations have
+much reconciled my feelings to your conclusion.
+
+"1. I do not think that we have yet made fair trial how much the English
+Church will bear. I know it is a hazardous experiment,--like proving
+cannon. Yet we must not take it for granted that the metal will burst in
+the operation. It has borne at various times, not to say at this time, a
+great infusion of Catholic truth without damage. As to the result, viz.
+whether this process will not approximate the whole English Church, as a
+body, to Rome, that is nothing to us. For what we know, it may be the
+providential means of uniting the whole Church in one, without fresh
+schismatizing or use of private judgment."
+
+Here I observe, that, what was contemplated was the bursting of the
+_Catholicity_ of the Anglican Church, that is, my _subjective idea_ of
+that Church. Its bursting would not hurt her with the world, but would
+be a discovery that she was purely and essentially Protestant, and would
+be really the "hoisting of the engineer with his own petar." And this
+was the result. I continue:--
+
+"2. Say, that I move sympathies for Rome: in the same sense does Hooker,
+Taylor, Bull, &c. Their _arguments_ may be against Rome, but the
+sympathies they raise must be towards Rome, _so far_ as Rome maintains
+truths which our Church does not teach or enforce. Thus it is a question
+of _degree_ between our divines and me. I may, if so be, go further; I
+may raise sympathies _more_; but I am but urging minds in the same
+direction as they do. I am doing just the very thing which all our
+doctors have ever been doing. In short, would not Hooker, if Vicar of
+St. Mary's, be in my difficulty?"--Here it may be objected, that Hooker
+could preach against Rome and I could not; but I doubt whether he could
+have preached effectively against Transubstantiation better than I,
+though neither he nor I held that doctrine.
+
+"3. Rationalism is the great evil of the day. May not I consider my post
+at St. Mary's as a place of protest against it? I am more certain that
+the Protestant [spirit], which I oppose, leads to infidelity, than that
+which I recommend, leads to Rome. Who knows what the state of the
+University may be, as regards Divinity Professors in a few years hence?
+Any how, a great battle may be coming on, of which Milman's book is a
+sort of earnest. The whole of _our_ day may be a battle with this
+spirit. May we not leave to another age _its own_ evil,--to settle the
+question of Romanism?"
+
+I may add that from this time I had a curate at St. Mary's, who
+gradually took more and more of my work.
+
+Also, this same year, 1840, I made arrangements for giving up the
+British Critic, in the following July, which were carried into effect at
+that date.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Such was about my state of mind, on the publication of Tract 90 in
+February 1841. I was indeed in prudence taking steps towards eventually
+withdrawing from St. Mary's, and I was not confident about my permanent
+adhesion to the Anglican creed; but I was in no actual perplexity or
+trouble of mind. Nor did the immense commotion consequent upon the
+publication of the Tract unsettle me again; for I fancied I had
+weathered the storm, as far as the Bishops were concerned: the Tract had
+not been condemned: that was the great point, and I made much of it.
+
+To illustrate my feelings during this trial, I will make extracts from
+my letters addressed severally to Mr. Bowden and another friend, which
+have come into my possession.
+
+1. March 15.--"The Heads, I believe, have just done a violent act: they
+have said that my interpretation of the Articles is an _evasion_. Do not
+think that this will pain me. You see, no _doctrine_ is censured, and my
+shoulders shall manage to bear the charge. If you knew all, or were
+here, you would see that I have asserted a great principle, and I
+_ought_ to suffer for it:--that the Articles are to be interpreted, not
+according to the meaning of the writers, but (as far as the wording will
+admit) according to the sense of the Catholic Church."
+
+2. March 25.--"I do trust I shall make no false step, and hope my
+friends will pray for me to this effect. If, as you say, a destiny hangs
+over us, a single false step may ruin all. I am very well and
+comfortable; but we are not yet out of the wood."
+
+3. April 1.--"The Bishop sent me word on Sunday to write a Letter to him
+'_instanter_.' So I wrote it on Monday: on Tuesday it passed through the
+press: on Wednesday it was out: and to-day [Thursday] it is in London.
+
+"I trust that things are smoothing now; and that we have made a _great
+step_ is certain. It is not right to boast, till I am clear out of the
+wood, i.e. till I know how the Letter is received in London. You know, I
+suppose, that I am to stop the Tracts; but you will see in the Letter,
+though I speak _quite_ what I feel, yet I have managed to take out on
+_my_ side my snubbing's worth. And this makes me anxious how it will be
+received in London.
+
+"I have not had a misgiving for five minutes from the first: but I do
+not like to boast, lest some harm come."
+
+4. April 4.--"Your letter of this morning was an exceedingly great
+gratification to me; and it is confirmed, I am thankful to say, by the
+opinion of others. The Bishop sent me a message that my Letter had his
+unqualified approbation; and since that, he has sent me a note to the
+same effect, only going more into detail. It is most pleasant too to my
+feelings, to have such a testimony to the substantial truth and
+importance of No. 90, as I have had from so many of my friends, from
+those who, from their cautious turn of mind, I was least sanguine about.
+I have not had one misgiving myself about it throughout; and I do trust
+that what has happened will be overruled to subserve the great cause we
+all have at heart."
+
+5. May 9.--"The Bishops are very desirous of hushing the matter up: and
+I certainly have done my utmost to co-operate with them, on the
+understanding that the Tract is not to be withdrawn or condemned."
+
+Upon this occasion several Catholics wrote to me; I answered one of my
+correspondents in the same tone:--
+
+"April 8.--You have no cause to be surprised at the discontinuance of
+the Tracts. We feel no misgivings about it whatever, as if the cause of
+what we hold to be Catholic truth would suffer thereby. My letter to my
+Bishop has, I trust, had the effect of bringing the preponderating
+_authority_ of the Church on our side. No stopping of the Tracts can,
+humanly speaking, stop the spread of the opinions which they have
+inculcated.
+
+"The Tracts are not _suppressed_. No doctrine or principle has been
+conceded by us, or condemned by authority. The Bishop has but said that
+a certain Tract is 'objectionable,' no reason being stated, I have no
+intention whatever of yielding any one point which I hold on conviction;
+and that the authorities of the Church know full well."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the summer of 1841, I found myself at Littlemore without any harass
+or anxiety on my mind. I had determined to put aside all controversy,
+and I set myself down to my translation of St. Athanasius; but, between
+July and November, I received three blows which broke me.
+
+1. I had got but a little way in my work, when my trouble returned on
+me. The ghost had come a second time. In the Arian History I found the
+very same phenomenon, in a far bolder shape, which I had found in the
+Monophysite. I had not observed it in 1832. Wonderful that this should
+come upon me! I had not sought it out; I was reading and writing in my
+own line of study, far from the controversies of the day, on what is
+called a "metaphysical" subject; but I saw clearly, that in the history
+of Arianism, the pure Arians were the Protestants, the semi-Arians were
+the Anglicans, and that Rome now was what it was then. The truth lay,
+not with the _Via Media_, but with what was called "the extreme party."
+As I am not writing a work of controversy, I need not enlarge upon the
+argument; I have said something on the subject in a Volume, from which I
+have already quoted.
+
+2. I was in the misery of this new unsettlement, when a second blow came
+upon me. The Bishops one after another began to charge against me. It
+was a formal, determinate movement. This was the real "understanding;"
+that, on which I had acted on the first appearance of Tract 90, had come
+to nought. I think the words, which had then been used to me, were, that
+"perhaps two or three of them might think it necessary to say something
+in their charges;" but by this time they had tided over the difficulty
+of the Tract, and there was no one to enforce the "understanding." They
+went on in this way, directing charges at me, for three whole years. I
+recognized it as a condemnation; it was the only one that was in their
+power. At first I intended to protest; but I gave up the thought in
+despair.
+
+On October 17th, I wrote thus to a friend: "I suppose it will be
+necessary in some shape or other to re-assert Tract 90; else, it will
+seem, after these Bishops' Charges, as if it were silenced, which it has
+not been, nor do I intend it should be. I wish to keep quiet; but if
+Bishops speak, I will speak too. If the view were silenced, I could not
+remain in the Church, nor could many others; and therefore, since it is
+_not_ silenced, I shall take care to show that it isn't."
+
+A day or two after, Oct. 22, a stranger wrote to me to say, that the
+Tracts for the Times had made a young friend of his a Catholic, and to
+ask, "would I be so good as to convert him back;" I made answer:
+
+"If conversions to Rome take place in consequence of the Tracts for the
+Times, I do not impute blame to them, but to those who, instead of
+acknowledging such Anglican principles of theology and ecclesiastical
+polity as they contain, set themselves to oppose them. Whatever be the
+influence of the Tracts, great or small, they may become just as
+powerful for Rome, if our Church refuses them, as they would be for our
+Church if she accepted them. If our rulers speak either against the
+Tracts, or not at all, if any number of them, not only do not favour,
+but even do not suffer the principles contained in them, it is plain
+that our members may easily be persuaded either to give up those
+principles, or to give up the Church. If this state of things goes on, I
+mournfully prophesy, not one or two, but many secessions to the Church
+of Rome."
+
+Two years afterwards, looking back on what had passed, I said, "There
+were no converts to Rome, till after the condemnation of No. 90."
+
+3. As if all this were not enough, there came the affair of the
+Jerusalem Bishopric; and, with a brief mention of it, I shall conclude.
+
+I think I am right in saying that it had been long a desire with the
+Prussian Court to introduce Episcopacy into the new Evangelical
+Religion, which was intended in that country to embrace both the
+Lutheran and Calvinistic bodies. I almost think I heard of the project,
+when I was at Rome in 1833, at the Hotel of the Prussian Minister, M.
+Bunsen, who was most hospitable and kind, as to other English visitors,
+so also to my friends and myself. The idea of Episcopacy, as the
+Prussian king understood it, was, I suppose, very different from that
+taught in the Tractarian School: but still, I suppose also, that the
+chief authors of that school would have gladly seen such a measure
+carried out in Prussia, had it been done without compromising those
+principles which were necessary to the being of a Church. About the time
+of the publication of Tract 90, M. Bunsen and the then Archbishop of
+Canterbury were taking steps for its execution, by appointing and
+consecrating a Bishop for Jerusalem. Jerusalem, it would seem, was
+considered a safe place for the experiment; it was too far from Prussia
+to awaken the susceptibilities of any party at home; if the project
+failed, it failed without harm to any one; and, if it succeeded, it gave
+Protestantism a _status_ in the East, which, in association with the
+Monophysite or Jacobite and the Nestorian bodies, formed a political
+instrument for England, parallel to that which Russia had in the Greek
+Church, and France in the Latin.
+
+Accordingly, in July 1841, full of the Anglican difficulty on the
+question of Catholicity, I thus spoke of the Jerusalem scheme in an
+Article in the British Critic: "When our thoughts turn to the East,
+instead of recollecting that there are Christian Churches there, we
+leave it to the Russians to take care of the Greeks, and the French to
+take care of the Romans, and we content ourselves with erecting a
+Protestant Church at Jerusalem, or with helping the Jews to rebuild
+their Temple there, or with becoming the august protectors of
+Nestorians, Monophysites, and all the heretics we can hear of, or with
+forming a league with the Mussulman against Greeks and Romans together."
+
+I do not pretend, so long after the time, to give a full or exact
+account of this measure in detail. I will but say that in the Act of
+Parliament, under date of October 5, 1841, (if the copy, from which I
+quote, contains the measure as it passed the Houses,) provision is made
+for the consecration of "British subjects, or the subjects or citizens
+of any foreign state, to be Bishops in any foreign country, whether such
+foreign subjects or citizens be or be not subjects or citizens of the
+country in which they are to act, and ... without requiring such of them
+as may be subjects or citizens of any foreign kingdom or state to take
+the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and the oath of due obedience to
+the Archbishop for the time being" ... also "that such Bishop or
+Bishops, so consecrated, may exercise, within such limits, as may from
+time to time be assigned for that purpose in such foreign countries by
+her Majesty, spiritual jurisdiction over the ministers of British
+congregations of the United Church of England and Ireland, and over
+_such other Protestant_ Congregations, as may be desirous of placing
+themselves under his or their authority."
+
+Now here, at the very time that the Anglican Bishops were directing
+their censure upon me for avowing an approach to the Catholic Church not
+closer than I believed the Anglican formularies would allow, they were
+on the other hand, fraternizing, by their act or by their sufferance,
+with Protestant bodies, and allowing them to put themselves under an
+Anglican Bishop, without any renunciation of their errors or regard to
+their due reception of baptism and confirmation; while there was great
+reason to suppose that the said Bishop was intended to make converts
+from the orthodox Greeks, and the schismatical Oriental bodies, by means
+of the influence of England. This was the third blow, which finally
+shattered my faith in the Anglican Church. That Church was not only
+forbidding any sympathy or concurrence with the Church of Rome, but it
+actually was courting an intercommunion with Protestant Prussia and the
+heresy of the Orientals. The Anglican Church might have the Apostolical
+succession, as had the Monophysites; but such acts as were in progress
+led me to the gravest suspicion, not that it would soon cease to be a
+Church, but that, since the 16th century, it had never been a Church all
+along.
+
+On October 12th, I thus wrote to Mr. Bowden:--"We have not a single
+Anglican in Jerusalem; so we are sending a Bishop to _make_ a communion,
+not to govern our own people. Next, the excuse is, that there are
+converted Anglican Jews there who require a Bishop; I am told there are
+not half-a-dozen. But for _them_ the Bishop is sent out, and for them he
+is a Bishop of the _circumcision_" (I think he was a converted Jew, who
+boasted of his Jewish descent), "against the Epistle to the Galatians
+pretty nearly. Thirdly, for the sake of Prussia, he is to take under him
+all the foreign Protestants who will come; and the political advantages
+will be so great, from the influence of England, that there is no doubt
+they _will_ come. They are to sign the Confession of Augsburg, and there
+is nothing to show that they hold the doctrine of Baptismal
+Regeneration.
+
+"As to myself, I shall do nothing whatever publicly, unless indeed it
+were to give my signature to a Protest; but I think it would be out of
+place in _me_ to agitate, having been in a way silenced; but the
+Archbishop is really doing most grave work, of which we cannot see the
+end."
+
+I did make a solemn Protest, and sent it to the Archbishop of
+Canterbury, and also sent it to my own Bishop with the following
+letter:--
+
+"It seems as if I were never to write to your Lordship, without giving
+you pain, and I know that my present subject does not specially concern
+your Lordship; yet, after a great deal of anxious thought, I lay before
+you the enclosed Protest.
+
+"Your Lordship will observe that I am not asking for any notice of it,
+unless you think that I ought to receive one. I do this very serious act
+in obedience to my sense of duty.
+
+"If the English Church is to enter on a new course, and assume a new
+aspect, it will be more pleasant to me hereafter to think, that I did
+not suffer so grievous an event to happen, without bearing witness
+against it.
+
+"May I be allowed to say, that I augur nothing but evil, if we in any
+respect prejudice our title to be a branch of the Apostolic Church? That
+Article of the Creed, I need hardly observe to your Lordship, is of such
+constraining power, that, if _we_ will not claim it, and use it for
+ourselves, _others_ will use it in their own behalf against us. Men who
+learn whether by means of documents or measures, whether from the
+statements or the acts of persons in authority, that our communion is
+not a branch of the One Church, I foresee with much grief, will be
+tempted to look out for that Church elsewhere.
+
+"It is to me a subject of great dismay, that, as far as the Church has
+lately spoken out, on the subject of the opinions which I and others
+hold, those opinions are, not merely not _sanctioned_ (for that I do not
+ask), but not even _suffered_.
+
+"I earnestly hope that your Lordship will excuse my freedom in thus
+speaking to you of some members of your Most Rev. and Right Rev. Body.
+With every feeling of reverent attachment to your Lordship,
+
+"I am, &c."
+
+PROTEST.
+
+"Whereas the Church of England has a claim on the allegiance of Catholic
+believers only on the ground of her own claim to be considered a branch
+of the Catholic Church:
+
+"And whereas the recognition of heresy, indirect as well as direct, goes
+far to destroy such claim in the case of any religious body:
+
+"And whereas to admit maintainers of heresy to communion, without formal
+renunciation of their errors, goes far towards recognizing the same:
+
+"And whereas Lutheranism and Calvinism are heresies, repugnant to
+Scripture, springing up three centuries since, and anathematized by East
+as well as West:
+
+"And whereas it is reported that the Most Reverend Primate and other
+Right Reverend Rulers of our Church have consecrated a Bishop with a
+view to exercising spiritual jurisdiction over Protestant, that is,
+Lutheran and Calvinist congregations in the East (under the provisions
+of an Act made in the last session of Parliament to amend an Act made in
+the 26th year of the reign of his Majesty King George the Third,
+intituled, 'An Act to empower the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the
+Archbishop of York for the time being, to consecrate to the office of
+Bishop persons being subjects or citizens of countries out of his
+Majesty's dominions'), dispensing at the same time, not in particular
+cases and accidentally, but as if on principle and universally, with any
+abjuration of error on the part of such congregations, and with any
+reconciliation to the Church on the part of the presiding Bishop;
+thereby giving some sort of formal recognition to the doctrines which
+such congregations maintain:
+
+"And whereas the dioceses in England are connected together by so close
+an intercommunion, that what is done by authority in one, immediately
+affects the rest:
+
+"On these grounds, I in my place, being a priest of the English Church
+and Vicar of St. Mary the Virgin's, Oxford, by way of relieving my
+conscience, do hereby solemnly protest against the measure aforesaid,
+and disown it, as removing our Church from her present ground and
+tending to her disorganization.
+
+"John Henry Newman.
+
+"November 11, 1841."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Looking back two years afterwards on the above-mentioned and other acts,
+on the part of Anglican Ecclesiastical authorities, I observed: "Many a
+man might have held an abstract theory about the Catholic Church, to
+which it was difficult to adjust the Anglican,--might have admitted a
+suspicion, or even painful doubts about the latter,--yet never have been
+impelled onwards, had our Rulers preserved the quiescence of former
+years; but it is the corroboration of a present, living, and energetic
+heterodoxy, that realizes and makes such doubts practical; it has been
+the recent speeches and acts of authorities, who had so long been
+tolerant of Protestant error, which has given to inquiry and to theory
+its force and its edge."
+
+As to the project of a Jerusalem Bishopric, I never heard of any good or
+harm it has ever done, except what it has done for me; which many think
+a great misfortune, and I one of the greatest of mercies. It brought me
+on to the beginning of the end.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+HISTORY OF MY RELIGIOUS OPINIONS FROM 1841 TO 1845.
+
+
+§ 1.
+
+From the end of 1841, I was on my death-bed, as regards my membership
+with the Anglican Church, though at the time I became aware of it only
+by degrees. I introduce what I have to say with this remark, by way of
+accounting for the character of this remaining portion of my narrative.
+A death-bed has scarcely a history; it is a tedious decline, with
+seasons of rallying and seasons of falling back; and since the end is
+foreseen, or what is called a matter of time, it has little interest for
+the reader, especially if he has a kind heart. Moreover, it is a season
+when doors are closed and curtains drawn, and when the sick man neither
+cares nor is able to record the stages of his malady. I was in these
+circumstances, except so far as I was not allowed to die in
+peace,--except so far as friends, who had still a full right to come in
+upon me, and the public world which had not, have given a sort of
+history to those last four years. But in consequence, my narrative must
+be in great measure documentary, as I cannot rely on my memory, except
+for definite particulars, positive or negative. Letters of mine to
+friends since dead have come into my hands; others have been kindly lent
+me for the occasion; and I have some drafts of others, and some notes
+which I made, though I have no strictly personal or continuous memoranda
+to consult, and have unluckily mislaid some valuable papers.
+
+And first as to my position in the view of duty; it was this:--1. I had
+given up my place in the Movement in my letter to the Bishop of Oxford
+in the spring of 1841; but 2. I could not give up my duties towards the
+many and various minds who had more or less been brought into it by me;
+3. I expected or intended gradually to fall back into Lay Communion; 4.
+I never contemplated leaving the Church of England; 5. I could not hold
+office in its service, if I were not allowed to hold the Catholic sense
+of the Articles; 6. I could not go to Rome, while she suffered honours
+to be paid to the Blessed Virgin and the Saints which I thought in my
+conscience to be incompatible with the Supreme, Incommunicable Glory of
+the One Infinite and Eternal; 7. I desired a union with Rome under
+conditions, Church with Church; 8. I called Littlemore my Torres Vedras,
+and thought that some day we might advance again within the Anglican
+Church, as we had been forced to retire; 9. I kept back all persons who
+were disposed to go to Rome with all my might.
+
+And I kept them back for three or four reasons; 1. because what I could
+not in conscience do myself, I could not suffer them to do; 2. because I
+thought that in various cases they were acting under excitement; 3.
+because I had duties to my Bishop and to the Anglican Church; and 4, in
+some cases, because I had received from their Anglican parents or
+superiors direct charge of them.
+
+This was my view of my duty from the end of 1841, to my resignation of
+St. Mary's in the autumn of 1843. And now I shall relate my view, during
+that time, of the state of the controversy between the Churches.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As soon as I saw the hitch in the Anglican argument, during my course of
+reading in the summer of 1839, I began to look about, as I have said,
+for some ground which might supply a controversial basis for my need.
+The difficulty in question had affected my view both of Antiquity and
+Catholicity; for, while the history of St. Leo showed me that the
+deliberate and eventual consent of the great body of the Church ratified
+a doctrinal decision as a part of revealed truth, it also showed that
+the rule of Antiquity was not infringed, though a doctrine had not been
+publicly recognized as so revealed, till centuries after the time of the
+Apostles. Thus, whereas the Creeds tell us that the Church is One, Holy,
+Catholic, and Apostolic, I could not prove that the Anglican communion
+was an integral part of the One Church, on the ground of its teaching
+being Apostolic or Catholic, without reasoning in favour of what are
+commonly called the Roman corruptions; and I could not defend our
+separation from Rome and her faith without using arguments prejudicial
+to those great doctrines concerning our Lord, which are the very
+foundation of the Christian religion. The Via Media was an impossible
+idea; it was what I had called "standing on one leg;" and it was
+necessary, if my old issue of the controversy was to be retained, to go
+further either one way or the other.
+
+Accordingly, I abandoned that old ground and took another. I
+deliberately quitted the old Anglican ground as untenable; though I did
+not do so all at once, but as I became more and more convinced of the
+state of the case. The Jerusalem Bishopric was the ultimate condemnation
+of the old theory of the Via Media:--if its establishment did nothing
+else, at least it demolished the sacredness of diocesan rights. If
+England could be in Palestine, Rome might be in England. But its bearing
+upon the controversy, as I have shown in the foregoing chapter, was much
+more serious than this technical ground. From that time the Anglican
+Church was, in my mind, either not a normal portion of that One Church
+to which the promises were made, or at least in an abnormal state; and
+from that time I said boldly (as I did in my Protest, and as indeed I
+had even intimated in my Letter to the Bishop of Oxford), that the
+Church in which I found myself had no claim on me, except on condition
+of its being a portion of the One Catholic Communion, and that that
+condition must ever be borne in mind as a practical matter, and had to
+be distinctly proved. All this is not inconsistent with my saying above
+that, at this time, I had no thought of leaving the Church of England;
+because I felt some of my old objections against Rome as strongly as
+ever. I had no right, I had no leave, to act against my conscience. That
+was a higher rule than any argument about the Notes of the Church.
+
+Under these circumstances I turned for protection to the Note of
+Sanctity, with a view of showing that we had at least one of the
+necessary Notes, as fully as the Church of Rome; or, at least, without
+entering into comparisons, that we had it in such a sufficient sense as
+to reconcile us to our position, and to supply full evidence, and a
+clear direction, on the point of practical duty. We had the Note of
+Life,--not any sort of life, not such only as can come of nature, but a
+supernatural Christian life, which could only come directly from above.
+Thus, in my Article in the British Critic, to which I have so often
+referred, in January, 1840 (before the time of Tract 90), I said of the
+Anglican Church that "she has the note of possession, the note of
+freedom from party titles, the note of life,--a tough life and a
+vigorous; she has ancient descent, unbroken continuance, agreement in
+doctrine with the Ancient Church." Presently I go on to speak of
+sanctity: "Much as Roman Catholics may denounce us at present as
+schismatical, they could not resist us if the Anglican communion had but
+that one note of the Church upon it,--sanctity. The Church of the day
+[4th century] could not resist Meletius; his enemies were fairly
+overcome by him, by his meekness and holiness, which melted the most
+jealous of them." And I continue, "We are almost content to say to
+Romanists, account us not yet as a branch of the Catholic Church, though
+we be a branch, till we are like a branch, provided that when we do
+become like a branch, then you consent to acknowledge us," &c. And so I
+was led on in the Article to that sharp attack on English Catholics, for
+their shortcomings as regards this Note, a good portion of which I have
+already quoted in another place. It is there that I speak of the great
+scandal which I took at their political, social, and controversial
+bearing; and this was a second reason why I fell back upon the Note of
+Sanctity, because it took me away from the necessity of making any
+attack upon the doctrines of the Roman Church, nay, from the
+consideration of her popular beliefs, and brought me upon a ground on
+which I felt I could not make a mistake; for what is a higher guide for
+us in speculation and in practice, than that conscience of right and
+wrong, of truth and falsehood, those sentiments of what is decorous,
+consistent, and noble, which our Creator has made a part of our original
+nature? Therefore I felt I could not be wrong in attacking what I
+fancied was a fact,--the unscrupulousness, the deceit, and the
+intriguing spirit of the agents and representatives of Rome.
+
+This reference to Holiness as the true test of a Church was steadily
+kept in view in what I wrote in connexion with Tract 90. I say in its
+Introduction, "The writer can never be party to forcing the opinions or
+projects of one school upon another; religious changes should be the act
+of the whole body. No good can come of a change which is not a
+development of feelings springing up freely and calmly within the bosom
+of the whole body itself; every change in religion" must be "attended by
+deep repentance; changes" must be "nurtured in mutual love; we cannot
+agree without a supernatural influence;" we must come "together to God
+to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves." In my Letter to the
+Bishop I said, "I have set myself against suggestions for considering
+the differences between ourselves and the foreign Churches with a view
+to their adjustment." (I meant in the way of negotiation, conference,
+agitation, or the like.) "Our business is with ourselves,--to make
+ourselves more holy, more self-denying, more primitive, more worthy of
+our high calling. To be anxious for a composition of differences is to
+begin at the end. Political reconciliations are but outward and hollow,
+and fallacious. And till Roman Catholics renounce political efforts, and
+manifest in their public measures the light of holiness and truth,
+perpetual war is our only prospect."
+
+According to this theory, a religious body is part of the One Catholic
+and Apostolic Church, if it has the succession and the creed of the
+Apostles, with the note of holiness of life; and there is much in such a
+view to approve itself to the direct common sense and practical habits
+of an Englishman. However, with the events consequent upon Tract 90, I
+sunk my theory to a lower level. For what could be said in apology, when
+the Bishops and the people of my Church, not only did not suffer, but
+actually rejected primitive Catholic doctrine, and tried to eject from
+their communion all who held it? after the Bishops' charges? after the
+Jerusalem "abomination[8]?" Well, this could be said; still we were not
+nothing: we could not be as if we never had been a Church; we were
+"Samaria." This then was that lower level on which I placed myself, and
+all who felt with me, at the end of 1841.
+
+[8] Matt. xxiv. 15.
+
+To bring out this view was the purpose of Four Sermons preached at St.
+Mary's in December of that year. Hitherto I had not introduced the
+exciting topics of the day into the Pulpit[9]; on this occasion I did. I
+did so, for the moment was urgent; there was great unsettlement of mind
+among us, in consequence of those same events which had unsettled me.
+One special anxiety, very obvious, which was coming on me now, was, that
+what was "one man's meat was another man's poison." I had said even of
+Tract 90, "It was addressed to one set of persons, and has been used and
+commented on by another;" still more was it true now, that whatever I
+wrote for the service of those whom I knew to be in trouble of mind,
+would become on the one hand matter of suspicion and slander in the
+mouths of my opponents, and of distress and surprise to those on the
+other hand, who had no difficulties of faith at all. Accordingly, when I
+published these Four Sermons at the end of 1843, I introduced them with
+a recommendation that none should read them who did not need them. But
+in truth the virtual condemnation of Tract 90, after that the whole
+difficulty seemed to have been weathered, was an enormous disappointment
+and trial. My Protest also against the Jerusalem Bishopric was an
+unavoidable cause of excitement in the case of many; but it calmed them
+too, for the very fact of a Protest was a relief to their impatience.
+And so, in like manner, as regards the Four Sermons, of which I speak,
+though they acknowledged freely the great scandal which was involved in
+the recent episcopal doings, yet at the same time they might be said to
+bestow upon the multiplied disorders and shortcomings of the Anglican
+Church a sort of place in the Revealed Dispensation, and an intellectual
+position in the controversy, and the dignity of a great principle, for
+unsettled minds to take and use,--a principle which might teach them to
+recognize their own consistency, and to be reconciled to themselves, and
+which might absorb and dry up a multitude of their grudgings,
+discontents, misgivings, and questionings, and lead the way to humble,
+thankful, and tranquil thoughts;--and this was the effect which
+certainly it produced on myself.
+
+[9] Vide Note C. _Sermon on Wisdom and Innocence._
+
+The point of these Sermons is, that, in spite of the rigid character of
+the Jewish law, the formal and literal force of its precepts, and the
+manifest schism, and worse than schism, of the Ten Tribes, yet in fact
+they were still recognized as a people by the Divine Mercy; that the
+great prophets Elias and Eliseus were sent to them; and not only so, but
+were sent to preach to them and reclaim them, without any intimation
+that they must be reconciled to the line of David and the Aaronic
+priesthood, or go up to Jerusalem to worship. They were not in the
+Church, yet they had the means of grace and the hope of acceptance with
+their Maker. The application of all this to the Anglican Church was
+immediate;--whether, under the circumstances, a man could assume or
+exercise ministerial functions, or not, might not clearly appear (though
+it must be remembered that England had the Apostolic Priesthood, whereas
+Israel had no priesthood at all), but so far was clear, that there was
+no call at all for an Anglican to leave his Church for Rome, though he
+did not believe his own to be part of the One Church:--and for this
+reason, because it was a fact that the kingdom of Israel was cut off
+from the Temple; and yet its subjects, neither in a mass, nor as
+individuals, neither the multitudes on Mount Carmel, nor the Shunammite
+and her household, had any command given them, though miracles were
+displayed before them, to break off from their own people, and to submit
+themselves to Judah[10].
+
+[10] As I am not writing controversially, I will only here remark upon
+this argument, that there is a great difference between a command, which
+presupposes physical, material, and political conditions, and one which
+is moral. To go to Jerusalem was a matter of the body, not of the soul.
+
+It is plain, that a theory such as this,--whether the marks of a divine
+presence and life in the Anglican Church were sufficient to prove that
+she was actually within the covenant, or only sufficient to prove that
+she was at least enjoying extraordinary and uncovenanted mercies,--not
+only lowered her level in a religious point of view, but weakened her
+controversial basis. Its very novelty made it suspicious; and there was
+no guarantee that the process of subsidence might not continue, and that
+it might not end in a submersion. Indeed, to many minds, to say that
+England was wrong was even to say that Rome was right; and no ethical or
+casuistic reasoning whatever could overcome in their case the argument
+from prescription and authority. To this objection, as made to my new
+teaching, I could only answer that I did not make my circumstances. I
+fully acknowledged the force and effectiveness of the genuine Anglican
+theory, and that it was all but proof against the disputants of Rome;
+but still like Achilles, it had a vulnerable point, and that St. Leo had
+found it out for me, and that I could not help it;--that, were it not
+for matter of fact, the theory would be great indeed; it would be
+irresistible, if it were only true. When I became a Catholic, the Editor
+of the Christian Observer, Mr. Wilkes, who had in former days accused
+me, to my indignation, of tending towards Rome, wrote to me to ask,
+which of the two was now right, he or I? I answered him in a letter,
+part of which I here insert, as it will serve as a sort of leave-taking
+of the great theory, which is so specious to look upon, so difficult to
+prove, and so hopeless to work.
+
+"Nov. 8, 1845. I do not think, at all more than I did, that the Anglican
+principles which I advocated at the date you mention, lead men to the
+Church of Rome. If I must specify what I mean by 'Anglican principles,'
+I should say, e.g. taking _Antiquity_, not the _existing Church_, as the
+oracle of truth; and holding that the _Apostolical Succession_ is a
+sufficient guarantee of Sacramental Grace, _without union with the
+Christian Church throughout the world_. I think these still the firmest,
+strongest ground against Rome--that is, _if they can be held_" [as
+truths or facts.] "They _have_ been held by many, and are far more
+difficult to refute in the Roman controversy, than those of any other
+religious body.
+
+"For myself, I found _I could not_ hold them. I left them. From the time
+I began to suspect their unsoundness, I ceased to put them forward. When
+I was fairly sure of their unsoundness, I gave up my Living. When I was
+fully confident that the Church of Rome was the only true Church, I
+joined her.
+
+"I have felt all along that Bp. Bull's theology was the only theology on
+which the English Church could stand. I have felt, that opposition to
+the Church of Rome was _part_ of that theology; and that he who could
+not protest against the Church of Rome was no true divine in the English
+Church. I have never said, nor attempted to say, that any one in office
+in the English Church, whether Bishop or incumbent, could be otherwise
+than in hostility to the Church of Rome."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The _Via Media_ then disappeared for ever, and a Theory, made expressly
+for the occasion, took its place. I was pleased with my new view. I
+wrote to an intimate friend, Samuel F. Wood, Dec. 13, 1841: "I think you
+will give me the credit, Carissime, of not undervaluing the strength of
+the feelings which draw one [to Rome], and yet I am (I trust) quite
+clear about my duty to remain where I am; indeed, much clearer than I
+was some time since. If it is not presumptuous to say, I have ... a much
+more definite view of the promised inward Presence of Christ with us in
+the Sacraments now that the outward notes of it are being removed. And I
+am content to be with Moses in the desert, or with Elijah excommunicated
+from the Temple. I say this, putting things at the strongest."
+
+However, my friends of the moderate Apostolical party, who were my
+friends for the very reason of my having been so moderate and Anglican
+myself in general tone in times past, who had stood up for Tract 90
+partly from faith in me, and certainly from generous and kind feeling,
+and had thereby shared an obloquy which was none of theirs, were
+naturally surprised and offended at a line of argument, novel, and, as
+it appeared to them, wanton, which threw the whole controversy into
+confusion, stultified my former principles, and substituted, as they
+would consider, a sort of methodistic self-contemplation, especially
+abhorrent both to my nature and to my past professions, for the plain
+and honest tokens, as they were commonly received, of a divine mission
+in the Anglican Church. They could not tell whither I was going; and
+were still further annoyed when I persisted in viewing the condemnation
+of Tract 90 by the public and the Bishops as so grave a matter, and when
+I threw about what they considered mysterious hints of "eventualities,"
+and would not simply say, "An Anglican I was born, and an Anglican I
+will die." One of my familiar friends, Mr. Church, who was in the
+country at Christmas, 1841-2, reported to me the feeling that prevailed
+about me; and how I felt towards it will appear in the following letter
+of mine, written in answer:--
+
+"Oriel, Dec. 24, 1841. Carissime, you cannot tell how sad your account
+of Moberly has made me. His view of the sinfulness of the decrees of
+Trent is as much against union of Churches as against individual
+conversions. To tell the truth, I never have examined those decrees with
+this object, and have no view; but that is very different from having a
+deliberate view against them. Could not he say _which_ they are? I
+suppose Transubstantiation is one. Charles Marriott, though of course he
+would not like to have it repeated[11], does not scruple at that. I have
+not my mind clear. Moberly must recollect that Palmer [of Worcester]
+thinks they all bear a Catholic interpretation. For myself, this only I
+see, that there is indefinitely more in the Fathers against our own
+state of alienation from Christendom than against the Tridentine
+Decrees.
+
+"The only thing I can think of," [that I can have said of a startling
+character,] "is this, that there were persons who, if our Church
+committed herself to heresy, _sooner_ than think that there was no
+Church any where, would believe the Roman to be the Church; and
+therefore would on faith accept what they could not otherwise acquiesce
+in. I suppose, it would be no relief to him to insist upon the
+circumstance that there is no immediate danger. Individuals can never be
+answered for of course; but I should think lightly of that man, who, for
+some act of the Bishops, should all at once leave the Church. Now,
+considering how the Clergy really are improving, considering that this
+row is even making them read the Tracts, is it not possible we may all
+be in a better state of mind seven years hence to consider these
+matters? and may we not leave them meanwhile to the will of Providence?
+I _cannot_ believe this work has been of man; God has a right to His own
+work, to do what He will with it. May we not try to leave it in His
+hands, and be content?
+
+"If you learn any thing about Barter, which leads you to think that I
+can relieve him by a letter, let me know. The truth is this,--our good
+friends do not read the Fathers; they assent to us from the common sense
+of the case: then, when the Fathers, and we, say _more_ than their
+common sense, they are dreadfully shocked.
+
+"The Bishop of London has rejected a man, 1. For holding _any_ Sacrifice
+in the Eucharist. 2. The Real Presence. 3. That there is a grace in
+Ordination[12].
+
+"Are we quite sure that the Bishops will not be drawing up some
+stringent declarations of faith? Is this what Moberly fears? Would the
+Bishop of Oxford accept them? If so, I should be driven into the Refuge
+for the Destitute [Littlemore]. But I promise Moberly, I would do my
+utmost to catch all dangerous persons and clap them into confinement
+there."
+
+[11] As things stand now, I do not think he would have objected to his
+opinion being generally known.
+
+[12] I cannot prove this at this distance of time; but I do not think it
+wrong to introduce here the passage containing it, as I am imputing to
+the Bishop nothing which the world would think disgraceful, but, on the
+contrary, what a large religious body would approve.
+
+Christmas Bay, 1841. "I have been dreaming of Moberly all night. Should
+not he and the like see, that it is unwise, unfair, and impatient to ask
+others, What will you do under circumstances, which have not, which may
+never come? Why bring fear, suspicion, and disunion into the camp about
+things which are merely _in posse_? Natural, and exceedingly kind as
+Barter's and another friend's letters were, I think they have done great
+harm. I speak most sincerely when I say, that there are things which I
+neither contemplate, nor wish to contemplate; but, when I am asked about
+them ten times, at length I begin to contemplate them.
+
+"He surely does not mean to say, that _nothing_ could separate a man
+from the English Church, e.g. its avowing Socinianism; its holding the
+Holy Eucharist in a Socinian sense. Yet, he would say, it was not
+_right_ to contemplate such things.
+
+"Again, our case is [diverging] from that of Ken's. To say nothing of
+the last miserable century, which has given us to _start_ from a much
+lower level and with much less to _spare_ than a Churchman in the 17th
+century, questions of _doctrine_ are now coming in; with him, it was a
+question of discipline.
+
+"If such dreadful events were realized, I cannot help thinking we should
+all be vastly more agreed than we think now. Indeed, is it possible
+(humanly speaking) that those, who have so much the same heart, should
+widely differ? But let this be considered, as to alternatives. _What_
+communion could we join? Could the Scotch or American sanction the
+presence of its Bishops and congregations in England, without incurring
+the imputation of schism, unless indeed (and is that likely?) they
+denounced the English as heretical?
+
+"Is not this a time of strange providences? is it not our safest course,
+without looking to consequences, to do simply _what we think right_ day
+by day? shall we not be sure to go wrong, if we attempt to trace by
+anticipation the course of divine Providence?
+
+"Has not all our misery, as a Church, arisen from people being afraid to
+look difficulties in the face? They have palliated acts, when they
+should have denounced them. There is that good fellow, Worcester Palmer,
+can whitewash the Ecclesiastical Commission and the Jerusalem Bishopric.
+And what is the consequence? that our Church has, through centuries,
+ever been sinking lower and lower, till good part of its pretensions and
+professions is a mere sham, though it be a duty to make the best of what
+we have received. Yet, though bound to make the best of other men's
+shams, let us not incur any of our own. The truest friends of our Church
+are they, who say boldly when her rulers are going wrong, and the
+consequences; and (to speak catachrestically) _they_ are most likely to
+die in the Church, who are, under these black circumstances, most
+prepared to leave it.
+
+"And I will add, that, considering the traces of God's grace which
+surround us, I am very sanguine, or rather confident, (if it is right so
+to speak,) that our prayers and our alms will come up as a memorial
+before God, and that all this miserable confusion tends to good.
+
+"Let us not then be anxious, and anticipate differences in prospect,
+when we agree in the present.
+
+"P.S. I think when friends" [i.e. the extreme party] "get over their
+first unsettlement of mind and consequent vague apprehensions, which the
+new attitude of the Bishops, and our feelings upon it, have brought
+about, they will get contented and satisfied. They will see that they
+exaggerated things.... Of course it would have been wrong to anticipate
+what one's feelings would be under such a painful contingency as the
+Bishops' charging as they have done,--so it seems to me nobody's fault.
+Nor is it wonderful that others" [moderate men] "are startled" [i.e. at
+my Protest, &c. &c.]; "yet they should recollect that the more implicit
+the reverence one pays to a Bishop, the more keen will be one's
+perception of heresy in him. The cord is binding and compelling, till it
+snaps.
+
+"Men of reflection would have seen this, if they had looked that way.
+Last spring, a very high churchman talked to me of resisting my Bishop,
+of asking him for the Canons under which he acted, and so forth; but
+those, who have cultivated a loyal feeling towards their superiors, are
+the most loving servants, or the most zealous protestors. If others
+became so too, if the clergy of Chester denounced the heresy of their
+diocesan, they would be doing their duty, and relieving themselves of
+the share which they otherwise have in any possible defection of their
+brethren.
+
+"St. Stephen's [Day, December 26]. How I fidget! I now fear that the
+note I wrote yesterday only makes matters worse by _disclosing_ too
+much. This is always my great difficulty.
+
+"In the present state of excitement on both sides, I think of leaving
+out altogether my reassertion of No. 90 in my Preface to Volume 6 [of
+Parochial Sermons], and merely saying, 'As many false reports are at
+this time in circulation about him, he hopes his well-wishers will take
+this Volume as an indication of his real thoughts and feelings: those
+who are not, he leaves in God's hand to bring them to a better mind in
+His own time.' What do you say to the logic, sentiment, and propriety of
+this?"
+
+An old friend, at a distance from Oxford, Archdeacon Robert I.
+Wilberforce, must have said something to me at this time, I do not know
+what, which challenged a frank reply; for I disclosed to him, I do not
+know in what words, my frightful suspicion, hitherto only known to two
+persons, viz. his brother Henry and Mr. Frederic Rogers,[13] that, as
+regards my Anglicanism, perhaps I might break down in the event,--that
+perhaps we were both out of the Church. I think I recollect expressing
+my difficulty, as derived from the Arian and Monophysite history, in a
+form in which it would be most intelligible to him, as being in fact an
+admission of Bishop Bull's; viz. that in the controversies of the early
+centuries the Roman Church was ever on the right side, which was of
+course a _primâ facie_ argument in favour of Rome and against
+Anglicanism now. He answered me thus, under date of Jan. 29, 1842: "I
+don't think that I ever was so shocked by any communication, which was
+ever made to me, as by your letter of this morning. It has quite
+unnerved me.... I cannot but write to you, though I am at a loss where
+to begin.... I know of no act by which we have dissevered ourselves from
+the communion of the Church Universal.... The more I study Scripture,
+the more am I impressed with the resemblance between the Romish
+principle in the Church and the Babylon of St. John.... I am ready to
+grieve that I ever directed my thoughts to theology, if it is indeed so
+uncertain, as your doubts seem to indicate."
+
+[13] Now Lord Blachford.
+
+While my old and true friends were thus in trouble about me, I suppose
+they felt not only anxiety but pain, to see that I was gradually
+surrendering myself to the influence of others, who had not their own
+claims upon me, younger men, and of a cast of mind in no small degree
+uncongenial to my own. A new school of thought was rising, as is usual
+in doctrinal inquiries, and was sweeping the original party of the
+Movement aside, and was taking its place. The most prominent person in
+it, was a man of elegant genius, of classical mind, of rare talent in
+literary composition:--Mr. Oakeley. He was not far from my own age; I
+had long known him, though of late years he had not been in residence at
+Oxford; and quite lately, he has been taking several signal occasions of
+renewing that kindness, which he ever showed towards me when we were
+both in the Anglican Church. His tone of mind was not unlike that which
+gave a character to the early Movement; he was almost a typical Oxford
+man, and, as far as I recollect, both in political and ecclesiastical
+views, would have been of one spirit with the Oriel party of 1826-1833.
+But he had entered late into the Movement; he did not know its first
+years; and, beginning with a new start, he was naturally thrown together
+with that body of eager, acute, resolute minds who had begun their
+Catholic life about the same time as he, who knew nothing about the _Via
+Media_, but had heard much about Rome. This new party rapidly formed and
+increased, in and out of Oxford, and, as it so happened,
+contemporaneously with that very summer, when I received so serious a
+blow to my ecclesiastical views from the study of the Monophysite
+controversy. These men cut into the original Movement at an angle, fell
+across its line of thought, and then set about turning that line in its
+own direction. They were most of them keenly religious men, with a true
+concern for their souls as the first matter of all, with a great zeal
+for me, but giving little certainty at the time as to which way they
+would ultimately turn. Some in the event have remained firm to
+Anglicanism, some have become Catholics, and some have found a refuge in
+Liberalism. Nothing was clearer concerning them, than that they needed
+to be kept in order; and on me who had had so much to do with the making
+of them, that duty was as clearly incumbent; and it is equally clear,
+from what I have already said, that I was just the person, above all
+others, who could not undertake it. There are no friends like old
+friends; but of those old friends, few could help me, few could
+understand me, many were annoyed with me, some were angry, because I was
+breaking up a compact party, and some, as a matter of conscience, could
+not listen to me. When I looked round for those whom I might consult in
+my difficulties, I found the very hypothesis of those difficulties
+acting as a bar to their giving me their advice. Then I said, bitterly,
+"You are throwing me on others, whether I will or no." Yet still I had
+good and true friends around me of the old sort, in and out of Oxford
+too, who were a great help to me. But on the other hand, though I
+neither was so fond (with a few exceptions) of the persons, nor of the
+methods of thought, which belonged to this new school, as of the old
+set, though I could not trust in their firmness of purpose, for, like a
+swarm of flies, they might come and go, and at length be divided and
+dissipated, yet I had an intense sympathy in their object and in the
+direction in which their path lay, in spite of my old friends, in spite
+of my old life-long prejudices. In spite of my ingrained fears of Rome,
+and the decision of my reason and conscience against her usages, in
+spite of my affection for Oxford and Oriel, yet I had a secret longing
+love of Rome the Mother of English Christianity, and I had a true
+devotion to the Blessed Virgin, in whose College I lived, whose Altar I
+served, and whose Immaculate Purity I had in one of my earliest printed
+Sermons made much of. And it was the consciousness of this bias in
+myself, if it is so to be called, which made me preach so earnestly
+against the danger of being swayed in religious inquiry by our sympathy
+rather than by our reason. And moreover, the members of this new school
+looked up to me, as I have said, and did me true kindnesses, and really
+loved me, and stood by me in trouble, when others went away, and for all
+this I was grateful; nay, many of them were in trouble themselves, and
+in the same boat with me, and that was a further cause of sympathy
+between us; and hence it was, when the new school came on in force, and
+into collision with the old, I had not the heart, any more than the
+power, to repel them; I was in great perplexity, and hardly knew where I
+stood; I took their part; and, when I wanted to be in peace and silence,
+I had to speak out, and I incurred the charge of weakness from some men,
+and of mysteriousness, shuffling, and underhand dealing from the
+majority.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now I will say here frankly, that this sort of charge is a matter which
+I cannot properly meet, because I cannot duly realize it. I have never
+had any suspicion of my own honesty; and, when men say that I was
+dishonest, I cannot grasp the accusation as a distinct conception, such
+as it is possible to encounter. If a man said to me, "On such a day and
+before such persons you said a thing was white, when it was black," I
+understand what is meant well enough, and I can set myself to prove an
+_alibi_ or to explain the mistake; or if a man said to me, "You tried to
+gain me over to your party, intending to take me with you to Rome, but
+you did not succeed," I can give him the lie, and lay down an assertion
+of my own as firm and as exact as his, that not from the time that I was
+first unsettled, did I ever attempt to gain any one over to myself or to
+my Romanizing opinions, and that it is only his own coxcombical fancy
+which has bred such a thought in him: but my imagination is at a loss in
+presence of those vague charges, which have commonly been brought
+against me, charges, which are made up of impressions, and
+understandings, and inferences, and hearsay, and surmises. Accordingly,
+I shall not make the attempt, for, in doing so, I should be dealing
+blows in the air; what I shall attempt is to state what I know of myself
+and what I recollect, and leave to others its application.
+
+While I had confidence in the _Via Media_, and thought that nothing
+could overset it, I did not mind laying down large principles, which I
+saw would go further than was commonly perceived. I considered that to
+make the _Via Media_ concrete and substantive, it must be much more than
+it was in outline; that the Anglican Church must have a ceremonial, a
+ritual, and a fulness of doctrine and devotion, which it had not at
+present, if it were to compete with the Roman Church with any prospect
+of success. Such additions would not remove it from its proper basis,
+but would merely strengthen and beautify it: such, for instance, would
+be confraternities, particular devotions, reverence for the Blessed
+Virgin, prayers for the dead, beautiful churches, munificent offerings
+to them and in them, monastic houses, and many other observances and
+institutions, which I used to say belonged to us as much as to Rome,
+though Rome had appropriated them and boasted of them, by reason of our
+having let them slip from us. The principle, on which all this turned,
+is brought out in one of the Letters I published on occasion of Tract
+90. "The age is moving," I said, "towards something; and most unhappily
+the one religious communion among us, which has of late years been
+practically in possession of this something, is the Church of Rome. She
+alone, amid all the errors and evils of her practical system, has given
+free scope to the feelings of awe, mystery, tenderness, reverence,
+devotedness, and other feelings which may be especially called Catholic.
+The question then is, whether we shall give them up to the Roman Church
+or claim them for ourselves.... But if we do give them up, we must give
+up the men who cherish them. We must consent either to give up the men,
+or to admit their principles." With these feelings I frankly admit,
+that, while I was working simply for the sake of the Anglican Church, I
+did not at all mind, though I found myself laying down principles in its
+defence, which went beyond that particular kind of defence which
+high-and-dry men thought perfection, and even though I ended in framing
+a kind of defence, which they might call a revolution, while I thought
+it a restoration. Thus, for illustration, I might discourse upon the
+"Communion of Saints" in such a manner, (though I do not recollect doing
+so,) as might lead the way towards devotion to the Blessed Virgin and
+the Saints on the one hand, and towards prayers for the dead on the
+other. In a memorandum of the year 1844 or 1845, I thus speak on this
+subject: "If the Church be not defended on establishment grounds, it
+must be upon principles, which go far beyond their immediate object.
+Sometimes I saw these further results, sometimes not. Though I saw them,
+I sometimes did not say that I saw them:--so long as I thought they were
+inconsistent, _not_ with our Church, but only with the existing
+opinions, I was not unwilling to insinuate truths into our Church, which
+I thought had a right to be there."
+
+To so much I confess; but I do not confess, I simply deny that I ever
+said any thing which secretly bore against the Church of England,
+knowing it myself, in order that others might unwarily accept it. It was
+indeed one of my great difficulties and causes of reserve, as time went
+on, that I at length recognized in principles which I had honestly
+preached as if Anglican, conclusions favourable to the cause of Rome. Of
+course I did not like to confess this; and, when interrogated, was in
+consequence in perplexity. The prime instance of this was the appeal to
+Antiquity; St. Leo had overset, in my own judgment, its force as the
+special argument for Anglicanism; yet I was committed to Antiquity,
+together with the whole Anglican school; what then was I to say, when
+acute minds urged this or that application of it against the _Via
+Media_? it was impossible that, in such circumstances, any answer could
+be given which was not unsatisfactory, or any behaviour adopted which
+was not mysterious. Again, sometimes in what I wrote I went just as far
+as I saw, and could as little say more, as I could see what is below the
+horizon; and therefore, when asked as to the consequences of what I had
+said, I had no answer to give. Again, sometimes when I was asked,
+whether certain conclusions did not follow from a certain principle, I
+might not be able to tell at the moment, especially if the matter were
+complicated; and for this reason, if for no other, because there is
+great difference between a conclusion in the abstract and a conclusion
+in the concrete, and because a conclusion may be modified in fact by a
+conclusion from some opposite principle. Or it might so happen that my
+head got simply confused, by the very strength of the logic which was
+administered to me, and thus I gave my sanction to conclusions which
+really were not mine; and when the report of those conclusions came
+round to me through others, I had to unsay them. And then again, perhaps
+I did not like to see men scared or scandalized by unfeeling logical
+inferences, which would not have troubled them to the day of their
+death, had they not been forced to recognize them. And then I felt
+altogether the force of the maxim of St. Ambrose, "Non in dialecticâ
+complacuit Deo salvum facere populum suum;"--I had a great dislike of
+paper logic. For myself, it was not logic that carried me on; as well
+might one say that the quicksilver in the barometer changes the weather.
+It is the concrete being that reasons; pass a number of years, and I
+find my mind in a new place; how? the whole man moves; paper logic is
+but the record of it. All the logic in the world would not have made me
+move faster towards Rome than I did; as well might you say that I have
+arrived at the end of my journey, because I see the village church
+before me, as venture to assert that the miles, over which my soul had
+to pass before it got to Rome, could be annihilated, even though I had
+been in possession of some far clearer view than I then had, that Rome
+was my ultimate destination. Great acts take time. At least this is what
+I felt in my own case; and therefore to come to me with methods of logic
+had in it the nature of a provocation, and, though I do not think I ever
+showed it, made me somewhat indifferent how I met them, and perhaps led
+me, as a means of relieving my impatience, to be mysterious or
+irrelevant, or to give in because I could not meet them to my
+satisfaction. And a greater trouble still than these logical mazes, was
+the introduction of logic into every subject whatever, so far, that is,
+as this was done. Before I was at Oriel, I recollect an acquaintance
+saying to me that "the Oriel Common Room stank of Logic." One is not at
+all pleased when poetry, or eloquence, or devotion, is considered as if
+chiefly intended to feed syllogisms. Now, in saying all this, I am
+saying nothing against the deep piety and earnestness which were
+characteristics of this second phase of the Movement, in which I had
+taken so prominent a part. What I have been observing is, that this
+phase had a tendency to bewilder and to upset me; and, that, instead of
+saying so, as I ought to have done, perhaps from a sort of laziness I
+gave answers at random, which have led to my appearing close or
+inconsistent.
+
+I have turned up two letters of this period, which in a measure
+illustrate what I have been saying. The first was written to the Bishop
+of Oxford on occasion of Tract 90:
+
+"March 20, 1841. No one can enter into my situation but myself. I see a
+great many minds working in various directions and a variety of
+principles with multiplied bearings; I act for the best. I sincerely
+think that matters would not have gone better for the Church, had I
+never written. And if I write I have a choice of difficulties. It is
+easy for those who do not enter into those difficulties to say, 'He
+ought to say this and not say that,' but things are wonderfully linked
+together, and I cannot, or rather I would not be dishonest. When persons
+too interrogate me, I am obliged in many cases to give an opinion, or I
+seem to be underhand. Keeping silence looks like artifice. And I do not
+like people to consult or respect me, from thinking differently of my
+opinions from what I know them to be. And again (to use the proverb)
+what is one man's food is another man's poison. All these things make my
+situation very difficult. But that collision must at some time ensue
+between members of the Church of opposite sentiments, I have long been
+aware. The time and mode has been in the hand of Providence; I do not
+mean to exclude my own great imperfections in bringing it about; yet I
+still feel obliged to think the Tract necessary."
+
+The second is taken from the notes of a letter which I sent to Dr. Pusey
+in the next year:
+
+"October 16, 1842. As to my being entirely with Ward, I do not know the
+limits of my own opinions. If Ward says that this or that is a
+development from what I have said, I cannot say Yes or No. It is
+plausible, it _may_ be true. Of course the fact that the Roman Church
+_has_ so developed and maintained, adds great weight to the antecedent
+plausibility. I cannot assert that it is not true; but I cannot, with
+that keen perception which some people have, appropriate it. It is a
+nuisance to me to be _forced_ beyond what I can fairly accept."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There was another source of the perplexity with which at this time I was
+encompassed, and of the reserve and mysteriousness, of which that
+perplexity gained for me the credit. After Tract 90 the Protestant world
+would not let me alone; they pursued me in the public journals to
+Littlemore. Reports of all kinds were circulated about me. "Imprimis,
+why did I go up to Littlemore at all? For no good purpose certainly; I
+dared not tell why." Why, to be sure, it was hard that I should be
+obliged to say to the Editors of newspapers that I went up there to say
+my prayers; it was hard to have to tell the world in confidence, that I
+had a certain doubt about the Anglican system, and could not at that
+moment resolve it, or say what would come of it; it was hard to have to
+confess that I had thought of giving up my Living a year or two before,
+and that this was a first step to it. It was hard to have to plead,
+that, for what I knew, my doubts would vanish, if the newspapers would
+be so good as to give me time and let me alone. Who would ever dream of
+making the world his confidant? yet I was considered insidious, sly,
+dishonest, if I would not open my heart to the tender mercies of the
+world. But they persisted: "What was I doing at Littlemore?" Doing
+there! have I not retreated from you? have I not given up my position
+and my place? am I alone, of Englishmen, not to have the privilege to go
+where I will, no questions asked? am I alone to be followed about by
+jealous prying eyes, which take note whether I go in at a back door or
+at the front, and who the men are who happen to call on me in the
+afternoon? Cowards! if I advanced one step, you would run away; it is
+not you that I fear: "Di me terrent, et Jupiter hostis." It is because
+the Bishops still go on charging against me, though I have quite given
+up: it is that secret misgiving of heart which tells me that they do
+well, for I have neither lot nor part with them: this it is which weighs
+me down. I cannot walk into or out of my house, but curious eyes are
+upon me. Why will you not let me die in peace? Wounded brutes creep into
+some hole to die in, and no one grudges it them. Let me alone, I shall
+not trouble you long. This was the keen feeling which pierced me, and, I
+think, these are the very words in which I expressed it to myself. I
+asked, in the words of a great motto, "Ubi lapsus? quid feci?" One day
+when I entered my house, I found a flight of Under-graduates inside.
+Heads of Houses, as mounted patrols, walked their horses round those
+poor cottages. Doctors of Divinity dived into the hidden recesses of
+that private tenement uninvited, and drew domestic conclusions from what
+they saw there. I had thought that an Englishman's house was his castle;
+but the newspapers thought otherwise, and at last the matter came before
+my good Bishop. I insert his letter, and a portion of my reply to him:--
+
+"April 12, 1842. So many of the charges against yourself and your
+friends which I have seen in the public journals have been, within my
+own knowledge, false and calumnious, that I am not apt to pay much
+attention, to what is asserted with respect to you in the newspapers.
+
+"In" [a newspaper] "however, of April 9, there appears a paragraph in
+which it is asserted, as a matter of notoriety, that a 'so-called
+Anglo-Catholic Monastery is in process of erection at Littlemore, and
+that the cells of dormitories, the chapel, the refectory, the cloisters
+all may be seen advancing to perfection, under the eye of a Parish
+Priest of the Diocese of Oxford.'
+
+"Now, as I have understood that you really are possessed of some
+tenements at Littlemore,--as it is generally believed that they are
+destined for the purposes of study and devotion,--and as much suspicion
+and jealousy are felt about the matter, I am anxious to afford you an
+opportunity of making me an explanation on the subject.
+
+"I know you too well not to be aware that you are the last man living to
+attempt in my Diocese a revival of the Monastic orders (in any thing
+approaching to the Romanist sense of the term) without previous
+communication with me,--or indeed that you should take upon yourself to
+originate any measure of importance without authority from the heads of
+the Church,--and therefore I at once exonerate you from the accusation
+brought against you by the newspaper I have quoted, but I feel it
+nevertheless a duty to my Diocese and myself, as well as to you, to ask
+you to put it in my power to contradict what, if uncontradicted, would
+appear to imply a glaring invasion of all ecclesiastical discipline on
+_your_ part, or of inexcusable neglect and indifference to my duties on
+_mine_."
+
+I wrote in answer as follows:--
+
+"April 14, 1842. I am very much obliged by your Lordship's kindness in
+allowing me to write to you on the subject of my house at Littlemore; at
+the same time I feel it hard both on your Lordship and myself that the
+restlessness of the public mind should oblige you to require an
+explanation of me.
+
+"It is now a whole year that I have been the subject of incessant
+misrepresentation. A year since I submitted entirely to your Lordship's
+authority; and, with the intention of following out the particular act
+enjoined upon me, I not only stopped the series of Tracts, on which I
+was engaged, but withdrew from all public discussion of Church matters
+of the day, or what may be called ecclesiastical politics. I turned
+myself at once to the preparation for the Press of the translations of
+St. Athanasius to which I had long wished to devote myself, and I
+intended and intend to employ myself in the like theological studies,
+and in the concerns of my own parish and in practical works.
+
+"With the same view of personal improvement I was led more seriously to
+a design which had been long on my mind. For many years, at least
+thirteen, I have wished to give myself to a life of greater religious
+regularity than I have hitherto led; but it is very unpleasant to
+confess such a wish even to my Bishop, because it seems arrogant, and
+because it is committing me to a profession which may come to nothing.
+For what have I done that I am to be called to account by the world for
+my private actions, in a way in which no one else is called? Why may I
+not have that liberty which all others are allowed? I am often accused
+of being underhand and uncandid in respect to the intentions to which I
+have been alluding: but no one likes his own good resolutions noised
+about, both from mere common delicacy and from fear lest he should not
+be able to fulfil them. I feel it very cruel, though the parties in
+fault do not know what they are doing, that very sacred matters between
+me and my conscience are made a matter of public talk. May I take a case
+parallel though different? suppose a person in prospect of marriage;
+would he like the subject discussed in newspapers, and parties,
+circumstances, &c., &c., publicly demanded of him, at the penalty of
+being accused of craft and duplicity?
+
+"The resolution I speak of has been taken with reference to myself
+alone, and has been contemplated quite independent of the co-operation
+of any other human being, and without reference to success or failure
+other than personal, and without regard to the blame or approbation of
+man. And being a resolution of years, and one to which I feel God has
+called me, and in which I am violating no rule of the Church any more
+than if I married, I should have to answer for it, if I did not pursue
+it, as a good Providence made openings for it. In pursuing it then I am
+thinking of myself alone, not aiming at any ecclesiastical or external
+effects. At the same time of course it would be a great comfort to me to
+know that God had put it into the hearts of others to pursue their
+personal edification in the same way, and unnatural not to wish to have
+the benefit of their presence and encouragement, or not to think it a
+great infringement on the rights of conscience if such personal and
+private resolutions were interfered with. Your Lordship will allow me to
+add my firm conviction that such religious resolutions are most
+necessary for keeping a certain class of minds firm in their allegiance
+to our Church; but still I can as truly say that my own reason for any
+thing I have done has been a personal one, without which I should not
+have entered upon it, and which I hope to pursue whether with or without
+the sympathies of others pursuing a similar course....
+
+"As to my intentions, I purpose to live there myself a good deal, as I
+have a resident curate in Oxford. In doing this, I believe I am
+consulting for the good of my parish, as my population at Littlemore is
+at least equal to that of St. Mary's in Oxford, and the _whole_ of
+Littlemore is double of it. It has been very much neglected; and in
+providing a parsonage-house at Littlemore, as this will be, and will be
+called, I conceive I am doing a very great benefit to my people. At the
+same time it has appeared to me that a partial or temporary retirement
+from St. Mary's Church might be expedient under the prevailing
+excitement.
+
+"As to the quotation from the [newspaper], which I have not seen, your
+Lordship will perceive from what I have said, that no 'monastery is in
+process of erection;' there is no 'chapel;' no 'refectory', hardly a
+dining-room or parlour. The 'cloisters' are my shed connecting the
+cottages. I do not understand what 'cells of dormitories' means. Of
+course I can repeat your Lordship's words that 'I am not attempting a
+revival of the Monastic Orders, in any thing approaching to the Romanist
+sense of the term,' or 'taking on myself to originate any measure of
+importance without authority from the Heads of the Church.' I am
+attempting nothing ecclesiastical, but something personal and private,
+and which can only be made public, not private, by newspapers and
+letter-writers, in which sense the most sacred and conscientious
+resolves and acts may certainly be made the objects of an unmannerly and
+unfeeling curiosity."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One calumny there was which the Bishop did not believe, and of which of
+course he had no idea of speaking. It was that I was actually in the
+service of the enemy. I had forsooth been already received into the
+Catholic Church, and was rearing at Littlemore a nest of Papists, who,
+like me, were to take the Anglican oaths which they disbelieved, by
+virtue of a dispensation from Rome, and thus in due time were to bring
+over to that unprincipled Church great numbers of the Anglican Clergy
+and Laity. Bishops gave their countenance to this imputation against me.
+The case was simply this:--as I made Littlemore a place of retirement
+for myself, so did I offer it to others. There were young men in Oxford,
+whose testimonials for Orders had been refused by their Colleges; there
+were young clergymen, who had found themselves unable from conscience to
+go on with their duties, and had thrown up their parochial engagements.
+Such men were already going straight to Rome, and I interposed; I
+interposed for the reasons I have given in the beginning of this portion
+of my narrative. I interposed from fidelity to my clerical engagements,
+and from duty to my Bishop; and from the interest which I was bound to
+take in them, and from belief that they were premature or excited. Their
+friends besought me to quiet them, if I could. Some of them came to live
+with me at Littlemore. They were laymen, or in the place of laymen. I
+kept some of them back for several years from being received into the
+Catholic Church. Even when I had given up my living, I was still bound
+by my duty to their parents or friends, and I did not forget still to do
+what I could for them. The immediate occasion of my resigning St.
+Mary's, was the unexpected conversion of one of them. After that, I felt
+it was impossible to keep my post there, for I had been unable to keep
+my word with my Bishop.
+
+The following letters refer, more or less, to these men, whether they
+were actually with me at Littlemore or not:--
+
+1. "March 6, 1842. Church doctrines are a powerful weapon; they were not
+sent into the world for nothing. God's word does not return unto Him
+void: If I have said, as I have, that the doctrines of the Tracts for
+the Times would build up our Church and destroy parties, I meant, if
+they were used, not if they were denounced. Else, they will be as
+powerful against us, as they might be powerful for us.
+
+"If people who have a liking for another, hear him called a Roman
+Catholic; they will say, 'Then after all Romanism is no such bad thing.'
+All these persons, who are making the cry, are fulfilling their own
+prophecy. If all the world agree in telling a man, he has no business in
+our Church, he will at length begin to think he has none. How easy is it
+to persuade a man of any thing, when numbers affirm it! so great is the
+force of imagination. Did every one who met you in the streets look hard
+at you, you would think you were somehow in fault. I do not know any
+thing so irritating, so unsettling, especially in the case of young
+persons, as, when they are going on calmly and unconsciously, obeying
+their Church and following its divines, (I am speaking from facts,) as
+suddenly to their surprise to be conjured not to make a leap, of which
+they have not a dream and from which they are far removed."
+
+2. 1843 or 1844. "I did not explain to you sufficiently the state of
+mind of those who were in danger. I only spoke of those who were
+convinced that our Church was external to the Church Catholic, though
+they felt it unsafe to trust their own private convictions; but there
+are two other states of mind; 1. that of those who are unconsciously
+near Rome, and whose _despair_ about our Church would at once develope
+into a state of conscious approximation, or a _quasi_-resolution to go
+over; 2. those who feel they can with a safe conscience remain with us
+_while_ they are allowed to _testify_ in behalf of Catholicism, i.e. as
+if by such acts they were putting our Church, or at least that portion
+of it in which they were included, in the position of catechumens."
+
+3. "June 20, 1843. I return the very pleasing letter you have permitted
+me to read. What a sad thing it is, that it should be a plain duty to
+restrain one's sympathies, and to keep them from boiling over; but I
+suppose it is a matter of common prudence.
+
+"Things are very serious here; but I should not like you to say so, as
+it might do no good. The Authorities find, that, by the Statutes, they
+have more than military power; and the general impression seems to be,
+that they intend to exert it, and put down Catholicism at any risk. I
+believe that by the Statutes, they can pretty nearly suspend a Preacher,
+as _seditiosus_ or causing dissension, without assigning their grounds
+in the particular case, nay, banish him, or imprison him. If so, all
+holders of preferment in the University should make as quiet an _exit_
+as they can. There is more exasperation on both sides at this moment, as
+I am told, than ever there was."
+
+4. "July 16, 1843. I assure you that I feel, with only too much
+sympathy, what you say. You need not be told that the whole subject of
+our position is a subject of anxiety to others beside yourself. It is no
+good attempting to offer advice, when perhaps I might raise difficulties
+instead of removing them. It seems to me quite a case, in which you
+should, as far as may be, make up your mind for yourself. Come to
+Littlemore by all means. We shall all rejoice in your company; and, if
+quiet and retirement are able, as they very likely will be, to reconcile
+you to things as they are, you shall have your fill of them. How
+distressed poor Henry Wilberforce must be! Knowing how he values you, I
+feel for him; but, alas! he has his own position, and every one else has
+his own, and the misery is that no two of us have exactly the same.
+
+"It is very kind of you to be so frank and open with me, as you are; but
+this is a time which throws together persons who feel alike. May I
+without taking a liberty sign myself, yours affectionately, &c."
+
+5. "August 30, 1843. A. B. has suddenly conformed to the Church of Rome.
+He was away for three weeks. I suppose I must say in my defence, that he
+promised me distinctly to remain in our Church three years, before I
+received him here."
+
+6. "June 17, 1845. I am concerned to find you speak of me in a tone of
+distrust. If you knew me ever so little, instead of hearing of me from
+persons who do not know me at all, you would think differently of me,
+whatever you thought of my opinions. Two years since, I got your son to
+tell you my intention of resigning St. Mary's, before I made it public,
+thinking you ought to know it. When you expressed some painful feeling
+upon it, I told him I could not consent to his remaining here, painful
+as it would be to me to part with him, without your written sanction.
+And this you did me the favour to give.
+
+"I believe you will find that it has been merely a delicacy on your
+son's part, which has delayed his speaking to you about me for two
+months past; a delicacy, lest he should say either too much or too
+little about me. I have urged him several times to speak to you.
+
+"Nothing can be done after your letter, but to recommend him to go to A.
+B. (his home) at once. I am very sorry to part with him."
+
+7. The following letter is addressed to Cardinal Wiseman, then Vicar
+Apostolic, who accused me of coldness in my conduct towards him:--
+
+"April 16, 1845. I was at that time in charge of a ministerial office in
+the English Church, with persons entrusted to me, and a Bishop to obey;
+how could I possibly write otherwise than I did without violating sacred
+obligations and betraying momentous interests which were upon me? I felt
+that my immediate, undeniable duty, clear if any thing was clear, was to
+fulfil that trust. It might be right indeed to give it up, that was
+another thing; but it never could be right to hold it, and to act as if
+I did not hold it.... If you knew me, you would acquit me, I think, of
+having ever felt towards your Lordship in an unfriendly spirit, or ever
+having had a shadow on my mind (as far as I dare witness about myself)
+of what might be called controversial rivalry or desire of getting the
+better, or fear lest the world should think I had got the worse, or
+irritation of any kind. You are too kind indeed to imply this, and yet
+your words lead me to say it. And now in like manner, pray believe,
+though I cannot explain it to you, that I am encompassed with
+responsibilities, so great and so various, as utterly to overcome me,
+unless I have mercy from Him, who all through my life has sustained and
+guided me, and to whom I can now submit myself, though men of all
+parties are thinking evil of me."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Such fidelity, however, was taken _in malam partem_ by the high Anglican
+authorities; they thought it insidious. I happen still to have a
+correspondence which took place in 1843, in which the chief place is
+filled by one of the most eminent Bishops of the day, a theologian and
+reader of the Fathers, a moderate man, who at one time was talked of as
+likely on a vacancy to succeed to the Primacy. A young clergyman in his
+diocese became a Catholic; the papers at once reported on authority from
+"a very high quarter," that, after his reception, "the Oxford men had
+been recommending him to retain his living." I had reasons for thinking
+that the allusion was made to me, and I authorized the Editor of a
+Paper, who had inquired of me on the point, to "give it, as far as I was
+concerned, an unqualified contradiction;"--when from a motive of
+delicacy he hesitated, I added "my direct and indignant contradiction."
+"Whoever is the author of it," I continued to the Editor, "no
+correspondence or intercourse of any kind, direct or indirect, has
+passed between Mr. S. and myself, since his conforming to the Church of
+Rome, except my formally and merely acknowledging the receipt of his
+letter, in which he informed me of the fact, without, as far as I
+recollect, my expressing any opinion upon it. You may state this as
+broadly as I have set it down." My denial was told to the Bishop; what
+took place upon it is given in a letter from which I copy. "My father
+showed the letter to the Bishop, who, as he laid it down, said, 'Ah,
+those Oxford men are not ingenuous.' 'How do you mean?' asked my father.
+'Why,' said the Bishop, 'they advised Mr. B. S. to retain his living
+after he turned Catholic. I know that to be a fact, because A. B. told
+me so.'" "The Bishop," continues the letter, "who is perhaps the most
+influential man in reality on the bench, evidently believes it to be the
+truth." Upon this Dr. Pusey wrote in my behalf to the Bishop; and the
+Bishop instantly beat a retreat. "I have the honour," he says in the
+autograph which I transcribe, "to acknowledge the receipt of your note,
+and to say in reply that it has not been stated by me, (though such a
+statement has, I believe, appeared in some of the Public Prints,) that
+Mr. Newman had advised Mr. B. S. to retain his living, after he had
+forsaken our Church. But it has been stated to me, that Mr. Newman was
+in close correspondence with Mr. B. S., and, being fully aware of his
+state of opinions and feelings, yet advised him to continue in our
+communion. Allow me to add," he says to Dr. Pusey, "that neither your
+name, nor that of Mr. Keble, was mentioned to me in connexion with that
+of Mr. B. S."
+
+I was not going to let the Bishop off on this evasion, so I wrote to him
+myself. After quoting his Letter to Dr. Pusey, I continued, "I beg to
+trouble your Lordship with my own account of the two allegations"
+[_close correspondence_ and _fully aware_, &c.] "which are contained in
+your statement, and which have led to your speaking of me in terms which
+I hope never to deserve. 1. Since Mr. B. S. has been in your Lordship's
+diocese, I have seen him in Common rooms or private parties in Oxford
+two or three times, when I never (as far as I can recollect) had any
+conversation with him. During the same time I have, to the best of my
+memory, written to him three letters. One was lately, in acknowledgment
+of his informing me of his change of religion. Another was last summer,
+when I asked him (to no purpose) to come and stay with me in this place.
+The earliest of the three letters was written just a year since, as far
+as I recollect, and it certainly was on the subject of his joining the
+Church of Rome. I wrote this letter at the earnest wish of a friend of
+his. I cannot be sure that, on his replying, I did not send him a brief
+note in explanation of points in my letter which he had misapprehended.
+I cannot recollect any other correspondence between us.
+
+"2. As to my knowledge of his opinions and feelings, as far as I
+remember, the only point of perplexity which I knew, the only point
+which to this hour I know, as pressing upon him, was that of the Pope's
+supremacy. He professed to be searching Antiquity whether the see of
+Rome had formerly that relation to the whole Church which Roman
+Catholics now assign to it. My letter was directed to the point, that it
+was his duty not to perplex himself with arguments on [such] a question,
+... and to put it altogether aside.... It is hard that I am put upon my
+memory, without knowing the details of the statement made against me,
+considering the various correspondence in which I am from time to time
+unavoidably engaged.... Be assured, my Lord, that there are very
+definite limits, beyond which persons like me would never urge another
+to retain preferment in the English Church, nor would retain it
+themselves; and that the censure which has been directed against them by
+so many of its Rulers has a very grave bearing upon those limits." The
+Bishop replied in a civil letter, and sent my own letter to his original
+informant, who wrote to me the letter of a gentleman. It seems that an
+anxious lady had said something or other which had been misinterpreted,
+against her real meaning, into the calumny which was circulated, and so
+the report vanished into thin air. I closed the correspondence with the
+following Letter to the Bishop:--
+
+"I hope your Lordship will believe me when I say, that statements about
+me, equally incorrect with that which has come to your Lordship's ears,
+are from time to time reported to me as credited and repeated by the
+highest authorities in our Church, though it is very seldom that I have
+the opportunity of denying them. I am obliged by your Lordship's letter
+to Dr. Pusey as giving me such an opportunity." Then I added, with a
+purpose, "Your Lordship will observe that in my Letter I had no occasion
+to proceed to the question, whether a person holding Roman Catholic
+opinions can in honesty remain in our Church. Lest then any
+misconception should arise from my silence, I here take the liberty of
+adding, that I see nothing wrong in such a person's continuing in
+communion with us, provided he holds no preferment or office, abstains
+from the management of ecclesiastical matters, and is bound by no
+subscription or oath to our doctrines."
+
+This was written on March 8, 1843, and was in anticipation of my own
+retirement into lay communion. This again leads me to a remark:--for two
+years I was in lay communion, not indeed being a Catholic in my
+convictions, but in a state of serious doubt, and with the probable
+prospect of becoming some day, what as yet I was not. Under these
+circumstances I thought the best thing I could do was to give up duty
+and to throw myself into lay communion, remaining an Anglican. I could
+not go to Rome, while I thought what I did of the devotions she
+sanctioned to the Blessed Virgin and the Saints. I did not give up my
+fellowship, for I could not be sure that my doubts would not be reduced
+or overcome, however unlikely I might consider such an event. But I gave
+up my living; and, for two years before my conversion, I took no
+clerical duty. My last Sermon was in September, 1843; then I remained at
+Littlemore in quiet for two years. But it was made a subject of reproach
+to me at the time, and is at this day, that I did not leave the Anglican
+Church sooner. To me this seems a wonderful charge; why, even had I been
+quite sure that Rome was the true Church, the Anglican Bishops would
+have had no just subject of complaint against me, provided I took no
+Anglican oath, no clerical duty, no ecclesiastical administration. Do
+they force all men who go to their Churches to believe in the 39
+Articles, or to join in the Athanasian Creed? However, I was to have
+other measure dealt to me; great authorities ruled it so; and a great
+controversialist, Mr. Stanley Faber, thought it a shame that I did not
+leave the Church of England as much as ten years sooner than I did. He
+said this in print between the years 1847 and 1849. His nephew, an
+Anglican clergyman, kindly wished to undeceive him on this point. So, in
+the latter year, after some correspondence, I wrote the following
+letter, which will be of service to this narrative, from its
+chronological notes:--
+
+"Dec. 6, 1849. Your uncle says, 'If he (Mr. N.) will declare, _sans
+phrase_, as the French say, that I have laboured under an entire
+mistake, and that he was not a concealed Romanist during the ten years
+in question,' (I suppose, the last ten years of my membership with the
+Anglican Church,) 'or during any part of the time, my controversial
+antipathy will be at an end, and I will readily express to him that I am
+truly sorry that I have made such a mistake.'
+
+"So candid an avowal is what I should have expected from a mind like
+your uncle's. I am extremely glad he has brought it to this issue.
+
+"By a 'concealed Romanist' I understand him to mean one, who, professing
+to belong to the Church of England, in his heart and will intends to
+benefit the Church of Rome, at the expense of the Church of England. He
+cannot mean by the expression merely a person who in fact is benefiting
+the Church of Rome, while he is intending to benefit the Church of
+England, for that is no discredit to him morally, and he (your uncle)
+evidently means to impute blame.
+
+"In the sense in which I have explained the words, I can simply and
+honestly say that I was not a concealed Romanist during the whole, or
+any part of, the years in question.
+
+"For the first four years of the ten, (up to Michaelmas, 1839,) I
+honestly wished to benefit the Church of England, at the expense of the
+Church of Rome:
+
+"For the second four years I wished to benefit the Church of England
+without prejudice to the Church of Rome:
+
+"At the beginning of the ninth year (Michaelmas, 1843) I began to
+despair of the Church of England, and gave up all clerical duty; and
+then, what I wrote and did was influenced by a mere wish not to injure
+it, and not by the wish to benefit it:
+
+"At the beginning of the tenth year I distinctly contemplated leaving
+it, but I also distinctly told my friends that it was in my
+contemplation.
+
+"Lastly, during the last half of that tenth year I was engaged in
+writing a book (Essay on Development) in favour of the Roman Church, and
+indirectly against the English; but even then, till it was finished, I
+had not absolutely intended to publish it, wishing to reserve to myself
+the chance of changing my mind when the argumentative views which were
+actuating me had been distinctly brought out before me in writing.
+
+"I wish this statement, which I make from memory, and without consulting
+any document, severely tested by my writings and doings, as I am
+confident it will, on the whole, be borne out, whatever real or apparent
+exceptions (I suspect none) have to be allowed by me in detail.
+
+"Your uncle is at liberty to make what use he pleases of this
+explanation."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I have now reached an important date in my narrative, the year 1843; but
+before proceeding to the matters which it contains, I will insert
+portions of my letters from 1841 to 1843, addressed to Catholic
+acquaintances.
+
+1. "April 8, 1841 ... The unity of the Church Catholic is very near my
+heart, only I do not see any prospect of it in our time; and I despair
+of its being effected without great sacrifices on all hands. As to
+resisting the Bishop's will, I observe that no point of doctrine or
+principle was in dispute, but a course of action, the publication of
+certain works. I do not think you sufficiently understood our position.
+I suppose you would obey the Holy See in such a case; now, when we were
+separated from the Pope, his authority reverted to our Diocesans. Our
+Bishop is our Pope. It is our theory, that each diocese is an integral
+Church, intercommunion being a duty, (and the breach of it a sin,) but
+not essential to Catholicity. To have resisted my Bishop, would have
+been to place myself in an utterly false position, which I never could
+have recovered. Depend upon it, the strength of any party lies in its
+being _true to its theory_. Consistency is the life of a movement.
+
+"I have no misgivings whatever that the line I have taken can be other
+than a prosperous one: that is, in itself, for of course Providence may
+refuse to us its legitimate issues for our sins.
+
+"I am afraid, that in one respect you may be disappointed. It is my
+trust, though I must not be too sanguine, that we shall not have
+individual members of our communion going over to yours. What one's duty
+would be under other circumstances, what our duty would have been ten or
+twenty years ago, I cannot say; but I do think that there is less of
+private judgment in going with one's Church, than in leaving it. I can
+earnestly desire a union between my Church and yours. I cannot listen to
+the thought of your being joined by individuals among us."
+
+2. "April 26, 1841. My only anxiety is lest your branch of the Church
+should not meet us by those reforms which surely are _necessary_. It
+never could be, that so large a portion of Christendom should have split
+off from the communion of Rome, and kept up a protest for 300 years for
+nothing. I think I never shall believe that so much piety and
+earnestness would be found among Protestants, if there were not some
+very grave errors on the side of Rome. To suppose the contrary is most
+unreal, and violates all one's notions of moral probabilities. All
+aberrations are founded on, and have their life in, some truth or
+other--and Protestantism, so widely spread and so long enduring, must
+have in it, and must be witness for, a great truth or much truth. That I
+am an advocate for Protestantism, you cannot suppose;--but I am forced
+into a _Via Media_, short of Rome, as it is at present."
+
+3. "May 5, 1841. While I most sincerely hold that there is in the Roman
+Church a traditionary system which is not necessarily connected with her
+essential formularies, yet, were I ever so much to change my mind on
+this point, this would not tend to bring me from my present position,
+providentially appointed in the English Church. That your communion was
+unassailable, would not prove that mine was indefensible. Nor would it
+at all affect the sense in which I receive our Articles; they would
+still speak against certain definite errors, though you had reformed
+them.
+
+"I say this lest any lurking suspicion should be left in the mind of
+your friends that persons who think with me are likely, by the growth of
+their present views, to find it imperative on them to pass over to your
+communion. Allow me to state strongly, that if you have any such
+thoughts, and proceed to act upon them, your friends will be committing
+a fatal mistake. We have (I trust) the principle and temper of obedience
+too intimately wrought into us to allow of our separating ourselves from
+our ecclesiastical superiors because in many points we may sympathize
+with others. We have too great a horror of the principle of private
+judgment to trust it in so immense a matter as that of changing from one
+communion to another. We may be cast out of our communion, or it may
+decree heresy to be truth,--you shall say whether such contingencies are
+likely; but I do not see other conceivable causes of our leaving the
+Church in which we were baptized.
+
+"For myself, persons must be well acquainted with what I have written
+before they venture to say whether I have much changed my main opinions
+and cardinal views in the course of the last eight years. That my
+_sympathies_ have grown towards the religion of Rome I do not deny; that
+my _reasons_ for _shunning_ her communion have lessened or altered it
+would be difficult perhaps to prove. And I wish to go by reason, not by
+feeling."
+
+4. "June 18, 1841. You urge persons whose views agree with mine to
+commence a movement in behalf of a union between the Churches. Now in
+the letters I have written, I have uniformly said that I did not expect
+that union in our time, and have discouraged the notion of all sudden
+proceedings with a view to it. I must ask your leave to repeat on this
+occasion most distinctly, that I cannot be party to any agitation, but
+mean to remain quiet in my own place, and to do all I can to make others
+take the same course. This I conceive to be my simple duty; but, over
+and above this, I will not set my teeth on edge with sour grapes. I know
+it is quite within the range of possibilities that one or another of our
+people should go over to your communion; however, it would be a greater
+misfortune to you than grief to us. If your friends wish to put a gulf
+between themselves and us, let them make converts, but not else. Some
+months ago, I ventured to say that I felt it a painful duty to keep
+aloof from all Roman Catholics who came with the intention of opening
+negotiations for the union of the Churches: when you now urge us to
+petition our Bishops for a union, this, I conceive, is very like an act
+of negotiation."
+
+5. I have the first sketch or draft of a letter, which I wrote to a
+zealous Catholic layman: it runs as follows, as far as I have preserved
+it, but I think there were various changes and additions:--"September
+12, 1841. It would rejoice all Catholic minds among us, more than words
+can say, if you could persuade members of the Church of Rome to take the
+line in politics which you so earnestly advocate. Suspicion and distrust
+are the main causes at present of the separation between us, and the
+nearest approaches in doctrine will but increase the hostility, which,
+alas, our people feel towards yours, while these causes continue. Depend
+upon it, you must not rely upon our Catholic tendencies till they are
+removed. I am not speaking of myself, or of any friends of mine; but of
+our Church generally. Whatever _our_ personal feelings may be, we shall
+but tend to raise and spread a _rival_ Church to yours in the four
+quarters of the world, unless _you_ do what none but you _can_ do.
+Sympathies, which would flow over to the Church of Rome, as a matter of
+course, did she admit them, will but be developed in the consolidation
+of our own system, if she continues to be the object of our suspicions
+and fears. I wish, of course I do, that our own Church may be built up
+and extended, but still, not at the cost of the Church of Rome, not in
+opposition to it. I am sure, that, while you suffer, we suffer too from
+the separation; _but we cannot remove the obstacles_; it is with you to
+do so. You do not fear us; we fear you. Till we cease to fear you, we
+cannot love you.
+
+"While you are in your present position, the friends of Catholic unity
+in our Church are but fulfilling the prediction of those of your body
+who are averse to them, viz. that they will be merely strengthening a
+rival communion to yours. Many of you say that _we_ are your greatest
+enemies; we have said so ourselves: so we are, so we shall be, as things
+stand at present. We are keeping people from you, by supplying their
+wants in our own Church. We _are_ keeping persons from you: do you wish
+us to keep them from you for a time or for ever? It rests with you to
+determine. I do not fear that you will succeed among us; you will not
+supplant our Church in the affections of the English nation; only
+through the English Church can you act upon the English nation. I wish
+of course our Church should be consolidated, with and through and in
+your communion, for its sake, and your sake, and for the sake of unity.
+
+"Are you aware that the more serious thinkers among us are used, as far
+as they dare form an opinion, to regard the spirit of Liberalism as the
+characteristic of the destined Antichrist? In vain does any one clear
+the Church of Rome from the badges of Antichrist, in which Protestants
+would invest her, if she deliberately takes up her position in the very
+quarter, whither we have cast them, when we took them off from her.
+Antichrist is described as the [Greek: anomos], as exalting himself
+above the yoke of religion and law. The spirit of lawlessness came in
+with the Reformation, and Liberalism is its offspring.
+
+"And now I fear I am going to pain you by telling you, that you consider
+the approaches in doctrine on our part towards you, closer than they
+really are. I cannot help repeating what I have many times said in
+print, that your services and devotions to St. Mary in matter of fact do
+most deeply pain me. I am only stating it as a fact.
+
+"Again, I have nowhere said that I can accept the decrees of Trent
+throughout, nor implied it. The doctrine of Transubstantiation is a
+great difficulty with me, as being, as I think, not primitive. Nor have
+I said that our Articles in all respects admit of a Roman
+interpretation; the very word 'Transubstantiation' is disowned in them.
+
+"Thus, you see, it is not merely on grounds of expedience that we do not
+join you. There are positive difficulties in the way of it. And, even if
+there were not, we shall have no divine warrant for doing so, while we
+think that the Church of England is a branch of the true Church, and
+that intercommunion with the rest of Christendom is necessary, not for
+the life of a particular Church, but for its health only. I have never
+disguised that there are actual circumstances in the Church of Rome,
+which pain me much; of the removal of these I see no chance, while we
+join you one by one; but if our Church were prepared for a union, she
+might make her terms; she might gain the cup; she might protest against
+the extreme honours paid to St. Mary; she might make some explanation of
+the doctrine of Transubstantiation. I am not prepared to say that a
+reform in other branches of the Roman Church would be necessary for our
+uniting with them, however desirable in itself, so that we were allowed
+to make a reform in our own country. We do not look towards Rome as
+believing that its communion is infallible, but that union is a duty."
+
+6. The following letter was occasioned by the present made to me of a
+book by the friend to whom it is written; more will be said on the
+subject of it presently:--
+
+"Nov. 22, 1842. I only wish that your Church were more known among us by
+such writings. You will not interest us in her, till we see her, not in
+politics, but in her true functions of exhorting, teaching, and guiding.
+I wish there were a chance of making the leading men among you
+understand, what I believe is no novel thought to yourself. It is not by
+learned discussions, or acute arguments, or reports of miracles, that
+the heart of England can be gained. It is by men 'approving themselves,'
+like the Apostle, 'ministers of Christ.'
+
+"As to your question, whether the Volume you have sent is not calculated
+to remove my apprehensions that another gospel is substituted for the
+true one in your practical instructions, before I can answer it in any
+way, I ought to know how far the Sermons which it comprises are
+_selected_ from a number, or whether they are the whole, or such as the
+whole, which have been published of the author's. I assure you, or at
+least I trust, that, if it is ever clearly brought home to me that I
+have been wrong in what I have said on this subject, my public avowal of
+that conviction will only be a question of time with me.
+
+"If, however, you saw our Church as we see it, you would easily
+understand that such a change of feeling, did it take place, would have
+no necessary tendency, which you seem to expect, to draw a person from
+the Church of England to that of Rome. There is a divine life among us,
+clearly manifested, in spite of all our disorders, which is as great a
+note of the Church, as any can be. Why should we seek our Lord's
+presence elsewhere, when He vouchsafes it to us where we are? What
+_call_ have we to change our communion?
+
+"Roman Catholics will find this to be the state of things in time to
+come, whatever promise they may fancy there is of a large secession to
+their Church. This man or that may leave us, but there will be no
+general movement. There is, indeed, an incipient movement of our
+_Church_ towards yours, and this your leading men are doing all they can
+to frustrate by their unwearied efforts at all risks to carry off
+individuals. When will they know their position, and embrace a larger
+and wiser policy?"
+
+
+§ 2.
+
+The letter which I have last inserted, is addressed to my dear friend,
+Dr. Russell, the present President of Maynooth. He had, perhaps, more to
+do with my conversion than any one else. He called upon me, in passing
+through Oxford in the summer of 1841, and I think I took him over some
+of the buildings of the University. He called again another summer, on
+his way from Dublin to London. I do not recollect that he said a word on
+the subject of religion on either occasion. He sent me at different
+times several letters; he was always gentle, mild, unobtrusive,
+uncontroversial. He let me alone. He also gave me one or two books.
+Veron's Rule of Faith and some Treatises of the Wallenburghs was one; a
+volume of St. Alfonso Liguori's Sermons was another; and it is to those
+Sermons that my letter to Dr. Russell relates.
+
+Now it must be observed that the writings of St. Alfonso, as I knew them
+by the extracts commonly made from them, prejudiced me as much against
+the Roman Church as any thing else, on account of what was called their
+"Mariolatry;" but there was nothing of the kind in this book. I wrote to
+ask Dr. Russell whether any thing had been left out in the translation;
+he answered that there certainly were omissions in one Sermon about the
+Blessed Virgin. This omission, in the case of a book intended for
+Catholics, at least showed that such passages as are found in the works
+of Italian Authors were not acceptable to every part of the Catholic
+world. Such devotional manifestations in honour of our Lady had been my
+great _crux_ as regards Catholicism; I say frankly, I do not fully enter
+into them now; I trust I do not love her the less, because I cannot
+enter into them. They may be fully explained and defended; but sentiment
+and taste do not run with logic: they are suitable for Italy, but they
+are not suitable for England. But, over and above England, my own case
+was special; from a boy I had been led to consider that my Maker and I,
+His creature, were the two beings, luminously such, _in rerum naturâ_. I
+will not here speculate, however, about my own feelings. Only this I
+know full well now, and did not know then, that the Catholic Church
+allows no image of any sort, material or immaterial, no dogmatic symbol,
+no rite, no sacrament, no Saint, not even the Blessed Virgin herself, to
+come between the soul and its Creator. It is face to face, "solus cum
+solo," in all matters between man and his God. He alone creates; He
+alone has redeemed; before His awful eyes we go in death; in the vision
+of Him is our eternal beatitude.
+
+1. Solus cum solo:--I recollect but indistinctly what I gained from the
+Volume of which I have been speaking; but it must have been something
+considerable. At least I had got a key to a difficulty; in these
+Sermons, (or rather heads of sermons, as they seem to be, taken down by
+a hearer,) there is much of what would be called legendary illustration;
+but the substance of them is plain, practical, awful preaching upon the
+great truths of salvation. What I can speak of with greater confidence
+is the effect produced on me a little later by studying the Exercises of
+St. Ignatius. For here again, in a matter consisting in the purest and
+most direct acts of religion,--in the intercourse between God and the
+soul, during a season of recollection, of repentance, of good
+resolution, of inquiry into vocation,--the soul was "sola cum solo;"
+there was no cloud interposed between the creature and the Object of his
+faith and love. The command practically enforced was, "My son, give Me
+thy heart." The devotions then to Angels and Saints as little interfered
+with the incommunicable glory of the Eternal, as the love which we bear
+our friends and relations, our tender human sympathies, are inconsistent
+with that supreme homage of the heart to the Unseen, which really does
+but sanctify and exalt, not jealously destroy, what is of earth. At a
+later date Dr. Russell sent me a large bundle of penny or half-penny
+books of devotion, of all sorts, as they are found in the booksellers'
+shops at Rome; and, on looking them over, I was quite astonished to find
+how different they were from what I had fancied, how little there was in
+them to which I could really object. I have given an account of them in
+my Essay on the Development of Doctrine. Dr. Russell sent me St.
+Alfonso's book at the end of 1842; however, it was still a long time
+before I got over my difficulty, on the score of the devotions paid to
+the Saints; perhaps, as I judge from a letter I have turned up, it was
+some way into 1844 before I could be said fully to have got over it.
+
+2. I am not sure that I did not also at this time feel the force of
+another consideration. The idea of the Blessed Virgin was as it were
+_magnified_ in the Church of Rome, as time went on,--but so were all the
+Christian ideas; as that of the Blessed Eucharist. The whole scene of
+pale, faint, distant Apostolic Christianity is seen in Rome, as through
+a telescope or magnifier. The harmony of the whole, however, is of
+course what it was. It is unfair then to take one Roman idea, that of
+the Blessed Virgin, out of what may be called its context.
+
+3. Thus I am brought to the principle of development of doctrine in the
+Christian Church, to which I gave my mind at the end of 1842. I had made
+mention of it in the passage, which I quoted many pages back (vide p.
+111), in "Home Thoughts Abroad," published in 1836; and even at an
+earlier date I had introduced it into my History of the Arians in 1832;
+nor had I ever lost sight of it in my speculations. And it is certainly
+recognized in the Treatise of Vincent of Lerins, which has so often been
+taken as the basis of Anglicanism. In 1843 I began to consider it
+attentively; I made it the subject of my last University Sermon on
+February 2; and the general view to which I came is stated thus in a
+letter to a friend of the date of July 14, 1844;--it will be observed
+that, now as before, my _issue_ is still Creed _versus_ Church:--
+
+"The kind of considerations which weighs with me are such as the
+following:--1. I am far more certain (according to the Fathers) that we
+_are_ in a state of culpable separation, _than_ that developments do
+_not_ exist under the Gospel, and that the Roman developments are not
+the true ones. 2. I am far more certain, that _our_ (modern) doctrines
+are wrong, _than_ that the _Roman_ (modern) doctrines are wrong. 3.
+Granting that the Roman (special) doctrines are not found drawn out in
+the early Church, yet I think there is sufficient trace of them in it,
+to recommend and prove them, _on the hypothesis_ of the Church having a
+divine guidance, though not sufficient to prove them by itself. So that
+the question simply turns on the nature of the promise of the Spirit,
+made to the Church. 4. The proof of the Roman (modern) doctrine is as
+strong (or stronger) in Antiquity, as that of certain doctrines which
+both we and Romans hold: e.g. there is more of evidence in Antiquity for
+the necessity of Unity, than for the Apostolical Succession; for the
+Supremacy of the See of Rome, than for the Presence in the Eucharist;
+for the practice of Invocation, than for certain books in the present
+Canon of Scripture, &c. &c. 5. The analogy of the Old Testament, and
+also of the New, leads to the acknowledgment of doctrinal developments."
+
+4. And thus I was led on to a further consideration. I saw that the
+principle of development not only accounted for certain facts, but was
+in itself a remarkable philosophical phenomenon, giving a character to
+the whole course of Christian thought. It was discernible from the first
+years of the Catholic teaching up to the present day, and gave to that
+teaching a unity and individuality. It served as a sort of test, which
+the Anglican could not exhibit, that modern Rome was in truth ancient
+Antioch, Alexandria, and Constantinople, just as a mathematical curve
+has its own law and expression.
+
+5. And thus again I was led on to examine more attentively what I doubt
+not was in my thoughts long before, viz. the concatenation of argument
+by which the mind ascends from its first to its final religious idea;
+and I came to the conclusion that there was no medium, in true
+philosophy, between Atheism and Catholicity, and that a perfectly
+consistent mind, under those circumstances in which it finds itself here
+below, must embrace either the one or the other. And I hold this still:
+I am a Catholic by virtue of my believing in a God; and if I am asked
+why I believe in a God, I answer that it is because I believe in myself,
+for I feel it impossible to believe in my own existence (and of that
+fact I am quite sure) without believing also in the existence of Him,
+who lives as a Personal, All-seeing, All-judging Being in my conscience.
+Now, I dare say, I have not expressed myself with philosophical
+correctness, because I have not given myself to the study of what
+metaphysicians have said on the subject; but I think I have a strong
+true meaning in what I say which will stand examination.
+
+6. Moreover, I found a corroboration of the fact of the logical
+connexion of Theism with Catholicism in a consideration parallel to that
+which I had adopted on the subject of development of doctrine. The fact
+of the operation from first to last of that principle of development in
+the truths of Revelation, is an argument in favour of the identity of
+Roman and Primitive Christianity; but as there is a law which acts upon
+the subject-matter of dogmatic theology, so is there a law in the matter
+of religious faith. In the first chapter of this Narrative I spoke of
+certitude as the consequence, divinely intended and enjoined upon us, of
+the accumulative force of certain given reasons which, taken one by one,
+were only probabilities. Let it be recollected that I am historically
+relating my state of mind, at the period of my life which I am
+surveying. I am not speaking theologically, nor have I any intention of
+going into controversy, or of defending myself; but speaking
+historically of what I held in 1843-4, I say, that I believed in a God
+on a ground of probability, that I believed in Christianity on a
+probability, and that I believed in Catholicism on a probability, and
+that these three grounds of probability, distinct from each other of
+course in subject matter, were still all of them one and the same in
+nature of proof, as being probabilities--probabilities of a special
+kind, a cumulative, a transcendent probability but still probability;
+inasmuch as He who made us has so willed, that in mathematics indeed we
+should arrive at certitude by rigid demonstration, but in religious
+inquiry we should arrive at certitude by accumulated probabilities;--He
+has willed, I say, that we should so act, and, as willing it, He
+co-operates with us in our acting, and thereby enables us to do that
+which He wills us to do, and carries us on, if our will does but
+co-operate with His, to a certitude which rises higher than the logical
+force of our conclusions. And thus I came to see clearly, and to have a
+satisfaction in seeing, that, in being led on into the Church of Rome, I
+was not proceeding on any secondary or isolated grounds of reason, or by
+controversial points in detail, but was protected and justified, even in
+the use of those secondary or particular arguments, by a great and broad
+principle. But, let it be observed, that I am stating a matter of fact,
+not defending it; and if any Catholic says in consequence that I have
+been converted in a wrong way, I cannot help that now.
+
+I have nothing more to say on the subject of the change in my religious
+opinions. On the one hand I came gradually to see that the Anglican
+Church was formally in the wrong, on the other that the Church of Rome
+was formally in the right; then, that no valid reasons could be assigned
+for continuing in the Anglican, and again that no valid objections could
+be taken to joining the Roman. Then, I had nothing more to learn; what
+still remained for my conversion, was, not further change of opinion,
+but to change opinion itself into the clearness and firmness of
+intellectual conviction.
+
+Now I proceed to detail the acts, to which I committed myself during
+this last stage of my inquiry.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In 1843, I took two very significant steps:--1. In February, I made a
+formal Retractation of all the hard things which I had said against the
+Church of Rome. 2. In September, I resigned the Living of St. Mary's,
+Littlemore included:--I will speak of these two acts separately.
+
+1. The words, in which I made my Retractation, have given rise to much
+criticism. After quoting a number of passages from my writings against
+the Church of Rome, which I withdrew, I ended thus:--"If you ask me how
+an individual could venture, not simply to hold, but to publish such
+views of a communion so ancient, so wide-spreading, so fruitful in
+Saints, I answer that I said to myself, 'I am not speaking my own words,
+I am but following almost a _consensus_ of the divines of my own Church.
+They have ever used the strongest language against Rome, even the most
+able and learned of them. I wish to throw myself into their system.
+While I say what they say, I am safe. Such views, too, are necessary for
+our position.' Yet I have reason to fear still, that such language is to
+be ascribed, in no small measure, to an impetuous temper, a hope of
+approving myself to persons I respect, and a wish to repel the charge of
+Romanism."
+
+These words have been, and are, again and again cited against me, as if
+a confession that, when in the Anglican Church, I said things against
+Rome which I did not really believe.
+
+For myself, I cannot understand how any impartial man can so take them;
+and I have explained them in print several times. I trust that by this
+time their plain meaning has been satisfactorily brought out by what I
+have said in former portions of this Narrative; still I have a word or
+two to say in addition to my former remarks upon them.
+
+In the passage in question I apologize for _saying out_ in controversy
+charges against the Church of Rome, which withal I affirm that I fully
+_believed_ at the time when I made them. What is wonderful in such an
+apology? There are surely many things a man may hold, which at the same
+time he may feel that he has no right to say publicly, and which it may
+annoy him that he has said publicly. The law recognizes this principle.
+In our own time, men have been imprisoned and fined for saying true
+things of a bad king. The maxim has been held, that, "The greater the
+truth, the greater is the libel." And so as to the judgment of society,
+a just indignation would be felt against a writer who brought forward
+wantonly the weaknesses of a great man, though the whole world knew that
+they existed. No one is at liberty to speak ill of another without a
+justifiable reason, even though he knows he is speaking truth, and the
+public knows it too. Therefore, though I believed what I said against
+the Roman Church, nevertheless I could not religiously speak it out,
+unless I was really justified, not only in believing ill, but in
+speaking ill. I did believe what I said on what I thought to be good
+reasons; but had I also a just cause for saying out what I believed? I
+thought I had, and it was this, viz. that to say out what I believed was
+simply necessary in the controversy for self-defence. It was impossible
+to let it alone: the Anglican position could not be satisfactorily
+maintained, without assailing the Roman. In this, as in most cases of
+conflict, one party was right or the other, not both; and the best
+defence was to attack. Is not this almost a truism in the Roman
+controversy? Is it not what every one says, who speaks on the subject at
+all? Does any serious man abuse the Church of Rome, for the sake of
+abusing her, or because that abuse justifies his own religious position?
+What is the meaning of the very word "Protestantism," but that there is
+a call to speak out? This then is what I said: "I know I spoke strongly
+against the Church of Rome; but it was no mere abuse, for I had a
+serious reason for doing so."
+
+But, not only did I think such language necessary for my Church's
+religious position, but I recollected that all the great Anglican
+divines had thought so before me. They had thought so, and they had
+acted accordingly. And therefore I observe in the passage in question,
+with much propriety, that I had not used strong language simply out of
+my own head, but that in doing so I was following the track, or rather
+reproducing the teaching, of those who had preceded me.
+
+I was pleading guilty to using violent language, but I was pleading also
+that there were extenuating circumstances in the case. We all know the
+story of the convict, who on the scaffold bit off his mother's ear. By
+doing so he did not deny the fact of his own crime, for which he was to
+hang; but he said that his mother's indulgence when he was a boy, had a
+good deal to do with it. In like manner I had made a charge, and I had
+made it _ex animo_; but I accused others of having, by their own
+example, led me into believing it and publishing it.
+
+I was in a humour, certainly, to bite off their ears. I will freely
+confess, indeed I said it some pages back, that I was angry with the
+Anglican divines. I thought they had taken me in; I had read the Fathers
+with their eyes; I had sometimes trusted their quotations or their
+reasonings; and from reliance on them, I had used words or made
+statements, which by right I ought rigidly to have examined myself. I
+had thought myself safe, while I had their warrant for what I said. I
+had exercised more faith than criticism in the matter. This did not
+imply any broad misstatements on my part, arising from reliance on their
+authority, but it implied carelessness in matters of detail. And this of
+course was a fault.
+
+But there was a far deeper reason for my saying what I said in this
+matter, on which I have not hitherto touched; and it was this:--The most
+oppressive thought, in the whole process of my change of opinion, was
+the clear anticipation, verified by the event, that it would issue in
+the triumph of Liberalism. Against the Anti-dogmatic principle I had
+thrown my whole mind; yet now I was doing more than any one else could
+do, to promote it. I was one of those who had kept it at bay in Oxford
+for so many years; and thus my very retirement was its triumph. The men
+who had driven me from Oxford were distinctly the Liberals; it was they
+who had opened the attack upon Tract 90, and it was they who would gain
+a second benefit, if I went on to abandon the Anglican Church. But this
+was not all. As I have already said, there are but two alternatives, the
+way to Rome, and the way to Atheism: Anglicanism is the halfway house on
+the one side, and Liberalism is the halfway house on the other. How many
+men were there, as I knew full well, who would not follow me now in my
+advance from Anglicanism to Rome, but would at once leave Anglicanism
+and me for the Liberal camp. It is not at all easy (humanly speaking) to
+wind up an Englishman to a dogmatic level. I had done so in good
+measure, in the case both of young men and of laymen, the Anglican _Via
+Media_ being the representative of dogma. The dogmatic and the Anglican
+principle were one, as I had taught them; but I was breaking the _Via
+Media_ to pieces, and would not dogmatic faith altogether be broken up,
+in the minds of a great number, by the demolition of the _Via Media_?
+Oh! how unhappy this made me! I heard once from an eye-witness the
+account of a poor sailor whose legs were shattered by a ball, in the
+action off Algiers in 1816, and who was taken below for an operation.
+The surgeon and the chaplain persuaded him to have a leg off; it was
+done and the tourniquet applied to the wound. Then, they broke it to him
+that he must have the other off too. The poor fellow said, "You should
+have told me that, gentlemen," and deliberately unscrewed the instrument
+and bled to death. Would not that be the case with many friends of my
+own? How could I ever hope to make them believe in a second theology,
+when I had cheated them in the first? With what face could I publish a
+new edition of a dogmatic creed, and ask them to receive it as gospel?
+Would it not be plain to them that no certainty was to be found any
+where? Well, in my defence I could but make a lame apology; however, it
+was the true one, viz. that I had not read the Fathers cautiously
+enough; that in such nice points, as those which determine the angle of
+divergence between the two Churches, I had made considerable
+miscalculations. But how came this about? why, the fact was, unpleasant
+as it was to avow, that I had leaned too much upon the assertions of
+Ussher, Jeremy Taylor, or Barrow, and had been deceived by them. Valeat
+quantum,--it was all that _could_ be said. This then was a chief reason
+of that wording of the Retractation, which has given so much offence,
+because the bitterness, with which it was written, was not
+understood;--and the following letter will illustrate it:--
+
+"April 3, 1844. I wish to remark on William's chief distress, that my
+changing my opinion seemed to unsettle one's confidence in truth and
+falsehood as external things, and led one to be suspicious of the new
+opinion as one became distrustful of the old. Now in what I shall say, I
+am not going to speak in favour of my second thoughts in comparison of
+my first, but against such scepticism and unsettlement about truth and
+falsehood generally, the idea of which is very painful.
+
+"The case with me, then, was this, and not surely an unnatural one:--as
+a matter of feeling and of duty I threw myself into the system which I
+found myself in. I saw that the English Church had a theological idea or
+theory as such, and I took it up. I read Laud on Tradition, and thought
+it (as I still think it) very masterly. The Anglican Theory was very
+distinctive. I admired it and took it on faith. It did not (I think)
+occur to me to doubt it; I saw that it was able, and supported by
+learning, and I felt it was a duty to maintain it. Further, on looking
+into Antiquity and reading the Fathers, I saw such portions of it as I
+examined, fully confirmed (e.g. the supremacy of Scripture). There was
+only one question about which I had a doubt, viz. whether it would
+_work_, for it has never been more than a paper system....
+
+"So far from my change of opinion having any fair tendency to unsettle
+persons as to truth and falsehood viewed as objective realities, it
+should be considered whether such change is not _necessary_, if truth be
+a real objective thing, and be made to confront a person who has been
+brought up in a system _short of_ truth. Surely the _continuance_ of a
+person, who wishes to go right, in a wrong system, and not his _giving
+it up_, would be that which militated against the objectiveness of
+Truth, leading, as it would, to the suspicion, that one thing and
+another were equally pleasing to our Maker, where men were sincere.
+
+"Nor surely is it a thing I need be sorry for, that I defended the
+system in which I found myself, and thus have had to unsay my words. For
+is it not one's duty, instead of beginning with criticism, to throw
+oneself generously into that form of religion which is providentially
+put before one? Is it right, or is it wrong, to begin with private
+judgment? May we not, on the other hand, look for a blessing _through_
+obedience even to an erroneous system, and a guidance even by means of
+it out of it? Were those who were strict and conscientious in their
+Judaism, or those who were lukewarm and sceptical, more likely to be led
+into Christianity, when Christ came? Yet in proportion to their previous
+zeal, would be their appearance of inconsistency. Certainly, I have
+always contended that obedience even to an erring conscience was the way
+to gain light, and that it mattered not where a man began, so that he
+began on what came to hand, and in faith; and that any thing might
+become a divine method of Truth; that to the pure all things are pure,
+and have a self-correcting virtue and a power of germinating. And though
+I have no right at all to assume that this mercy is granted to me, yet
+the fact, that a person in my situation _may_ have it granted to him,
+seems to me to remove the perplexity which my change of opinion may
+occasion.
+
+"It may be said,--I have said it to myself,--'Why, however, did you
+_publish_? had you waited quietly, you would have changed your opinion
+without any of the misery, which now is involved in the change, of
+disappointing and distressing people.' I answer, that things are so
+bound up together, as to form a whole, and one cannot tell what is or is
+not a condition of what. I do not see how possibly I could have
+published the Tracts, or other works professing to defend our Church,
+without accompanying them with a strong protest or argument against
+Rome. The one obvious objection against the whole Anglican line is, that
+it is Roman; so that I really think there was no alternative between
+silence altogether, and forming a theory and attacking the Roman
+system."
+
+2. And now, in the next place, as to my Resignation of St. Mary's, which
+was the second of the steps which I took in 1843. The ostensible,
+direct, and sufficient reason for my doing so was the persevering attack
+of the Bishops on Tract 90. I alluded to it in the letter which I have
+inserted above, addressed to one of the most influential among them. A
+series of their _ex cathedrâ_ judgments, lasting through three years,
+and including a notice of no little severity in a Charge of my own
+Bishop, came as near to a condemnation of my Tract, and, so far, to a
+repudiation of the ancient Catholic doctrine, which was the scope of the
+Tract, as was possible in the Church of England. It was in order to
+shield the Tract from such a condemnation, that I had at the time of its
+publication in 1841 so simply put myself at the disposal of the higher
+powers in London. At that time, all that was distinctly contemplated in
+the way of censure, was contained in the message which my Bishop sent
+me, that the Tract was "objectionable." That I thought was the end of
+the matter. I had refused to suppress it, and they had yielded that
+point. Since I published the former portions of this Narrative, I have
+found what I wrote to Dr. Pusey on March 24, while the matter was in
+progress. "The more I think of it," I said, "the more reluctant I am to
+suppress Tract 90, though _of course_ I will do it if the Bishop wishes
+it; I cannot, however, deny that I shall feel it a severe act."
+According to the notes which I took of the letters or messages which I
+sent to him on that and the following days, I wrote successively, "My
+first feeling was to obey without a word; I will obey still; but my
+judgment has steadily risen against it ever since." Then in the
+Postscript, "If I have done any good to the Church, I do ask the Bishop
+this favour, as my reward for it, that he would not insist on a measure,
+from which I think good will not come. However, I will submit to him."
+Afterwards, I got stronger still and wrote: "I have almost come to the
+resolution, if the Bishop publicly intimates that I must suppress the
+Tract, or speaks strongly in his charge against it, to suppress it
+indeed, but to resign my living also. I could not in conscience act
+otherwise. You may show this in any quarter you please."
+
+All my then hopes, all my satisfaction at the apparent fulfilment of
+those hopes was at an end in 1843. It is not wonderful then, that in May
+of that year, when two out of the three years were gone, I wrote on the
+subject of my retiring from St. Mary's to the same friend, whom I had
+consulted upon it in 1840. But I did more now; I told him my great
+unsettlement of mind on the question of the Churches. I will insert
+portions of two of my letters:--
+
+"May 4, 1843.... At present I fear, as far as I can analyze my own
+convictions, I consider the Roman Catholic Communion to be the Church of
+the Apostles, and that what grace is among us (which, through God's
+mercy, is not little) is extraordinary, and from the overflowings of His
+dispensation. I am very far more sure that England is in schism, than
+that the Roman additions to the Primitive Creed may not be developments,
+arising out of a keen and vivid realizing of the Divine Depositum of
+Faith.
+
+"You will now understand what gives edge to the Bishops' Charges,
+without any undue sensitiveness on my part. They distress me in two
+ways:--first, as being in some sense protests and witnesses to my
+conscience against my own unfaithfulness to the English Church, and
+next, as being samples of her teaching, and tokens how very far she is
+from even aspiring to Catholicity.
+
+"Of course my being unfaithful to a trust is my great subject of
+dread,--as it has long been, as you know."
+
+When he wrote to make natural objections to my purpose, such as the
+apprehension that the removal of clerical obligations might have the
+indirect effect of propelling me towards Rome, I answered:--
+
+"May 18, 1843.... My office or charge at St. Mary's is not a mere
+_state_, but a continual _energy_. People assume and assert certain
+things of me in consequence. With what sort of sincerity can I obey the
+Bishop? how am I to act in the frequent cases, in which one way or
+another the Church of Rome comes into consideration? I have to the
+utmost of my power tried to keep persons from Rome, and with some
+success; but even a year and a half since, my arguments, though more
+efficacious with the persons I aimed at than any others could be, were
+of a nature to infuse great suspicion of me into the minds of
+lookers-on.
+
+"By retaining St. Mary's, I am an offence and a stumbling-block. Persons
+are keen-sighted enough to make out what I think on certain points, and
+then they infer that such opinions are compatible with holding
+situations of trust in our Church. A number of younger men take the
+validity of their interpretation of the Articles, &c. from me on
+_faith_. Is not my present position a cruelty, as well as a treachery
+towards the Church?
+
+"I do not see how I can either preach or publish again, while I hold St.
+Mary's;--but consider again the following difficulty in such a
+resolution, which I must state at some length.
+
+"Last Long Vacation the idea suggested itself to me of publishing the
+Lives of the English Saints; and I had a conversation with [a publisher]
+upon it. I thought it would be useful, as employing the minds of men who
+were in danger of running wild, bringing them from doctrine to history,
+and from speculation to fact;--again, as giving them an interest in the
+English soil, and the English Church, and keeping them from seeking
+sympathy in Rome, as she is; and further, as tending to promote the
+spread of right views.
+
+"But, within the last month, it has come upon me, that, if the scheme
+goes on, it will be a practical carrying out of No. 90, from the
+character of the usages and opinions of ante-reformation times.
+
+"It is easy to say, 'Why _will_ you do _any_ thing? why won't you keep
+quiet? what business had you to think of any such plan at all?' But I
+cannot leave a number of poor fellows in the lurch. I am bound to do my
+best for a great number of people both in Oxford and elsewhere. If _I_
+did not act, others would find means to do so.
+
+"Well, the plan has been taken up with great eagerness and interest.
+Many men are setting to work. I set down the names of men, most of them
+engaged, the rest half engaged and probable, some actually writing."
+About thirty names follow, some of them at that time of the school of
+Dr. Arnold, others of Dr. Pusey's, some my personal friends and of my
+own standing, others whom I hardly knew, while of course the majority
+were of the party of the new Movement. I continue:--
+
+"The plan has gone so far, that it would create surprise and talk, were
+it now suddenly given over. Yet how is it compatible with my holding St.
+Mary's, being what I am?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Such was the object and the origin of the projected Series of the
+English Saints; and, since the publication was connected, as has been
+seen, with my resignation of St. Mary's, I may be allowed to conclude
+what I have to say on the subject here, though it may read like a
+digression. As soon then as the first of the Series got into print, the
+whole project broke down. I had already anticipated that some portions
+of the Series would be written in a style inconsistent with the
+professions of a beneficed clergyman, and therefore I had given up my
+Living; but men of great weight went further in their misgivings than I,
+when they saw the Life of St. Stephen Harding, and decided that it was
+of a character inconsistent even with its proceeding from an Anglican
+publisher: and so the scheme was given up at once. After the two first
+numbers, I retired from the Editorship, and those Lives only were
+published in addition, which were then already finished, or in advanced
+preparation. The following passages from what I or others wrote at the
+time will illustrate what I have been saying:--
+
+In November, 1844, I wrote thus to the author of one of them: "I am not
+Editor, I have no direct control over the Series. It is T.'s work; he
+may admit what he pleases; and exclude what he pleases. I was to have
+been Editor. I did edit the two first numbers. I was responsible for
+them, in the way in which an Editor is responsible. Had I continued
+Editor, I should have exercised a control over all. I laid down in the
+Preface that doctrinal subjects were, if possible, to be excluded. But,
+even then, I also set down that no writer was to be held answerable for
+any of the Lives but his own. When I gave up the Editorship, I had
+various engagements with friends for separate Lives remaining on my
+hands. I should have liked to have broken from them all, but there were
+some from which I could not break, and I let them take their course.
+Some have come to nothing; others like yours have gone on. I have seen
+such, either in MS. or Proof. As time goes on, I shall have less and
+less to do with the Series. I think the engagement between you and me
+should come to an end. I have any how abundant responsibility on me, and
+too much. I shall write to T. that if he wants the advantage of your
+assistance, he must write to you direct."
+
+In accordance with this letter, I had already advertised in January
+1844, ten months before it, that "other Lives," after St. Stephen
+Harding, would "be published by their respective authors on their own
+responsibility." This notice was repeated in February, in the
+advertisement to the second number entitled "The Family of St. Richard,"
+though to this number, for some reason which I cannot now recollect, I
+also put my initials. In the Life of St. Augustine, the author, a man of
+nearly my own age, says in like manner, "No one but himself is
+responsible for the way in which these materials have been used." I have
+in MS. another advertisement to the same effect, but I cannot tell
+whether it ever appeared in print.
+
+I will add, since the authors have been considered "hot-headed fanatic
+young men," whom I was in charge of, and whom I suffered to do
+intemperate things, that, while the writer of St. Augustine was in 1844
+past forty, the author of the proposed Life of St. Boniface, Mr. Bowden,
+was forty-six; Mr. Johnson, who was to write St. Aldhelm, forty-three;
+and most of the others were on one side or other of thirty. Three, I
+think, were under twenty-five. Moreover, of these writers some became
+Catholics, some remained Anglicans, and others have professed what are
+called free or liberal opinions[14].
+
+[14] Vide Note D, _Lives of the English Saints_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The immediate cause of the resignation of my Living is stated in the
+following letter, which I wrote to my Bishop:--
+
+"August 29, 1843. It is with much concern that I inform your Lordship,
+that Mr. A. B., who has been for the last year an inmate of my house
+here, has just conformed to the Church of Rome. As I have ever been
+desirous, not only of faithfully discharging the trust, which is
+involved in holding a living in your Lordship's diocese, but of
+approving myself to your Lordship, I will for your information state one
+or two circumstances connected with this unfortunate event.... I
+received him on condition of his promising me, which he distinctly did,
+that he would remain quietly in our Church for three years. A year has
+passed since that time, and, though I saw nothing in him which promised
+that he would eventually be contented with his present position, yet for
+the time his mind became as settled as one could wish, and he frequently
+expressed his satisfaction at being under the promise which I had
+exacted of him."
+
+I felt it impossible to remain any longer in the service of the Anglican
+Church, when such a breach of trust, however little I had to do with it,
+would be laid at my door. I wrote in a few days to a friend:
+
+"September 7, 1843. I this day ask the Bishop leave to resign St.
+Mary's. Men whom you little think, or at least whom I little thought,
+are in almost a hopeless way. Really we may expect any thing. I am going
+to publish a Volume of Sermons, including those Four against moving."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I resigned my living on September the 18th. I had not the means of doing
+it legally at Oxford. The late Mr. Goldsmid was kind enough to aid me in
+resigning it in London. I found no fault with the Liberals; they had
+beaten me in a fair field. As to the act of the Bishops, I thought, to
+borrow a Scriptural image from Walter Scott, that they had "seethed the
+kid in his mother's milk."
+
+I said to a friend:--
+
+  "Victrix causa diis placuit, sed victa Catoni."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now I may be almost said to have brought to an end, as far as is
+necessary for a sketch such as this is, the history both of my changes
+of religious opinion and of the public acts which they involved.
+
+I had one final advance of mind to accomplish, and one final step to
+take. That further advance of mind was to be able honestly to say that I
+was _certain_ of the conclusions at which I had already arrived. That
+further step, imperative when such certitude was attained, was my
+_submission_ to the Catholic Church.
+
+This submission did not take place till two full years after the
+resignation of my living in September 1843; nor could I have made it at
+an earlier day, without doubt and apprehension, that is, with any true
+conviction of mind or certitude.
+
+In the interval, of which it remains to speak, viz. between the autumns
+of 1843 and 1845, I was in lay communion with the Church of England,
+attending its services as usual, and abstaining altogether from
+intercourse with Catholics, from their places of worship, and from those
+religious rites and usages, such as the Invocation of Saints, which are
+characteristics of their creed. I did all this on principle; for I never
+could understand how a man could be of two religions at once.
+
+What I have to say about myself between these two autumns I shall almost
+confine to this one point,--the difficulty I was in, as to the best mode
+of revealing the state of my mind to my friends and others, and how I
+managed to reveal it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Up to January, 1842, I had not disclosed my state of unsettlement to
+more than three persons, as has been mentioned above, and as is repeated
+in the course of the letters which I am now about to give to the reader.
+To two of them, intimate and familiar companions, in the Autumn of 1839:
+to the third, an old friend too, whom I have also named above, I
+suppose, when I was in great distress of mind upon the affair of the
+Jerusalem Bishopric. In May, 1843, I made it known, as has been seen, to
+the friend, by whose advice I wished, as far as possible, to be guided.
+To mention it on set purpose to any one, unless indeed I was asking
+advice, I should have felt to be a crime. If there is any thing that was
+abhorrent to me, it was the scattering doubts, and unsettling
+consciences without necessity. A strong presentiment that my existing
+opinions would ultimately give way, and that the grounds of them were
+unsound, was not a sufficient warrant for disclosing the state of my
+mind. I had no guarantee yet, that that presentiment would be realized.
+Supposing I were crossing ice, which came right in my way, which I had
+good reasons for considering sound, and which I saw numbers before me
+crossing in safety, and supposing a stranger from the bank, in a voice
+of authority, and in an earnest tone, warned me that it was dangerous,
+and then was silent, I think I should be startled, and should look about
+me anxiously, but I think too that I should go on, till I had better
+grounds for doubt; and such was my state, I believe, till the end of
+1842. Then again, when my dissatisfaction became greater, it was hard at
+first to determine the point of time, when it was too strong to suppress
+with propriety. Certitude of course is a point, but doubt is a progress;
+I was not near certitude yet. Certitude is a reflex action; it is to
+know that one knows. Of that I believe I was not possessed, till close
+upon my reception into the Catholic Church. Again, a practical,
+effective doubt is a point too, but who can easily ascertain it for
+himself? Who can determine when it is, that the scales in the balance of
+opinion begin to turn, and what was a greater probability in behalf of a
+belief becomes a positive doubt against it?
+
+In considering this question in its bearing upon my conduct in 1843, my
+own simple answer to my great difficulty had been, _Do_ what your
+present state of opinion requires in the light of duty, and let that
+_doing_ tell: speak by _acts_. This I had done; my first _act_ of the
+year had been in February. After three months' deliberation I had
+published my retractation of the violent charges which I had made
+against Rome: I could not be wrong in doing so much as this; but I did
+no more at the time: I did not retract my Anglican teaching. My second
+_act_ had been in September in the same year; after much sorrowful
+lingering and hesitation, I had resigned my Living. I tried indeed,
+before I did so, to keep Littlemore for myself, even though it was still
+to remain an integral part of St. Mary's. I had given to it a Church and
+a sort of Parsonage; I had made it a Parish, and I loved it; I thought
+in 1843 that perhaps I need not forfeit my existing relations towards
+it. I could indeed submit to become the curate at will of another, but I
+hoped an arrangement was possible, by which, while I had the curacy, I
+might have been my own master in serving it. I had hoped an exception
+might have been made in my favour, under the circumstances; but I did
+not gain my request. Perhaps I was asking what was impracticable, and it
+is well for me that it was so.
+
+These had been my two acts of the year, and I said, "I cannot be wrong
+in making them; let that follow which must follow in the thoughts of the
+world about me, when they see what I do." And, as time went on, they
+fully answered my purpose. What I felt it a simple duty to do, did
+create a general suspicion about me, without such responsibility as
+would be involved in my initiating any direct act for the sake of
+creating it. Then, when friends wrote me on the subject, I either did
+not deny or I confessed my state of mind, according to the character and
+need of their letters. Sometimes in the case of intimate friends, whom I
+should otherwise have been leaving in ignorance of what others knew on
+every side of them, I invited the question.
+
+And here comes in another point for explanation. While I was fighting in
+Oxford for the Anglican Church, then indeed I was very glad to make
+converts, and, though I never broke away from that rule of my mind, (as
+I may call it,) of which I have already spoken, of finding disciples
+rather than seeking them, yet, that I made advances to others in a
+special way, I have no doubt; this came to an end, however, as soon as I
+fell into misgivings as to the true ground to be taken in the
+controversy. For then, when I gave up my place in the Movement, I ceased
+from any such proceedings: and my utmost endeavour was to tranquillize
+such persons, especially those who belonged to the new school, as were
+unsettled in their religious views, and, as I judged, hasty in their
+conclusions. This went on till 1843; but, at that date, as soon as I
+turned my face Rome-ward, I gave up, as far as ever was possible, the
+thought of in any respect and in any shape acting upon others. Then I
+myself was simply my own concern. How could I in any sense direct
+others, who had to be guided in so momentous a matter myself? How could
+I be considered in a position, even to say a word to them one way or the
+other? How could I presume to unsettle them, as I was unsettled, when I
+had no means of bringing them out of such unsettlement? And, if they
+were unsettled already, how could I point to them a place of refuge,
+when I was not sure that I should choose it for myself? My only line, my
+only duty, was to keep simply to my own case. I recollected Pascal's
+words, "Je mourrai seul." I deliberately put out of my thoughts all
+other works and claims, and said nothing to any one, unless I was
+obliged.
+
+But this brought upon me a great trouble. In the newspapers there were
+continual reports about my intentions; I did not answer them; presently
+strangers or friends wrote, begging to be allowed to answer them; and,
+if I still kept to my resolution and said nothing, then I was thought to
+be mysterious, and a prejudice was excited against me. But, what was far
+worse, there were a number of tender, eager hearts, of whom I knew
+nothing at all, who were watching me, wishing to think as I thought, and
+to do as I did, if they could but find it out; who in consequence were
+distressed, that, in so solemn a matter, they could not see what was
+coming, and who heard reports about me this way or that, on a first day
+and on a second; and felt the weariness of waiting, and the sickness of
+delayed hope, and did not understand that I was as perplexed as they
+were, and, being of more sensitive complexion of mind than myself, were
+made ill by the suspense. And they too of course for the time thought me
+mysterious and inexplicable. I ask their pardon as far as I was really
+unkind to them. There was a gifted and deeply earnest lady, who in a
+parabolical account of that time, has described both my conduct as she
+felt it, and her own feelings upon it. In a singularly graphic, amusing
+vision of pilgrims, who were making their way across a bleak common in
+great discomfort, and who were ever warned against, yet continually
+nearing, "the king's highway" on the right, she says, "All my fears and
+disquiets were speedily renewed by seeing the most daring of our
+leaders, (the same who had first forced his way through the palisade,
+and in whose courage and sagacity we all put implicit trust,) suddenly
+stop short, and declare that he would go on no further. He did not,
+however, take the leap at once, but quietly sat down on the top of the
+fence with his feet hanging towards the road, as if he meant to take his
+time about it, and let himself down easily." I do not wonder at all that
+I thus seemed so unkind to a lady, who at that time had never seen me.
+We were both in trial in our different ways. I am far from denying that
+I was acting selfishly both in her case and in that of others; but it
+was a religious selfishness. Certainly to myself my own duty seemed
+clear. They that are whole can heal others; but in my case it was,
+"Physician, heal thyself." My own soul was my first concern, and it
+seemed an absurdity to my reason to be converted in partnership. I
+wished to go to my Lord by myself, and in my own way, or rather His way.
+I had neither wish, nor, I may say, thought of taking a number with me.
+Moreover, it is but the truth to say, that it had ever been an annoyance
+to me to seem to be the head of a party; and that even from
+fastidiousness of mind, I could not bear to find a thing done elsewhere,
+simply or mainly because I did it myself, and that, from distrust of
+myself, I shrank from the thought, whenever it was brought home to me,
+that I was influencing others. But nothing of this could be known to the
+world.
+
+The following three letters are written to a friend, who had every claim
+upon me to be frank with him, Archdeacon Manning:--it will be seen that
+I disclose the real state of my mind in proportion as he presses me.
+
+1. "October 14, 1843. I would tell you in a few words why I have
+resigned St. Mary's, as you seem to wish, were it possible to do so. But
+it is most difficult to bring out in brief, or even _in extenso_, any
+just view of my feelings and reasons.
+
+"The nearest approach I can give to a general account of them is to say,
+that it has been caused by the general repudiation of the view,
+contained in No. 90, on the part of the Church. I could not stand
+against such an unanimous expression of opinion from the Bishops,
+supported, as it has been, by the concurrence, or at least silence, of
+all classes in the Church, lay and clerical. If there ever was a case,
+in which an individual teacher has been put aside and virtually put away
+by a community, mine is one. No decency has been observed in the attacks
+upon me from authority; no protests have been offered against them. It
+is felt,--I am far from denying, justly felt,--that I am a foreign
+material, and cannot assimilate with the Church of England.
+
+"Even my own Bishop has said that my mode of interpreting the Articles
+makes them mean _any thing or nothing_. When I heard this delivered, I
+did not believe my ears. I denied to others that it was said.... Out
+came the charge, and the words could not be mistaken. This astonished me
+the more, because I published that Letter to him, (how unwillingly you
+know,) on the understanding that _I_ was to deliver his judgment on No.
+90 _instead_ of him. A year elapses, and a second and heavier judgment
+came forth. I did not bargain for this,--nor did he, but the tide was
+too strong for him.
+
+"I fear that I must confess, that, in proportion as I think the English
+Church is showing herself intrinsically and radically alien from
+Catholic principles, so do I feel the difficulties of defending her
+claims to be a branch of the Catholic Church. It seems a dream to call a
+communion Catholic, when one can neither appeal to any clear statement
+of Catholic doctrine in its formularies, nor interpret ambiguous
+formularies by the received and living Catholic sense, whether past or
+present. Men of Catholic views are too truly but a party in our Church.
+I cannot deny that many other independent circumstances, which it is not
+worth while entering into, have led me to the same conclusion.
+
+"I do not say all this to every body, as you may suppose; but I do not
+like to make a secret of it to you."
+
+2. "Oct. 25, 1843. You have engaged in a dangerous correspondence; I am
+deeply sorry for the pain I shall give you.
+
+"I must tell you then frankly, (but I combat arguments which to me,
+alas, are shadows,) that it is not from disappointment, irritation, or
+impatience, that I have, whether rightly or wrongly, resigned St.
+Mary's; but because I think the Church of Rome the Catholic Church, and
+ours not part of the Catholic Church, because not in communion with
+Rome; and because I feel that I could not honestly be a teacher in it
+any longer.
+
+"This thought came to me last summer four years.... I mentioned it to
+two friends in the autumn.... It arose in the first instance from the
+Monophysite and Donatist controversies, the former of which I was
+engaged with in the course of theological study to which I had given
+myself. This was at a time when no Bishop, I believe, had declared
+against us[15], and when all was progress and hope. I do not think I
+have ever felt disappointment or impatience, certainly not then; for I
+never looked forward to the future, nor do I realize it now.
+
+"My first effort was to write that article on the Catholicity of the
+English Church; for two years it quieted me. Since the summer of 1839 I
+have written little or nothing on modern controversy.... You know how
+unwillingly I wrote my letter to the Bishop in which I committed myself
+again, as the safest course under circumstances. The article I speak of
+quieted me till the end of 1841, over the affair of No. 90, when that
+wretched Jerusalem Bishopric (no personal matter) revived all my alarms.
+They have increased up to this moment. At that time I told my secret to
+another person in addition.
+
+"You see then that the various ecclesiastical and quasi-ecclesiastical
+acts, which have taken place in the course of the last two years and a
+half, are not the _cause_ of my state of opinion, but are keen
+stimulants and weighty confirmations of a conviction forced upon me,
+while engaged in the _course of duty_, viz. that theological reading to
+which I had given myself. And this last-mentioned circumstance is a
+fact, which has never, I think, come before me till now that I write to
+you.
+
+"It is three years since, on account of my state of opinion, I urged the
+Provost in vain to let St. Mary's be separated from Littlemore; thinking
+I might with a safe conscience serve the latter, though I could not
+comfortably continue in so public a place as a University. This was
+before No. 90.
+
+"Finally, I have acted under advice, and that, not of my own choosing,
+but what came to me in the way of duty, nor the advice of those only who
+agree with me, but of near friends who differ from me.
+
+"I have nothing to reproach myself with, as far as I see, in the matter
+of impatience; i.e. practically or in conduct. And I trust that He, who
+has kept me in the slow course of change hitherto, will keep me still
+from hasty acts, or resolves with a doubtful conscience.
+
+"This I am sure of, that such interposition as yours, kind as it is,
+only does what _you_ would consider harm. It makes me realize my own
+views to myself; it makes me see their consistency; it assures me of my
+own deliberateness; it suggests to me the traces of a Providential Hand;
+it takes away the pain of disclosures; it relieves me of a heavy secret.
+
+"You may make what use of my letters you think right."
+
+[15] I think Sumner, Bishop of Chester, must have done so already.
+
+3. My correspondent wrote to me once more, and I replied thus: "October
+31, 1843. Your letter has made my heart ache more, and caused me more
+and deeper sighs than any I have had a long while, though I assure you
+there is much on all sides of me to cause sighing and heartache. On all
+sides:--I am quite haunted by the one dreadful whisper repeated from so
+many quarters, and causing the keenest distress to friends. You know but
+a part of my present trial, in knowing that I am unsettled myself.
+
+"Since the beginning of this year I have been obliged to tell the state
+of my mind to some others; but never, I think, without being in a way
+obliged, as from friends writing to me as you did, or guessing how
+matters stood. No one in Oxford knows it or here" [Littlemore], "but one
+near friend whom I felt I could not help telling the other day. But, I
+suppose, many more suspect it."
+
+On receiving these letters, my correspondent, if I recollect rightly, at
+once communicated the matter of them to Dr. Pusey, and this will enable
+me to describe, as nearly as I can, the way in which he first became
+aware of my changed state of opinion.
+
+I had from the first a great difficulty in making Dr. Pusey understand
+such differences of opinion as existed between himself and me. When
+there was a proposal about the end of 1838 for a subscription for a
+Cranmer Memorial, he wished us both to subscribe together to it. I could
+not, of course, and wished him to subscribe by himself. That he would
+not do; he could not bear the thought of our appearing to the world in
+separate positions, in a matter of importance. And, as time went on, he
+would not take any hints, which I gave him, on the subject of my growing
+inclination to Rome. When I found him so determined, I often had not the
+heart to go on. And then I knew, that, from affection to me, he so often
+took up and threw himself into what I said, that I felt the great
+responsibility I should incur, if I put things before him just as I
+might view them myself. And, not knowing him so well as I did
+afterwards, I feared lest I should unsettle him. And moreover, I
+recollected well, how prostrated he had been with illness in 1832, and I
+used always to think that the start of the Movement had given him a
+fresh life. I fancied that his physical energies even depended on the
+presence of a vigorous hope and bright prospects for his imagination to
+feed upon; so much so, that when he was so unworthily treated by the
+authorities of the place in 1843, I recollect writing to the late Mr.
+Dodsworth to state my anxiety, lest, if his mind became dejected in
+consequence, his health should suffer seriously also. These were
+difficulties in my way; and then again, another difficulty was, that, as
+we were not together under the same roof, we only saw each other at set
+times; others indeed, who were coming in or out of my rooms freely, and
+according to the need of the moment, knew all my thoughts easily; but
+for him to know them well, formal efforts were necessary. A common
+friend of ours broke it all to him in 1841, as far as matters had gone
+at that time, and showed him clearly the logical conclusions which must
+lie in propositions to which I had committed myself; but somehow or
+other in a little while, his mind fell back into its former happy state,
+and he could not bring himself to believe that he and I should not go on
+pleasantly together to the end. But that affectionate dream needs must
+have been broken at last; and two years afterwards, that friend to whom
+I wrote the letters which I have just now inserted, set himself, as I
+have said, to break it. Upon that, I too begged Dr. Pusey to tell in
+private to any one he would, that I thought in the event I should leave
+the Church of England. However, he would not do so; and at the end of
+1844 had almost relapsed into his former thoughts about me, if I may
+judge from a letter of his which I have found. Nay, at the Commemoration
+of 1845, a few months before I left the Anglican Church, I think he said
+about me to a friend, "I trust after all we shall keep him."
+
+In that autumn of 1843, at the time that I spoke to Dr. Pusey, I asked
+another friend also to communicate in confidence, to whom he would, the
+prospect which lay before me.
+
+To another friend, Mr. James Hope, now Mr. Hope Scott, I gave the
+opportunity of knowing it, if he would, in the following Postscript to a
+letter:--
+
+"While I write, I will add a word about myself. You may come near a
+person or two who, owing to circumstances, know more exactly my state of
+feeling than you do, though they would not tell you. Now I do not like
+that you should not be aware of this, though I see no _reason_ why you
+should know what they happen to know. Your wishing it would _be_ a
+reason."
+
+I had a dear and old friend, near his death; I never told him my state
+of mind. Why should I unsettle that sweet calm tranquillity, when I had
+nothing to offer him instead? I could not say, "Go to Rome;" else I
+should have shown him the way. Yet I offered myself for his examination.
+One day he led the way to my speaking out; but, rightly or wrongly, I
+could not respond. My reason was, "I have no certainty on the matter
+myself. To say 'I think' is to tease and to distress, not to persuade."
+
+I wrote to him on Michaelmas Day, 1843: "As you may suppose, I have
+nothing to write to you about, pleasant. I _could_ tell you some very
+painful things; but it is best not to anticipate trouble, which after
+all can but happen, and, for what one knows, may be averted. You are
+always so kind, that sometimes, when I part with you, I am nearly moved
+to tears, and it would be a relief to be so, at your kindness and at my
+hardness. I think no one ever had such kind friends as I have."
+
+The next year, January 22, I wrote to him: "Pusey has quite enough on
+him, and generously takes on himself more than enough, for me to add
+burdens when I am not obliged; particularly too, when I am very
+conscious, that there _are_ burdens, which I am or shall be obliged to
+lay upon him some time or other, whether I will or no."
+
+And on February 21: "Half-past ten. I am just up, having a bad cold; the
+like has not happened to me (except twice in January) in my memory. You
+may think you have been in my thoughts, long before my rising. Of course
+you are so continually, as you well know. I could not come to see you; I
+am not worthy of friends. With my opinions, to the full of which I dare
+not confess, I feel like a guilty person with others, though I trust I
+am not so. People kindly think that I have much to bear externally,
+disappointment, slander, &c. No, I have nothing to bear, but the anxiety
+which I feel for my friends' anxiety for me, and their perplexity. This
+is a better Ash-Wednesday than birthday present;" [his birthday was the
+same day as mine; it was Ash-Wednesday that year;] "but I cannot help
+writing about what is uppermost. And now, my dear B., all kindest and
+best wishes to you, my oldest friend, whom I must not speak more about,
+and with reference to myself, lest you should be angry." It was not in
+his nature to have doubts: he used to look at me with anxiety, and
+wonder what had come over me.
+
+On Easter Monday: "All that is good and gracious descend upon you and
+yours from the influences of this Blessed Season; and it will be so, (so
+be it!) for what is the life of you all, as day passes after day, but a
+simple endeavour to serve Him, from whom all blessing comes? Though we
+are separated in place, yet this we have in common, that you are living
+a calm and cheerful time, and I am enjoying the thought of you. It is
+your blessing to have a clear heaven, and peace around, according to the
+blessing pronounced on Benjamin[16]. So it is, my dear B., and so may it
+ever be."
+
+[16] Deut. xxxiii. 12.
+
+He was in simple good faith. He died in September of the same year. I
+had expected that his last illness would have brought light to my mind,
+as to what I ought to do. It brought none. I made a note, which runs
+thus: "I sobbed bitterly over his coffin, to think that he left me still
+dark as to what the way of truth was, and what I ought to do in order to
+please God and fulfil His will." I think I wrote to Charles Marriott to
+say, that at that moment, with the thought of my friend before me, my
+strong view in favour of Rome remained just what it was. On the other
+hand, my firm belief that grace was to be found within the Anglican
+Church remained too[17]. I wrote to another friend thus:--
+
+[17] On this subject, vide my Third Lecture on "Anglican Difficulties,"
+also Note E, _Anglican Church_.
+
+"Sept. 16, 1844. I am full of wrong and miserable feelings, which it is
+useless to detail, so grudging and sullen, when I should be thankful. Of
+course, when one sees so blessed an end, and that, the termination of so
+blameless a life, of one who really fed on our ordinances and got
+strength from them, and sees the same continued in a whole family, the
+little children finding quite a solace of their pain in the Daily
+Prayer, it is impossible not to feel more at ease in our Church, as at
+least a sort of Zoar, a place of refuge and temporary rest, because of
+the steepness of the way. Only, may we be kept from unlawful security,
+lest we have Moab and Ammon for our progeny, the enemies of Israel."
+
+I could not continue in this state, either in the light of duty or of
+reason. My difficulty was this: I had been deceived greatly once; how
+could I be sure that I was not deceived a second time? I thought myself
+right then; how was I to be certain that I was right now? How many years
+had I thought myself sure of what I now rejected? how could I ever again
+have confidence in myself? As in 1840 I listened to the rising doubt in
+favour of Rome, now I listened to the waning doubt in favour of the
+Anglican Church. To be certain is to know that one knows; what inward
+test had I, that I should not change again, after that I had become a
+Catholic? I had still apprehension of this, though I thought a time
+would come, when it would depart. However, some limit ought to be put to
+these vague misgivings; I must do my best and then leave it to a higher
+Power to prosper it. So, at the end of 1844, I came to the resolution of
+writing an Essay on Doctrinal Development; and then, if, at the end of
+it, my convictions in favour of the Roman Church were not weaker, of
+taking the necessary steps for admission into her fold.
+
+By this time the state of my mind was generally known, and I made no
+great secret of it. I will illustrate it by letters of mine which have
+been put into my hands.
+
+"November 16, 1844. I am going through what must be gone through; and my
+trust only is that every day of pain is so much taken from the necessary
+draught which must be exhausted. There is no fear (humanly speaking) of
+my moving for a long time yet. This has got out without my intending it;
+but it is all well. As far as I know myself, my one great distress is
+the perplexity, unsettlement, alarm, scepticism, which I am causing to
+so many; and the loss of kind feeling and good opinion on the part of so
+many, known and unknown, who have wished well to me. And of these two
+sources of pain it is the former that is the constant, urgent,
+unmitigated one. I had for days a literal ache all about my heart; and
+from time to time all the complaints of the Psalmist seemed to belong to
+me.
+
+"And as far as I know myself, my one paramount reason for contemplating
+a change is my deep, unvarying conviction that our Church is in schism,
+and that my salvation depends on my joining the Church of Rome. I may
+use _argumenta ad hominem_ to this person or that[18]; but I am not
+conscious of resentment, or disgust, at any thing that has happened to
+me. I have no visions whatever of hope, no schemes of action, in any
+other sphere more suited to me. I have no existing sympathies with Roman
+Catholics; I hardly ever, even abroad, was at one of their services; I
+know none of them, I do not like what I hear of them.
+
+"And then, how much I am giving up in so many ways! and to me sacrifices
+irreparable, not only from my age, when people hate changing, but from
+my especial love of old associations and the pleasures of memory. Nor am
+I conscious of any feeling, enthusiastic or heroic, of pleasure in the
+sacrifice; I have nothing to support me here.
+
+"What keeps me yet is what has kept me long; a fear that I am under a
+delusion; but the conviction remains firm under all circumstances, in
+all frames of mind. And this most serious feeling is growing on me; viz.
+that the reasons for which I believe as much as our system teaches,
+_must_ lead me to believe more, and that not to believe more is to fall
+back into scepticism.
+
+"A thousand thanks for your most kind and consoling letter; though I
+have not yet spoken of it, it was a great gift."
+
+[18] Vide supr. p. 219, &c. Letter of Oct. 14, 1843, compared with that
+of Oct. 25.
+
+Shortly after I wrote to the same friend thus: "My intention is, if
+nothing comes upon me, which I cannot foresee, to remain quietly _in
+statu quo_ for a considerable time, trusting that my friends will kindly
+remember me and my trial in their prayers. And I should give up my
+fellowship some time before any thing further took place."
+
+There was a lady, now a nun of the Visitation, to whom at this time I
+wrote the following letters:--
+
+1. "November 7, 1844. I am still where I was; I am not moving. Two
+things, however, seem plain, that every one is prepared for such an
+event, next, that every one expects it of me. Few, indeed, who do not
+think it suitable, fewer still, who do not think it likely. However, I
+do not think it either suitable or likely. I have very little reason to
+doubt about the issue of things, but the when and the how are known to
+Him, from whom, I trust, both the course of things and the issue come.
+The expression of opinion, and the latent and habitual feeling about me,
+which is on every side and among all parties, has great force. I insist
+upon it, because I have a great dread of going by my own feelings, lest
+they should mislead me. By one's sense of duty one must go; but external
+facts support one in doing so."
+
+2. "January 8, 1845. What am I to say in answer to your letter? I know
+perfectly well, I ought to let you know more of my feelings and state of
+mind than you do know. But how is that possible in a few words? Any
+thing I say must be abrupt; nothing can I say which will not leave a
+bewildering feeling, as needing so much to explain it, and being
+isolated, and (as it were) unlocated, and not having any thing with it
+to show its bearings upon other parts of the subject.
+
+"At present, my full belief is, in accordance with your letter, that, if
+there is a move in our Church, very few persons indeed will be partners
+to it. I doubt whether one or two at the most among residents at Oxford.
+And I don't know whether I can wish it. The state of the Roman Catholics
+is at present so unsatisfactory. This I am sure of, that nothing but a
+simple, direct call of duty is a warrant for any one leaving our Church;
+no preference of another Church, no delight in its services, no hope of
+greater religious advancement in it, no indignation, no disgust, at the
+persons and things, among which we may find ourselves in the Church of
+England. The simple question is, Can _I_ (it is personal, not whether
+another, but can _I_) be saved in the English Church? am _I_ in safety,
+were I to die to-night? Is it a mortal sin in _me_, not joining another
+communion?
+
+"P.S. I hardly see my way to concur in attendance, though occasional, in
+the Roman Catholic chapel, unless a man has made up his mind pretty well
+to join it eventually. Invocations are not _required_ in the Church of
+Rome; somehow, I do not like using them except under the sanction of the
+Church, and this makes me unwilling to admit them in members of our
+Church."
+
+3. "March 30. Now I will tell you more than any one knows except two
+friends. My own convictions are as strong as I suppose they can become:
+only it is so difficult to know whether it is a call of _reason_ or of
+conscience. I cannot make out, if I am impelled by what seems _clear_,
+or by a sense of _duty_. You can understand how painful this doubt is;
+so I have waited, hoping for light, and using the words of the Psalmist,
+'Show some token upon me.' But I suppose I have no right to wait for
+ever for this. Then I am waiting, because friends are most considerately
+bearing me in mind, and asking guidance for me; and, I trust, I should
+attend to any new feelings which came upon me, should that be the effect
+of their kindness. And then this waiting subserves the purpose of
+preparing men's minds. I dread shocking, unsettling people. Any how, I
+can't avoid giving incalculable pain. So, if I had my will, I should
+like to wait till the summer of 1846, which would be a full seven years
+from the time that my convictions first began to fall on me. But I don't
+think I shall last so long.
+
+"My present intention is to give up my Fellowship in October, and to
+publish some work or treatise between that and Christmas. I wish people
+to know _why_ I am acting, as well as _what_ I am doing; it takes off
+that vague and distressing surprise, 'What _can_ have made him?'"
+
+4. "June 1. What you tell me of yourself makes it plain that it is your
+duty to remain quietly and patiently, till you see more clearly where
+you are; else you are leaping in the dark."
+
+In the early part of this year, if not before, there was an idea afloat
+that my retirement from the Anglican Church was owing to my distress
+that I had been so thrust aside, without any one's taking my part.
+Various measures were, I believe, talked of in consequence of this
+surmise. Coincidently with it appeared an exceedingly kind article about
+me in a Quarterly, in its April number. The writer praised me in kind
+and beautiful language far above my deserts. In the course of his
+remarks, he said, speaking of me as Vicar of St. Mary's: "He had the
+future race of clergy hearing him. Did he value and feel tender about,
+and cling to his position?... Not at all.... No sacrifice to him
+perhaps, he did not care about such things."
+
+There was a censure implied, however covertly, in these words; and it is
+alluded to in the following letter, addressed to a very intimate
+friend:--
+
+"April 3, 1845.... Accept this apology, my dear Church, and forgive me.
+As I say so, tears come into my eyes;--that arises from the accident of
+this time, when I am giving up so much I love. Just now I have been
+overset by James Mozley's article in the Remembrancer; yet really, my
+dear Church, I have never for an instant had even the temptation of
+repenting my leaving Oxford. The feeling of repentance has not even come
+into my mind. How could it? How could I remain at St. Mary's a
+hypocrite? how could I be answerable for souls, (and life so uncertain,)
+with the convictions, or at least persuasions, which I had upon me? It
+is indeed a responsibility to act as I am doing; and I feel His hand
+heavy on me without intermission, who is all Wisdom and Love, so that my
+heart and mind are tired out, just as the limbs might be from a load on
+one's back. That sort of dull aching pain is mine; but my responsibility
+really is nothing to what it would be, to be answerable for souls, for
+confiding loving souls, in the English Church, with my convictions. My
+love to Marriott, and save me the pain of sending him a line."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I am now close upon the date of my reception into the Catholic Church;
+at the beginning of the year a letter had been addressed to me by a very
+dear friend, now no more, Charles Marriott. I quote some sentences from
+it, for the love which I bear him and the value that I set on his good
+word.
+
+"January 15, 1845. You know me well enough to be aware, that I never see
+through any thing at first. Your letter to Badeley casts a gloom over
+the future, which you can understand, if you have understood me, as I
+believe you have. But I may speak out at once, of what I see and feel at
+once, and doubt not that I shall ever feel: that your whole conduct
+towards the Church of England and towards us, who have striven and are
+still striving to seek after God for ourselves, and to revive true
+religion among others, under her authority and guidance, has been
+generous and considerate, and, were that word appropriate, dutiful, to a
+degree that I could scarcely have conceived possible, more unsparing of
+self than I should have thought nature could sustain. I have felt with
+pain every link that you have severed, and I have asked no questions,
+because I felt that you ought to measure the disclosure of your thoughts
+according to the occasion, and the capacity of those to whom you spoke.
+I write in haste, in the midst of engagements engrossing in themselves,
+but partly made tasteless, partly embittered by what I have heard; but I
+am willing to trust even you, whom I love best on earth, in God's Hand,
+in the earnest prayer that you may be so employed as is best for the
+Holy Catholic Church."
+
+In July, a Bishop thought it worth while to give out to the world that
+"the adherents of Mr. Newman are few in number. A short time will now
+probably suffice to prove this fact. It is well known that he is
+preparing for secession; and, when that event takes place, it will be
+seen how few will go with him."
+
+I had begun my Essay on the Development of Doctrine in the beginning of
+1845, and I was hard at it all through the year till October. As I
+advanced, my difficulties so cleared away that I ceased to speak of "the
+Roman Catholics," and boldly called them Catholics. Before I got to the
+end, I resolved to be received, and the book remains in the state in
+which it was then, unfinished.
+
+One of my friends at Littlemore had been received into the Church on
+Michaelmas Day, at the Passionist House at Aston, near Stone, by Father
+Dominic, the Superior. At the beginning of October the latter was
+passing through London to Belgium; and, as I was in some perplexity what
+steps to take for being received myself, I assented to the proposition
+made to me that the good priest should take Littlemore in his way, with
+a view to his doing for me the same charitable service as he had done to
+my friend.
+
+On October the 8th I wrote to a number of friends the following
+letter:--
+
+"Littlemore, October 8th, 1845. I am this night expecting Father
+Dominic, the Passionist, who, from his youth, has been led to have
+distinct and direct thoughts, first of the countries of the North, then
+of England. After thirty years' (almost) waiting, he was without his own
+act sent here. But he has had little to do with conversions. I saw him
+here for a few minutes on St. John Baptist's day last year.
+
+"He is a simple, holy man; and withal gifted with remarkable powers. He
+does not know of my intention; but I mean to ask of him admission into
+the One Fold of Christ....
+
+"I have so many letters to write, that this must do for all who choose
+to ask about me. With my best love to dear Charles Marriott, who is over
+your head, &c., &c.
+
+"P.S. This will not go till all is over. Of course it requires no
+answer."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For a while after my reception, I proposed to betake myself to some
+secular calling. I wrote thus in answer to a very gracious letter of
+congratulation sent me by Cardinal Acton:--
+
+"Nov. 25, 1845. I hope you will have anticipated, before I express it,
+the great gratification which I received from your Eminence's letter.
+That gratification, however, was tempered by the apprehension, that kind
+and anxious well-wishers at a distance attach more importance to my step
+than really belongs to it. To me indeed personally it is of course an
+inestimable gain; but persons and things look great at a distance, which
+are not so when seen close; and, did your Eminence know me, you would
+see that I was one, about whom there has been far more talk for good and
+bad than he deserves, and about whose movements far more expectation has
+been raised than the event will justify.
+
+"As I never, I do trust, aimed at any thing else than obedience to my
+own sense of right, and have been magnified into the leader of a party
+without my wishing it or acting as such, so now, much as I may wish to
+the contrary, and earnestly as I may labour (as is my duty) to minister
+in a humble way to the Catholic Church, yet my powers will, I fear,
+disappoint the expectations of both my own friends, and of those who
+pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
+
+"If I might ask of your Eminence a favour, it is that you would kindly
+moderate those anticipations. Would it were in my power to do, what I do
+not aspire to do! At present certainly I cannot look forward to the
+future, and, though it would be a good work if I could persuade others
+to do as I have done, yet it seems as if I had quite enough to do in
+thinking of myself."
+
+Soon, Dr. Wiseman, in whose Vicariate Oxford lay, called me to Oscott;
+and I went there with others; afterwards he sent me to Rome, and finally
+placed me in Birmingham.
+
+I wrote to a friend:--
+
+"January 20, 1846. You may think how lonely I am. 'Obliviscere populum
+tuum et domum patris tui,' has been in my ears for the last twelve
+hours. I realize more that we are leaving Littlemore, and it is like
+going on the open sea."
+
+I left Oxford for good on Monday, February 23, 1846. On the Saturday and
+Sunday before, I was in my house at Littlemore simply by myself, as I
+had been for the first day or two when I had originally taken possession
+of it. I slept on Sunday night at my dear friend's, Mr. Johnson's, at
+the Observatory. Various friends came to see the last of me; Mr.
+Copeland, Mr. Church, Mr. Buckle, Mr. Pattison, and Mr. Lewis. Dr. Pusey
+too came up to take leave of me; and I called on Dr. Ogle, one of my
+very oldest friends, for he was my private Tutor, when I was an
+Undergraduate. In him I took leave of my first College, Trinity, which
+was so dear to me, and which held on its foundation so many who had been
+kind to me both when I was a boy, and all through my Oxford life.
+Trinity had never been unkind to me. There used to be much snap-dragon
+growing on the walls opposite my freshman's rooms there, and I had for
+years taken it as the emblem of my own perpetual residence even unto
+death in my University.
+
+On the morning of the 23rd I left the Observatory. I have never seen
+Oxford since, excepting its spires, as they are seen from the
+railway[19].
+
+[19] At length I revisited Oxford on February 26th, 1878, after an
+absence of just 32 years. Vide Additional Note at the end of the volume.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+POSITION OF MY MIND SINCE 1845.
+
+
+From the time that I became a Catholic, of course I have no further
+history of my religious opinions to narrate. In saying this, I do not
+mean to say that my mind has been idle, or that I have given up thinking
+on theological subjects; but that I have had no variations to record,
+and have had no anxiety of heart whatever. I have been in perfect peace
+and contentment; I never have had one doubt. I was not conscious to
+myself, on my conversion, of any change, intellectual or moral, wrought
+in my mind. I was not conscious of firmer faith in the fundamental
+truths of Revelation, or of more self-command; I had not more fervour;
+but it was like coming into port after a rough sea; and my happiness on
+that score remains to this day without interruption.
+
+Nor had I any trouble about receiving those additional articles, which
+are not found in the Anglican Creed. Some of them I believed already,
+but not any one of them was a trial to me. I made a profession of them
+upon my reception with the greatest ease, and I have the same ease in
+believing them now. I am far of course from denying that every article
+of the Christian Creed, whether as held by Catholics or by Protestants,
+is beset with intellectual difficulties; and it is simple fact, that,
+for myself, I cannot answer those difficulties. Many persons are very
+sensitive of the difficulties of Religion; I am as sensitive of them as
+any one; but I have never been able to see a connexion between
+apprehending those difficulties, however keenly, and multiplying them to
+any extent, and on the other hand doubting the doctrines to which they
+are attached. Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt, as I
+understand the subject; difficulty and doubt are incommensurate. There
+of course may be difficulties in the evidence; but I am speaking of
+difficulties intrinsic to the doctrines themselves, or to their
+relations with each other. A man may be annoyed that he cannot work out
+a mathematical problem, of which the answer is or is not given to him,
+without doubting that it admits of an answer, or that a certain
+particular answer is the true one. Of all points of faith, the being of
+a God is, to my own apprehension, encompassed with most difficulty, and
+yet borne in upon our minds with most power.
+
+People say that the doctrine of Transubstantiation is difficult to
+believe; I did not believe the doctrine till I was a Catholic. I had no
+difficulty in believing it, as soon as I believed that the Catholic
+Roman Church was the oracle of God, and that she had declared this
+doctrine to be part of the original revelation. It is difficult,
+impossible, to imagine, I grant;--but how is it difficult to believe?
+Yet Macaulay thought it so difficult to believe, that he had need of a
+believer in it of talents as eminent as Sir Thomas More, before he could
+bring himself to conceive that the Catholics of an enlightened age could
+resist "the overwhelming force of the argument against it." "Sir Thomas
+More," he says, "is one of the choice specimens of wisdom and virtue;
+and the doctrine of transubstantiation is a kind of proof charge. A
+faith which stands that test, will stand any test." But for myself, I
+cannot indeed prove it, I cannot tell _how_ it is; but I say, "Why
+should it not be? What's to hinder it? What do I know of substance or
+matter? just as much as the greatest philosophers, and that is nothing
+at all;"--so much is this the case, that there is a rising school of
+philosophy now, which considers phenomena to constitute the whole of our
+knowledge in physics. The Catholic doctrine leaves phenomena alone. It
+does not say that the phenomena go; on the contrary, it says that they
+remain; nor does it say that the same phenomena are in several places at
+once. It deals with what no one on earth knows any thing about, the
+material substances themselves. And, in like manner, of that majestic
+Article of the Anglican as well as of the Catholic Creed,--the doctrine
+of the Trinity in Unity. What do I know of the Essence of the Divine
+Being? I know that my abstract idea of three is simply incompatible with
+my idea of one; but when I come to the question of concrete fact, I have
+no means of proving that there is not a sense in which one and three can
+equally be predicated of the Incommunicable God.
+
+But I am going to take upon myself the responsibility of more than the
+mere Creed of the Church; as the parties accusing me are determined I
+shall do. They say, that now, in that I am a Catholic, though I may not
+have offences of my own against honesty to answer for, yet, at least, I
+am answerable for the offences of others, of my co-religionists, of my
+brother priests, of the Church herself. I am quite willing to accept the
+responsibility; and, as I have been able, as I trust, by means of a few
+words, to dissipate, in the minds of all those who do not begin with
+disbelieving me, the suspicion with which so many Protestants start, in
+forming their judgment of Catholics, viz. that our Creed is actually set
+up in inevitable superstition and hypocrisy, as the original sin of
+Catholicism; so now I will proceed, as before, identifying myself with
+the Church and vindicating it,--not of course denying the enormous mass
+of sin and error which exists of necessity in that world-wide multiform
+Communion,--but going to the proof of this one point, that its system is
+in no sense dishonest, and that therefore the upholders and teachers of
+that system, as such, have a claim to be acquitted in their own persons
+of that odious imputation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Starting then with the being of a God, (which, as I have said, is as
+certain to me as the certainty of my own existence, though when I try to
+put the grounds of that certainty into logical shape I find a difficulty
+in doing so in mood and figure to my satisfaction,) I look out of myself
+into the world of men, and there I see a sight which fills me with
+unspeakable distress. The world seems simply to give the lie to that
+great truth, of which my whole being is so full; and the effect upon me
+is, in consequence, as a matter of necessity, as confusing as if it
+denied that I am in existence myself. If I looked into a mirror, and did
+not see my face, I should have the sort of feeling which actually comes
+upon me, when I look into this living busy world, and see no reflexion
+of its Creator. This is, to me, one of those great difficulties of this
+absolute primary truth, to which I referred just now. Were it not for
+this voice, speaking so clearly in my conscience and my heart, I should
+be an atheist, or a pantheist, or a polytheist when I looked into the
+world. I am speaking for myself only; and I am far from denying the real
+force of the arguments in proof of a God, drawn from the general facts
+of human society and the course of history, but these do not warm me or
+enlighten me; they do not take away the winter of my desolation, or make
+the buds unfold and the leaves grow within me, and my moral being
+rejoice. The sight of the world is nothing else than the prophet's
+scroll, full of "lamentations, and mourning, and woe."
+
+To consider the world in its length and breadth, its various history,
+the many races of man, their starts, their fortunes, their mutual
+alienation, their conflicts; and then their ways, habits, governments,
+forms of worship; their enterprises, their aimless courses, their random
+achievements and acquirements, the impotent conclusion of long-standing
+facts, the tokens so faint and broken of a superintending design, the
+blind evolution of what turn out to be great powers or truths, the
+progress of things, as if from unreasoning elements, not towards final
+causes, the greatness and littleness of man, his far-reaching aims, his
+short duration, the curtain hung over his futurity, the disappointments
+of life, the defeat of good, the success of evil, physical pain, mental
+anguish, the prevalence and intensity of sin, the pervading idolatries,
+the corruptions, the dreary hopeless irreligion, that condition of the
+whole race, so fearfully yet exactly described in the Apostle's words,
+"having no hope and without God in the world,"--all this is a vision to
+dizzy and appal; and inflicts upon the mind the sense of a profound
+mystery, which is absolutely beyond human solution.
+
+What shall be said to this heart-piercing, reason-bewildering fact? I
+can only answer, that either there is no Creator, or this living society
+of men is in a true sense discarded from His presence. Did I see a boy
+of good make and mind, with the tokens on him of a refined nature, cast
+upon the world without provision, unable to say whence he came, his
+birth-place or his family connexions, I should conclude that there was
+some mystery connected with his history, and that he was one, of whom,
+from one cause or other, his parents were ashamed. Thus only should I be
+able to account for the contrast between the promise and the condition
+of his being. And so I argue about the world;--_if_ there be a God,
+_since_ there is a God, the human race is implicated in some terrible
+aboriginal calamity. It is out of joint with the purposes of its
+Creator. This is a fact, a fact as true as the fact of its existence;
+and thus the doctrine of what is theologically called original sin
+becomes to me almost as certain as that the world exists, and as the
+existence of God.
+
+And now, supposing it were the blessed and loving will of the Creator to
+interfere in this anarchical condition of things, what are we to suppose
+would be the methods which might be necessarily or naturally involved in
+His purpose of mercy? Since the world is in so abnormal a state, surely
+it would be no surprise to me, if the interposition were of necessity
+equally extraordinary--or what is called miraculous. But that subject
+does not directly come into the scope of my present remarks. Miracles as
+evidence, involve a process of reason, or an argument; and of course I
+am thinking of some mode of interference which does not immediately run
+into argument. I am rather asking what must be the face-to-face
+antagonist, by which to withstand and baffle the fierce energy of
+passion and the all-corroding, all-dissolving scepticism of the
+intellect in religious inquiries? I have no intention at all of denying,
+that truth is the real object of our reason, and that, if it does not
+attain to truth, either the premiss or the process is in fault; but I am
+not speaking here of right reason, but of reason as it acts in fact and
+concretely in fallen man. I know that even the unaided reason, when
+correctly exercised, leads to a belief in God, in the immortality of the
+soul, and in a future retribution; but I am considering the faculty of
+reason actually and historically; and in this point of view, I do not
+think I am wrong in saying that its tendency is towards a simple
+unbelief in matters of religion. No truth, however sacred, can stand
+against it, in the long run; and hence it is that in the pagan world,
+when our Lord came, the last traces of the religious knowledge of former
+times were all but disappearing from those portions of the world in
+which the intellect had been active and had had a career.
+
+And in these latter days, in like manner, outside the Catholic Church
+things are tending,--with far greater rapidity than in that old time
+from the circumstance of the age,--to atheism in one shape or other.
+What a scene, what a prospect, does the whole of Europe present at this
+day! and not only Europe, but every government and every civilization
+through the world, which is under the influence of the European mind!
+Especially, for it most concerns us, how sorrowful, in the view of
+religion, even taken in its most elementary, most attenuated form, is
+the spectacle presented to us by the educated intellect of England,
+France, and Germany! Lovers of their country and of their race,
+religious men, external to the Catholic Church, have attempted various
+expedients to arrest fierce wilful human nature in its onward course,
+and to bring it into subjection. The necessity of some form of religion
+for the interests of humanity, has been generally acknowledged: but
+where was the concrete representative of things invisible, which would
+have the force and the toughness necessary to be a breakwater against
+the deluge? Three centuries ago the establishment of religion, material,
+legal, and social, was generally adopted as the best expedient for the
+purpose, in those countries which separated from the Catholic Church;
+and for a long time it was successful; but now the crevices of those
+establishments are admitting the enemy. Thirty years ago, education was
+relied upon: ten years ago there was a hope that wars would cease for
+ever, under the influence of commercial enterprise and the reign of the
+useful and fine arts; but will any one venture to say that there is any
+thing any where on this earth, which will afford a fulcrum for us,
+whereby to keep the earth from moving onwards?
+
+The judgment, which experience passes whether on establishments or on
+education, as a means of maintaining religious truth in this anarchical
+world, must be extended even to Scripture, though Scripture be divine.
+Experience proves surely that the Bible does not answer a purpose for
+which it was never intended. It may be accidentally the means of the
+conversion of individuals; but a book, after all, cannot make a stand
+against the wild living intellect of man, and in this day it begins to
+testify, as regards its own structure and contents, to the power of that
+universal solvent, which is so successfully acting upon religious
+establishments.
+
+Supposing then it to be the Will of the Creator to interfere in human
+affairs, and to make provisions for retaining in the world a knowledge
+of Himself, so definite and distinct as to be proof against the energy
+of human scepticism, in such a case,--I am far from saying that there
+was no other way,--but there is nothing to surprise the mind, if He
+should think fit to introduce a power into the world, invested with the
+prerogative of infallibility in religious matters. Such a provision
+would be a direct, immediate, active, and prompt means of withstanding
+the difficulty; it would be an instrument suited to the need; and, when
+I find that this is the very claim of the Catholic Church, not only do I
+feel no difficulty in admitting the idea, but there is a fitness in it,
+which recommends it to my mind. And thus I am brought to speak of the
+Church's infallibility, as a provision, adapted by the mercy of the
+Creator, to preserve religion in the world, and to restrain that freedom
+of thought, which of course in itself is one of the greatest of our
+natural gifts, and to rescue it from its own suicidal excesses. And let
+it be observed that, neither here nor in what follows, shall I have
+occasion to speak directly of Revelation in its subject-matter, but in
+reference to the sanction which it gives to truths which may be known
+independently of it,--as it bears upon the defence of natural religion.
+I say, that a power, possessed of infallibility in religious teaching,
+is happily adapted to be a working instrument, in the course of human
+affairs, for smiting hard and throwing back the immense energy of the
+aggressive, capricious, untrustworthy intellect:--and in saying this, as
+in the other things that I have to say, it must still be recollected
+that I am all along bearing in mind my main purpose, which is a defence
+of myself.
+
+I am defending myself here from a plausible charge brought against
+Catholics, as will be seen better as I proceed. The charge is
+this:--that I, as a Catholic, not only make profession to hold doctrines
+which I cannot possibly believe in my heart, but that I also believe in
+the existence of a power on earth, which at its own will imposes upon
+men any new set of _credenda_, when it pleases, by a claim to
+infallibility; in consequence, that my own thoughts are not my own
+property; that I cannot tell that to-morrow I may not have to give up
+what I hold to-day, and that the necessary effect of such a condition of
+mind must be a degrading bondage, or a bitter inward rebellion relieving
+itself in secret infidelity, or the necessity of ignoring the whole
+subject of religion in a sort of disgust, and of mechanically saying
+every thing that the Church says, and leaving to others the defence of
+it. As then I have above spoken of the relation of my mind towards the
+Catholic Creed, so now I shall speak of the attitude which it takes up
+in the view of the Church's infallibility.
+
+And first, the initial doctrine of the infallible teacher must be an
+emphatic protest against the existing state of mankind. Man had rebelled
+against his Maker. It was this that caused the divine interposition: and
+to proclaim it must be the first act of the divinely-accredited
+messenger. The Church must denounce rebellion as of all possible evils
+the greatest. She must have no terms with it; if she would be true to
+her Master, she must ban and anathematize it. This is the meaning of a
+statement of mine which has furnished matter for one of those special
+accusations to which I am at present replying: I have, however, no fault
+at all to confess in regard to it; I have nothing to withdraw, and in
+consequence I here deliberately repeat it. I said, "The Catholic Church
+holds it better for the sun and moon to drop from heaven, for the earth
+to fail, and for all the many millions on it to die of starvation in
+extremest agony, as far as temporal affliction goes, than that one soul,
+I will not say, should be lost, but should commit one single venial sin,
+should tell one wilful untruth, or should steal one poor farthing
+without excuse." I think the principle here enunciated to be the mere
+preamble in the formal credentials of the Catholic Church, as an Act of
+Parliament might begin with a "_Whereas_." It is because of the
+intensity of the evil which has possession of mankind, that a suitable
+antagonist has been provided against it; and the initial act of that
+divinely-commissioned power is of course to deliver her challenge and to
+defy the enemy. Such a preamble then gives a meaning to her position in
+the world, and an interpretation to her whole course of teaching and
+action.
+
+In like manner she has ever put forth, with most energetic distinctness,
+those other great elementary truths, which either are an explanation of
+her mission or give a character to her work. She does not teach that
+human nature is irreclaimable, else wherefore should she be sent? not,
+that it is to be shattered and reversed, but to be extricated, purified,
+and restored; not, that it is a mere mass of hopeless evil, but that it
+has the promise upon it of great things, and even now, in its present
+state of disorder and excess, has a virtue and a praise proper to
+itself. But in the next place she knows and she preaches that such a
+restoration, as she aims at effecting in it, must be brought about, not
+simply through certain outward provisions of preaching and teaching,
+even though they be her own, but from an inward spiritual power or grace
+imparted directly from above, and of which she is the channel. She has
+it in charge to rescue human nature from its misery, but not simply by
+restoring it on its own level, but by lifting it up to a higher level
+than its own. She recognizes in it real moral excellence though
+degraded, but she cannot set it free from earth except by exalting it
+towards heaven. It was for this end that a renovating grace was put into
+her hands; and therefore from the nature of the gift, as well as from
+the reasonableness of the case, she goes on, as a further point, to
+insist, that all true conversion must begin with the first springs of
+thought, and to teach that each individual man must be in his own person
+one whole and perfect temple of God, while he is also one of the living
+stones which build up a visible religious community. And thus the
+distinctions between nature and grace, and between outward and inward
+religion, become two further articles in what I have called the preamble
+of her divine commission.
+
+Such truths as these she vigorously reiterates, and pertinaciously
+inflicts upon mankind; as to such she observes no half-measures, no
+economical reserve, no delicacy or prudence. "Ye must be born again," is
+the simple, direct form of words which she uses after her Divine Master:
+"your whole nature must be re-born; your passions, and your affections,
+and your aims, and your conscience, and your will, must all be bathed in
+a new element, and reconsecrated to your Maker,--and, the last not the
+least, your intellect." It was for repeating these points of her
+teaching in my own way, that certain passages of one of my Volumes have
+been brought into the general accusation which has been made against my
+religious opinions. The writer has said that I was demented if I
+believed, and unprincipled if I did not believe, in my own statement,
+that a lazy, ragged, filthy, story-telling beggar-woman, if chaste,
+sober, cheerful, and religious, had a prospect of heaven, such as was
+absolutely closed to an accomplished statesman, or lawyer, or noble, be
+he ever so just, upright, generous, honourable, and conscientious,
+unless he had also some portion of the divine Christian graces;--yet I
+should have thought myself defended from criticism by the words which
+our Lord used to the chief priests, "The publicans and harlots go into
+the kingdom of God before you." And I was subjected again to the same
+alternative of imputations, for having ventured to say that consent to
+an unchaste wish was indefinitely more heinous than any lie viewed apart
+from its causes, its motives, and its consequences: though a lie, viewed
+under the limitation of these conditions, is a random utterance, an
+almost outward act, not directly from the heart, however disgraceful and
+despicable it may be, however prejudicial to the social contract,
+however deserving of public reprobation; whereas we have the express
+words of our Lord to the doctrine that "whoso looketh on a woman to lust
+after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." On
+the strength of these texts, I have surely as much right to believe in
+these doctrines which have caused so much surprise, as to believe in
+original sin, or that there is a supernatural revelation, or that a
+Divine Person suffered, or that punishment is eternal.
+
+Passing now from what I have called the preamble of that grant of power,
+which is made to the Church, to that power itself, Infallibility, I
+premise two brief remarks:--1. on the one hand, I am not here
+determining any thing about the essential seat of that power, because
+that is a question doctrinal, not historical and practical; 2. nor, on
+the other hand, am I extending the direct subject-matter, over which
+that power of Infallibility has jurisdiction, beyond religious
+opinion:--and now as to the power itself.
+
+This power, viewed in its fulness, is as tremendous as the giant evil
+which has called for it. It claims, when brought into exercise but in
+the legitimate manner, for otherwise of course it is but quiescent, to
+know for certain the very meaning of every portion of that Divine
+Message in detail, which was committed by our Lord to His Apostles. It
+claims to know its own limits, and to decide what it can determine
+absolutely and what it cannot. It claims, moreover, to have a hold upon
+statements not directly religious, so far as this,--to determine whether
+they indirectly relate to religion, and, according to its own definitive
+judgment, to pronounce whether or not, in a particular case, they are
+simply consistent with revealed truth. It claims to decide
+magisterially, whether as within its own province or not, that such and
+such statements are or are not prejudicial to the _Depositum_ of faith,
+in their spirit or in their consequences, and to allow them, or condemn
+and forbid them, accordingly. It claims to impose silence at will on any
+matters, or controversies, of doctrine, which on its own _ipse dixit_,
+it pronounces to be dangerous, or inexpedient, or inopportune. It claims
+that, whatever may be the judgment of Catholics upon such acts, these
+acts should be received by them with those outward marks of reverence,
+submission, and loyalty, which Englishmen, for instance, pay to the
+presence of their sovereign, without expressing any criticism on them on
+the ground that in their matter they are inexpedient, or in their manner
+violent or harsh. And lastly, it claims to have the right of inflicting
+spiritual punishment, of cutting off from the ordinary channels of the
+divine life, and of simply excommunicating, those who refuse to submit
+themselves to its formal declarations. Such is the infallibility lodged
+in the Catholic Church, viewed in the concrete, as clothed and
+surrounded by the appendages of its high sovereignty: it is, to repeat
+what I said above, a supereminent prodigious power sent upon earth to
+encounter and master a giant evil.
+
+And now, having thus described it, I profess my own absolute submission
+to its claim. I believe the whole revealed dogma as taught by the
+Apostles, as committed by the Apostles to the Church; and as declared by
+the Church to me. I receive it, as it is infallibly interpreted by the
+authority to whom it is thus committed, and (implicitly) as it shall be,
+in like manner, further interpreted by that same authority till the end
+of time. I submit, moreover, to the universally received traditions of
+the Church, in which lies the matter of those new dogmatic definitions
+which are from time to time made, and which in all times are the
+clothing and the illustration of the Catholic dogma as already defined.
+And I submit myself to those other decisions of the Holy See,
+theological or not, through the organs which it has itself appointed,
+which, waiving the question of their infallibility, on the lowest ground
+come to me with a claim to be accepted and obeyed. Also, I consider
+that, gradually and in the course of ages, Catholic inquiry has taken
+certain definite shapes, and has thrown itself into the form of a
+science, with a method and a phraseology of its own, under the
+intellectual handling of great minds, such as St. Athanasius, St.
+Augustine, and St. Thomas; and I feel no temptation at all to break in
+pieces the great legacy of thought thus committed to us for these latter
+days.
+
+All this being considered as the profession which I make _ex animo_, as
+for myself, so also on the part of the Catholic body, as far as I know
+it, it will at first sight be said that the restless intellect of our
+common humanity is utterly weighed down, to the repression of all
+independent effort and action whatever, so that, if this is to be the
+mode of bringing it into order, it is brought into order only to be
+destroyed. But this is far from the result, far from what I conceive to
+be the intention of that high Providence who has provided a great remedy
+for a great evil,--far from borne out by the history of the conflict
+between Infallibility and Reason in the past, and the prospect of it in
+the future. The energy of the human intellect "does from opposition
+grow;" it thrives and is joyous, with a tough elastic strength, under
+the terrible blows of the divinely-fashioned weapon, and is never so
+much itself as when it has lately been overthrown. It is the custom with
+Protestant writers to consider that, whereas there are two great
+principles in action in the history of religion, Authority and Private
+Judgment, they have all the Private Judgment to themselves, and we have
+the full inheritance and the superincumbent oppression of Authority. But
+this is not so; it is the vast Catholic body itself, and it only, which
+affords an arena for both combatants in that awful, never-dying duel. It
+is necessary for the very life of religion, viewed in its large
+operations and its history, that the warfare should be incessantly
+carried on. Every exercise of Infallibility is brought out into act by
+an intense and varied operation of the Reason, both as its ally and as
+its opponent, and provokes again, when it has done its work, a re-action
+of Reason against it; and, as in a civil polity the State exists and
+endures by means of the rivalry and collision, the encroachments and
+defeats of its constituent parts, so in like manner Catholic Christendom
+is no simple exhibition of religious absolutism, but presents a
+continuous picture of Authority and Private Judgment alternately
+advancing and retreating as the ebb and flow of the tide;--it is a vast
+assemblage of human beings with wilful intellects and wild passions,
+brought together into one by the beauty and the Majesty of a Superhuman
+Power,--into what may be called a large reformatory or training-school,
+not as if into a hospital or into a prison, not in order to be sent to
+bed, not to be buried alive, but (if I may change my metaphor) brought
+together as if into some moral factory, for the melting, refining, and
+moulding, by an incessant, noisy process, of the raw material of human
+nature, so excellent, so dangerous, so capable of divine purposes.
+
+St. Paul says in one place that his Apostolical power is given him to
+edification, and not to destruction. There can be no better account of
+the Infallibility of the Church. It is a supply for a need, and it does
+not go beyond that need. Its object is, and its effect also, not to
+enfeeble the freedom or vigour of human thought in religious
+speculation, but to resist and control its extravagance. What have been
+its great works? All of them in the distinct province of theology:--to
+put down Arianism, Eutychianism, Pelagianism, Manichæism, Lutheranism,
+Jansenism. Such is the broad result of its action in the past;--and now
+as to the securities which are given us that so it ever will act in time
+to come.
+
+First, Infallibility cannot act outside of a definite circle of thought,
+and it must in all its decisions, or _definitions_, as they are called,
+profess to be keeping within it. The great truths of the moral law, of
+natural religion, and of Apostolical faith, are both its boundary and
+its foundation. It must not go beyond them, and it must ever appeal to
+them. Both its subject-matter, and its articles in that subject-matter,
+are fixed. And it must ever profess to be guided by Scripture and by
+tradition. It must refer to the particular Apostolic truth which it is
+enforcing, or (what is called) _defining_. Nothing, then, can be
+presented to me, in time to come, as part of the faith, but what I ought
+already to have received, and hitherto have been kept from receiving,
+(if so,) merely because it has not been brought home to me. Nothing can
+be imposed upon me different in kind from what I hold already,--much
+less contrary to it. The new truth which is promulgated, if it is to be
+called new, must be at least homogeneous, cognate, implicit, viewed
+relatively to the old truth. It must be what I may even have guessed, or
+wished, to be included in the Apostolic revelation; and at least it will
+be of such a character, that my thoughts readily concur in it or
+coalesce with it, as soon as I hear it. Perhaps I and others actually
+have always believed it, and the only question which is now decided in
+my behalf, is, that I have henceforth the satisfaction of having to
+believe, that I have only been holding all along what the Apostles held
+before me.
+
+Let me take the doctrine which Protestants consider our greatest
+difficulty, that of the Immaculate Conception. Here I entreat the reader
+to recollect my main drift, which is this. I have no difficulty in
+receiving the doctrine; and that, because it so intimately harmonizes
+with that circle of recognized dogmatic truths, into which it has been
+recently received;--but if _I_ have no difficulty, why may not another
+have no difficulty also? why may not a hundred? a thousand? Now I am
+sure that Catholics in general have not any intellectual difficulty at
+all on the subject of the Immaculate Conception; and that there is no
+reason why they should. Priests have no difficulty. You tell me that
+they _ought_ to have a difficulty;--but they have not. Be large-minded
+enough to believe, that men may reason and feel very differently from
+yourselves; how is it that men, when left to themselves, fall into such
+various forms of religion, except that there are various types of mind
+among them, very distinct from each other? From my testimony then about
+myself, if you believe it, judge of others also who are Catholics: we do
+not find the difficulties which you do in the doctrines which we hold;
+we have no intellectual difficulty in that doctrine in particular, which
+you call a novelty of this day. We priests need not be hypocrites,
+though we be called upon to believe in the Immaculate Conception. To
+that large class of minds, who believe in Christianity after our
+manner,--in the particular temper, spirit, and light, (whatever word is
+used,) in which Catholics believe it,--there is no burden at all in
+holding that the Blessed Virgin was conceived without original sin;
+indeed, it is a simple fact to say, that Catholics have not come to
+believe it because it is defined, but that it was defined because they
+believed it.
+
+So far from the definition in 1854 being a tyrannical infliction on the
+Catholic world, it was received every where on its promulgation with the
+greatest enthusiasm. It was in consequence of the unanimous petition,
+presented from all parts of the Church to the Holy See, in behalf of an
+_ex cathedrâ_ declaration that the doctrine was Apostolic, that it was
+declared so to be. I never heard of one Catholic having difficulties in
+receiving the doctrine, whose faith on other grounds was not already
+suspicious. Of course there were grave and good men, who were made
+anxious by the doubt whether it could be formally proved to be
+Apostolical either by Scripture or tradition, and who accordingly,
+though believing it themselves, did not see how it could be defined by
+authority and imposed upon all Catholics as a matter of faith; but this
+is another matter. The point in question is, whether the doctrine is a
+burden. I believe it to be none. So far from it being so, I sincerely
+think that St. Bernard and St. Thomas, who scrupled at it in their day,
+had they lived into this, would have rejoiced to accept it for its own
+sake. Their difficulty, as I view it, consisted in matters of words,
+ideas, and arguments. They thought the doctrine inconsistent with other
+doctrines; and those who defended it in that age had not that precision
+in their view of it, which has been attained by means of the long
+disputes of the centuries which followed. And in this want of precision
+lay the difference of opinion, and the controversy.
+
+Now the instance which I have been taking suggests another remark; the
+number of those (so called) new doctrines will not oppress us, if it
+takes eight centuries to promulgate even one of them. Such is about the
+length of time through which the preparation has been carried on for the
+definition of the Immaculate Conception. This of course is an
+extraordinary case; but it is difficult to say what is ordinary,
+considering how few are the formal occasions on which the voice of
+Infallibility has been solemnly lifted up. It is to the Pope in
+Ecumenical Council that we look, as to the normal seat of Infallibility:
+now there have been only eighteen such Councils since Christianity
+was,--an average of one to a century,--and of these Councils some passed
+no doctrinal decree at all, others were employed on only one, and many
+of them were concerned with only elementary points of the Creed. The
+Council of Trent embraced a large field of doctrine certainly; but I
+should apply to its Canons a remark contained in that University Sermon
+of mine, which has been so ignorantly criticized in the Pamphlet which
+has been the occasion of this Volume;--I there have said that the
+various verses of the Athanasian Creed are only repetitions in various
+shapes of one and the same idea; and in like manner, the Tridentine
+Decrees are not isolated from each other, but are occupied in bringing
+out in detail, by a number of separate declarations, as if into bodily
+form, a few necessary truths. I should make the same remark on the
+various theological censures, promulgated by Popes, which the Church has
+received, and on their dogmatic decisions generally. I own that at first
+sight those decisions seem from their number to be a greater burden on
+the faith of individuals than are the Canons of Councils; still I do not
+believe that in matter of fact they are so at all, and I give this
+reason for it:--it is not that a Catholic, layman or priest, is
+indifferent to the subject, or, from a sort of recklessness, will accept
+any thing that is placed before him, or is willing, like a lawyer, to
+speak according to his brief, but that in such condemnations the Holy
+See is engaged, for the most part, in repudiating one or two great lines
+of error, such as Lutheranism or Jansenism, principally ethical not
+doctrinal, which are divergent from the Catholic mind, and that it is
+but expressing what any good Catholic, of fair abilities, though
+unlearned, would say himself, from common and sound sense, if the matter
+could be put before him.
+
+Now I will go on in fairness to say what I think _is_ the great trial to
+the Reason, when confronted with that august prerogative of the Catholic
+Church, of which I have been speaking. I enlarged just now upon the
+concrete shape and circumstances, under which pure infallible authority
+presents itself to the Catholic. That authority has the prerogative of
+an indirect jurisdiction on subject-matters which lie beyond its own
+proper limits, and it most reasonably has such a jurisdiction. It could
+not act in its own province, unless it had a right to act out of it. It
+could not properly defend religious truth, without claiming for that
+truth what may be called its _pom[oe]ria_; or, to take another
+illustration, without acting as we act, as a nation, in claiming as our
+own, not only the land on which we live, but what are called British
+waters. The Catholic Church claims, not only to judge infallibly on
+religious questions, but to animadvert on opinions in secular matters
+which bear upon religion, on matters of philosophy, of science, of
+literature, of history, and it demands our submission to her claim. It
+claims to censure books, to silence authors, and to forbid discussions.
+In this province, taken as a whole, it does not so much speak
+doctrinally, as enforce measures of discipline. It must of course be
+obeyed without a word, and perhaps in process of time it will tacitly
+recede from its own injunctions. In such cases the question of faith
+does not come in at all; for what is matter of faith is true for all
+times, and never can be unsaid. Nor does it at all follow, because there
+is a gift of infallibility in the Catholic Church, that therefore the
+parties who are in possession of it are in all their proceedings
+infallible. "O, it is excellent," says the poet, "to have a giant's
+strength, but tyrannous, to use it like a giant." I think history
+supplies us with instances in the Church, where legitimate power has
+been harshly used. To make such admission is no more than saying that
+the divine treasure, in the words of the Apostle, is "in earthen
+vessels;" nor does it follow that the substance of the acts of the
+ruling power is not right and expedient, because its manner may have
+been faulty. Such high authorities act by means of instruments; we know
+how such instruments claim for themselves the name of their principals,
+who thus get the credit of faults which really are not theirs. But
+granting all this to an extent greater than can with any show of reason
+be imputed to the ruling power in the Church, what difficulty is there
+in the fact of this want of prudence or moderation more than can be
+urged, with far greater justice, against Protestant communities and
+institutions? What is there in it to make us hypocrites, if it has not
+that effect upon Protestants? We are called upon, not to profess any
+thing, but to submit and be silent, as Protestant Churchmen have before
+now obeyed the royal command to abstain from certain theological
+questions. Such injunctions as I have been contemplating are laid merely
+upon our actions, not upon our thoughts. How, for instance, does it tend
+to make a man a hypocrite, to be forbidden to publish a libel? his
+thoughts are as free as before: authoritative prohibitions may tease and
+irritate, but they have no bearing whatever upon the exercise of reason.
+
+So much at first sight; but I will go on to say further, that, in spite
+of all that the most hostile critic may urge about the encroachments or
+severities of high ecclesiastics, in times past, in the use of their
+power, I think that the event has shown after all, that they were mainly
+in the right, and that those whom they were hard upon were mainly in the
+wrong. I love, for instance, the name of Origen: I will not listen to
+the notion that so great a soul was lost; but I am quite sure that, in
+the contest between his doctrine and followers and the ecclesiastical
+power, his opponents were right, and he was wrong. Yet who can speak
+with patience of his enemy and the enemy of St. John Chrysostom, that
+Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria? who can admire or revere Pope
+Vigilius? And here another consideration presents itself to my thoughts.
+In reading ecclesiastical history, when I was an Anglican, it used to be
+forcibly brought home to me, how the initial error of what afterwards
+became heresy was the urging forward some truth against the prohibition
+of authority at an unseasonable time. There is a time for every thing,
+and many a man desires a reformation of an abuse, or the fuller
+development of a doctrine, or the adoption of a particular policy, but
+forgets to ask himself whether the right time for it is come: and,
+knowing that there is no one who will be doing any thing towards its
+accomplishment in his own lifetime unless he does it himself, he will
+not listen to the voice of authority, and he spoils a good work in his
+own century, in order that another man, as yet unborn, may not have the
+opportunity of bringing it happily to perfection in the next. He may
+seem to the world to be nothing else than a bold champion for the truth
+and a martyr to free opinion, when he is just one of those persons whom
+the competent authority ought to silence; and, though the case may not
+fall within that subject-matter in which that authority is infallible,
+or the formal conditions of the exercise of that gift may be wanting, it
+is clearly the duty of authority to act vigorously in the case. Yet its
+act will go down to posterity as an instance of a tyrannical
+interference with private judgment, and of the silencing of a reformer,
+and of a base love of corruption or error; and it will show still less
+to advantage, if the ruling power happens in its proceedings to evince
+any defect of prudence or consideration. And all those who take the part
+of that ruling authority will be considered as time-servers, or
+indifferent to the cause of uprightness and truth; while, on the other
+hand, the said authority may be accidentally supported by a violent
+ultra party, which exalts opinions into dogmas, and has it principally
+at heart to destroy every school of thought but its own.
+
+Such a state of things may be provoking and discouraging at the time, in
+the case of two classes of persons; of moderate men who wish to make
+differences in religious opinion as little as they fairly can be made;
+and of such as keenly perceive, and are honestly eager to remedy,
+existing evils,--evils, of which divines in this or that foreign country
+know nothing at all, and which even at home, where they exist, it is not
+every one who has the means of estimating. This is a state of things
+both of past time and of the present. We live in a wonderful age; the
+enlargement of the circle of secular knowledge just now is simply a
+bewilderment, and the more so, because it has the promise of continuing,
+and that with greater rapidity, and more signal results. Now these
+discoveries, certain or probable, have in matter of fact an indirect
+bearing upon religious opinions, and the question arises how are the
+respective claims of revelation and of natural science to be adjusted.
+Few minds in earnest can remain at ease without some sort of rational
+grounds for their religious belief; to reconcile theory and fact is
+almost an instinct of the mind. When then a flood of facts, ascertained
+or suspected, comes pouring in upon us, with a multitude of others in
+prospect, all believers in Revelation, be they Catholic or not, are
+roused to consider their bearing upon themselves, both for the honour of
+God, and from tenderness for those many souls who, in consequence of the
+confident tone of the schools of secular knowledge, are in danger of
+being led away into a bottomless liberalism of thought.
+
+I am not going to criticize here that vast body of men, in the mass, who
+at this time would profess to be liberals in religion; and who look
+towards the discoveries of the age, certain or in progress, as their
+informants, direct or indirect, as to what they shall think about the
+unseen and the future. The Liberalism which gives a colour to society
+now, is very different from that character of thought which bore the
+name thirty or forty years ago. Now it is scarcely a party; it is the
+educated lay world. When I was young, I knew the word first as giving
+name to a periodical, set up by Lord Byron and others. Now, as then, I
+have no sympathy with the philosophy of Byron. Afterwards, Liberalism
+was the badge of a theological school, of a dry and repulsive character,
+not very dangerous in itself, though dangerous as opening the door to
+evils which it did not itself either anticipate or comprehend. At
+present it is nothing else than that deep, plausible scepticism, of
+which I spoke above, as being the development of human reason, as
+practically exercised by the natural man.
+
+The Liberal religionists of this day are a very mixed body, and
+therefore I am not intending to speak against them. There may be, and
+doubtless is, in the hearts of some or many of them a real antipathy or
+anger against revealed truth, which it is distressing to think of.
+Again, in many men of science or literature there may be an animosity
+arising from almost a personal feeling; it being a matter of party, a
+point of honour, the excitement of a game, or a satisfaction to the
+soreness or annoyance occasioned by the acrimony or narrowness of
+apologists for religion, to prove that Christianity or that Scripture is
+untrustworthy. Many scientific and literary men, on the other hand, go
+on, I am confident, in a straightforward impartial way, in their own
+province and on their own line of thought, without any disturbance from
+religious difficulties in themselves, or any wish at all to give pain to
+others by the result of their investigations. It would ill become me, as
+if I were afraid of truth of any kind, to blame those who pursue secular
+facts, by means of the reason which God has given them, to their logical
+conclusions: or to be angry with science, because religion is bound in
+duty to take cognizance of its teaching. But putting these particular
+classes of men aside, as having no special call on the sympathy of the
+Catholic, of course he does most deeply enter into the feelings of a
+fourth and large class of men, in the educated portions of society, of
+religious and sincere minds, who are simply perplexed,--frightened or
+rendered desperate, as the case may be,--by the utter confusion into
+which late discoveries or speculations have thrown their most elementary
+ideas of religion. Who does not feel for such men? who can have one
+unkind thought of them? I take up in their behalf St. Augustine's
+beautiful words, "Illi in vos sæviant," &c. Let them be fierce with you
+who have no experience of the difficulty with which error is
+discriminated from truth, and the way of life is found amid the
+illusions of the world. How many a Catholic has in his thoughts followed
+such men, many of them so good, so true, so noble! how often has the
+wish risen in his heart that some one from among his own people should
+come forward as the champion of revealed truth against its opponents!
+Various persons, Catholic and Protestant, have asked me to do so myself;
+but I had several strong difficulties in the way. One of the greatest is
+this, that at the moment it is so difficult to say precisely what it is
+that is to be encountered and overthrown. I am far from denying that
+scientific knowledge is really growing, but it is by fits and starts;
+hypotheses rise and fall; it is difficult to anticipate which of them
+will keep their ground, and what the state of knowledge in relation to
+them will be from year to year. In this condition of things, it has
+seemed to me to be very undignified for a Catholic to commit himself to
+the work of chasing what might turn out to be phantoms, and, in behalf
+of some special objections, to be ingenious in devising a theory, which,
+before it was completed, might have to give place to some theory newer
+still, from the fact that those former objections had already come to
+nought under the uprising of others. It seemed to be specially a time,
+in which Christians had a call to be patient, in which they had no other
+way of helping those who were alarmed, than that of exhorting them to
+have a little faith and fortitude, and to "beware," as the poet says,
+"of dangerous steps." This seemed so clear to me, the more I thought of
+the matter, as to make me surmise, that, if I attempted what had so
+little promise in it, I should find that the highest Catholic Authority
+was against the attempt, and that I should have spent my time and my
+thought, in doing what either it would be imprudent to bring before the
+public at all, or what, did I do so, would only complicate matters
+further which were already complicated, without my interference, more
+than enough. And I interpret recent acts of that authority as fulfilling
+my expectation; I interpret them as tying the hands of a
+controversialist, such as I should be, and teaching us that true wisdom,
+which Moses inculcated on his people, when the Egyptians were pursuing
+them, "Fear ye not, stand still; the Lord shall fight for you, and ye
+shall hold your peace." And so far from finding a difficulty in obeying
+in this case, I have cause to be thankful and to rejoice to have so
+clear a direction in a matter of difficulty.
+
+But if we would ascertain with correctness the real course of a
+principle, we must look at it at a certain distance, and as history
+represents it to us. Nothing carried on by human instruments, but has
+its irregularities, and affords ground for criticism, when minutely
+scrutinized in matters of detail. I have been speaking of that aspect of
+the action of an infallible authority, which is most open to invidious
+criticism from those who view it from without; I have tried to be fair,
+in estimating what can be said to its disadvantage, as witnessed at a
+particular time in the Catholic Church, and now I wish its adversaries
+to be equally fair in their judgment upon its historical character. Can,
+then, the infallible authority, with any show of reason, be said in fact
+to have destroyed the energy of the Catholic intellect? Let it be
+observed, I have not here to speak of any conflict which ecclesiastical
+authority has had with science, for this simple reason, that conflict
+there has been none; and that, because the secular sciences, as they now
+exist, are a novelty in the world, and there has been no time yet for a
+history of relations between theology and these new methods of
+knowledge, and indeed the Church may be said to have kept clear of them,
+as is proved by the constantly cited case of Galileo. Here "exceptio
+probat regulam:" for it is the one stock argument. Again, I have not to
+speak of any relations of the Church to the new sciences, because my
+simple question all along has been whether the assumption of
+infallibility by the proper authority is adapted to make me a hypocrite,
+and till that authority passes decrees on pure physical subjects and
+calls on me to subscribe them, (which it never will do, because it has
+not the power,) it has no tendency to interfere by any of its acts with
+my private judgment on those points. The simple question is, whether
+authority has so acted upon the reason of individuals, that they can
+have no opinion of their own, and have but an alternative of slavish
+superstition or secret rebellion of heart; and I think the whole history
+of theology puts an absolute negative upon such a supposition.
+
+It is hardly necessary to argue out so plain a point. It is individuals,
+and not the Holy See, that have taken the initiative, and given the lead
+to the Catholic mind, in theological inquiry. Indeed, it is one of the
+reproaches urged against the Roman Church, that it has originated
+nothing, and has only served as a sort of _remora_ or break in the
+development of doctrine. And it is an objection which I really embrace
+as a truth; for such I conceive to be the main purpose of its
+extraordinary gift. It is said, and truly, that the Church of Rome
+possessed no great mind in the whole period of persecution. Afterwards
+for a long while, it has not a single doctor to show; St. Leo, its
+first, is the teacher of one point of doctrine; St. Gregory, who stands
+at the very extremity of the first age of the Church, has no place in
+dogma or philosophy. The great luminary of the western world is, as we
+know, St. Augustine; he, no infallible teacher, has formed the intellect
+of Christian Europe; indeed to the African Church generally we must look
+for the best early exposition of Latin ideas. Moreover, of the African
+divines, the first in order of time, and not the least influential, is
+the strong-minded and heterodox Tertullian. Nor is the Eastern
+intellect, as such, without its share in the formation of the Latin
+teaching. The free thought of Origen is visible in the writings of the
+Western Doctors, Hilary and Ambrose; and the independent mind of Jerome
+has enriched his own vigorous commentaries on Scripture, from the stores
+of the scarcely orthodox Eusebius. Heretical questionings have been
+transmuted by the living power of the Church into salutary truths. The
+case is the same as regards the Ecumenical Councils. Authority in its
+most imposing exhibition, grave bishops, laden with the traditions and
+rivalries of particular nations or places, have been guided in their
+decisions by the commanding genius of individuals, sometimes young and
+of inferior rank. Not that uninspired intellect overruled the
+super-human gift which was committed to the Council, which would be a
+self-contradictory assertion, but that in that process of inquiry and
+deliberation, which ended in an infallible enunciation, individual
+reason was paramount. Thus Malchion, a mere presbyter, was the
+instrument of the great Council of Antioch in the third century in
+meeting and refuting, for the assembled Fathers, the heretical Patriarch
+of that see. Parallel to this instance is the influence, so well known,
+of a young deacon, St. Athanasius, with the 318 Fathers at Nicæa. In
+mediæval times we read of St. Anselm at Bari, as the champion of the
+Council there held, against the Greeks. At Trent, the writings of St.
+Bonaventura, and, what is more to the point, the address of a Priest and
+theologian, Salmeron, had a critical effect on some of the definitions
+of dogma. In some of those cases the influence might be partly moral,
+but in others it was that of a discursive knowledge of ecclesiastical
+writers, a scientific acquaintance with theology, and a force of thought
+in the treatment of doctrine.
+
+There are of course intellectual habits which theology does not tend to
+form, as for instance the experimental, and again the philosophical; but
+that is because it _is_ theology, not because of the gift of
+infallibility. But, as far as this goes, I think it could be shown that
+physical science on the other hand, or again mathematical, affords but
+an imperfect training for the intellect. I do not see then how any
+objection about the narrowness of theology comes into our question,
+which simply is, whether the belief in an infallible authority destroys
+the independence of the mind; and I consider that the whole history of
+the Church, and especially the history of the theological schools, gives
+a negative to the accusation. There never was a time when the intellect
+of the educated class was more active, or rather more restless, than in
+the middle ages. And then again all through Church history from the
+first, how slow is authority in interfering! Perhaps a local teacher, or
+a doctor in some local school, hazards a proposition, and a controversy
+ensues. It smoulders or burns in one place, no one interposing; Rome
+simply lets it alone. Then it comes before a Bishop; or some priest, or
+some professor in some other seat of learning takes it up; and then
+there is a second stage of it. Then it comes before a University, and it
+may be condemned by the theological faculty. So the controversy proceeds
+year after year, and Rome is still silent. An appeal perhaps is next
+made to a seat of authority inferior to Rome; and then at last after a
+long while it comes before the supreme power. Meanwhile, the question
+has been ventilated and turned over and over again, and viewed on every
+side of it, and authority is called upon to pronounce a decision, which
+has already been arrived at by reason. But even then, perhaps the
+supreme authority hesitates to do so, and nothing is determined on the
+point for years: or so generally and vaguely, that the whole controversy
+has to be gone through again, before it is ultimately determined. It is
+manifest how a mode of proceeding, such as this, tends not only to the
+liberty, but to the courage, of the individual theologian or
+controversialist. Many a man has ideas, which he hopes are true, and
+useful for his day, but he is not confident about them, and wishes to
+have them discussed, He is willing, or rather would be thankful, to give
+them up, if they can be proved to be erroneous or dangerous, and by
+means of controversy he obtains his end. He is answered, and he yields;
+or on the contrary he finds that he is considered safe. He would not
+dare to do this, if he knew an authority, which was supreme and final,
+was watching every word he said, and made signs of assent or dissent to
+each sentence, as he uttered it. Then indeed he would be fighting, as
+the Persian soldiers, under the lash, and the freedom of his intellect
+might truly be said to be beaten out of him. But this has not been
+so:--I do not mean to say that, when controversies run high, in schools
+or even in small portions of the Church, an interposition may not
+advisably take place; and again, questions may be of that urgent nature,
+that an appeal must, as a matter of duty, be made at once to the highest
+authority in the Church; but if we look into the history of controversy,
+we shall find, I think, the general run of things to be such as I have
+represented it. Zosimus treated Pelagius and C[oe]lestius with extreme
+forbearance; St. Gregory VII. was equally indulgent with
+Berengarius:--by reason of the very power of the Popes they have
+commonly been slow and moderate in their use of it.
+
+And here again is a further shelter for the legitimate exercise of the
+reason:--the multitude of nations which are within the fold of the
+Church will be found to have acted for its protection, against any
+narrowness, on the supposition of narrowness, in the various authorities
+at Rome, with whom lies the practical decision of controverted
+questions. How have the Greek traditions been respected and provided for
+in the later Ecumenical Councils, in spite of the countries that held
+them being in a state of schism! There are important points of doctrine
+which have been (humanly speaking) exempted from the infallible
+sentence, by the tenderness with which its instruments, in framing it,
+have treated the opinions of particular places. Then, again, such
+national influences have a providential effect in moderating the bias
+which the local influences of Italy may exert upon the See of St. Peter.
+It stands to reason that, as the Gallican Church has in it a French
+element, so Rome must have in it an element of Italy; and it is no
+prejudice to the zeal and devotion with which we submit ourselves to the
+Holy See to admit this plainly. It seems to me, as I have been saying,
+that Catholicity is not only one of the notes of the Church, but,
+according to the divine purposes, one of its securities. I think it
+would be a very serious evil, which Divine Mercy avert! that the Church
+should be contracted in Europe within the range of particular
+nationalities. It is a great idea to introduce Latin civilization into
+America, and to improve the Catholics there by the energy of French
+devotedness; but I trust that all European races will ever have a place
+in the Church, and assuredly I think that the loss of the English, not
+to say the German element, in its composition has been a most serious
+misfortune. And certainly, if there is one consideration more than
+another which should make us English grateful to Pius the Ninth, it is
+that, by giving us a Church of our own, he has prepared the way for our
+own habits of mind, our own manner of reasoning, our own tastes, and our
+own virtues, finding a place and thereby a sanctification, in the
+Catholic Church.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There is only one other subject, which I think it necessary to introduce
+here, as bearing upon the vague suspicions which are attached in this
+country to the Catholic Priesthood. It is one of which my accusers have
+before now said much,--the charge of reserve and economy. They found it
+in no slight degree on what I have said on the subject in my History of
+the Arians, and in a note upon one of my Sermons in which I refer to it.
+The principle of Reserve is also advocated by an admirable writer in two
+numbers of the Tracts for the Times, and of these I was the Editor.
+
+Now, as to the Economy itself[20], it is founded upon the words of our
+Lord, "Cast not your pearls before swine;" and it was observed by the
+early Christians more or less, in their intercourse with the heathen
+populations among whom they lived. In the midst of the abominable
+idolatries and impurities of that fearful time, the Rule of the Economy
+was an imperative duty. But that rule, at least as I have explained and
+recommended it, in anything that I have written, did not go beyond (1)
+the concealing the truth when we could do so without deceit, (2) stating
+it only partially, and (3) representing it under the nearest form
+possible to a learner or inquirer, when he could not possibly understand
+it exactly. I conceive that to draw Angels with wings is an instance of
+the third of these economical modes; and to avoid the question, "Do
+Christians believe in a Trinity?" by answering, "They believe in only
+one God," would be an instance of the second. As to the first, it is
+hardly an Economy, but comes under what is called the "Disciplina
+Arcani." The second and third economical modes Clement calls _lying_;
+meaning that a partial truth is in some sense a lie, as is also a
+representative truth. And this, I think, is about the long and the short
+of the ground of the accusation which has been so violently urged
+against me, as being a patron of the Economy.
+
+[20] Vide Note F, _The Economy_.
+
+Of late years I have come to think, as I believe most writers do, that
+Clement meant more than I have said. I used to think he used the word
+"lie" as an hyperbole, but I now believe that he, as other early
+Fathers, thought that, under certain circumstances, it was lawful to
+tell a lie. This doctrine I never maintained, though I used to think, as
+I do now, that the theory of the subject is surrounded with considerable
+difficulty; and it is not strange that I should say so, considering that
+great English writers declare without hesitation that in certain extreme
+cases, as to save life, honour, or even property, a lie is allowable.
+And thus I am brought to the direct question of truth, and of the
+truthfulness of Catholic priests generally in their dealings with the
+world, as bearing on the general question of their honesty, and of their
+internal belief in their religious professions.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It would answer no purpose, and it would be departing from the line of
+writing which I have been observing all along, if I entered into any
+formal discussion on this question; what I shall do here, as I have done
+in the foregoing pages, is to give my own testimony on the matter in
+question, and there to leave it. Now first I will say, that, when I
+became a Catholic, nothing struck me more at once than the English
+out-spoken manner of the Priests. It was the same at Oscott, at Old Hall
+Green, at Ushaw; there was nothing of that smoothness, or mannerism,
+which is commonly imputed to them, and they were more natural and
+unaffected than many an Anglican clergyman. The many years, which have
+passed since, have only confirmed my first impression. I have ever found
+it in the priests of this Diocese; did I wish to point out a
+straightforward Englishman, I should instance the Bishop, who has, to
+our great benefit, for so many years presided over it.
+
+And next, I was struck, when I had more opportunity of judging of the
+Priests, by the simple faith in the Catholic Creed and system, of which
+they always gave evidence, and which they never seemed to feel, in any
+sense at all, to be a burden. And now that I have been in the Church
+nineteen years, I cannot recollect hearing of a single instance in
+England of an infidel priest. Of course there are men from time to time,
+who leave the Catholic Church for another religion, but I am speaking of
+cases, when a man keeps a fair outside to the world and is a hollow
+hypocrite in his heart.
+
+I wonder that the self-devotion of our priests does not strike a
+Protestant in this point of view. What do they gain by professing a
+Creed, in which, if their enemies are to be credited, they really do not
+believe? What is their reward for committing themselves to a life of
+self-restraint and toil, and perhaps to a premature and miserable death?
+The Irish fever cut off between Liverpool and Leeds thirty priests and
+more, young men in the flower of their days, old men who seemed entitled
+to some quiet time after their long toil. There was a bishop cut off in
+the North; but what had a man of his ecclesiastical rank to do with the
+drudgery and danger of sick calls, except that Christian faith and
+charity constrained him? Priests volunteered for the dangerous service.
+It was the same with them on the first coming of the cholera, that
+mysterious awe-inspiring infliction. If they did not heartily believe in
+the Creed of the Church, then I will say that the remark of the Apostle
+had its fullest illustration:--"If in this life only we have hope in
+Christ, we are of all men most miserable." What could support a set of
+hypocrites in the presence of a deadly disorder, one of them following
+another in long order up the forlorn hope, and one after another
+perishing? And such, I may say, in its substance, is every
+Mission-Priest's life. He is ever ready to sacrifice himself for his
+people. Night and day, sick or well himself, in all weathers, off he is,
+on the news of a sick call. The fact of a parishioner dying without the
+Sacraments through his fault is terrible to him; why terrible, if he has
+not a deep absolute faith, which he acts upon with a free service?
+Protestants admire this, when they see it; but they do not seem to see
+as clearly, that it excludes the very notion of hypocrisy.
+
+Sometimes, when they reflect upon it, it leads them to remark on the
+wonderful discipline of the Catholic priesthood; they say that no Church
+has so well ordered a clergy, and that in that respect it surpasses
+their own; they wish they could have such exact discipline among
+themselves. But is it an excellence which can be purchased? is it a
+phenomenon which depends on nothing else than itself, or is it an effect
+which has a cause? You cannot buy devotion at a price. "It hath never
+been heard of in the land of Chanaan, neither hath it been seen in
+Theman. The children of Agar, the merchants of Meran, none of these have
+known its way." What then is that wonderful charm, which makes a
+thousand men act all in one way, and infuses a prompt obedience to rule,
+as if they were under some stern military compulsion? How difficult to
+find an answer, unless you will allow the obvious one, that they believe
+intensely what they profess!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I cannot think what it can be, in a day like this, which keeps up the
+prejudice of this Protestant country against us, unless it be the vague
+charges which are drawn from our books of Moral Theology; and with a
+short notice of the work in particular which by our accusers is
+especially thrown into our teeth, I shall bring these observations to a
+close.
+
+St. Alfonso Liguori, then, it cannot be denied, lays down that an
+equivocation, (that is, a play upon words, in which one sense is taken
+by the speaker, and another sense intended by him for the hearer,) is
+allowable, if there is a just cause, that is, in an extraordinary case,
+and may even be confirmed by an oath. I shall give my opinion on this
+point as plainly as any Protestant can wish; and therefore I avow at
+once that in this department of morality, much as I admire the high
+points of the Italian character, I like the English rule of conduct
+better; but, in saying so, I am not, as will shortly be seen, saying any
+thing disrespectful to St. Alfonso, who was a lover of truth, and whose
+intercession I trust I shall not lose, though, on the matter under
+consideration, I follow other guidance in preference to his.
+
+Now I make this remark first:--great English authors, Jeremy Taylor,
+Milton, Paley, Johnson, men of very different schools of thought,
+distinctly say, that under certain extraordinary circumstances it is
+allowable to tell a lie. Taylor says: "To tell a lie for charity, to
+save a man's life, the life of a friend, of a husband, of a prince, of a
+useful and a public person, hath not only been done at all times, but
+commended by great and wise and good men. Who would not save his
+father's life, at the charge of a harmless lie, from persecutors or
+tyrants?" Again, Milton says: "What man in his senses would deny, that
+there are those whom we have the best grounds for considering that we
+ought to deceive,--as boys, madmen, the sick, the intoxicated, enemies,
+men in error, thieves? I would ask, by which of the commandments is a
+lie forbidden? You will say, by the ninth. If then my lie does not
+injure my neighbour, certainly it is not forbidden by this commandment."
+Paley says: "There are falsehoods, which are not lies, that is, which
+are not criminal." Johnson: "The general rule is, that truth should
+never be violated; there must, however, be some exceptions. If, for
+instance, a murderer should ask you which way a man is gone."
+
+Now, I am not using these instances as an _argumentum ad hominem_; but
+the purpose to which I put them is this:--
+
+1. First, I have set down the distinct statements of Taylor, Milton,
+Paley, and Johnson:--now, would any one give ever so little weight to
+these statements, in forming a real estimate of the veracity of the
+writers, if they now were alive? Were a man, who is so fierce with St.
+Alfonso, to meet Paley or Johnson to-morrow in society, would he look
+upon him as a liar, a knave, as dishonest and untrustworthy? I am sure
+he would not. Why then does he not deal out the same measure to Catholic
+priests? If a copy of Scavini, which speaks of equivocation as being in
+a just cause allowable, be found in a student's room at Oscott, not
+Scavini himself, but even the unhappy student, who has what a Protestant
+calls a bad book in his possession, is judged to be for life unworthy of
+credit. Are all Protestant text-books, which are used at the University,
+immaculate? Is it necessary to take for gospel every word of Aristotle's
+Ethics, or every assertion of Hey or Burnett on the Articles? Are
+text-books the ultimate authority, or rather are they not manuals in the
+hands of a lecturer, and the groundwork of his remarks? But, again, let
+us suppose, not the case of a student, or of a professor, but of Scavini
+himself, or of St. Alfonso; now here again I ask, since you would not
+scruple in holding Paley for an honest man, in spite of his defence of
+lying, why do you scruple at holding St. Alfonso honest? I am perfectly
+sure that you would not scruple at Paley personally; you might not agree
+with him, but you would not go further than to call him a bold thinker:
+then why should St. Alfonso's person be odious to you, as well as his
+doctrine?
+
+Now I wish to tell you why you are not afraid of Paley; because, you
+would say, when he advocated lying, he was taking _extreme_ or _special
+cases_. You would have no fear of a man who you knew had shot a burglar
+dead in his own house, because you know you are _not_ a burglar: so you
+would not think that Paley had a habit of telling lies in society,
+because in the case of a cruel alternative he thought it the lesser evil
+to tell a lie. Then why do you show such suspicion of a Catholic
+theologian, who speaks of certain extraordinary cases in which an
+equivocation in a penitent cannot be visited by his confessor as if it
+were a sin? for this is the exact point of the question.
+
+But again, why does Paley, why does Jeremy Taylor, when no practical
+matter is actually before him, lay down a maxim about the lawfulness of
+lying, which will startle most readers? The reason is plain. He is
+forming a theory of morals, and he must treat every question in turn as
+it comes. And this is just what St. Alfonso or Scavini is doing. You
+only try your hand yourself at a treatise on the rules of morality, and
+you will see how difficult the work is. What is the _definition_ of a
+lie? Can you give a better than that it is a sin against justice, as
+Taylor and Paley consider it? but, if so, how can it be a sin at all, if
+your neighbour is not injured? If you do not like this definition, take
+another; and then, by means of that, perhaps you will be defending St.
+Alfonso's equivocation. However, this is what I insist upon; that St.
+Alfonso, as Paley, is considering the different portions of a large
+subject, and he must, on the subject of lying, give his judgment, though
+on that subject it is difficult to form any judgment which is
+satisfactory.
+
+But further still: you must not suppose that a philosopher or moralist
+uses in his own case the licence which his theory itself would allow
+him. A man in his own person is guided by his own conscience; but in
+drawing out a system of rules he is obliged to go by logic, and follow
+the exact deduction of conclusion from conclusion, and must be sure that
+the whole system is coherent and one. You hear of even immoral or
+irreligious books being written by men of decent character; there is a
+late writer who says that David Hume's sceptical works are not at all
+the picture of the man. A priest might write a treatise which was really
+lax on the subject of lying, which might come under the condemnation of
+the Holy See, as some treatises on that score have already been
+condemned, and yet in his own person be a rigorist. And, in fact, it is
+notorious from St. Alfonso's Life, that he, who has the repute of being
+so lax a moralist, had one of the most scrupulous and anxious of
+consciences himself. Nay, further than this, he was originally in the
+Law, and on one occasion he was betrayed into the commission of what
+seemed like a deceit, though it was an accident; and that was the very
+occasion of his leaving the profession and embracing the religious life.
+
+The account of this remarkable occurrence is told us in his Life:--
+
+"Notwithstanding he had carefully examined over and over the details of
+the process, he was completely mistaken regarding the sense of one
+document, which constituted the right of the adverse party. The advocate
+of the Grand Duke perceived the mistake, but he allowed Alfonso to
+continue his eloquent address to the end without interruption; as soon,
+however, as he had finished, he rose, and said with cutting coolness,
+'Sir, the case is not exactly what you suppose it to be; if you will
+review the process, and examine this paper attentively, you will find
+there precisely the contrary of all you have advanced.' 'Willingly,'
+replied Alfonso, without hesitating; 'the decision depends on this
+question--whether the fief were granted under the law of Lombardy, or
+under the French Law.' The paper being examined, it was found that the
+Grand Duke's advocate was in the right. 'Yes,' said Alfonso, holding the
+paper in his hand, 'I am wrong, I have been mistaken.' A discovery so
+unexpected, and the fear of being accused of unfair dealing filled him
+with consternation, and covered him with confusion, so much so, that
+every one saw his emotion. It was in vain that the President Caravita,
+who loved him, and knew his integrity, tried to console him, by telling
+him that such mistakes were not uncommon, even among the first men at
+the bar. Alfonso would listen to nothing, but, overwhelmed with
+confusion, his head sunk on his breast, he said to himself, 'World, I
+know you now; courts of law, never shall you see me again!' And turning
+his back on the assembly, he withdrew to his own house, incessantly
+repeating to himself, 'World, I know you now.' What annoyed him most
+was, that having studied and re-studied the process during a whole
+month, without having discovered this important flaw, he could not
+understand how it had escaped his observation."
+
+And this is the man, so easily scared at the very shadow of trickery,
+who is so flippantly pronounced to be a patron of lying.
+
+But, in truth, a Catholic theologian has objects in view which men in
+general little compass; he is not thinking of himself, but of a
+multitude of souls, sick souls, sinful souls, carried away by sin, full
+of evil, and he is trying with all his might to rescue them from their
+miserable state; and, in order to save them from more heinous sins, he
+tries, to the full extent that his conscience will allow him to go, to
+shut his eyes to such sins, as are, though sins, yet lighter in
+character or degree. He knows perfectly well that, if he is as strict as
+he would wish to be, he shall be able to do nothing at all with the run
+of men; so he is as indulgent with them as ever he can be. Let it not be
+for an instant supposed, that I allow of the maxim of doing evil that
+good may come; but, keeping clear of this, there is a way of winning men
+from greater sins by winking for the time at the less, or at mere
+improprieties or faults; and this is the key to the difficulty which
+Catholic books of moral theology so often cause to the Protestant. They
+are intended for the Confessor, and Protestants view them as intended
+for the Preacher.
+
+2. And I observe upon Taylor, Milton, and Paley thus: What would a
+Protestant clergyman say to me, if I accused him of teaching that a lie
+was allowable; and if, when he asked for my proof, I said in reply that
+such was the doctrine of Taylor and Milton? Why, he would sharply
+retort, "_I_ am not bound by Taylor or Milton;" and if I went on urging
+that "Taylor was one of his authorities," he would answer that Taylor
+was a great writer, but great writers were not therefore infallible.
+This is pretty much the answer which I make, when I am considered in
+this matter a disciple of St. Alfonso.
+
+I plainly and positively state, and without any reserve, that I do not
+at all follow this holy and charitable man in this portion of his
+teaching. There are various schools of opinion allowed in the Church:
+and on this point I follow others. I follow Cardinal Gerdil, and Natalis
+Alexander, nay, St. Augustine. I will quote one passage from Natalis
+Alexander:--"They certainly lie, who utter the words of an oath, without
+the will to swear or bind themselves: or who make use of mental
+reservations and _equivocations_ in swearing, since they signify by
+words what they have not in mind, contrary to the end for which language
+was instituted, viz. as signs of ideas. Or they mean something else than
+the words signify in themselves and the common custom of speech." And,
+to take an instance: I do not believe any priest in England would dream
+of saying, "My friend is not here;" meaning, "He is not in my pocket or
+under my shoe." Nor should any consideration make me say so myself. I do
+not think St. Alfonso would in his own case have said so; and he would
+have been as much shocked at Taylor and Paley, as Protestants are at
+him[21].
+
+[21] Vide Note G, _Lying and Equivocation_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now, if Protestants wish to know what our real teaching is, as on
+other subjects, so on that of lying, let them look, not at our books of
+casuistry, but at our catechisms. Works on pathology do not give the
+best insight into the form and the harmony of the human frame; and, as
+it is with the body, so is it with the mind. The Catechism of the
+Council of Trent was drawn up for the express purpose of providing
+preachers with subjects for their Sermons; and, as my whole work has
+been a defence of myself, I may here say that I rarely preach a Sermon,
+but I go to this beautiful and complete Catechism to get both my matter
+and my doctrine. There we find the following notices about the duty of
+Veracity:--
+
+"'Thou shalt not bear false witness,' &c.: let attention be drawn to two
+laws contained in this commandment:--the one, forbidding false witness;
+the other bidding, that removing all pretence and deceits, we should
+measure our words and deeds by simple truth, as the Apostle admonished
+the Ephesians of that duty in these words: 'Doing truth in charity, let
+us grow in Him through all things.'
+
+"To deceive by a lie in joke or for the sake of compliment, though to no
+one there accrues loss or gain in consequence, nevertheless is
+altogether unworthy: for thus the Apostle admonishes, 'Putting aside
+lying, speak ye truth.' For therein is great danger of lapsing into
+frequent and more serious lying, and from lies in joke men gain the
+habit of lying, whence they gain the character of not being truthful.
+And thence again, in order to gain credence to their words, they find it
+necessary to make a practice of swearing.
+
+"Nothing is more necessary [for us] than truth of testimony, in those
+things, which we neither know ourselves, nor can allowably be ignorant
+of, on which point there is extant that maxim of St. Augustine's: Whoso
+conceals the truth, and whoso puts forth a lie, each is guilty; the one
+because he is not willing to do a service, the other because he has a
+wish to do a mischief.
+
+"It is lawful at times to be silent about the truth, but out of a court
+of law; for in court, when a witness is interrogated by the judge
+according to law, the truth is wholly to be brought out.
+
+"Witnesses, however, must beware, lest, from over-confidence in their
+memory, they affirm for certain, what they have not verified.
+
+"In order that the faithful may with more good will avoid the sin of
+lying, the Parish Priest shall set before them the extreme misery and
+turpitude of this wickedness. For, in holy writ, the devil is called the
+father of a lie; for, in that he did not remain in Truth, he is a liar,
+and the father of a lie. He will add, with the view of ridding men of so
+great a crime, the evils which follow upon lying; and, whereas they are
+innumerable, he will point out [at least] the sources and the general
+heads of these mischiefs and calamities, viz. 1. How great is God's
+displeasure and how great His hatred of a man who is insincere and a
+liar. 2. What little security there is that a man who is specially hated
+by God may not be visited by the heaviest punishments. 3. What more
+unclean and foul, as St. James says, than ... that a fountain by the
+same jet should send out sweet water and bitter? 4. For that tongue,
+which just now praised God, next, as far as in it lies, dishonours Him
+by lying. 5. In consequence, liars are shut out from the possession of
+heavenly beatitude. 6. That too is the worst evil of lying, that that
+disease of the mind is generally incurable.
+
+"Moreover, there is this harm too, and one of vast extent, and touching
+men generally, that by insincerity and lying faith and truth are lost,
+which are the firmest bonds of human society, and, when they are lost,
+supreme confusion follows in life, so that men seem in nothing to differ
+from devils.
+
+"Lastly, the Parish Priest will set those right who excuse their
+insincerity and allege the example of wise men, who, they say, are used
+to lie for an occasion. He will tell them, what is most true, that the
+wisdom of the flesh is death. He will exhort his hearers to trust in
+God, when they are in difficulties and straits, nor to have recourse to
+the expedient of a lie.
+
+"They who throw the blame of their own lie on those who have already by
+a lie deceived them, are to be taught that men must not revenge
+themselves, nor make up for one evil by another."
+
+There is much more in the Catechism to the same effect, and it is of
+universal obligation; whereas the decision of a particular author in
+morals need not be accepted by any one.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To one other authority I appeal on this subject, which commands from me
+attention of a special kind, for it is the teaching of a Father. It will
+serve to bring my work to a conclusion.
+
+"St. Philip," says the Roman Oratorian who wrote his Life, "had a
+particular dislike of affectation both in himself and others, in
+speaking, in dressing, or in any thing else.
+
+"He avoided all ceremony which savoured of worldly compliment, and
+always showed himself a great stickler for Christian simplicity in every
+thing; so that, when he had to deal with men of worldly prudence, he did
+not very readily accommodate himself to them.
+
+"And he avoided, as much as possible, having any thing to do with
+_two-faced persons_, who did not go simply and straightforwardly to work
+in their transactions.
+
+"_As for liars, he could not endure them_, and he was _continually
+reminding_ his spiritual children, _to avoid them as they would a
+pestilence_."
+
+These are the principles on which I have acted before I was a Catholic;
+these are the principles which, I trust, will be my stay and guidance to
+the end.
+
+I have closed this history of myself with St. Philip's name upon St.
+Philip's feast-day; and, having done so, to whom can I more suitably
+offer it, as a memorial of affection and gratitude, than to St. Philip's
+sons, my dearest brothers of this House, the Priests of the Birmingham
+Oratory, Ambrose St. John, Henry Austin Mills, Henry Bittleston, Edward
+Caswall, William Paine Neville, and Henry Ignatius Dudley Ryder? who
+have been so faithful to me; who have been so sensitive of my needs; who
+have been so indulgent to my failings; who have carried me through so
+many trials; who have grudged no sacrifice, if I asked for it; who have
+been so cheerful under discouragements of my causing; who have done so
+many good works, and let me have the credit of them;--with whom I have
+lived so long, with whom I hope to die.
+
+And to you especially, dear Ambrose St. John; whom God gave me, when He
+took every one else away; who are the link between my old life and my
+new; who have now for twenty-one years been so devoted to me, so
+patient, so zealous, so tender; who have let me lean so hard upon you;
+who have watched me so narrowly; who have never thought of yourself, if
+I was in question.
+
+And in you I gather up and bear in memory those familiar affectionate
+companions and counsellors, who in Oxford were given to me, one after
+another, to be my daily solace and relief; and all those others, of
+great name and high example, who were my thorough friends, and showed me
+true attachment in times long past; and also those many younger men,
+whether I knew them or not, who have never been disloyal to me by word
+or deed; and of all these, thus various in their relations to me, those
+more especially who have since joined the Catholic Church.
+
+And I earnestly pray for this whole company, with a hope against hope,
+that all of us, who once were so united, and so happy in our union, may
+even now be brought at length, by the Power of the Divine Will, into One
+Fold and under One Shepherd.
+
+_May 26, 1864._
+In Festo Corp. Christ.
+
+
+
+
+NOTES.
+
+NOTE A. ON PAGE 14.
+
+LIBERALISM.
+
+
+I have been asked to explain more fully what it is I mean by
+"Liberalism," because merely to call it the Anti-dogmatic Principle is
+to tell very little about it. An explanation is the more necessary,
+because such good Catholics and distinguished writers as Count
+Montalembert and Father Lacordaire use the word in a favorable sense,
+and claim to be Liberals themselves. "The only singularity," says the
+former of the two in describing his friend, "was his Liberalism. By a
+phenomenon, at that time unheard of, this convert, this seminarist, this
+confessor of nuns, was just as stubborn a liberal, as in the days when
+he was a student and a barrister."--Life (transl.), p. 19.
+
+I do not believe that it is possible for me to differ in any important
+matter from two men whom I so highly admire. In their general line of
+thought and conduct I enthusiastically concur, and consider them to be
+before their age. And it would be strange indeed if I did not read with
+a special interest, in M. de Montalembert's beautiful volume, of the
+unselfish aims, the thwarted projects, the unrequited toils, the grand
+and tender resignation of Lacordaire. If I hesitate to adopt their
+language about Liberalism, I impute the necessity of such hesitation to
+some differences between us in the use of words or in the circumstances
+of country; and thus I reconcile myself to remaining faithful to my own
+conception of it, though I cannot have their voices to give force to
+mine. Speaking then in my own way, I proceed to explain what I meant as
+a Protestant by Liberalism, and to do so in connexion with the
+circumstances under which that system of opinion came before me at
+Oxford.
+
+If I might presume to contrast Lacordaire and myself, I should say, that
+we had been both of us inconsistent;--he, a Catholic, in calling himself
+a Liberal; I, a Protestant, in being an Anti-liberal; and moreover, that
+the cause of this inconsistency had been in both cases one and the same.
+That is, we were both of us such good conservatives, as to take up with
+what we happened to find established in our respective countries, at the
+time when we came into active life. Toryism was the creed of Oxford; he
+inherited, and made the best of, the French Revolution.
+
+When, in the beginning of the present century, not very long before my
+own time, after many years of moral and intellectual declension, the
+University of Oxford woke up to a sense of its duties, and began to
+reform itself, the first instruments of this change, to whose zeal and
+courage we all owe so much, were naturally thrown together for mutual
+support, against the numerous obstacles which lay in their path, and
+soon stood out in relief from the body of residents, who, though many of
+them men of talent themselves, cared little for the object which the
+others had at heart. These Reformers, as they may be called, were for
+some years members of scarcely more than three or four Colleges; and
+their own Colleges, as being under their direct influence, of course had
+the benefit of those stricter views of discipline and teaching, which
+they themselves were urging on the University. They had, in no long
+time, enough of real progress in their several spheres of exertion, and
+enough of reputation out of doors, to warrant them in considering
+themselves the _élite_ of the place; and it is not wonderful if they
+were in consequence led to look down upon the majority of Colleges,
+which had not kept pace with the reform, or which had been hostile to
+it. And, when those rivalries of one man with another arose, whether
+personal or collegiate, which befall literary and scientific societies,
+such disturbances did but tend to raise in their eyes the value which
+they had already set upon academical distinction, and increase their
+zeal in pursuing it. Thus was formed an intellectual circle or class in
+the University,--men, who felt they had a career before them, as soon as
+the pupils, whom they were forming, came into public life; men, whom
+non-residents, whether country parsons or preachers of the Low Church,
+on coming up from time to time to the old place, would look at, partly
+with admiration, partly with suspicion, as being an honour indeed to
+Oxford, but withal exposed to the temptation of ambitious views, and to
+the spiritual evils signified in what is called the "pride of reason."
+
+Nor was this imputation altogether unjust; for, as they were following
+out the proper idea of a University, of course they suffered more or
+less from the moral malady incident to such a pursuit. The very object
+of such great institutions lies in the cultivation of the mind and the
+spread of knowledge: if this object, as all human objects, has its
+dangers at all times, much more would these exist in the case of men,
+who were engaged in a work of reformation, and had the opportunity of
+measuring themselves, not only with those who were their equals in
+intellect, but with the many, who were below them. In this select circle
+or class of men, in various Colleges, the direct instruments and the
+choice fruit of real University Reform, we see the rudiments of the
+Liberal party.
+
+Whenever men are able to act at all, there is the chance of extreme and
+intemperate action; and therefore, when there is exercise of mind, there
+is the chance of wayward or mistaken exercise. Liberty of thought is in
+itself a good; but it gives an opening to false liberty. Now by
+Liberalism I mean false liberty of thought, or the exercise of thought
+upon matters, in which, from the constitution of the human mind, thought
+cannot be brought to any successful issue, and therefore is out of
+place. Among such matters are first principles of whatever kind; and of
+these the most sacred and momentous are especially to be reckoned the
+truths of Revelation. Liberalism then is the mistake of subjecting to
+human judgment those revealed doctrines which are in their nature beyond
+and independent of it, and of claiming to determine on intrinsic grounds
+the truth and value of propositions which rest for their reception
+simply on the external authority of the Divine Word.
+
+Now certainly the party of whom I have been speaking, taken as a whole,
+were of a character of mind out of which Liberalism might easily grow
+up, as in fact it did; certainly they breathed around an influence which
+made men of religious seriousness shrink into themselves. But, while I
+say as much as this, I have no intention whatever of implying that the
+talent of the University, in the years before and after 1820, was
+liberal in its theology, in the sense in which the bulk of the educated
+classes through the country are liberal now. I would not for the world
+be supposed to detract from the Christian earnestness, and the activity
+in religious works, above the average of men, of many of the persons in
+question. They would have protested against their being supposed to
+place reason before faith, or knowledge before devotion; yet I do
+consider that they unconsciously encouraged and successfully introduced
+into Oxford a licence of opinion which went far beyond them. In their
+day they did little more than take credit to themselves for enlightened
+views, largeness of mind, liberality of sentiment, without drawing the
+line between what was just and what was inadmissible in speculation, and
+without seeing the tendency of their own principles; and engrossing, as
+they did, the mental energy of the University, they met for a time with
+no effectual hindrance to the spread of their influence, except (what
+indeed at the moment was most effectual, but not of an intellectual
+character) the thorough-going Toryism and traditionary
+Church-of-England-ism of the great body of the Colleges and Convocation.
+
+Now and then a man of note appeared in the Pulpit or Lecture Rooms of
+the University, who was a worthy representative of the more religious
+and devout Anglicans. These belonged chiefly to the High-Church party;
+for the party called Evangelical never has been able to breathe freely
+in the atmosphere of Oxford, and at no time has been conspicuous, as a
+party, for talent or learning. But of the old High Churchmen several
+exerted some sort of Anti-liberal influence in the place, at least from
+time to time, and that influence of an intellectual nature. Among these
+especially may be mentioned Mr. John Miller, of Worcester College, who
+preached the Bampton Lecture in the year 1817. But, as far as I know, he
+who turned the tide, and brought the talent of the University round to
+the side of the old theology, and against what was familiarly called
+"march-of-mind," was Mr. Keble. In and from Keble the mental activity of
+Oxford took that contrary direction which issued in what was called
+Tractarianism.
+
+Keble was young in years, when he became a University celebrity, and
+younger in mind. He had the purity and simplicity of a child. He had few
+sympathies with the intellectual party, who sincerely welcomed him as a
+brilliant specimen of young Oxford. He instinctively shut up before
+literary display, and pomp and donnishness of manner, faults which
+always will beset academical notabilities. He did not respond to their
+advances. His collision with them (if it may be so called) was thus
+described by Hurrell Froude in his own way. "Poor Keble!" he used
+gravely to say, "he was asked to join the aristocracy of talent, but he
+soon found his level." He went into the country, but his instance serves
+to prove that men need not, in the event, lose that influence which is
+rightly theirs, because they happen to be thwarted in the use of the
+channels natural and proper to its exercise. He did not lose his place
+in the minds of men because he was out of their sight.
+
+Keble was a man who guided himself and formed his judgments, not by
+processes of reason, by inquiry or by argument, but, to use the word in
+a broad sense, by authority. Conscience is an authority; the Bible is an
+authority; such is the Church; such is Antiquity; such are the words of
+the wise; such are hereditary lessons; such are ethical truths; such are
+historical memories; such are legal saws and state maxims; such are
+proverbs; such are sentiments, presages, and prepossessions. It seemed
+to me as if he ever felt happier, when he could speak or act under some
+such primary or external sanction; and could use argument mainly as a
+means of recommending or explaining what had claims on his reception
+prior to proof. He even felt a tenderness, I think, in spite of Bacon,
+for the Idols of the Tribe and the Den, of the Market and the Theatre.
+What he hated instinctively was heresy, insubordination, resistance to
+things established, claims of independence, disloyalty, innovation, a
+critical, censorious spirit. And such was the main principle of the
+school which in the course of years was formed around him; nor is it
+easy to set limits to its influence in its day; for multitudes of men,
+who did not profess its teaching, or accept its peculiar doctrines, were
+willing nevertheless, or found it to their purpose, to act in company
+with it.
+
+Indeed for a time it was practically the champion and advocate of the
+political doctrines of the great clerical interest through the country,
+who found in Mr. Keble and his friends an intellectual, as well as moral
+support to their cause, which they looked for in vain elsewhere. His
+weak point, in their eyes, was his consistency; for he carried his love
+of authority and old times so far, as to be more than gentle towards the
+Catholic Religion, with which the Toryism of Oxford and of the Church of
+England had no sympathy. Accordingly, if my memory be correct, he never
+could get himself to throw his heart into the opposition made to
+Catholic Emancipation, strongly as he revolted from the politics and the
+instruments by means of which that Emancipation was won. I fancy he
+would have had no difficulty in accepting Dr. Johnson's saying about
+"the first Whig;" and it grieved and offended him that the "Via prima
+salutis" should be opened to the Catholic body from the Whig quarter. In
+spite of his reverence for the Old Religion, I conceive that on the
+whole he would rather have kept its professors beyond the pale of the
+Constitution with the Tories, than admit them on the principles of the
+Whigs. Moreover, if the Revolution of 1688 was too lax in principle for
+him and his friends, much less, as is very plain, could they endure to
+subscribe to the revolutionary doctrines of 1776 and 1789, which they
+felt to be absolutely and entirely out of keeping with theological
+truth.
+
+The Old Tory or Conservative party in Oxford had in it no principle or
+power of development, and that from its very nature and constitution: it
+was otherwise with the Liberals. They represented a new idea, which was
+but gradually learning to recognize itself, to ascertain its
+characteristics and external relations, and to exert an influence upon
+the University. The party grew, all the time that I was in Oxford, even
+in numbers, certainly in breadth and definiteness of doctrine, and in
+power. And, what was a far higher consideration, by the accession of Dr.
+Arnold's pupils, it was invested with an elevation of character which
+claimed the respect even of its opponents. On the other hand, in
+proportion as it became more earnest and less self-applauding, it became
+more free-spoken; and members of it might be found who, from the mere
+circumstance of remaining firm to their original professions, would in
+the judgment of the world, as to their public acts, seem to have left it
+for the Conservative camp. Thus, neither in its component parts nor in
+its policy, was it the same in 1832, 1836, and 1841, as it was in 1845.
+
+These last remarks will serve to throw light upon a matter personal to
+myself, which I have introduced into my Narrative, and to which my
+attention has been pointedly called, now that my Volume is coming to a
+second edition.
+
+It has been strongly urged upon me to re-consider the following passages
+which occur in it: "The men who had driven me from Oxford were
+distinctly the Liberals, it was they who had opened the attack upon
+Tract 90," p. 203, and "I found no fault with the Liberals; they had
+beaten me in a fair field," p. 214.
+
+I am very unwilling to seem ungracious, or to cause pain in any quarter;
+still I am sorry to say I cannot modify these statements. It is surely a
+matter of historical fact that I left Oxford upon the University
+proceedings of 1841; and in those proceedings, whether we look to the
+Heads of Houses or the resident Masters, the leaders, if intellect and
+influence make men such, were members of the Liberal party. Those who
+did not lead, concurred or acquiesced in them,--I may say, felt a
+satisfaction. I do not recollect any Liberal who was on my side on that
+occasion. Excepting the Liberal, no other party, as a party, acted
+against me. I am not complaining of them; I deserved nothing else at
+their hands. They could not undo in 1845, even had they wished it, (and
+there is no proof they did,) what they had done in 1841. In 1845, when I
+had already given up the contest for four years, and my part in it had
+passed into the hands of others, then some of those who were prominent
+against me in 1841, feeling (what they had not felt in 1841) the danger
+of driving a number of my followers to Rome, and joined by younger
+friends who had come into University importance since 1841 and felt
+kindly towards me, adopted a course more consistent with their
+principles, and proceeded to shield from the zeal of the Hebdomadal
+Board, not me, but, professedly, all parties through the
+country,--Tractarians, Evangelicals, Liberals in general,--who had to
+subscribe to the Anglican formularies, on the ground that those
+formularies, rigidly taken, were, on some point or other, a difficulty
+to all parties alike.
+
+However, besides the historical fact, I can bear witness to my own
+feeling at the time, and my feeling was this:--that those who in 1841
+had considered it to be a duty to act against me, had then done their
+worst. What was it to me what they were now doing in opposition to the
+New Test proposed by the Hebdomadal Board? I owed them no thanks for
+their trouble. I took no interest at all, in February, 1845, in the
+proceedings of the Heads of Houses and of the Convocation. I felt myself
+_dead_ as regarded my relations to the Anglican Church. My leaving it
+was all but a matter of time. I believe I did not even thank my real
+friends, the two Proctors, who in Convocation stopped by their Veto the
+condemnation of Tract 90; nor did I make any acknowledgment to Mr.
+Rogers, nor to Mr. James Mozley, nor, as I think, to Mr. Hussey, for
+their pamphlets in my behalf. My frame of mind is best described by the
+sentiment of the passage in Horace, which at the time I was fond of
+quoting, as expressing my view of the relation that existed between the
+Vice-Chancellor and myself.
+
+                                          "Pentheu,
+  Rector Thebarum, quid me perferre patique
+  Indignum cogas?" "Adimam bona." "Nempe pecus, rem,
+  Lectos, argentum; tollas licet." "In manicis et
+  Compedibus, sævo te sub custode tenebo." (_viz. the 39 Articles._)
+  "_Ipse Deus, simul atque volam, me solvet._" Opinor,
+  Hoc sentit: _Moriar. Mors ultima linea rerum est._
+
+I conclude this notice of Liberalism in Oxford, and the party which was
+antagonistic to it, with some propositions in detail, which, as a member
+of the latter, and together with the High Church, I earnestly denounced
+and abjured.
+
+1. No religious tenet is important, unless reason shows it to be so.
+
+    Therefore, e.g. the doctrine of the Athanasian Creed is not to
+    be insisted on, unless it tends to convert the soul; and the
+    doctrine of the Atonement is to be insisted on, if it does
+    convert the soul.
+
+2. No one can believe what he does not understand.
+
+    Therefore, e.g. there are no mysteries in true religion.
+
+3. No theological doctrine is any thing more than an opinion which
+happens to be held by bodies of men.
+
+    Therefore, e.g. no creed, as such, is necessary for salvation.
+
+4. It is dishonest in a man to make an act of faith in what he has not
+had brought home to him by actual proof.
+
+    Therefore, e.g. the mass of men ought not absolutely to believe
+    in the divine authority of the Bible.
+
+5. It is immoral in a man to believe more than he can spontaneously
+receive as being congenial to his moral and mental nature.
+
+    Therefore, e.g. a given individual is not bound to believe in
+    eternal punishment.
+
+6. No revealed doctrines or precepts may reasonably stand in the way of
+scientific conclusions.
+
+    Therefore, e.g. Political Economy may reverse our Lord's
+    declarations about poverty and riches, or a system of Ethics may
+    teach that the highest condition of body is ordinarily essential
+    to the highest state of mind.
+
+7. Christianity is necessarily modified by the growth of civilization,
+and the exigencies of times.
+
+    Therefore, e.g. the Catholic priesthood, though necessary in the
+    Middle Ages, may be superseded now.
+
+8. There is a system of religion more simply true than Christianity as
+it has ever been received.
+
+    Therefore, e.g. we may advance that Christianity is the "corn of
+    wheat" which has been dead for 1800 years, but at length will
+    bear fruit; and that Mahometanism is the manly religion, and
+    existing Christianity the womanish.
+
+9. There is a right of Private Judgment: that is, there is no existing
+authority on earth competent to interfere with the liberty of
+individuals in reasoning and judging for themselves about the Bible and
+its contents, as they severally please.
+
+    Therefore, e.g. religious establishments requiring subscription
+    are Anti-christian.
+
+10. There are rights of conscience such, that every one may lawfully
+advance a claim to profess and teach what is false and wrong in matters,
+religious, social, and moral, provided that to his private conscience it
+seems absolutely true and right.
+
+    Therefore, e.g. individuals have a right to preach and practise
+    fornication and polygamy.
+
+11. There is no such thing as a national or state conscience.
+
+    Therefore, e.g. no judgments can fall upon a sinful or infidel
+    nation.
+
+12. The civil power has no positive duty, in a normal state of things,
+to maintain religious truth.
+
+    Therefore, e.g. blasphemy and sabbath-breaking are not rightly
+    punishable by law.
+
+13. Utility and expedience are the measure of political duty.
+
+    Therefore, e.g. no punishment may be enacted, on the ground that
+    God commands it: e.g. on the text, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood,
+    by man shall his blood be shed."
+
+14. The Civil Power may dispose of Church property without sacrilege.
+
+    Therefore, e.g. Henry VIII. committed no sin in his spoliations.
+
+15. The Civil Power has the right of ecclesiastical jurisdiction and
+administration.
+
+    Therefore, e.g. Parliament may impose articles of faith on the
+    Church or suppress Dioceses.
+
+16. It is lawful to rise in arms against legitimate princes.
+
+    Therefore, e.g. the Puritans in the 17th century, and the French
+    in the 18th, were justifiable in their Rebellion and Revolution
+    respectively.
+
+17. The people are the legitimate source of power.
+
+    Therefore, e.g. Universal Suffrage is among the natural rights
+    of man.
+
+18. Virtue is the child of knowledge, and vice of ignorance.
+
+    Therefore, e.g. education, periodical literature, railroad
+    travelling, ventilation, drainage, and the arts of life, when
+    fully carried out, serve to make a population moral and happy.
+
+All of these propositions, and many others too, were familiar to me
+thirty years ago, as in the number of the tenets of Liberalism, and,
+while I gave into none of them except No. 12, and perhaps No. 11, and
+partly No. 1, before I began to publish, so afterwards I wrote against
+most of them in some part or other of my Anglican works.
+
+If it is necessary to refer to a work, not simply my own, but of the
+Tractarian school, which contains a similar protest, I should name the
+_Lyra Apostolica_. This volume, which by accident has been left
+unnoticed, except incidentally, in my Narrative, was collected together
+from the pages of the "British Magazine," in which its contents
+originally appeared, and published in a separate form, immediately after
+Hurrell Froude's death in 1836. Its signatures, [Greek: a, b, g, d, e,
+z], denote respectively as authors, Mr. Bowden, Mr. Hurrell Froude, Mr.
+Keble, Mr. Newman, Mr. Robert Wilberforce, and Mr. Isaac Williams.
+
+There is one poem on "Liberalism," beginning "Ye cannot halve the Gospel
+of God's grace;" which bears out the account of Liberalism as above
+given; and another upon "the Age to come," defining from its own point
+of view the position and prospects of Liberalism.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I need hardly say that the above Note is mainly historical. How far the
+Liberal party of 1830-40 really held the above eighteen Theses, which I
+attributed to them, and how far and in what sense I should oppose those
+Theses now, could scarcely be explained without a separate Dissertation.
+
+
+
+
+NOTE B. ON PAGE 23.
+
+ECCLESIASTICAL MIRACLES.
+
+
+The writer, who gave occasion for the foregoing Narrative, was very
+severe with me for what I had said about Miracles in the Preface to the
+Life of St. Walburga. I observe therefore as follows:--
+
+Catholics believe that miracles happen in any age of the Church, though
+not for the same purposes, in the same number, or with the same
+evidence, as in Apostolic times. The Apostles wrought them in evidence
+of their divine mission; and with this object they have been sometimes
+wrought by Evangelists of countries since, as even Protestants allow.
+Hence we hear of them in the history of St. Gregory in Pontus, and St.
+Martin in Gaul; and in their case, as in that of the Apostles, they were
+both numerous and clear. As they are granted to Evangelists, so are they
+granted, though in less measure and evidence, to other holy men; and as
+holy men are not found equally at all times and in all places, therefore
+miracles are in some places and times more than in others. And since,
+generally, they are granted to faith and prayer, therefore in a country
+in which faith and prayer abound, they will be more likely to occur,
+than where and when faith and prayer are not; so that their occurrence
+is irregular. And further, as faith and prayer obtain miracles, so still
+more commonly do they gain from above the ordinary interventions of
+Providence; and, as it is often very difficult to distinguish between a
+providence and a miracle, and there will be more providences than
+miracles, hence it will happen that many occurrences will be called
+miraculous, which, strictly speaking, are not such, that is, not more
+than providential mercies, or what are sometimes called "_grazie_" or
+"favours."
+
+Persons, who believe all this, in accordance with Catholic teaching, as
+I did and do, they, on the report of a miracle, will of necessity, the
+necessity of good logic, be led to say, first, "It _may_ be," and
+secondly, "But I must have _good evidence_ in order to believe it."
+
+1. It _may_ be, because miracles take place in all ages; it must be
+clearly _proved_, because perhaps after all it may be only a
+providential mercy, or an exaggeration, or a mistake, or an imposture.
+Well, this is precisely what I had said, which the writer, who has given
+occasion to this Volume, considered so irrational. I had said, as he
+quotes me, "In this day, and under our present circumstances, we can
+only reply, that there is no reason why they should not be." Surely this
+is good logic, _provided_ that miracles _do_ occur in all ages; and so
+again I am logical in saying, "There is nothing, _primâ facie_, in the
+miraculous accounts in question, to repel a _properly taught_ or
+religiously disposed mind." What is the matter with this statement? My
+assailant does not pretend to say _what_ the matter is, and he cannot;
+but he expresses a rude, unmeaning astonishment. Accordingly, in the
+passage which he quotes, I observe, "Miracles are the kind of facts
+proper to ecclesiastical history, just as instances of sagacity or
+daring, personal prowess, or crime, are the facts proper to secular
+history." What is the harm of this?
+
+2. But, though a miracle be conceivable, it has to be _proved_. _What_
+has to be proved? (1.) That the event occurred as stated, and is not a
+false report or an exaggeration. (2.) That it is clearly miraculous, and
+not a mere providence or answer to prayer within the order of nature.
+What is the fault of saying this? The inquiry is parallel to that which
+is made about some extraordinary fact in secular history. Supposing I
+hear that King Charles II. died a Catholic, I am led to say: It _may_
+be, but what is your _proof_?
+
+In my Essay on Miracles of the year 1826, I proposed three questions
+about a professed miraculous occurrence: 1. is it antecedently
+_probable_? 2. is it in its _nature_ certainly miraculous? 3. has it
+sufficient _evidence_? To these three heads I had regard in my Essay of
+1842; and under them I still wish to conduct the inquiry into the
+miracles of Ecclesiastical History.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+So much for general principles; as to St. Walburga, though I have no
+intention at all of denying that numerous miracles have been wrought by
+her intercession, still, neither the Author of her Life, nor I, the
+Editor, felt that we had grounds for binding ourselves to the belief of
+certain alleged miracles in particular. I made, however, one exception;
+it was the medicinal oil which flows from her relics. Now as to the
+_verisimilitude_, the _miraculousness_, and the _fact_, of this
+medicinal oil.
+
+1. The _verisimilitude_. It is plain there is nothing extravagant in
+this report of her relics having a supernatural virtue; and for this
+reason, because there are such instances in Scripture, and Scripture
+cannot be extravagant. For instance, a man was restored to life by
+touching the relics of the Prophet Eliseus. The sacred text runs
+thus:--"And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the
+Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year. And it came to
+pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of
+men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha. And, when the
+man was let down, _and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived_, and
+stood upon his feet." Again, in the case of an inanimate substance,
+which had touched a living Saint: "And God wrought _special miracles_ by
+the hands of Paul; so that _from his body_ were brought unto the sick
+_handkerchiefs or aprons_, and _the diseases departed from them_." And
+again in the case of a pool: "An _Angel went down_ at a certain season
+into the pool, and troubled the water; whosoever then first, after the
+troubling of the water, stepped in, _was made whole of whatsoever
+disease_ he had." 2 Kings [4 Kings] xiii. 20, 21. Acts xix. 11, 12. John
+v. 4. Therefore there is nothing _extravagant_ in the _character_ of the
+miracle.
+
+2. Next, the _matter of fact_:--_is_ there an oil flowing from St.
+Walburga's tomb, which is medicinal? To this question I confined myself
+in my Preface. Of the accounts of medieval miracles, I said that there
+was no _extravagance_ in their _general character_, but I could not
+affirm that there was always _evidence_ for them. I could not simply
+accept them as _facts_, but I could not reject them in their
+_nature_;--they _might_ be true, for they were not impossible; but they
+were _not proved_ to be true, because there was not trustworthy
+testimony. However, as to St. Walburga, I repeat, I made _one_
+exception, the fact of the medicinal oil, since for that miracle there
+was distinct and successive testimony. And then I went on to give a
+chain of witnesses. It was my duty to state what those witnesses said in
+their very words; so I gave the testimonies in full, tracing them from
+the Saint's death. I said, "She is one of the principal Saints of her
+age and country." Then I quoted Basnage, a Protestant, who says, "Six
+writers are extant, who have employed themselves in relating the deeds
+or miracles of Walburga." Then I said that her "renown was not the mere
+natural _growth_ of ages, but begins with the very century of the
+Saint's death." Then I observed that only two miracles seem to have been
+"distinctly reported of her as occurring in her lifetime; and they were
+handed down apparently by tradition." Also, that such miracles are said
+to have commenced about A.D. 777. Then I spoke of the medicinal oil as
+having testimony to it in 893, in 1306, after 1450, in 1615, and in
+1620. Also, I said that Mabillon seems not to have believed some of her
+miracles; and that the earliest witness had got into trouble with his
+Bishop. And so I left the matter, as a question to be decided by
+evidence, not deciding any thing myself.
+
+What was the harm of all this? but my Critic muddled it together in a
+most extraordinary manner, and I am far from sure that he knew himself
+the definite categorical charge which he intended it to convey against
+me. One of his remarks is, "What has become of the holy oil for the last
+240 years, Dr. Newman does not say," p. 25. Of course I did not, because
+I did not know; I gave the evidence as I found it; he assumes that I had
+a point to prove, and then asks why I did not make the evidence larger
+than it was.
+
+I can tell him more about it now: the oil still flows; I have had some
+of it in my possession; it is medicinal still. This leads to the third
+head.
+
+3. Its _miraculousness_. On this point, since I have been in the
+Catholic Church, I have found there is a difference of opinion. Some
+persons consider that the oil is the natural produce of the rock, and
+has ever flowed from it; others, that by a divine gift it flows from the
+relics; and others, allowing that it now comes naturally from the rock,
+are disposed to hold that it was in its origin miraculous, as was the
+virtue of the pool of Bethsaida.
+
+This point must be settled of course before the virtue of the oil can be
+ascribed to the sanctity of St. Walburga; for myself, I neither have,
+nor ever have had, the means of going into the question; but I will take
+the opportunity of its having come before me, to make one or two
+remarks, supplemental of what I have said on other occasions.
+
+1. I frankly confess that the present advance of science tends to make
+it probable that various facts take place, and have taken place, in the
+order of nature, which hitherto have been considered by Catholics as
+simply supernatural.
+
+2. Though I readily make this admission, it must not be supposed in
+consequence that I am disposed to grant at once, that every event was
+natural in point of fact, which _might_ have taken place by the laws of
+nature; for it is obvious, no Catholic can bind the Almighty to act only
+in one and the same way, or to the observance always of His own laws. An
+event which is possible in the way of nature, is certainly possible too
+to Divine Power without the sequence of natural cause and effect at all.
+A conflagration, to take a parallel, may be the work of an incendiary,
+or the result of a flash of lightning; nor would a jury think it safe to
+find a man guilty of arson, if a dangerous thunderstorm was raging at
+the very time when the fire broke out. In like manner, upon the
+hypothesis that a miraculous dispensation is in operation, a recovery
+from diseases to which medical science is equal, may nevertheless in
+matter of fact have taken place, not by natural means, but by a
+supernatural interposition. That the Lawgiver always acts through His
+own laws, is an assumption, of which I never saw proof. In a given case,
+then, the possibility of assigning a human cause for an event does not
+_ipso facto_ prove that it is not miraculous.
+
+3. So far, however, is plain, that, till some _experimentum crucis_ can
+be found, such as to be decisive against the natural cause or the
+supernatural, an occurrence of this kind will as little convince an
+unbeliever that there has been a divine interference in the case, as it
+will drive the Catholic to admit that there has been no interference at
+all.
+
+4. Still there is this gain accruing to the Catholic cause from the
+larger views we now possess of the operation of natural causes, viz.
+that our opponents will not in future be so ready as hitherto, to impute
+fraud and falsehood to our priests and their witnesses, on the ground of
+their pretending or reporting things that are incredible. Our opponents
+have again and again accused us of false witness, on account of
+statements which they now allow are either true, or may have been true.
+They account indeed for the strange facts very differently from us; but
+still they allow that facts they were. It is a great thing to have our
+characters cleared; and we may reasonably hope that, the next time our
+word is vouched for occurrences which appear to be miraculous, our facts
+will be investigated, not our testimony impugned.
+
+5. Even granting that certain occurrences, which we have hitherto
+accounted miraculous, have not absolutely a claim to be so considered,
+nevertheless they constitute an argument still in behalf of Revelation
+and the Church. Providences, or what are called _grazie_, though they do
+not rise to the order of miracles, yet, if they occur again and again in
+connexion with the same persons, institutions, or doctrines, may supply
+a cumulative evidence of the fact of a supernatural presence in the
+quarter in which they are found. I have already alluded to this point in
+my Essay on Ecclesiastical Miracles, and I have a particular reason, as
+will presently be seen, for referring here to what I said in the course
+of it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In that Essay, after bringing its main argument to an end, I append to
+it a review of "the evidence for particular alleged miracles." "It does
+not strictly fall within the scope of the Essay," I observe, "to
+pronounce upon the truth or falsehood of this or that miraculous
+narrative, as it occurs in ecclesiastical history; but only to furnish
+such general considerations, as may be useful in forming a decision in
+particular cases," p. cv. However, I thought it right to go farther and
+"to set down the evidence for and against certain miracles as we meet
+with them," ibid. In discussing these miracles separately, I make the
+following remarks, to which I have just been referring.
+
+After discussing the alleged miracle of the Thundering Legion, I
+observe:--"Nor does it concern us much to answer the objection, that
+there is nothing strictly miraculous in such an occurrence, because
+sudden thunderclouds after drought are not unfrequent; for, I would
+answer, Grant me such miracles ordinarily in the early Church, and I
+will ask no other; grant that, upon prayer, benefits are vouchsafed,
+deliverances are effected, unhoped-for results obtained, sicknesses
+cured, tempests laid, pestilences put to flight, famines remedied,
+judgments inflicted, and there will be no need of analyzing the causes,
+whether supernatural or natural, to which they are to be referred. They
+may, or they may not, in this or that case, follow or surpass the laws
+of nature, and they may do so plainly or doubtfully, but the common
+sense of mankind will call them miraculous; for by a miracle is
+popularly meant, whatever be its formal definition, an event which
+impresses upon the mind the immediate presence of the Moral Governor of
+the world. He may sometimes act through nature, sometimes beyond or
+against it; but those who admit the fact of such interferences, will
+have little difficulty in admitting also their strictly miraculous
+character, if the circumstances of the case require it, and those who
+deny miracles to the early Church will be equally strenuous against
+allowing her the grace of such intimate influence (if we may so speak)
+upon the course of divine Providence, as is here in question, even
+though it be not miraculous."--p. cxxi.
+
+And again, speaking of the death of Arius: "But after all, was it a
+miracle? for, if not, we are labouring at a proof of which nothing
+comes. The more immediate answer to this question has already been
+suggested several times. When a Bishop with his flock prays night and
+day against a heretic, and at length begs of God to take him away, and
+when he _is_ suddenly taken away, almost at the moment of his triumph,
+and that by a death awfully significant, from its likeness to one
+recorded in Scripture, is it not trifling to ask whether such an
+occurrence comes up to the definition of a miracle? The question is not
+whether it is formally a miracle, but whether it is an event, the like
+of which persons, who deny that miracles continue, will consent that the
+Church should be considered still able to perform. If they are willing
+to allow to the Church such extraordinary protection, it is for them to
+draw the line to the satisfaction of people in general, between these
+and strictly miraculous events; if, on the other hand, they deny their
+occurrence in the times of the Church, then there is sufficient reason
+for our appealing here to the history of Arius in proof of the
+affirmative."--p. clxxii.
+
+These remarks, thus made upon the Thundering Legion and the death of
+Arius, must be applied, in consequence of investigations made since the
+date of my Essay, to the apparent miracle wrought in favour of the
+African confessors in the Vandal persecution. Their tongues were cut out
+by the Arian tyrant, and yet they spoke as before. In my Essay I
+insisted on this fact as being strictly miraculous. Among other remarks
+(referring to the instances adduced by Middleton and others in
+disparagement of the miracle, viz. of "a girl born without a tongue, who
+yet talked as distinctly and easily, as if she had enjoyed the full
+benefit of that organ," and of a boy who lost his tongue at the age of
+eight or nine, yet retained his speech, whether perfectly or not,) I
+said, "Does Middleton mean to say, that, if certain of men lost their
+tongues _at the command of a tyrant_ for the _sake of their religion_,
+and then spoke _as plainly_ as before, nay _if only one person was so
+mutilated_ and so gifted, it would not be a miracle?"--p. ccx. And I
+enlarged upon the minute details of the fact as reported to us by
+eye-witnesses and contemporaries. "Out of the seven writers adduced, six
+are contemporaries; three, if not four, are eye-witnesses of the
+miracle. One reports from an eye-witness, and one testifies to a fervent
+record at the burial-place of the subjects of it. All seven were living,
+or had been staying, at one or other of the two places which are
+mentioned as their abode. One is a Pope, a second a Catholic Bishop, a
+third a Bishop of a schismatical party, a fourth an emperor, a fifth a
+soldier, a politician, and a suspected infidel, a sixth a statesman and
+courtier, a seventh a rhetorician and philosopher. 'He cut out the
+tongues by the roots,' says Victor, Bishop of Vito; 'I perceived the
+tongues entirely gone by the roots,' says Æneas; 'as low down as the
+throat,' says Procopius; 'at the roots,' say Justinian and St. Gregory;
+'he spoke like an educated man, without impediment,' says Victor of
+Vito; 'with articulateness,' says Æneas; 'better than before;' 'they
+talked without any impediment,' says Procopius; 'speaking with perfect
+voice,' says Marcellinus; 'they spoke perfectly, even to the end,' says
+the second Victor; 'the words were formed, full, and perfect,' says St.
+Gregory."--p. ccviii.
+
+However, a few years ago an Article appeared in "Notes and Queries" (No.
+for May 22, 1858), in which various evidence was adduced to show that
+the tongue is not necessary for articulate speech.
+
+1. Col. Churchill, in his "Lebanon," speaking of the cruelties of
+Djezzar Pacha, in extracting to the root the tongues of some Emirs,
+adds, "It is a curious fact, however, that the tongues grow again
+sufficiently for the purposes of speech."
+
+2. Sir John Malcolm, in his "Sketches of Persia," speaks of Zâb, Khan of
+Khisht, who was condemned to lose his tongue. "This mandate," he says,
+"was imperfectly executed, and the loss of half this member deprived him
+of speech. Being afterwards persuaded that its being cut close to the
+root would enable him to speak so as to be understood, he submitted to
+the operation; and the effect has been, that his voice, though
+indistinct and thick, is yet intelligible to persons accustomed to
+converse with him.... I am not an anatomist, and I cannot therefore give
+a reason, why a man, who could not articulate with half a tongue, should
+speak when he had none at all; but the facts are as stated."
+
+3. And Sir John McNeill says, "In answer to your inquiries about the
+powers of speech retained by persons who have had their tongues cut out,
+I can state from personal observation, that several persons whom I knew
+in Persia, who had been subjected to that punishment, spoke so
+intelligibly as to be able to transact important business.... The
+conviction in Persia is universal, that the power of speech is destroyed
+by merely cutting off the tip of the tongue; and is to a useful extent
+restored by cutting off another portion as far back as a perpendicular
+section can be made of the portion that is free from attachment at the
+lower surface.... I never had to meet with a person who had suffered
+this punishment, who could not speak so as to be quite intelligible to
+his familiar associates."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I should not be honest, if I professed to be simply converted, by these
+testimonies, to the belief that there was nothing miraculous in the case
+of the African confessors. It is quite as fair to be sceptical on one
+side of the question as on the other; and if Gibbon is considered worthy
+of praise for his stubborn incredulity in receiving the evidence for
+this miracle, I do not see why I am to be blamed, if I wish to be quite
+sure of the full appositeness of the recent evidence which is brought to
+its disadvantage. Questions of fact cannot be disproved by analogies or
+presumptions; the inquiry must be made into the particular case in all
+its parts, as it comes before us. Meanwhile, I fully allow that the
+points of evidence brought in disparagement of the miracle are _primâ
+facie_ of such cogency, that, till they are proved to be irrelevant,
+Catholics are prevented from appealing to it for controversial purposes.
+
+
+
+
+NOTE C. ON PAGE 153.
+
+SERMON ON WISDOM AND INNOCENCE.
+
+
+The professed basis of the charge of lying and equivocation made against
+me, and, in my person, against the Catholic clergy, was, as I have
+already noticed in the Preface, a certain Sermon of mine on "Wisdom and
+Innocence," being the 20th in a series of "Sermons on Subjects of the
+Day," written, preached, and published while I was an Anglican. Of this
+Sermon my accuser spoke thus in his Pamphlet:--
+
+    "It is occupied entirely with the attitude of 'the world' to
+    'Christians' and 'the Church.' By the world appears to be
+    signified, especially, the Protestant public of these realms;
+    what Dr. Newman means by Christians, and the Church, he has not
+    left in doubt; for in the preceding Sermon he says: 'But if the
+    truth must be spoken, what are the humble monk and the holy nun,
+    and other regulars, as they are called, but Christians after the
+    very pattern given us in Scripture, &c.'.... This is his
+    definition of Christians. And in the Sermon itself, he
+    sufficiently defines what he means by 'the Church,' in two notes
+    of her character, which he shall give in his own words: 'What,
+    for instance, though we grant that sacramental confession and
+    the celibacy of the clergy do tend to consolidate the body
+    politic in the relation of rulers and subjects, or, in other
+    words, to aggrandize the priesthood? for how can the Church be
+    one body without such relation?'"--Pp. 8, 9.
+
+He then proceeded to analyze and comment on it at great length, and to
+criticize severely the method and tone of my Sermons generally. Among
+other things, he said:--
+
+    "What, then, did the Sermon _mean_? Why was it preached? To
+    insinuate that a Church which had sacramental confession and a
+    celibate clergy was the only true Church? Or to insinuate that
+    the admiring young gentlemen who listened to him stood to their
+    fellow-countrymen in the relation of the early Christians to the
+    heathen Romans? Or that Queen Victoria's Government was to the
+    Church of England what Nero's or Dioclesian's was to the Church
+    of Rome? It may have been so. I know that men used to suspect
+    Dr. Newman,--I have been inclined to do so myself,--of writing a
+    whole Sermon, not for the sake of the text or of the matter, but
+    for the sake of one single passing hint--one phrase, one
+    epithet, one little barbed arrow, which, as he swept
+    magnificently past on the stream of his calm eloquence,
+    seemingly unconscious of all presences, save those unseen, he
+    delivered unheeded, as with his finger-tip, to the very heart of
+    an initiated hearer, never to be withdrawn again. I do not blame
+    him for that. It is one of the highest triumphs of oratoric
+    power, and may be employed honestly and fairly by any person who
+    has the skill to do it honestly and fairly; but then, Why did he
+    entitle his Sermon 'Wisdom and Innocence?'
+
+    "What, then, could I think that Dr. Newman _meant_? I found a
+    preacher bidding Christians imitate, to some undefined point,
+    the 'arts' of the basest of animals, and of men, and of the
+    devil himself. I found him, by a strange perversion of
+    Scripture, insinuating that St. Paul's conduct and manner were
+    such as naturally to bring down on him the reputation of being a
+    crafty deceiver. I found him--horrible to say it--even hinting
+    the same of one greater than St. Paul. I found him denying or
+    explaining away the existence of that Priestcraft, which is a
+    notorious fact to every honest student of history, and
+    justifying (as far as I can understand him) that double dealing
+    by which prelates, in the middle age, too often played off
+    alternately the sovereign against the people, and the people
+    against the sovereign, careless which was in the right, so long
+    as their own power gained by the move. I found him actually
+    using of such (and, as I thought, of himself and his party
+    likewise) the words 'They yield outwardly; to assent inwardly
+    were to betray the faith. Yet they are called deceitful and
+    double-dealing, because they do as much as they can, and not
+    more than they may.' I found him telling Christians that they
+    will always seem 'artificial,' and 'wanting in openness and
+    manliness;' that they will always be 'a mystery' to the world,
+    and that the world will always think them rogues; and bidding
+    them glory in what the world (i.e. the rest of their countrymen)
+    disown, and say with Mawworm, 'I like to be despised.'
+
+    "Now, how was I to know that the preacher, who had the
+    reputation of being the most acute man of his generation, and of
+    having a specially intimate acquaintance with the weaknesses of
+    the human heart, was utterly blind to the broad meaning and the
+    plain practical result of a Sermon like this, delivered before
+    fanatic and hot-headed young men, who hung upon his every word?
+    that he did not foresee that they would think that they obeyed
+    him by becoming affected, artificial, sly, shifty, ready for
+    concealments and equivocations?" &c. &c.--Pp. 14-16.
+
+My accuser asked in this passage what did the Sermon _mean_, and why was
+it preached. I will here answer this question; and with this view will
+speak, first of the _matter_ of the Sermon, then of its _subject_, then
+of its _circumstances_.
+
+1. It was one of the last six Sermons which I wrote when I was an
+Anglican. It was one of the five Sermons I preached in St. Mary's
+between Christmas and Easter, 1843, the year when I gave up my Living.
+The MS. of the Sermon is destroyed; but I believe, and my memory too
+bears me out, as far as it goes, that the sentence in question about
+Celibacy and Confession, of which this writer would make so much, _was
+not preached at all_. The Volume, in which this Sermon is found, was
+published _after_ that I had given up St. Mary's, when I had no call on
+me to restrain the expression of any thing which I might hold: and I
+stated an important fact about it in the Advertisement, in these
+words:--
+
+    "In preparing [these Sermons] for publication, _a few words and
+    sentences_ have in several places been _added_, which will be
+    found to express more _of private or personal opinion_, than it
+    was expedient to introduce into the _instruction_ delivered in
+    Church to a parochial Congregation. Such introduction, however,
+    seems unobjectionable in the case of compositions, which are
+    _detached_ from the sacred place and service to which they once
+    belonged, and _submitted to the reason_ and judgment of the
+    general reader."
+
+This Volume of Sermons then cannot be criticized at all as
+_preachments_; they are _essays_; essays of a man who, at the time of
+publishing them, was _not_ a preacher. Such passages, as that in
+question, are just the very ones which I added _upon_ my publishing
+them; and, as I always was on my guard in the pulpit against saying any
+thing which looked towards Rome, I shall believe that I did not preach
+the obnoxious sentence till some one is found to testify that he heard
+it.
+
+At the same time I cannot conceive why the mention of Sacramental
+Confession, or of Clerical Celibacy, had I made it, was inconsistent
+with the position of an Anglican Clergyman. For Sacramental Confession
+and Absolution actually form a portion of the Anglican Visitation of the
+Sick; and though the 32nd Article says that "Bishops, priests, and
+deacons, are not _commanded_ by God's law either to vow the state of
+single life or to abstain from marriage," and "therefore it is _lawful_
+for them to marry," this proposition I did not dream of denying, nor is
+it inconsistent with St. Paul's doctrine, which I held, that it is
+"_good_ to abide even as he," i.e. in celibacy.
+
+But I have more to say on this point. This writer says, "I know that men
+used to suspect Dr. Newman,--I have been inclined to do so myself,--of
+_writing a whole Sermon, not for the sake of the text or of the matter_,
+but for the sake of one simple passing hint,--one phrase, one epithet."
+Now observe; can there be a plainer testimony borne to the practical
+character of my Sermons at St. Mary's than this gratuitous insinuation?
+Many a preacher of Tractarian doctrine has been accused of not letting
+his parishioners alone, and of teasing them with his private theological
+notions. The same report was spread about me twenty years ago as this
+writer spreads now, and the world believed that my Sermons at St. Mary's
+were full of red-hot Tractarianism. Then strangers came to hear me
+preach, and were astonished at their own disappointment. I recollect the
+wife of a great prelate from a distance coming to hear me, and then
+expressing her surprise to find that I preached nothing but a plain
+humdrum Sermon. I recollect how, when on the Sunday before Commemoration
+one year, a number of strangers came to hear me, and I preached in my
+usual way, residents in Oxford, of high position, were loud in their
+satisfaction that on a great occasion, I had made a simple failure, for
+after all there was nothing in the Sermon to hear. Well, but they were
+not going to let me off, for all my common-sense view of duty.
+Accordingly they got up the charitable theory which this Writer revives.
+They said that there was a double purpose in those plain addresses of
+mine, and that my Sermons were never so artful as when they seemed
+common-place; that there were sentences which redeemed their apparent
+simplicity and quietness. So they watched during the delivery of a
+Sermon, which to them was too practical to be useful, for the concealed
+point of it, which they could at least imagine, if they could not
+discover. "Men used to suspect Dr. Newman," he says, "of writing a
+_whole_ Sermon, _not_ for the sake of _the text or of the matter_, but
+for the sake of one single passing hint, ... _one_ phrase, _one_
+epithet, _one_ little barbed arrow, which, as he _swept magnificently_
+past on the stream of his calm eloquence, _seemingly_ unconscious of all
+presences, save those unseen, he delivered unheeded," &c. To all
+appearance, he says, I was "unconscious of all presences." He is not
+able to deny that the "_whole_ Sermon" had the _appearance_ of being
+"_for the sake_ of the text and matter;" therefore he suggests that
+perhaps it wasn't.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+2. And now as to the subject of the Sermon. The Sermons of which the
+Volume consists are such as are, more or less, exceptions to the rule
+which I ordinarily observed, as to the subjects which I introduced into
+the pulpit of St. Mary's. They are not purely ethical or doctrinal. They
+were for the most part caused by circumstances of the day or of the
+moment, and they belong to various years. One was written in 1832, two
+in 1836, two in 1838, five in 1840, five in 1841, four in 1842, seven in
+1843. Many of them are engaged on one subject, viz. in viewing the
+Church in its relation to the world. By the world was meant, not simply
+those multitudes which were not in the Church, but the existing body of
+human society, whether in the Church or not, whether Catholics,
+Protestants, Greeks, or Mahometans, theists or idolaters, as being ruled
+by principles, maxims, and instincts of their own, that is, of an
+unregenerate nature, whatever their supernatural privileges might be,
+greater or less, according to their form of religion. This view of the
+relation of the Church to the world as taken apart from questions of
+ecclesiastical politics, as they may be called, is often brought out in
+my Sermons. Two occur to me at once; No. 3 of my Plain Sermons, which
+was written in 1829, and No. 15 of my Third Volume of Parochial, written
+in 1835. On the other hand, by Church I meant,--in common with all
+writers connected with the Tract Movement, whatever their shades of
+opinion, and with the whole body of English divines, except those of the
+Puritan or Evangelical School,--the whole of Christendom, from the
+Apostles' time till now, whatever their later divisions into Latin,
+Greek, and Anglican. I have explained this view of the subject above at
+pp. 69-71 of this Volume. When then I speak, in the particular Sermon
+before us, of the members, or the rulers, or the action of "the Church,"
+I mean neither the Latin, nor the Greek, nor the English, taken by
+itself, but of the whole Church as one body: of Italy as one with
+England, of the Saxon or Norman as one with the Caroline Church. _This_
+was specially the one Church, and the points in which one branch or one
+period differed from another were not and could not be Notes of the
+Church, because Notes necessarily belong to the whole of the Church
+every where and always.
+
+This being my doctrine as to the relation of the Church to the world, I
+laid down in the Sermon three principles concerning it, and there left
+the matter. The first is, that Divine Wisdom had framed for its action
+laws, which man, if left to himself, would have antecedently pronounced
+to be the worst possible for its success, and which in all ages have
+been called by the world, as they were in the Apostles' days,
+"foolishness;" that man ever relies on physical and material force, and
+on carnal inducements as Mahomet with his sword and his houris, or
+indeed almost as that theory of religion, called, since the Sermon was
+written, "muscular Christianity;" but that our Lord, on the contrary,
+has substituted meekness for haughtiness, passiveness for violence, and
+innocence for craft: and that the event has shown the high wisdom of
+such an economy, for it has brought to light a set of natural laws,
+unknown before, by which the seeming paradox that weakness should be
+stronger than might, and simplicity than worldly policy, is readily
+explained.
+
+Secondly, I said that men of the world, judging by the event, and not
+recognizing the secret causes of the success, viz. a higher order of
+natural laws,--natural, though their source and action were
+supernatural, (for "the meek inherit the earth," by means of a meekness
+which comes from above,)--these men, I say, concluded, that the success
+which they witnessed must arise from some evil secret which the world
+had not mastered,--by means of magic, as they said in the first ages, by
+cunning as they say now. And accordingly they thought that the humility
+and inoffensiveness of Christians, or of Churchmen, was a mere pretence
+and blind to cover the real causes of that success, which Christians
+could explain and would not; and that they were simply hypocrites.
+
+Thirdly, I suggested that shrewd ecclesiastics, who knew very well that
+there was neither magic nor craft in the matter, and, from their
+intimate acquaintance with what actually went on within the Church,
+discerned what were the real causes of its success, were of course under
+the temptation of substituting reason for conscience, and, instead of
+simply obeying the command, were led to do good that good might come,
+that is, to act _in order_ to secure success, and not from a motive of
+faith. Some, I said, did yield to the temptation more or less, and their
+motives became mixed; and in this way the world in a more subtle shape
+had got into the Church; and hence it had come to pass, that, looking at
+its history from first to last, we could not possibly draw the line
+between good and evil there, and say either that every thing was to be
+defended, or certain things to be condemned. I expressed the difficulty,
+which I supposed to be inherent in the Church, in the following words. I
+said, "_Priestcraft has ever been considered the badge_, and its
+imputation is a kind of Note of the Church: and _in part indeed truly_,
+because the presence of powerful enemies, and the sense of their own
+weakness, _has sometimes tempted Christians to the abuse, instead of the
+use of Christian wisdom, to be wise without being harmless_; but partly,
+nay, for the most part, not truly, but slanderously, and merely because
+the world called their wisdom craft, when it was found to be a match for
+its own numbers and power."
+
+Such is the substance of the Sermon: and as to the main drift of it, it
+was this; that I was, there and elsewhere, scrutinizing the course of
+the Church as a whole, as if philosophically, as an historical
+phenomenon, and observing the laws on which it was conducted. Hence the
+Sermon, or Essay as it more truly is, is written in a dry and
+unimpassioned way: it shows as little of human warmth of feeling as a
+Sermon of Bishop Butler's. Yet, under that calm exterior there was a
+deep and keen sensitiveness, as I shall now proceed to show.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+3. If I mistake not, it was written with a secret thought about myself.
+Every one preaches according to his frame of mind, at the time of
+preaching. One heaviness especially oppressed me at that season, which
+this Writer, twenty years afterwards, has set himself with a good will
+to renew: it arose from the sense of the base calumnies which were
+heaped upon me on all sides. It is worth observing that this Sermon is
+exactly contemporaneous with the report spread by a Bishop (_vid. supr._
+p. 181), that I had advised a clergyman converted to Catholicism to
+retain his Living. This report was in circulation in February 1843, and
+my Sermon was preached on the 19th. In the trouble of mind into which I
+was thrown by such calumnies as this, I gained, while I reviewed the
+history of the Church, at once an argument and a consolation. My
+argument was this: if I, who knew my own innocence, was so blackened by
+party prejudice, perhaps those high rulers and those servants of the
+Church, in the many ages which intervened between the early Nicene times
+and the present, who were laden with such grievous accusations, were
+innocent also; and this reflection served to make me tender towards
+those great names of the past, to whom weaknesses or crimes were
+imputed, and reconciled me to difficulties in ecclesiastical
+proceedings, which there were no means now of properly explaining. And
+the sympathy thus excited for them, re-acted on myself, and I found
+comfort in being able to put myself under the shadow of those who had
+suffered as I was suffering, and who seemed to promise me their
+recompense, since I had a fellowship in their trial. In a letter to my
+Bishop at the time of Tract 90, part of which I have quoted, I said that
+I had ever tried to "keep innocency;" and now two years had passed since
+then, and men were louder and louder in heaping on me the very charges,
+which this Writer repeats out of my Sermon, of "fraud and cunning,"
+"craftiness and deceitfulness," "double-dealing," "priestcraft," of
+being "mysterious, dark, subtle, designing," when I was all the time
+conscious to myself, in my degree, and after my measure, of "sobriety,
+self-restraint, and control of word and feeling." I had had experience
+how my past success had been imputed to "secret management;" and how,
+when I had shown surprise at that success, that surprise again was
+imputed to "deceit;" and how my honest heartfelt submission to authority
+had been called, as it was called in a Bishop's charge abroad, "mystic
+humility;" and how my silence was called an "hypocrisy;" and my
+faithfulness to my clerical engagements a secret correspondence with the
+enemy. And I found a way of destroying my sensitiveness about these
+things which jarred upon my sense of justice, and otherwise would have
+been too much for me, by the contemplation of a large law of the Divine
+Dispensation, and felt myself more and more able to bear in my own
+person a present trial, of which in my past writings I had expressed an
+anticipation.
+
+For this feeling and thus speaking this Writer compares me to "Mawworm."
+"I found him telling Christians," he says, "that they will always seem
+'artificial,' and 'wanting in openness and manliness;' that they will
+always be 'a mystery' to the world; and that the world will always think
+them rogues; and bidding them glory in what the world (that is, the rest
+of their fellow-countrymen) disown, and say with Mawworm, 'I like to be
+despised.' Now how was I to know that the preacher ... was utterly blind
+to the broad meaning and the plain practical result of a Sermon like
+this delivered before fanatic and hot-headed young men, who hung upon
+his every word?"--Fanatic and hot-headed young men, who hung on my every
+word! If he had undertaken to write a history, and not a romance, he
+would have easily found out, as I have said above, that from 1841 I had
+severed myself from the younger generation of Oxford, that Dr. Pusey and
+I had then closed our theological meetings at his house, that I had
+brought my own weekly evening parties to an end, that I preached only by
+fits and starts at St. Mary's, so that the attendance of young men was
+broken up, that in those very weeks from Christmas till over Easter,
+during which this Sermon was preached, I was but five times in the
+pulpit there. He would have found, that it was written at a time when I
+was shunned rather than sought, when I had great sacrifices in
+anticipation, when I was thinking much of myself; that I was ruthlessly
+tearing myself away from my own followers, and that, in the musings of
+that Sermon, I was at the very utmost only delivering a testimony in my
+behalf for time to come, not sowing my rhetoric broadcast for the chance
+of present sympathy.
+
+Again, he says: "I found him actually using of such [prelates], (and, as
+I thought, of himself and his party likewise,) the words 'They yield
+outwardly; to assent inwardly were to betray the faith. Yet they are
+called deceitful and double-dealing, because they do as much as they
+can, not more than they may.'" This too is a proof of my duplicity! Let
+this writer, in his dealings with some one else, go just a little
+further than he has gone with me; and let him get into a court of law
+for libel; and let him be convicted; and let him still fancy that his
+libel, though a libel, was true, and let us then see whether he will not
+in such a case "yield outwardly," without assenting internally; and then
+again whether we should please him, if we called him "deceitful and
+double-dealing," because "he did as much as he could, not more than he
+ought to do." But Tract 90 will supply a real illustration of what I
+meant. I yielded to the Bishops in outward act, viz. in not defending
+the Tract, and in closing the Series; but, not only did I not assent
+inwardly to any condemnation of it, but I opposed myself to the
+proposition of a condemnation on the part of authority. Yet I was then
+by the public called "deceitful and double-dealing," as this Writer
+calls me now, "because I did as much as I felt I could do, and not more
+than I felt I could honestly do." Many were the publications of the day
+and the private letters, which accused me of shuffling, because I closed
+the Series of Tracts, yet kept the Tracts on sale, as if I ought to
+comply not only with what my Bishop asked, but with what he did not ask,
+and perhaps did not wish. However, such teaching, according to this
+Writer, was likely to make young men "suspect, that truth was not a
+virtue for its own sake, but only for the sake of the spread of
+'Catholic opinions,' and the 'salvation of their own souls;' and that
+cunning was the weapon which heaven had allowed to them to defend
+themselves against the persecuting Protestant public."--p. 16.
+
+And now I draw attention to a further point. He says, "How was I to know
+that the preacher ... did not foresee, that [fanatic and hot-headed
+young men] would think that they obeyed him, by becoming affected,
+artificial, sly, shifty, ready for concealments and _equivocations_?"
+"How should he know!" What! I suppose that we are to think every man a
+knave till he is proved not to be such. Know! had he no friend to tell
+him whether I was "affected" or "artificial" myself? Could he not have
+done better than impute _equivocations_ to me, at a time when I was in
+no sense answerable for the _amphibologia_ of the Roman casuists? Had he
+a single fact which belongs to me personally or by profession to couple
+my name with equivocation in 1843? "How should he know" that I was not
+sly, smooth, artificial, non-natural! he should know by that common
+manly frankness, by which we put confidence in others, till they are
+proved to have forfeited it; he should know it by my own words in that
+very Sermon, in which I say it is best to be natural, and that reserve
+is at best but an unpleasant necessity. For I say there expressly:--
+
+    "I do not deny that there is something very engaging in a frank
+    and unpretending manner; some persons have it more than others;
+    in _some persons it is a great grace_. But it must be
+    recollected that I am speaking of _times of persecution and
+    oppression_ to Christians, such as the text foretells; and then
+    surely frankness will become nothing else than indignation at
+    the oppressor, and vehement speech, if it is permitted.
+    Accordingly, as persons have deep feelings, so they will find
+    the necessity of self-control, lest they should say what they
+    ought not."
+
+He sums up thus:
+
+    "If [Dr. Newman] would ... persist (as in this Sermon) in
+    dealing with matters dark, offensive, doubtful, sometimes
+    actually forbidden, at least according to the notions of the
+    great majority of English Churchmen; if he would always do so in
+    a tentative, paltering way, seldom or never letting the world
+    know how much he believed, how far he intended to go; if, in a
+    word, his method of teaching was a suspicious one, what wonder
+    if the minds of men were filled with suspicions of him?"--p. 17.
+
+Now, in the course of my Narrative, I have frankly admitted that I was
+tentative in such of my works as fairly allowed of the introduction into
+them of religious inquiry; but he is speaking of my Sermons; where,
+then, is his proof that in my Sermons I dealt in matters dark,
+offensive, doubtful, actually forbidden? He must show that I was
+tentative in my Sermons; and he has the range of eight volumes to gather
+evidence in. As to the ninth, my University Sermons, of course I was
+tentative in them; but not because "I would seldom or never let the
+world know how much I believed, or how far I intended to go;" but
+because University Sermons are commonly, and allowably, of the nature of
+disquisitions, as preached before a learned body; and because in deep
+subjects, which had not been fully investigated, I said as much as I
+believed, and about as far as I saw I could go; and a man cannot do
+more; and I account no man to be a philosopher who attempts to do more.
+
+
+
+
+NOTE D. ON PAGE 213.
+
+SERIES OF SAINTS' LIVES OF 1843-4.
+
+
+I have here an opportunity of preserving, what otherwise would be lost,
+the Catalogue of English Saints which I formed, as preparatory to the
+Series of their Lives which was begun in the above years. It is but a
+first Essay, and has many obvious imperfections; but it may be useful to
+others as a step towards a complete hagiography for England. For
+instance St. Osberga is omitted; I suppose because it was not easy to
+learn any thing about her. Boniface of Canterbury is inserted, though
+passed over by the Bollandists on the ground of the absence of proof of
+a _cultus_ having been paid to him. The Saints of Cornwall were too
+numerous to be attempted. Among the men of note, not Saints, King Edward
+II. is included from piety towards the founder of Oriel College. With
+these admissions I present my Paper to the reader.
+
+    _Preparing for Publication, in Periodical Numbers, in small 8vo,
+    The Lives of the English Saints, Edited by the Rev. John Henry
+    Newman, B.D., Fellow of Oriel College._
+
+    It is the compensation of the disorders and perplexities of
+    these latter times of the Church that we have the history of the
+    foregoing. We indeed of this day have been reserved to witness a
+    disorganization of the City of God, which it never entered into
+    the minds of the early believers to imagine: but we are
+    witnesses also of its triumphs and of its luminaries through
+    those many ages which have brought about the misfortunes which
+    at present overshadow it. If they were blessed who lived in
+    primitive times, and saw the fresh traces of their Lord, and
+    heard the echoes of Apostolic voices, blessed too are we whose
+    special portion it is to see that same Lord revealed in His
+    Saints. The wonders of His grace in the soul of man, its
+    creative power, its inexhaustible resources, its manifold
+    operation, all this we know, as they knew it not. They never
+    heard the names of St. Gregory, St. Bernard, St. Francis, and
+    St. Louis. In fixing our thoughts then, as in an undertaking
+    like the present, on the History of the Saints, we are but
+    availing ourselves of that solace and recompense of our peculiar
+    trials which has been provided for our need by our Gracious
+    Master.
+
+    And there are special reasons at this time for recurring to the
+    Saints of our own dear and glorious, most favoured, yet most
+    erring and most unfortunate England. Such a recurrence may serve
+    to make us love our country better, and on truer grounds, than
+    heretofore; to teach us to invest her territory, her cities and
+    villages, her hills and springs, with sacred associations; to
+    give us an insight into her present historical position in the
+    course of the Divine Dispensation; to instruct us in the
+    capabilities of the English character; and to open upon us the
+    duties and the hopes to which that Church is heir, which was in
+    former times the Mother of St. Boniface and St. Ethelreda.
+
+    Even a selection or specimens of the Hagiology of our country
+    may suffice for some of these high purposes; and in so wide and
+    rich a field of research it is almost presumptuous in one
+    undertaking to aim at more than such a partial exhibition. The
+    list that follows, though by no means so large as might have
+    been drawn up, exceeds the limits which the Editor proposes to
+    his hopes, if not to his wishes; but, whether it is allowed him
+    to accomplish a larger or smaller portion of it, it will be his
+    aim to complete such subjects or periods as he begins before
+    bringing it to a close. It is hardly necessary to observe that
+    any list that is producible in this stage of the undertaking can
+    but approximate to correctness and completeness in matters of
+    detail, and even in the names which are selected to compose it.
+
+    He has considered himself at liberty to include in the Series
+    such saints as have been born in England, though they have lived
+    and laboured out of it; and such, again, as have been in any
+    sufficient way connected with our country, though born out of
+    it; for instance, Missionaries or Preachers in it, or spiritual
+    or temporal rulers, or founders of religious institutions or
+    houses.
+
+    He has also included in the Series a few eminent or holy
+    persons, who, though not in the Sacred Catalogue, are
+    recommended to our religious memory by their fame, learning, or
+    the benefits they have conferred on posterity. These have been
+    distinguished from the Saints by printing their names in
+    italics.
+
+    It is proposed to page all the longer Lives separately; the
+    shorter will be thrown together in one. They will be published
+    in monthly issues of not more than 128 pages each; and no
+    regularity, whether of date or of subject, will be observed in
+    the order of publication. But they will be so numbered as to
+    admit ultimately of a general chronological arrangement.
+
+    The separate writers are distinguished by letters subjoined to
+    each Life: and it should be added, to prevent misapprehension,
+    that, since under the present circumstances of our Church, they
+    are necessarily of various, though not divergent, doctrinal
+    opinions, no one is answerable for any composition but his own.
+    At the same time, the work professing an historical and ethical
+    character, questions of theology will be, as far as possible,
+    thrown into the back ground.
+
+J. H. N.
+_Littlemore, Sept. 9, 1843._
+
+
+CALENDAR OF ENGLISH SAINTS.
+
+
+JANUARY.
+ 1 Elvan, B. and Medwyne, C.
+ 2 Martyrs of Lichfield.
+ 3 Melorus, M.
+ 4
+ 5 Edward, K.C.
+ 6 Peter, A.
+ 7 Cedd, B.
+ 8 Pega, V. Wulsin, B.
+ 9 Adrian, A. Bertwald, Archb.
+10 Sethrida, V.
+11 Egwin, B.
+12 Benedict Biscop, A. Aelred, A.
+13 Kentigern, B.
+14 Beuno, A.
+15 Ceolulph, K. Mo.
+16 Henry, Hermit. Fursey, A.
+17 Mildwida, V.
+18 Ulfrid or Wolfrid, M.
+19 Wulstan, B. Henry, B.
+20
+21
+22 Brithwold, B.
+23 Boisil, A.
+24 Cadoc, A.
+25
+26 Theoritgida, V.
+27 Bathildis, Queen.
+28
+29 Gildas, A.
+30
+31 Adamnan, Mo. Serapion, M.
+
+FEBRUARY.
+
+ 1
+ 2 Laurence, Archb.
+ 3 Wereburga, V.
+ 4 Gilbert, A. Liephard, B.M.
+ 5
+ 6 Ina, K. Mo.
+ 7 Augulus, B.M. Richard, K.
+ 8 Elfleda, A. Cuthman, C.
+ 9 Theliau, B.
+10 Trumwin, B.
+11
+12 Ethelwold, B. of Lindisfarne.
+13 Cedmon, Mo., Ermenilda, Q.A.
+14
+15 Sigefride, B.
+16 Finan, B.
+17
+18
+19
+20 Ulric, H.
+21
+22
+23 Milburga, V.
+24 Luidhard, B. Ethelbert of Kent,
+25 Walburga, V.A.
+26
+27 Alnoth, H.M.
+28 Oswald, B.
+29
+
+MARCH.
+
+ 1 David, Archb. Swibert, B.
+ 2 Chad, B. Willeik, C. Joavan, B.
+ 3 Winwaloe, A.
+ 4 Owin, Mo.
+ 5
+ 6 Kineburga, &c., and Tibba, VV.
+ 7 Easterwin, A. William, Friar.
+ 8 Felix, B.
+ 9 Bosa, B.
+10
+11
+12 Elphege, B. Paul de Leon, B.C.
+13
+14 Robert, H.
+15 Eadgith, A.
+16
+17 Withburga, V.
+18 Edward, K.M.
+19 Alcmund, M.
+20 Cuthbert, B. Herbert, B.
+21
+22
+23 Ædelwald, H.
+24 Hildelitha, A.
+25 Alfwold of Sherborne, B. and William, M.
+26
+27
+28
+29 Gundleus, H.
+30 Merwenna, A.
+31
+
+APRIL.
+
+ 1
+ 2
+ 3 Richard, B.
+ 4
+ 5
+ 6
+ 7
+ 8
+ 9 Frithstan, B.
+10
+11 Guthlake, H.
+12
+13 Caradoc, H.
+14 _Richard of Bury, B._
+15 Paternus, B.
+16
+17 Stephen. A.
+18
+19 Elphege, Archb.
+20 Adelbare, M. Cedwalla, K.
+21 Anselm, Archb. Doctor.
+22
+23 George M.
+24
+25
+26
+27
+28
+29 Wilfrid II. Archb.
+30 Erconwald, B. Suibert, B. _Maud, Q._
+
+MAY.
+
+ 1 Asaph, B. Ultan, A. Brioe, B.C.
+ 2 Germanus, M.
+ 3
+ 4
+ 5 Ethelred, K. Mo.
+ 6 Eadbert, A.
+ 7 John, Archb. of Beverley.
+ 8
+ 9
+10
+11 Fremund, M.
+12
+13
+14
+15
+16 Simon Stock, H.
+17
+18 Elgiva, Q.
+19 Dunstan, Archb.  _B. Alcuin, A._
+20 Ethelbert, K.M.
+21 Godric, H.
+22 Winewald, A.  Berethun, A. _Henry, K._
+23
+24 Ethelburga, Q.
+25 Aldhelm, B.
+26 Augustine, Archb.
+27 Bede, D. Mo.
+28 _Lanfranc, Archb._
+29
+30 Walston, C.
+31 Jurmin, C.
+
+JUNE.
+
+ 1 Wistan, K.M.
+ 2
+ 3
+ 4 Petroc, A.
+ 5 Boniface, Archb. M.
+ 6 Gudwall, B.
+ 7 Robert, A.
+ 8 William, Archb.
+ 9
+10 Ivo, B. and Ithamar, B.
+11
+12 Eskill, B.M.
+13
+14 Elerius, A.
+15 Edburga, V.
+16
+17 Botulph, A. John, Fr.
+18
+19
+20 Idaberga, V.
+21 Egelmund, A.
+22 Alban, and Amphibolus, MM.
+23 Ethelreda, V.A.
+24 Bartholomew, H.
+25 Adelbert, C.
+26
+27 John, C. of Moutier.
+28
+29 _Margaret, Countess of Richmond._
+30
+
+JULY.
+
+ 1 Julius, Aaron, MM. Rumold, B. Leonorus, B.
+ 2 Oudoceus, B. Swithun, B.
+ 3 Gunthiern, A.
+ 4 Odo, Archb.
+ 5 Modwenna, V.A.
+ 6 Sexburga, A.
+ 7 Edelburga, V.A. Hedda, B. Willibald, B. Ercongota, V.
+ 8 Grimbald, and Edgar, K.
+ 9 _Stephen Langton, Archb._
+10
+11
+12
+13 Mildreda, V.A.
+14 Marchelm, C. Boniface, Archb.
+15 Deus-dedit, Archb. Plechelm, B. David, A. and Editha of Tamworth,
+Q.V.
+16 Helier, H.M.
+17 Kenelm, K.M.
+18 Edburga and Edgitha of Aylesbury, VV. Frederic, B.M.
+19
+20
+21
+22
+23
+24 Wulfud and Ruffin, MM. Lewinna, V.M.
+25
+26
+27 Hugh, M.
+28 Sampson, B.
+29 Lupus, B.
+30 Tatwin, Archb. and Ermenigitha, V.
+31 Germanus, B. and Neot, H.
+
+AUGUST.
+
+ 1 Ethelwold, B. of Winton.
+ 2 Etheldritha, V.
+ 3 Walthen, A.
+ 4
+ 5 Oswald, K.M. Thomas, Mo. M. of Dover.
+ 6
+ 7
+ 8 Colman, B.
+ 9
+10
+11 _William of Waynfleet, B._
+12
+13 Wigbert, A. Walter, A.
+14 Werenfrid, C.
+15
+16
+17
+18 Helen, Empress.
+19
+20 Oswin, K.M.
+21 Richard, B. of Andria.
+22 Sigfrid, A.
+23 Ebba, V.A.
+24
+25 Ebba, V.A.M.
+26 Bregwin, Archb. _Bradwardine, Archb._
+27 Sturmius, A.
+28
+29 Sebbus, K.
+30
+31 Eanswida, V.A. Aidan, A.B. Cuthburga, Q.V.
+
+SEPTEMBER.
+
+ 1
+ 2 William, B. of Roschid. William, Fr.
+ 3
+ 4
+ 5
+ 6 Bega, A.
+ 7 Alcmund, A. Tilhbert, A.
+ 8
+ 9 Bertelin, H. Wulfhilda or Vulfridis, A.
+10 Otger, C.
+11 _Robert Kilwardby, Archb._
+12
+13
+14 _Richard Fox, B._
+15
+16 Ninian, B. Edith, daughter of Edgar, V.
+17 Socrates and Stephen, MM.
+18
+19 Theodore, Archb.
+20
+21 Hereswide, Q. _Edward II. K._
+22
+23
+24
+25 Ceolfrid, A.
+26
+27 _William of Wykeham, B._
+28 Lioba, V.A.
+29 _B. Richard of Hampole, H._
+30 Honorius, Archb.
+
+OCTOBER.
+
+ 1 Roger, B.
+ 2 Thomas of Hereford, B.
+ 3 Ewalds (two) MM.
+ 4
+ 5 Walter Stapleton, B. Acca, B.
+ 6 Ywy, C.
+ 7 Ositha, Q.V.M.
+ 8 Ceneu, V.
+ 9 Lina, V. and _Robert Grostete, B._
+10 Paulinus, Archb. John, C. of Bridlington.
+11 Edilburga, V.A.
+12 Edwin, K.
+13
+14 Burchard, B.
+15 Tecla, V.A.
+16 Lullus, Archb.
+17 Ethelred, Ethelbright, MM.
+18 _Walter de Merton, B._
+19 Frideswide, V. and Ethbin, A.
+20
+21 Ursula, V.M.
+22 Mello, B.C.
+23
+24 Magloire, B.
+25 _John of Salisbury, B._
+26 Eata, B.
+27 Witta, B.
+28 _B. Alfred._
+29 Sigebert, K. Elfreda, A.
+30
+31 Foillan, B.M.
+
+
+NOVEMBER.
+
+ 1
+ 2
+ 3 Wenefred, V.M. Rumwald, C.
+ 4 Brinstan, B. Clarus, M.
+ 5 Cungar, H.
+ 6 Iltut, A. and Winoc, A.
+ 7 Willebrord, B.
+ 8 Willehad, B. Tyssilio, B.
+ 9
+10 Justus, Archb.
+11
+12 Lebwin, C.
+13 Eadburga of Menstrey, A.
+14 Dubricius, B.C.
+15 Malo, B.
+16 Edmund, B.
+17 Hilda, A. Hugh, B.
+18
+19 Ermenburga, Q.
+20 Edmund, K.M. Humbert, B.M.
+21
+22 Paulinus, A.
+23 Daniel, B.C.
+24
+25
+26
+27
+28 Edwold, M.
+29
+30
+
+DECEMBER.
+
+ 1
+ 2 Weede, V.
+ 3 Birinus, B. Lucius, K. and Sola, H.
+ 4 Osmund, B.
+ 5 Christina, V.
+ 6
+ 7
+ 8 _John Peckham, Archb._
+ 9
+10
+11 Elfleda, A.
+12 Corentin, B.C.
+13 Ethelburga, Q. wife of Edwin.
+14
+15
+16
+17
+18 Winebald, A.
+19
+20
+21 Eadburga, V.A.
+22
+23
+24
+25
+26 Tathai, C.
+27 Gerald, A.B.
+28
+29 Thomas, Archb. M.
+30
+31
+
+N.B. _St. William_, _Austin-Friar_, _Ingulphus_, and _Peter of Blois_
+have not been introduced into the above Calendar, their days of death or
+festival not being as yet ascertained.
+
+
+
+
+CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT.
+
+SECOND CENTURY.
+
+182 Dec. 3. Lucius, K. of the British.
+     Jan. 1. Elvan, B. and Medwyne, C. envoys from St. Lucius to Rome.
+
+FOURTH CENTURY.
+
+300 Oct. 22. Mello, B. C. of Rouen.
+303 Ap. 23. George, M. under Dioclesian. Patron of England.
+    June 22. Alban and Amphibalus, MM.
+    July 1. Julius and Aaron, MM. of Caerleon.
+304 Jan. 2. Martyrs of Lichfield.
+    Feb. 7. Augulus, B.M. of London.
+328 Aug. 18. Helen, Empress, mother of Constantine.
+388 Sept. 17. Socrates and Stephen, M.M. perhaps in Wales.
+411 Jan. 3. Melorus, M. in Cornwall.
+
+FIFTH CENTURY.
+
+432 Sept. 16. Ninian, B. Apostle of the Southern Picts.
+429 July 31. Germanus, B. C. of Auxerre.
+     July 29. Lupus, B. C. of Troyes.
+502 May 1. Brioc, B. C., disciple of St. Germanus.
+490 Oct. 8. Ceneu, or Keyna, V., sister-in-law of Gundleus.
+492 Mar. 29. Gundleus, Hermit, in Wales.
+    July 3. Gunthiern, A., in Brittany.
+453 Oct. 21. Ursula, V.M. near Cologne.
+bef. 500 Dec. 12. Corentin, B.C. of Quimper.
+
+FIFTH AND SIXTH CENTURIES.
+
+Welsh Schools.
+
+444-522 Nov. 14. Dubricius, B.C., first Bishop of Llandaff.
+520 Nov. 22. Paulinus, A. of Whitland, tutor of St. David and St.
+Theliau.
+445-544 Mar. 1. David, Archb. of Menevia, afterwards called from him.
+abt. 500 Dec. 26. Tathai, C., master of St. Cadoc.
+480 Jan. 24. Cadoc, A., son of St. Gundleus, and nephew of St. Keyna.
+abt. 513 Nov. 6. Iltut, A., converted by St. Cadoc.
+545 Nov. 23. Daniel, B.C., first Bishop of Bangor.
+aft. 559 Apr. 18. Paternus, B.A., pupil of St. Iltut.
+573 Mar. 12. Paul, B.C. of Leon, pupil of St. Iltut.
+    Mar. 2. Ioavan, B., pupil of St. Paul.
+599 July 28. Sampson, B., pupil of St. Iltut, cousin of St. Paul de
+Leon.
+565 Nov. 15. Malo, B., cousin of St. Sampson.
+575 Oct. 24. Magloire, B., cousin of St. Malo.
+583 Jan. 29. Gildas, A., pupil of St. Iltut.
+    July 1. Leonorus, B., pupil of St. Iltut.
+604 Feb. 9. Theliau, B. of Llandaff, pupil of St. Dubricius.
+560 July 2. Oudoceus, B., nephew to St. Theliau.
+500-580 Oct. 19. Ethbin, A., pupil of St. Sampson.
+516-601 Jan. 13. Kentigern, B. of Glasgow, founder of Monastery of
+Elwy.
+
+SIXTH CENTURY.
+
+529 Mar. 3. Winwaloe, A., in Brittany.
+564 June 4. Petroc., A., in Cornwall.
+    July 16. Helier, Hermit, M., in Jersey.
+    June 27. John, C. of Moutier, in Tours.
+590 May 1. Asaph, B. of Elwy, afterwards called after him.
+abt. 600 June 6. Gudwall, B. of Aleth in Brittany.
+    Nov. 8. Tyssilio, B. of St. Asaph.
+
+SEVENTH CENTURY.
+
+Part I.
+
+600 June 10. Ivo, or Ivia, B. from Persia.
+596 Feb. 24. Luidhard, B. of Senlis, in France.
+616 Feb. 24. Ethelbert, K. of Kent.
+608 May 26. Augustine, Archb. of Canterbury, Apostle of England.
+624 Apr. 24. Mellitus, Archb. of Canterbury,  }
+619 Feb. 2. Laurence, Archb. of Canterbury,   } Companions of St.
+608 Jan. 6. Peter, A. at Canterbury,          } Augustine.
+627 Nov. 10. Justus, Archb. of Canterbury,    }
+653 Sept. 30. Honorius, Archb. of Canterbury, }
+662 July 15. Deus-dedit, Archb. of Canterbury.
+
+SEVENTH CENTURY.
+
+Part II.
+
+642 Oct. 29. Sigebert, K. of the East Angles.
+646 Mar. 8. Felix, B. of Dunwich, Apostle of the East Angles.
+650 Jan. 16. Fursey, A., preacher among the East Angles.
+680 May 1. Ultan, A., brother of St. Fursey.
+655 Oct. 31. Foillan, B.M., brother of St. Fursey, preacher in the
+                    Netherlands.
+680 June 17. Botulph, A., in Lincolnshire or Sussex.
+671 June 10. Ithamar, B. of Rochester.
+650 Dec. 3. Birinus, B. of Dorchester.
+705 July 7. Hedda, B. of Dorchester.
+717 Jan. 11. Egwin, B. of Worcester.
+
+SEVENTH CENTURY.
+
+Part III.
+
+690 Sept. 19. Theodore, Archb. of Canterbury.
+709 Jan. 9. Adrian, A. in Canterbury.
+709 May 25. Aldhelm, B. of Sherborne, pupil of St. Adrian.
+
+SEVENTH CENTURY.
+
+Part IV.
+
+630 Nov. 3. Winefred, V.M. in Wales.
+642 Feb. 4. Liephard, M.B., slain near Cambray.
+660 Jan. 14. Beuno, A., kinsman of St. Cadocus and St. Kentigern.
+673 Oct. 7. Osgitha, Q.V.M., in East Anglia during a Danish inroad.
+630 June 14. Elerius, A. in Wales.
+680 Jan. 27. Bathildis, Q., wife of Clovis II., king of France.
+687 July 24. Lewinna, V.M., put to death by the Saxons.
+700 July 18. Edberga and Edgitha, VV. of Aylesbury.
+
+SEVENTH CENTURY.
+
+Part V.
+
+644 Oct. 10. Paulinus, Archb. of York, companion of St. Augustine.
+633 Oct. 12. Edwin, K. of Northumberland.
+    Dec. 13. Ethelburga, Q., wife to St. Edwin.
+642 Aug. 5. Oswald, K.M., St. Edwin's nephew.
+651 Aug. 20. Oswin, K.M., cousin to St. Oswald.
+683 Aug. 23. Ebba, V.A. of Coldingham, half-sister to St. Oswin.
+689 Jan. 31. Adamnan, Mo. of Coldingham.
+
+SEVENTH CENTURY.
+
+Part VI.--Whitby.
+
+650 Sept. 6. Bega, V.A., foundress of St. Bee's, called after her.
+681 Nov. 17. Hilda, A. of Whitby, daughter of St. Edwin's nephew.
+716 Dec. 11. Elfleda, A. of Whitby, daughter of St. Oswin.
+680 Feb. 12. Cedmon, Mo. of Whitby.
+
+SEVENTH AND EIGHTH CENTURIES.
+
+Part I.
+
+    Sept. 21. Hereswida, Q., sister of Hilda, wife of Annas,
+                     who succeeded Egric, Sigebert's cousin.
+654 Jan. 10. Sethrida, V.A. of Faremoutier, St. Hereswida's
+                     daughter by a former marriage.
+693 Apr. 30. Erconwald, A.B., son of Annas and St. Hereswida, Bishop
+                     of London, Abbot of Chertsey, founder of Barking.
+677 Aug. 29. Sebbus, K., converted by St. Erconwald.
+    May 31. Jurmin, C., son of Annas and St. Hereswida.
+650 July 7. Edelburga, V.A. of Faremoutier, natural daughter
+                     of Annas.
+679 June 23. Ethelreda, Etheldreda, Etheltrudis, or Awdry, V.A.,
+                     daughter of Annas and St. Hereswida.
+    Mar. 17. Withburga, V., daughter of Annas and St. Hereswida.
+699 July 6. Sexburga, A., daughter of Annas and St. Hereswida.
+660 July 7. Ercongota, or Ertongata, V.A. of Faremoutier,
+                    daughter of St. Sexburga.
+699 Feb. 13. Ermenilda, Q.A., daughter of St. Sexburga,
+                    wife of Wulfere.
+aft. 675 Feb. 3. Wereburga, V., daughter of St. Ermenilda and Wulfere,
+                    patron of Chester.
+abt. 680 Feb. 27. Alnoth, H.M., bailiff to St. Wereburga.
+640 Aug. 31. Eanswida, V.A., sister-in-law of St. Sexburga,
+                     granddaughter to St. Ethelbert.
+668 Oct. 17. Ethelred and Ethelbright, MM., nephews of St. Eanswida.
+    July 30. Ermenigitha, V., niece of St. Eanswida.
+676 Oct. 11. Edilberga, V.A. of Barking, daughter of Annas and St.
+             Hereswida.
+678 Jan. 26. Theoritgida, V., nun of Barking.
+aft. 713 Aug. 31. Cuthberga, Q.V., of Barking, sister of St. Ina.
+700 Mar. 24. Hildelitha, A. of Barking.
+728 Feb. 6. Ina, K. Mo. of the West Saxons.
+740 May 24. Ethelburga, Q., wife of St. Ina, nun at Barking.
+
+SEVENTH AND EIGHTH CENTURIES.
+
+Part II.
+
+652 June 20. Idaburga, V.   }
+696 Mar. 6. Kineburga, Q.A. }
+701---- Kinneswitha, V.     } Daughters of King Penda.
+    ---- Chidestre, V.      }
+692 Dec. 2. Weeda, V.A.     }
+696 Mar. 6. Tibba, V., their kinswoman.
+    Nov. 3. Rumwald, C., grandson of Penda.
+680 Nov. 19. Ermenburga, Q., mother to the three following.
+    Feb. 23. Milburga, V.A. of Wenlock,  } Grand-daughters of
+    July 13. Mildreda, V.A. of Menstrey, } Penda.
+676 Jan. 17. Milwida, or Milgitha, V.    }
+750 Nov. 13. Eadburga, A. of Menstrey.
+
+SEVENTH AND EIGHTH CENTURIES.
+
+Part III.
+
+670 July 24. Wulfad and Ruffin, MM., sons of Wulfere,
+                     Penda's son, and of St. Erminilda.
+672 Mar. 2. Chad, B. of Lichfield.
+664 Jan. 7. Cedd, B. of London.
+688 Mar. 4. Owin, Mo. of Lichfield.
+689 Apr. 20. Cedwalla, K. of West Saxons.
+690-725 Nov. 5. Cungar, H. in Somersetshire.
+700 Feb. 10. Trumwin, B. of the Picts.
+705 Mar. 9. Bosa, Archb. of York.
+709 Apr. 24. Wilfrid, Archb. of York.
+721 May 7. John of Beverley, Archb. of York.
+743 Apr. 29. Wilfrid II., Archb. of York.
+733 May 22. Berethun, A. of Deirwood, disciple of St. John
+                     of Beverley.
+751 May 22. Winewald, A. of Deirwood.
+
+SEVENTH AND EIGHTH CENTURIES.
+
+Part IV.--Missions.
+
+729 Apr. 24. Egbert, C., master to Willebrord.
+693 Oct. 3. Ewalds (two), MM. in Westphalia.
+690-736 Nov. 7. Willebrord, B. of Utrecht, Apostle of Friesland.
+717 Mar. 1. Swibert, B., Apostle of Westphalia.
+727 Mar. 2. Willeik, C., successor to St. Swibert.
+705 June 25. Adelbert, C., grandson of St. Oswald, preacher
+                     in Holland.
+705 Aug. 14. Werenfrid, C., preacher in Friesland.
+720 June 21. Engelmund, A., preacher in Holland.
+730 Sept. 10. Otger, C. in Low Countries.
+732 July 15. Plechelm, B., preacher in Guelderland.
+750 May 2. Germanus, B.M. in the Netherlands.
+760 Nov. 12, Lebwin, C. in Overyssel, in Holland.
+760 July 14. Marchelm, C., companion of St. Lebwin, in Holland.
+697-755 June 5. Boniface, Archb., M. of Mentz, Apostle of Germany.
+712 Feb. 7. Richard, K. of the West Saxons.
+704-790 July 7. Willibald, B. of Aichstadt,  }}
+                     in Franconia,           }}
+730-760 Dec. 18. Winebald, A. of Heidenheim, } Children of}
+                     in Suabia,              } St. Richard.}
+779 Feb. 25. Walburga, V.A. of Heidenheim,   }}
+aft. 755 Sept. 28. Lioba, V.A. of Bischorsheim, }
+750 Oct. 15. Tecla, V.A. of Kitzingen, in Franconia, } Companions
+                                                     } of St.
+788 Oct. 16. Lullus, Archb. of Mentz,                } Boniface.
+abt. 747 Aug. 13. Wigbert, A. of Fritzlar and Ortdorf, in }
+                     Germany,                             }
+755 Apr. 20. Adelhare, B.M. of Erford, in Franconia,      }
+780 Aug. 27. Sturmius, A. of Fulda,                       }
+786 Oct. 27. Witta, or Albuinus, B. of Buraberg, in       }
+                     Germany,                             }
+791 Nov. 8. Willehad, B. of Bremen, and Apostle of        }
+                  Saxony,                                 } Companions
+791 Oct. 14. Burchard, B. of Wurtzburg, in Franconia,     } of St.
+790 Dec 3. Sola, H., near Aichstadt, in Franconia,        } Boniface.
+775 July 1. Rumold, B., Patron of Mechlin.
+807 Apr. 30. Suibert, B. of Verden in Westphalia.
+
+SEVENTH AND EIGHTH CENTURIES.
+
+Part V.--Lindisfarne and Hexham.
+
+670 Jan. 23. Boisil, A. of Melros, in Scotland.
+651 Aug. 31. Aidan, A.B. of Lindisfarne.
+664 Feb. 16. Finan, B. of Lindisfarne.
+676 Aug. 8. Colman, B. of Lindisfarne.
+685 Oct. 26. Eata, B. of Hexham.
+687 Mar. 20. Cuthbert, B. of Lindisfarne.
+    Oct. 6. Ywy, C. disciple of St. Cuthbert.
+690 Mar. 20. Herbert, H. disciple of St. Cuthbert.
+698 May 6. Eadbert, B. of Lindisfarne.
+700 Mar. 23. Ædelwald, H. successor of St. Cuthbert, in his hermitage.
+740 Feb. 12. Ethelwold, B. of Lindisfarne.
+740 Nov. 20. Acca, B. of Hexham.
+764 Jan. 15. Ceolulph, K. Mo. of Lindisfarne.
+756 Mar. 6. Balther, H at Lindisfarne.
+     " Bilfrid, H. Goldsmith at Lindisfarne.
+781 Sept. 7. Alchmund, B. of Hexham.
+789 Sept. 7. Tilhbert, B. of Hexham.
+
+SEVENTH AND EIGHTH CENTURIES.
+
+Part VI.--Wearmouth and Yarrow.
+
+703 Jan. 12. Benedict Biscop, A. of Wearmouth.
+685 Mar. 7. Easterwin, A. of Wearmouth.
+689 Aug. 22. Sigfrid, A. of Wearmouth.
+716 Sept. 25. Ceofrid, A. of Yarrow.
+734 May 27. Bede, Doctor, Mo. of Yarrow.
+804 May 19. _B. Alcuin, A. in France_.
+
+EIGHTH CENTURY.
+
+710 May 5. Ethelred, K. Mo. King of Mercia, Monk of Bardney.
+719 Jan. 8. Pega, V., sister of St. Guthlake.
+714 April 11. Guthlake, H. of Croyland.
+717 Nov. 6. Winoc, A. in Brittany.
+730 Jan. 9. Bertwald, Archb. of Canterbury.
+732 Dec. 27. Gerald, A.B. in Mayo.
+734 July 30. Tatwin, Archb. of Canterbury.
+750 Oct. 19. Frideswide, V. patron of Oxford.
+762 Aug. 26. Bregwin, Archb. of Canterbury.
+700-800 Feb. 8. Cuthman, C. of Stening in Sussex.
+bef. 800 Sept. 9. Bertelin, H. patron of Stafford.
+
+EIGHTH AND NINTH CENTURIES.
+
+793 May 20. Ethelbert, K.M. of the East Angles.
+834 Aug. 2. Etheldritha, or Alfreda, V., daughter of Offa, king of
+                Mercia, nun at Croyland.
+819 July 17. Kenelm, K.M. of Mercia.
+849 June 1. Wistan, K.M. of Mercia.
+838 July 18. Frederic, Archb. M. of Utrecht.
+894 Nov. 4. Clarus, M. in Normandy.
+
+NINTH CENTURY.
+
+Part I.--Danish Slaughters, &c.
+
+819 Mar. 19. Alcmund, M., son of Eldred, king of Northumbria, Patron
+                of Derby.
+870 Nov. 20. Edmund, K.M. of the East Angles.
+862 May 11. Fremund, H. M. nobleman of East Anglia.
+870 Nov. 20. Humbert, B.M. of Elmon in East Anglia.
+867 Aug. 25. Ebba, V.A.M. of Coldingham.
+
+NINTH CENTURY.
+
+Part II.
+
+862 July 2. Swithun, B. of Winton.
+870 July 5. Modwenna, V.A. of Pollesworth in Warwickshire.
+     Oct. 9. Lina, V. nun at Pollesworth.
+871 Mar. 15. Eadgith, V.A. of Pollesworth, sister of King Ethelwolf.
+900 Dec. 21. Eadburga, V.A. of Winton, daughter of King Ethelwolf.
+880 Nov. 28. Edwold, H., brother of St. Edmund.
+
+NINTH AND TENTH CENTURIES.
+
+883 July 31. Neot, H. in Cornwall.
+903 July 8. Grimbald, A. at Winton.
+900 Oct. 28. _B. Alfred, K._
+929 April 9. Frithstan, B. of Winton.
+934 Nov. 4. Brinstan, B. of Winton.
+
+TENTH CENTURY.
+
+Part I.
+
+960 June 15. Edburga, V., nun at Winton, granddaughter of Alfred.
+926 July 15. Editha, Q.V., nun of Tamworth, sister to Edburga.
+921 May 18. Algyfa, or Elgiva, Q., mother of Edgar.
+975 July 8. Edgar, K.
+978 Mar. 18. Edward, K.M. at Corfe Castle.
+984 Sept. 16. Edith, V., daughter of St. Edgar and St. Wulfhilda.
+990 Sept. 9. Wulfhilda, or Vulfrida, A. of Wilton.
+980 Mar. 30. Merwenna, V.A. of Romsey.
+990 Oct. 29. Elfreda, A. of Romsey.
+1016 Dec. 5. Christina of Romsey, V., sister of St. Margaret of
+                Scotland.
+
+TENTH CENTURY.
+
+Part II.
+
+961 July 4. Odo, Archb. of Canterbury, Benedictine Monk.
+960-992 Feb. 28. Oswald, Archb. of York, B. of Worcester, nephew to
+                    St. Odo.
+951-1012 Mar. 12. Elphege the Bald, B. of Winton.
+988 May 19. Dunstan, Archb. of Canterbury.
+973 Jan. 8. Wulsin, B. of Sherbourne.
+984 Aug. 1. Ethelwold, B. of Winton.
+1015 Jan. 22. Brithwold, B. of Winton.
+
+TENTH AND ELEVENTH CENTURIES.
+
+Missions.
+
+ 950 Feb. 15. Sigfride, B., apostle of Sweden.
+1016 June 12. Eskill, B.M. in Sweden, kinsman of St. Sigfride.
+1028 Jan. 18. Wolfred, M. in Sweden.
+1050 July 15. David, A., Cluniac in Sweden.
+
+ELEVENTH CENTURY.
+
+1012 April 19. Elphege, M. Archb. of Canterbury.
+1016 May 30. Walston, C. near Norwich.
+1053 Mar. 31. Alfwold, B. of Sherborne.
+1067 Sept. 2. William, B. of Roschid in Denmark.
+1066 Jan. 5. Edward, K.C.
+1099 Dec. 4. Osmund, B. of Salisbury.
+
+ELEVENTH AND TWELFTH CENTURIES.
+
+1095 Jan. 19. Wulstan, B. of Worcester.
+1089 May 28. _Lanfranc, Archb. of Canterbury._
+1109 Apr. 21. Anselm, Doctor, Archb. of Canterbury.
+1170 Dec. 29. Thomas, Archb. M. of Canterbury.
+1200 Nov. 17. Hugh, B. of Lincoln, Carthusian Monk.
+
+TWELFTH CENTURY.
+
+Part I.
+
+1109 _Ingulphus, A. of Croyland._
+1117 Apr. 30. _B. Maud, Q._ Wife of Henry I.
+1124 Apr. 13. Caradoc, H. in South Wales.
+1127 Jan. 16. Henry, H. in Northumberland.
+1144 Mar. 25. William, M. of Norwich.
+1151 Jan. 19. Henry, M.B. of Upsal.
+1150 Aug. 13. Walter, A. of Fontenelle, in France.
+1154 June 8. William, Archb. of York.
+1170 May 21. Godric, H. in Durham.
+1180 Oct. 25. _John of Salisbury, B. of Chartres._
+1182 June 24. Bartholomew, C., monk at Durham.
+1189 Feb. 4. Gilbert, A. of Sempringham.
+1190 Aug. 21. Richard, B. of Andria.
+1200 _Peter de Blois, Archd. of Bath._
+
+TWELFTH CENTURY.
+
+Part II.--Cistertian Order.
+
+1134 Apr. 17. Stephen, A. of Citeaux.
+1139 June 7. Robert, A. of Newminster in Northumberland.
+1154 Feb. 20. Ulric, H. in Dorsetshire.
+1160 Aug. 3. Walthen, A. of Melrose.
+1166 Jan. 12. Aelred, A. of Rieval.
+
+THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+Part I.
+
+1228 July 9. _Stephen Langton, Archb. of Canterbury._
+1242 Nov. 16. Edmund, Archb. of Canterbury.
+1253 Apr. 3. Richard, B. of Chichester.
+1282 Oct. 2. Thomas, B. of Hereford.
+1294 Dec. 3. _John Peckham, Archb. of Canterbury._
+
+THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+Part II.--Orders of Friars.
+
+1217 June 17. John, Fr., Trinitarian.
+1232 Mar. 7. William, Fr., Franciscan.
+1240 Jan. 31. Serapion, Fr., M., Redemptionist.
+1265 May 16. Simon Stock, H., General of the Carmelites.
+1279 Sept. 11. _Robert Kilwardby, Archb. of Canterbury,
+                    Fr. Dominican._
+
+THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+Part III.
+
+1239 Mar. 14. Robert H. at Knaresboro.
+1241 Oct. 1. Roger, B. of London.
+1255 July 27. Hugh, M. of Lincoln.
+1295 Aug. 5. Thomas, Mo., M. of Dover.
+1254 Oct. 9. _Robert Grossteste, B. of Lincoln._
+1270 July 14. Boniface, Archb. of Canterbury.
+1278 Oct. 18. _Walter de Merton, B. of Rochester._
+
+FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+1326 Oct. 5. _Stapleton, B. of Exeter._
+1327 Sept. 21. Edward K.
+1349 Sept. 29. _B. Richard, H. of Hampole._
+1345 Apr. 14. _Richard of Bury, B. of Lincoln._
+1349 Aug. 26. _Bradwardine, Archb. of Canterbury,
+                    the Doctor Profundus._
+1358 Sept. 2. Willam, Fr., Servite.
+1379 Oct. 10. John, C. of Bridlington.
+1324-1404 Sept. 27. _William of Wykeham, B. of Winton._
+1400 William, Fr. Austin.
+
+
+FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+1471 May 22. _Henry, K. of England._
+1486 Aug. 11. _William of Wanefleet, B. of Winton._
+1509 June 29. _Margaret, Countess of Richmond._
+1528 Sept. 14. _Richard Fox, B. of Winton._
+
+
+
+
+NOTE E. ON PAGE 227.
+
+THE ANGLICAN CHURCH.
+
+
+I have been bringing out my mind in this Volume on every subject which
+has come before me; and therefore I am bound to state plainly what I
+feel and have felt, since I was a Catholic, about the Anglican Church. I
+said, in a former page, that, on my conversion, I was not conscious of
+any change in me of thought or feeling, as regards matters of doctrine;
+this, however, was not the case as regards some matters of fact, and,
+unwilling as I am to give offence to religious Anglicans, I am bound to
+confess that I felt a great change in my view of the Church of England.
+I cannot tell how soon there came on me,--but very soon,--an extreme
+astonishment that I had ever imagined it to be a portion of the Catholic
+Church. For the first time, I looked at it from without, and (as I
+should myself say) saw it as it was. Forthwith I could not get myself to
+see in it any thing else, than what I had so long fearfully suspected,
+from as far back as 1836,--a mere national institution. As if my eyes
+were suddenly opened, so I saw it--spontaneously, apart from any
+definite act of reason or any argument; and so I have seen it ever
+since. I suppose, the main cause of this lay in the contrast which was
+presented to me by the Catholic Church. Then I recognized at once a
+reality which was quite a new thing with me. Then I was sensible that I
+was not making for myself a Church by an effort of thought; I needed not
+to make an act of faith in her; I had not painfully to force myself into
+a position, but my mind fell back upon itself in relaxation and in
+peace, and I gazed at her almost passively as a great objective fact. I
+looked at her;--at her rites, her ceremonial, and her precepts; and I
+said, "This _is_ a religion;" and then, when I looked back upon the poor
+Anglican Church, for which I had laboured so hard, and upon all that
+appertained to it, and thought of our various attempts to dress it up
+doctrinally and esthetically, it seemed to me to be the veriest of
+nonentities.
+
+Vanity of vanities, all is vanity! How can I make a record of what
+passed within me, without seeming to be satirical? But I speak plain,
+serious words. As people call me credulous for acknowledging Catholic
+claims, so they call me satirical for disowning Anglican pretensions; to
+them it _is_ credulity, to them it _is_ satire; but it is not so in me.
+What they think exaggeration, I think truth. I am not speaking of the
+Anglican Church with any disdain, though to them I seem contemptuous. To
+them of course it is "Aut Cæsar aut nullus," but not to me. It may be a
+great creation, though it be not divine, and this is how I judge of it.
+Men, who abjure the divine right of kings, would be very indignant, if
+on that account they were considered disloyal. And so I recognize in the
+Anglican Church a time-honoured institution, of noble historical
+memories, a monument of ancient wisdom, a momentous arm of political
+strength, a great national organ, a source of vast popular advantage,
+and, to a certain point, a witness and teacher of religious truth. I do
+not think that, if what I have written about it since I have been a
+Catholic, be equitably considered as a whole, I shall be found to have
+taken any other view than this; but that it is something sacred, that it
+is an oracle of revealed doctrine, that it can claim a share in St.
+Ignatius or St. Cyprian, that it can take the rank, contest the
+teaching, and stop the path of the Church of St. Peter, that it can call
+itself "the Bride of the Lamb," this is the view of it which simply
+disappeared from my mind on my conversion, and which it would be almost
+a miracle to reproduce. "I went by, and lo! it was gone; I sought it,
+but its place could no where be found," and nothing can bring it back to
+me. And, as to its possession of an episcopal succession from the time
+of the Apostles, well, it may have it, and, if the Holy See ever so
+decide, I will believe it, as being the decision of a higher judgment
+than my own; but, for myself, I must have St. Philip's gift, who saw the
+sacerdotal character on the forehead of a gaily-attired youngster,
+before I can by my own wit acquiesce in it, for antiquarian arguments
+are altogether unequal to the urgency of visible facts. Why is it that I
+must pain dear friends by saying so, and kindle a sort of resentment
+against me in the kindest of hearts? but I must, though to do it be not
+only a grief to me, but most impolitic at the moment. Any how, this is
+my mind; and, if to have it, if to have betrayed it, before now,
+involuntarily by my words or my deeds, if on a fitting occasion, as now,
+to have avowed it, if all this be a proof of the justice of the charge
+brought against me by my accuser of having "turned round upon my
+Mother-Church with contumely and slander," in this sense, but in no
+other sense, do I plead guilty to it without a word in extenuation.
+
+In no other sense surely; the Church of England has been the instrument
+of Providence in conferring great benefits on me;--had I been born in
+Dissent, perhaps I should never have been baptized; had I been born an
+English Presbyterian, perhaps I should never have known our Lord's
+divinity; had I not come to Oxford, perhaps I never should have heard of
+the visible Church, or of Tradition, or other Catholic doctrines. And as
+I have received so much good from the Anglican Establishment itself, can
+I have the heart or rather the want of charity, considering that it does
+for so many others, what it has done for me, to wish to see it
+overthrown? I have no such wish while it is what it is, and while we are
+so small a body. Not for its own sake, but for the sake of the many
+congregations to which it ministers, I will do nothing against it. While
+Catholics are so weak in England, it is doing our work; and, though it
+does us harm in a measure, at present the balance is in our favour. What
+our duty would be at another time and in other circumstances, supposing,
+for instance, the Establishment lost its dogmatic faith, or at least did
+not preach it, is another matter altogether. In secular history we read
+of hostile nations having long truces, and renewing them from time to
+time, and that seems to be the position which the Catholic Church may
+fairly take up at present in relation to the Anglican Establishment.
+
+Doubtless the National Church has hitherto been a serviceable breakwater
+against doctrinal errors, more fundamental than its own. How long this
+will last in the years now before us, it is impossible to say, for the
+Nation drags down its Church to its own level; but still the National
+Church has the same sort of influence over the Nation that a periodical
+has upon the party which it represents, and my own idea of a Catholic's
+fitting attitude towards the National Church in this its supreme hour,
+is that of assisting and sustaining it, if it be in our power, in the
+interest of dogmatic truth. I should wish to avoid every thing (except
+indeed under the direct call of duty, and this is a material exception,)
+which went to weaken its hold upon the public mind, or to unsettle its
+establishment, or to embarrass and lessen its maintenance of those great
+Christian and Catholic principles and doctrines which it has up to this
+time successfully preached.
+
+
+
+
+NOTE F. ON PAGE 269.
+
+THE ECONOMY.
+
+
+For the Economy, considered as a rule of practice, I shall refer to what
+I wrote upon it in 1830-32, in my History of the Arians. I have shown
+above, pp. 26, 27, that the doctrine in question had in the early Church
+a large signification, when applied to the divine ordinances: it also
+had a definite application to the duties of Christians, whether clergy
+or laity, in preaching, in instructing or catechizing, or in ordinary
+intercourse with the world around them; and in this aspect I have here
+to consider it.
+
+As Almighty God did not all at once introduce the Gospel to the world,
+and thereby gradually prepared men for its profitable reception, so,
+according to the doctrine of the early Church, it was a duty, for the
+sake of the heathen among whom they lived, to observe a great reserve
+and caution in communicating to them the knowledge of "the whole counsel
+of God." This cautious dispensation of the truth, after the manner of a
+discreet and vigilant steward, is denoted by the word "economy." It is a
+mode of acting which comes under the head of Prudence, one of the four
+Cardinal Virtues.
+
+The principle of the Economy is this; that out of various courses, in
+religious conduct or statement, all and each _allowable antecedently and
+in themselves_, that ought to be taken which is most expedient and most
+suitable at the time for the object in hand.
+
+Instances of its application and exercise in Scripture are such as the
+following:--1. Divine Providence did but gradually impart to the world
+in general, and to the Jews in particular, the knowledge of His
+will:--He is said to have "winked at the times of ignorance among the
+heathen;" and He suffered in the Jews divorce "because of the hardness
+of their hearts." 2. He has allowed Himself to be represented as having
+eyes, ears, and hands, as having wrath, jealousy, grief, and repentance.
+3. In like manner, our Lord spoke harshly to the Syro-Ph[oe]nician
+woman, whose daughter He was about to heal, and made as if He would go
+further, when the two disciples had come to their journey's end. 4. Thus
+too Joseph "made himself strange to his brethren," and Elisha kept
+silence on request of Naaman to bow in the house of Rimmon. 5. Thus St.
+Paul circumcised Timothy, while he cried out "Circumcision availeth
+not."
+
+It may be said that this principle, true in itself, yet is dangerous,
+because it admits of an easy abuse, and carries men away into what
+becomes insincerity and cunning. This is undeniable; to do evil that
+good may come, to consider that the means, whatever they are, justify
+the end, to sacrifice truth to expedience, unscrupulousness,
+recklessness, are grave offences. These are abuses of the Economy. But
+to call them _economical_ is to give a fine name to what occurs every
+day, independent of any knowledge of the _doctrine_ of the Economy. It
+is the abuse of a rule which nature suggests to every one. Every one
+looks out for the "mollia tempora fandi," and for "mollia verba" too.
+
+Having thus explained what is meant by the Economy as a rule of social
+intercourse between men of different religious, or, again, political, or
+social views, next I will go on to state what I said in the Arians.
+
+I say in that Volume first, that our Lord has given us the _principle_
+in His own words,--"Cast not your pearls before swine;" and that He
+exemplified it in His teaching by parables; that St. Paul expressly
+distinguishes between the milk which is necessary to one set of men, and
+the strong meat which is allowed to others, and that, in two Epistles. I
+say, that the Apostles in the Acts observe the same rule in their
+speeches, for it is a fact, that they do not preach the high doctrines
+of Christianity, but only "Jesus and the Resurrection" or "repentance
+and faith." I also say, that this is the very reason that the Fathers
+assign for the silence of various writers in the first centuries on the
+subject of our Lord's divinity. I also speak of the catechetical system
+practised in the early Church, and the _disciplina arcani_ as regards
+the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, to which Bingham bears witness; also
+of the defence of this rule by Basil, Cyril of Jerusalem, Chrysostom,
+and Theodoret.
+
+But next the question may be asked, whether I have said any thing in my
+Volume _to guard_ the doctrine, thus laid down, from the abuse to which
+it is obviously exposed: and my answer is easy. Of course, had I had any
+idea that I should have been exposed to such hostile misrepresentations,
+as it has been my lot to undergo on the subject, I should have made more
+direct avowals than I have done of my sense of the gravity and the
+danger of that abuse. Since I could not foresee when I wrote, that I
+should have been wantonly slandered, I only wonder that I have
+anticipated the charge as fully as will be seen in the following
+extracts.
+
+For instance, speaking of the Disciplina Arcani, I say:--(1) "The
+elementary information given to the heathen or catechumen was _in no
+sense undone_ by the subsequent secret teaching, which was in fact but
+the _filling up of a bare but correct outline_," p. 58, and I contrast
+this with the conduct of the Manichæans "who represented the initiatory
+discipline as founded on a _fiction_ or hypothesis, which was to be
+forgotten by the learner as he made progress in the _real_ doctrine of
+the Gospel." (2) As to allegorizing, I say that the Alexandrians erred,
+whenever and as far as they proceeded "to _obscure_ the primary meaning
+of Scripture, and to _weaken the force of historical facts_ and express
+declarations," p. 69. (3) And that they were "more open to _censure_,"
+when, on being "_urged by objections_ to various passages in the history
+of the Old Testament, as derogatory to the divine perfections or to the
+Jewish Saints, they had _recourse to an allegorical explanation by way
+of answer_," p. 71. (4) I add, "_It is impossible to defend such a
+procedure_, which seems to imply a _want of faith_ in those who had
+recourse to it;" for "God has given us _rules of right and wrong_",
+_ibid._ (5) Again, I say,--"The _abuse of the Economy_ in _the hands of
+unscrupulous reasoners_, is obvious. _Even the honest_ controversialist
+or teacher will find it very difficult to represent, _without
+misrepresenting_, what it is yet his duty to present to his hearers with
+caution or reserve. Here the obvious rule to guide our practice is, to
+be careful ever to maintain _substantial truth_ in our use of the
+economical method," pp. 79, 80. (6) And so far from concurring at all
+hazards with Justin, Gregory, or Athanasius, I say, "It _is plain_
+[they] _were justified or not_ in their Economy, _according_ as they did
+or did not _practically mislead their opponents_," p. 80. (7) I proceed,
+"It is so difficult to hit the mark in these perplexing cases, that it
+is not wonderful, should these or other Fathers have failed at times,
+and said more or less than was proper," _ibid._
+
+The Principle of the Economy is familiarly acted on among us every day.
+When we would persuade others, we do not begin by treading on their
+toes. Men would be thought rude who introduced their own religious
+notions into mixed society, and were devotional in a drawing-room. Have
+we never thought lawyers tiresome who did _not_ observe this polite
+rule, who came down for the assizes and talked law all through dinner?
+Does the same argument tell in the House of Commons, on the hustings,
+and at Exeter Hall? Is an educated gentleman never worsted at an
+election by the tone and arguments of some clever fellow, who, whatever
+his shortcomings in other respects, understands the common people?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As to the Catholic Religion in England at the present day, this only
+will I observe,--that the truest expedience is to answer right out, when
+you are asked; that the wisest economy is to have no management; that
+the best prudence is not to be a coward; that the most damaging folly is
+to be found out shuffling; and that the first of virtues is to "tell
+truth, and shame the devil."
+
+
+
+
+NOTE G. ON PAGE 279.
+
+LYING AND EQUIVOCATION.
+
+
+Almost all authors, Catholic and Protestant, admit, that _when a just
+cause is present_, there is some kind or other of verbal misleading,
+which is not sin. Even silence is in certain cases virtually such a
+misleading, according to the Proverb, "Silence gives consent." Again,
+silence is absolutely forbidden to a Catholic, as a mortal sin, under
+certain circumstances, e.g. to keep silence, when it is a duty to make a
+profession of faith.
+
+Another mode of verbal misleading, and the most direct, is actually
+saying the thing that is not; and it is defended on the principle that
+such words are not a lie, when there is a "justa causa," as killing is
+not murder in the case of an executioner.
+
+Another ground of certain authors for saying that an untruth is not a
+lie where there is a just cause, is, that veracity is a kind of justice,
+and therefore, when we have no duty of justice to tell truth to another,
+it is no sin not to do so. Hence we may say the thing that is not, to
+children, to madmen, to men who ask impertinent questions, to those whom
+we hope to benefit by misleading.
+
+Another ground, taken in defending certain untruths, _ex justâ causâ_,
+as if not lies, is, that veracity is for the sake of society, and that,
+if in no case whatever we might lawfully mislead others, we should
+actually be doing society great harm.
+
+Another mode of verbal misleading is equivocation or a play upon words;
+and it is defended on the theory that to lie is to use words in a sense
+which they will not bear. But an equivocator uses them in a received
+sense, though there is another received sense, and therefore, according
+to this definition, he does not lie.
+
+Others say that all equivocations are, after all, a kind of
+lying,--faint lies or awkward lies, but still lies; and some of these
+disputants infer, that therefore we must not equivocate, and others that
+equivocation is but a half-measure, and that it is better to say at once
+that in certain cases untruths are not lies.
+
+Others will try to distinguish between evasions and equivocations; but
+though there are evasions which are clearly not equivocations, yet it is
+very difficult scientifically to draw the line between the one and the
+other.
+
+To these must be added the unscientific way of dealing with lies:--viz.
+that on a great or cruel occasion a man cannot help telling a lie, and
+he would not be a man, did he not tell it, but still it is very wrong,
+and he ought not to do it, and he must trust that the sin will be
+forgiven him, though he goes about to commit it ever so deliberately,
+and is sure to commit it again under similar circumstances. It is a
+necessary frailty, and had better not be thought about before it is
+incurred, and not thought of again, after it is well over. This view
+cannot for a moment be defended, but, I suppose, it is very common.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I think the historical course of thought upon the matter has been this:
+the Greek Fathers thought that, when there was a _justa causa_, an
+untruth need not be a lie. St. Augustine took another view, though with
+great misgiving; and, whether he is rightly interpreted or not, is the
+doctor of the great and common view that all untruths are lies, and that
+there can be _no_ just cause of untruth. In these later times, this
+doctrine has been found difficult to work, and it has been largely
+taught that, though all untruths are lies, yet that certain
+equivocations, when there is a just cause, are not untruths.
+
+Further, there have been and all along through these later ages, other
+schools, running parallel with the above mentioned, one of which says
+that equivocations, &c. after all _are_ lies, and another which says
+that there are untruths which are not lies.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now as to the "just cause," which is the condition, _sine quâ non_.
+The Greek Fathers make it such as these, self-defence, charity, zeal for
+God's honour, and the like.
+
+St. Augustine seems to deal with the same "just causes" as the Greek
+Fathers, even though he does not allow of their availableness as
+depriving untruths, spoken on such occasions, of their sinfulness. He
+mentions defence of life and of honour, and the safe custody of a
+secret. Also the great Anglican writers, who have followed the Greek
+Fathers, in defending untruths when there is the "just cause," consider
+that "just cause" to be such as the preservation of life and property,
+defence of law, the good of others. Moreover, their moral rights, e.g.
+defence against the inquisitive, &c.
+
+St. Alfonso, I consider, would take the same view of the "justa causa"
+as the Anglican divines; he speaks of it as "quicunque finis _honestus_,
+ad servanda bona spiritui vel corpori utilia;" which is very much the
+view which they take of it, judging by the instances which they give.
+
+In all cases, however, and as contemplated by all authors, Clement of
+Alexandria, or Milton, or St. Alfonso, such a causa is, in fact,
+extreme, rare, great, or at least special. Thus the writer in the
+Mélanges Théologiques (Liège, 1852-3, p. 453) quotes Lessius: "Si absque
+justa causa fiat, est abusio orationis contra virtutem veritatis, et
+civilem consuetudinem, etsi proprie non sit mendacium." That is, the
+virtue of truth, and the civil custom, are the _measure_ of the just
+cause. And so Voit, "If a man has used a reservation (restrictione non
+purè mentali) without a _grave_ cause, he has sinned gravely." And so
+the author himself, from whom I quote, and who defends the Patristic and
+Anglican doctrine that there _are_ untruths which are not lies, says,
+"Under the name of mental reservation theologians authorize many lies,
+_when there is for them a grave reason_ and proportionate," i.e. to
+their character.--p. 459. And so St. Alfonso, in another Treatise,
+quotes St. Thomas to the effect, that if from one cause two immediate
+effects follow, and, if the good effect of that cause is _equal in
+value_ to the bad effect (bonus _æquivalet_ malo), then nothing hinders
+the speaker's intending the good and only permitting the evil. From
+which it will follow that, since the evil to society from lying is very
+great, the just cause which is to make it allowable, must be very great
+also. And so Kenrick: "It is confessed by all Catholics that, in the
+common intercourse of life, all ambiguity of language is to be avoided;
+but it is debated whether such ambiguity is _ever_ lawful. Most
+theologians answer in the affirmative, supposing a _grave cause_ urges,
+and the [true] mind of the speaker can be collected from the adjuncts,
+though in fact it be not collected."
+
+However, there are cases, I have already said, of another kind, in which
+Anglican authors would think a lie allowable; such as when a question is
+_impertinent_. Of such a case Walter Scott, if I mistake not, supplied a
+very distinct example, in his denying so long the authorship of his
+novels.
+
+What I have been saying shows what different schools of opinion there
+are in the Church in the treatment of this difficult doctrine; and, by
+consequence, that a given individual, such as I am, _cannot_ agree with
+all of them, and has a full right to follow which of them he will. The
+freedom of the Schools, indeed, is one of those rights of reason, which
+the Church is too wise really to interfere with. And this applies not to
+moral questions only, but to dogmatic also.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is supposed by Protestants that, because St. Alfonso's writings have
+had such high commendation bestowed upon them by authority, therefore
+they have been invested with a quasi-infallibility. This has arisen in
+good measure from Protestants not knowing the force of theological
+terms. The words to which they refer are the authoritative decision that
+"nothing in his works has been found _worthy of censure_," "censurâ
+dignum;" but this does not lead to the conclusions which have been drawn
+from it. Those words occur in a legal document, and cannot be
+interpreted except in a legal sense. In the first place, the sentence is
+negative; nothing in St. Alfonso's writings is positively approved; and,
+secondly, it is not said that there are no faults in what he has
+written, but nothing which comes under the ecclesiastical _censura_,
+which is something very definite. To take and interpret them, in the way
+commonly adopted in England, is the same mistake, as if one were to take
+the word "Apologia" in the English sense of apology, or "Infant" in law
+to mean a little child.
+
+1. Now first as to the meaning of the above form of words viewed as a
+proposition. When a question on the subject was asked of the fitting
+authorities at Rome by the Archbishop of Besançon, the answer returned
+to him contained this condition, viz. that those words were to be
+interpreted, "with due regard to the mind of the Holy See concerning the
+approbation of writings of the servants of God, ad effectum
+Canonizationis." This is intended to prevent any Catholic taking the
+words about St. Alfonso's works in too large a sense. Before a Saint is
+canonized, his works are examined, and a judgment pronounced upon them.
+Pope Benedict XIV. says, "The _end_ or _scope_ of this judgment is, that
+it may appear, whether the doctrine of the servant of God, which he has
+brought out in his writings, is free from any soever _theological
+censure_." And he remarks in addition, "It never can be said that the
+doctrine of a servant of God is _approved_ by the Holy See, but at most
+it can [only] be said that it is not disapproved (non reprobatam) in
+case that the Revisers had reported that there is nothing found by them
+in his works, which is adverse to the decrees of Urban VIII., and that
+the judgment of the Revisers has been approved by the sacred
+Congregation, and confirmed by the Supreme Pontiff." The Decree of Urban
+VIII. here referred to is, "Let works be examined, whether they contain
+errors against faith or good morals (bonos mores), or any new doctrine,
+or a doctrine foreign and alien to the common sense and custom of the
+Church." The author from whom I quote this (M. Vandenbroeck, of the
+diocese of Malines) observes, "It is therefore clear, that the
+approbation of the works of the Holy Bishop touches not the truth of
+every proposition, adds nothing to them, nor even gives them by
+consequence a degree of intrinsic probability." He adds that it gives
+St. Alfonso's theology an extrinsic probability, from the fact that, in
+the judgment of the Holy See, no proposition deserves to receive a
+censure; but that "that probability will cease nevertheless in a
+particular case, for any one who should be convinced, whether by evident
+arguments, or by a decree of the Holy See, or otherwise, that the
+doctrine of the Saint deviates from the truth." He adds, "From the fact
+that the approbation of the works of St. Alfonso does not decide the
+truth of each proposition, it follows, as Benedict XIV. has remarked,
+that we may combat the doctrine which they contain; only, since a
+canonized saint is in question, who is honoured by a solemn _culte_ in
+the Church, we ought not to speak except with respect, nor to attack his
+opinions except with temper and modesty."
+
+2. Then, as to the meaning of the word _censura_: Benedict XIV.
+enumerates a number of "Notes" which come under that name; he says, "Out
+of propositions which are to be noted with theological censure, some are
+heretical, some erroneous, some close upon error, some savouring of
+heresy," and so on; and each of these terms has its own definite
+meaning. Thus by "erroneous" is meant, according to Viva, a proposition
+which is not _immediately_ opposed to a revealed proposition, but only
+to a theological _conclusion_ drawn from premisses which are _de fide_;
+"savouring of heresy is" a proposition, which is opposed to a
+theological conclusion not evidently drawn from premisses which are _de
+fide_, but most probably and according to the common mode of
+theologizing;--and so with the rest. Therefore when it was said by the
+Revisers of St. Alfonso's works that they were not "worthy of
+_censure_," it was only meant that they did not fall under these
+particular Notes.
+
+But the answer from Rome to the Archbishop of Besançon went further than
+this; it actually took pains to declare that any one who pleased might
+follow other theologians instead of St. Alfonso. After saying that no
+Priest was to be interfered with who followed St. Alfonso in the
+Confessional, it added, "This is said, however, without on that account
+judging that they are reprehended who follow opinions handed down by
+other approved authors."
+
+And this too I will observe,--that St. Alfonso made many changes of
+opinion himself in the course of his writings; and it could not for an
+instant be supposed that we were bound to every one of his opinions,
+when he did not feel himself bound to them in his own person. And, what
+is more to the purpose still, there are opinions, or some opinion, of
+his which actually have been proscribed by the Church since, and cannot
+now be put forward or used. I do not pretend to be a well-read
+theologian myself, but I say this on the authority of a theological
+professor of Breda, quoted in the Mélanges Théol. for 1850-1. He says:
+"It may happen, that, in the course of time, errors may be found in the
+works of St. Alfonso and be proscribed by the Church, _a thing which in
+fact has already occurred_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In not ranging myself then with those who consider that it is
+justifiable to use words in a double sense, that is, to equivocate, I
+put myself under the protection of such authors as Cardinal Gerdil,
+Natalis Alexander, Contenson, Concina, and others. Under the protection
+of these authorities, I say as follows:--
+
+Casuistry is a noble science, but it is one to which I am led, neither
+by my abilities nor my turn of mind. Independently, then, of the
+difficulties of the subject, and the necessity, before forming an
+opinion, of knowing more of the arguments of theologians upon it than I
+do, I am very unwilling to say a word here on the subject of Lying and
+Equivocation. But I consider myself bound to speak; and therefore, in
+this strait, I can do nothing better, even for my own relief, than
+submit myself, and what I shall say, to the judgment of the Church, and
+to the consent, so far as in this matter there be a consent, of the
+Schola Theologorum.
+
+Now in the case of one of those special and rare exigencies or
+emergencies, which constitute the _justa causa_ of dissembling or
+misleading, whether it be extreme as the defence of life, or a duty as
+the custody of a secret, or of a personal nature as to repel an
+impertinent inquirer, or a matter too trivial to provoke question, as in
+dealing with children or madmen, there seem to be four courses:--
+
+1. _To say the thing that is not._ Here I draw the reader's attention to
+the words _material_ and _formal_. "Thou shalt not kill;" _murder_ is
+the _formal_ transgression of this commandment, but _accidental
+homicide_ is the _material_ transgression. The _matter_ of the act is
+the same in both cases; but in the _homicide_, there is nothing more
+than the act, whereas in _murder_ there must be the intention, &c.,
+which constitutes the formal sin. So, again, an executioner commits the
+material act, but not that formal killing which is a breach of the
+commandment. So a man, who, simply to save himself from starving, takes
+a loaf which is not his own, commits only the material, not the formal
+act of stealing, that is, he does not commit a sin. And so a baptized
+Christian, external to the Church, who is in invincible ignorance, is a
+material heretic, and not a formal. And in like manner, if to say the
+thing which is not be in special cases lawful, it may be called a
+_material lie_.
+
+The first mode then which has been suggested of meeting those special
+cases, in which to mislead by words has a sufficient occasion, or has a
+_just cause_, is by a material lie.
+
+The second mode is by an _æquivocatio_, which is not equivalent to the
+English word "equivocation," but means sometimes a _play on words_,
+sometimes an _evasion_: we must take these two modes of misleading
+separately.
+
+2. _A play upon words._ St. Alfonso certainly says that a play upon
+words is allowable; and, speaking under correction, I should say that he
+does so on the ground that lying is _not_ a sin against justice, that
+is, against our neighbour, but a sin against God. God has made words the
+signs of ideas, and therefore if a word denotes two ideas, we are at
+liberty to use it in either of its senses: but I think I must be
+incorrect in some respect in supposing that the Saint does not recognize
+a lie as an injustice, because the Catechism of the Council, as I have
+quoted it at p. 281, says, "Vanitate et mendacio fides ac veritas
+tolluntur, arctissima vincula _societatis humanæ_; quibus sublatis,
+sequitur summa vitæ _confusio_, ut _homines nihil a dæmonibus differre
+videantur_."
+
+3. _Evasion_;--when, for instance, the speaker diverts the attention of
+the hearer to another subject; suggests an irrelevant fact or makes a
+remark, which confuses him and gives him something to think about;
+throws dust into his eyes; states some truth, from which he is quite
+sure his hearer will draw an illogical and untrue conclusion, and the
+like.
+
+The greatest school of evasion, I speak seriously, is the House of
+Commons; and necessarily so, from the nature of the case. And the
+hustings is another.
+
+An instance is supplied in the history of St. Athanasius: he was in a
+boat on the Nile, flying persecution; and he found himself pursued. On
+this he ordered his men to turn his boat round, and ran right to meet
+the satellites of Julian. They asked him, "Have you seen Athanasius?"
+and he told his followers to answer, "Yes, he is close to you." _They_
+went on their course as if they were sure to come up to him, while _he_
+ran back into Alexandria, and there lay hid till the end of the
+persecution.
+
+I gave another instance above, in reference to a doctrine of religion.
+The early Christians did their best to conceal their Creed on account of
+the misconceptions of the heathen about it. Were the question asked of
+them, "Do you worship a Trinity?" and did they answer, "We worship one
+God, and none else;" the inquirer might, or would, infer that they did
+not acknowledge the Trinity of Divine Persons.
+
+It is very difficult to draw the line between these evasions and what
+are commonly called in English _equivocations_; and of this difficulty,
+again, I think, the scenes in the House of Commons supply us with
+illustrations.
+
+4. The fourth method is _silence_. For instance, not giving the _whole_
+truth in a court of law. If St. Alban, after dressing himself in the
+Priest's clothes, and being taken before the persecutor, had been able
+to pass off for his friend, and so gone to martyrdom without being
+discovered; and had he in the course of examination answered all
+questions truly, but not given the whole truth, the most important
+truth, that he was the wrong person, he would have come very near to
+telling a lie, for a half-truth is often a falsehood. And his defence
+must have been the _justa causa_, viz. either that he might in charity
+or for religion's sake save a priest, or again that the judge had no
+right to interrogate him on the subject.
+
+Now, of these four modes of misleading others by the tongue, when there
+is a _justa causa_ (supposing there can be such),--(1) a material lie,
+that is, an untruth which is not a lie, (2) an equivocation, (3) an
+evasion, and (4) silence,--First, I have no difficulty whatever in
+recognizing as allowable the method of _silence_.
+
+Secondly, But, if I allow of _silence_, why not of the method of
+_material lying_, since half of a truth _is_ often a lie? And, again, if
+all killing be not murder, nor all taking from another stealing, why
+must all untruths be lies? Now I will say freely that I think it
+difficult to answer this question, whether it be urged by St. Clement or
+by Milton; at the same time, I never have acted, and I think, when it
+came to the point, I never should act upon such a theory myself, except
+in one case, stated below. This I say for the benefit of those who speak
+hardly of Catholic theologians, on the ground that they admit text-books
+which allow of equivocation. They are asked, how can we trust you, when
+such are your views? but such views, as I already have said, need not
+have any thing to do with their own practice, merely from the
+circumstance that they are contained in their text-books. A theologian
+draws out a system; he does it partly as a scientific speculation: but
+much more for the sake of others. He is lax for the sake of others, not
+of himself. His own standard of action is much higher than that which he
+imposes upon men in general. One special reason why religious men, after
+drawing out a theory, are unwilling to act upon it themselves, is this:
+that they practically acknowledge a broad distinction between their
+reason and their conscience; and that they feel the latter to be the
+safer guide, though the former may be the clearer, nay even though it be
+the truer. They would rather be in error with the sanction of their
+conscience, than be right with the mere judgment of their reason. And
+again here is this more tangible difficulty in the case of exceptions to
+the rule of Veracity, that so very little external help is given us in
+drawing the line, as to when untruths are allowable and when not;
+whereas that sort of killing which is not murder, is most definitely
+marked off by legal enactments, so that it cannot possibly be mistaken
+for such killing as _is_ murder. On the other hand the cases of
+exemption from the rule of Veracity are left to the private judgment of
+the individual, and he may easily be led on from acts which are
+allowable to acts which are not. Now this remark does _not_ apply to
+such acts as are related in Scripture, as being done by a particular
+inspiration, for in such cases there _is_ a command. If I had my own
+way, I would oblige society, that is, its great men, its lawyers, its
+divines, its literature, publicly to acknowledge as such, those
+instances of untruth which are not lies, as for instance untruths in
+war; and then there could be no perplexity to the individual Catholic,
+for he would not be taking the law into his own hands.
+
+Thirdly, as to playing upon words, or equivocation, I suppose it is from
+the English habit, but, without meaning any disrespect to a great Saint,
+or wishing to set myself up, or taking my conscience for more than it is
+worth, I can only say as a fact, that I admit it as little as the rest
+of my countrymen: and, without any reference to the right and the wrong
+of the matter, of this I am sure, that, if there is one thing more than
+another which prejudices Englishmen against the Catholic Church, it is
+the doctrine of great authorities on the subject of equivocation. For
+myself, I can fancy myself thinking it was allowable in extreme cases
+for me to lie, but never to equivocate. Luther said, "Pecca fortiter." I
+anathematize his formal sentiment, but there is a truth in it, when
+spoken of material acts.
+
+Fourthly, I think _evasion_, as I have described it, to be perfectly
+allowable; indeed, I do not know, who does not use it, under
+circumstances; but that a good deal of moral danger is attached to its
+use; and that, the cleverer a man is, the more likely he is to pass the
+line of Christian duty.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But it may be said, that such decisions do not meet the particular
+difficulties for which provision is required; let us then take some
+instances.
+
+1. I do not think it right to tell lies to children, even on this
+account, that they are sharper than we think them, and will soon find
+out what we are doing; and our example will be a very bad training for
+them. And so of equivocation: it is easy of imitation, and we ourselves
+shall be sure to get the worst of it in the end.
+
+2. If an early Father defends the patriarch Jacob in his mode of gaining
+his father's blessing, on the ground that the blessing was divinely
+pledged to him already, that it was his, and that his father and brother
+were acting at once against his own rights and the divine will, it does
+not follow from this that such conduct is a pattern to us, who have no
+supernatural means of determining _when_ an untruth becomes a
+_material_, and not a _formal_ lie. It seems to me very dangerous, be it
+ever allowable or not, to lie or equivocate in order to preserve some
+great temporal or spiritual benefit; nor does St. Alfonso here say any
+thing to the contrary, for he is not discussing the question of danger
+or expedience.
+
+3. As to Johnson's case of a murderer asking you which way a man had
+gone, I should have anticipated that, had such a difficulty happened to
+him, his first act would have been to knock the man down, and to call
+out for the police; and next, if he was worsted in the conflict, he
+would not have given the ruffian the information he asked, at whatever
+risk to himself. I think he would have let himself be killed first. I do
+not think that he would have told a lie.
+
+4. A secret is a more difficult case. Supposing something has been
+confided to me in the strictest secrecy, which could not be revealed
+without great disadvantage to another, what am I to do? If I am a
+lawyer, I am protected by my profession. I have a right to treat with
+extreme indignation any question which trenches on the inviolability of
+my position; but, supposing I was driven up into a corner, I think I
+should have a right to say an untruth, or that, under such
+circumstances, a lie would be _material_, but it is almost an impossible
+case, for the law would defend me. In like manner, as a priest, I should
+think it lawful to speak as if I knew nothing of what passed in
+confession. And I think in these cases, I do in fact possess that
+guarantee, that I am not going by private judgment, which just now I
+demanded; for society would bear me out, whether as a lawyer or as a
+priest, in holding that I had a duty to my client or penitent, such,
+that an untruth in the matter was not a lie. A common type of this
+permissible denial, be it _material lie_ or _evasion_, is at the moment
+supplied to me:--an artist asked a Prime Minister, who was sitting to
+him, "What news, my Lord, from France?" He answered, "_I do not know_; I
+have not read the Papers."
+
+5. A more difficult question is, when to accept confidence has not been
+a duty. Supposing a man wishes to keep the secret that he is the author
+of a book, and he is plainly asked on the subject. Here I should ask the
+previous question, whether any one has a right to publish what he dare
+not avow. It requires to have traced the bearings and results of such a
+principle, before being sure of it; but certainly, for myself, I am no
+friend of strictly anonymous writing. Next, supposing another has
+confided to you the secret of his authorship:--there are persons who
+would have no scruple at all in giving a denial to impertinent questions
+asked them on the subject. I have heard a great man in his day at
+Oxford, warmly contend, as if he could not enter into any other view of
+the matter, that, if he had been trusted by a friend with the secret of
+his being author of a certain book, and he were asked by a third person,
+if his friend was not (as he really was) the author of it, he ought,
+without any scruple and distinctly, to answer that he did not know. He
+had an existing duty towards the author; he had none towards his
+inquirer. The author had a claim on him; an impertinent questioner had
+none at all. But here again I desiderate some leave, recognized by
+society, as in the case of the formulas "Not at home," and "Not guilty,"
+in order to give me the right of saying what is a _material_ untruth.
+And moreover, I should here also ask the previous question, Have I any
+right to accept such a confidence? have I any right to make such a
+promise? and, if it be an unlawful promise, is it binding when it cannot
+be kept without a lie? I am not attempting to solve these difficult
+questions, but they have to be carefully examined. And now I have said
+more than I had intended on a question of casuistry.
+
+
+
+
+SUPPLEMENTAL MATTER.
+
+I.
+
+LETTERS AND PAPERS OF THE AUTHOR USED IN THE COURSE OF THIS WORK.
+
+                           PAGE
+February    11, 1811          3
+October     26, 1823          2
+September    7, 1829        119
+July        20, 1834         41
+November    28,  "           57
+August      18, 1837         29
+February    11, 1840        124
+    "       21,  "          129
+October     29(?)"          132
+November         "          135
+March       15, 1841        137
+  "         20,  "          170
+  "         24,  "          208
+  "         25,  "          137
+April        1,  "          137
+  "          4,  "          138
+  "          8,  "          138
+  "          8,  "          187
+  "         26,  "          188
+May          5,  "          188
+ "           9,  "          138
+June        18,  "          189
+September   12, 1841        190
+October     12,  "          143
+   "        17,  "          140
+   "        22,  "          140
+November    11,  "          145
+   "        14,  "          144
+December    13,  "          156
+   "        24,  "          157
+   "        25,  "          159
+   "        26,  "          162
+March        6, 1842        177
+April       14,  "          173
+October     16,  "          171
+November    22,  "          193
+Feb. 25, &  28, 1843        181
+March        3,  "          182
+  "          8,  "          184
+May          4,  "          208
+  "         18,  "          209
+June        20,  "          178
+July        16,  "          179
+August      29,  "          213
+August      30, 1843        179
+September    7,  "          213
+    "       29,  "          225
+October     14,  "          219
+    "       25,  "          221
+    "       31,  "          223
+November    13,  "          140
+1843 or 1844                178
+January     22, 1844        226
+February    21,  "          226
+April        3,  "          205
+  "          8,  "          226
+July        14,  "          197
+September   16,  "          227
+November     7,  "          230
+   "             "          211
+November    16, 1844        228
+     "      24,  "          229
+1844 (?)                    225
+1844 or 1845                167
+January      8, 1845        230
+March       30,  "          231
+April        3,  "          232
+   "        16,  "          180
+June         1,  "          232
+   "        17,  "          180
+October      8,  "          234
+November     8,  "          155
+   "        25,  "          235
+January     20, 1846        236
+December    6,  1849        185
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+CARDINAL NEWMAN'S WORKS.
+
+N.B.--This List, originally made in 1865, is now corrected up to 1890.
+
+
+1. SERMONS.
+
+VOLS. 1-8. Parochial and Plain Sermons. (_Longmans._)
+
+9. Sermons on Subjects of the Day. (_Longmans._)
+
+10. University Sermons. (_Longmans._)
+
+11. Sermons to Mixed Congregations. (_Burns and Oates._)
+
+12. Occasional Sermons. (_Burns and Oates._)
+
+
+2. TREATISES.
+
+13. On the Doctrine of Justification. (_Longmans._)
+
+14. On the Development of Christian Doctrine. (_Longmans._)
+
+15. On the Idea of a University. (_Longmans._)
+
+16. An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent. (_Longmans._)
+
+
+3. ESSAYS.
+
+17. Two Essays on Miracles. 1. Of Scripture. 2. Of Ecclesiastical
+History. (_Longmans._)
+
+18. Discussions and Arguments. 1. How to accomplish it. 2. The
+Antichrist of the Fathers. 3. Scripture and the Creed. 4. Tamworth
+Reading-Room. 5. Who's to blame? 6. An Argument for Christianity.
+(_Longmans._)
+
+19, 20. Essays Critical and Historical. 2 vols. 1. Poetry. 2.
+Rationalism. 3. Apostolical Tradition. 4. De la Mennais. 5. Palmer on
+Faith and Unity. 6. St. Ignatius. 7. Prospects of the Anglican Church.
+8. The Anglo-American Church. 9. Countess of Huntingdon. 10. Catholicity
+of the Anglican Church. 11. The Antichrist of Protestants. 12. Milman's
+Christianity. 13. Reformation of the Eleventh Century. 14. Private
+Judgment. 15. Davison. 16. Keble. (_Longmans._)
+
+
+4. HISTORICAL.
+
+21-23. Historical Sketches. 3 vols. 1. The Turks. 2. Cicero. 3.
+Apollonius. 4. Primitive Christianity. 5. Church of the Fathers. 6. St.
+Chrysostom. 7. Theodoret. 8. St. Benedict. 9. Benedictine Schools. 10.
+Universities. 11. Northmen and Normans. 12. Medieval Oxford. 13.
+Convocation of Canterbury. (_Longmans._)
+
+
+5. THEOLOGICAL.
+
+24. The Arians of the Fourth Century. (_Longmans._)
+
+25, 26. Annotated Translation of Athanasius. 2 vols. (_Longmans._)
+
+27. Tracts. 1. Dissertatiunculæ. 2. On the Text of the Seven Epistles of
+St. Ignatius. 3. Doctrinal Causes of Arianism. 4. Apollinarianism. 5.
+St. Cyril's Formula. 6. Ordo de Tempore. 7. Douay Version of Scripture.
+(_Burns and Oates._)
+
+
+6. POLEMICAL.
+
+28, 29. The Via Media of the Anglican Church. 2 vols. with Notes. Vol.
+I. Prophetical Office of the Church. Vol. II. Occasional Letters and
+Tracts. (_Longmans._)
+
+30, 31. Certain Difficulties felt by Anglicans in Catholic Teaching
+Considered. 2 vols. Vol. I. Twelve Lectures. Vol. II. Letters to Dr.
+Pusey concerning the Bl. Virgin, and to the Duke of Norfolk in Defence
+of the Pope and Council. (_Longmans._)
+
+32. Present Position of Catholics in England. (_Longmans._)
+
+33. Apologia pro Vita Sua. (_Longmans._)
+
+
+7. LITERARY.
+
+34. Verses on Various Occasions. (_Longmans._)
+
+35. Loss and Gain. (_Burns and Oates._)
+
+36. Callista. (_Longmans._)
+
+37. The Dream of Gerontius. (_Longmans._)
+
+¶ It is scarcely necessary to say that the Author submits all that he
+has written to the judgment of the Church, whose gift and prerogative it
+is to determine what is true and what is false in religious teaching.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+LETTER OF APPROBATION AND ENCOURAGEMENT FROM THE BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE
+OF BIRMINGHAM, DR. ULLATHORNE.
+
+
+"Bishop's House, June 2, 1864.
+
+"My dear Dr. Newman,--
+
+"It was with warm gratification that, after the close of the Synod
+yesterday, I listened to the Address presented to you by the clergy of
+the diocese, and to your impressive reply. But I should have been little
+satisfied with the part of the silent listener, except on the
+understanding with myself that I also might afterwards express to you my
+own sentiments in my own way.
+
+"We have now been personally acquainted, and much more than acquainted,
+for nineteen years, during more than sixteen of which we have stood in
+special relation of duty towards each other. This has been one of the
+singular blessings which God has given me amongst the cares of the
+Episcopal office. What my feelings of respect, of confidence, and of
+affection have been towards you, you know well, nor should I think of
+expressing them in words. But there is one thing that has struck me in
+this day of explanations, which you could not, and would not, be
+disposed to do, and which no one could do so properly or so
+authentically as I could, and which it seems to me is not altogether
+uncalled for, if every kind of erroneous impression that some persons
+have entertained with no better evidence than conjecture is to be
+removed.
+
+"It is difficult to comprehend how, in the face of facts, the notion
+should ever have arisen that during your Catholic life, you have been
+more occupied with your own thoughts than with the service of religion
+and the work of the Church. If we take no other work into consideration
+beyond the written productions which your Catholic pen has given to the
+world, they are enough for the life's labour of another. There are the
+Lectures on Anglican Difficulties, the Lectures on Catholicism in
+England, the great work on the Scope and End of University Education,
+that on the Office and Work of Universities, the Lectures and Essays on
+University Subjects, and the two Volumes of Sermons; not to speak of
+your contributions to the Atlantis, which you founded, and to other
+periodicals; then there are those beautiful offerings to Catholic
+literature, the Lectures on the Turks, Loss and Gain, and Callista, and
+though last, not least, the Apologia, which is destined to put many idle
+rumours to rest, and many unprofitable surmises; and yet all these
+productions represent but a portion of your labour, and that in the
+second half of your period of public life.
+
+"These works have been written in the midst of labour and cares of
+another kind, and of which the world knows very little. I will specify
+four of these undertakings, each of a distinct character, and any one of
+which would have made a reputation for untiring energy in the practical
+order.
+
+"The first of these undertakings was the establishment of the
+congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri--that great ornament and
+accession to the force of English Catholicity. Both the London and the
+Birmingham Oratory must look to you as their founder and as the
+originator of their characteristic excellences; whilst that of
+Birmingham has never known any other presidency.
+
+"No sooner was this work fairly on foot than you were called by the
+highest authority to commence another, and one of yet greater magnitude
+and difficulty, the founding of a University in Ireland. After the
+Universities had been lost to the Catholics of these kingdoms for three
+centuries, every thing had to be begun from the beginning: the idea of
+such an institution to be inculcated, the plan to be formed that would
+work, the resources to be gathered, and the staff of superiors and
+professors to be brought together. Your name was then the chief point of
+attraction which brought these elements together. You alone know what
+difficulties you had to conciliate and what to surmount, before the work
+reached that state of consistency and promise, which enabled you to
+return to those responsibilities in England which you had never laid
+aside or suspended. And here, excuse me if I give expression to a fancy
+which passed through my mind.
+
+"I was lately reading a poem, not long published, from the MSS. De Rerum
+Natura, by Neckham, the foster-brother of Richard the Lion-hearted. He
+quotes an old prophecy, attributed to Merlin, and with a sort of wonder,
+as if recollecting that England owed so much of its literary learning to
+that country; and the prophecy says that after long years Oxford will
+pass into Ireland--'Vada boum suo tempore transibunt in Hiberniam.' When
+I read this, I could not but indulge the pleasant fancy that in the days
+when the Dublin University shall arise in material splendour, an
+allusion to this prophecy might form a poetic element in the inscription
+on the pedestal of the statue which commemorates its first Rector.
+
+"The original plan of an Oratory did not contemplate any parochial work,
+but you could not contemplate so many souls in want of pastors without
+being prompt and ready at the beck of authority to strain all your
+efforts in coming to their help. And this brings me to the third and the
+most continuous of those labours to which I have alluded. The mission in
+Alcester Street, its church and schools, were the first work of the
+Birmingham Oratory. After several years of close and hard work, and a
+considerable call upon the private resources of the Fathers who had
+established this congregation, it was delivered over to other hands, and
+the Fathers removed to the district of Edgbaston, where up to that time
+nothing Catholic had appeared. Then arose under your direction the large
+convent of the Oratory, the church expanded by degrees into its present
+capaciousness, a numerous congregation has gathered and grown in it;
+poor schools and other pious institutions have grown up in connexion
+with it, and, moreover, equally at your expense and that of your
+brethren, and, as I have reason to know, at much inconvenience, the
+Oratory has relieved the other clergy of Birmingham all this while by
+constantly doing the duty in the poor-house and gaol of Birmingham.
+
+"More recently still, the mission and the poor school at Smethwick owe
+their existence to the Oratory. And all this while the founder and
+father of these religious works has added to his other solicitudes the
+toil of frequent preaching, of attendance in the confessional, and other
+parochial duties.
+
+"I have read on this day of its publication the seventh part of the
+Apologia, and the touching allusion in it to the devotedness of the
+Catholic clergy to the poor in seasons of pestilence reminds me that
+when the cholera raged so dreadfully at Bilston, and the two priests of
+the town were no longer equal to the number of cases to which they were
+hurried day and night, I asked you to lend me two fathers to supply the
+place of other priests whom I wished to send as a further aid. But you
+and Father St. John preferred to take the place of danger which I had
+destined for others, and remained at Bilston till the worst was over.
+
+"The fourth work which I would notice is one more widely known. I refer
+to the school for the education of the higher classes, which at the
+solicitation of many friends you have founded and attached to the
+Oratory. Surely after reading this bare enumeration of work done, no man
+will venture to say that Dr. Newman is leading a comparatively inactive
+life in the service of the Church.
+
+"To spare, my dear Dr. Newman, any further pressure on those feelings
+with which I have already taken so large a liberty, I will only add one
+word more for my own satisfaction. During our long intercourse there is
+only one subject on which, after the first experience, I have measured
+my words with some caution, and that has been where questions bearing on
+ecclesiastical duty have arisen. I found some little caution necessary,
+because you were always so prompt and ready to go even beyond the
+slightest intimation of my wish or desires.
+
+"That God may bless you with health, life, and all the spiritual good
+which you desire, you and your brethren of the Oratory, is the earnest
+prayer now and often of,
+
+"My dear Dr. Newman,
+
+"Your affectionate friend and faithful servant in Christ,
+
+"+ W. B. ULLATHORNE."
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+LETTERS OF APPROBATION AND ENCOURAGEMENT FROM CLERGY AND LAITY.
+
+
+It requires some words of explanation why I allow myself to sound my own
+praises so loudly, as I am doing by adding to my Volume the following
+Letters, written to me last year by large bodies of my Catholic
+brethren, Priests, and Laymen, in the course or on the conclusion of the
+publication of my Apologia. I have two reasons for doing so.
+
+1. It seems hardly respectful to them, and hardly fair to myself, to
+practise self-denial in a matter, which after all belongs to others as
+well as to me. Bodies of men become authorities by the fact of being
+bodies, over and above the personal claims of the individuals who
+constitute them. To have received such unusual Testimonials in my
+favour, as I have to produce, and then to have let both those
+Testimonials and the generous feelings which dictated them be wasted,
+and come to nought, would have been a rudeness of which I could not bear
+to be guilty. Far be it from me to show such ingratitude to those who
+were especially "friends in need." I am too proud of their approbation
+not to publish it to the world.
+
+2. But I have a further reason. The belief obtains extensively in the
+country at large, that Catholics, and especially the Priesthood, disavow
+the mode and form, in which I am accustomed to teach the Catholic faith,
+as if they were not generally recognized, but something special and
+peculiar to myself; as if, whether for the purposes of controversy, or
+from the traditions of an earlier period of my life, I did not exhibit
+Catholicism pure and simple, as the bulk of its professors manifest it.
+Such testimonials, then, as now follow, from as many as 558 priests,
+that is, not far from half of the clergy of England, secular and
+religious, from the Bishop and clergy of a diocese at the Antipodes, and
+from so great and authoritative a body as the German Congress assembled
+last year at Wurzburg, scatter to the winds a suspicion, which it is not
+less painful, I am persuaded, to numbers of those Protestants who
+entertain it, than it is injurious to me who have to bear it.
+
+
+I. THE DIOCESE OF WESTMINSTER.
+
+The following Address was signed by 110 of the Westminster clergy,
+including all the Canons, the Vicars General, a great number of secular
+priests, and five Doctors in theology; Fathers of the Society of Jesus,
+Fathers of the Order of St. Dominic, of St. Francis, of the Oratory, of
+the Passion, of Charity, Oblates of St. Charles, and Marists.
+
+"London, March 15, 1864.
+
+"Very Reverend and Dear Sir,
+
+"We, the undersigned Priests of the Diocese of Westminster, tender to
+you our respectful thanks for the service you have done to religion, as
+well as to the interests of literary morality, by your Reply to the
+calumnies of [a popular writer of the day.]
+
+"We cannot but regard it as a matter of congratulation that your
+assailant should have associated the cause of the Catholic Priesthood
+with the name of one so well fitted to represent its dignity, and to
+defend its honour, as yourself.
+
+"We recognize in this latest effort of your literary power one further
+claim, besides the many you have already established, to the gratitude
+and veneration of Catholics, and trust that the reception which it has
+met with on all sides may be the omen of new successes which you are
+destined to achieve in the vindication of the teaching and principles of
+the Church.
+
+"We are,
+
+"Very Reverend and Dear Sir,
+
+"Your faithful and affectionate Servants in Christ."
+
+(_The Subscriptions follow._)
+
+"To the Very Rev.
+
+"John Henry Newman, D.D."
+
+
+II.--THE ACADEMIA OF CATHOLIC RELIGION.
+
+"London, April 19, 1864.
+
+"Very Rev. and Dear Sir,
+
+"The Academia of Catholic Religion, at their meeting held to-day, under
+the Presidency of the Cardinal Archbishop, have instructed us to write
+to you in their behalf.
+
+"As they have learned, with great satisfaction, that it is your
+intention to publish a defence of Catholic Veracity, which has been
+assailed in your person, they are precluded from asking you that that
+defence might be made by word of mouth, and in London, as they would
+otherwise have done.
+
+"Composed, as the Academia is, mainly of Laymen, they feel that it is
+not out of their province to express their indignation that your
+opponent should have chosen, while praising the Catholic Laity, to do so
+at the expense of the Clergy, between whom and themselves, in this as in
+all other matters, there exists a perfect identity of principle and
+practice.
+
+"It is because, in such a matter, your cause is the cause of all
+Catholics, that we congratulate ourselves on the rashness of the
+opponent that has thrown the defence of that cause into your hands.
+
+"We remain,
+
+"Very Reverend and Dear Sir,
+
+"Your very faithful Servants,
+
+"JAMES LAIRD PATTERSON,
+
+"EDW. LUCAS, _Secretaries._
+
+"To the Very Rev. John Henry Newman, D.D.,
+
+"Provost of the Birmingham Oratory."
+
+The above was moved at the meeting by Lord Petre, and seconded by the
+Hon. Charles Langdale.
+
+
+III.--THE DIOCESE OF BIRMINGHAM.
+
+In this Diocese there were in 1864, according to the Directory of the
+year, 136 Priests.
+
+"June 1, 1864.
+
+"Very Reverend and Dear Sir,
+
+"In availing ourselves of your presence at the Diocesan Synod to offer
+you our hearty thanks for your recent vindication of the honour of the
+Catholic Priesthood, We, the Provost and Chapter of the Cathedral, and
+the Clergy, Secular and Regular, of the Diocese of Birmingham, cannot
+forego the assertion of a special right, as your neighbours and
+colleagues, to express our veneration and affection for one whose
+fidelity to the dictates of conscience, in the use of the highest
+intellectual gifts, has won even from opponents unbounded admiration and
+respect.
+
+"To most of us you are personally known. Of some, indeed, you were, in
+years long past, the trusted guide, to whom they owe more than can be
+expressed in words; and all are conscious that the ingenuous fulness of
+your answer to a false and unprovoked accusation, has intensified their
+interest in the labours and trials of your life. While, then, we resent
+the indignity to which you have been exposed, and lament the pain and
+annoyance which the manifestation of yourself must have cost you, we
+cannot but rejoice that, in the fulfilment of a duty, you have allowed
+neither the unworthiness of your assailant to shield him from rebuke,
+nor the sacredness of your inmost motives to deprive that rebuke of the
+only form which could at once complete his discomfiture, free your own
+name from the obloquy which prejudice had cast upon it, and afford
+invaluable aid to honest seekers after Truth.
+
+"Great as is the work which you have already done, Very Reverend Sir,
+permit us to express a hope that a greater yet remains for you to
+accomplish. In an age and in a country in which the very foundations of
+religious faith are exposed to assault, we rejoice in numbering among
+our brethren one so well qualified by learning and experience to defend
+that priceless deposit of Truth, in obtaining which you have counted as
+gain the loss of all things most dear and precious. And we esteem
+ourselves happy in being able to offer you that support and
+encouragement which the assurance of our unfeigned admiration and regard
+may be able to give you under your present trials and future labours.
+
+"That you may long have strength to labour for the Church of God and the
+glory of His Holy Name is, Very Reverend and Dear Sir, our heartfelt and
+united prayer."
+
+(_The Subscriptions follow._)
+
+"To the Very Rev. John Henry Newman, D.D."
+
+
+IV.--THE DIOCESE OF BEVERLEY.
+
+The following Address, as is stated in the first paragraph, comes from
+more than 70 Priests:--
+
+"Hull, May 9, 1864.
+
+"Very Rev. and Dear Dr. Newman,
+
+"At a recent meeting of the clergy of the Diocese of Beverley, held in
+York, at which upwards of seventy priests were present, special
+attention was called to your correspondence with [a popular writer]; and
+such was the enthusiasm with which your name was received--such was the
+admiration expressed of the dignity with which you had asserted the
+claims of the Catholic Priesthood in England to be treated with becoming
+courtesy and respect--and such was the strong and all-pervading sense of
+the invaluable service which you had thus rendered, not only to faith
+and morals, but to good manners so far as regarded religious controversy
+in this country, that I was requested, as Chairman, to become the voice
+of the meeting, and to express to you as strongly and as earnestly as I
+could, how heartily the whole of the clergy of this diocese desire to
+thank you for services to religion as well-timed as they are in
+themselves above and beyond all commendation, services which the
+Catholics of England will never cease to hold in most grateful
+remembrance. God, in His infinite wisdom and great mercy, has raised you
+up to stand prominently forth in the glorious work of re-establishing in
+this country the holy faith which in good old times shed such lustre
+upon it. We all lament that, in the order of nature, you have so few
+years before you in which to fight against false teaching that good
+fight in which you have been so victoriously engaged of late. But our
+prayers are that you may long be spared, and may possess to the last all
+your vigour, and all that zeal for the advancement of our holy faith,
+which imparts such a charm to the productions of your pen.
+
+"I esteem it a great honour and a great privilege to have been deputed,
+as the representative of the clergy of the Diocese of Beverley, to
+tender you the fullest expression of our most grateful thanks, and the
+assurance of our prayers for your health and eternal happiness.
+
+"I am,
+
+"Very Rev. and Dear Sir,
+
+"With sentiments of profound respect,
+
+"Yours most faithfully in Christ,
+
+"M. TRAPPES.
+
+"The Very Rev. Dr. Newman."
+
+
+V. AND VI.--THE DIOCESES OF LIVERPOOL AND SALFORD.
+
+The Secular Clergy of Liverpool amounted in 1864 to 103, and of Salford
+to 76.
+
+"Preston, July 27, 1864.
+
+"Very Rev. and Dear Sir,
+
+"It may seem, perhaps, that the Clergy of Lancashire have been slow to
+address you; but it would be incorrect to suppose that they have been
+indifferent spectators of the conflict in which you have been recently
+engaged. This is the first opportunity that has presented itself, and
+they gladly avail themselves of their annual meeting in Preston to
+tender to you the united expression of their heartfelt sympathy and
+gratitude.
+
+"The atrocious imputation, out of which the late controversy arose, was
+felt as a personal affront by them, one and all, conscious as they were,
+that it was mainly owing to your position as a distinguished Catholic
+ecclesiastic, that the charge was connected with your name.
+
+"While they regret the pain you must needs have suffered, they cannot
+help rejoicing that it has afforded you an opportunity of rendering a
+new and most important service to their holy religion. Writers, who are
+not overscrupulous about the truth themselves, have long used the charge
+of untruthfulness as an ever ready weapon against the Catholic Clergy.
+Partly from the frequent repetition of this charge, partly from a
+consciousness that, instead of undervaluing the truth, they have ever
+prized it above every earthly treasure, partly, too, from the difficulty
+of obtaining a hearing in their own defence, they have generally passed
+it by in silence. They thank you for coming forward as their champion:
+your own character required no vindication. It was their battle more
+than your own that you fought. They know and feel how much pain it has
+caused you to bring so prominently forward your own life and motives,
+but they now congratulate you on the completeness of your triumph, as
+admitted alike by friend and enemy.
+
+"In addition to answering the original accusation, you have placed them
+under a new obligation, by giving to all, who read the English language,
+a work which, for literary ability and the lucid exposition of many
+difficult and abstruse points, forms an invaluable contribution to our
+literature.
+
+"They fervently pray that God may give you health and length of days,
+and, if it please Him, some other cause in which to use for His glory
+the great powers bestowed upon you.
+
+"Signed on behalf of the Meeting,
+
+"THOS. PROVOST COOKSON.
+
+"The Very Rev. J. H. Newman."
+
+
+VII.--THE DIOCESE OF HEXHAM.
+
+The Secular Priests on Mission in 1864 in this Diocese were 64.
+
+"Durham, Sept. 22, 1864.
+
+"My Dear Dr. Newman,
+
+"At the annual meeting of the Clergy of the Diocese of Hexham and
+Newcastle, held a few days ago at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, I was
+commissioned by them to express to you their sincere sympathy, on
+account of the slanderous accusations, to which you have been so
+unjustly exposed. We are fully aware that these foul calumnies were
+intended to injure the character of the whole body of the Catholic
+Clergy, and that your distinguished name was singled out, in order that
+they might be more effectually propagated. It is well that these
+poisonous shafts were thus aimed, as no one could more triumphantly
+repel them. The 'Apologia pro Vitâ suâ' will, if possible, render still
+more illustrious the name of its gifted author, and be a lasting
+monument of the victory of truth, and the signal overthrow of an
+arrogant and reckless assailant.
+
+"It may appear late for us now to ask to join in your triumph, but as
+the Annual Meeting of the Northern Clergy does not take place till this
+time, it is the first occasion offered us to present our united
+congratulations, and to declare to you, that by none of your brethren
+are you more esteemed and venerated, than by the Clergy of the Diocese
+of Hexham and Newcastle.
+
+"Wishing that Almighty God may prolong your life many more years for the
+defence of our holy religion and the honour of your brethren,
+
+"I am, dear Dr. Newman,
+
+"Yours sincerely in Jesus Christ,
+
+"RALPH PROVOST PLATT, V. G.
+
+"The Very Rev. J. H. Newman."
+
+
+VIII.--THE CONGRESS OF WÜRZBURG.
+
+"September 15, 1864.
+
+"Sir,
+
+"The undersigned, President of the Catholic Congress of Germany
+assembled in Würzburg, has been commissioned to express to you, Very
+Rev. and Dear Sir, its deep-felt gratitude for your late able defence of
+the Catholic Clergy, not only of England, but of the whole world,
+against the attacks of its enemies.
+
+"The Catholics of Germany unite with the Catholics of England in
+testifying to you their profound admiration and sympathy, and pray that
+the Almighty may long preserve your valuable life.
+
+"The above Resolution was voted by the Congress with acclamation.
+
+"Accept, very Rev. and Dear Sir, the expression of the high
+consideration with which I am
+
+"Your most obedient servant,
+
+"(Signed) ERNEST BARON MOIJ DE SONS.
+
+"The Very Rev. J. H. Newman."
+
+
+IX.--THE DIOCESE OF HOBART TOWN.
+
+
+"Hobart Town, Tasmania, November 22, 1864.
+
+"Very Rev. and Dear Sir,
+
+"By the last month's post we at length received your admirable book,
+entitled, 'Apologia pro Vitâ suâ,' and the pamphlet, 'What then does Dr.
+Newman mean?'
+
+"By this month's mail, we wish to express our heartfelt gratification
+and delight for being possessed of a work so triumphant in maintaining
+truth, and so overwhelming in confounding arrogance and error, as the
+'Apologia.'
+
+"No doubt, your adversary, resting on the deep-seated prejudice of our
+fellow-countrymen in the United Kingdom, calculated upon establishing
+his own fame as a keen-sighted polemic, as a shrewd and truth-loving
+man, upon the fallen reputation of one, who, as he would
+demonstrate,--yes, that he would,--set little or no value on truth, and
+who, therefore, would deservedly sink into obscurity, henceforward
+rejected and despised!
+
+"Aman of old erected a gibbet at the gate of the city, on which an
+unsuspecting and an unoffending man, one marked as a victim, was to be
+exposed to the gaze and derision of the people, in order that his own
+dignity and fame might be exalted; but a divine Providence ordained
+otherwise. The history of the judgment that fell upon Aman, has been
+recorded in Holy Writ, it is to be presumed, as a warning to vain and
+unscrupulous men, even in our days. There can be no doubt, a moral
+gibbet, full 'fifty cubits high,' had been prepared some time, on which
+you were to be exposed, for the pity at least, if not for the scorn and
+derision of so many, who had loved and venerated you through life!
+
+"But the effort made in the forty-eight pages of the redoubtable
+pamphlet, 'What then does Dr. Newman Mean?'--the production of a bold,
+unscrupulous man, with a coarse mind, and regardless of inflicting pain
+on the feelings of another, has failed,--marvellously failed,--and he
+himself is now exhibited not only in our fatherland, but even at the
+Antipodes, in fact wherever the English language is spoken or read, as a
+shallow pretender, one quite incompetent to treat of matters of such
+undying interest as those he presumed to interfere with.
+
+"We fervently pray the Almighty, that you may be spared to His Church
+for many years to come,--that to Him alone the glory of this noble work
+may be given,--and to you the reward in eternal bliss!
+
+"And from this distant land we beg to convey to you, Very Rev. and Dear
+Sir, the sentiments of our affectionate respect, and deep veneration."
+
+(_The Subscriptions follow, of the Bishop Vicar-General and eighteen
+Clergy._)
+
+"The Very Rev. Dr. Newman,
+&c. &c. &c."
+
+
+
+
+ADDITIONAL NOTES.
+
+
+NOTE ON PAGE 12.
+
+CORRESPONDENCE WITH ARCHBISHOP WHATELY IN 1834.
+
+On application of the Editor of Dr. Whately's Correspondence, the
+following four letters were sent to her for publication: they are here
+given entire. It will be observed that they are of the same date as my
+letter to Dr. Hampden at p. 57.
+
+
+1.
+
+"Dublin, October 25, 1834.
+
+"My dear Newman,
+
+"A most shocking report concerning you has reached me, which indeed
+carries such an improbability on the face of it that you may perhaps
+wonder at my giving it a thought; and at first I did not, but finding it
+repeated from different quarters, it seems to me worth contradicting for
+the sake of your character. Some Oxford undergraduates, I find, openly
+report that when I was at Oriel last spring you absented yourself from
+chapel on purpose to avoid receiving the Communion along with me; and
+that you yourself declared this to be the case.
+
+"I would not notice every idle rumour; but this has been so confidently
+and so long asserted that it would be a satisfaction to me to be able to
+declare its falsity as a fact, from your authority. I did indeed at once
+declare my utter unbelief; but then this has only the weight of my
+opinion; though an opinion resting I think on no insufficient grounds. I
+did not profess to rest my disbelief on our long, intimate, and
+confidential friendship, which would make it your right and your
+duty--if I did any thing to offend you or any thing you might think
+materially wrong--to remonstrate with me;--but on your general
+character; which I was persuaded would have made you incapable, even had
+no such close connexion existed between us, of conduct so unchristian
+and inhuman. But, as I said, I should like for your sake to be able to
+contradict the report from your own authority.
+
+"Ever yours very truly,
+
+"R. WHATELY."
+
+
+2.
+
+"Oriel College, October 28, 1834.
+
+"My dear Lord,
+
+"My absence from the Sacrament in the College Chapel on the Sunday you
+were in Oxford, was occasioned solely and altogether by my having it on
+that day in St. Mary's; and I am pretty sure, if I may trust my memory,
+that I did not even know of your Grace's presence there, till after the
+Service. Most certainly such knowledge would not have affected my
+attendance. I need not say, this being the case, that the report of my
+having made any statement on the subject is quite unfounded; indeed,
+your letter of this morning is the first information I have had in any
+shape of the existence of the report.
+
+"I am happy in being thus able to afford an explanation as satisfactory
+to you, as the kind feelings which you have ever entertained towards me
+could desire;--yet, on honest reflection, I cannot conceal from myself,
+that it was generally a relief to me, to see so little of your Grace,
+when you were at Oxford: and it is a greater relief now to have an
+opportunity of saying so to yourself. I have ever wished to observe the
+rule, never to make a public charge against another behind his back,
+and, though in the course of conversation and the urgency of accidental
+occurrences it is sometimes difficult to keep to it, yet I trust I have
+not broken it, especially in your own case: i.e. though my most intimate
+friends know how deeply I deplore the line of ecclesiastical policy
+adopted under your archiepiscopal sanction, and though in society I may
+have clearly shown that I have an opinion one way rather than the other,
+yet I have never in my intention, never (as I believe) at all, spoken of
+your Grace in a serious way before strangers;--indeed mixing very little
+in general society, and not overapt to open myself in it, I have had
+little temptation to do so. Least of all should I so forget myself as to
+take undergraduates into my confidence in such a matter.
+
+"I wish I could convey to your Grace the mixed and very painful
+feelings, which the late history of the Irish Church has raised in
+me:--the union of her members with men of heterodox views, and the
+extinction (without ecclesiastical sanction) of half her Candlesticks,
+the witnesses and guarantees of the Truth and trustees of the Covenant.
+I willingly own that both in my secret judgment and my mode of speaking
+concerning you to my friends, I have had great alternations and changes
+of feeling,--defending, then blaming your policy, next praising your own
+self and protesting against your measures, according as the affectionate
+remembrances which I had of you rose against my utter aversion of the
+secular and unbelieving policy in which I considered the Irish Church to
+be implicated. I trust I shall never be forgetful of the kindness you
+uniformly showed me during your residence in Oxford: and anxiously hope
+that no duty to Christ and His Church may ever interfere with the
+expression of my sense of it. However, on the present opportunity, I am
+conscious to myself, that I am acting according to the dictates both of
+duty and gratitude, if I beg your leave to state my persuasion, that the
+perilous measures in which your Grace has acquiesced are but the
+legitimate offspring of those principles, difficult to describe in few
+words, with which your reputation is especially associated; principles
+which bear upon the very fundamentals of all argument and investigation,
+and affect almost every doctrine and every maxim by which our faith or
+our conduct is to be guided. I can feel no reluctance to confess, that,
+when I first was noticed by your Grace, gratitude to you and admiration
+of your powers wrought upon me; and, had not something from within
+resisted, I should certainly have adopted views on religious and social
+duty, which seem to my present judgment to be based in the pride of
+reason and to tend towards infidelity, and which in your own case
+nothing but your Grace's high religious temper and the unclouded faith
+of early piety has been able to withstand.
+
+"I am quite confident, that, however you may regard this judgment, you
+will give me credit, not only for honesty, but for a deeper feeling in
+thus laying it before you.
+
+"May I be suffered to add, that your name is ever mentioned in my
+prayers, and to subscribe myself
+
+"Your Grace's very sincere friend and servant,
+
+"J. H. NEWMAN."
+
+
+3.
+
+"Dublin, November 3, 1834.
+
+"My dear Newman,
+
+"I cannot forbear writing again to express the great satisfaction I feel
+in the course I adopted; which has, eventually, enabled me to contradict
+a report which was more prevalent and more confidently upheld than I
+could have thought possible: and which, while it was perhaps likely to
+hurt my character with some persons, was injurious to yours in the eyes
+of the best men. For what idea must any one have had of religion--or at
+least of your religion--who was led to think there was any truth in the
+imputation to you of such uncharitable arrogance!
+
+"But it is a rule with me, not to cherish, even on the strongest
+assertions, any belief or even suspicion, to the prejudice of any one
+whom I have any reason to think well of, till I have carefully inquired,
+and dispassionately heard both sides. And I think if others were to
+adopt the same rule, I should not myself be quite so much abused as I
+have been.
+
+"I am well aware indeed that one cannot expect all, even good men, to
+think alike on every point, even after they shall have heard both sides;
+and that we may expect many to judge, after all, very harshly of those
+who do differ from them: for, God help us! what will become of men if
+they receive no more mercy than they show to each other! But at least,
+if the rule were observed, men would not condemn a brother on mere vague
+popular rumour, about principles (as in my case) 'difficult to describe
+in few words,' and with which his 'reputation is associated.' My own
+reputation I know is associated, to a very great degree, with what are
+in fact calumnious imputations, originated in exaggerated, distorted, or
+absolutely false statements, for which even those who circulate them, do
+not, for the most part, pretend to have any ground except popular
+rumour: like the Jews at Rome; 'as for this way, we know that it is
+every where spoken against.'
+
+"For I have ascertained that a very large proportion of those who join
+in the outcry against my works, confess, or even boast, that they have
+never read them. And in respect of the measure you advert to--the Church
+Temporalities Act--(which of course I shall not now discuss), it is
+curious to see how many of those who load me with censure for
+acquiescing in it, receive with open arms, and laud to the skies, the
+Primate; who was consulted on the measure--as was natural, considering
+his knowledge of Irish affairs, and his influence--long before me; and
+gave his consent to it; differing from Ministers only on a point of
+detail, whether the revenues of six Sees, or of ten, should be
+alienated.
+
+"Of course, every one is bound ultimately to decide according to his own
+judgment; nor do I mean to shelter myself under his example: but only to
+point out what strange notions of justice those have, who acquit with
+applause the leader, and condemn the follower in the same individual
+transaction.
+
+"Far be it from any servant of our Master, to feel surprise or anger at
+being thus treated; it is only an admonition to me to avoid treating
+others in a similar manner; and not to 'judge another's servant,' at
+least without a fair hearing.
+
+"You do me no more than justice, in feeling confident that I shall give
+you credit both for 'honesty and for a deeper feeling' in freely laying
+your opinions before me: and besides this, you might have been no less
+confident, from your own experience, that, long since--whenever it was
+that you changed your judgment respecting me--if you had freely and
+calmly remonstrated with me on any point where you thought me going
+wrong, I should have listened to you with that readiness and candour and
+deference, which as you well know, I always showed, in the times when
+'we took sweet counsel together, and walked in the house of God as
+friends;'--when we consulted together about so many practical measures,
+and about almost all the principal points in my publications.
+
+"I happen to have before me a letter from you just eight years ago, in
+which, after saying that 'there are few things you wish more sincerely
+than to be known as a friend of mine,' and attributing to me, in the
+warmest and most flattering terms, a much greater share in the forming
+of your mind than I could presume to claim, you bear a testimony, in
+which I do most heartily concur, to the _freedom_ at least of our
+_intercourse_, and the readiness and respect with which you were
+listened to. Your words are: 'Much as I owe to Oriel in the way of
+mental improvement, to none, as I think, do I owe so much as to
+yourself. I know who it was first gave me heart to look about me after
+my election, and taught me to think correctly, and--strange office for
+an instructor--to rely upon myself. Nor can I forget that it has been at
+your kind suggestion, that I have since been led to employ myself in the
+consideration of several subjects, which I cannot doubt have been very
+beneficial to my mind.'
+
+"If in all this I was erroneous,--if I have misled you, or any one else,
+into 'the pride of reason,' or any other kind of pride,--or if I have
+entertained, or led others into, any wrong opinions, I can only say I
+sincerely regret it. And again I rejoice if I have been the means of
+contributing to form in any one that 'high religious temper and
+unclouded faith' of which I not only believe, with you, that they are
+able to withstand tendencies towards infidelity, but also, that
+_without_ them, no correctness of abstract opinions is worth much. But
+what I meant to point out, is, that there was plainly nothing to
+preclude you from offering friendly admonition (when your view of my
+principles changed), with a full confidence of being at least patiently
+and kindly listened to.
+
+"I for my part could not bring myself to find relief in escaping the
+society of an old friend,--with whom I had been accustomed to frank
+discussion,--on account of my differing from him as to certain
+principles, whether through a change of _his_ views, or (much more) of
+_my own_,--till at least I had made full trial of private and
+affectionate remonstrance and free discussion. Even a 'man that is a
+heretic,' we are told, even a ruler of a Church is not to reject, till
+after repeated admonitions.
+
+"But though your regard for me does not show itself such as I think mine
+would have been under similar circumstances, I will not therefore reject
+what remains of it. Let us pray for each other that it may please God to
+enlighten whichever of us is, on any point, in error, and recall him to
+the truth; and that at any rate we may hold fast that charity, without
+which all knowledge, and all faith, that could remove mountains, will
+profit us nothing.
+
+"I fear you will read with a jaundiced eye,--if you venture to read it
+at all--any publication of mine; but 'for auld lang syne' I take
+advantage of a frank to enclose you my last two addresses to my clergy.
+
+"Very sincerely yours,
+
+"RD. WHATELY."
+
+
+4.
+
+"Oriel, November 11, 1834.
+
+"My dear Lord,
+
+"The remarks contained in your last letter do not come upon me by
+surprise, and I can only wish that I may be as able to explain myself to
+you, as I do with a clear and honest conscience to myself. Your Grace
+will observe that the letter of mine from which you make an extract, was
+written when I _was_ in habits of intimacy with you, in which I have not
+been of late years. It does not at all follow, because I could then
+speak freely to you, that I might at another time. Opportunity is the
+chief thing in such an office as delivering to a superior an opinion
+about himself. Though I never concealed my opinion from you, I have
+never been forward. I have spoken when place and time admitted, when my
+opinion was asked, when I was called to your side and was made your
+counsellor. No such favourable circumstances have befallen me of late
+years,--if I must now state in explanation what in truth has never
+occurred to me in _this fulness_, till now I am called to reflect upon
+my own conduct and to account for an apparent omission. I have spoken
+the first opportunity you have given me; and I am persuaded good very
+seldom comes of _volunteering_ a remonstrance.
+
+"Again, I cannot doubt for an instant that you have long been aware in a
+measure that my opinions differed from your Grace's. You knew it when at
+Oxford, for you often found me differing from you. You must have felt
+it, at the time you left Oxford for Dublin. You must have known it from
+hearsay in consequence of the book I have published. What indeed can
+account for my want of opportunities to speak to you freely my mind, but
+the feeling on your part, (which, if existing, is nothing but a fair
+reason,) that my views are different from yours?
+
+"And that difference is certainly of no recent date. I tacitly allude to
+it in the very letter you quote--in which, I recollect well that the
+words 'strange office for an instructor,--_to rely upon myself_,' were
+intended to convey to you that, much as I valued (and still value) your
+great kindness and the advantage of your countenance to me at that time,
+yet even then I did not fall in with the line of opinions which you had
+adopted. In them I never acquiesced. Doubtless I may have used at times
+sentiments and expressions, which I should not now use; but I believe
+these had no root in my mind, and as such they were mere idle words
+which I ought ever to be ashamed of, because they _were_ idle. But the
+opinions to which I especially alluded in my former letter as associated
+by the world with your Grace's name under the title of 'Liberal,' (but
+not, as you suppose, received by me on the world's authority,) are those
+which may be briefly described as the Anti-superstition notions; and to
+these I do not recollect ever assenting. Connected with these I would
+instance the undervaluing of Antiquity, and resting on one's own
+reasonings, judgments, definitions, &c., rather than authority and
+precedent; and I think I gave very little in to this;--for a very short
+time too (if at all), in to the notion that the State, as such, had
+nothing to do with religion. On the other hand, whatever I held then
+deliberately, I believe I hold now; though perhaps I may not consider
+them as points of such prominent importance, or with precisely the same
+bearing as I did then:--as the abolition of the Jewish Sabbath, the
+unscripturalness of the doctrine of imputed righteousness (i.e. our
+Lord's active obedience)--the mistakes of the so-called Evangelical
+system, the independence of the Church; the genius of the Gospel as a
+Law of Liberty, and the impropriety of forming geological theories from
+Scripture. Of course every one changes in opinion between twenty and
+thirty; doubtless, I have changed; yet I am not conscious that I have so
+much _changed_, as made up my mind on points on which I had no opinion.
+E.g. I had no opinion about the Catholic Question till 1829. No one can
+truly say I was ever _for_ the Catholics; but I was not against them. In
+fact I did not enter into the state of the question at all.
+
+"Then as to my change of judgment as to the character of your Grace's
+opinions, it is natural that, when two persons pursue different lines
+from the same point, they should not discover their divergence for a
+long while; especially if there be any kind feeling in the one towards
+the other. It was not for a very long time that I discovered that your
+opinions were (as I now think them) but part of intellectual views, so
+different from your own inward mind and character, so peculiar in
+themselves, and (if you will let me add) so dangerous. For a long time I
+thought them to be but different; for a longer, to be but in parts
+dangerous; but their full character in this respect came on me almost on
+a sudden. I heard at Naples the project of destroying the Irish Sees,
+and at first indignantly rejected the notion, which some one suggested,
+that your Grace had acquiesced in it. I thought I recollected correctly
+your Grace's opinion of the inherent rights of the Christian Church, and
+I thought you never would allow men of this world so to insult it. When
+I returned to England, all was over. I was silent on the same principle
+that you are silent about it in your letter; that it was not the time
+for speaking; and I only felt, what I hinted at when I wrote last, a
+bitter grief, which prompted me, when the act was irretrievable, to hide
+myself from you. However, I have spoken, with whatever pain to myself,
+the first opportunity you have given me.
+
+"I might appeal to my conscience without fear in proof of the delight it
+would give me at this time to associate my name with yours, and to stand
+forward as your friend and defender, however humble. I should hope you
+know me enough to be sure, that, however great my faults are, I have no
+fear of man such as to restrain me, if I could feel I had a call that
+way. But may God help me, as I will ever strive to fulfil my first duty,
+the defence of His Church, and of the doctrine of the old Fathers, in
+opposition to all the innovations and profanities which are rising round
+us.
+
+"My dear Lord,
+
+"Ever yours most sincerely and gratefully,
+
+"J. H. NEWMAN.
+
+"P.S. I feel much obliged by your kindness in sending me your Addresses
+to your clergy, which I value highly for your Grace's sake."
+
+
+
+
+NOTE ON PAGE 90.
+
+EXTRACT OF A LETTER PROM THE REV. E. SMEDLEY, EDITOR OF THE
+"ENCYCLOPÆDIA METROPOLITANA."
+
+When I urged on one occasion an "understanding" I had had with the
+publishers of the "Encyclopædia," he answered, June 5, 1828, "I greatly
+dislike the word 'understanding,' which is always _misunderstood_, and
+which occasions more mischief than any other in our language, unless it
+be its cousin-german 'delicacy.'"
+
+
+NOTE ON PAGE 185.
+
+EXTRACT OF A LETTER OF THE LATE REV. FRANCIS A. FABER, OF SAUNDERTON.
+
+A letter of Mr. F. Faber's to a friend has just now (March, 1878) come
+into my hands, in which he says, "I have had a long correspondence with
+Newman on the subject of my uncle's saying he was 'a concealed Roman
+Catholic' long before he left us. It ends in my uncle making an
+_amende_."
+
+
+NOTE ON PAGES 194-196.
+
+I have said above, "Dr. Russell had, perhaps, more to do with my
+conversion than any one else. He called on me in passing through Oxford
+in the summer of 1843; and I think I took him over some of the buildings
+of the University. He called again another summer, on his way from
+Dublin to London. I do not recollect that he said a word on the subject
+of religion on either occasion. He sent me at different times several
+letters.... He also gave me one or two books; Veron's Rule of Faith and
+some Treatises of the Wallenburghs was one; a volume of St. Alfonso
+Liguori's sermons was another.... At a later date Dr. Russell sent me a
+large bundle of penny or halfpenny books of devotion," &c.
+
+On this passage I observe first that he told me, on one occasion of my
+seeing him since the publication of the "Apologia," that I was so far in
+error, that he had called on me at Oxford once only, not twice. He was
+quite positive on the point; it was when he was, I believe, on his way
+to Rome to escape a bishopric.
+
+Secondly, my own mistake has led to some vagueness or inaccuracy in the
+statements made by others. In a friendly notice of Dr. Russell upon his
+death, it is said, in the "Times":--
+
+"Personally he was unknown to the leaders of the movement, but his
+reputation stood high in Oxford. He was often applied to for information
+and suggestion on the points arising in the Tractarian controversy.
+Through a formal call made by him on Dr. Newman a correspondence arose,
+which resulted in the final determination of the latter to join the
+Roman Catholic Church."
+
+On this I remark--(1) that in 1841-5, Dr. Russell was not well known in
+Oxford, and it cannot be said that then "his reputation stood high"
+there; (2) that he never was "applied to for information" by any one of
+us, as far as my knowledge goes; and (3) that his call on me in 1841(3?)
+was in no sense "formal;" I had not expected it; I think he introduced
+himself, though he may have had a letter from Dr. Wiseman; and no
+"correspondence" arose in consequence. He may perhaps have sent me three
+letters, independent of each other, in five years; and, as far as I
+know, he was unaware of his part in my conversion, till he saw my notice
+of it in the "Apologia."
+
+
+NOTE ON PAGE 232.
+
+EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM THE REV. JOHN KEBLE TO THE AUTHOR.
+
+"Nov. 18, 1844.--I hope I shall not annoy you if I copy out for you part
+of a letter which I had the other day from Judge Coleridge:--
+
+"'I was struck with part of a letter from A. B., expressing a wish that
+Newman should know how warmly he was loved, honoured, and sympathized
+with by large numbers of Churchmen, so that he might not feel solitary,
+or, as it were, cast out. What think you of a private address, carefully
+guarded against the appearance of making him the head of a party, but
+only assuring him of gratitude, veneration, and love?' &c., &c.
+
+"I thought I would just let you understand how such a person as
+Coleridge feels."
+
+
+NOTE ON PAGE 237.
+
+EXTRACT FROM THE "TIMES" NEWSPAPER ON THE AUTHOR'S VISIT TO OXFORD IN
+FEBRUARY, 1878.
+
+"The Very Rev. Dr. Newman has this week revisited Oxford for the first
+time since 1845. He has been staying with the Rev. S. Wayte, President
+of Trinity College, of which society Dr. Newman was formerly a scholar,
+and has recently been elected an Honorary Fellow. On Tuesday evening Dr.
+Newman met a number of old friends at dinner at the President's
+lodgings, and on the following day he paid a long visit to Dr. Pusey at
+Christ Church. He also spent a considerable time at Keble College, in
+which he was greatly interested. In the evening Dr. Newman dined in
+Trinity College Hall at the high table, attired in his academical dress,
+and the scholars were invited to meet him afterwards. He returned to
+Birmingham on Thursday morning."
+
+
+NOTE ON PAGE 302.
+
+THE MEDICINAL OIL OF ST. WALBURGA.
+
+I have received the following on the subject of the oil of St. Walburga
+from a German friend, the Rev. Corbinian Wandinger, which is a
+serviceable addition to what is said upon it in Note B. He says:--
+
+"In your 'Apologia,' 2nd Edition, p. 302, you say you neither have, nor
+ever have had, the means of going into the question of the
+miraculousness of the oil of St. Walburga. By good chance, there has
+arisen a contest not long ago between two papers, a catholic and a
+free-thinking one, about this very question, from which I collected
+materials. Afterwards I asked Professor Suttner, of Eichstädt, if the
+defender of the miraculousness might be fully and in every point
+trusted, and I was answered he might, since he was nobody else but the
+parson of St. Walburga, Rev. Mr. Brudlacher.
+
+"You know all the older literature of the oil of St. Walburga, therefore
+I restrict myself to statements of a later date than 1625.
+
+"First of the attempts to explain the oil as a natural produce of the
+rock.
+
+"Some thought of ordinary rock-oil. But the slightest experiment proves
+that origin, properties, and effect of the oil of St. Walburga and
+petroleum have nothing common with each other.
+
+"Others thought of a salt-rock, and of solution of the salt particles.
+But the marble slab from which the oil drops is of Jura-chalk, and in
+the whole Jura is not a single particle of salt to be found, and the
+liquor itself does not in the least savour of salt; besides that, if
+this were the case, the stone must have crumbled into pieces long since,
+whilst it is quite massive still.
+
+"Others thought of humour in the air, or the so-called sweating of the
+stones. But why does the slab which bears the holy relics alone sweat?
+and, why do all others beside, above, beneath it, in and out of the
+altar-cave, though being of the same nature, remain perfectly dry? Why
+should it sweat, the whole church being so dry that not a single humid
+spot of a hand's breadth is visible? Why does this slab not sweat except
+within a certain period, that is from October 12, the anniversary of
+depositing, to February 25, the day of the death of St. Walburga? And
+why does it remain dry at every other time, even at the most humid
+temperature of the air possible, and in the wettest years, for instance,
+1866? Besides, what other stone, and be it in the deepest cave, will
+sweat during four or five months a quantity of liquor from six to ten
+Mass (a Mass = 1·07 French Litres)? If these naturalists are asked all
+this, then they, too, are at the end of their wits.
+
+"To this point I add two facts which may be proved beyond any doubt; the
+one by unquestionable historical records, the other by still living
+eye-witnesses. When under Bishop Friedrich von Parsberg the interdict
+was inflicted on the city of Eichstädt, during all the year 1239 not a
+single drop of liquor became visible on the coffin-plate of St.
+Walburga. The contrary fact was stated on June 7, 1835. The cave was
+opened on this day by chance, passengers longing to see it. To their
+astonishment they found the stone so profusely dropping with oil, that
+the golden vase fixed underneath was full to the brim, whereas at this
+season never had been observed there any fluid. Some weeks later arrived
+the long-wished-for royal decree which sanctioned the reopening of the
+convent of St. Walburga; it was signed on that very 7th of June, 1835,
+by his Majesty King Louis I.
+
+"Moreover, let one try to gather water which is dropping from sweating
+stone, or glass, or metal, and let him see if it will be pure and
+limpid, or rather muddy, filthy, and cloudy. The oil of St. Walburga on
+the contrary, is and remains so limpid and crystal, that a bottle, which
+had been filled and officially sealed at the reopening of the cave after
+the Swedish invasion, 1645, preserves to this day the oil so very clear
+and clean as if it had been filled yesterday; an occurrence never to be
+observed even on the purest spring-water, according to the testimony of
+the royal circuit-physician (K. Bezirksarzt).
+
+"To this testimony of a naturalist may be added that of a much higher
+authority. The renowned naturalist, Von Oken, surely an unquestionable
+expert, came one day, while he was Professor in the University of
+Munich, to Eichstädt on the special purpose to investigate this
+extraordinary phenomenon. The cave was opened to him, he received every
+information he wished for, and having seen and examined everything, he
+pronounced publicly without any reluctance that he could not explain the
+matter in a natural way. He took of the liquor to Munich in order to
+subject it to a chemical analysis, and declared then by writing the
+result of his researches to be that he could take it neither for natural
+water, nor oil, and that, in general, he was not able to explain the
+phenomenon as being in accordance with the laws of nature.
+
+"Let me add the testimony of a historical authority. Mr. Sax, counsellor
+of the government (K. Regierungsrath), in his history of the diocese and
+city of Eichstädt, after he has spoken of the origin, the properties,
+and the effect of the oil of St. Walburga, concludes that 'they are of
+such a singular kind, that they not only exceed far the province of
+extraordinary nature-phenomena, but that they, in spite of the constant
+discrediting and slandering by bullying free-thinkers, preserved the
+great confidence of the catholic people even in far distant countries.'
+
+"Now of the miracles. There are related by the people many thousands,
+but, of course, few of them are attested. In the Pastoral paper of
+Eichstädt, 1857, page 207, I read that Anton Ernest, Bishop of Brünn, in
+Moravia, announces, under Nov. 1, 1857, to the Bishop of Eichstädt, the
+recovery of a girl in the establishment of the sisters of charity from
+blindness, and sends, in order to attest the fact, the following
+document, which I am to translate literally:--
+
+"'In the name of the indivisible Trinity. We, Anton Ernest, by God's and
+the Holy See's grace, Bishop of Brünn. After we had received, first by
+the curate of the establishment of the Daughters of Christian Charity in
+this place, and then also from other quarters, the notice that a girl in
+the aforesaid establishment had regained the use of her eyes
+miraculously in the very moment when she had a vial, containing oil of
+St. Walburga, offered to her, brought to her mouth and kissed, we
+thought it to be our duty to research scrupulously into the fact, and to
+put it beyond all doubt in the way of a special commission, by hearing
+of witnesses and a trial at the place of the fact, if there be truth,
+and how much of it, in the supposed miraculous healing.
+
+"'About the report of this commission and the adjoined testimony of the
+physician, we have then, as prescribes the Holy Council of Trent (Sess.
+25), collected the judgments of our theologians and other pious men; and
+as these all were quite in accordance, and the fact itself with all its
+circumstances lay before us quite clear and open, we have, after
+invocation of assistance of the Holy Ghost, pronounced, judged, and
+decided as follows:--
+
+"'The instantaneous removal of the most pertinacious eyelid-cramp
+(Augenlied krampf), which Matilda Makara during many months had hindered
+in the use of her eyes and kept in blindness, and the simultaneous
+recurrence of the full eye-sight, phlogistic appearances still remaining
+in the eyes, which occurred when Matilda Makara on Nov. 7, 1856, had a
+vial with the oil of St. Walburga brought, full of confidence, to her
+mouth and kissed, must be acknowledged to be a fact which, besides the
+order of nature, has been effected by God's grace, and is therefore a
+miracle.
+
+"'And that the memory of this Divine favour may be preserved, that to
+God eternal thanks may be given, the confidence of the faithful may be
+incited and nourished, this devotion to the great wonder-worker St.
+Walburga may be promoted, we order that this aforegoing decision shall
+be affixed in the chapel of the Daughters of Christian Charity in this
+place, that it shall be preserved for all times to come, and that the
+7th Nov. shall be celebrated as a holiday every year in this aforesaid
+establishment.
+
+"'Given in our Episcopal Residence at Brünn,
+
+"'Nov. 1, 1857,
+
+"'(L. S.) Anton Ernest, Bishop.'
+
+"A second record about St. Walburga I find in the Eichstädt Pastoral
+paper, 1858, page 192, from which I take the following: 'The Superioress
+of the Convent of St. Walburga had received in summer 1858 the notice of
+a miraculous cure written by the Superioress of the Convent of St.
+Leonard-sur-Mer, Sussex. At request for an authenticated report, John
+Bamber, chaplain of the Convent of the Holy Infant at St.
+Leonard-sur-Mer, wrote about the following: "Sister Walburga had been
+ill fifteen months, of which five bedridden. The physician pronounced
+the malady to be incurable. Large exterior tumour, frequent (thrice or
+four times a day) vomitings were caused by the diseased pylorus. The
+matter was hopeless, when the Superioress on April 27 thought of using
+the oil of St. Walburga. The chaplain brought it on the tongue of the
+sick sister, and in the same moment she had a burning feeling which
+seemed to her to descend, and to affect especially the sick part. In a
+few minutes the inner smart ceased, the tumour fell off, she felt
+recovered. Next morning she rose, assisted at the holy mass,
+communicated, ate with good appetite. She was quite recovered, but
+somewhat feeble, as people always are after a great disease. The
+physician, a Protestant, abode by his opinion the malady to be
+incurable, acknowledged, however, the healing. His words were: 'I
+believe the healing to be effected by the oil of St. Walburga, but how,
+I don't know.' As a Protestant he refused to give testimony that the
+operation of the oil had been miraculous.'
+
+"The report is authenticated by Thomas, Bishop of Southwark.
+
+"Freising, Bayern,
+
+"September 13, 1873."
+
+
+
+
+NOTE ON PAGE 323.
+
+BONIFACE OF CANTERBURY.
+
+When I made the above reference in 1865 to Boniface of Canterbury, I was
+sure I had seen among my books some recent authoritative declaration on
+the subject of his _cultus_ in opposition to the Bollandists; but I did
+not know where to look for it. I have now found in our Library (Concess.
+Offic. t. 2) what was in my mind. It consists of five documents
+proceeding from the Sacred Congregation of Rites, with the following
+title:--
+
+    "Emo ac Revmo Domino Card. Lambruschini Relatore, Taurinen.
+    Approbationis cultûs ab immemorabili tempore præstiti B.
+    Bonifacio à Subaudiâ Archiepiscopi Cantuarien. Instante
+    serenissimo Rege Sardiniæ Carolo Alberto. Romæ, 1838."
+
+Also Dr. Grant, Bishop of Southwark, has kindly supplied me with the
+following extract from the Correspondance de Rome, 24 November, 1851,
+adding "St. Boniface of Canterbury or of Savoy was beatified
+_æquipollenter_ by Gregory XVI.:"--
+
+    "Le B. Boniface de Savoie, xi de ce nome, petit-fils d'Humbert
+    iii, Archevêque de Cantorbéry. Confirmation de son culte,
+    également à la demande du Roi Charles Albert, 7 Sept. 1838.
+    D'abord moine parmi les Chartreux, puis Archevêque de
+    Cantorbéry, consacré par Innocent IV. au Concile Général de
+    Lyons; il occupa le siége 25 ans. Mort en 1270 pendant un voyage
+    en Savoie. Son corps porté à Haucatacombe; concours des
+    populations; miracles; son corps retrouvé intact trois siècles
+    après sa mort. Son nom dans les livres liturgiques. Sa fête
+    célébrée sans aucune interruption. Sur la relation de Card.
+    Lambruschini, la S. C. des Rites le 1 Sept. 1838, décida qu'il
+    constait de cas exceptionnel aux décrets d'Urbain VIII. p. 410."
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 22088 ***