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rson as Mr. Pleader Stephen was ostentatiously arrayetT in the
froMVQfMr. Pedlar Mackenzie's rebellion, only bgcaTuse he held
a subordihstt^jplace in Downingl-street, vvhatj*'mbe the effect of
the ' Report of'1ns_^ Excellency jJohn Gperfge Earl of Durham,
G.C.B., her Majesty^<.JIigh ICoptrtmsioner — printed and pre
sented to Parliament' — s(r?1»M&JOT rather, so lies the title-page, — •
by 'HER Majesty's co^H(fAN'»»2! We can venture to answer —
that every uncontradjet^d asser ionJtfNthat volume will be made
the excuse of fujjire rebellions— -every unqlte^Jioned principle will
be hereaftej^'jJerverted into a g )spel of treason^^'asd^at, if that
rank an^Wnfectious Report does not receive the high, marked, and
^ic discountenance and indignation of the Imperial Cr&wii
iid Parliament, British Ami rica is lost.

Art. vii. — 1. Tracts for the Times. By Members of the
University of Oxford. 4 vols. 8 vo. London, 1833-1837.
2. Library of the Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church anterior
to the division of the East and West. Translated by Members
of the English Church. Vols. I. and II. Oxford, 1838.
3. Plain Sermons. By Contributors to the ' Tracts for the Times.'
First Series. 1839-
4. Remains of the late Rev. Richard Hurrel Froude, M.A., Fel
low of Oriel College. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1838.
5. Primitive Tradition recognised in Holy Scripture. A Sermon
preached in the Cathedral Church of Winchester, at the Visita
tion of the Worshipful and Reverend William Dealtry, D.D.,
Chancellor of the Diocese, Sept. 27, 1836. Third Edition,
with a Postscript and Catenm Patrurn. By the Rev. John
Keble, M.A.J Vicar of Hursley, and Professor of Poetry in the
University of Oxford. 1837-
6. Parochial Sermons. By J. H. Newman, M.A., Vicar of St.
Mary the Virgin, Oxford, and Fellow of Oriel College. Lon
don, 1834.
7. Lectures on the Prophetical Office of the Church, viewed
relatively to Romanism and Popular Protestantism. By John
Henry Newman, B.D. London, 1837.
8. A Letter to the Rev. Godfrey Faussett, D-D., Margaret Pro
fessor of Divinity, on certain points of Faith ana Practice.
By the Rev. J. H. Newman, B.D. Oxford, 1838.
9. Lectures on Justification. By J. H. Newman, B.D. Lon
don, 1838.
10. Patience and Confidence the Strength of the Church. A Ser
mon preached on the Fifth of November before the University of
Mhg5a '''^"'''
If -^^

526 Oxford Theology.
Oxford, at St. Mary's. By the Rev. E. B. Pusey, D.D.,
Regius Professor of Hebrew, Canon of Christ Church, and
late Fellow of Oriel College. Oxford, 1 837.
11. ^ Letter to the Right Reverend Father in God, Richard
Lord Bishop of Oxford, on the tendency to Romanism, imputed
to Doctrines held of old, as now, in the EngUsh Church. By
the Rev. E. B. Pusey, D.D. Oxford, 1839.
12. Sermons, preached chiefly in the Chapel Royal at Whitehall.
By F. Oakeley, M.A., Fellow of Balliol College, and one of
the preachers at Whitehall. Oxford. 8vo. 1839-
TT is of no little importance to watch the rise of a theological
-^ controversy. The feelings excited by it are generally good,
and always strong. And religion takes so wide a range, that
every theory respecting it must sooner or later bring it home to
the interests of the many, by some practical application of princi
ples. It becomes still more important, if the theory itself takes
the form of a compact comprehensive system — if it is directed
against the general temper of the day, and thus bears at once
upon the whole circle of prevailing opinions — if it is conducted
with a serious resolved dedication of great talents and learning to
one definite object; and especially if it originates and spreads
among men of commanding position and moral influence, and in
a place which has always been favourable to the growth of similar
principles. All these circumstances are found in the controversy, to which
the works named at the head of this article have given birth ;
and it occupies at present so much of public attention, both in
England and abroad, that Ave can scarcely avoid taking notice
of it.* The ' Tracts for the Times ' were commenced in the year
1 833, at a time
* when irreligious principles and false doctrines had just been admit
ted into public measures on a large scale ;'  'when the Irish
sees had been suppressed by the State against the Church's wish ;'
 'when parties were acquiescing in it in utter apathy or de
spair,' and ' the attempt to remonstrate was treated on all hands with
coldness and disapprobation.' ' They were written with the hope of
rousing members of the Church to comprehend her alarming .position,
of helping them to realise the fact of the gradual growth, allowance,
and establishment of unsound principles in her internal concerns ; and
having this object, they spontaneously used the language of alarm and
complaint. They were written as a man might give notice of fire or
inundation, to startle all who heard him, with only so much of doctrine
* See Annales des Sciences Beligieuses. published at Rome : and L'Ami de la
Religion, a religious journal published at Paris. No. 2915. Jan. 1838.

Oxford Theology. 527
or argument as might be necessary to account for their publication, or
might answer more obvious objections to the views therein advocated.' *
— vol. iii. p. 3.
The principal contributors to them are understood to be four
distinguished Members of the tfniversity of Oxford — Dr. Pusey,
Regius Professor of Hebrew, and Canon of Christ Church ; the
Rev. J. Keble, Professor of Poetry; the Rev, J. H. Newman,
Fellow of Oriel, and Vicar of St. Mary's; and the Rev. I.
Williams, Fellow of Trinity College. The volumes consist of
Tracts on the Constitution of the Church — the Authority of
its Ministers — the Ordinances, and especially the Sacraments
of the Church — Refutations of the Errors of Romanism, and
Directions how to oppose it — Reprints of old Tracts on the same
subject — Translations of interesting portions of early Church
History — Catena; Patrum, or Collections of passages from the
great standard English divines, to confirm and illustrate the prin
ciples of the Tracts — and Examinations of certain opinions and
practices of the day connected with religion ; especially a very va
luable criticism on the j)opular writings of Mr. Abbot and Mr.
Erskine. This is evidently a wide range, and no unimportant
class of subjects; and, whatever opinion may be held on the mode
of treating them, it is certainly surprising to find not only ordinary
men throwing ridicule upon them, as questions of forms and
ceremonies, and as tending to divide the Church upon frivolities,
but even the excellent Bishop of Chester congratulating his as
sembled clergy that they are relieved from the necessity of
attending to such trifles, in a passage like the following : —
' We may regard it,' he says, ' as a compensation for urgent and labo
rious duties, that the business of a diocese, like that of which we are
members, leaves no time for fables and endless genealogies, and ques
tions which are not of godly edifying. We have too much to do with
realities to be drawn aside by shadows.' — Charge, 1838, p. 3.
The object of these publications seems to have developed itself
by degrees. It began with this question to the clergy —
' Should the government and country' — [as was then and is now very
probable] — ' so far forget their God as to cast off the Church, to deprive
it of its temporal honours and substance, on ivhat will you rest the claim
of respect and attention which you make upon your flock ? Hitherto
you have been upheld by your birth, your education, your wealth, your
connexions; should these secular advantages cease, on what must
Christ's ministers depend?' — Tract I., vol. i. p. 1.
No one can say that such a question was ill-timed, or that
it is not as vital to the constitution of the Church, as the question
whether the right by which kings rule be of God's appointment,
* See also Tract 1, vol. i., Tract 59, vol. ii., and Introduction to Lectures on the
Prophetic Office of the Church, p. 9. or

528 Oxford Theology.
or of expediency, or of the popular will, is to the constitution of
the State. They proceeded to answer it by reminding the
clergy of the derivation of their power from the Apostles, through
Episcopal ordination — in other words, of 'the Apostolical Suc
cession.' They showed, in addition to the Scriptural character of
this doctrine, that this Succession has been handed down in the
Church with scrupulous care from the earliest times* — that at the
Reformation it was rigidly preserved by the Church of England, j
and suspended by Luther and even by Calvin with avowed reluc
tance, and only under the pressure of necessity J — that it has been
shown to be an unanswerable argument for the truth of Chris
tianity § — that it has been forgotten by ourselves only within the
last fifty years — that it is the only ground upon which we can boldly
meet Romanism and Dissent, the one with equal, the other with
superior claims to a ministerial authority, — and that it has been
maintained as the great pillar of the Church by the men on whom
our Anglican theology rests, and is founded ; || for instance, by
Hooker, Andrews, Hall, Bramhall, Mede, Sanderson, Ham
mond, Jeremy Taylor, Heylin, Pearson, Bull, Stillingfleet, Ken,
Beveridge, Wake, Potter, Nelson, Law, Johnson, Dodwell, Col
lier, Leslie, Wilson, Bingham, Samuel Johnson, Home, Jones
of Nayland, Horsley, Heber, Jebb, Van Mildert, and Mant.
The next question was the polity of the Church. If it be an
empire and government of its own, and a government appointed
by God, how are we justified in disobeying its laws, especially
when they face us every day in our Prayer-Books; and this when
it is attacked on every side, endangered by the aggressions of the
State, and numbers are deserting it on account of the negligence
with which its discipline and teaching are enforced ?
' Methodism and Popery,' it is observed in the preface to the Tracts,
' are in different ways the refuge of those whom the Church stints
of the gifts of grace ; they are the foster-mothers of abandoned chil
dren. The neglect of the daily service, the desecration of festivals,
the Eucharist scantily administered, insubordination permitted in all
ranks of the Church, orders and offices imperfectly developed, the want
of societies for particular religious objects, and the like deficiencies,
lead the feverish mind, desirous of a vent for its feelings, and a stricter
rule of life, to the smaller religious communities, to prayer and Bible
meetings, and ill-advised institutions and societies on the one hand — on
* Tract, Nos. 5, 15, vol. i. f Collier, p. 11, b. vi. p. 461.
X Bishop Hall, in his Episcopacy by Divine Right, quotes Calvin's saying,
' they are worthy of any anathema who, when they can liave Bishops, have them
not ' (p. 1, c. 2) ; and Beza's. as to the Bishops of the Church of England, — ' Let
her enjoy this singular bounty of God, which I wish she may hold for ever.' (p. 1,
c. 4.) Of Luther's feeling on this subject it would be idle to multiply proofs.
^ Leslie's Short and Easy Method, vol. iii. p. 2.
II Catenas Patrum on the Apost. Success. Tract, No. 74, vol. iii. the

Oxford Theology. 529
the other, to the solemn and captivating services by which Popery gains
its proselytes  There are zealous sons and servants of the
English branch of the Church of Christ, who see with sorrow that she is
defrauded of her full usefulness by particular theories and principles of
the present age  And while they consider that the revival of this
portion of truth is especially adapted to break up existing parties in the
Church, and to form instead a bond of union among all who love the
Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, they believe that nothing but these neg
lected doctrines, faithfully preached, will repress that extension of
Popery, for which the ever-multiplying divisions of the religious world
are too clearly preparing the way.' — Tracts, vol. i. p. 4.
Hence the Tracts on the daily service, on the office of Bishops,
the administration of the Eucharist, the celebration of Saints'
days, the observance of Fasting according to the command of our
Church, and one or two also on the relation of the Church to the
State. With these were necessarily connected two most important sub
jects — the doctrine of the Sacraments, and the authority of the
Church in doctrinal matters. The former was the turning point
of the Reformation. It involves, if thoroughly drawn out, nearly
every point of faith and practice, and especially the chief differ
ences between the Catholic Church in England, and its two oppo
site enemies, Romanism and Dissent. But we feel that this is
not the place to enter on it.
' They are not subjects,' says Dr. Pusey (in his usual tone of deep
reverential piety), ' for discussion, for speculation, for display of recently
acquired knowledge ; they are high, mysterious, awful Christian privi
leges, to be felt, reverenced, embraced, realised, acted. Let men not
speak of them, until they have practised them, but rather pray God to
deepen their own sense of them. They will then speak of them, if they
speak at all, more chastenedly and in the ear — not in mixed society or
in the market-place, and, we may trust, not so as to injure themselves
or others, or make the mysteries of God a common thing.'
On this head, also, the authors of the Tracts have published two
Catenae Patrum,* showing that the views which they would revive
are those of our old standard theologians, Jewell, Hooker, Over
all, Field, Andrews, Hall, Mede — the compilers of the Scotch
and American Prayer-Books — Bramhall, Cosin, Heylin, Ham
mond, Thorndike, Sancroft, Patrick, Bull, Stillingfleet, Beveridge,
Comber, Nelson, Sherlock, Grabe, Leslie, Brett, Wheatley,
Ridley, and Horsley, with a number of other eminent divines,
without including the early Church, which our own Church
acknowledges as her progenitor and guide.
The question of the authority of the Church, or the right doctrine
of Tradition, was first boldly revived by Professor Keble in a sermon
* Tract, No. 81, p. 52, and No. 76, vol. iii. preached

5.30 Oxford Theology.
preached at Winchester. It has been followed up (No. 78, vol.
iv.) by a long Catena, confirming tbe views of the Tracts by the
testimony of forty-two of our greatest theologians — for instance,
Jewell, Hooker, Overall, Field, Hall, Jackson, Mede, Archbishop
Usher, Bramhall, Sanderson, Cosin, Hammond, Thorndike, Tay
lor, Heylin, Pearson, Bull, Stillingfleet, Ken, Beveridge, Patrick,
Grabe, Waterland, Bingham, Jebb, and Van Mildert ; besides
the Convocation of 1591, the Queen's Council of 1582, the Con
vocation of 1 603, and the Commissioners of 1662 ; and to these
must be added Chillingworth himself, the supposed champion of
the very opposite principles. Dr. Hook, in a visitation sermon,
(1838,) has added to these the testimonies of our English re
formers, and shown that the doctrine contended for by Mr. Keble,
instead of being papistical, is the true original foundation of the
English Church. And a sermon, with a valuable appendix, has
also been published on the same subject by the Rev. E. Manning,
(1838,) which enters into it still more deeply, and must be conclu
sive to every reader. Shortly stated the doctrine is, ' that human
tradition has no place in revelation — that neither the opinions of
an individual on the interpretation of the Bible, nor the assertions
of a single church, or any portions of a church, can be admitted
to mix with the pure word of inspiration — that no individuals
since tbe apostles are by themselves expositors of the will of
Christ — that the unanimous witness of Christendom as to the
teaching of the apostles, is the only, and the fully sufficient, and the
really existing guarantee of the whole revealed faith — that catho
licity is the only test of truth.' * And both Mr. Keble and Mr.
Manning have shown that we do possess, historically, such a
guarantee, in the proceedings and remains of the primitive church.
Of this doctrine it will be easily seen, that, as involving the test
of truth, ' the whole fabric of Christianity is virtually connected
with it' f — that the roots both of popery and dissent lie in wrong
views of it — that it forms our only chance of uniting Christians
in one common belief by fixing for their interpretation of Scripture
a standard external to themselves — and that wherever it has been
lost, either in Romanism or in the ultra- Protestant sects, there
the consequences have been most perilous — in truth, wherever
extraneous circumstances did not present some counterbalance,
fatal — ' the overthrow of the church and gospel of Christ has
followed also.' J These are mainly matters of fact resting upon
history, and not on preconceived opinions, and controversialists
must be reminded that they are to be dealt with as facts, and
* Preface to Catense, No. 78, vol. iv.
f Palmer's Treatise on the Church, vol. ii. p. 49.
+ Mr. Manning's Appendix, p. 1 13.

Oxford TJieology. 531
can be met only by historical contradictions. We mention this,
because it is on this part of the field that the battle has been
hitherto mostly fought ; and the opponents have come forward in
great alarm and bustle, but in such entire ignorance of the real
question, and have been engaged so busily in beating the air,
that it seems most probable that they have never even read the
works which they have proposed to refute.
It is scarcely necessary to enter more minutely into an analysis
of these Tracts. They contain, besides those which have been
mentioned, two remarkable essays. One (No. 73, vol. iii.) is on
the popular wiitings of Mr. Erskine and Mr. Jacob Abbott, con
taining a strong but most necessary warning of their real nature
and tendency. And we should hope it would have the effect of
checking their further circulation. It is in itself striking, as ex
hibiting the contrast between the earnest, trustful, reverential
spirit of the writer, probably Mr. Newman, and the bold, pre
suming temper of that rationalising spirit which is at present
prevailing among us. The other (No. 80, vol. iv.) is on the sub
ject of ' Reserve in communicating Religious Knowledge.' It is
written in a touching, humble, childlike temper, whicb is singu
larly interesting. It inculcates the necessity of dispensing reli
gious truth with caution and reverence, not throwing it promis
cuously before minds ill suited to receive it, nor making the most
solemn doctrinesof Christianity mere instruments to excite the
feelings. This is too much the practice of the present day, and
every sensible man will agree in reprobating it. The warning,
however, requires to be given with the greatest caution, lest it
seem to border on a recommendation of a suppression of the
truth ; and we are not sure that the writer has sufficiently brought
out the errors which he is combating to save 'himself from some
such censures.
The remainder of the volumes consist of shorter Tracts, reprints
from old divines, chiefly in refutation of the errors of Romanism,
and portions of primitive ecclesiastical history.
One feature in them must not be omitted — their opposition to
what is called the popular religionism of the day. To delineate
this fully as it appears in the writings of the world in which we
live, would be beyond our present purpose. The contrast be
tween it and the spirit of the Tracts may be seen In many essential
features in a passage from another of Mr. Newman's works, and
we select it not only with this view, but as compensating for the
dryness of this detail, by its natural eloquence. It alludes to the
prevailing notions on the subject of faith, and to that habit of self-
consciou^ness which is at the root of most of our prevailing errors,
whether In common life or in religion : — ' True

532 Oxford Theology.
' True faith is what may be called colourless, like air or water ; it is
but the medium through which the soul sees Christ ; and the soul as
little really rests upon it, and contemplates it, as the eye can see the air.
When, then, men are bent on holding it (as it were) in their hands,
curiously inspecting, analyzing, and so aiming at it, they are obliged to
colour and thicken it, that it may be seen and touched. That is, they
substitute for it, something or other, a feeling, notion, sentiment, con
viction, or act of reason, which they may hang over, and doat upon.
They rather aim at experiences (as they are called) within them, than at
Him that is without them. They are led to enlarge upon the signs of
conversion, the variations of their feelings, their aspirations and long
ings, and to tell all this to others ; — to tell others how they fear, and
hope, and sin, and rejoice, and renounce themselves and rest in Christ
only ; how conscious they are that they are but " filthy rags," and stU
is of grace ; — till in fact they have little time left to guard against what
they are condemning, and to exercise what they seem to themselves to
be full of. Now men in a battle are brief-spoken ; they realise their
situation and are intent upon it. Aud men who are acted upon by news
good or bad, or sights beautiful or fearful, admire, rejoice, weep, or are
pained, but are moved spontaneously, not with a direct consciousness
of their emotion. Men of elevated minds are not their own historians and
panegyrists, So it is with faith and other Christian graces. Bystanders
see our minds ; but our minds, if healthy, see but the objects which
possess them. As God's grace elicits our faith, so His holiness stirs our
fear, and his glory kindles our love. Others may say of us " here is
faith," and " there is conscientiousness," and " there is love," but we
can only say " this is God's grace," and " that is His hoUness," and
" that is His glory."
' And this being the difference between true faith and self-contem
plation, no wonder that where the thought of self obscures the thought
of God, prayer and praise languish, and preaching flourishes. Divine
worship is simply contemplating our Maker, Redeemer, Sanctifier, and
Judge ; preaching, conversing, making speeches, arguing, reading, and
writing about religion, tend to make us forget Him in ourselves. The
ancients worshipped ; they went out of their own minds into the infi
nite temple which was around them. They saw Christ in the gospek,
in the creed, in the sacraments and other rites ; in the visible structure
and ornaments of His house, in the altar, and in the cross ; and not
content with giving the service of their eyes, they gave Him their voices,
their bodies, and their time, gave up their rest by night and their leisure
by day, all that could evidence the offering of their hearts to Him.
Theirs was not a service once a week, or some one day, now and then,
painfully, as if ambitiously and lavishly, given to thanksgiving or humi
liation ; not some extraordinary address to the throne of grace, offered
by one for many, when friends met, with much point and impressive-
ness, and as much like an exhortation, and as little like a prayer as
might be ; but every day and every portion of the day was begun and
sanctified with devotion. Consider those seven services of the Holy
Church Catholic in her best ages, which, without encroaching upon her
children's

Oxford Theology. 533
children's duties towards this world, secured them in their duties to the
world unseen. Unwavering, unflagging, not urged by fits and starts,
not heralding forth their feelings, but resolutely, simply, perseveringly,
day after day, Sunday and week day, fast day and festival, week by
week, season by season, year by year, in youth and in age, through a
life, thirty years, forty years, fifty years, in prelude of the everlasting
chant before the throne, — so they went on, " continuing instant in
prayer," after the pattern of psalmists and apostles, in the day with
David, in the night with Paul and Silas, winter and summer, in heat
and in cold, in peace and in danger, in a prison or a cathedral, in the
dark, in the day-break, at sun-rising, in the forenoon, at noon, in the
afternoon, at eventide, and on going to rest, still they had Christ before
them ; His thoughts in their minds. His emblems in their eyes. His
name in their mouths. His service in their postures, magnifying Him,
and calling on all that lives to magnify Him, joining with angels in
heaven and saints in paradise to bless and praise Him for ever and ever.
O great and noble system, not of the Jews who rested in their rites and
privileges, not of Christians who are taken up with their own feelings,
and who describe what they should exhibit, but of the true saints of
God, the undefiled and virgin souls who follow the Lamb whithersoever
he goeth ! Such is the difference between those whom Christ praises
and those whom he condemns or warns. The Pharisee recounted the
signs of God's mercy upon and in him ; the publican simply looked to
God. The young ruler boasted of his correct life, but the penitent
woman anointed Jesus' feet and kissed them. Nay, holy Martha herself
spoke of her " much service," while Mary waited on Him for the " one
thing needful." The one thought of themselves ; the others thought of
Christ. To look at Christ is to be justified by faith ; to think of being
justified by faith is to look from Christ and to fall from grace. He who
worships Christ, and works for Him, is acting that doctrine which
another does but enunciate : his worship and his works are acts of faith,
and avail to his salvation, because he does not do them as availing.' —
Newman on Justification, p. 385.
Regarded merely as literature, these publications possess a
high interest, as coming from the University of Oxford. They
are indeed the production of a few individuals, and have no
claim to any sanction from the University itself. But they
are the natural produce of its institutions, and indicate, like a
float on the water, the setting and force of the current of its
studies. In this point of view, without any reference to the
opinions which they contain, they exhibit a return, and a
very vigorous return, to sound principles of education. Every
one will allow, that if a century back the University was com
paratively torpid, yet the last fifty years have seen a great
revival of activity. But its first movements, as generally happens
in such cases, were irregular and even mischievous. Original
thinking was the object professed. Clever men, too indolent or
too

534 Oxford Theology.
too conceited to inquire what other men had written before them,
sat down to think out subjects by themselves, and what was still
worse, threw out their thoughts as they came uppermost, with a
boast that no authority had been consulted, and just as hastily as
if the welfare of the world depended on the publication of some
crude fancy.
By this class of writers the Greek philosophers and our own
deep school of Platonism in Cudworth, Smith, Berkeley, Norris, and
More were set aside as mystics ; and Locke, the man who, of all
others, has done most to corrupt our ethics, unsettle our politics,
and debase our metaphysics, was recommended, with Paley and
certain Scotch writers, as offering to young minds an easy and in
telligible doctrine. As they had no supply of facts from expe
rience and research, and the same indolence which would not read
could not think, except very superficially, a kind of captious
logic was the only field left for the exercise of ingenuity; and
words, not things, formed the main end of their inquiries. In
history nothing was attempted, because the very highest powers
of originality cannot invent dates and facts. Or, if the subject
was touched on, some novel German theory, half understood and
uninvestigated, was seized on and put forward in a new dress. Of
poetry* (it is a remarkable fact, strongly Indicating the poverty
and shallowness of the prevailing principles) there was absolutely
nothing. And in theology, to speak of the Fathers was to recall
an antediluvian dream. Each man took his Bible, theorised on a
text, discerned some new internal evidence, which was evidence
perhaps to no one but himself, or offered to simplify a mystery by
some rationalistic process, which ended in the unconscious revival
of an exploded heresy.
Without any wish to depreciate the talents and personal worth
of this school of writers, it is evident that such habits of mind,
indulged in the presence of young men, must do harm. They
strengthened, and, perhaps, in a great measure, originated the
worst errors against which we are now struggling throughout the
country. Men were sent out from the seat of their education
Avith the belief that they were to think, not read, judge rather
=* We have not space in the present article to go into the poetry which has pro
ceeded lately from the Oxford School, but it forms an important feature in their
general contribution to our literature. We gave a very brief notice of ' the Christian
Year' on its iirst appearance — and constant reperusals have only deepened the ad
miration we then expressed. Mr. Keble has foimded a school of religious poetry —
or rather hu has revived one — which affords a most remarkable contrast to the
semi-sensual effusions still in vogue with too great a portion of English reader.s.
He, indeed, is a true poet, and of a very high order ; and several of his disciples
are not unworthy to partake in his honours. That others should dilute his strain
of sentiment, anil some caricature his mere manner, might have been expected. than

Oxford Theology. 535
than learn, look to their own opinions for truth, instead of some
permanent external standard, and pursue it indolently in their
easy chairs, as if any real wisdom or goodness could be reached
without toil. And the effects we now see before us.
Happily another school has succeeded of a different kind. One
of the most prominent characteristics of the new publications
' from Oxford is, that they are really learned. They exhibit, in
deed, far more depth and originality of thought, and far more of
logical power and acuteness, than any writing of the former
class; — but there has been added to this as a principle, that
' Individual speculation is not to be substituted for solid learn
ing.'* And it is satisfactory to those who wish to see the English
literature placed on a par with those monuments of labour and
research which have been raised in Germany and by the Bene
dictine writers, that a commencement should have been made
in this century, and made in the proper place — the University of
Oxford. Already translations of the principal works of the
Fathers have been undertaken, with a new edition of the original
text. A translation of the epistles of ancient ecclesiastical
writers, as the best basis of a sound church history, has also been
planned; and such a general interest in the subject has been
thus revived, that the demand for ancient theology in England,
coupled with a recent demand in America and other countries,
not unconnected with similar circumstances, has entirely exhausted
the market. f It
* Earnest Remonst., Tracts, vol. iii. p. 18.
•|- As this revival of theology is a very important fact in the literature and history
of the day, it may be interestmg to add a few particulars, which are given on the
authority of an eminent bookseller.
There are now publishing in Paris the following reprints of Benedictine editions,
with emendations of the text : —
St. Chrysostomi Opera, 15 vols, in 26 parts, royal 8vo.
Augustini Opera, 11 vols, in 22 parts, 1835-39.
Basilii Opera, 3 vols, in 6 parts.
Of these large and expensive works above 900 copies are regularly sold as the
volumes appear; and probably the whole impression of 1000 copies will be sold as
soon as completed.
Ambrosii Opera, 4 yols.'i
r!n?il'ui' (?£¦;?' ^ '"''¦ 8vo. Besancon. 1836-38. At five francs a volume.
Liypriani vjpera, j
Lactantii Opera, J
The exact extent of this series is not known; but, from the form and low price,
it is evident that a large sale is calculated on.
Josephus, 6 vols. 12mo. "j
Philo Judaeus, 8 vols. 12mo. 1^ . . ioqr nn
Clemens Alexandrinus, 4 vols. 12mo. f^eipsic. iHdb-da.
Origen, 8 vols. J
This series has been going on for some years, and sells in Germany at about three
shillings a volume. Another series has been commenced at Leipsic by Tauchnitz.
Of the text of St. Augustine's Confessions no less than three editions were pub
lished in the course of last year; one in Paris, one in Leipsic, and one in Oxford.
VOL. LXIII. NO. CXXVI. 2 N Of

536 Oxford Theology.
It is to be hoped that this restored theology will not be allowed,
either in the University or elsewhere, to supersede the other
sciences, and classical literature. The latter, indeed, it can
scarcely dispense with ; but the former are in danger of being
neglected for a study so much more elevated and inspiriting. Of
physical sciences especially, it should be remembered, that, having
very little root in themselves, they require occasional encourage
ment ; and that, however humble in their sphere, they may be
made very useful servants, when kept in their proper subordi
nation : ' Princlpatum non habent, anclllari debent.' They are
a part, though an inferior part, of the empire of human Icnowledge,
and as such are not to lie unoccupied, but to be seized on and
Christianised, like the rest.
With this precaution, there is every reason to be pleased with
the new impulse given to theological studies. In themselves,
apart from all higher considerations, they will give men greater
depth and solidity of mind ; and accustom them, in all their spe
culations, to the same careful and serious habit of Inquiry, which
they are obliged to practise when treading on holy ground. They
hold out a hope, also, of restoring a deep philosophy, without
which a deep theology can scarcely be maintained, and a nation
must soon sink down into a general meanness of thought and
Of translations from the Fathers, several have been published lately in Germany ;
and in Paris, ' Les Peres des deux Premiers Siecles,' five volumes, 8vo, at seven francs
the volume — and a larger series by the Abbe Guillon, of which upwards of twenty
volumes have already appeared. With respect to the Library of the Fathers now pub
lishing in Oxford, of the two first volumes which have appeared, upwards of 1200
copies have been sold in the first three months. Of Mr. Jacobson's Apostolical Fathers
nearly the whole edition has been sold in the first six months. The entire edition of
Mr. Palmer's Treatise on the Church has been sold in about the same time ; and there
have been already two editions of a work on the Antiquity of the Liturgy by the
same author. The demand for the older English divines has so increased that many
are not to be procured at all, and others only at a great advance of price, which
seems rapidly increasing; for instance. Field on the Church has risen from 15s. to
3/. 3s., and is hardly to be met with at any price. CoUyer's Church History has
risen from two guineas to five or six. The works of Hammond, Patrick, Brett,
Thorndike, Hickes, &c., are equally in request. Many have been reprinted, aud
have succeeded beyond expectation ; and reprints at Oxford of Sutton, Taylor, Laud,
and Cosin, are meeting with a very rapid sale. — The note cannot be closed without
referring to the important part which might be taken by the Clarendon press in
assisting or directing this movement. The University is surely bound to employ
the magnificent revenues derived from it in procuring the very best editions of
such works, whether the Fathers or Anglican divines, as ought to be in the hands
of the public, and especially of the clergy. It must be seen, with great regret,
that the Library of the Fathers is an undertaking of individuals, who ought not to
he exposed to risk where the public good is concerned, and over whose selection
the University can exercise no control. Surely the republication of standard books
on theology, in the best form, at the cheapest rate, and with care and prudence—
and we may add, their diffusion both at home and abroad, or in grants to the colonial
dioceses — such as we rejoice to see have been already made to Canada and Australia
— is the due return to be made for the monopoly enjoyed by the University, and the
best answer to the charges of its enemies. action.

Oxford Theology. 537
action. The more, also, men are brought into contact with past
ages, and especially with the treasures of mind accumulated ih
thfe ancient theology, the more they will become modest and active
and firm : modest, from a reverential feeling towards their ances-
toirs ; active, from emulation ; and firm, from being supported by
authority. It was a wise remark of Niebuhr, that the French
would scarcely become a great nation until their studies were
closely connected with the history of past ages, and they had
learned ' to consider themselves more as but one link in the great
chain of nations.'* And how much of our own national great
ness has been lost, both morally and politically, by losing sight of
our relation to the past, we know from the experience of the pre
sent. As to the position of the Church, its whole safety neces
sarily depends (humanly speaking) upon its learning ; and its
chief danger lies in the individual ingenuity of its teachers. And
if, politically (that We may take this low ground also), the
Church is to be maintained as the very ark of the constitution, its
learning must be maintained likewise ; and men must acquiesce
patiently, though with the learning there rises up a somewhat
more stubborn and untractable adherence to principles tnan is
always convenient for political partisanship.
In addition to the learning of the Oxford publications, there is
something very pleasing and striking in their general tone. Not
that they are, for the most part, remarkable as compositions : for the
style, particularly of Dr. Pusey, is at times harsh and perplexed,
as if formed by an early acquaintance with German writings; and
in some, mostly of the eatly Tracts, the attempt to be clear and
familiar, when the thoughts are deep, has produced a stiffness and
primness, singularly contrasted with the ease and vigour with
which the language flows when a natural warmth of feeling is
readmitted to it.
But there is — what is so rare in the present day — an absence
of self; a straightforward, earnest-minded endeavour to commu
nicate information and suggest thoughts, which are evidently felt
to be of vital importance — which are not to conciliate favour to the
teachers or to excite admiration, but to do good ; and this, not upon
a principle of expediency and calculation, as if the duty was to be
measured by its results, but as a message which the messenger is
bound to deliver, whether men will hear or whether they will for
bear — a message which has its own destiny to speed it — which
sooner or later will find its own — ^which will work its own way,
defend its own cause, fulfil its own end, by a living instinct of
truth, whether other minds embrace it or not. Probably much
of the influence of these writings has been derived from this right
* Eeminisc. of Niebuhr, p. 127, Lond, 1835.
2 N 2 —but

538 Oxford Theology.
— but unhappily, in the present day, this novel — mode of address
ing readers on religious subjects.
There is, indeed, a result, very common when men of retired
and contemplative habits thus resolutely follow out their own views,
without reference to the world around them : they must often see
what men in the world do not see, and state what is startling ; and
then they are called imprudent and incautious. Now, that we are
startled by opinions is no test either of truth itself, or of the pru
dence with which it is exhibited. There may exist a deep disease,
requiring a strong medicine; and a strong medicine in a weak
body must cause a great shock. Thus, if an age has waded far
into disorder, insubordination, low materialistic views, rationalism,
neglect of forms, indolence, and self-indulgence, they must be
roused by setting before them principles of order and discipline ;
high theories, which will be called mysticism ; the law of faith ;
the value of externals ; self-denial, energy, and patience. And
this cannot be done without a shock; and the violence of the
shock proves, not the incautlousness of the process, but the neces
sity of its application. Incautious it will be, if these new princi
ples are put forth alone, without reminding men that they are not
to absorb them in turn — without balancing them by their coun
teracting tendencies ; but with this, it must be confessed, after can
did examination, the writers of the Tracts are rarely, if ever, to be
charged. If they have attacked ultra- Protestantism, on the one
hand,* they have struck Romanism with the other. f If they
have recalled man's thoughts to works, they have not trenched on
justification by faith. J If they have insisted upon forms, they have
endeavoured to spiritualise them all.§ If they have elevated the
office of the clergy,|| they have laid on them an increased weight
of moral responsibility.^ If they have raised the Church before
men's eyes,** they have taught them to look through always,
and see in it Him who is its Head.ff Self-examination is en
forced, but self-consciousness deprecated. J|. Respect for tradition
revlved,§§ but veneration for the Scriptures revived too. |||| While
men are carried back to the study and imitation of antiqulty,^^
they are reminded, also, of their allegiance to the Church into
which they were born.*** Rationalism is condemned, ||-j- but
* Newman on Romanism, Tract 73, vol. iii.
t Tracts 71, 72, vol. iii. J Newman on Justification, p. 227.'
§ Tracts 18, 32, 34, 14, 16. || Tracts 1, 7, 10, 24.
% Tracts 62, 55, 50, and others of Bishop Wilson's.
"** Tracts 11, 38, 47, 59, vol. i.
•ft Newman on Justification; see a very striking passage, p. 225, lect. viii.
X I Newman on Justification, p. 385. §§ Keble's Sermon and Appendix.
nil Pusey on Baptism, vol. iii. p. 197. ^^ Tract 6, vol. i.
«'** Letter to Bishop of Oxford, p. 17, ftt Tract 73.

Oxford Theology. 539
reason not stigmatised.* The study of the Fathers is urged,
but the extent of their testimony restricted. -j- Mortification of
self is imposed,^ but superstitious asceticism checked.§ The
privileges of baptism are magnified, yet so as to enhance the
necessity of practical holiness. || The defects of the Reformation
are pointed out,^ but this is coupled with a grateful acknowledg
ment of the blessings of which God made it the source.** And
many other instances might be added. If they are not insen
sible to departures in our own Liturgy from the primitive models,
they state broadly that we must cherish what we possess, and
' that there cannot be real alterations without a schism.'-|-j- If
the principle of the Apostolic Succession compels them to draw
a broad distinction between the Church and sectarians, they
speak of them, particularly of Presbyterians, with kindness, and
most distinctly, in numberless passages, disclaim all uncharitable
conclusions, inconsistent with the just sense of individual worth
and piety, and the untoward circumstances of former times, under
which existing arrangements took place.|J If obedience to the
King is revived,§§ it is not stated nakedly, as in Filmer's and other
treatises, but is coupled with its own preservative against extrava
gance — the principle of faith in God and obedience to His ap
pointment, 'whose authority he hath.' And if the system of
mystical interpretation is applied to the Bible, there is no sacri
fice of the letter, but rather a more strict adherence to it.||||
These instances may be sufficient : and if these writers are to
be fairly criticised, and especially if the panic-fear which prevails
of rash innovation is to be allayed, attention must be given to this
their ordinary mode of stating truth. Nothing can be more
unlike than this to rashness or party-spirit, or is a fairer test of
their intentions and good judgment.
One more remark must be made on the general tone of
these writers. Their discussions are polemical, and directed
against errors, grievous in themselves, and which evidently shock
their feelings as well as their belief. But even their opponents
* Lectures on Romanism, lect. v. vi. \ Preface to Cyril, vol. ii. p. 6.
X Vol. i. No. 18. § Pusey, Tract on Fasting, p. 7.
II Pusey on Baptism, Tract 111, S. v. ^| Pusey on Baptism, p. 193.
** No. 69, p. 105. tt Earnest Rem. p. 27.
%% Tract, No. 47, vol. ii. — See particularly Pusey's Letter to the Bishop of Ox
ford, p. 168, where he quotes the words of Archbishop Bramhall, who disavowing a
harsh construction put by defenders of Presbytery on his assertion of the divine
right of Episcopacy says — ' We are none of those hard-hearted persons. This mis
take proceedeth from not distinguishing between the true nature and essence of a
Church, which we do readily grant them, and the integrity or perfection of a
Church, which we cannot grant them without swerving from the judgment of the
Catholic Church.'
§§ Appendix to Dr. Pusey's Sermon, Nov. 5.
IJIl Pusey on Baptism, Tract 111, p. 190. acknowledge

540. Oxford Theology.
acknowledge* that they have written throughout as Christians
should write, abstaining from bitterness and invective, and from
censures on Individuals, and with a deep humility and reverence —
becoming men who feel that, even in disputing with men, they are
disputing about holy things, and in the presence of holy Beipgs.
This Is the more remarkable, because they have for a long time
been made the object of violent attacks. Even in the LTniyersity
of Oxford, where, personally, they are deeply respected, they are,
we believe, sometimes regarded with a certain degree of suspicion
and alarm, peculiarly painful to earnest-minded men. We do
not quarrel vidth this hesitation to adopt seemingly new views, in a
place like Oxford, or, indeed, anywhere — quite the contrary ; and
yet. It naturally would provoke irritation. Bnt out of Oxforcl
there has been a violence of opposition far more easy to bear with
patience, but far more distressing and offensive to mere specta
tors. The most idle tales have been circulated, publicly and
privately; in journals of all classes; in Scotland, where it wfis
found impossible to give a public dinner without denouncing Dr.
Pusey and Mr. Newman as enemies of the Church of England;-}-
and in Ireland, where it is understood that the clergy with a
national vehemence are anxious to rise, en masse, against them ;
though it is acknowledged that scarcely a single "Tract has ever
found its way into the country.
Within the Church of England the greatest opposition has
arisen from a class of religionists who avowedly take their views
from garbled extracts in a party paper, and even venture to con
fess, in the midst of their censures, that they have never read the
works themselves, and do not intend to read them for fear of con
tamination. Even bodies of clergy have been found to jqin in tUe
same clamour, with the same ignorance. Not very long since,
the clergy of a whole district in the west of England met — and re
solved unhesitatingly to enter a protest against the Oxford Tracts.
The protest was on the point of being made, when some one sug
gested that it might be better to read them first; and, as it was found
that this preliminary step had been universally omitted, the so
ciety resolved itself intp sections to read what they had deter
mined to condemn, and the protest was postponed till the follow
ing meeting. We give this as a fact, and as a specimen how little
we can trust the real temper of even an age which boasts so much
of its gentle, tolerant, equitable, and enlightened dealings, espe
cially with theological opponents.
These calumnies, also, have been reiterated and believed in
the face of the most positive denials from the parties accused.

* See, among others. Ancient Christianity, p. xi.
t See Ulster Times, Dec. 29, 1838.

from

Oxford Theology. 541
from disinterested by-standers, and even from the Bishop of
the diocese. Men are called Papists who are writing against
Popery, with infinitely more of learning and of zeal than perhaps
any of their contemporaries ; traitors to the Church of England,
when their tune, talents, and money, are devoted to support it ;
violators of the Rubric, when they are enforcing its authority ;
theorists and inventors of novelties, in the same page which stig
matises them as bigots to antiquity and authority ; upholders of
human tradition, while they are blessmg God that the Church
rests on no human names, but on the inspiration of the apostles ;*
and founders of a party, when their avowed object is to merge all
parties in j the Catholic Church. And, after all, there is no
party in existence ; since, with the exception of three or four
friends, other writers in the same cause are evidently independent
assertors of their own personal views.
Certainly, to lookers on, there is something very suspicious in
these ambidexter attacks. Either the Oxford writers are little
short of lunatics, or such charges are not far from libels. And in
this dilemma, we should be inclined to take refuge with another
class of critics, composed both of Papists and ultra- Protestants,
who have condescended to read what they condemn, and, finding the
works contain neither Popery nor ultra- Protestantism, but protests
against each, and protests urged with a learning and a piety which
it is impossible not to respect, have fallen in their perplexity
upon the hypothesis, that so much goodness, coupled, as they
each suppose, with so much error, can be nothing else but the
prophesied appearance of " the Mystery of Iniquity." All this
idle violence is very sad. But this is not all.
We have been in the habit for many years of priding ourselves
on the good sense and discrimination of the English people ; and
especially on the wide circulation of information, so that what is
done in one corner of the empire is known the next day at the
other, to the great benefit and enlargement of our minds, and the
increase of our happiness and virtue. This, if we remember right,
was made one of the main reasons for the Reform Bill. Nothing
was hidden from the knowledge of the people; and therefore
power should not be withheld from them. Now it is certainly
disappointing and humiliating to find that, even in the 19th
century, of one place, and that a very important place, in the very
heart of the country, open to the most public observation, and
communicating constantly with all the other provinces, the English
people, at this day, seem to know as little, and to believe as many
self-evident absurdities, as of the countries to the north of
Hearn's river. Even on the spot, a ivriter distinguished in phy-
* Tract, No. 69, p. 105, f Preface to vol. i. p. 3. sical

^1

Oxford Theology.

sical science, and who candidly ridicules the notion of treating
the new doctrines as Popery, yet is led by the prevalent credulity
to use such language as this : —
' In confirmation of these views,' says Professor Powell, ' reference is
made to the avowed opinions of this party proclaimed in print, to the re
publication of ancient popish or semi-popish documents and rituals, to the
recommendation of them by modern comments and panegyrics. Much is
also heard of the real or supposed secret influence exercised by some lead
ing zealots upon their devoted followers, both in the University and out of
it. Reports are in circulation of secret meetings and discussions in deep
conclave, among the leaders and the initiated ; of assemblies of a more
popular character, suited to the mass of disciples ; of means used, with
great skill and discrimination of character, to entice and entrap novices of
promising talent. Whispers, moreover, are heard of the more profoundly
austere exercises of the more advanced ; of the rigorous observances of
the ordinances of the Church, of private assemblies for daily service at
early matins and late vespers ; of the restoration of obsolete practices in
the Church services ; of vestments and crosses ; of postures and bowings.
Mysterious hints are heard of the asceticism of the more deeply initiated,
of days spent in rigorous fastings, of nights passed in vigils, or on the bare
floor, of secret penances and macerations of the flesh. All this, and much
more, is suspected.' *
And we could wish that the writer had contented himself with
adding, ' perhaps, with little foundation,' or at least had men
tioned the grounds which he says ' do really exist for some such
statements.' It may matter little to the individuals accused, whether such
absurd apprehensions prevail or not ; but it matters very much to
the University, and to the Church and the country. Once strike
a panic into the mind of the English people, be it on politics, or
commerce, or religion, and they run into extravagancies, always
melancholy and evil, but in the present Instance peculiarly mis
chievous. And for this reason it is necessary to speak seriously
of fancies which would be otherwise too palpably ridiculous to be
noticed. The public may be assured that the University of
Oxford is perfectly clear of Jesuits. It is carrying on no corre
spondence with Papal emissaries ; it is planning no innovation in
the Church — nothing but a reform of the hearts and minds of
Churchmen, by recalling them to their own professed principles
of obedience and order. It is also perfectly quiet. Whatever
ferment its writings have produced without, within the University
there is little controversy at all; and what has hitherto been
written on the opposite side of the question by Dr. Shuttleworth
and Professor Powell is marked with great quietness and courtesy.
The popish or semi-popish publications alluded to by Mr.
* Tradition Unveiled, p. 3.
Powell

Oxford Theology. 543
Powell reduce themselves on inquiry into two little tracts. One
is the celebrated ' Commonitorium of Vincentius of Lerins ; of
which, in addition to the use made of it at the Reformation against
the Church of Rome, it is sufficient to say, with the late Bishop
Jebb — *
' That it has been received, extolled, and acted upon by such men as
Ridley, Jewell, Grotius, Overall, Hammond, Beveridge, Bull, Hickes,
Bramhall, Grabe, Cave, and Archbishop King; that it has been ad
mired expressly, even by Chillingworth ; that it has been unreservedly
acknowledged as a just and true guide by Bishop Taylor.'
The other semi-popish Tract, with a still more popish name,
is a reprint of the celebrated ' Treatise of Ratram, or Bertram, on
the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.' It was written in the
ninth century to oppose the doctrine pf Transubstantiation, then
first introduced. It has been condemned by the Council of Trent
and the principal Romish writers ; was substantially republished,
under the shape of a Saxon Homily, by Archbishop Parker and
fourteen other bishops, to oppose the Romish doctrine ;| was the
book which converted Ridley, and, through Ridley, Cranmer him
self, from the Romish views of that Sacrament ; and no less than
four translations of it have been published before in England.
The charge about ' popish rituals' probably refers to the reprint
ing of some little devotional works, by very illustrious members of
the Church of England, consisting chiefly of arrangements of the
Psalms and the Collects of our own Liturgy ; and it indicates a
return to a more healthy devotional spirit, that the public have
been able to appreciate the quietness and sobriety of their tone,
compared with the heated extravagance of modern popular religion.
Of one Tract, indeed, (No. 75.) we had heard much, as an alarming
relapse into the popish practice of prayer for the dead. Without
entering into this subject, which has lately excited so much interest,
it is enough to say, with Bishop Taylor, that ' such general prayers
for the dead (as were used in the Primitive Church) the Church
of England never did condemn by any express article, but left it
in the middle ;'J and that as a private opinion, the practice has
been maintained and sanctioned by most of her great authorities.§ The
¦* Life, vol. ii. p. 249. + Life of Ridley, pp. 163, 165.
+ Dissuasive from Popery, Heber's Edition, vol.x. p. 148.
& For instance —
Archbishop Bramhall, Answer to the Epistle of Mr. de la Militiere, Works, p. 38.
Archbishop Usher, Answer to the Challenge of a Jesuit, ch. 7.
Bishop Overall, NiehoUs on the Liturgy, Additional notes, p. 64.
Bishop Cosin, Paper concerning the chief points of difierence between
Rome and the Church of England.
Bishop Andrews, 1
Bishop Montague, V Heylin's Summe of Christian Theology, p. 451, 452.
Doctor Heylin, J
Doctor Field, 3rd Book of the Church, ch. 17, and Appendix, p. 783.
Bishop

544 Oxford Theology.
The Tract, however, in question was found on examination
to be nothing more than some selections from the Breviary, on
which our own Church services were founded, published for the
purpose of ' wresting a weapon from the hands of the Romanists ;'
of ' discriminating and separating off the Roman corruptions from
the primitive Church ;' ' of impressing persons with a truer sense
of the excellence of the Psalms,' which form the main body
of the work ; ' of illustrating and explaining our own Prayer
Book;' and of 'providing matter for our private devotions
from the same source from which the Reformers arranged
our public services.'* One thing indeed might better have
been omitted. We may be allowed, or rather should be encou
raged, to cherish the memories of the dead, to mark the days
when they were taken from us, to maintain our communion
with them still, though separated by the grave, and especially to
keep constantly before our eyes our long ancestry of good and
holy men, who are to be our example and support in the Church :
but it is for the Church herself to fix whom we should thus
sanctify and honour. When individuals select individuals, there
is a danger of lapsing into that evil which in Romanism has led
to the worship of tutelary saints, and in many modern sects to the
excessive veneration for individual teachers. Bishop Ken's ex
cellence no one will doubt ; but the principle of individuals se
lecting him to commemorate, not as a private friend, but as a
saint of the Church, is surely Indefensible. This however is not
the point complained of — and those who complain indulge so uni
versally in no very dissimilar practice, that they require no answer.
The Tract we are speaking of has indeed been assailed on an
other ground, as if it sanctioned addresses to the Virgin Mary and
the Saints. The Tract, per contra, expressly condemns ' the invo
cation of Saints' as one of the chief ' practical grievances' of the
Romish system, and one of those ' which should be put in the fore
ground in this controversy' — an ' infringement upon the plain word
of God' — a ' violation of our allegiance to our only Saviour,' &c. &c.
But this charge has been answered in so full and satisfactory a
manner by Dr. Pusey, in his letter to the Bishop of Oxford,
(p. 192,) that it is needless to say more on the audacious calumny.
As to the 'secret influence,' and 'secret meetings,' and 'deep
conclaves of the initiated,' inquiries on the spot will, Ave fear, dis
pel that interestingly alarming illusion, which would conjure up a
Bishop Hickes, 2nd Collection of Controversial Letters, p. 87.
Bishop Stillingfleet, Rational Account of the grounds of Protestant Religion,
p. 3, ch. 6, sec. 8.
Bishop Bull, The Corruptions of the Church of Rome. Burton's
Edit. vol. ii. p. 261.
We might add Bishop Jebb, and others.
* Tract 75, vol, iii., pp. 1—11. romance

Oxford Theohffy. 545
romance of Jesuitism in a place like the University of Oxford.
That great respect is felt for such men as Dr. Pusey, and Pro
fessor Keble, and Mr. Newman, is, we suspect, undoubtedly
true. That young men who know their character and read their
books should be much captivated with tbem, is not at all sur
prising. Learning, coupled with humility and piety, and warm
heartedness, and principles which offer some solid foundation for
belief and practice when all truth is shaken elsewhere, and no
guide is left to man but his own wilfulness, naturally does comr
mand respect ; but if authorities on the spot are to be trusted, in
stead of planning or exercising an extensive influence either secretly
or publicly over the minds of old or young, the very outside number
of those who could be considered identified with the Tracts is
scarcely ten or twelve, if indeed so many. The University has
not compromised itself ; the Heads of Houses do nothing; the
inost influential men openly protest against committing them
selves to anything like a party. The students of course are kept
aloof from the controversy ; and the more thoughtful and earnest-
minded, who might be carried away by the excitement of a new-
seen doctrine, are not only placed under a discipline, which will
permit no extravagance of the kind, but are warned against it by
the very principles which they read : — ' Adhere to the Church of
your fathers, eschew human and individual authority, practise
obedience, and guard against vyilfulness and self-indulgence.'
Of secret conclaves we have heard nothing. There is indeed a
society for the cultivation of Theology, at which any senior mem
ber of the University may be present ; and where papers — (whicb
are usually published afterwards) — are read in the presence of
twenty or thirty strangers. And undoubtedly the existence of
the Tracts proves combination on the part of those who write
them to publish their common opinions. But, instead of being
alarmed at this association, those who have examined the history
of sects and parties will be rejoiced that the present doctrines
emanate from an association, not from an individual. It is indi
vidual teaching, individual authority, individual names, which the
Church has to dread, and from which heresies and schisms have
proceeded. When men act together, they act more slowly and
deliberately, under mutual correction, vnth the aid of more know
ledge,, and" with more checks upon that self-agency in which all
attempts at reformation must commence, and which is the real
spirit to be watched and counterpoised : and, moreover, there is
then no central point on which a body of rash adherents may fasten
themselves, without thought or discretion ; as in the cases of Luther,
and Calvin, and we may add Wesley, converting individuals into
popes, apd losing sight of the minister of the Church in the
leader

546 Oxford Theology.
leader of a party. So long as the Tracts proceed from a body,
and that body acts independently of the great mass of those who
agree mainly with their opinions, everything is safe. We shall
have no repetition of heresies founded on the fancies and known
by the names of individuals.
'This is the very distinction,' says Mr. Newman,* between our
Church and (for instance) the Lutheran; that they are Lutherans,
but we are not Cranmerites, nor Jewellites, but Catholics — mem
bers, not of a sect or party, but of the Catholic and Apostolic Church.
And while the name of Luther became the title, his dogmata were
made the rule of faith of his followers; his phrases were noted,
almost his very words were got by rote. He was, strictly speaking, the
master of his school. Where has the English Church any such head ?
Whom does she acknowledge but Christ and his Apostles, and as their
witness the consent of fathers ? What title has she, but as an old
father speaks, " Christian for her name, and Catholic 'for her sur
name ? " If there is one thing more than another which tends to make
us a party, it is the setting up the names of men as our symbols and
watchwords. Those who most deeply love them will not magisterially
bring them forward, and will rather shun than denounce those who
censure them.'
We understand that the sincerity of these views is so fully ac
knowledged by those who are acquainted with the parties, that in
no good society at Oxford could persons be permitted without
check to use the name either of Dr. Pusey or Mr. Newman to
denote their opinions. It is for persons wholly ignorant of facts to
invent such terms ; and they cannot be too strongly reprobated.
Another rumour, full as rife with follies and falsehoods as that
of Jesuitical conspiracies, relates to innovations introduced in the
ritual of the Church by clergymen of Oxford. Our object, let it
be remembered, is not to defend one system of opinion or another,
but to assist in allaying, if possible, a dangerous ferment, and to
do justice to a body of men who, whether in some points erro
neous or not, are men of piety, learning, and zeal, and are de
voting their talents and their all to the cause of a Church in
danger. Two answers have been given to this charge of innova
tion, which are perfectly conclusive. One is a letter by Dr. Pusey
to Archdeacon Townsend, published in the ' British Magazine,'
[vol. xii. p. 637], in which he enters, at length, into the facts
of the case. It is too long to be quoted, and the whole should
be read, not merely to understand the truth, but to learn by ex
ample in what way false charges should be met and answered by
Christians. This letter, and another addressed by the same
author to an anonymous jester,"!* are models of Christian apologies.
=* Letter to Dr. Faussett, p. 27.
f Earnest Remonstrance to the author of the Pope's Letter, — Rivington.
The

Oxford Theology. 547
The spirit in which they are written must tell upon every reader ;
and we trust, if any more personal controversies should arise, the
tone and temper of them will never be abandoned for sharper re
bukes, however well deserved.
Dr. Pusey's letter, however, is superseded by an authoritative
statement in a late charge of the Bishop of the diocese : —
' I have been ' (says the Bishop, alluding directly to the subject be
fore us) ' continually, though anonymously, appealed to, in my oflBcial
capacity, to check breaches both of doctrine and discipline, through the
growth of popery among us. Now, as regards the latter point, breaches
of discipline, namely, on points connected with the public service of
the Church, I really am unable, after diligent inquiry, to find anything
that can he so interpreted. I am given to understand that an injudi
cious attempt was made in one instance to adopt some forgotten portion
of the ancient clerical dress ;* but I believe it was speedily abandoned,
and do not think it likely we shall hear of a repetition of this or similar
indiscretions. At the same time, so much of what has been objected to
has arisen from minute attention to the Rubric, and I esteem uni
formity so highly (and uniformity never can be obtained without strict
attention to the Rubric), that I confess that I would rather follow an
antiquated custom (even were it so designated) with the Rubric, than
be entangled in the modern confusions which ensue from the neglect
of it.' The Bishop adds some remarks, to which, if it were not pre
sumptuous, we should add our most cordial concurrence : —
' I may say that, in these days of lax and spurious liberalitj', any
thing which tends to recall forgotten truths is valuable ; and where these
publications (the Tracts for the Times) have directed men's minds to
such important subjects as the union, the discipline, and the authority
of the Church, I think they have done good service ; but there may be
some points in which, perhaps, from ambiguity of expression or similar
causes, it is not impossible but that evil, rather than the intended good,
may be produced on minds of a peculiar temperament. / have more
fear of the disciples than of the teachers. In speaking, therefore, of
the authors of the Tracts in question, I would say that I think their de
sire to restore the ancient discipline of the (Jhurch most praiseworthy ;
I rejoice in their attempt to secure a stricter attention to the Rubrical
* A young clergyman wished to conform to the Rubric, which enjoins 'that in
the time of his ministration such ornaments should be worn as were in the Church
of England, by the authority of Parliament, in the second year of King Edward VI.'
Accordingly, he adopted a particular scarf, in obedience not to primitive anliquity,
but to the Rubric, 'fhis has been magnified into the fact that the students at
Oxford now walk about with crosses on their gowns. The exaggeration would be
ludicrous, if falsehood and credulity were fit subjects for laughter; but it will be
useful if it warns young followers against venturing to put in practice any notion
whatever of their own until it is sanctioned by their superiors. It is as easy to be
self-willed in interpreting a Rubric as in neglecting it; in going back as in going
forward. And innovation of any kind, at this moment, without competent autho
rity, is highly reprehensible. directions

548 Oxford Theology.
directions in the Book of Common Prayer ; and I heartily approve
the spirit which would restore a due observance of the fasts and festi
vals of the Church. But I would implore them, by the purity of their
intentions, to be cautious, both in their writings and actions, to take
heed lest their good be evil spoken of — lest, in their exertions to re
establish unity, they unhappily create fresh schism — lest, in their
admiration of antiquity, they revert to practices which, heretofore, have
ended in superstition.'
And then, to prevent the supposition that any censure was
intended by this admonition, an admonition as paternal as it is
wise, and in which all good men, who had the right, would surely
join, the Bishop adds, in a note, —
' There must always be allowable points of difference in the opinions
of good men, and it is only when such opinions are carried into ex
tremes, or are mooted in a spirit which tends to schism, that the inter
ference of those in authority in the Church is called for. The authors
of the Tracts in question have laid no such painful necessity on me, nor
have I to fear that they will ever do so. I have the best reasons for
knowing that they would be the first to submit themselves to that
authority, which it has been their constant exertion to uphold and de
fend. And I feel sure that they will receive my friendly suggestions in
the spirit in which I have here offered them.'
This statement may be sufficient on the subject of innovations in
ceremonial matters. It is satisfactory as showing not only that
really nothing of the kind has taken place ; but that if, in any evil
hour, such a disposition should appear, there is an authority ready
to take cognizance of it, and check it with as much of firmness as
of mildness and discretion.
Of the ascetic practices which are said to prevail among the
members of the Oxford school we are most unwilling to speak.
There is something in self-denial and self-mortification, even
under the worst of its forms, which shelters it from the contempt
or sarcasm of all but vulgar minds. A good man may lament
deeply, but he will not sneer at it. When a man has learnt
to restrict his wants — to abandon comforts — to suppress his feel
ings — to act upon a law without, instead of an inclination within
— to bear cold and hunger and sleepless nights, and the dreariness
which the world puts on at first when stript of its lusts of eye and
lusts of flesh, — he has made the first step to goodness. It may
be made too rapidly, too far — on wrong grounds, on a false motive
— but it is a step in advance ; and he makes it most boldly and most
wisely, who thenceforth, not merely in great temptations and
strong passions, but in every little trifle of life — in the turning of a
thought, in a word, a gesture, a petty comfort, a favourite delicacy
— watches sternly over the faintest movements of the enemy within
him. And, therefore, ' vigils and fastings, and secret penances and

Oxford Theology. 549
and macerations of the flesh,' and self-denial in th^ merest trifles,
supposing that such things do exist, are not fit subjects for jests
^y S'Hy, but least of all by those who are sitting at full boards and
lolling in easy chairs.
And, indeed, there is little fear in this day from any stoicism of
religion. Stoicism must find another soil to flourish in than an
age which makes indulgence everything, and art, science, virtue,
and religion,* good only as ministering to comfort. And, if it
does come, it will do us no harm. It is an epicurism of heart
and mind — a lax, voluptuous, selfish spirit — which is the plague
and poison of this country.
It is to this we owe our evils : — Ireland, with its extortions and
debts — its impoverished and absentee landlords — Its starving pea
santry, and all the long catalogue of Irish evils : — In England,
our mass of beggary, ripe for sedition and crime — a mass created
chiefly by the blindness of greedy avarice, degraded more and
more by its heartless cruelty, and which may one fearful day
avenge upon this great empire her cold postponement of moral
duties to questions of immediate gain in ledgers and taxes : — Our
public embarrassments, which already bind us hand and foot in the
face of Europe — which nothing but vast private sacrifices can re
lieve, and those sacrifices no one will make : the spiritual destitu
tion of our Church, and all the evils of dissension — the bitterness,
and ignorance, and loss of truth, and desecration of the State, which
* We have no wish to enter upon the properly theological points in debate, but the
following extract from Dr. Pusey's Letter to the Bishop of Oxford may be useful to
the reader, who is now, for the first time, considering this controversy. After va
rious remarks on Romish Absolution, Indulgeuces, &c., and on the Calvinistic abuse
of the doctrine of Justification by Faith, he proceeds thus : —
' Our Church, my Lord, here, as elsewhere, appears to me to hold a dislinct line,
however she has not been able as yet to revive the " godly discipline" which she
feelingly deplores. Romanism, as well as Ultra-Protestantism, practically frees a
man from his past sins ; our Church bids him confess that he is " tied and bound
with the chain" of them, and to pray Him that " the pitii'ulness of His great mercy
may loose us ;" she teaches us, in her daily service, to have our " sins ever before us,"
that so God may^" hide His face from our sins, and blot out all our iniquities ;" she
bids us come day by day with "broken and contrite hearts,"' which God " will not
despise ;" to " rend our hearts" that " God may repent Him of the evil ;" to seek of
God " correction," though " with judgment, not in His anger ;" to go daily to our
Father, and say unto Him that we are " no more worthy to be called His sons."
She teaches us daily to confess all the sins of our past life ; all our past " erring
and straying," our Aarin^ " ofiended against His holy laws," Aaiiin^ " left undone
what we ought to have done, and done what we ought not to have done ;" three
times a-week she teaches us to pray to be delivered " from His wrath and from
everlasting damnation," and " in the day of judgment ;" that He would give us
" true repentance, forgive us all our sins, negligences, and ignorances." And in
her most solemn service, she would have us approach with " true penitent hearts ;"
still gathering before our eyes all the sins of our past lives, that" the remembrance
of them" being " grieVous unto us, and the burthen of them intolerable," we may
bring them all before Him, pray Him, " for Jesus Christ's sake to forgive us all
that is past." '—Letter, p. 88. are

550 Oxford Theology.
are to be traced to this one source. And over it we sigh and groan,
as if the remedy were beyond the reach of man : doling out our
pounds and guineas, and sixpences and shillings, while millions
would scarcely supply the wants of our own country, and whole
continents are crying to us to save them from continuing or be
coming empires of sin and darkness. And all the while we are
building ceiled houses for ourselves, adding field to field and
palace to palace — boasting of our warehouses and commerce —
covering the sea with our merchant ships — doing everything for
ourselves, that we may walk in silks and velvet, and fare sump
tuously every day; but, when the work for God and man is called
for, sitting down with despair and lamentation that we are poor
and in debt. And to this, too, we owe the degradation of our
character : for, with all our boasts, our character as a people is
degraded from what it once was. We owe it all to our indul
gences and comforts.
And, therefore, if an opposite school is rising up in our great
seat of education, which shall teach men to master themselves —
to economise their pleasures, that they may be liberal in their
duties — which shall drill and exercise them in hardness — and so
give them nerve to fight and suffer for us, in the evil days which
seem approaching ; — if it bring back something of that ancient
discipline which the deepest philosophy, the greatest legislators.
Saints, and Martyrs, and the Church and the Bible, deemed need
ful for the perfecting of man ; and which, so far from growing
out of popery, was enervated and destroyed by popery ; — ^we see
nothing but a cause for rejoicing. There is a hope still left us :
there are some among us yet who will not shrink in the face of
peril — who will retain high principles — who will not take expe
diency as their rule — who will be able to guide and govern us;
and, loy the blessing of a merciful Providence, may save us from
much evil yet. And we are rejoiced that they should arise in
Oxford. Far better that such a place should be ridiculed for
asceticism than, as it was of old, for self-indulgence : —
Nuv yap tffj^arac vrnp
pi^ag ivireTCLTO (paoe kv GiSiTrou ZogoiQ,
Even if obtruded on the eye, it may be that we need, as other
ages and people have needed, some sight of the kind to startle us
from our luxurious indolence. But this complaint has no place
yet. Men only know that warnings have been given by clergymen
to obey the commands of their Prayer-book, and not to feast when
the Church bids them fast. * And from that which may lie beyond
— those hours of suffering and sorrow, when Christians retire into
* No, 18, vol. xi. ; No. 21, vol. », their

Oxford Theology. 551
their closets to humble themselves before the record of their sins,
and to battle with the plague of their own heart — who will tear
aside the veil, and bid coarse and sensual eyes look on them with
scorn ?
And this may be enough to say of the common tales now circu
lated respecting the authors of these publications. For themselves.
It naust be repeated again, it may matter little whether they are
believed or not. But it is not so with the University and the
Church ; and even the country itself must suffer much in its tone
of mind, as well as in its loss of truth, if grave and solemn ques
tions, put forth with great claim to respect, are to be stifled by
idle scandal, and men's feelings are to be enlisted against them
by irritation and alarm.
This scandal has, for the most part, it would seem, arisen from
two sources — one, the hostility of the spirit of the age, against
which these publications have been directed ; but, latterly, from a
misinterpretation — we must add, a very natural misinterpretation —
of a work in some degree connected with them — the Remains of
Mr. Froude. Reluctant, as we confess we are, to say anything
harsh of men who are evidently fighting the battle of the Church
with no less purity of intention than energy and talent, it appears
to us equally strange and lamentable that such a work should
have been published with the sanction of their name. It is a
fragmentary sketch of the opinions and character of a dear friend,
whose views in the main coincided with their own, and who died
young, leaving behind him unfinished papers, which, with the
consent of his relatives, it appears, two of the principal contri
butors to the Tracts undertook to arrange and edit. Now, a
posthumous publication of a bona fide private journal, of hasty
expressions in conversation, and fragments of confidential letters,
is evidently a dangerous form of stating religious opinions, espe
cially in the midst of a grave controversy, and not a favourable
mode of drawing a portrait. It is tolerated at times, in order to
satisfy the cravings of the public to know all that can be known
of some man who has filled a large space in the eye of the
Church ; and even then the result has seldom been devoid of evil.
But of this young clergyman nothing was known beyond the
circle of his intimate friends ; and, under any circumstances, the
editors have shown, both by their Preface and by their other
writings, that they are the last persons who would betray the
confidence of private life for the gratification of mere curiosity.
They must not complain, therefore, especially after their Pre
face, if the book is supposed to have a deeper meaning, and to
exhibit either opinions which they wish to inculcate, or a cha
racter held up for imitation. In any other point of view the
\oh. LXIII. NO. CXXVI. 2 o publication

552 Oxfmd Theology.
publication is inexplicable ; and in each of these it is far from
satisfactory. We have, indeed, heard it suggested that the journal was pub
lished as a means of calling men's attention to the union of practical
self-discipline with the adoption of views which, as theory, and
theory only, are worthless ;* that the other fragments were then
added to give a sketch of the real character, without any attempt
to disguise its faults. It was thought, say these apologists, ' more
honest, more like the representations of human nature made to us
in Scripture,' to allow the portrait to be seen in its harsher features ;
and there was so much of truth even in the seeming parodoxes,
that the editors trusted to their rousing attention without leading
readers into error. This may, very probably, be the true account ;
and, if so, we must admit that the editors should rather be accused
of too much simplicity than of any guile. We can well believe,
too, their own knowledge of many features of goodness in the
character of their friend, which do not appear in the book, their
being familiar with his style of expression, and their insight into
the grounds of his most startling statements may have much de
ceived them as to the efiiect they would have upon others. Yet,
even with the amplest allowances, it Is impossible not to be sur
prised that these ' Remains' should ever have been esteemed worthy
of publication at all — and not to lament very deeply that the book
should have been published as it stands, without such an explana
tion as would exonerate the editors from the unfavourable conclu
sions which are naturally drawn from it.
Many, indeed, of its seeming paradoxes are true, when balanced
and explained by other truths which the writer may have
held in his own mind, and which, perhaps, may be found
scattered about the book, and may be put together by a very
careful, thoughtful reader. But the English public, for whose
instruction books are written, are in the present day anything
but careful and thoughtful. They take up a new work, especially
a fragment of biography, as they would take up a newspaper.
They skim it through, seize on a few prominent sentences, gatber,
as they suppose, a knowledge of the whole in two or three pages,
and then, with all the gravity and peremptoriness of an absolute
judge, they pronounce not only on the merits of the book, but on
the views, opinions, and character of every one connected with it.
Now, it is perfectly natural that sensible men should dislike such a
temper of mind, and disdain to adapt themselves to it. But it is
the temper, not of one or two men, not of the higher classes or
the lower classes only, but of the great bulk of the middle popu
lation, the very men who are to be leavened with truth, and to be
* See the Preface to Plain Sermons, No. 1. recalled

Oxford Theology. 553
recalled from grievous and confirmed errors. These men are,
moreover, extremely ignorant— ignorant especially of history, and
entirely of ecclesiastical history— and, therefore, have not in them
selves the knowledge, which ought to exist somewhere or another,
to qualify abstract statements on such subjects, and prevent them
when received into the mind from becoming positive errors. For
the only safe mode, it must be repeated, of conveying truth, is by
shaping and directing the thoughts of the hearer into a right
course ; and this can only be done, as in matter so in mind, by
employmg two counteracting principles, which may impel it in a
mean between the two. This is the method with which Almighty
God educates us in Nature, in the Bible, and in the Church ; and,
instead of being overlooked in the other publications of these
writers, it has been almost taken as their motto.
But there is far less of this caution in the Remains. For instance,
the term ' odious Protestantism'* may be very intelligible, even
from a clergyman of the Church of England, to those who know
the nature of the words, and, with our own Convocation of l689,f
are unwilling to employ it. And Mr. Newman might use it safely
by the side of his own explanation : —
' If persons,' says he, ' aware that names are things, conscientiously
think that the name of Protestantism is productive of serious mischief, —
if it be the property of heresy and schism as much as of orthodoxy — if
it be but a negative word, such as almost forces on its professors the idea
of vague indefinite creeds, makes them turn their thoughts to how much
they may doubt, deny, ridicule, or resist, rather than what they believe —
if the religion it generates mainly consists in a mere attack upon Rome,
and tends to be a mere instrument of state purposes — if it tends to
swallow up devotion in worldliness, and the Church in the executive —
if it damps, discourages, stifles that ancient Catholic system, which, if true
in the beginning, is true at all times — and if, on the other hand, there be
nothing in our formularies obliging us to profess it — and if external
circumstances have so changed, that what it was inexpedient or impos
sible to do formerly is both possible and most expedient now, — these con
siderations, I conceive, may form a reason for abandoning the word.' — ¦
Letter to Dr. Faussett, p. 28.
It might be added that no word so tends to prevent the con
version of Romanists, because it entirely hides those parts of our
Church system to which they most devotedly and most wisely
adhere in their own communion, and which, therefore, if put pro
minently forward, would draw them most easily to our own. But
the common reader is ignorant of all this. He has heard for years
of only two religions, as he supposes. Protestantism and Popery.
With him to hate Protestantism is to love Popery; and, though
this inference is not very logical, yet to hate Protestantism is as
* Vol. i. p. 322. t Birch's Life ofTillotson, Tract 70, p. 33.
2 O 2 bad

554 Oxford Theology.
bad a spirit for a reformer as to hate Popery. Hating any system,
in which we find ourselves placed by Providence, running away
from it as a whole, instead of adhering to it as far as may be, is a
vicious principle. It is the very principle which generated Puri
tanism out of a purifying system, and the Rebellion out of the
Reformation ; * and it will be full as dangerous in forcing men from
Protestantism into Popery, as it was of old in driving them from
Popery to infidelity. The expression is coarse and rash, and the
spirit of it unsound, j"
Again, members of the Church of England are warmly attached
to its admirable Liturgy. They value it, often, merely for its beauty,
simplicity, piety, and depth ; but they have no notion that it is
scarcely more than ancient services translated, and in some slight
points remodelled, J and that, in the eyes of one who understands
the real nature of the Church, this constitutes its chief value, as
giving it a moral high authority. They are accustomed also to
regard all other ancient Liturgies as popish ; to touch our own is
sacrilege — to supersede it by one used at Rome, absolute wicked
ness — for they do not know that Rome retained her old inheritance
of Catholic truths, formularies, and practices, even when she added
* See Hooker, book iv. c. 8.
¦}• We cannot pass from this point without adding a still more important suggestion
on the use of the word Catholic. Even educated men are in the habit of employing
it as synonymous with Popery, without knowing that the concession is seized on by
Papists as one of the strongest weapons which they can wield against the Church ;
because, by our own confession, our daily service, and the unanimous agreement
of orthodox Christians, Catholicity is the test of truth. It was by the name of the
Catholic Church that the Romish clergy at the Reformation, as they still con
tinue to do, endeavoured to ' deceive the realm.' (Fox's Acts, p. 164(J.) 'These
two poisonful rotten pests,' says Bishop Ridley (Letter to Bradford), 'he hath
so painted over with such a pretence and colour of religion, of the Catholic faith,
and such like, that the wily serpent is able to deceive, if it were possible, the elect of
God.' The very device by which the contrivers of the Gunpowder Plot were allured
to that enormous crime was the word Catholic. 'When the authors of it were
examined,' says Bishop Andrews (Answer to Bellarmine, p. 224), 'they were all
found Catholici Caiholidssimi, and they all declared that their only object was to bring
hack the Catholic religion.' Perhaps the jealousy with which they regard it cannot
be shown better than by the following extract from their organ, Dublin Review, July,
1837 (Note, p. 47): — ' Where we write Catholic or its derivatives, the Critic ha.s
Romanism. It is evident that these terms are not used in scorn ; but our ears are
not accustomed to hear them employed in any other way, and we trust we shall be
excused, if we refuse to admit them, and decline cveiy other appellation but our own,
simply '¦ Catholics." ' — This is the apology for altering the phraseology of an Angli
can journal whose statements these Romanists are quoting ! They still take ad
vantage of the word, as they did at the Reformation, to misuse the panegyrics of Chris
tian Antiquity upon the true Church, by applying them to their own communion : as,
for instance, the passage of Lactantius, ' The Catholic Church alone retains the true
worship ; it is the fountain of truth, and the House of God." And this is taken as a
motto to a defence of Romanism. See the ' Catholic Directory' for 1839, p. 187. See
also a very valuable sermon on this subject by the Rev. Vaughan Thomas, with Notes
and Appendix. Oxford, 1838.
X See Palmer's Origines Liturgies. to

Oxford Theology. 555
to them her own corruptions ; and therefore, that, in abusing these,
wo may perhaps be abusing remains of apostolical practice — at any
rate, of the purest Christian ages. Let a reader in this frame of
mind meet with a sentence, light and flippant, and occurring with
out any preparation, suggesting the replacement of our communion-
service by a good translation of the Liturgy of St. Peter,* or speak
ing of the Service itself as a judgment upon the Church; f and
can any one expect that he should not be startled? — not be very
much offended ? — and this too when it is a young man who speaks,
and in a tone which, with the greatest possible allowance for
peculiarity of manners, borders on irreverence. Now then turn
to Mr. Newman's explanation, and see the difference. ^ He
begins by stating the facts that all the Eucharistic services of the
ancient Church may be traced, it would seem, to four originals,
and those probably apostolic — that the Liturgy of St. Peter is one,
and, though in use [in the Romish Church, has been kept free
from Romish corruptions — and that we enjoyed it in England
prior to the Reformation.
' This sacred and most precious monument, then,' he proceeds, ' of
the apostles, our reformers received whole and entire from their prede
cessors ; and they mutilated the tradition of 1500 years. Well was it
for us that they did not discard it, that they did not touch any vital
part ; for, through God's good providence, though they broke it up, and
cut away portions, they did not touch life ; and thus we have it at this day
a violently treated, but a holy and dear possession, more dear perhaps
and precious than if it were in its full vigour and beauty, as sickness or
infirmity endears to us our friends and relatives. Now, the first feeling
which comes upon an ardent mind, on mastering these facts, is one of
indignation and impatient sorrow; the second is the more becoming
thought, that, as he deserves nothing at all at God's hands, and is blessed
with Christian privfleges only as his mere bounty, it is nothing strange that
he does not enjoy every privilege which was given through the apostles ;
and his third, that we are mysteriously bound up with our forefathers,
and bear their siu, or, in other words, that our present condition is a
judgment on us for what they did.'
This single instance, we are sure, will justify us in complain
ing that it was reserved for a subsequent apology to show thus
clearly how much of truth was contained in a paradox at first
naturally offensive, and to transmute its seeming coarseness into
the most beautiful piety, by throwing on it the light of feelings
which, whatever was the character of Mr. Fronde's own mind,
pervade every work of his editors.
Another point in Mr. Fronde's book, which may not unreasonably
perplex even such thoughtful readers as do not confound a Catholic
* Remains, vol. i. p. 287. t Remains, vol. 1, p. 410.
I Letter to Fausset, p. 43. with

556 Oxford Theology.
with a Popish spirit, is his leaning to the Church of Rome. As
to the idle notions of there being anything in the system before us
to encourage Popery, all sensible persons will agree with Pro
fessor Powell in rejecting them * as flowing either from ' igno
rance of the question,' or ' disregard of distinct disavowals.'
Probably one passage, which follows, will be sufficient to set the
matter at rest : —
' If,' says Mr. Newman,t 'we are induced to believe the professions
of Rome, and make advances towards her, as if a sister or mother
Church, which in theory she is, we shall find too late that we are in the
arms of a pitiless and unnatural relative, who will but triumph in the
arts which have inveigled us within her reach. No ; — dismissing the
dreams which the romance of early Church history, and the high theory
of Catholicism, will raise in the guileless and inexperienced mind, let us
be sure that she is our enemy, and will do us a mischief when she can.
In saying and acting on this conviction, we need not depart from Chris
tian charity towards her. We must deal with her as we would towards
a friend who is visited by derangement ; in great afEiction, with all
affectionate tender thoughts, with tearful regret, and a broken heart, but
still with a steady eye and a firm hand. For in truth she is a Church
beside herself, abounding in noble gifts and rightful titles, but unable
to use them religiously ; crafty, obstinate, wilful, malicious, cruel, un
natural, as madmen are. Or, rather, she may be said to resemble a
demoniac ; possessed with principles, thoughts, and tendencies not her
own, in outward form and in outward powers what God made her, but ruled
within by an inexorable spirit, who is sovereign in his management
over her, and most subtle and most successful in the use of her gifts.
Thus she is her real self only in name ; and till God vouchsafes to
restore her, we must treat her as if she were that evil one which governs
her. . . . Satan ever acts on a system ; various, manifold, and intricate,
with parts and instruments of diflferent qualities, some almost purely evil,
others so unexceptionable that, in themselves and detached from the
end to which all is subservient, they are really " angels of light," and
may be found so to be at the last day. In Romanism there are some
things absolutely good, some things only just tainted and sullied, some
things corrupted, and some things in themselves sinful ; but the system
itself so called, as a whole, and therefore all parts of it, tend to evil.' %
* Tradition Unveiled, p. 7.
-|- Lectures on the Prophetical Office of the Church, Lecture iii. p. 100.
I If more instances are wanted of the mode in which the Tracts speak of the
Church of Rome, they may be seen in a little pamphlet entitled — " Extracts from
Tracts for the Times, showing that to oppose ultra-Protestantism is not to favour
Popery." One item in the Index will relieve the most anxious mind : — " Popery,
incurable, 7 ; a falling off, 73 ; pestilential, 7 ; malicious and cruel, 15, 64; rebel
lious, 75 ; tyrannical, 1.67,72; an insanity, 64; an evil spirit, ib. ; heretical, 3, 7,
8,20; exclusive, 19; irreconcileably diflTerent from us, 7, 14,28,50, 66, 84, 88;
unscriptural, 6 ; presumptuous, 17 ; persecuting, 9,32, 58 : political, 58, 59, 75 ; an
Antichrist, 38, 40, 41, 48, 72. And if the reader will turn to Tract No, 38, page
11, he will see the corruptions of Popery severally and distinctly repudiated after
the model of Bishop Hall. — For

Oxford Theology. 557
— For the information of those who suppose that the authority of
Catholic Antiquity, maintained by the Tracts, is the same vrith
Popish Infallibility, we may continue in Mr. Newman's own words
— ' Of this evil system the main tenet is the Church's infallibility.'
Now this is rather strong language to be used by a reviver
of Popery; — we scarcely think it would dispose the Pope to
receive his expected proselytes favourably. But the point to
be observed is the discriminating line drawn between wishing for
the possibility of communion with Christians of the Church
of Rome, and seeking for union with that Church as a Church.
The former is the wish and prayer of every good Christian. The
latter cannot be desired without a dream of restoring that un
scriptural and unapostolical unity which popery has substituted
for true Catholicity. Let each national Church at least pre
serve its independent connexion with the primitive apostolic
Church. To restore this was the first great work of the Refor
mation. Without it, instead of preserving separate independent
vritnesses to truth, they will all be merged in one, and their
authority lost: not to mention the incalculable evils arising
from the existence of foreign spiritual influence within a civil
dominion. But in Mr. Froude there is evidently a tendency to
lose sight of this distinction. And it is acknowledged in the
preface.* The apology made for his seeming want of attachment to the
Church of England is, that he considered himself a minister, not
of any human establishment, but of the one Holy Church
Catholic, and thus allowed himself to indulge In a ' looking and
longingf for some fuller development of Catholic principles
than he could easily find' — ^being at last ' obliged to confess, with
undissembled mortification and disappointment, that such deve
lopment was not to be looked for in Rome.' But we must
and will ask — is not such a looking for the realization of a theory,
into regions beyond that in which our own sphere of duty
is cast, a highly dangerous indulgence ? Is it not in itself, with
out peering into the modifications which it might have received
in the mind of the individual, something like that vague cosmo
politan philanthropy which, instead of cherishing what we have,
and striving to improve it, wanders off to a distant imaginary ob
ject ? Is it not a deviation from that humble practical Christian
spirit which recognises, both in moral duties and in the system of
the Church, local arrangements, attachment to home, country, lan
guage, and soil, as necessary for giving stability to our virtues and
limits to our extravagant affections? Did not the undue pre-
1- Vol. i. p. 1, 4. t P. X. ponderance

558 Oxford Theology.
ponderance of the Church of Rome commence in this very
way — by good men* being tempted to look to it as a centre of
unity and a depository of truth when the Churches of their own
lands were distracted by heresies and persecutions ? And ought we
not to be extremely careful how we thus create any other centre
for our ecclesiastical system than that from which it emanated —
the body of the Apostles? Is not any leaning to a foreign
Church, even if that Church be sound, a very erroneous tendency,
while our own is acknowledged to possess all the essentials of a
true Church, and by the pious care of her members may be
wrought out into all its perfection? Is it not unlike Mr. New
man's own sentiments, when, borrovringj the words of Archbishop
Bramhall, he concludes : —
' No man can justly blame me for honouring my spiritual mother, the
Church of England, in whose womb I was conceived, at whose breasts I
was nourished, and in whose bosom I hope to die. Bees, by the in
stinct of nature, do love their hives, and birds their^nests. . . Likewise I
submit myself to the Representative Church, that is, a free general
council, or so general as can be procured ; and until then to the Church
of England, wherein I was baptized, or to a National English Synod.'
And again J in this noble exhortation to perfect our own
national Church —
' 0 that we knew our own strength as a Church ! 0 that, instead of
keeping on the defensive, and thinking it much not to lose our own
niggardly portion of Christian light and holiness, which is getting less
and less, the less we use it — instead of being timid and cowardly and
suspicious and jealous, and panic-struck, and grudging, and unbelieving
¦ — -we had the heart to rise, as a Church, in the attitude of the Spouse of
Christ, and the treasure-house of his grace ; to throw ourselves into
that system of truth, which our fathers have handed down even through
the ivorst times, and to use it like a great and understanding people !
O that we had the courage and the faith to aim at perfection ; to
demand the attention, to claim the submission of the world ! Thousands
of hungry souls in all classes of life stand around us ; we do not give
them what they want, the image of a true Christian people, living in
that apostolic awe and strictness which carries with it an evidence that
they are the Church of Christ. This is the way to withstand and repel
the Romanists ; not by cries of alarm, and rumours of plots, and disputes
and denunciations — but by living up to the creeds, the services, the ordi
nances, the usages of our own Church, without fear of consequences,
without fear of being called Papists ; to let matters take their course
freely, and to trust to God's good providence for the issue.'
That Mr. Froude came back to the Church of England, as the
only mode of realizing his views, is true.§ But surely, for the
* See the Letters of Athanasius, Jerome, and Augustin, ^oMi'm.
f Lectures on the Prophet. Ofi'. of the Church, Advertisement, p. 6.
+ Letter to Dr. Faussett, p. 9. § Preface, p. xii. vol. i. pp. 307, 308.
warning

Oxford Theology. 559
warning of the young, so likely to be led astray by the same
impatient yearning for a more perfect system than they now
possess, a broad mark should have been set upon the error of his
having gone to seek it out of the bosom of his mother Church.
Let no one think that the distinction is too refined : it is of infinite
importance to be drawn when the minds of men are turned to pro
jects of change and improvement.
To take another instance of incaution. Nothing is more alarm
ing to a thoughtful mind than the present position of the Church
in regard to the State. The Church has its commission, its
constitution, its authority, its legislative power, its functions
and duties, from God, not man. It is not created, nor can
it be destroyed, by any power upon earth. But it has accepted
an office in the State ; or rather, the State has permitted it to
exercise its own office of educating the people, and consecrating
the fabric of society. In so doing, the State must assume a
certain right of interference, necessary not only to prevent a
corrupt Church from trespassing on the civil power, but also
to check the tendency to corruption in the Church itself, by in
some degree limiting its independence. But even in the worst
excesses of this power, even under Henry VIII. and his imme
diate successors, the State interfered as a member of the Church,
not as an alien ; — and in almost every instance, even, it may be said,
in the tyranny of the royal supremacy as it stood at the Re
formation, the Church as a whole was in some sort benefitted.
Either it was protected from foreign domination, or the duties of
the clergy were enforced, or restrictions were laid upon an arbi
trary secular power in the bishops, or the laity were secured in
the proper enjoyment of their spiritual privileges, or a check was
put upon some mischievous practice or vice, which could only be
suppressed by the secular arm. This was the state of things
before the removal of the Test Act. — But since that time, step
by step, the State has begun to withdraw itself from the Church,
and yet the same interference continues. Though nominally the
Crown is still within its communion, the advisers of the Crown,
and especially Parliament, on whom they are professedly depen
dent, may be anything — may be its deadly enemy.
Now, what would be said either by Romanists or any dissent
ing body — properly zealous as they are for the independence of
their spiritual functions — if they were placed in such a position as
this ; — if the Crown, being a member of the Established Church,
had the power of forcing upon them — the Dissenters — bishops or
pastors under the penalty of a premunire ;* if it could suspend
and stop altogether their synods, conferences, and other oppor-
* Tract 59, vol. iiT" tunities

560 Oxford Theology.
tunities of deliberation on spiritual matters ; if it retained the
appointment of ministers to their chapels — who could not be re
jected even for ill conduct, unless some of the very gravest
offences could be formally substantiated in a court of law, at the
expense of the parties rejecting, and with damages against them
if they fsdled in the proof;* if a power, thus alien and perhaps
hostile, claimed a right to suppress their spiritual offices, and
commenced operations by suppressing them where they were most
needed and their opponents were most strong ; if it then appointed
a Commission of its own to rearrange the revenues of their cha
pels, to alter the districts of their teachers, to interfere with the
internal discipline of those teachers, and to mutilate their most
important institutions for preserving what they hold to be truth ;
if it attempted to throw open their seminaries and apply their
revenues to persons of most hostile creeds — ^insisting that the Ro
manist and Unitarian colleges should remodel their system of
teaching in order to give members of the Anglican Church the
opportunity of profiting by it ; and if all the time it employed
the ministers of those bodies as its own officers to marry, bury,
register, answer questions, and exercise a variety of parochial
duties? And yet this is the present position of the Church of
England. — Can it be wondered that men who think deeply on
such things should feel keenly and speak strongly ? Nay, who
will deny that to strive to correct the anomalies in the present
relations of the Church and the State, or even to form plans in
anticipation of a separation which possibly may be forced on us,
is a great duty in this crisis ?
And the language of the Tracts on this subject is sound and
moderate. ' Firmly as we may be resolved ' (they say, speaking of the clergy)
' at present, from the dictates of a sober and contented spirit, not to com
mence changes, yet, as other changes are commenced and seem likely to
extend still more widely, it may obviously be the duty of churchmen, in
mere self-defence, to expose and protest against their destitute and op
pressed condition ; and this may be perfectly compatible ' with a natural
jealousy of the attempts which are making to separate, as it is called.
Church and State.'f
But it becomes a very different thing when a book is put out
exhibiting, especially to young readers, a young clergyman look
ing forward to the apostacy of the State from the Church, not as
a deed most fearful and repugnant to every Christian thinker,
but as almost desirable in itself — as likely to release the Church
from an unnatural thraldom, and enable it to exercise indepen-
* Blackstone's Comment, b. i. c. ii. p. 389.
t Tract No. 59, vol. ii. pp. 10, 11. dently

Oxford Theology. 561
dently its spiritual dominion. We may lament that the establish
ment oi the Chnrch has clogged It with objectionable conditions;
but to speak of it even in its present form as an ' incubus upon
the country,' * as ' the blighting influence of our Upas-tree, 'f
to wish, as a clergyman of the Church of England, ' that he had
received his orders from a Scotch bishop,' 'the stream being
purer ;' J or ' to admire the hit about our being united to the State
as Israel was to Egypt,' — surely this is language and a spirit which
may well shock those who believe that one of the first duties of
the Church is to Christianize and hallow the State; that to
abandon the State to itself is to convert our country into an
empire of Atheism ; and who therefore would strive with all their
means not to hasten but avert the blow by which those whom
God has joined, wilful and irreligious man would put asunder.
The Church is not united to the State as Israel to Egypt ; it is
united as a bellering wife to a husband who threatens to apos
tatise ; and as a Christian wife so placed would act — with patience,
and love, and tears, and zealous entreaties, and prayers, hoping
even against hope, and clinging to the connexion until a law
from God dissevered it— so the Church must struggle even now,
to save — not herself, but the State — from the crime of a divorce.
Another thing which will and should pain the readers of Mr.
Froude's book, is the mode in which he speaks of the Reforma
tion and the Reformers. The latter indeed have far too gene
rally been regarded as the founders and saints of our Church,
instead of the imperfect, though zealous and venerable, purifiers
of its corruptions. Mr. Froude could not have studied their history
without perceiving their faults ; — but this is very far from justifying
the mode in which he speaks of them. It is unhappily too true
that Cranmer was for a long time vacillating and unsound in his
views (it could scarcely be otherwise) ; that he was embarrassed
by his fidelity to bis master ; § that bis Church policy was Eras-
tian ; || that his anxiety to reunite the Churches of Christen
dom led him to the statement of truth in vague and ambiguous
* Rem. vol. i. 405. t Itid.
J Ibid. § Coll. p. 2, b. iv. p. 223.
II For this indeed Cranmer was scarcely more blameable than the other divines
of his day. Their views of Church government had evidently been so unsettled by
the unscriptural assumption of the papal supremacy, which had annihilated the in
dependence of the bishops, that, when this yoke was shaken off, if the crown had
not put itself in the place of the Pope, probably the Church would have fallen to
pieces. It is interesting to observe how a modification of the exorbitant claims of
the Regale were introduced first in Scotland hy the violence of Knox, and then,
through the accession of James, quietly brought into England. But men must not
look to the troublous period of the Reformation for principles or precedents in all
ecclesiastical matters ; and, in many cases, the authors of the Tracts have done wisely
in going for their authorities rather to the great divines of the 17th century,
whose views were more settled. Burnet, Hist., p. 2, p. 6; Collier, p, 2, b. iii. p. 198.
language ;

562 Oxford Theology.
language;* that several parts of his writings have a Zuinglian
tendency ;f and that his last days were stained with those melan
choly recantations which must make even the firmest Christian
tremble for his own perseverance in the hour of trial. J It is true
also that Latimer was coarse and irreverent, and lax in his Church
principles; that Ridley, the great centre of the triumvirate,
though happily with more strength of mind than Cranmer, and
more learning and discipline than Latimer, was their associate
in innovations, which, not being absolutely necessary, were a
dangerous Infringement upon Catholic principles ;§ and that
Jewell, though in his later days he became more settled in his
views, was led at first, like many others, by his opposition to Ro
manism, into opinions little consistent with either Church disci
pline or Catholic doctrine.|| And yet no Englishman can take
up his Bible, or join in the blessing of his Church service, or
feel the comfort and support of those checks upon bis erring
judgment which are provided in the Articles, or reflect on the
corruptions of Popery, and that Providence which by the hands
of those men saved us, while escaping from one curse, from
falling, like Germany, into another infinitely more fatal ; or,
again, can think of the death, which sealed the truths which
they held, as it blotted out their faults ; — no Englishman can
remember these things, and, however he may lament their errors,
can bear to hear them named with anything but reverence and
gratitude. f And, as of the Reformers, so of the Reformation. ' Hatred
for the Reformation,' even though balanced as it was in Mr.
Froude's mind by 'hatred to Popery,'*]! ^® "°* ^ ^^^^ temper in
which to commence the Reformation wbich is needed at present.
Taken with every allowance for the freedom of private inter
course, Mr. Froude's expression proves the rash intemperateness
of the man. But in the great bulk of readers, who know nothing
of the real history of the Reformation, and have been taught for
years to regard it but in one light, as the era which gave them
their Bible and emancipated them from the tyranny of Rome, it
will produce an alarm and disgust highly prejudicial to the cause
of truth. That a young man, imbued with right principles, and
entering for the first time on the history of that period, should feel
bitterly, is no matter of surprise ;• — that he should express himself
harshly is very excusable : but that, in the heat of a controversy,
when its mature and sedate leaders are charged most unfoundedly
* Strype's Cranmer, p. 408. t Burnet, p. II, p. 61.
X strype's Cranmer, b. Ill, c. 21. J Heyhn, p. 96.
II Defence of the Apology, jDossi'm.
^ Vol, i. pp. 293, 294, 307, 308, 434. with

Oxford Theology. 563
with abetting Popery, they should commit themselves by publish
ing broad, violent censures on the Reformation, unqualified and
unexplained, is wholly unintelligible.
Such is not the language of the authors of the Tracts.
' In that great commotion,' says Dr. Pusey,* ' there were brought to
the surface not only treasures which had long lain hid, but froth and
scum also ; would one might say, froth and scum only. Every thing
which before had been concealed under the thick veil of outvi'ard con
formity, was laid bare ; the Gospel was again eminently a savour of life
and a savour of death, — to those who embraced it with an honest and
true heart, life ; others profited by the security given, only to manifest
the unbelief or heresy which lurked within. "To others, death and life
were mingled in the cup. Protestantism then, as now, was often as
negative as its very name ; Protestant was often another name only for
infidel. The deadly, stupifying heresy (if it may even be called such)
of Socinus was, we must recollect, one produce of the Reformation.'
But again —
' We cannott sufficiently admire the loving kindness of Almighty God,
who allowed the seeds indeed of Reformation to be sown among us by
Wickliffe, yet then, notwithstanding the powerful human aid which he
had, and his great popularity, caused them to lie, as it were, in the earth,
until those which were less sound should by length of time decay ; and
again, that he placed so many impediments in the way of our final Reform
ation (for what man does rapidly he does rashly), and held back our steps
by the arbitrariness of Henry ; and when we were again going down the
stream of the times too readily, checked us at ouce by the une.xpected
death of Edward, and proved us by the fire of the Marian persecution,
and took away, by a martyr's death, those in whom we most trusted ;
and then finally employed a number of labourers in the restoration of
his temple, of whom none should yet be so conspicuous that the edifice
should seem to be his design, or that he should be tempted to restore
the decayed part according to any theory of his own, but rather that all
things should be made according to the pattern which He had shown us
in the church primitive. Had our reform taken place at first, we had
been Wickliffites ; under Edward, we had been a branch of the Zuing
lian or Calvinist church; now we bear no human name; we look to no
human founder ; we are neither of Paul nor of ApoUos, but have been
led back at once to the distant fountains, where the waters of life, fresh
from their source, flowed most purely.'
This language, and there is much like it, is as sober as it is
pious.t And in such a spirit as this, remembering the blessings
wbich were restored to us at the Reformation, grateful that some
of its defects we have been able to amend, and that others may still
be amended ; resolved not to risk the good which it gave and left
by any rash projects of improvement; not ' to break the limb
* Tract on Baptism, vol. ii. p. 193. \ Tract for Times, No. 69, p. 105.
J Tract No. 81, vol, iv. p. 23. again.

564 Oxford Theology.
again, that we may reset it after our own fancy,'* — we may read its
history, not with hatred, but with mixed sentiments of gratitude
and sorrow. It was one of those melancholy periods in which
men, driven on to desperation, ' try to amend a nuisance by pulling
down the house.'f In England the house was saved — saved as by
a miracle^ but not without infinite damage and criminal violence.
It began by transferring to the Crown the same fatal prerogatives
which had been usurped by the Popes against the liberties of the
Church. J It was made the plea for acts of tyranny and spoliation
which unsettled the foundations of property — laid precedents
against all establishments of charity, learning, or religion § —
deprived the country of institutions which, if wisely reformed, had
saved us from some of the worst evils of this day || — covered the
land with starving poor, who were to be punished for begging
their bread by being sold and branded as slaves^ — and reduced
the poorer clergy to such straits, that, in the words of Latimer,
'they were forced to go to serrice, and turn menials.'** It was
disgraced by sacrilege, ' which turned altar-cloths into carpets, and
chalices into drinking-cups' || — by the plunder, JJ profanation,
and demolition of churches§§ — the destruction of libraries, so that
by Beale's unsuspicious declaration, ' neither Britain under the
Romans and Saxons, nor yet the English people under the Danes
and Normans, had ever such damage of their learned monu
ments ;'|||| — by the menace of Colleges, as if, in the words of Bishop
Ridley, ' there seemed a design to drive away all civility, learning,
and religion out of the nation ; ' ^^ — -the oppression of the poor,
' as if,' says Burnet, ' it was a general design among the nobility
and gentry to bring the inferior sort to that low and servile state
to which the peasants in many other kingdoms are reduced;'***
by the denial of tithes ;j--j--)- — by ' animosities, tumults, and schisms,
which grew and sprung up within the realm ; JJJ — ^by the ' reduc
tion of the Universities to the last degree of discouragement ;' §§§ —
by ' faction among the nobility, insolence and insurrection among
the commons, the debasing tbe coin, the disorder of the adminis
tration, the revolt of the peasantry, so that the kingdom made a
* Rem. vol. i. p. 433. f Burke's Speech on Reform.
X Collier's Church Hist., p. ii., b. i., pp. 62, 68, 69, 85, 84.
§ Coll.,p.ii.,pp. 2,103, 105, 111, 162. || Burke, on French Revolution.
% Literally so ; Statutes at Large, I Edw. VI. c. 3.
*=* Latimer's Sermons, pp. 38, 114, 241. ff Heylin, p. 134.
XX Coll., p.ii. b. iv. p. 239. §§ Fuller, b. vii.; Burnet, p.i. p. 318.
III! Fuller'sCh.Hist.,h. vi. p.335; Wood's Athense Oxon., lib, i. p. 271 ; Burnet,
p. i. p. 314 ; Coll., p. ii. b. iv. p. 325 ; Fuller, b. vii. p. 417.
^^ Ridley's words when refusing to suppress Clare Hall, Burnet, p. ii. p. 120.
*** Burnet, p. ii. p. 114. fff Fuller's Ch. Hist., b. v. p. 236.
XXX Stat, at Large, 34 Hen. VIII. c. 1.
^5§ Ascham's Epist., lib, i. p. 406 ; Wood's Atheu. Ant., p. 266. miserable

Oxford Theology. 565
miserable appearance, and looked, as it were, languishing in one
part, and distracted in another.'* Many, too many, of the lead
ers in the great change had no real motive but avarice ;f delicacy
of conscience and purity of zeal were the impudent pretexts of a
gross sensual tyrant, and a court of greedy knaves and upstarts.
' The service of the Church,' says Bucer himself, a zealous re
former, ' is performed in a cold, lame, and unintelligible manner
— pastoral duties are neglected— the churches are made places for
commerce and diversion — the meaning of the Church, the Com
munion of Saints, and the Kingdom of Christ, is little understood
- — the fear of God, and the notion of religion, make a very faint
impression ; and hence it is that lying, cheating, theft, perjury,
and whoredom are so much the complaint of the times.' J ' The
holy Sacrament,' says an act of Parliament, § ' is so contemptuously
depraved, despised, and reviled at, and men call it by such vile
and unseemly words, as Christian ears abhor to hear rehearsed.'
' The Bible itself,' says Henry himself in his last speech to parlia
ment, 'is turned into wretched rhymes, sung and jangled in
every alehouse and tavern. I am sure,' he adds, ' charity was
never in a more languishing condition, virtue never at a lower
ebb, nor God never less honoured and worse served in
Christendom.' ||
Such facts being undeniable, young men may be pardoned for
at first dwelling too much upon the black side of the history : but
there is great danger to themselves if they do so too long. There
is great fear lest in their natural disgust at such crimes, increased
by the ignorant clamour of the day — which makes the Reformation
the watchword of religious parties, the standard of Christian
truth, and the origin of our Church — they should be led to under
value the blessings which were won back for us by that fearful
struggle, and should think of unsettling a system which takes its
date from so sad a beginning. — But we have no such fear from
the authors of the Tracts.
' This unsetthng of the mind,' says one of them,^ ' is, I think,
a frightfid thing, both to ourselves, and more so to our flocks.
 What will be the effect' — he adds, (speaking of the
Liturgy, but the principle is applicable throughout,) — ' of the temper
of innovation in us ? We have the power to bring about changes in the
Liturgy; shall we not exert it? Have we any security, if we once
begin, that we shall ever end ? Shall not we pass from non-essentials to
essentials ? And then, on looking back after the mischief is done, what

"= Camden's Appar. ad Elizabeth.
f Heylin's Hist. Refer., p. 48 ; Ridley's Letter to Grindal, Fox, p. 449.
X Bucer's Letter to Hooper, quoted by Collier, p. ii. b. iv. p, 294.
6 Stat. at Large, 1 Edw. VI. c. I. || Collier, p. ii, b. iii, p. 218.
^ ^ Tract No. 3, p. 2. excuse

566 Oxford Theology.
excuse shall we be able to make for ourselves, for having encouraged
such proceedings at first ?
' We never have wished,' says Dr. Pusey, ' nor do we wish for any
alteration in the Liturgy of our church ; we bless God that our lot has
fallen in her bosom, — that he has preserved in her the essentials of
primitive doctrine, and a Liturgy so holy ; and although I cannot but
think its first form preferable, alteration is out of the question. THERE
CAN BE NO REAL ALTERATION WITHOUT A SCHISM.'*
' This,' says Mr. Keble,t ' that is, the elevation of men's ideas of the
existing system, proving it divine in many points where they now igno
rantly suppose it human — this, and not the establishment of any
mere theory, new or old, is the immediate object of those who have most
earnestly urged from time to time the reverential study of Christian an
tiquity.' And again Dr. Pusey says —
' In these principles of our dear mother, the Church of England, have
we been trained, and in these old ways we would humbly tread.'J
And again —
' The whole course of these Tracts has, as you know, and as yourself re
proach us with, been against innovation. '§
' Not,' says Mr. Keble, j] 'that they would entirely shut out the hope
of improvement in many respects  Nor do they feel it any
breach of fidelity to the Church of England to join in the confession
of one on whom she has ever prided herself as among her truest
children and chiefest ornaments —
" The second temple could not reach the first,
And the late Reformation never durst
Compare with ancient times and purer years.
But in the Church and us, deserveth tears." '
But hear again the writer of the 71st Tract —
' Should it be inquired whether this admission of incompleteness in
our own system does not lead to projects of change and reform on the
part of individuals, it must be answered plainly in the negative. Such
an admission has but reference to the question of abstract perfection ; as
a practical matter, it will be our wisdom as individuals to enjoy what
God's good providence has left us, lest striving to obtain more, we lose
what we still possess.' p. 35.
Let the reader attend above all to the following noble passage
in Dr. Pusey's Letter to his Bishop : —
' We must have acted up more to the theoiy of our Church as she
is, before we attempt to alter any ritual belonging to her. We must
amend ourselves before we amend any thing of hers. When the
body of our clergy shall have acted up to her injunctions, by per
forming for years, day by day, her daily service, then may they be judges
* Earnest Remonst., v. iii. p. 27. N.B. The author himself here uses large letters.
+ Postscript, 3rd edit, of Sermon on Tradition, p. 76.
X Preface to Tract No. 67, p. xviii. vol. ii. § Earnest Remonst., p. 28.
II Sermon on Primit. Trad., Postscript, p. 76. whether

Oxford Theology. 56-7
whether any improvements may be introduced into that service ; when
our service shall have become daily instead of weekly, then may we
judge whether any additions should be made to that of the Lord's day;
when people, by the daily devotional use of the Psalms, shall have come
to learn some portion of their depth, then they will see whether they are
not in truth Christian hymns, and how much more of Christian truth
they contain than the popular modern hymns, now often in use among
us ; when we have learnt and taught our congregations the blessedness
of infant baptism, and to be gladdened instead of wearied by seeing our
little ones, one by one, made members of Christ — or have realised the
blessings of our own engrafting into Christ — then may they perhaps
judge of the language of the Baptismal Service ; when we have become
alive to the importance of a true confession of the Holy Trinity, how
much belongs to it, how manifold and subtle the temptations to deviate
from it — have jealously observed our own inherent tendencies, and to
what heresies our own frame of mind was inclined, or from which we
have, perhaps, on the very road, been snatched — then may men judge
fitly whether our Church* " at this day needeth not," in the Athanasian
creed, " those ancient preservatives, which ages before us were so glad
to use;" — or rather, when our whole selves shall have been disciplined
by her solemn rounds of prayers, thanksgivings, fastings, festivals,
communions, shall we be formed in her model, and so shall understand
her, and may supply any thing lacking to her. Till then, our only safe
course is to abide as we are, fitting ourselves to receive any enlargement
of our treasures, by learning gratefully to appreciate and to use those
which we have. What is good in itself, might not be good to us, until
we are other than we are.' — p. 17.
We have now touched on the principal points which seem to
require notice in Mr. Froude's Remains. Thoroughly studied,
much of the paradox will vanish. But men will not study them
thoroughly, and therefore, thrown out as they are, with very
inadequate explanations, they must, we fear, do harm.
As a biography we do not intend to enter on the work. The
person whom it sketches is gone, and gone recently, to another
world; and it is no pleasuig task at any time to sit in judg
ment upon the character of the dead. That there are expres
sions and sentiments attributed to him which will pain and startle
even the most partial reader, cannot be denied ; and however
honest the intention of putting them out, they are not in them
selves the less unsatisfactory. His zeal, energy, straightfor
wardness, self-discipline, and decided views of the social and
political character of true Christianity, are all good ; and he was
the intimate friend of men who have proved by their writings
that they were incapable of tolerating in religion anything like
bitterness or irreverence. All this must be borne in mmd ; and
when to this are added the freedom of private intercourse, and
* Hooker, Ecc, Pol, V. xliii, 13, ed. Keble.
VOL. LXIII. NO. CXXVI. 2 p Certain

568 Oxford Theology.
certain peculiarities of temper, perhaps some excuse may be
found, not for putting forward the sketch as it is — (for this we
cannot comprehend) — but for those shades of character which are
open to most cavil.*
We cannot close these remarks without adding two warnings,
which may be required for younger readers. First, that ascete-
clsm, however sincere and real, is no sure test or safeguard of
true religion, but has again and again been the prelude to he
resy and even sensuality, where it has not been accompanied
with deep humility, warmth of affection, obedience, and gentle
ness of mind. Secondly, that in representing Mr. Froude, in
his own description, as an ' ecclesiastical agitator' (the words are
painful to use) the editors did not intend to recommend that those
who adopted their views should be Hlldebrands or Beckets.
' Let us not be bent,' to use Mr. Newman's words, y ' on pro
selyting, organising, and ruling, as the end of life, and the summum
bonum of a Christian community, but bring ourselves to give our
testimony "whether men will hear, or whether they will forbear,"
and then leave the matter to God.' Let us beware of confound
ing the humble, patient, obedient, gentle servants of the Church,
with such a character as he proceeds to describe ; — ' The man of
ardent political temper and prompt and practical habits, the
sagacious and aspiring man of the world, the scrutinlser of the
heart, and conspirator against its privileges and rights' — who 'un
derstands that the multitude requires a strong doctrine' — and
thinks less of maintaining the truth, than of avoiding what may
' blunt and enfeeble the energy of those who are called upon to
act' — who ' will impatiently complete what he considers to have
been left imperfect' — and drug moral truths, ' as vintners do their
wines, to suit the palates of the many.'^f Let each in his post
serve the Church, obey it, purify it as far as he may within his
own reach ; love it, honour it, counsel for it, and pray for it ; but
let all beware how they take upon themselves the title or the
office of ' ecclesiastical agitators.'
' If,' say the authors of the Tracts in a preface to their semrons,§
* We think it only fair io call our readers' attention to a very manly note on
Froude's Remains, which occurs at p. xxiii. of the masterly preface to Mr. Oakeley's
Whitehall Sermons. But, indeed, we may earnestly recotiiniend the whole of that
preface to every one who is desirous of studying this controversy. Mr. Oakeley is not
one of the Tract writers — he disclaims being familiar Ivith any of them — aud has
evidently arrived at his conclusions in the same independent manner wherein he
expresses them. Had his volume reached us sooner (it is just published) we should
have made considerable use of it in various parts of the present article. The Seirmons
are worthy of the preface — and we could not pay them a higher compliment than by
saying this.
f Lectures on Prophetical Offices, Lect. iv. p. 129.
X Lecture iv. p. 130. § Plain Sermons, Advertisement, p. 1, 'if,

Oxford Theology. 569
' if, as time goes on, there shall be found persons, who, admiring the
innate beauty and majesty of the fuUer 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
1 li °^ ^^'^^ persons it is our duty to declare plainly, that as we
should contemplate their condition with serious misgivings, so would
they be the last persons from whom we should seek support.
' But if, on the other hand, there shaU be any, who, iu the silent
humUity of their lives, and in their unaff'ected 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 — these
persons, whether our professed adherents or not, best exemplify the kind
of characters which the 'Tracts for the Times' have wished to form.
The subjects treated of in them were not set forth as mere parts of
ideal systems, or as themes for dlsputEltion — matters only of sentiment
or party — or idle speculation — but are rather urged as truths of im
mediate and essential importance, bearing more or less directly on
our every-day behaviour, means of continual resource and consolation
in life, and of calm and sure hope in death.'
But if these cautions are necessary for those who adopt the
views of the Tracts, there are some still more necessary for
others. Romanists and Dissienters, of course, will oppose (as they always
have done) principles which, if thoroughly revived in the Church,
must have the effect of overthrowing their own erroneous systems.
But that members and even clergymen of the Church of Eng
land should join heedlessly in the cry, and clamour down, without
inquiry, a teaching devoted to the cause of the Church, speaking
with her voice, supported by her soundest divines, arid enforcing
obedience only to her plain rules — this Would be as strange as it is
painful, if the history of the Church of England had not uni
formly presented a similar phenomenon.
' This calumny' [of popery], says Nelson, in his Life of Bishop Bull
[Burton's Edit. vol. i. p. 311] 'hath been thrown uJ)on the greatest
lights of our Church — and will be the fate of many more, who shall
zealously contend for the primitive doctrines and discipline of Christi
anity. But yet, in the day of any trial, the men of this character will
be found the best defenders of the Church of Ehgland, and the boldest
champions against the corruptions of the Church of Rome.'
Our Reformation Was called popish by Geneva ;* our Church
popish by Calvin and Beza, and the puritans in our own country. | '
Popery was the charge against all the bishops in the reigns of
* Collier's Ch. Hist., vol. ii. p. 471.
f Barlow's Account of the Hampton Court Controv., Phoenix i. p. 166.
2 p 2 Elizabeth,

570 Oxford Theology.
Elizabeth,'' of Charles \.,^ and of James 11.= It has ever been
the cry of both parties against the greatest and best of our divines,
as often as they have stood forward to maintain agamst Romanism
on one hand, and Puritanism on the other, the rights, ceremonies,
or doctrines of the Catholic Church of England. It was the cry
against Jewell,"! Whitgift,^ Hooker,'' Bramhall,^ Andrews,'' Plall,'
Laud,'^ Montagu,! Cosin," Wren, Taylor," Sherlock," Sancroft,r
Kettlewell, Hickes,i Brett, Dodwell, Leslie,'" Ken,^ and Butler.'
Even Chillingworth"' did not escape the insinuation. And last,
though not the least surprising, Baxter'""' himself, ' as the reward
of all his labours from the separating independent,' was charged
' with having done more to strengthen popery than ever was done
by any papist.'
We cannot enter into the causes which must always expose the
Church of England, as a true branch of the Catholic Church,
to these idle calumnies of popery. But surely, such being the
case, men will do well to reflect and examine before they join in
them, remembering how fatal a thing, and yet how easy it is,
to take up a groundless alarm, and ' rend their garments,' and
call ' blasphemy,' and ' throw dust into the air,' even in the very
presence of truth. To such persons we earnestly recommend
an attentive perusal of Bishop Stillingfleet's Preface to 'the Un
reasonableness of Separation,' and Bishop Sanderson's Preface to
Ills first volume of sermons, especially section 1 8. They will
there see that it is possible for men to be loud and zealous in de
claiming against popery, but 'whilst they causelessly suspect
their brethren, to be themselves in truth, really and eventually,
the great promoters of the Roman interest among us, and- that
more ways than one.'
a Strype's Life and Acts of Abp. Whitgift, b. 3, ch. 22.
'¦ Canterbury's Doom, by Prynn, passim.
' D'Oyley's Life of Abp. Sancroft, vol. i. p. 321.
"' Wordsworth's Eccl. Biog. vol. iv. pp. 52, 57.
" Strype's Whitgift, fol. ed. pp. 265, 302.
f Christian Letter, 4to, 1549; Wordsworth's Eccl. Biog. vol. iv. p. 269 ; Orme's
Life of Baxter, p 16.
e Life of Bramhall, by the Bishop of Limerick, prefixed to his Works, M. 2, and
Vindication of himself aud the Episcopal Clergy from the charge of Popery.
'• Canterbury's Doom, p. 157. ' Wordsworth's Eccl. Biog. vol. v. p. 305.
^ Canterbury's Doom, passim. ' Heylin's Life of Laud, p. 124,
•" State Trials, 8vo. ed. vol. iv. pp. 23, 27.
" Heber's Life of Jeremy Taylor, p. 90 ; Works, vol. xi. p. 211.
° Orme's Life of Baxter, p. 655.
P Life of Kettlewell, prefixed to his Works, p. 58 ; and D'Oyley's Life of Sancroft,
vol. i. p. 321. 1 Burnett's Own Times, vol. vi. p. 114. •
' Swift's Preface to the Bishop of Saruni's Introd. ; Works by Nicholls, vol. v.
P- 90. ' Evelyn's Memoirs, vol. i. pp. 625, 637, 4to ed. ; and Biog. Britan.
« Life, by Halifax, p. 2, notes to Preface, " Canterbury's Doom, p. 56.
' Life of Baxter, by Himself, p. 154.
With

Oxford Theology. 571
With reference to certain mere politicians, who, in the present
condition of parties, find it convenient to affect religious zeal,
and who have been very forward to condemn what they have
presumed to call the Oxford heresy — if they condemn it as
favouring that Popery which is the curse of the empire, they
are speaking in utter ignorance. No system is more fatal to
Popery than the system of the Church of England, fully and
faithfully developed — and the papists know it. For men cannot
live without a resting-place for their belief, — a home for their
religious affections, — a polity real and visible to engage their
public duties — without authority and antiquity to support them
— without a stimulus to their practice ; and all this is offered
them, offered them in a spurious form, with forged creden
tials, with lies and treachery — by the system of Romanism. But
let the Church of England rise up by the side with her real
Catholicity of doctrine — her apostolical descent as clearly traced
— her spiritual power manfully asserted — with strictness of dis
cipline, unity of polity, warmth and energy of spirit, and ear
nestness of devotion — and there will be no place for Romanism.
Let not, in fine, the leaders of the Conservative party in Par
liament adopt the easy credulous fancy of their underlings. Let
not them suppose for a moment that it is for light things — for a
mere theory or form, that the present controversy is pending — or
that it is one in which the interests of the State are no way con
cerned. If the State is to be preserved, all see it must be
preserved by the Church. But if the Church is made to hang
upon the State, with no authority of its own, if its power is rested
on the plea of expediency, or the will of its subjects, it must fall
at once. Whatever gives stability to the Church gives stability
to the Constitution : whatever leads men to recognise in their
spiritual governors the hand and the appointment of God will also
make them loyal to their kings : whatever gives them depth of
thouo-bt, humility of mind, quietness of spirit, submission to ex
ternal law, reverence for unseen things, and interest in an unseen
world, wlli draw them from the feverish, restless strife of party,
and inake them good and contented subjects. Above all, what
ever gives to those who shall be called upon to govern, whether
in Church or State, sound and solid reasons for their conduct-
not reasons of chance good, of calculation, of expediency— not of
barter and sale between duty and profit — but clear, definite lines
of fixed, paramount duty, which nothing can obliterate, and
nothing is wanted to defend— whatever does this will enable
thein to take a position in behalf of our laws and institutions very
different from that which at present they seem contented to occupy.
And with this view— by no means tying ourselves to approve every
expression.

572 Oxford Theology.
expression, or even to subscribe to every doctrine — we thmk the
publication of the Oxford Tracts a very seasonable and valuable
contribution to the cause both of the Church and the State,
and therein of religion and liberty, and all the other interests
of Englishmen; and we are rejoiced that they proceed from
a place which owes this duty to the country and to the memory
of its great benefactors. And so long as the authors continue
in adherence to their original declared principles — anxious for
improvement, but averse to innovation — submissive to authority
vrithout yielding their own right of reason — careful in abstain
ing from extremes — abandoning all thoughts of self, and looking
only to God's glory in all things — so long, we trust and believe,
they will find a blessing resting on their labours — and all those
who love their country and their Church, will heartily wish them
God-speed.

^-c4.ct^ctt^i£z(/Leyv~^jz.,iju--_^ 9l'lcc-i..cJi /&3^

Index

^c.A >rTOOT