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FIVE GREAT OXFORD LEADERS

FIVE GREAT OXFORD
LEADERS
KEBLE, NEWMAN, PUSEY, LIDDON
AND CHURCH

BY THE
REV. AUG. B. DONALDSON, M.A.
CANON RESIDENTIARY AND PRECENTOR OF TRURO

THIRD EDITION

RIVINGTONS
34, KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN
LONDON 1902

PREFACE
This volume had its origin in a lecture on " John
Keble and the Oxford Movement," prepared for
delivery at a meeting of the Church Society
of Frome, Somerset, in Advent, 1898, and
repeated later at a similar gathering in the
Chapter House, Bristol Cathedral. It was
soon afterwards suggested to the author to
write short lives of the five great men whose
names hold so prominent a place in the history
of the Oxford Movement. The book obviously
has no claim to originality. The two admirable
biographies of Keble by Sir John Coleridge and
the present Warden of Keble have practically
covered the ground of the whole life of the author
of the "Christian Year." The "Apologia,"
his " Life and Letters," edited by his sister,

vi Preface.
Mrs. Mozley, and Mr. R. H. Hutton's excellent
" Life," supply ample material in the case of
Newman. The full and deeply interesting
history of Dr. Pusey's life and work, contained
in the four volumes begun by Dr. Liddon and
continued by others, renders any other work of
the kind almost impossible except as an abridg
ment or summary. The same may be said of
the fascinating account given of Dean Church in
the " Life and Letters," by his daughter. Of Dr.
Liddon no biography has as yet been published.
In the present volume his own works have been
chiefly drawn upon to tell the story of his work
and teaching.
In Dr. Pusey's case alone has the writer
attempted anything like a detailed account of the
sequence of events. It was thought desirable
to do this in one only of the five " Lives," and
that the largest and fullest, that as far as possible
needless repetition might be avoided.
As this book cannot claim to be original, neither
is it desired to put it forth as a contribution

Preface. vii
to controversy. Nevertheless the writer has not
thought it his duty in any way to disguise his
sympathy with the general principles of the
remarkable Movement, which has so wonderfully
transformed for the better that great Church of
England, which he, in common with those of
whom he has attempted to give some account,
reverently loves to call his "spiritual Mother."
AUG. B. DONALDSON.

Truro, Advent, 1899

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
In preparing a second edition it has not been
thought necessary to make many alterations,
except by way of correcting certain inaccuracies.
Among the notices and reviews of this volume
which have appeared (for the most part kindly
and discriminating), some regret has been ex
pressed that a more critical attitude has not been
adopted towards the work and characters of the
five great men whose lives form its subject. But
the writer, believing that the main principles they
advocated were essential parts of the Catholic
Faith, and those they opposed dangerous and
destructive innovations, felt that his duty rather
lay in an endeavour to remove some of the
prejudice that had been raised against venerated
persons who have been, not only for many years

Preface to the Second Edition.

IX

the object of much criticism, but described as
obstructive reactionaries, if not traitorous con
spirators. Believing such an estimate to be
wholly unjust, the writer has tried to place before
the world and tlie Church the real facts, in a form
convenient to those who have neither time nor
opportunity for investigating the great mass of
literature to which the Tractarian Movement has
given birth. AUG. B. DONALDSON.
Truro, Easter, 1900.

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION
A few minor corrections are made in this edition.
Since the publication of the second edition the
" Story of Dr. Pusey's Life," written by the
Author of " Charles Lowder," at the request of his
daughter, has appeared. If this very interesting
book has not added greatly to our knowledge
of the leading facts of Dr. Pusey's life and work,
it has certainly increased our estimation of his
saintliness and of the tenderness of his character.
The account given of his dying moments,
quoted from the " Life," vol. iv. p. 385, has been
corrected in accordance with the words of a
letter, written by Mrs. Brine, which appears in
the above-named work.
AUG. B. DONALDSON.
Truro, October, 1901.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
John Keble born, St. Mark's Day, April 24th, 1792.
E. B. Pusey born, August 22nd, 1800.
„ baptized, Holy Cross Day, September 14th, 1800.
J. H. Newman born, February 21st, 1801.
Isaac Williams born, December 12th, 1802.
Hurrell Froude born, Lady Day, March 25th, 1803.
Keble, Fellow of Oriel, 1811.
R. W. Church born, April 25th, 1815.
Newman, Fellow of Oriel, 1822.
Pusey, Fellow of Oriel, 1823.
Froude, Fellow of Oriel, 1826.
" Christian Year " published, 1827.
Newman, Vicar of St. Mary's, 1828.
Hawkins, Provost of Oriel, 1828.
Pusey, Hebrew Professor, 1828.
H. P. Liddon born, 1829.
Reform Bill passed, 1832.
Newman and Froude's Mediterranean Voyage, December, 1832.
" Lead ! Kindly Light ! " 1833.
Irish Bishoprics suppressed, 1833.
Keble's "Assize Sermon," July 14th, 1833.
Hadleigh Meeting, July 26th, 1833.
First "Tract for the Times," September 9th, 1833.
Pusey joins the Movement, 1834.

xii Chronological Table.
Pusey's Tract on Baptism, 1835.
Library ofthe Fathers begun, 1836.
Hurrell Froude died, February 28th, 1836.
Queen's Accession, June 20th, 1837.
Additional Curates' Society founded, 1837.
"Froude's Remains" published, 1838.
Church, Fellow of Oriel, 1838.
Tract XC, 1841.
Colonial Bishoprics' Fund founded, 1841.
Newman resigns St. Mary's, 1843.
Pusey's Sermon condemned, 1843.
Ward's " Ideal Church," 1844.
The Proctors' Veto, February 13th, 1845.
S. Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, 1845.
Newman's Secession, October 9th, 1845.
St. Saviour's, Leeds, consecrated, October 28th, 1845.
"The Guardian" started, January, 1846.
" Lyra Innocentium" published, 1846.
Gorham Judgment, March 8th, 1850.
Manning, Maskell, Allies secede, 1850.
Papal Aggression, September 24th, 1850.
The Durham Letter, 1850.
First University Commission, 1850.
Revival of Convocation, November 5th, 1852.
Pusey's Sermon on the Holy Eucharist, 1853.
R. J. Wilberforce secedes, 1853.
Liddon, Vice-Principal of Cuddesdon, 1854.
The Dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the B.V.M. pro
claimed, 1854.
Knightsbridge Ritual Case, 1856.
Archdeacon Denison's Trial ended, 1858.
Bishop Forbes' Trial ended, i860.
" Essays and Reviews" published, i860.

Chronological Table. xiii
" Apologia " published, 1864.
" Eirenicon " published, 1865.
The Meeting at Hursley, October 9th, 1865.
Liddon's Bampton Lectures, 1866.
Keble died, 1866.
First Lambeth Conference, 1867.
Mackonochie Prosecution begins, 1867,
Keble College founded, 1 868.
The Vatican Council : Papal Infallibility proclaimed, 1870.
Liddon, Canon of St. Paul's, 1870.
Purchas Judgment, January, 1871.
Church, Dean of St. Paul's, October, 1871.
Athanasian Creed Controversy ended, October, 1871.
Bennett Judgment, 1872.
Bishop Wilberforce died, July 19th, 1873.
Public Worship Regulation Act, 1874.
Second University Commission, 1877.
Rev. A. Tooth imprisoned, 1877.
Second Lambeth Conference, 1878.
Newman made Cardinal, 1879.
Rev. S. F. Green imprisoned, 1881.
Pusey died, September 16th, 1882.
Truro Cathedral consecrated, November 3rd, 1887.
Third Lambeth Conference, 1888.
Newman died, August nth, 1890.
Liddon died, September 9th, 1890.
Lincoln Judgment, November 21st, 1890.
Church died, December 9th, 1890.

CONTENTS
PACK
I. JOHN KEBLE  i
II. JOHN HENRY NEWMAN  69
III. EDWARD BOUVERIE PUSEY  149
IV. HENRY PARRY LIDDON  227
V. RICHARD WILLIAM CHURCH  311
INDEX  385

JOHN KEBLE

I.

It is little more than a truism to say that every move
ment, social, political and religious, in the history of
mankind, has had its personal leader. Events are
centred and focussed round individual personalities.
The hour may arrive, but the man is also needed. Both
factors are essential. No single man can hope to move
or influence his age, his country, his Church without the
help of predisposing causes. Every movement will fail
to take shape or to grow beyond incoherent struggles
unless there appear a living personal leader, who shall
voice, lead and organize it. The great careers and
splendid achievements of Alexander, C*esar or Napoleon
were possible because their age was wearied with the
selfish struggles of a corrupt nobility, or with the
unwieldy machinery of feudalism, or the effete tyranny
of unworthy successors of ancient empires. Great
religious movements may have self-denying leaders
who may achieve partial and temporary success, like
Savonarola, if the conditions of the age be unsympa
thetic, or vast and far-reaching results, if there be such
predisposing circumstances as favoured St. Francis of
Assisi in his revival of spiritual religion, or Luther
when the corruptions of the Church and the onward
wave of the new learning lent their aid to his vigorous
personality. B 2

4 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
So with the great Church Movement of our century,
whether we give it the name of the Oxford, the oxford
the Tractarian, or Catholic revival, there movement.
were not only ready, able and enthusiastic leaders, but
causes favourable to its rise and progress.
First, it may be regarded as a great reaction from the
growing and deadening blight of a false
f-U V , , • t T7 <•• -J A FACTION.
liberalism : a protest against krastian ideas
of the office and very being of the Church. It was an
endeavour to stem the tide of a fatal latitudinarianism
that, outside the Church, threatened to break down her
defences, and, from within, to betray her very citadel.
It was a fresh attempt to satisfy the longings of earnest
men and women for a religion less narrow than the
dominant evangelicalism of the day. Something nobler
and less selfish was needed, so men felt, than the search
for and possession of mere personal salvation ; some
corporate life, in spiritual as well as in social matters,
appeared to be essential, if the highest aspects of Chris
tianity were to be realized and its best ideals reached.
Above all, some real and strong-voiced authority, to
guide men to the truth, was looked for amid the jarring
discord of private opinions and unrestrained criticism.
Secondly, it was something more than a reaction, it was
a new growth, and a revival of long dormant
principles. There had been rising in England, A REVIVAI"
from various quarters, a fresh life of culture and art
Men had grown dissatisfied with the old commonplaces
in poetry, painting and architecture. Poetry had with
Wordsworth taken nature and religion into alliance, and
had planted the seeds of a mystic spirituality. Walter

John Keble. 5
Scott had recovered juster views of the Church of
the past ; and, with others, had shown that the Middle
Ages were not altogether times of unmitigated dark
ness and corruption. Added to this, opportunities for
foreign travel, which had increased enormously since
the end of the great wars with France, had removed not
a little of the narrow and insular prejudice that declined
to see anything good in the religion and worship of
Continental Churches.
But, in the third place, it would be wrong to suppose
English not that the Movement was an imported foreign
roman. exotic. For, as Dean Church has said in his
"History of the Oxford Movement," "Anglicanism
itself was not Roman ; friends and foes said it was not,
to reproach as well as to defend it. It was not Roman
in Dr. Pusey, though he was not afraid to acknowledge
what was good in Rome. It was not Roman in Mr.
Keble and his friends, Dr. Moberly of Winchester, and
the Barters. It was not Roman in Mr. Isaac Williams,
Mr. Copeland, and Mr. Woodgate, each of them a centre
of influence in Oxford and the country. It was not
Roman in the devoted Charles Marriott, or in Isaac
Williams's able and learned pupil, Mr. Arthur Haddan.
It was not Roman in Mr. James Mozley, after Mr.
Newman the most forcible and impressive of the Oxford
writers." 1 Dr. Pusey has said, "When we were awakened,
the revival (as I have said publicly) was wholly from
within. We did not open a Romish book, we did not
think of them, ... we had all which we wanted within
our own Church. We had the whole range of Christian
* " Oxford Movement," p. 337-

6 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
doctrine, and did not look beyond except to the Fathers
to whom our Church sent us." x
Nor must it be forgotten that, with some notable
exceptions, the prominent leaders of the Oxford Move
ment, both at its beginning and in its later developments,
have remained loyal to the English Church. The results
of the teaching of the Tracts have not been to carry
Anglicans inevitably to Rome.
" It seems to be a popular notion," says Isaac
Williams, " that the original writers of the Tracts have
generally joined the Church of Rome, and that, therefore,
that Movement of itself has been so far a failure ; but
this is very far from being the case, for it is a very
remarkable circumstance, and one which I find very
much strikes every one to whom I have mentioned it,
that, out of all the writers in the ' Tracts for the Times,'
one only has joined the Church of Rome." 2
Quite recently it has been said with great justice —
" Speaking broadly, I believe the High Church Party
does aim at making the Church of England Catholic,
and does not aim at making it Roman ; or rather, its
position is really stronger than this. An instructed
High Churchman would not allow that he was trying to
make the Church of England more Catholic, but only
that he was trying to assert those elements of Catholicity
which were inherent, though perhaps latent, in its con
stitution." 3
Whence came its germ and origin ? The true answer
1 Dr. Pusey, " Spiritual Letters," p. 239.
2 "Isaac Williams's Autobiography," pp. 119, 120.
3 Professor W. Sanday, "The Catholic Movement and the
Archbishops' Decision," p. 5.

John Keble. 7
is, From the old English Catholic Party which had never
ceased to exist in the Anglican Church from the days
of Archbishop Parker onwards. Its fathers were
Hooker, and Andrewes, and Laud, and Cosin. It was
in the seventeenth century cheered by the poetry of
George Herbert and the piety of Ken : in the eighteenth,
by the primitive holiness of Bishop Wilson, and the
strong intellect of Bishop Butler, who were not solitary
instances, but types of Anglican Churchmanship. For
it is a very false estimate of the English Church that
supposes that all its bishops were latitudinarian courtiers,
and all its country clergy sporting parsons, through the
dark days of Hanoverian Erastianism. The sober
teaching of the Prayer-book and the Catholic truths
concerning the Sacraments and the Ministry lived on,
and never wanted teachers and witnesses. But how
sorely there was needed some great and serious move
ment of awakening and revival, the following description
of the state of the Anglican Church will show : " The
the church's Church of England had been passing through
lethargy, a long period of deep and chronic religious
lethargy. For many years, perhaps for some generations,
Christendom might have been challenged to show either
then or from any former age, a clergy (with exceptions)
so secular and lax, or congregations so cold, irreverent,
and indevout. The process of awakening had indeed
begun many years before ; but a very long time is
required to stir up effectually a torpid body whose
dimensions overspread a great country. Active piety
and zeal among the clergy, and yet more among the
laity, had been in a great degree confined within the

8 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
narrow limits of a party, which, however meritorious in
its work, presented in the main phenomena of transition,
and laid but little hold on the higher intellect and
cultivation of the country. The churches and worship
bore in general too conclusive testimony to a frozen
indifference. No effort had been made either to over
take the religious destitution of the multitudes at home,
or to follow the numerous children of the Church,
migrating into distant lands, with any due provision for
their spiritual wants. The richer benefices were very
commonly regarded as a suitable provision for such
members of the higher families as were least fit to push
their way in any profession requiring thought or labour.
The abuses of plurality and non-residence were at a
height, which, if not proved by statistical returns, it
would have been scarcely possible to believe. In the
greatest public school of the country (and I presume it
may be taken as a sample of the rest) the actual teaching
of Christianity was all but dead, though happily none of
its forms had been surrendered. It was a retrospect,
full of gloom ; and with all our Romanizing and all our
rationalizing, what men of sense would wish to go back
upon those dreary times ?
' Domos Ditis vacuas, et inania regna f ' "
. . . "But between 1831 and 1840, the transformation
which had previously begun made a progress altogether
marvellous. Much was due, without doubt, to the
earnest labours of individuals. Such men as Bishop
Blomfield on the Bench, and Dr. Hook in the parish
(and I name them only as illustrious examples), who

John Keble. q
had long since been toiling with a patient but dauntless
energy, began, as it were, to get the upper hand. But
causes of deep and general operation were also widely
at work. As the French Revolution had done much
to renovate Christian belief on the Continent, so the
Church of England was less violently, but pretty sharply
roused by the political events which arrived in a rattling
succession — in 1828 the repeal of the Test Act, in 1829
the emancipation of the Roman Catholics, in 183 1-2
the agony and triumph of Reform, in 1833 the Church
Temporalities Act for Ireland. There was now a
general uprising of religious energy in the Church.
Her condition before 1830 could not possibly have
borne the scrutinizing eye which for thirty years past
has been turned upon our institutions. Her rank cor
ruptions must have called down the avenging arm.
But it was arrested just in time."1 How was the work
of restoration inspired and begun ?
In a quiet country parish in Gloucestershire, before
the author the close of the eighteenth century, John
of the Keble was born. His father was a repre-
movement. sentatjve of the English country clergyman
that has made the Anglican Church famous. A
cultured home, a scholarly training, and the practice of
" Prayer-book piety " were the environments of his early
days. He saw with his own eyes that pattern of
pastoral work and faithful obedience to the Church of
his forefathers, which was to be the ideal portrayed in
his writings, and carried out in his life. The Oxford
Movement sprang from that country vicarage. Dean
» W. E. Gladstone, " A Chapter of Autobiography."

10 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
Burgon, in that most interesting book of his, " Lives of
Twelve Good Men," with a very natural partiality for one
closely related to himself, and indeed absolutely worthy
of all honour and respect, says, " It will become more
and more apparent, as we proceed, that if to any one
man is to be assigned the honour of having originated
the great Catholic revival of our times, that man was
Hugh James Rose." 1 Certainly his noble character,
great attainments and earnest tone, his early public
utterances, marked him out as one admirably fitted for
leadership in a great movement. Newman himself
recognized the debt that the Oxford Movement owed
to him when he dedicated the fourth volume of his
" Parochial and Plain Sermons " " to the Rev. Hugh
James Rose, B.D., Principal of King's College, London,
and Domestic Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury,
who, when hearts were failing, bade us stir up the gift
that was in us, and betake ourselves to our true Mother."
But he also recognized that, in spite of his " high and
large mind," "cool head and cautious judgment," he
was too closely connected with the Conservative party,
too much linked with persons in high ecclesiastical
authority to work with those who, like Froude and
Newman, were able to take a bold and vigorous line
because they were " nobodies, with no character to lose,
no antecedents to fetter us." 2 Above all, Rose was
separated from the " unity of place " so essential to the
success of a great movement ; for Newman and Froude,
and later on Pusey also, felt very rightly the great
1 " Lives of Twelve Good Men,'' vol. i., p. 158.
2 "Apologia," p. 38.

John Keble. ii
importance of making use of the University of Oxford
as the centre of the Movement. "Universities are
the natural centres of intellectual movements." x Rose
himself clearly recognized, just before the celebrated
Hadleigh meeting, that Oxford was to be the real centre
of the revival so sorely needed in the Church's day of
decay and distress. " I get no help whatever from
Cambridge; what help could I get equal to Keble,
Miller, Palmer, Newman, Froude, Hook, Ogilvie? I
love Cambridge with all my heart ; but Divinity is
not her tower of strength just now." 2 In addition to
this, Mr. Rose's state of health, as events showed, pre
cluded him from being able to give that active co
operation in the "coming fight," which was absolutely
necessary for anything like leadership.
That John Keble was the real person who actually
set the Catholic revival in motion is witnessed by the
testimony of all real judges of that Movement. We
read in Newman's " Apologia," " The true and primary
author of it, as is usual with great motive powers, was
out of sight. . . . Need I say that I am speaking of
John Keble." 8 Dr. Pusey says the same ; and Dean
Church confirms his testimony when he writes, " Long
before the Oxford Movement was thought of, or had
any definite shape, a number of its characteristics had
taken a strong hold of the mind of a man of great
ability and great seriousness . . . John Keble." i Nor
1 " Apologia," pp. 37-39-
2 Letter to Joshua Watson. "Lives of Twelve Good Men,''
vol. i., p. 163.
3 "Apologia," p. 17.
* " Oxford Movement," p. 23.

12 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
is it surprising that it should be so, when we remember
that Dr. Mozley, whom many deem the greatest thinker
since Butler that the Church of England has produced,
and Dean Church himself, spent long years in the retire
ment of country parishes before they were summoned
to live and act in the face of the world in defence of
the Church. Keble's training under a scholarly father
prepared him for his life-work. He was destined to
influence Oxford, and therefore had to be a scholar;
to touch men's hearts even more than their heads, and
therefore to be a poet ; to be a spiritual guide to many
a troubled conscience, and therefore to learn himself
from his spiritual Mother, the Church, the lessons she
had to teach. When Catholic doctrines were discussed
in his presence, he used to say again and again, " This
is just what my father taught and believed." Newman
had a very different training in early life, and therefore,
while he always said that he was giving shape to what
he had learned from Keble, it was never with him as
it was with the subject of this sketch, a steady onward
development of what had been a possession from the
first. This, perhaps, gives the reason why Keble re
mained steadfast within the Anglican Church, when
Newman left her in the midst of the storm and conflict
of later days.

John Keble. 13
II.
Keble's powers were developed early ; he came up
to Oxford " a fresh, glad, bright, joyous
EARLY LIFE. boy. * He was a scholar of Corpus at
fifteen ; he took his double first, and won the English
and Latin Essays at eighteen. He was elected Fellow
of Oriel, April 20, 181 1. So many and such great changes
fellow of have taken place, both in the University of
oriel. Oxford and in the various colleges, during
the more than eighty years that have passed since that
date, that it is not quite easy at the present time to
realize what Oriel College then was and continued to
be for a good many years after. Sir John Coleridge
writes of the college as "that body which even then
gave the tone to the intellectual pursuits of the
University, and which, within a few years, by the
gradual accession of remarkable men, was to acquire
name and celebrity far and wide." 2 There was nothing
specially to attract in the college itself. It had none of
the wealth of architectural splendour, or foundation for
musical services that have made Magdalen, New College,
and Christ Church such magnificent ornaments to the
oriel city and University. There are no pictu-
college. resque groves, gardens or meadows, or im
posing site. The somewhat insignificant buildings,
consisting of two rather small quadrangles, stand at
the corner of two narrow lanes back from the High
Street; dilapidated gables and crumbling walls, and
decaying statues of the Blessed Virgin and Holy Child
1 Dr. Pusey, Keble College Proceedings, 1868, p. 43.
2 " Life of Keble," vol. i., p. 48 ; see also pp. 77, 78.

14 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
and the royal founders ; a fairly sized hall ; a chapel,
small and meagrely furnished ; a common room and
library in the second quadrangle, of very uninteresting
style, make up a homely group, dear, indeed, to many
of its sons, but presenting few noticeable features to the
tourist or student of architecture. But there is scarcely
a single college at Oxford or Cambridge, or elsewhere
in the whole world, that has such a fascination for those
who care to study the story of the revival of the Church
of England in the present century. Few memories can
compare with those which hover round the walls that
have received within them Copleston, Hawkins, Whately,
the Arnolds, Keble, Newman, Pusey, the Froudes, Church,
the Mozleys, F. Rogers, Fraser, Burgon, Samuel Wilber
force, Edward King, George Howard Wilkinson, and
many others.
Its greatness was due, not so much to what it had
inherited in the past, as to the foresight of those who
were wise enough to throw open its fellowships to the
best minds of the University ; to select new members
not mainly from those who had satisfied the somewhat
uncertain test of the class lists, but who were possessed
of general gifts and capabilities likely to prove a source
of strength to the whole society. If that greatness was
not maintained, and other colleges took the lead in the
intellectual progress of the University, are the causes to
be found in the larger resources of other institutions, or
in a failure to continue the broad lines of a generous
policy which had led Oriel to so high a position ? For
that this position was very high in the first quarter of
the nineteenth century, T. B. Mozley tells us —

John Keble. 15
"Oriel College at that time contained some of the
most distinguished personages, the most vigorous minds,
and the most attractive characters of Oxford : from the
Provost, Dr. Copleston, to the youngest undergraduate,
they had been carefully selected ; for to get a son into
Oriel was a great thing in those days." 1
Into that great and advancing society Keble came,
and was, as Froude and others said, " The first man in
Oxford." " Everybody who visited Oriel inquired after
Keble, and expected to see him. It must be added
that he was present in everybody's thoughts, as a glory
to the college, a comfort and a stay, for the slightest
word he dropped was all the more remembered from
there being so little of it, and from it seeming to come
from a different and holier sphere. His manner of
talking favoured this, for there was not much continuity
in it, only every word was a brilliant or a pearl." 2
Keble's position as Fellow of Oriel gave him a claim
to be listened to by the academic world. But quite
the country early in his career he displayed a love for a
curacy. retired home, and an absence of anything
like an ambitious spirit. He was ordained priest in
1 8 16, and asked for the prayers of his intimate friends
that he might free himself " from all pride, ambition, and
uncharitableness ; " and was content with a quiet curacy
at East Leach and Burthorpe, where he gained a
character for being "outside the Church what he pro
fessed to be inside it." He did not sever his connection
with Oxford for some years, being examiner in the
1 " Reminiscences," vol. i., p. 18.
2 Ibid., vol. i., pp. 37, 38-

1 6 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
Final Schools as well as in Responsions, but gladly
returned to the pastoral work in the " Cotswolds,"
where his conscience called him away from the tempta
tions to enjoy what he deemed the more selfish life of
the University. He yielded for a time to the demands
made by his college that he should act as college tutor,
where among the many friends he gained he made the
acquaintance of Sir William Heathcote, one of his
pupils, who afterwards presented him to the vicarage of
Hursley. After three years of service as tutor of Oriel,
the death of his mother finally decided him to retire
from Oxford to be with his aged father, and sisters ; and
he resumed his country curacy, with evident pleasure in
the simple life and the quiet duties of a rural pastor.
But, whatever may have been the spiritual satisfaction
he felt in this retirement from his University and college,
it cannot be doubted that, for a man of his intellectual
powers and capacity for taking a leading place in the
active life at Oxford, to give up a sphere and position
of influence which he was able so well to occupy was a
real act of self-effacement — one entirely in harmony,
however, with that life-long humility which was so
prominent a feature in his character.
He was soon, almost unexpectedly and unconsciously,
to influence a large number of persons, .. THE CHR,S.
most unlikely to accept Church teaching, TIAN year."
through " The Christian Year," which was the greatest
as well as the earliest of his poetic works, and has con
quered the English-speaking world in a very remark
able way. A detailed account of this great work is
beyond the limits of this present sketch. Perhaps

John Keble. 17
the fullest and ablest criticism of it is to be found
in the " Essay on the Author of the ' Christian Year,' "
by Professor Shairp of St. Andrew's. But it is only
just to note that a work, which was issued anony
mously, and with the humblest self-depreciation of
the author, obtained an immediate success wholly un
expected by his friends. In twenty-six years, up to
1854, 108,000 copies in forty-three editions were issued,
and the sale has gone on ever since, seven editions of
1 1,000 copies being published in the nine months imme
diately following Keble's death. Its characteristics
may be briefly summed up by recalling (1) its sober,
soothing influence ; (2) its deeply reverent and Scrip
ts cha- tural tones ; (3) its thorough appreciation of
racteristics. the highest aspects of nature ; (4) its accurate
descriptions of scenery ; (5) its tender loyalty to the
teaching of the Church. With the first and second
the whole volume is simply saturated. The poem for
Septuagesima, and the well-known verse from it, give
the keynote of the third of these characteristics : —
" Two worlds are ours : 'tis only sin
Forbids us to descry
The mystic Heaven and earth within,
Plain as the sea and sky."
Of the fourth, it should be noticed that Dean Stanley,
in his "Sinai and Palestine," states "that he has
quoted from this work ('The Christian Year') the
illustrations it contains of Scripture scenery, not only
because of its wide circulation, but because the careful
attention of the learned author to all local allu
sions renders it almost a duty to test these allusions, C

1 8 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
whenever opportunity occurs, by reference to the
localities themselves." x Of the last-named charac
teristic it is sufficient to note the combination of deepest
reverence to the ideal Church as the Bride of Christ,
and the saddened sense of her present depressed state.
Throughout the work there runs an undercurrent of
pensive recognition that the present condition of the
Church is " a state of decay." " The whole volume is
a dirge over the lost glory of the Church ; but it is
much more than that, it is a trumpet-call to Christians
to be true to the life which is in them, even though
they may have to face the martyr's death." 2
It had solemn and saddened expressions of the
pastor's difficulties in the midst of a rebellious world,
but it is full of simple confidence and trust in God, and a
sense of His love and providence never absent from or
forgetful of His children. Not only nature, mountains,
streams, flowers, and birds spoke to the poet of God
and of His love ; not only the Saints of the old and
new covenant reminded him of the gracious dealings of
the Eternal Father and the blessed Elder Brother Jesus
Christ, the Incarnate Son ; but the classic authors of
Greece and Rome bore their testimony also to the
mercy and goodness of Him who " is not far from every
one of us."
The " Christian Year " was never altered except in the
thirteenth stanza of the poem for November 5th. As
early as 1835 Froude had criticized it; in 1855 Dr.
Pusey discussed it with Keble, who always maintained
1 " Sinai and Palestine,'' p. 19, note.
2 W. Lock, " Life of Keble," p. 59.

John Keble. 19
that by " not in the hands," he meant " not only," ac
cording to the Scriptural analogy, " I will have mercy
and not sacrifice." But in his last days he sanctioned
the alteration to " as in the hands f because the line had
been publicly quoted as expressing an opinion against
any real objective Presence in the Eucharist, and after
his death the alteration which he himself suggested was
made. Perhaps the best view of the book and its
power to influence souls is that given by Dr. Pusey :
" It taught because his own soul was moved so deeply :
the stream burst forth, because the heart which poured
it out was full ; it was fresh, deep, tender, and loving
because himself was such : it disclosed to souls secrets
which they knew not, but could not fail to own when
known, because he was so true, and thought aloud : and
conscience everywhere responded to the voice of
conscience." 1
Sir John Coleridge, in a letter addressed to the
Guardian immediately after his friend's death, expressed
the universal sentiment that the great ornament of the
Church of England was not really lost, but would ever
remain with her, and that thousands would now " hang
over the ' Christian Year ' " with ever-increasing interest
and affection when they remembered that its beloved
and venerated author "has gone to his rest and his
reward." 2
And here, in connection with the " Christian Year," it
may be well to take notice of Keble's work as Professor
of Poetry. As early as 1821 his friends wished him
1 Pusey, " Sermon at Keble College, 1876," p. 6.
2 Guardian, April 4, 1866.

20 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
to come forward as a candidate for the Professorship of
Poetry at Oxford. With his accustomed THE PE0.
diffidence and consideration for others, he fessorship of
declined to appear in opposition to Milman.
But ten years later, when the chair was again vacant, he
willingly allowed himself to be nominated, and was
elected without opposition. His course of lectures
have been highly estimated by Dean Church and
Bishop Moberly, as well as by Keble's two biographers,
Sir John Coleridge, and the present Warden of Keble,
as " the most memorable course ever delivered from the
chair of poetry at Oxford," "the most charming and
valuable volumes of classical criticism ever issued from
the press." Through them "there run the golden
threads of a religious spirit," as might have been ex
pected, but there was present also a true poetic instinct.
Mr. Gladstone, who, if any man, was well qualified to
judge of this aspect of them, said it is " a refined work. . .
it criticizes the Homeric poems in the spirit of a bard,
setting an example, at least to England, of elevating
the tone of Homeric study." Keble's own character
and poetic experience is clearly manifest through the
course. His definition of poetry reveals this in a letter
addressed to Sir John Coleridge : " My notion is to
consider poetry as a vent for overcharged feelings, or a
full imagination, and so account for the various classes
into which poets naturally fall, by reference to the
various objects which are apt to fill and overpower the
mind, so as to require a sort of relief. Then there will
come in a grand distinction between what I call primary
and secondary poets : the first poetizing for their own

John Keble. 21
relief, the second for any other reasons." The perora
tion of the course translated by Sir John Coleridge
deserves to be remembered ; it included the following
words : " This would I desire most earnestly to deliver
and commend to the thoughts of our young men, that
it will be well with the pursuit of Poetry so long as her
lovers shall remember that she is a gift vouchsafed to
man, to minister as a specially honourable handmaid to
true piety, so that they should serve her, not in word,
but in deed and in truth, with all reverence, constancy,
and chasteness of spirit." *
But it was not only his training and gifts and achieve-
keble's ments, but his character, that made him so
character. great a power in the history of the Church,
and gave a spiritual potency to his writings, even to
those apparently simple letters that issued from the
retirement of his country life. Dr. Liddon, in a well-
known sermon, has pointed out three leading charac
teristics found in Keble: (1) A strong sense of Divine
truth centering itself on the Personality of Christ. (2) A
holy severity in his own personal life. This exhibited
itself not only in such details as fasting, which he
practised rigorously, even in his old age refusing to
take food before a Celebration, though at a late hour,
but also in a marvellous self-restraint under difficult
and trying circumstances. (3) A remarkable courage,
tempered by gentleness, which led him to befriend an
unpopular cause, or acknowledge principles of which
the world was afraid.2
1 "Life," pp. 208, 213, 217.
2 " Clerical Life and Work : " " John Keble," pp. 34s, sea.

22 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
III.
At the end of 1828, Dr. Copleston, Provost of Oriel,
was appointed Bishop of Llandaff and the protost-
Dean of St. Paul's. The choice of a succes- ship of oriel.
sor lay between Keble and Hawkins. That Pusey and
Newman should have voted for Hawkins, and not for
their friend John Keble, has often been the occasion of
surprise. Newman remarked playfully, that if they
had been electing an " angel," Keble must have been
their choice. Pusey said, many years after, that what
at the time they wished for in a Provost was "a practical
man." It is idle, perhaps, to speculate on what might
have been the future of Oriel with Keble as Provost and
Newman as his principal tutor and fellow. Possibly
Oriel might have held the place in Oxford afterwards
taken by Balliol, with some, all-important differences.
One thing, however, is clear, that the training of Keble's
character would have lacked that self-repression so
touchingly shown in his withdrawal from the contest,
and expressed in his lowly and unselfish language when
writing to announce his intention of so doing, as well as
in the life of retirement which he thus so deliberately
chose as his lot in life. It might have been thought
that such great gifts as he possessed should have had
a wider and more public field for their use and exercise ;
but the issue has shown, to those who can read the
rulings of God's hand, that this is a wholly mistaken
idea. For in that retirement, in the provi- keble's
dence pf God, the opportunity came for retirement.
planting the first seeds of this great Movement, and

John Keble. 23
watering and tending its hidden principles and character.
It has been truly said, "The Oxford Movement and
its results have been charged, even by bishops, with
' secrecy.' No charge is likely to be more popular with
the vulgar. . . . The charge of secrecy to the average
Englishman of to-day seems to connote something
underhand and unfair, which at once rouses his sus
picions. But there is a hiddenness — we will not call it
' secrecy ' — which is characteristic of the realm of the
Spirit, . . . and it is this hiddenness which seems to have
been characteristic of all true religious movements. We
mark it abundantly in the origin and progress of the
work of Keble and his successors." '
Keble's character, becoming developed in this retire
ment, made itself in a remarkable way a centre of
influence. Such leisure as he had, after the simple
requirements of his duties as curate were satisfied, was
occupied partly by theological study, and partly by
reading with pupils. Among these were
Robert Wilberforce, Isaac Williams, and
Hurrell Froude. What Dean Church has described as
the impression made on Isaac Williams was equally
true of others.
" He had before him in John Keble a spectacle which
was absolutely new to him. Ambitious as a rising and
successful scholar at college, he saw a man looked up
to and wondered at by every one, absolutely without
pride and without ambition. He saw the most dis
tinguished academic of his day, to whom every prospect
was open, retiring from Oxford in the height of his
1 Church Quarterly Review, July, 1899.

24 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
fame to busy himself with a few hundreds of Gloucester
shire peasants in a miserable curacy. He saw this man
caring for and respecting the ignorant and poor as much
as others respected the great and learned. He saw
this man, who had made what the world would call so
great a sacrifice, apparently unconscious that he had
made any sacrifice at all ; gay, unceremonious, bright,
full of play as a boy ; ready with his pupils for any
exercise, mental or muscular, — for a hard ride, or a
crabbed bit of ^Eschylus, or a logic fence with dispu
tatious and paradoxical undergraduates giving and
taking on even ground. These pupils saw one, the
breadth of whose religion none could doubt, 'always
endeavouring to do them good, as it were, unknown to
themselves and in secret, and ever avoiding that his
kindness should be felt and acknowledged ; ' showing
in the whole course of daily life, the purity of Christian
love, and taking the utmost pains to make no profession
or show of it." 1
Of all his pupils perhaps the most remarkable was
Hurrell Froude. He was the eldest son of hurrell
Rupert H. Froude, Archdeacon of Totnes, froude.
and was born at Dartington, Devon, in 1803; James
Antony Froude, the historian, was his youngest brother,
He was educated at Ottery St. Mary, under the Rev.
George Coleridge, and afterwards at Eton. He went
up to Oriel in 1821, and took his degree in double
honours, second class, in 1824. In 1826 he was elected
Fellow of Oriel, and having read with Keble earlier at
his curacy at Southrop, became soon on intimate and
1 Dean Church, " The Oxford Movement," p. 69.

John Keble. 25
indeed affectionate terms with Newman, who said of
him, " He was a pupil of Keble's, formed by him and,
in turn, reacting upon him."1 Throughout his short
life, which closed prematurely in 1836, he displayed an
ardour for the Catholic faith and a most remarkable
personal devotion to God, which showed itself in the
inner life of prayer and self-discipline revealed by the
publication of his " Remains," collected and edited by
Newman and Keble in 1838. His clever, imaginative
nature, and attractive character and forcible manner of
putting things, had no little part in forming Newman's
opinions, and disposing him to realize and accept the
Catholic aspect of the Anglican Church and her Apos
tolic foundations. He wrote several of the earlier
Tracts, and, while in many respects an admirer of the
Roman Church and her past history, was greatly
repelled by what he saw of the practical working of
the Roman system. Of Romanists he said, " They are
wretched Tridentines everywhere." It is useless to
speculate on the course that Froude would have taken
as the chequered history of the Movement unfolded
itself; but there are not wanting indications to show
that it is by no means clear that he would have followed
his dear friend Newman in his final act of secession,
rather than have remained like his tutor Keble, loyal
to his spiritual Mother, the Church of England, and
have aided her, still more than he actually did during
his short life, in the great struggle for her recovered
vitality. Of Froude's share in the starting of the
Movement, Dean Church has said, " Keble attracted
1 " Apologia," p. 23.

26 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
and moulded Froude, he impressed Froude with his
strong Churchmanship, . . . but Froude, in accepting
Keble's ideas, resolved to make them active, public, and
aggressive, and he found in Newman a influence
colleague whose bold originality responded 0N newman.
to his own. . . . Keble had given the inspiration,
Froude had given the impulse, then Newman took
up the work, and the impulse, henceforth, and the
direction were his." 1 Newman himself said to Froude,
" I am conscious I have got all my best things from
Keble : you and Keble are the philosophers and I the
rhetorician." 2
Every remarkable movement, whether it be of the
individual soul or of the Church, has its great days, or
its anniversaries ; Newman has told us what was the
great anniversary of the Oxford Movement : " On the
fourteenth of July, 1833, Mr. Keble preached
the Assize Sermon in the University Pulpit; THEASSIZE
' r ' sermon.
it was published under the title of ' National
Apostacy.' I have ever considered and kept the
day as the start of the religious Movement of 1833." s
It was a time of great political changes, of apparent
invasion of the Church's rights. The suppression of
ten Irish bishoprics, the growing tendency to legislate
apart from all religious considerations, the ignoring of
the wishes of Churchmen, all these appeared to be signs
of national degeneration, and the preacher summoned
all true sons of the Church "to devote themselves to
1 " The Oxford Movement," p. 32.
2 "Life and Letters," vol. ii., p. 156.
3 " Apologia,'' p. 100.

John Keble. 27
the cause of their Apostolic Mother," promising them
THE that " the victory will be complete, universal,
hadleigh eternal." Another historic day is the meet
ing at Hadleigh Vicarage, in July of that
same year, of Hugh James Rose, Mr. Palmer, Mr.
Perceval, Froude, all in sympathy and communication
with Keble and Newman. From that meeting sprang
the "Tracts for the Times," well called by Thomas
Mozley in his " Reminiscences," " That portentous birth
of Time." * Keble's share in these, though very im-
the "tracts portant, is not a very large one in quantity,
for the and he mainly confined himself to questions
akin to that of the first of the Tracts, namely,
the Apostolic character of the Christian ministry. But
he dealt with his subject in a varied way, and showed
how the Holy Scriptures and the Sacraments, the true
standard of life and doctrine, were inevitably bound
up with the faithful preservation of the Apostolic
ministry. The errors of foreign Protestants were to him
largely due to the loss of the Apostolical succession, and
even the corruptions of Rome he traced to the undue
exaltation of one prelate, and the depreciation of the
just rights of the rest of the Christian hierarchy.
The last Tract but one was his, No. 8g, and dealt
with a very different subject, " The Mystic Interpretation
of Holy Scripture " — a favourite study of Keble's, and of
the rest of the Oxford School. The storm which raged
on the appearance of Tract 90 caused Keble,
tract xc. j.ke many. otherS( not a little surprise. Look
ing back after sixty years have elapsed, the surprise
1 Vol i., p. 311.

28 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
rather is that the storm had not broken out sooner, and
that, when it did break out, so many remained stead
fast to the teaching of the Tracts. So many people
had for so long assumed that the description of the
Anglican formularies, as uniting a "Romish Liturgy"
with " Calvinistic Articles," was a true one, that an inter
pretation of the latter in a Catholic sense seemed little
short of monstrous. It is a strong argument in favour,
of the latent Catholic principles of the Anglican Church
that the Tracts met with so much sympathy and welcome,
not only in academic circles, but in remote parsonages
and country houses. The hostility exhibited in high
places, in the Universities, on the Episcopal Bench,
and elsewhere in society might have been anticipated
to have been even greater than it was. Keble and
Pusey both wrote pamphlets in general defence of the
main contention of the celebrated Tract — principles
which have been, in later years, widely accepted and
acted on. Keble's general estimate of the Tract was
given in a private letter in its defence, addressed to his
friend, Sir John Coleridge, and published later: "If I
may speak of myself individually, I will add that the
general tone of the Tract, more especially of keble's
the introduction, appeared to me so very in- defence.
structive, so exactly what our present position requires,
that it would have required some very grave reason
indeed to make me consent to its suppression. To
explain myself I will instance particularly one expres
sion — the rather because it seems to have been under
stood by many quite in a different sense from what the
context obviously requires. 'Till her members are

John Keble. 29
stirred up to this religious course (of repentance, con
fession, and prayer, such as to win back the forfeited
blessing of the unity of the Spirit), let the Church sit
still ; let her be content to be in bondage ; let her work
in chains ; let her submit to her imperfections as a
punishment ; let her go on teaching with the stammer
ing lips of ambiguous formularies and inconsistent
precedents, and principles partially developed.' In this
I saw nothing but a condensed statement of the same
fact which had been taught and illustrated in detail in a
former ' Tract for the Times,' No. 86." And he went on
to show that this Tract "had tended much more to remove
scruples and to satisfy tender minds." The former
Tract had to deal with the Prayer-book, Tract 90 with
the Articles. Keble expressed his belief, concerning
Newman's position and language, that "until English
Churchmen generally sympathize with him so far, I. see
no chance of our Church assuming her true position in
Christendom, or of the mitigation of our present un
happy divisions." x In the troublous history of the next
few years, called by Dean Church, "the Catastrophe,"
culminating in the secession of Newman, Keble had a
sad yet noble task to fulfil. To be loyal to his friends,
but faithful also to the Church ; never to cease to love
even those who parted from him for ever in this present
life ; to strengthen and sustain faltering hearts ; to con
stantly issue letters and papers of Catholic teaching;
and all the while to carry on the quiet ministries of his
parish, was his divinely given vocation. In the sad
perplexing times that preceded "the fall" of what
1 " Letter to the Hon. Mr. Justice Coleridge," p. 7.

30 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
Keble called "the thunderbolt," — Newman's secession,
when the condemnation of Tract 90, the cessation of the
Tracts, the suspension of Dr. Pusey, followed one upon
another in quick succession ; when, on the other hand,
Ward and Oakeley, no longer restrained by Newman,
who was living in retirement at Littlemore, were more
and more expressing their admiration for the Church of
Rome as the true " Ideal Church," and depreciating the
Anglican Church, whose failures and weaknesses were
made the most of, Keble was filled with no anxieties
little anxiety and apprehension for the AND FEAES>
future. Letters of his to Newman and others, written
at this time, reveal the tender affection he felt for the
great leader's difficulties, and his hopes, up to the last
moment, that "light would be given." He describes
his own personal anguish at what he dreaded would
eventually take place, when he writes to Newman:
" My grand swallow of pain on the subject was perhaps
three quarters of a year ago, when I received a longer
letter of yours, and retired into a dirty chalk pit to read
it. I cannot tell you with what sort of a fancy I look
at the place now." * When all was over, he wrote to
Newman : —
"My dearest Newman,
"You have been a kind and helpful friend to
me in a way in which scarce any one else could have
been, and you are so mixed up in my newman's
mind with old and dear and sacred thoughts, secession.
that I cannot well bear to part with you — most
1 Letter, March 3, 1844.

John Keble. 31
unworthy as I know myself to be, and yet I cannot go
along with you. I must cling to the belief that we
are not really parted — you have taught me so, and
I scarce think you can unteach me, — and, having
relieved my mind with this little word, I will only say,
God bless you, and reward you a thousandfold all your
help in every way. to me unworthy, and to so many
others. May you have peace when you are gone, and
, help us in some way to get peace ; but somehow I
scarce think it will be in the way of controversy. And
so, with somewhat of a feeling as if Spring had been
taken out of my year, I am always
Your affectionate and grateful
J. Keble."1
It is impossible to imagine a more loving, loyal, and
tender farewell than this.
In times of distress and anxiety, Keble, like many
the "lyra another poet, "found relief in verse." It was
tium."" during the years from 1841 to 1845 that he
composed the poems afterwards published as the " Lyra
Innocentium." The sense of rest and refreshment from
the contemplation of child-life, childlike faith, childlike
innocence, was very grateful to him. " The sorrows of
the time have drawn him out of himself, and made him
cling close to the Church, like a child clinging to its
mother's robe among strangers, when it can only see
'far-reaching ways unknown and wide.'"2 The book
was, indeed, not so much a book for children as about
1 Letter, October ii, 1845.
2 W. Lock, "John Keble," pp. 136, 137-

32 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
children. It is evident that it was intended to suggest
lessons from innocent childhood, rather than to be a
textbook for children themselves, from the verse of
Wordsworth he selected as the motto of the work —
" O dearest, dearest Boy, my heart
For better lore would seldom yearn,
Could I but teach the hundredth part
Of what from thee I learn."
It is a book, like some beautiful works of fiction of later
days, by Mrs. Ewing and Mrs. Hodgson Burnett, which
appeal wonderfully to all who love children — mothers,
fathers, pastors ; it was intended to serve " as a sort of
Christian Year for teachers and nurses." The use
made of " white apparel " in its various forms is very
beautiful : " The Chrisom," " The Sunday Dress," " Con
firmation," " Priests in White," " Choristers in White,"
" Bridal White," " Penitents in White," " White upon the
Altar," " The Winding Sheet."
The tone of the work is brighter, less subjective than
that of the "Christian Year" and its theology, as he
himself seems to acknowledge, perhaps more clearly
defined, because more distinctly ' understood by the
writer. Reverence towards the Blessed Virgin, which
had a very distinct place in the poem in the early Book '
on the Annunciation, " Ave Maria, thou whose name
all but adoring love may claim," is marked here by the
beautiful reference to the orphaned child feeling that
not only her own departed mother is praying for her,
but also " a holier Mother, rapt in more prevailing ';
prayer." He had, moreover, written a beautiful poem
called " Mother out of Sight," intended to be a prelude

John Keble. 33
to the volume, but this was, at the advice of friends,
omitted. The language, which scarcely went beyond
that of the " Christian Year," though it invited Chris
tians to greet Blessed Mary with an " Ave," as " children
with 'good morrow' come, to elders in some happy
home," was carefully guarded ; and the tone of the poem,
as of the whole volume, breathed a humble confidence
in the Church he served. In the preface finally adopted
he prays that. God will guide the perplexed —
" And, with no faint nor erring voice,
May to the wand'rer whisper, ' Stay :
God chooses for thee, seal His choice,
Nor from thy Mother's shadow stray:
For sure thy Holy Mother's shade
Rests yet upon thine ancient home :
No voice from Heaven hath clearly said,
" Let us depart : " then fear, to roam.' "
All true artists draw at times their inspiration from
living models, and some of the children who came into
contact with Keble, and whom he loved and admired
greatly, suggested some of the thoughts of this beautiful
collection of poems; Children appealed powerfully to
Keble's tender heart. When he held an infant in his
arms at a Baptism, he would retain it lingeringly, with
a loving glance and a tear in his eye, before he parted
with the newly regenerate child of God. Among the
children he loved especially were those of Peter Young,
his curate, who had suffered the great trial of being
refused Priest's Orders on account of his Eucharistic
belief, and young G. H. Moberly, " a boy of beautiful
countenance," who keenly felt, as so many children do,
the oppression of loneliness at night. D

34 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
" Scarce dare I lay me down and sleep,
Lest in Half-waking dream,
Dimly all ways to dance and creep
The forms around me seem."
This childish sense of dread is to be calmed by only
one thing — " One only spell hath power to soothe,
When thoughts and dreams appal,
Name thou His Name, Who is the Truth,
And He will hear thy call."
Newman wrote a review of his friend's poems, and
made it the occasion of giving an account newman's
of his friend himself, entitled "John Keble, criticism.
Fellow of Oriel." It was a very kindly article, and,
considering the short time that had elapsed since his
secession, not very keenly controversial. Newman
seems greatly to have appreciated the fact, that, in the
"Lyra Innocentium" there was no sort of severity
expressed against Rome. In the " Christian Year," this
element had not been altogether absent, though ex
pressed mildly enough, as in the words, " Speak gently
of our sister's fall." But in the later volume, as was
becoming in a book of poems about children, and in
some degree intended for children's use, it was, as
Newman said, fitting and just to keep controversy out
altogether. Children ought to be brought up in such
a manner that, as far as possible, they may be ignorant
of the very existence of heresy and schism and divisions
in the Catholic Church,

John Keble. 35
IV.
The parish where he spent so many years of quiet
ministry was Hursley, the curacy of which he had
accepted in 1825. There were many attractions to
draw him to the neighbourhood of Winchester, and the
pleasant Hampshire "woodland hill and valley," with
the sea within reach. Above all, the friendship of the
patron, Sir William Heathcote, so entirely at one with
him in Church principles and religious aspirations,
opened out a prospect of great usefulness as well as
of personal happiness. But the death of his sister
recalled him back to Fairford, where he remained till
the death of his father in 1835. His old home being
hursley now broken up, he was free to accept the
vicarage. 0ffer 0f the Vicarage of Hursley now made
him, and, being engaged to Miss Clarke, sister to Mrs.
Thomas Keble, his marriage and settlement at Hursley
took place in the autumn of 1835. The married life
of Keble was singularly happy and peaceful. Mrs.
Keble was described as a true poet's wife, and was
besides a true pastor's wife. Though they had not the
happiness of the gift of children, nothing but the delicate
health of Mrs. Keble marred the serenity of that cul
tured, religious home. It may be sufficient on this
subject to quote the words of Sir John Coleridge : " His
was a nature which delighted in sympathy and intimate
communion : he had chosen well : Mrs.
Keble, without going out of her subordinate
place, and in spite of her delicate health, was his very
helpful and affectionate fellow-worker, comforter, and

36 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
support to the end of his days."1 Some critics said,
when he married, " Keble is now a caged eagle." But
he never suffered the claims of home, or the duties of
his pastoral charge, to diminish his ardent interest in the
concerns of the Church at large, or prevent him from
lending the whole force of his influence, as well as his
ready pen, to the defence of her faith and rights.
Keble lived long enough to receive some reward of
his loyal patience, in the recovery of the Church from
the reeling blows she had received in those dark days ;
to see the principles of the Oxford Movement passing
out of the stage of academic controversy and clerical
discussion into the spiritual life of the people; to see,
as at Leeds and in East London, the Church „_„„.„
dealing with the poorest and most degraded work for
in her true Apostolic character, not as the THE CH0Rca
mere creature of the State, but as the Divine Spouse of
Christ ; to see all the principles that he had held from
the first, and taught and handed on, translated into the
practical work of countless ! English parishes. But, all
through those years, the retirement of his country parish
did not keep him secluded from the din of controversy
and the clash of contending . parties. Not a crisis in
the Church's history, not a threat of State encroachment,
not a rise of blighting error, but roused him to earnest
activity in the Church's behalf. His letters to Dr,
Pusey and others, his pamphlets and essays, are full
of all those grave occasions that mark the struggle of
the Catholic party in the Church. In the Gorham
controversy, in the prosecution of Archdeacon Denisoii,
1 " Life of Keble," p. 245.

John Keble. 37
in the censure passed upon Bishop Forbes of Brechin,
in the troubles in the South African dioceses through
the trial and condemnation of Bishop Colenso, Keble's
pen was ever active. He had a great affection and
respect for Bishop Gray of Capetown. All through the
years 1864 and 1865, and until he was struck down by
paralysis, when Mrs. Keble wrote at his dictation, he
sent important letters to one whom he regarded as a
champion of the Catholic Faith, full of encouragement,
sympathy, and advice.1 He felt, as also in the case
of the " Essays and Reviews," how serious a position
the Church of England was in, through being subjected
to the very unsatisfactory decisions of so anomalous a
court of appeal as the Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council. He very frequently expressed his hope, that
it would be dethroned from its position, and, indeed,
declared his opinion that it would be necessary to
destroy it as the Ecclesiastical final Court of Appeal,
unless the Church of England was to be destroyed
herself as a living branch of the Catholic Church. The
sacraments of Holy Baptism and the Eucharist were
again and again the subject of his earnest defence. His
work on " Eucharistical Adoration " is a well-known
monument of his patristic and liturgical knowledge.
Some may have criticized it as containing too much
of the mystical element, as being too fanciful in its
interpretation of Scripture and in its patristic illus
trations of doctrine and worship ; but it is nevertheless
a striking specimen of a devout and reverent recognition
of Jesus Christ, as the ever-present and ever-adorable
1 " Life of Bishop Gray," vol. ii., p. 121, seq.

38 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
Lord, of whom Bishop Andrewes said, in words that
Keble quotes in the treatise, " Christ Himself the inward
part of the Sacrament, in and with the Sacrament,
wheresoever He is, is to be worshipped."
Now and again he appeared as the staunch champion
of the sanctity of Christian marriage ; and in the
controversy that arose out of " Essays and Reviews,"
the inspiration of Holy Scripture, and the true eschato-
logy of the Catholic Church, were strenuously upheld
by him. He was ever conscious, not only of the
theoretical right of English Churchmen to receive the
blessings that come from a right use of private con
fession and absolution, but often expressed his longing
for a more practical experience of its benefits among
our people. He felt, and often said, that many a pastor
was working in the dark from lack of knowledge of his
people's needs. How tenderly and yet faithfully he
fulfilled the office of a spiritual physician, has been
happily revealed to us in those spiritual letters of his
that have fortunately been preserved. It is a striking
picture that is presented of the retired village clergy
man, who never received any offer of preferment — unless
an obscure colonial archdeaconry or an PAR0CHIAL
honorary canonry in a Scottish collegiate UFE AND
church can be so called — influencing the
Anglican Communion, not only in these islands, but all
over the world, by his poems, letters, and published
works, and yet ministering constantly and calmly to
his rustic flock, and to those many troubled souls far
and wide who sought his counsel. One who was
thoroughly competent to describe his pastoral life and

John Keble. 39
its blessed results tells us, " The vicar was the personal
minister to each individual of his flock, teaching in the
school, catechizing in the Church, most carefully pre
paring for Confirmation, watching over the homes, and,
however otherwise busied, always at the beck and call
of every one in the parish. To the old men and women
of the workhouse he paid special attention, bringing
them little delicacies, trying to brighten their dull minds
as a means of reaching their souls, and endeavouring
to raise their spirits to higher things. One who had
been removed to another Union, when asked how he
liked Hursley, said, ' It seemed as if they were singing
" Holy, holy, holy," all day long.' " 1
It is this side of Keble's life which is, after all, the
greatest and most beautiful. His simple, perfect faith
in prayer was very remarkable, and was manifested in
his obedience to the Church's rule of reciting the daily
offices, as well as in the large amount of time he gave
to private devotion and intercession. It is sometimes
urged against a strict adherence to the time-honoured
practice of the Church, to have public daily services
recited, that less time is thereby left for family and
private prayers, study, and preparation of sermons.
The life of Keble at Hursley is a complete answer to
such shallow and unreal objections. He never neglected
any department of his pastoral duties, never omitted
daily service, teaching in his schools, visiting the sick ;
he was a student to the end ofhis life, and a tender and
affectionate pastor and friend to all his people young
and old. And all this ever carried on with a wonderful
1 C. M. Yonge, " Keble's Parishes," p. 140.

40 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
humility expressed in his poem on the Visitation and
Communion ofthe Sick —
" Such have I seen : and while they pour'd,
Their hearts in every contrite word,
How have I rather long'd to kneel,
And ask of them sweet pardon's seal."
He was a true priest, if ever there was one, en
tirely free from all ' false sacerdotal self-sufficiency.
The calmness and hiddenness of Keble's parochial
ministry is a contrast, and, indeed, a rebuke, to the rest
lessness of much of the Church's work of our own day ;
quiet care of the flock ; no hurried, feverish running to
and fro to meetings ; devout use ofthe divinely appointed
means of grace, the Word and Sacraments ; without
recourse to dangerous expedients for arousing religious
emotions ; no short cuts to holiness and perfection by
self-devised methods strange to the Catholic Church;
but patient following of the Master's example, and
trustful dependence on the work of the Holy Spirit,
Whom he knew to be ever present and ever active in the
mystical Body of Christ.
Keble took little part in the later ceremonial develop
ments which are called by the name of
tt, 1 t i • A y , RITUALISM.
Ritual. In his own parish the complete
reverence of his worship was expressed in very simple
ways. But he was undoubtedly in sympathy with
everything that tended to recognize the glory and
honour of the Divine Presence in the sanctuary, and
only ventured to deprecate sudden and unprepared
changes. In a letter of his, published in October, 1865,
in the Literary Churchman, on the " Ritual of the

John Keble. 41
Church of England," he gave expression to his views on
ceremonial in very considerate language. " I do indeed
regret the disregard of that rubric (the 'ornaments
rubric ') as a real blemish on our ecclesiastical practice —
a contradiction to our theory, less momentous but quite
as real as our almost entire disuse of the discipline of
Jesus Christ, our obligation to which, nevertheless, we
formally acknowledge. But, as in the latter case, so in
this, the time and manner of regaining the old paths
must, under our circumstances, be a question of equity
and charity, not of strict law alone. I, for one, rejoice
whenever and wherever I see that kind of revival suc
cessfully and tranquilly accomplished." He then went
on to deprecate " invidious comparisons and scornful
criticisms," passed sometimes by those who had revived
the ancient ceremonies upon those who do not yet see
their way to do so, and he regretted the disparaging
tone used sometimes about midday Communions, with
small consideration for "the aged and infirm, and others
who cannot come early." When his own personal
practice is remembered, strict and rigid fasting before
celebrating, up to the end of his life, these words are all
the more worthy of notice. "Again, I cannot but
doubt," he said, "the wisdom of urging all men indis
criminately to be present at the Holy Mysteries . . .
the rather in that there appears to be some danger of
the idea gaining ground which meets one in Roman
Catholic books of devotion, of some special quasi-
sacramental grace connected with simply assisting
devoutly at Mass, over and above that promised to all
earnest and faithful prayer." He longed to see mutual

42 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
forbearance and charity with regard to ornate or plain
ceremonial, fasting Communion, and reception after a
meal, non-communicating attendance, and the like,
quoting the charitable counsel of the first Book of
Edward VI., " To follow and to keep the rule of charity,
and every man to be satisfied with his own conscience,
not judging other men's minds or consciences ; whereas
he hath no warrant of God's Word to the same."
But whatever caution he recommended in the revival
of ceremonial usages, he was full of ardent his
zeal for "the beauty of holiness" in the churches.
sanctuaries of God's Church. He certainly spared no
cost and pains in making his own village churches as
beautiful as possible. Sir John Coleridge and Miss
Yonge have both recorded the story of the rebuilding
of Hursley Church, the erection of schools and new
churches at Otterbourne and Ampfield. Mr. W. C.
Yonge at Otterbourne, and Sir William Heathcote at
Hursley, are types of the generous English laymen who
have never been wanting, in the fold of the Anglican
Church, to devote willingly their substance to the adorn
ment of the sanctuary and the maintenance of its
services. They, like hundreds since, are instances of the
power of the Oxford Movement to touch the hearts
and heads, not only of the- clergy, but of the faithful
laity, men and women, gentle and simple, and inspire
them with fresh ardour for the house of God, for the
spiritual fabric that they have learned to understand
and to love, and then for the material buildings which
are its symbol and visible embodiment. The co-opera
tion of Keble with such men in bringing the sanctuaries

John Keble. 43
of his united parishes into a state of order and beauty,
worthy of the reverent worship of God, was an early
instance of the generous and even lavish expenditure
which, in the last forty years, has completely transformed
many of the ancient parish churches of our land, as well
as our cathedrals ; rescued them from ruin and decay,
supplied them with seemly furniture and ornaments,
and has planted everywhere new buildings, countless
almost in number, in the ever-increasing centres of our
rapidly growing population. Keble was able to provide
no inconsiderable share of the cost of the new buildings
in his parishes, from the proceeds of the " Christian
Year," and afterwards of the " Lyra Innocentium," to
meet the generous offerings of the laity. He bestowed
much time and care on the selection of subjects for the
stained glass of his churches, his knowledge of Fairford
and its celebrated windows helping him not a little in
this particular.

V.
Keble's later years had some trials in private life, in
the meeting losses of friends and relations, but not a few
at hursley. consolations. Among these latter must be
named that strange, pathetic meeting, in October, 1864,
with Cardinal Newman, and, by a seeming accident,
with Dr. Pusey also. The mingled joy and pain of
such a meeting is indescribable, and it may well be
supposed that, while all three hearts were full, few words
were spoken. It was, at least, a happy foretaste of

44 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
the final reconciliation, not only of divided lives, but
of a distracted Christendom. Newman, in a letter to
Sir John Coleridge, has described this pathetic meeting.
After relating how it happened that, though invited to
Hursley, he arrived there unexpectedly, he says —
" Keble was at his door, speaking to a friend. He did
not know me, and asked my name. What was newman's
more wonderful, since I had purposely come description.
to his house, I did not know him, and I feared to ask
who it was. I gave him my card without speaking.
When at length we found out each other, he said, with
that tender flurry of manner which I recollected, so well,
that his wife had been seized with an attack of her
complaint that morning, and that he could not receive
me as he should have wished to do ; nor, indeed, had
he expected me, for ' Pusey,' he whispered, ' is in the
house,, as you are aware.'
" Then he brought me into his study, and embraced
me most affectionately, and said he would go and
prepare Pusey, and bring him to me.
" I think I got there in the forenoon, and remained
with him four or five hours, dining at one or two. He
was in and out of the room all the time I was with him,
attending to his wife, and I was left with Pusey. I
recollect very little of the conversation that passed at
dinner. Pusey was full of the question of the inspira
tion of Holy Scripture, and Keble expressed his joy
that it was a common cause in which I could not sub
stantially differ from them ; and he caught at such
words of mine as seemed to show agreement. . . . Just
before my time for going, Pusey went to read the

John Keble. 45
Evening Service in church, and I was left in the open
air with Keble by himself. He said he would write to
me in the Isle of Wight, as soon as his wife got better,
and then I should come over and have a day with him.
We walked a little way, and stood, looking in silence
at the church and churchyard, so beautiful and calm.
Then he began to converse with me in more than his
old tone of intimacy, as if we had never been parted,
and soon I was obliged to go. . . . He wrote me many
notes about this time. In one of them he made a
reference to the lines in Macbeth —
' When shall we three meet again ? . , .
When the hurlyburly's done,
When the battle's lost and won.' "
Sir John Coleridge adds, " They parted, and Keble
wrote the well-known lines from Macbeth. I hope we
may not irreverently look forward for them to another
blessed meeting —
' When before the Judgment Seat,
Though changed, and glorified each face,
Not unremembered ye may meet,
For endless ages to embrace.' " 1
But one general feature of Keble's writings and
character must not be omitted. It might
KEBLE S ' °
personal have been supposed, from what has been
religion, already said, that the religion practised and
taught by him was mainly ecclesiastical. But it is the
testimony of one who was not an Anglican, Principal
Shairp, that, " combined with devout reverence for the
1 " Life of Keble," p.. 528,. seq.

46 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
Person of our Lord, there is in him, first, perhaps, of his
contemporaries, a closer and more personal love for
Him as a loving Friend." It is also not a little remark
able, as Dean Church has pointed out, " that one result
of Tractarianism was the increased care for the Gospels
and study of them, as compared with other parts of the
Bible." x One who is admirably qualified to pronounce
such a judgment has recently said, "No one has ever
touched the Gospels with' so much innate kinship of
spirit as Newman." 2
In connection with this we can never forget the
''Devotional Commentary" on the Gospels by Keble's
pupil, Isaac Williams.
Keble's personal religion is almost too sacred a
subject to touch upon. He was humble and self-
depreciatory well-nigh to excess. This lowly sense of
unworthiness, this penitential attitude of soul, was all
the more prominent after the great troubles that over
took the Oxford Movement. He felt, as it were, the
chastening hand of God, and humbled himself beneath
it. He used language about his own unworthiness that,
to superficial persons, might appear either exaggerated
or else significant of some grave shortcomings. In some
of his letters to Newman this was so prominent that,
before they were handed over for publication, the
Cardinal erased certain sentences, lest, as he said, they
should be misunderstood and create an entirely wrong
impression. Among other reasons for his self-deprecia
tion, he mentioned his fears lest some failure of his own
1 "The Oxford Movement," p. 191.
8 Dr. Sanday, " New Dictionary of the Bible," vol. ii., p. 653.

John Keble. 47
should have helped to bring about the secession of that
friend whom he loved so dearly. The truth is that
Keble lived so devout a life, and one so closely spent in
communion with God, that he grew more and more
sensitive to the presence of sin in his own -heart, and to
the lofty standard of the Divine law.
As a preacher, Keble could be learned and scholarly
before a University congregation. But he
HIS SERMONS. , . ,. , 1 , 
set himself deliberately to speak with simple
plainness of thought and language to his village flock.
He did not shrink from bringing before them the highest
truths of Christianity. He explained fully, yet very
simply, the Sacraments of the Church, and the great
fundamental doctrines of the Incarnation and the Atone
ment. But he more and more brought himself to use
homely illustrations, taken from the daily life of his
hearers, to convey to them the deep lessons of the
Gospel. Dr. Pusey said that the chief characteristics
of his sermons are " affectionate sympathy and intense
reality ; " and Newman, as early as 1837, urged the publi
cation of certain sermons, " on account of their matter,
not only of the authority of your name." The sermons
of his which have been published since his death were
not prepared for the press, but their value is very great,
perhaps on that very account, as models of the kind of
sermons that are likely to be profitable to a village con
gregation. They are comparatively short, exceedingly
plain, and free from rhetorical ornament, and at the
same time original and striking, full of reference to Holy
Scripture, never degenerating into mere vague generali
ties, but possessing a kind of grace and winning power

48 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
all his own. Above all, they were the sermons of a man
who believed with all his heart in the reality of his
message. There could be no mistake as to what he
taught in doctrine and practice. He could be stern and
severe in rebuking sin, tender and gentle in encouraging
penitents. There was no disguising of his belief in the
Church as the Body of Christ, and of her Sacraments as
" the extension of the Incarnation." He preached
" Jesus Christ and Him crucified," but he preached a
Christ living and reigning, to be found and realized in
the Church, the Word, Baptism, Absolution, and the
Holy Eucharist.
The following extract from a sermon on " The Touch
of Christ an Infallible Cure," illustrates very well the
combination of Evangelical truth with clear and definite
Sacramental teaching. " You quite believe that you
cannot be saved without Christ ; but I fear, I fear, that
a good many of you indulge a blind, dreamy sort of
hope, that Christ will somehow save you without any
deep personal religion of your own : without your
turning to Him and away from the world in good
earnest, with a new heart and a new spirit. . . . Here
He is, come to heal you, offering Himself in His Scrip
tures, for you to hear His voice, in His Sacraments for
you actually to partake of Him. . . . Come here with
faith (as, if you have any faith, of course you will come),
with hearts desiring and endeavouring to be serious;
and then the Healer of your souls, Christ crucified, will
very graciously meet you here. ... He will come
nearer and nearer to you, will encourage you more
and more to touch Him in His Holy Sacrament of

John Keble. '49
Communion ; do you go on answering to His calls, sooner
or later you will know, what now you only hear or read,
that ' as many as touch Him are made perfectly whole.' "1
The following quaint and simple explanation of a
well-known type shows how he could place himself
on a level with lowly minds. " I should not wonder if
it seemed to those who were by, very strange that the
instrument of their healing should be made in the
likeness of the very creature which had bitten them ;
as I have heard, and it seemed very strange to me, that,
when a man is bitten by a viper, part of that very viper
is a good thing to apply to the wound. Very strange
it must have seemed to them, but observe its spiritual
meaning. The Son of God, when He came to save
sinners, was to be made in the likeness of sinful
flesh ; this sinful flesh being the serpent that bites us,
our Lord being in the likeness of that serpent : in the
likeness, I say, of sinful flesh ; not that He was Himself
sinful flesh, — God forbid — there was no touch of sin in
His human nature, as there was no touch of poison in
the serpent of brass ; — but in all besides, He was one of
us, and, being so, He vouchsafed to be lifted up, as was
that serpent of brass, for our healing. He was lifted
up first eighteen hundred years ago as a Sacrifice on an
altar. . . . He is lifted up to all who are baptized. . . .
He is lifted up for the sincere penitent." 2
And the following words, from a sermon against " the
danger of priding ourselves on privileges," illustrate
excellently that watchfulness against spiritual pride
1 "Sermons on the Christian Year," Saints' Days, pp. 391-393.
2 Ibid., Holy Week, pp. 187, 188. E

50 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
which explains the secret of his own humility. " It is
too plain, if you think on it for a moment ; from the
highest to the lowest in the Church of Christ, from the
least little child sitting by another on a form in a
Sunday School, to any — the most dignified among
bishops and pastors — there is a temptation and a trial
in respect of humility : we are one and all tempted to
be self-satisfied and proud, instead of simply thankful
for the position and standing which God has given us
in this His Church, His Holy Mountain ; much as when
choral music is going on, and a whole company or
congregation are singing or playing every one his own
part, there is a temptation (especially to the skilful
ones) to be thinking of one's self, how well one is per
forming, instead of throwing one's self, heart and soul and
voice, into the work, how sacred soever." ..." What
ever line of separation we look at — whether to Catholic
Christians as compared with those who deny more or
less of the Creed, or to Churchmen compared with Dis
senters, or to 'good Churchmen' (so-called) compared
with such as seem to think less of the Church, — can we
deny that, in proportion to people's earnestness and
zeal, Satan is sure to whisper to their secret souls more
or less of vain imaginations, how good of them it is to
keep so regularly to the right, and to teach them a kind
of scornful pity for those who seem to be in the
wrong." *
Among his published sermons perhaps the most
characteristic is the course on the Baptismal Office. In
1 "Sermons for the Christian Year," Miscellaneous,
pp. 360, 361.

John Keble. 5t
these beautiful addresses there is a clear and bold state
ment of doctrine. Original sin, the personality of the
Evil One, the new birth, the Personality and indwelling
of the Holy Ghost, are all distinctly brought out. The
grace of Baptism is described as "a spark of holy fire
lit up in (the child) which, if it be duly attended to, will
consume all that is gross and earthly, and purify him
altogether in the likeness of Jesus Christ." But the
need of further grace, perseverance, and improvement,
" most likely of conversion," is clearly laid down. The
tremendous responsibilities of the baptized are again
recalled in words of solemn warning. Adults are urged
to confession of sin "which may have brought us
perhaps into a worse than unbaptized condition." . . .
"Oh that it would please Him to pour upon us, even
now, His good and loving Spirit, — upon us, I say, who
are here present, that we might from this very hour
begin, one and all of us, to show forth our baptisms in
our lives far more truly, far more courageously, far more
lovingly than we have yet done ! " Keble, in such
sermons as these, was translating into language intel
ligible to country people, all the full and elaborate
teaching of the writers of the Tracts, on what Baptism
really is, and translating it in a most tender, loving
manner that went straight to people's hearts.
In spite of his strong and uncompromising preaching
of Sacramental truth, " Evangelical " and even Dissenting
men and women recognized him as a spiritual man, and
acknowledged that he preached the Gospel faithfully.
Since his time it has not been infrequently allowed that
evangelical truth is often heard from sacerdotal lips.

52 Five Great. Oxford Leaders.
Like Pusey, who said, "I love the Evangelicals," he
never failed to recognize their piety, and gladly would
have gone with them as far as they would have allowed.
What he feared was not their positive teaching, but
their negations ; while he shrank from what appeared
to him unreality, and a touch of presumption in certain
of their phrases.

VI.
The great controversies in which Keble found him
self constrained to take a part, have all, it
, . , ... , , , controversy
may be said with reverence, been overruled
for the good of the Church, in directing men's thoughts
to the great truths which were impugned, in removing
accretions and unnecessary inferences on the one side,
and prejudices and ignorance on the other. Who can
doubt that the main result of the Gorham controversy,
instead of opening the door for an influx of clergy into
the Church, who denied Baptismal Regeneration, was
to lead multitudes of men and women to know and to
accept the Church's teaching on the subject ; that the
discussion and the anxiety, caused by these heated
disputes, bore some good fruit in restraining and
balancing the truth attacked, which has now taken its
proper place in " the proportion of faith " ? The ex
aggerations of its defenders in the direction of a kind
of Novatianism have been checked ; the need of sup
plementing the doctrine by the teaching of conversion
and repentance in a Catholic sense, together with the

John Keble. 53
proper revival of Confession and Absolution, have done
not a little to make it impossible for the reproach
brought against it, as a "soul-destroying doctrine," to
have even a shade of justification. So with the excite
ment that was aroused in connection with " Essays and
Reviews," the doctrine of the inspiration of the Holy
Scriptures, as commonly held, was certainly not free
from a narrow spirit ; it put out of sight too much the
human element, the personality of the writers, the
historical development of literature ; and, above all, it
obliterated or obscured the office and character of the
Church as the witness, keeper, and interpreter of Holy
Writ. Crude ideas of the Bible were met by crude and
rash criticism and speculation, which naturally provoked
the zealous defence of Churchmen. The result has, to
some extent, at least, been a far more reasonable con
ception of what Holy Scripture was intended by God
to do for mankind, and also what it was not intended.
And so, also, with eschatology : the coarse and repel
lent statements of a Calvinistic theology ; the practical
denial of any intermediate state between death and the
final judgment ; brought about a dangerous reaction,
which seemed to sweep away all wholesome fear of
God as One who "will by no means clear the guilty,"
and of all retribution, as the inevitable and natural
result of unrepented sin. Privy Council judgments may
have been more or less lax interpretations of the
Church's doctrine, latitudinarian, if not cynical, in spirit ;
but the issue of the controversy has been to clear
men's minds, to a great extent, of exaggerated ideas,
begotten of language unauthorized by the Catholic

54 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
Church, and to check too free a speculation on what
has not been revealed to us concerning the future state.
Of the Eucharistic controversies that arose out of the
Denison and Forbes trials, and, later on, out of the
Bennett case, it is not too much to say that there never
was a time like the present day, since the great up
heaval of the sixteenth century, when so large a number
of English Churchmen have been willing to accept, in
their plain and literal sense, the words of the Catechism,
which state that "the inward part or thing signified"
in the Holy Eucharist is the "Body and Blood of
Christ, which are verily and indeed taken and received
by the faithful in the Lord's Supper."
Above all, it is undoubtedly owing to the character,
to the devoted, prayerful life of men like Keble, the
reverent restrained language they have used, that multi
tudes, who would have been repelled by teaching con
cerning the Sacraments, as if it were substituting trust
in rites and ceremonies for faith in a Divine Person,
have been led to see that the centre of the doctrine and
worship of the Oxford School, as indeed of the Church
of England, and of the whole Catholic Church, is none
other than the living and Eternal Son of God, Incarnate,
Crucified, Risen, and Ascended, ever present in His
Church, His Word, and His Sacraments.
Another point must be noticed, and that is, that in
Keble's private ministrations and in his deal- HIS PEIVATK
ing with souls, whether by letter or in actual ministra-
confession, he never failed to observe the 7I
same unfailing realization that it is Christ, and Christ
only, who upholds the priest in his delicate, responsible

John Keble. 55
and sacred office ; and that as regards the penitent,
nothing can remove from him his own spiritual responsi
bility. As has been well said on this point : " The fear
of the priest enslaving the spirit of an English yeoman
or peasant seems to him foolish and unreal." x
His faithful spiritual guidance was characterized by
no little shrewd common sense, combined with a gentle
ness and kindness which could not fail to encourage
and inspire. While always keeping himself in the
background, and ever depreciating his own powers and
fitness as a guide, in a manner that might seem to some
to savour of unreality, he never shrank from giving
clear and definite counsel on the points laid before him.
The devotional books he recommended for private use
were all by well-known English writers (and he cer
tainly did not send his penitents to Roman authors for
help), Jeremy Taylor, Bishop Andrewes, Law, Kettle-
well, and, above all, Bishop Wilson. For the latter he
had the most profound veneration and affection. The
life of ^e t^iat ^e wrote °f this saintly man was a
bishop work and labour of love. His personal piety,
wilson. j^s keen sense of responsibility in the matter
of the Church's discipline, his simplicity and unworldli-
ness appealed strongly to one who resembled him in
many particulars. He concluded the book in the fol
lowing words : " Of Bishop Wilson's work, his living
and breathing qualities, the patient reader may have
formed some estimate from the preceding pages. Of his
writings and their influence I suppose all who know
them will agree that, if ever there was an author of
1 W. Lock, "John Keble," p. 210.

56 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
whom it might be truly said, ' He never penned a
sentence that savoured of unreality,' Bishop Wilson
was the man ; that, if simplicity and pathetic earnestness
and watchful sympathy with all men, tempered by an
unfailing vein of practical good sense, do yet in any
degree characterize the teaching and devotion, especially
the household devotion of our clergy and laity, — if
veneration for the universal Church and unreserved faith
in the Bible do yet in any degree prevail in our popular
theology — to him, perhaps, more than to any single
divine of later days, with the one exception of his great
contemporary, Bishop Butler, are these good effects
owing. What more of spiritual good it may have pleased
God by his instrumentality to bring to pass for those of
his own time, for us, and for our children, this (if I may
adopt a very sacred form of speech), ' we know not
now, but if we be found worthy, we shall know here
after.' " * These words might, with very little alteration,
be applied to the life and character of him who wrote
them. Of Keble's personal appearance, as well as of his
character, his biographers may well make personal
Newman's question their own, " How shall appearance.
I profess to paint a man who will not sit for his picture?"
The reverent gestures in church, the eager brightness
in conversation cannot be reproduced, and the photo
graphic pictures of him are altogether disappointing.
There are two portraits which hand down his personal
appearance to posterity : both are by George Richmond
— one taken in 1843, in water-colour, a three-quarter
1 J. Keble, " Life of Bishop Wilson," vol. ii., p. 971.

John Keble. 57
length ; the other a crayon drawing of the head, taken
shortly before his death. His friend, Coleridge, says
of them, " In the earlier he has some ofthe merry defiance
he could assume in argument ; in the latter I see the
sad tenderness of his advanced years." *
Dr. Lock, quoting Mozley and Pusey, speaks of the
head as " one of the most beautifully formed heads in
the world," the face plain featured, with an unshapely
mouth, " redeemed by a bright smile " and " clear,
brilliant, penetrating eyes," "lighting up quickly with
bright merriment, or kindling with fire in a moment of
indignation." 2
Keble's later days brought some trials in the loss of
his sister Elizabeth, and in the delicate state
of his wife's health, and in the consequent
necessary absences from his beloved flock at Hursley.
He visited Penzance and Bournemouth at different
times; and, early in the year 1866, when, staying at
the latter place, he was watching by his wife's sick
bed and daily expecting her' death, he was himself
struck down with a second stroke of paralysis. After
a week's illness, during which he was constant
death. .^ prayer ancj ejaculation, he passed away
on March 29th. He was buried at Hursley on April
6th. The Holy Eucharist was celebrated at
funeral. ^^ early hour. There were present at the
funeral, BisTiops Moberly of Salisbury and Forbes of
Brechin, Mr. Butler of Wantage, Lord Nelson, Sir W.
Heathcote, Miss Yonge, and many others, to do honour
1 "Life," p. 561.
2 Lock, "John Keble," p. 237.

58 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
at the last to the "sweet Psalmist of the English
Church." Dean Church has beautifully described the
scene at which he was present, sitting with Dean
Hook and Lord Blachford on a school-children's bench
at the back of the Church. " It was more like a
festival than anything else, though there was black
and white about. But the sun and the fresh, keen
air, and the flowers just coming out, and the beauty
of the place and the church, and the completeness
of that which had come to its last stage here, put
all the ordinary thoughts of sorrow, not aside, but
in a distinctly subordinate place." x

VII.
Such was the real prime mover of the Oxford
Movement. Recently a strange caricature real
of its history has been given to the world. CHAEAcTE*:
T. i> . r r . 1 ¦ OF THE MOVE-
Its distortion of facts and its strange MENT AND ITS
fables would be monstrous if they were not leaders.
ludicrous. Of the Tractarians Jowett has said, " They
derived their influence chiefly from their regardlessness of
themselves and of their own interests, a gift which, in times
of apathy and indifference to religion, alone possesses
the power of recalling men to it." That the more
liberal-minded Nonconformists appreciated the spiritu
ality of the Oxford school, even when they differed from
its theology, is evident from the following words of the
late R. W. Dale : " The blessing of God was in it, though
1 " Life and Letters," p. 172

John Keble. 59
we did not see it, and in a form they did not understand ;
in the lives and in the devotion of these men a new
endowment of the Holy Spirit came into the life of
England."1 To charge the three great leaders of
the Movement with a conspiracy betrays an absolute
misconception of their characters and acts. A love of
truth pursued at all costs, a courage determined openly
to face opposition rather than be unfaithful to Divine
callings, appears in all three. Of their characters and
motives, T. B. Mozley has recorded, "There had never
been seen at Oxford, indeed seldom anywhere, so large
and noble a sacrifice of the most precious gifts and
power to sacred causes. The men who were devoting
themselves to it were not bred for the work or from
one school. They were not literary toilers or adventurers
glad of a chance, or veterans ready to take to one
cause as lightly as to another, equally zealous to do
their duty, and equally indifferent to the form. They
were not men of common rank casting a die for pro
motion. They were not levies or conscripts, but in
every sense volunteers." 2
What Dean Church has written of one particular
action, the publication of "Froude's Remains," is true
of their whole conduct : " It was not the act of cunning
conspirators ; it was the act of men who were ready
to show their hands, and take the consequences." 3
Newman, as he himself has revealed to us in his
" Apologia," took a path which led him far apart from
1 " Life of R. W. Dale," p. 699.
2 " Reminiscences," vol. i., p. 447.
3 " Oxford Movement," p. 43.

60 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
the other two in the bitterest agony of a conscience
that we may consider wrongly informed, but which he
followed at the risk of sacrificing all that was dearest
to his heart. Pusey suffered detraction, suspicion, and
enforced silence, with consummate patience, dignity,
and charity, waiting for that day of recognition which
came partially in life and shone out radiantly around
his grave, when he was laid to rest in Christ Church.
Keble, who might have graced the highest posts in the
Church and the University, lived contentedly, nay, with
a kind of sober joyousness, in a remote vicarage,
patiently hoping, fervently praying for the coming day
of better things for the Church of God in this land.
This is not the temper, nor the attitude of conspirators,
unless their conspiracy were that of a divinely given
longing, and an unselfish toiling for the well-being of
that spiritual mother, the Church of England, for which
they suffered not a little.
It remains to add a few words concerning the fruits
of the Oxford Movement so far as they are EESULTS 0E
at present apparent. Speaking generally, it the
may be said that the whole level of Church MOTEMENT-
life and work has been raised enormously since that
notable day in 1833, when Keble like a prophet blew
the trumpet with no " uncertain sound." If we were to
judge merely by external evidence the difference is
immeasurable. The very aspect of our churches and
cathedrals has been marvellously transformed. Dignity
and reverence have taken the place of dull, mean, and
careless treatment of the Houses of God. The services
of the Church have, as has been said, been made

John Keble. 61
interesting. But they may be, with greater truth, described
as rendered inspiring and inspired with a new sense of
what Divine worship means. A loftier standard of
clerical work and life has been realized. A new element
has taken possession of the Anglican Church in the
foundation and extension of religious communities.
Missions among the poor at home have multiplied and
exhibited a spirit of sacrifice and love for souls that will
never be forgotten when the name of Charles Lowder,
and others like him are recalled. The whole conception
of parochial life and organization has been newly created
under the inspiration of this movement. The duties
and work of the Episcopate have been, to use Dean
Burgon's phrase, " remodelled," and Hook and Wilber
force owed much more to the Oxford Tracts than per
haps they would have allowed, that they were able to
become the standard-bearers in this onward progress.
The Church's growth at home is paralleled if not
exceeded by the enormous expansion of the Anglican
Church abroad. The few scattered Indian and Colonial
sees that existed in 1 840, have grown into vast, highly
organized, ecclesiastical provinces in America, the West
Indies, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
Education, elementary, secondary and higher, has re
ceived fuller and ever increasing attention at the hands
of the Church who, long before any national system of
education had been devised, had taken care not to leave
her children in ignorance even of the knowledge of
temporal as well as spiritual things. Preaching has
emerged from the cold formality of the moral essay,
and special efforts like parochial missions, retreats, and

62 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
quiet days are evidences of the deepened spiritual life
of clergy and people. Some might venture to criticize
the claim of the Oxford Movement for all this great and
wonderful advance. But it cannot be denied that the
onward progress of the Movement is coincident with the
coming into being one after another of all these new
efforts after spiritual life. What maybe said without
fear of contradiction is that doctrines, principles, and
practices that sixty years ago were regarded with
suspicious horror, are now proclaimed from the highest
places as the rightful heritage of the Church of England.
One instance will suffice to illustrate what is meant.
The first Tract that was issued, and others that followed
claimed for the English Church, the Apostolic suc
cession, the sacerdotal character of the ministry, the
Eucharistic Sacrifice. We have lived to see these
truths defended before the whole Catholic Church, by the
two Archbishops of the Church of England. One well
qualified to pass in review the changes that have come
over the Church during the last seventy years has
written as follows : " It is no longer with her as it was
in the eighteenth century — and God forbid it should
ever be so again — when her clergy were the companions
of the peers and the gentry, as magistrates on the bench
of justice and as sportsmen in the hunting-field ; when
she found no immediate occasion to look into her title
deeds, for she rested on possession and on quietude.
In that less tranquil but nobler form of existence which
she is now called to sustain, she has to extricate her
own religious history from the civil broils, from the
economical and literary devastations, from the great

John Keble. 63
national to-and-fro of the sixteenth century ; and to
show the world whether, along with an external material
and legal framework that is unquestioned, she has derived
herself as a religious society in historical continuity from
the ancient Church of the country, or whether, as her
opponents may charge, she is a construction of lath and
plaster set up, in mean and futile imitation, by the
side of the solid, majestic structure of the Middle
Ages." '
And again " in this character (as a Christian layman)
the writer has viewed with profound and thankful satis
faction, during the last half-century and more, the
progressive advance of a great work of restoration in
Christian doctrine. It has not been wholly confined
within his own country, to the Anglican Communion,
but it is best that he should speak of that which has
been most under his eye. Within these limits, it has
not been confined to doctrine, but has extended to
Christian life and all its workings. The aggregate
result has been that it has brought the Church of
England from a state externally of halcyon calm, but, .
inwardly, of deep stagnation, to one in which, while
buffeted more or less by external storms, subjected to
some peculiar and searching forms of trial, and even
now by no means exempt from internal dissensions,
she sees her clergy transformed (for this is the word
which may advisedly be used), her vital energies
enlarged and still growing in every direction, and a
store of bright hopes accumulated that she may be able
to contribute her share, and even possibly no mean
1 W. E. Gladstone, " Later Gleanings," p. 161.

64 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
share, towards the consummation of the work of the
gospel, in the world." *
It cannot be denied that, from time to time, mistakes
have been made, checks have been experienced and
failures have occurred. To say this is only to say that
the Movement, like all similar passages in the history
of the Church, has been directed by fallible human
instruments, and has dealt with the material of our
fallen humanity. Shall this Movement pursue its course
to the final goal of a completely revived Church with
restored discipline, regained liberty of legislation, of a
nation recovered to the Apostolic faith and order of primi
tive times ? If this is to be so, English Church people
must not let slip their hold upon the devotion, self-dis
cipline, and obedience to Church principles that were the
guiding rules of its first leaders. We need the charity,
the tenderness, the courage, the self-repression of John
Keble to save our age from the catastrophe that, on the
one hand, may result from a wilfulness that leads to
ecclesiastical anarchy, and, on the other, from a colour
less undenominationalism that would leave no fragments
of the Catholic faith worth contending for. But we
also need something of that calm, patient hope that
seemed lacking in Newman, and gained from Pusey
that wondering admiration, which he more than once
expressed, when he saw it in Keble. Hope founded on
the struggles and victories of the past, and on the cer
tainty of the Divine triumph in the future, is the great
lesson of the life and work of John Keble.
It has been said with no little truth that there are
1 W. E. Gladstone, " Later Gleanings," p. 408.

John Keble. 65
two ecclesiastical buildings that have been erected in
keble recent times which are symbolical of the
college, vitality and permanence ofthe English Church.'
One is Truro Cathedral, the other is Keble College. It
will be sufficient to indicate the first as a proof, in a
utilitarian age, that English Churchmen can vie with
their forefathers in dedicating a splendid sanctuary to
the worship of Almighty God, and thus can claim
fellowship with the ancient Church in faith and worship,
and in that spirit of heroic venture which springs from
a real grasp of " the things which are not seen," which
" are eternal." But it is Keble College which concerns
us now. This great foundation has already justified its
creation as a memorial of John Keble. Critics may
differ as to the architectural merits of the building.
Some will regret that so great a departure from the
traditions of Oxford was made in the general character
and details of the design, and in the material selected —
brick instead of stone. The chapel, perhaps, more than
any other part of the group of buildings, differs from
the usual type seen in Oxford colleges. The arrange
ment of the seating is a departure from the choral plan
so familiar in all collegiate churches or chapels. Most
persons agree, too, with Dr. Pusey as to the unfortunate
attempt to realize in the reredos the symbolism of the
Apocalypse. But the great college, taken as a whole,
is a splendid monument, and has called forth many and
generous offerings. An immense number of gifts, small
and large, sent from all parts of the world by devoted
admirers of " The Christian Year " and its venerated
author, served to raise the first part of the fabric. The
F

66 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
chapel, hall, and library were erected by the munificence
of well-known benefactors — the Gibbs of Tyntesfield.
The college has already gathered round it great names
and memories. It has a full list already of worthy
sons, in its first three Wardens, Talbot, Wilson, and
Lock ; and its tutors, Bishops Jayne and Mylne, Aubrey
Moore, and Illingworth. It has trained for thirty years
a large number of students. It has a splendid end to
serve throughout all time. It was planted in Oxford
at a time when the destinies of the Church in that
University seemed to tremble in the balance. It was
built, not only as a monument of loving homage to a
venerated personality, but as a distinct claim in that
city and University for the permanence and extension
of " the faith once for all delivered to the saints,"
of which Keble was so humble and yet so inspired a
champion. " The days will come, I suppose," says Dr. Liddon—
" if, indeed, they have not yet come — when young men,
looking at these buildings, will ask the question, ' Who
was Keble?' To have made it inevitable that that
question should be asked by successive generations of
Oxford students is to have added to the moral wealth
of the world. For the answer to that question cannot
but do good to the man who asks it. It is not high
station, or commanding wealth, or great public exploits,
or wide popularity of opinions, which will explain the
foundation of the college — raised as it is to the memory
of a quiet country clergyman, with a very moderate
income, who sedulously avoided public distinctions, and
held tenaciously to an unpopular school all his life. Keble

John Keble. 67
College is a witness to the homage which goodness,
carried into the world of thought, or, indeed, into any
sphere of activity, extorts from all of us, when we are
fairly placed face to face with it ; it is a proof that
neither station, nor wealth, nor conspicuousness, nor
popularity is the truest and ultimate test of greatness.
True greatness is to be recognized in character ; and
in a place like this, character is largely, if not chiefly,
shaped by the degree in which moral qualities are
brought to bear upon the activities of mind. The more
men really know of him who, being dead, has, in virtue
of the rich gifts and grace with which God had endowed
him, summoned this college into being, the less will they
.marvel at such a tribute to his profound and enduring
influence." 1
1 "Clerical Life and Work," "John Keble," pp. 353, 354.

JOHN HENRY NEWMAN

I.
Among the principal qualifications for successful
leadership in any great movement, and especially a
great religious movement, must be reckoned a profound
conviction of the reality of a Divine vocation. And
this implies a vivid consciousness of God's Personality,
and of the soul's relation to the Supreme Being.
Certainly this essential qualification was apparent, even
at an early age, in the experience of John Henry
Newman, the leader of the greatest religious movement
of the nineteenth century, if not of the whole epoch
since the great spiritual upheaval of the sixteenth
century. From the time of his boyhood, under the
influence of a loving and religious mother, he learned
to " rest in the thought of two, and two only, absolute
and luminously self-evident beings, myself and my
Creator." When he was fifteen he passed through
a great spiritual experience, and from that date he
reckoned his "conversion." He even then began to
realize that " it would be the will of God that I should
lead a single life." In later days he felt strangely
that he was being definitely guided by the Divine
Hand. In the year 1832, during his tour on the
Continent, the sense of a great mission intrusted to
him was constantly pressing into his mind and finding
remarkable expression in his spoken and written words.
There can be no doubt that from first to last, throughout

72 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
all the phases of his religious development, he never
wavered in his clear conviction that God had called
him to live and work for His glory. ,
He was born in London on February 21, 1801. His
father, Mr. John Newman, was* a banker
, ,. , , , . , , , EARLY LIFE.
who was obliged to close his doors, through
no fault of his own, in 181 5. His mother was a de
vout woman of Huguenot extraction and of moderate
Calvinist views, and from her he learnt that faith in
God, which he has described in his " Grammar of
Assent " as so real in children. " First it involves the
impression on his mind of an unseen Being with whom
he is in immediate relation, and that relation so familiar
that he can address Him whenever he himself chooses ;
next of One whose good will towards him he is assured
of, and can take for granted — nay, who loves him better
and is nearer to him, than his parents ; further, of One
who can hear him, wherever he happens to be, and who
can read his thoughts, for his prayer need not be vocal ;
lastly, of One who can effect - a critical change in the
state of feelings of others towards him." x
His mother implanted in him a delight in the Bible.'
T. B. Mozley tells us, " It would hardly be too much to
say that he knew the whole Bible by heart." 2 She also
taught him to value Scott's " Commentary." From this
writer he learned two great principles : " Holiness before
Peace," and " Growth the only Evidence of Life."3 Law's
"Serious Call" made a deep impression on his mind,
1 " Grammar of Assent," p. 1 12. 2 " Reminiscences," vol. i., p. 13.
3 Scott's portrait was still to be seen in Newman's room at the
Birmingham Oratory up to the end of his life.

John Henry Newman. 73
especially on the question of eternal punishment ; and
Milner's " Church History," while " it stained his imagi
nation with the idea that the Church of Rome is anti-
Christ," 1 gave him an admiration for the early Fathers
and the first germs of the ecclesiastical idea of Christi
anity. His home was a happy one, and with affectionate
parents and congenial sisters he grew up a sensitive,
thoughtful boy, fond of music and poetry.
At the age of seven he went to a school at
Ealing, under the Rev. G. Nicholas, where he remained
eight years and a half, and, before he was sixteen, was
trinity entered at Trinity College, Oxford, where, in
college, 1818, he gained an open scholarship. At
first he felt somewhat out of harmony
with Oxford life, but his friendship with John William
Bowden and the increasing kindness of the Rev.
Thomas Short, so long remembered as tutor of Trinity,
soon removed much of his difficulties, though through
out his University life he always remained a shy and
reserved man.2 He was most diligent in his reading :
he writes, "During twenty out of the twenty-four weeks,
immediately preceding my examination, I fagged at an
average more than twelve hours a day ; if one day I read
only nine, the next day I read fifteen." 3 But the result
the class was a great disappointment, and to no one
list. more than to himself. He was placed
" below the line " in the second class. His failure was
mainly due to beginning his University life so young,
1 " Apologia," p. 7.
2 Bishop Durnford has recorded that Newman " crept about
knowing no one." 3 " Life and Letters," vol. i., p. 44.

74 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
and to overtaxing his powers by excessive work. He
remained up at Oxford for several years on his Trinity
scholarship, and, on consulting Mr. Short and other
friends, he determined to stand for a vacant fellowship
at Oriel. The elections at this college had more than
once startled the University ; a second class man, in
1 82 1, was preferred to one whose name stood in the first
class. The same result was seen on the occasion of
Newman's competition ; for, in spite of his previous lack
of success, his papers so impressed the Provost and
Fellows that, before the examination was over, they
made careful inquiries as to his antecedents and
character. Newman himself tells us how fellow
Mr. Short encouraged him, when he was on 0P OR1*"*-
the point of retiring, to persevere in his examination,
with kindly words " at a luncheon of lamb chops and
fried parsley." He also has recorded the amusing scene
when the Provost's butler, who brought the news of his
election to Newman's lodging, found him "fiddling."
He continued his music after the message had been der
livered ; but, no sooner had the messenger disappeared,
than he rushed from the Broad Street to Oriel, among
the eager bows of tradesmen who had just heard the news.1
Newman found himself now raised from obscurity and
need to become the associate of Keble, " the first man in
Oxford," and Hawkins and Whately, who were soon to
be joined by Pusey. He set himself to work to improve
his scholarship, which had hitherto been his weakest
point. It is said Newman never let a day pass without
composing at least one sentence in Latin. Provost
1 " Life and Letters," vol. i., pp. 71, 72.

John Henry Newman. 75
Copleston said of him, " He was not even a good classical
scholar, yet in mind and power of composition, and in
taste and knowledge, he was decidedly superior to some
competitors who were a class above him in the school."
He did some considerable work as tutor, and was very
successful with his pupils ; but he had strong aspirations
curate of after spiritual work, which took shape in his
st. Ordination, on Trinity Sunday, 1824, and his
appointment as Curate of St. Clement's
Church, Oxford. The church was about to be rebuilt,
and the spiritual life of the parish needed revival. It is
interesting to lovers of church architecture to note that
Newman himself states, that " he had no part whatever
in determining its architectural character, it was entirely
in the hands of a committee." x Many years after, the
building was known, at any rate to undergraduates, by
the disparaging title of the " Boiled Rabbit." Newman
was ordained Priest in May, 1825. He laboured inde-
fatigably among the poor. He had set himself a very
high standard of pastoral work, and house-to-house
visitation was most diligently carried out, with the result
that he became known and universally loved throughout
the parish. All this time he was still busily engaged in
college work, and, besides actively occupied in collecting
subscriptions for the church building, he had begun to
write for reviews and magazines — with so much ability
that, as early as November, 1824, he received the offer of
election to the Athenaeum Club, which he declined. His
sermons were already beginning to be appreciated, and
he had laid not a little of the foundations of his future
1 " Life and Letters," vol. i., p. 113.

76 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
influence as a spiritual guide. It was during these years
that, as he himself has told us, he underwent a great
change in his religious opinions. The Oriel common
room, with its remarkable freedom from narrowness, its
brilliant conversation and keen logical discussion, its
vigorous energy, and serious sense of responsibility,
attracted and moulded him in many ways. But various
separate members of the college influenced theological
him very deeply in theological and spiritual education.
matters. Newman, years afterwards, referred to the
blessing of the " long friendship and example " which
he received from Pusey, whose " humility and love for
God and man " deeply impressed him at this time.
Hawkins, then Vicar of St. Mary's, taught him many
very important doctrines. He was a clear-headed
thinker and a good parish Priest. His criticism of
Newman's first sermon led to the latter directing his
attention to, and afterwards accepting, Baptismal Re
generation, and ultimately that of Catholic Tradition,
first brought before his notice by reading "Sumner's
" Apostolic Teaching," given him by Hawkins. While
he had held from the first, in his early boyhood, the
fundamental doctrines of the Holy Trinity, the Incarna
tion, and Predestination, from this time he more and
more withdrew from the Lutheran and Evangelical view
of Justification. He came into close contact with Dr.
Whately, whose well-known " Treatise on Logic " was
based upon notes and essays prepared by Newman
under Whately's directions, and revised and vice-princi-
enlarged by him. In 1825 Dr. Whately was P^H81,
appointed Principal of St. Alban Hall, and hall.

John Henry Newman. yj
he invited Newman to be his Vice- principal. This office
he only retained for a year, and in 1826 he was appointed
public tutor of Oriel College, when he resigned his
position at St. Alban Hall, and his curacy of St.
Clement's. He remained tutor of his college for six
years ; and from his journal we learn that he formed a very
tutor high estimate of the religious nature of his
of oriel, office, and endeavoured to bring a higher tone
into the relation of tutor and pupil. His efforts to
check extravagance, especially among the gentlemen
commoners, and his protest against irreverent and
formal Communions as part of the college discipline,
created some soreness between himself and the higher
authorities. This developed later into a serious difference
between himself and Provost Hawkins, whose views of
the duty of a college tutor were greatly at variance
with his own. Newman positively declined to act as a
don or martinet, or mere intellectual lecturer, or " aca
demical policeman or constable," x and desired to be in
reality a moral and religious guardian of the youths
committed to him. He considered that his position was
given to him that he might gain souls to God. It is
somewhat strange that Newman did not recognize how
entirely at one Keble was with him in this view ofthe
work of a college tutor, until it was too late, after Haw
kins had by his vote and Pusey's been elected to the
office of Provost. If the election had fallen on Keble
there is much reason for believing that the future
history of Oriel College would have been very different
from what it has been since that time; certainly the
1 "Life and Letters," vol. i., p. 154.

78 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
conception of what a college tutor ought to be, as it
existed in the mind of Dr. Hawkins, has not secured for
that distinguished college such a series of academical
successes as might have been expected from the promise
of these years. And yet what Oriel lost proved to be
the gain of the Church at large. For Newman himself
has said, " In the year after his relinquishing his tutor
ship, on his return from abroad, the Tract movement
began ; humanly speaking, that movement never would
have been had he not been deprived of his tutorship, or
had Keble, not Hawkins, been Provost." 1

II.
In 1827 Newman was appointed examiner, and in
1828 Vicar of St. Mary's. Of this great event VICAR op
in his life he says, " It was to me like the st. mary's.
feeling of spring weather after winter, and if I may so
speak, I came out of my shell : I remained out of it
until 1841."2 About this time Whately's influence
over him grew less and less, as Newman grew more
and more attracted by what was spiritual than by what
was merely intellectual. Among other books mastered
by him at this period was Bishop Butler's "Analogy of
Religion," the study of which was an era in his religious
opinions. Two principles impressed themselves upon
him as the result of this study of Butler — the " Sacra
mental aspect of nature," and " probability as a guide
of life." But perhaps the personal influence of Keble
1 " Life and Letters," vol. i., p. 160. * "Apologia," p. 16.

John Henry Newman. 79
directly, and indirectly through Hurrell Froude, had
even more effect upon him than the writings of any
man or school. The Catholic Church with its hierarchy,
its Saints, its great Pattern of Virginity, its practices of
penance and mortification, its teaching on the Real
Presence, were vividly realized and vehemently and cou
rageously expressed by Hurrell Froude. But Newman
himself was led to the investigation of the doctrines
of the Primitive Church through his study of Bishop
Bull, and this induced him to write his history of the
Arians — a very careful and elaborate work, though it
has been said that " it displays little of the literary skill
of his later writings, being dry almost to grittiness." 1
It was in the main a vindication of the Alexandrian
School of Theology from all direct responsibility for
the Arian heresy, and revealed the confidence that
Newman felt in dogma as the backbone of religion.
In December, 1832, he started from Falmouth with
foreign his friends Archdeacon Froude and Hurrell,
tour. on a prolonged foreign tour. He sailed by
Lisbon to Gibraltar, and thence to Malta, and the
Ionian Isles, Naples and Rome. It was here that he
met Dr. Wiseman, afterwards Cardinal and " Archbishop
of Westminster." Newman was much impressed by the
services and ceremonial of the Eternal City, but his
heart was full of England : and the thought that he had
a mission held such possession of his mind, that, when
he took leave of Wiseman, who expressed a hope that
they might pay a second visit to Rome before they
returned, he said with great gravity, as he declined the
1 R. H. Hutton, " Cardinal Newman," p. 26.

80 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
invitation, " We have a work to do in England." x New
man went to Sicily, where, as he says, the presentiment
grew stronger; and when he was very seriously ill of fever,
in the heart of the island, and his servant asked him for
his last instructions, he said, " I shall not die ; I have not
sinned against the light:"2 for, as he afterwards explained,
" I thought God had work for me." Anxious to reach
home as soon as he was fit to travel, he got on board, at
Palermo, an orange-boat, bound for Marseilles ; it was
then that he wrote the lines, " Lead, kindly Light," which
have since become so well known. Throughout his
foreign tour he had been writing many verses, amongst
them those on " Abraham," " Moses," " The Church of
Rome," " The Isles of the Sirens," " Absolution," " The
Greek Fathers." These have been collected in the
" Lyra Apostolica," and of them it has been «Lyra
said, " For grandeur of outline, purity of taste, apostolica."
and radiancy of total effect, I know hardly any short
poems in the language that equal them." 3
The result of his foreign tour, though it in some
respects diminished his horror of Romanism, yet did
not remove from his mind the impression that the
Continental Church was in a sadly degraded condition,
and confirmed him in his views of the Church of
England as a Divine society. Hurrell Froude, though
himself far less prejudiced against Rome than Newman,
wrote of the Roman Catholic system in Sicily as
follows : —
"The Church of England has fallen low, and will
1 "Apologia," p. 34. 2 Ibid.
3 R. H. Hutton, " Cardinal Newman," p. 44.

John Henry Newman. 8i
probably be worse before it is better ; but let the
Whigs do their worst, they cannot sink us so deep as
these people have allowed themselves to fall while
retaining all the superficials of a religious country."1
What was in the minds of the two friends as to the
great work before them, was strikingly expressed in
the motto that they chose for the " Lyra Apostolica : "
"You shall know the difference now that I am come
back again" — the words of Achilles when he returned
to the battle.
" From the long illness, fever, and consequent weak
ness in Sicily, the solitude of the sea, and the sudden
journey, there followed at once the plunge into the
Movement. . . . Mr. Newman landed in England at
a critical moment : it was the moment when the fears
for the Church which had long been growing, and which
arose not merely from the designs avowed or surmised
of her enemies, but from the helplessness of her friends,
had led at length to the resolution in a few brave and
zealous men to speak out and to act." 2
On July 13, 1833, Keble preached his famous Assize
keble's Sermon, and in the same month the well-
assize known meeting at Hadleigh took place, and
sermon. resu'ted in the commencement of the " Tracts
for the Times." There had been some idea of forming a
kind of union or association, and of presenting an address
to the Archbishop of Canterbury on the dangers that
seemed to be gathering round the Church. But the
Movement began by Newman issuing the early Tracts,
1 Froude's " Remains," vol. i., p. 294.
2 " Letters of J. H. Newman," vol. i., p. 431.

82 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
with the approval and help of Keble and Froude, while
Palmer and Perceval were doubtful as to the wisdom
of issuing them, and were anxious and nervous as to
the effect they might produce. Newman was active
in calling upon clergy in various parts of the country,
in writing letters to others, and, in fact, taking a lead
in what was undoubtedly understood to be a new and
important movement. He has recorded the buoyant
confidence and vehement energy that possessed him
at this period of his life, so full of real happiness ; and
he says of this time, "I had the consciousness that
I was employed in that work which I was dreaming
about, and which I felt to be so momentous and
inspiring ; I had a supreme confidence in our cause.
We were upholding that primitive Christianity which
was delivered for all time by the early teachers of the
Church, and which was registered and attested in the
Anglican formularies, and by the Anglican divines."1
The subject dealt with by the earliest of the Tracts
was the Apostolical Succession in the Church "tracts for
of England. " I am but one of yourselves," THE TIMES'"
it began, addressing " respectfully " the clergy : — " a
Presbyter, . . . yet speak I must." It bade them support
the Bishops and their rights as " Successors of the
Apostles," assert and claim "our Apostolical descent . . ."
" Choose your side. To remain neuter much longer
will be itself to take a part." 2 This was followed by
others on the Liturgy, on the Visible Church ; a series
entitled " Richard Nelson," which gave, in the form of
1 " Apologia," p. 43.
2 " Tracts for the Times," No. I.

John Henry Newman. 83
a dialogue, instruction on such subjects as the Athanasian
Creed, and on the meaning of the Church Service.
There were also others on mortification, and fasting ;
the neglect of discipline ; extracts from English divines
like Bishop Beveridge, Bishop Wilson, and Bishop
Cosin ; translations from the early Fathers — Ignatius,
Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and others. The first and the
greater number of the early Tracts were written by
Newman himself, though Keble, Froude, Palmer and
Perceval assisted ; while zealous helpers distributed
them from parsonage to parsonage. Dean Church has
described the effect they produced. "The early Tracts
were intended to startle the world, and they succeeded
in doing so ; . . . they brought strange things to the
ears of their generation ; . . . they were novelties, partly
audacious, partly unintelligible then ; they fell upon
a time of profound and inexcusable ignorance on the
subjects they discussed, and they did not spare it. The
cry of Romanism was inevitable, and was soon raised,
though there was absolutely nothing in them but had
the indisputable sanction of the Prayer-book, and of
the most authoritative Anglican divines. There was
no Romanism in them, nor anything that showed a
tendency to it." *
The doctrine that apparently aroused the greatest
opposition was the assertion of the Holy Catholic
Church as the depository of the Faith, and the teacher
of the Divine revelation. And it must be remembered
that this was the very doctrine that had been already
foretold as likely to create most serious opposition when
1 Dean Church, " History of the Oxford Movement," pp. 119, 120.

84 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
reasserted. The Rev. W. J. Copeland has recorded the
very remarkable prediction of Mr. Sikes, Rector of
Guilsborough, a representative and leader ofthe old High
Church Party. He declared that " the Church has been
kept out of sight, partly in consequence of the civil
establishment of the Branch of it in this country, and
partly out of false charity to Dissent. Now, this great
truth is an Article in the Creed, and, if so, to teach the
rest of the Creed to its exclusion must be to destroy
the analogy or proportion of the faith. This cannot be
done without the most serious consequences. The
doctrine is of the last importance, and the principles it
involves of immense power, and some day not far
distant it will judicially have its reprisals. . . . Our present
confusion is chiefly owing to the want of it, and there
will be yet more confusion attending its revival. The
effects of it I even dread to contemplate, especially if it
comes suddenly, and woe betide those, whoever they
are, who shall in the course of Providence have to bring
it forward." x
But while there was opposition to the Tracts in many
directions, there was also a remarkable expression of
sympathy and interest from a very large number of
clergy and laity. It was felt that the fomentors of the
, troubles and dangers that surrounded the Church were
not going to be allowed to have their way, without some
effort to withstand them on the part of her sons.
Much enthusiasm was aroused, and sanguine expecta
tion excited. There can be no doubt that there was
1 " Letters of J. H. Newman," vol. ii., pp. 483, 484 ; cf. " Life of
Pusey," vol. i., pp. 257, 258.

John Henry Newman. 85
still latent in the Church of England much real belief
in the Catholic foundations of her faith and worship.
And though it might be true, as Newman says, that
when an Anglican Bishop read the first Tract on " Apos
tolical Succession " he was " uncertain in his mind
whether he held the doctrine or not," 1 yet multitudes
of the English clergy gladly responded to the call to
base their trust in their spiritual Mother on her Apostolic
and Catholic origin, and not on the accidental advan
tages of her temporal position.
At the close of 1833, Newman felt that the Tracts
dr. pusey's already published were " short, hasty, and
adhesion, some of them ineffective ; " 2 and he was
therefore greatly delighted when, in December of the
next year, Dr. Pusey joined in the work with a Tract on
" Fasting." Newman called him 6 (iiyac, on account of
his learning and religious devotion. His position as
Professor of Hebrew and Canon of Christ Church, his
family connections and personal influence brought great
strength to the Movement. He signed his initials to his
first Tract on " Fasting," and, later on, published his
elaborate Tract on " Baptism," and the first beginnings
of the " Library of the Fathers." Pusey, like Keble, was
henceforth to Newman a cherished friend and coun
sellor. 1 " Apologia," p. 44. 2 Ibid., p. 60.

86 Five Great Oxford Leaders.

III.
All this time, since 1828, Newman had been exer
cising a very powerful and remarkable influence through
his sermons at St. Mary's, Parochial and sermons at
University. It is possible, even after the st. mary's.
lapse of more than sixty years, to form a very adequate
estimate of this influence, not only from the sermons
themselves, which so happily have been preserved, but
from the recorded experience of not a few of those
who heard them delivered. James Mozley said, "A
sermon of Mr. Newman's enters into all our feelings,
ideas, modes of viewing things. He wonderfully
realizes a state of mind, enters into a difficulty, a
temptation, a disappointment, a grief ; he goes into the
different turns and incidental, unconscious symptoms
of a case, with notions which come into the head and
go out again, and are forgotten till some chance recalls
them." 1 . . . Professor Shairp tells us, " His power
showed itself chiefly in the new and unlooked-for way
in which he touched into life old truths, moral or
spiritual, which all Christians acknowledge, but most
have ceased to feel ; when he spoke of ' unreal words,'
of the 'individuality of the soul,' of the 'invisible
world,' of a ' particular Providence,' or, again, of the
' ventures of faith,' ' warfare the condition of victory,'
'the Cross of Christ the measure of the world,' 'the
Church a home for the lonely.' And as he spoke,
1 Christian Remembrancer, Jan., 1846.

John Henry Newman. 87
how the old truth became new ! how it came home with
a meaning never felt before ! He laid his finger, how
gently, yet how powerfully, on some inner place in the
hearer's heart, and told him things about himself he
had never known till then. Subtlest truths, which it
would have taken philosophers pages of circumlocution
and big words to state, were dropped out by the way
in a sentence or two of the most transparent Saxon." *
Gladstone relates of Newman's manner in the pulpit,
" There was not very much change in the inflection of
the voice ; action there was none. His sermons were
read, and his eyes were always bent on his book, and
all that, you will say, is against efficiency in preaching.
Yes, but you must take the man as a whole, and there
was a stamp and a seal upon him ; there was a solemn
sweetness and music in the tone, there was a complete
ness in the figure, taken together with the tone and the
manner, which made even his delivery, such as I have
described it, and though exclusively from written ser
mons, singularly attractive." 2
J. A. Froude has called attention to his remarkable
likeness as to head and face to Julius Caesar, and said
that the lines of the mouth in both were very peculiar ;
that both men, so outwardly similar, were also very
much alike in that strange combination of an imperious
temper, a clearness of intellectual perception, with a
most attaching gentleness, sweetness, singleness of
heart and purpose.
It would be impossible, within the limits of the
1 Professor Shairp, " John Keble," pp. 12, 17.
2 Speech at City Temple, 1887.

88 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
present sketch, to give an adequate number of quota
tions from these remarkable sermons ; but the following
extract from one on " The use of religious excitement "
is very characteristic : —
"True it is, that all the passionate emotion or fine
sensibility which ever man displayed will never by itself
make us change our ways and do our duty. Impas
sioned thoughts, high aspirations, sublime imaginings,
have no strength in them. They can no more make
a man obey consistently than they can move mountains.
If any man truly repent, it must be in consequence, not
of these, but of a settled conviction of his guilt, and a
deliberate resolution to leave his sins and serve God.
Conscience, and reason in subjection to conscience,
these are the powerful instruments, under grace, which
change a man. But you will observe that, though con
science and reason lead us to resolve on and to attempt
a new life, they cannot at once make us love it. It is
long practice and habit which make us love religion ;
and in the beginning obedience, doubtless, is very
grievous to habitual sinners. Here, then, is the use
of those earnest, ardent feelings of which I spoke just
now, and which attend on the first exercise of conscience
and reason — to take away from the beginnings of
obedience its grievousness ; to give us an impulse which
may carry us over the first obstacles, and send us on
our way rejoicing. Not as if all this excitement of
mind were to last (which cannot be) ; but it will do
its office in thus setting us off, and then will leave us
to the more sober and higher comfort resulting from
that real love for religion which obedience itself will

John Henry Newman. 89
have by that time begun to form in us, and will gradu
ally go on to perfect." *
Again, how beautifully the preacher could utilize the
happy experience of his own home life to show how
love to God is the outcome and development, to a great
extent, of a right use of our natural affections, is evident
from the following words : —
"There have been men before now who have sup
posed Christian love was so diffusive as not to admit
of concentration upon individuals, so that we ought to
love all men equally. And many they are who, without
bringing forward any theory, yet consider practically
that the love of many is something superior to the love
of one or two, and neglect the charities of private life
while busy in the schemes of an expansive benevolence,
or of effecting a general union and conciliation among
Christians. Now, I shall here maintain, in opposition
to such notions of Christian love, and with our Saviour's
pattern before me, that the best preparation for loving
the world at large, and loving it duly and wisely, is to
cultivate an intimate friendship and affection towards
those who are immediately about us. It has been the
plan of Divine Providence to ground what is good and
true in religion and morals on the basis of our good
natural feelings. What we are towards our earthly
friends in the instincts and wishes of our infancy, such
we are to become at length towards God and man in
the extended field of our duties as accountable beings.
To honour our parents is the first step towards honour
ing God ; to love our brethren according to the flesh,
1 " Parochial and Plain Sermons," vol. i., p. 114.

90 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
the first step towards considering all men our brethren.
Hence our Lord says we must become as little children
if we would be saved ; we must become in His Church,
as men, what we were once in the small circle of our
youthful homes." *
The following quotation is from a sermon that, at the
time, made a very great impression upon more than one
person who heard it : —
" Let every one who hears me ask himself the question,
what stake has he in the truth of Christ's promise?
How would he be a whit the worse off, supposing — which
is impossible — but, supposing it to fail ? We know what
it is to have a stake in any venture of this world. We
venture our property in plans which promise a return ;
in plans which we trust, which we have faith in. What
have we ventured for Christ ? What have we given to
Him on a belief of His promise ? The Apostle said
that he and his brethren would be of all men most
miserable if the dead were not raised. Can we in any
degree apply this to ourselves? We think, perhaps,
at present, we have some hope of heaven : well, this we
should lose of course ; but, after all, how should we be
worse off as to our present condition ? A trader who
has embarked some property in a speculation which
fails, not only loses his prospect of gain, but somewhat
of his own, which he ventured with the hope of the
gain. This is the question. What have we ventured?
I really fear, when we come to examine, it will be found
that there is nothing we resolve, nothing we do, nothing
we do not do, nothing we avoid, nothing we choose,
1 " Parochial and Plain Sermons," vol. ii., p. 52.

John Henry Newman. 91
nothing we give up, nothing we pursue which we should
not resolve, and do, and not do, and avoid, and choose,
and give up, and pursue if Christ had not died, and
heaven were not promised for us. I really fear that
most men called Christians, whatever they may pro
fess, whatever they may think they feel, whatever
warmth and illumination and love they may claim as
their own, yet would go on almost as they do, neither
much better nor much worse, if they believed Christianity
to be a fable. When young, they indulge their lusts,
or at least pursue the world's vanities ; as time goes on,
they get into a fair way of business, or other mode of
making money ; then they marry and settle ; and then,
interest coinciding with their duty, they seem to be, and
think themselves, respectable and religious men : they
grow attached to things as they are ; they begin to
have a zeal against vice and error ; and they follow
after peace with all men. Such conduct indeed, as far
as it goes, is right and praiseworthy. Only I say, it has
not necessarily anything to do with religion at all : there
is nothing in it which is any proof of the presence of
religious principles in those who adopt it; there is
nothing they would not do still, though they had
nothing to gain from it, except what they gain from
it now : they do gain something now ; they do gratify
their present wishes — they are quiet and orderly, because
it is their interest and taste to be so ; but they venture
nothing, they risk, they sacrifice, they abandon nothing
on the faith of Christ's word." x
As time went on it was evident first that the religion
1 " Parochial and Plain Sermons," vol. iv., pp. 300-302.

92 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
of the day, and the unreality of much profession of
Christianity, seemed to Newman to call for trenchant
and austere denunciation. But later the serious con
dition of the Church herself led him to dwell largely
on the dangers resulting from her alliance with the
State, on the need of a far higher standard of life and
mortification on the part of the clergy, and on the
supernatural character of the Catholic Church as the
Bride of Christ. Newman undoubtedly valued and
made use of all these opportunities of influencing those
who came into contact with him ; and he has himself
stated in one ofhis "University Sermons" how important
is the opportunity of propagating the Truth by means
of personal influence. "Moreover," he says, "such con
siderations lead us to be satisfied with the humblest and
most obscure lot ; by showing us, not only that we may
be the instruments of much good in it, but that (strictly
speaking) we could scarcely in any situation be direct
instruments of good to any besides those who personally
know us, who however must form a small circle ; and as to
the indirect good we may do in a more exalted situation
(which is by no means to be lightly esteemed), still we
are not absolutely precluded from it in a lower place
in the Church. Nay, it has happened before now, that
comparatively retired posts have been filled by those
who have exerted the most extensive influences over
the destinies of religion in the time following them;
as in the arts and pursuits of this world, the great
benefactors of mankind are frequently unknown. Let
all those, then, who acknowledge the voice of God
speaking within them, and urging them heavenward,

John Henry Newman. 93
wait patiently for the end, exercising themselves and
diligently working with a view to that day when the
books shall be opened, and all the disorder of human
affairs reviewed and set right, when ' the last shall be
first and the first last;' when 'all things that offend, and
they which do iniquity,' shall be gathered out and
removed ; when ' the righteous shall shine forth as the
sun,' and Faith shall see her God ; when ' they that be
wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and
they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for
ever and ever.' " 1
And yet there was never in Newman anything at all
akin to the spirit of the mere proselytizer. He never
attempted to force men's convictions. Whatever influence
came to him, it came unsought : as Dean Church has
said, " The position of leader in a great crisis came to
him because it must come." "Thus, the publication
of the Tracts, and the preaching of the sermo'ns together
contributed to the spread of the Movement. While
men were reading and talking about the Tracts, they
were hearing the sermons, and in the sermons they
heard the living meaning and reason and bearing of
the Tracts, their ethical affinities, their moral standard.
The. sermons created a moral atmosphere in which men
judged the questions in debate. It was no dry theo
logical correctness and completeness which were sought
for. No love of privilege, no formal hierarchical claims
urged on the writers. What they thought in danger,
what they aspired to revive and save, was the very life
1 " University Sermons," iv., p. 84.

94 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
of religion, the truth and substance of all that makes it
the hope of human society." x

IV.
In the year 183 5 the appointment of Dr. Hampden
to the Regius Professorship of Divinity gave hampden
rise to a very serious agitation. He was a controversy.
man who, as Dean Church says, did not mean to be
unorthodox and unevangelical, but in his " Bampton
Lectures " had taken a line which, if logically carried
out, made all dogmatic definitions of Christian doc
trine uncertain, and undermined the authority and
very existence of the Catholic and Apostolic Church,
Newman published a pamphlet called " Elucidations
of Dr. Hampden's Theological Statements." Not only
did Dr. Hampden offer to resign, but remonstrances
were sent from Oxford to the Prime Minister. To
these no attention was paid, and the appointment was
confirmed. The Tractarian Party in Oxford by no
means stood alone in their opposition, for heads of
houses and country parsons, Evangelicals and High
Churchmen, were all greatly alarmed at the probable
result of Dr. Hampden's speculations. But it became
then, and afterwards, the fashion to speak of the atti
tude of Newman and his friends as that of persecution;
and the opposition to Dr. Hampden was used as a
ground for bringing a charge of bigotry against the
Tractarian School. From this time forward Whateiy
1 " Oxford Movement," p. 130.

John Henry Newman. 95
ceased to regard Newman as his friend, and declined
to see him, later on, when he called upon him in Dublin.
Newman was almost compelled to meet the charges
the via of Romanism, constantly made on all sides,
media. jn some definite and detailed shape, and
the result was that he delivered and published lectures
on the " Prophetical Office of the Church viewed rela
tively to Romanism and Popular Protestantism," after
wards republished in the volumes entitled "The Via
Media." This was an attempt to define accurately and
theologically the Anglican position, and place it on a
logical basis. Newman's attitude of mind at this time
has been described as very much like that of a master of
a vessel taking soundings in the supposed neighbourhood
of land. " The lead is cast every two or three minutes,
while the cry of the number of fathoms found is anxiously
listened to by the ship's crew and passengers." 2
It is doubtless true that Newman, from his early
training, never had that same quiet and natural confi
dence in the position of the Church of England, such as
existed in the minds of Pusey, and still more of Keble,
who had been trained all their lives in old-fashioned
High Church principles.2 He was, therefore, keenly
sensitive to the criticism that " The Via Media," as it
was called, seemed to many minds to be nothing more
than a paper theory, and an unworthy compromise ;
and it is, of course, true that the phrase, often then and
1 R. H. Hutton, " Cardinal Newman," p. 72.
2 It has been said of Newman's relation to the Catholic Party
in the English Church that he " passed through us without being
of us " {Christian Remembrancer, xlviii. 169).

96 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
since, has aroused much dislike. Yet, after all, it has
always been the line taken by Anglican divines since
the sixteenth century ; it is the idea embodied in George
Herbert's well-known poem on the British Church : —
" A fine aspect in fit array
Neither too mean, nor yet too gay,
Shows who is best :
Outlandish looks may not compare ;
For all they either painted are,
Or else undrest."
****** " But, dearest mother (what those miss),
The mean thy praise and glory is,
And long may be.
Blessed be God, whose love it was
To double-moat thee with his grace,
And none but thee." 1
It underlies the "sober" teaching of Keble's "Chris
tian Year," and, indeed, ofthe Book of Common Prayer
itself. It can certainly claim no little support from the
philosophy of Aristotle, if spiritual truth has analogous
relations with moral virtue.
Nor must be forgotten Dean Church's estimate of
"The Via Media," "It only answered to the certain
fact, that in the early and undivided Church, there was
such a thing as authority, and there was no such thing
known as Infallibility. It was an appeal to the facts of
history and human nature against the logical exigencies
of a theory." 2
Shortly afterwards the Anglican view of the Church
set out in Newman's writings was greatly reinforced by
1 George Herbert, " The British Church."
2 " Oxford Movement," p. 212.

John Henry Newman. 97
the admirable work of Mr. W. Palmer, the author of
the " Origines Liturgicae," entitled a " Treatise on the
Church of Christ." This book has been justly described
as "an honour to English theology and learning."'
It commanded the respect of foreign controversialists,
and of the great theologian, Dr. Dollinger. Gladstone
placed a very high value upon it ; and Newman himself
recognized its merits, though he felt that Palmer left
unanswered some Romanist objections to the Anglican
position. Towards the end of 1838 some excitement
was created at Oxford by the erection of the Martyrs'
Memorial, mainly through the efforts of Mr. Golightly.
This clergyman, who at one time had actually been
suggested as a Curate to Newman at Littlemore, had
become one of the most active opponents of the Trac
tarian Movement. Pusey was inclined to subscribe to
the Memorial, in order to disarm suspicion of sympathy
with Rome ; but Newman, secure in his conviction that
he had plainly and publicly asserted his sincere loyalty
to the Anglican Church, declined to do so. This con
fidence of Newman's was real and sincere ; neither he
nor any one of his friends had any suspicion of a doubt
as to his loyal attitude to the Church of England.
Early in 1839 Newman published an article in the
confident British Critic, which represents the high-
position. water mark of the tide of his confidence and
trust in the Anglican position. It was, in fact, what
he did not realize at the time, his supreme utterance
" as an Anglican to Anglicans." This came home to
him later on, but at the time of writing the article, " My
1 "Oxford Movement," p. 214. II

98 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
position," he says, " in the Anglican Church was at its
height. I had a supreme confidence in my contro
versial status, >and I had a great and still growing success
in recommending it to others." He has fully described
what the position he took up in the article was. It was
a position claiming to be in a very true sense Catholic,
to believe in a religion, " very unlike the Protestantism
of the day," based upon the writings and teaching of the
great Anglican writers of the seventeenth century — Bram
hall, Andrewes, Hooker, Hammond, Bull, Thorndike,
and Pearson. The article concluded with an appeal to
English people to remove their feet from the unstable
ground of so-called "orthodox Protestantism," and to
return to the teaching of the divines of the English
Church in the seventeenth century. " Would you fathers
have your sons and your daughters members of the
Church of England or of the Church of Rome ? " ' For,
as he urged, if people reject the teaching of the Anglican
divines, and ofthe present Tracts, mere Protestantism will
not long prevent Rome from winning all along the line.
And yet, with all this apparent confidence, some of
Newman's most intimate friends, and among them
Isaac Williams, who served as Assistant Curate of Little
more, were more or less conscious that all was not quite
so secure as he himself, and the greater number of his
followers, supposed. There can be no doubt that the fact
of his having been the only one of the Tract writers who
originally belonged to the Evangelical School, the only
one who had, as it were, been obliged to emerge into a
1 British Critic, April, 1839, pp. 419, 426; "Apologia;'
pp. 94-104.

John Henry Newman. 99
new ecclesiastical atmosphere, made him always liable
to appear to himself, and to some who knew him best,
to be making a series of spiritual " experiments." He
was consciously or unconsciously endeavouring to find
out " how much the Church of England would bear,"
and " knew not what would be the issue." * All this
was going on below the surface, but outwardly, and
even to himself, Newman was still confidently marching
onwards with the Anglican banner proudly unfurled.
But there was soon to come a change. A 'little cloud
rising showed itself on the horizon, a little rift
doubts, opened, soon to widen into an impassable
gulf. In the summer of 1839 Newman tells us
that he began to study the history of the Mono-
phy sites. The controversy with Rome had been put
on one side for more than two years. In the midst
of his study of the struggles of the Church against the
heresies of the fifth century, " I found," he says, " as it
seemed to me, Christendom of the sixteenth and the
nineteenth century reflected. I saw my face in that
mirror, and I saw myself a Monophysite. The church
of the Via Media was in the position of the Oriental
Communion. Rome was where she now is, and the
Protestants were the Eutychians." 2
Shortly after this strange impression created by the
study of the Monophysite heresy, a friend placed in his
hands the Dublin Review of that month, containing an
article by Dr. Wiseman on the Anglican claim. The
writer drew a parallel, not indeed a very just or exact
1 "Isaac Williams' "Autobiography," pp. 102-120.
2 " Apologia," p. 1 14.

100 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
one, between the Anglican Church and the Donatists
in Africa. But a sentence of St. Augustine — " Securus
judicat orbis terrarum " — quoted in the Review, and
pointed out to him by a friend, acted upon A spiritual
Newman's mind "like the 'Turn again, shock.
Whittington' of the chime, or, to take a more serious
one, they were like the ' Tolle lege, Tolle lege' of the
child which converted St. Augustine himself. ' Securus
judicat orbis terrarum ! ' By those great words of the
ancient Father, interpreting and summing up the long
and varied course of ecclesiastical history, the theory of
the Via Media was absolutely pulverized." 1
It is true that the impression faded away for the
time ; but Newman felt as if he had seen a " shadow
of a hand upon the wall." He was "like one to whom
a ghost had appeared," and the effect of the impression
was a very important one. It virtually destroyed the
value of the Via Media in his mind, though he still
retained a firm belief that Rome was full of practical
abuses and excesses. And yet after this time he ceased
to write strongly against the Roman Church and her
formal doctrines, and more and more began to feel that
the Anglican Church required to be cleared of much
that obscured the expression of Catholic truth in her
formularies, and especially in the Articles. He was so
anxious for quietness and leisure, that he even con
templated the resignation of St. Mary's and
r . , , , , LITTLEMORE.
retirement to Littlemore, where he had begun
and carried out a very interesting parochial work.
Littlemore was an integral part of the parish of St.
1 "Apologia," p. 117.

John Henry Newman. ioi
Mary's, and regarded as a chapel of ease ; but New
man found in it a separate and most interesting sphere
of pastoral work. The parishioners were almost entirely
rustics living in cottages. They appreciated greatly
the work done amongst them by Mr. Newman and
his curates, and even more still the kindly visits at
their homes of his mother and sisters. Twenty years
later, Newman wrote with interest of one of his old
parishioners from Littlemore, who was living in Birming
ham, and had called upon him.1 Newman had built the
little church in their midst in 1835, and it is recorded,
by one who knew the parish well, that he gained a very
strong hold upon their affections ; so much so that they
even resented in later days, as a kind of slight on New
man's work and memory, the enlargement and altera
tions made in the church, which were supposed to be, by
others, a great improvement. The building was, in fact,
a very plain and simple one, the days of architectural
revival having scarcely begun. Nor was the character
of the service in the least elaborate or ritualistic, and, as
T. Mozley tells us, both there and at St. Mary's, Oxford,
Newman "from first to last performed the service
after the fashion of the last century." 2 It has some
times been said, in later days, that an attractive cere
monial is a means of teaching the uneducated Catholic
doctrine. It is very doubtful whether there is much
truth in this. Certainly Newman and the early Trac
tarians depended entirely upon their powers of teaching
the Catholic faith by plain instruction, constant devotion
1 " Isaac Williams' Autobiography," p. 133.
3 " Reminiscences," vol. i., p. 345-

102 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
and, above all, a life of self-denial and sincere piety.
Ceremonies are rather the expression of faith and
devotion than means of teaching them.
It must never be forgotten that, both at St. Clement's,
Oxford, and at Littlemore, Newman proved himself to
be not only a guide of souls and teacher of the Catholic
Faith among intellectual persons at the University, but
a tender pastor and friend of simple villagers and
working people. And now that the shadows of uncer
tainty and the mists of doubt began to gather round
him, he seemed to long for some place of rest where
he might quietly face the difficulties that were closing
round him, within and without. Early in 1840 he
expresses in his letters the presence of doubts and
perplexities, though, now and again, he made it clear
that he still believed in the Apostolic character of the
Church of England ; and in May and the following
months he was full of plans for building what he called
a fiovfi, — a miniature religious house, with oratory,
library, and cells, each cell containing three departments
— a sitting-room, a bedroom, and a cold-bath room. He
spent much time in teaching the children church music,
and improving the services and ritual; and an ever-
increasing portion of his day was assigned to devotional
exercises and meditation. He had, since March, 1836,
become acquainted with the Breviary, which he con
tinued to use ever after. But the time had come when
he was impelled to take a decisive step in the asser
tion of the Catholic position of the Anglican Church,
and henceforth there was for him no repose or leisure.
There had been growing up a feeling, not only

John Henry Newman. 103
among the critics of the Movement, but also among
its friends, that something was required to
1RAC1 .X.C. explain legitimately the Anglican formu
laries in a Catholic sense without accepting the Roman
claims. Some of the Tracts had already begun to
cause distrust in certain quarters. Keble's Tract on
"The Mysticism of the Fathers," and that by Isaac
Williams on " Reserve in communicating Religious
Knowledge," had excited much opposition. The pub
lication of Froude's " Remains " gave occasion to
accusations of Romanizing tendencies. Several of the
Bishops spoke with mingled caution and praise of the
Oxford teaching, and others began to denounce it as "an
undermining ofthe foundations of our Protestant Church."
On the other hand, some of the younger adherents of
the Movement, among whom must be numbered W. G.
Ward and F. Oakeley, had begun to speak and to write
in exaggerated language of the weak points of the
English Church, and to extol in terms of unmeasured
praise the greatness and merits of the Roman Com
munion and her teaching. Newman was even appealed
to by Bishops to restrain the excesses of his younger
followers, and he made up his mind to publish a Tract
in' order to show that the Thirty-nine Articles were
patient of a Catholic interpretation, and that they were
never intended to exclude those who held Catholic
tradition ; that they were not even aimed at the autho
rized teaching of the Roman Church, but against
popular exaggerations of particular points of doctrine
and practice.1 Newman had long meditated a comment
1 "Their framers constructed them in such a way as best to

104 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
upon the Articles, and the question had often come to
him, " What will you make of the Articles ? " He con
ceived, therefore, that he was only following the prin
ciples of the Anglican Reformation in adhering in his
interpretation of the Articles to the instruction given in
the Canon of the English Church, by the Convocation
of 1 571, that preachers should instruct their people in
" that which is agreeable to the doctrine of the Old and
New Testaments, and that which the Catholic Fathers
and ancient Bishops have collected from their very
doctrine." Newman has told us very plainly that he
never claimed to hold all Roman doctrine while sub
scribing to the Thirty-nine Articles, nor to interpret
them in a " non-natural " sense. Their plain gram
matical meaning interpreted, as he believed he was
right in doing, in harmony with the teaching of the
Catholic Fathers, was the meaning that he conceived
he was called upon to accept and teach. Tract 90 was
published on the 27th of February. " It was AN UNJl,ST
met at Oxford, not with argument, but with treatment.
panic and wrath." 1 Very soon four senior tutors,
among whom were Mr. H. B. Wilson, of St. John's —
who himself in later days was charged with very serious
statements at variance with the teaching of the Articles
and Creeds,2— and Mr. A. C. Tait, of Balliol, afterwards
comprehend those who did not go so far in Protestantism as
themselves. Anglo-Catholics then are but the successors and
representatives of those moderate reformers. . . . The Protestant
Confession was drawn up with the purpose of including Catholics,
and Catholics now will not be excluded." — Tract xc, pp. 85, 86.
1 Dean Church, " Oxford Movement,'' p. 290.
2 Cf. infra, p. 202.

John Henry Newman. 105
Archbishop of Canterbury — wrote to the editor of the
Tract, charging him with opening the way to a violation
of their engagements to the University on the part of
men with Roman views. A week alter, the Board of
Heads of Houses, without waiting for Mr. Newman's
defence, condemned the Tract. Newman, with much
courtesy, wrote to the Board a defence of its principles,
and to his Bishop further explanations.
Sir John Coleridge has recorded his estimate as a
lawyer of the unjust treatment received by the Tract
and its writer at the hands of the Board. " The Board
knew, and were indeed directly informed, that three
individuals, among the most eminent in the University,
and most blameless in character, were substantially
the persons to be affected by their decree ; nor could
the Board be ignorant how heavy was the blow which
it proposed to strike by its sentence. The barest justice
therefore required that, if any one of them desired to
be heard in explanation or mitigation of the charge,
reasonable time should have been afforded for the
purpose; the more plain the case, the stronger seemingly
the evidence, the more imperative in a judicial proceed
ing was this duty. One can hardly believe that five
days only elapsed from the commencement of the pro
ceeding to the publication of the sentence, and twelve'
hours of delay were respectfully solicited for the defence
and refused. On the sixth day the defence appeared.
It is obviously quite immaterial to consider whether that
defence would have availed or ought to have availed ; a
judgment so pronounced could have ho moral weight." J
1 Coleridge, " Memoir of the Rev. John Keble," vol. i., p. 278.

106 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
Newman was surprised at the reception of his attempt
to limit the Anti-Roman scope of the Articles, when
so much leniency had been shown to writers who had
denied or evaded the plain meaning of the Creeds
and the Church's teaching on the Sacraments ; and he
began to be seriously alarmed at what looked like a
denial, on the part of the authorities of the University
and the Church, of fundamental Catholic principles.
The Bishop of Oxford, Dr. Bagot, treated him with
much kindness, but asked him to suppress the Tract;
and the matter ended, for the present, by Newman dis
continuing the series of Tracts, without being called upon
to give up his convictions by suppressing Tract 90.
But the plain result of the outburst of feeling, and
the treatment of the Tract by the University, THE LEADEKS
was to make Newman feel that his position withdrawal.
in the Movement was gone. That his name had been
posted up on the buttery-hatch of every college after
the manner " of discommoned pastry-cooks," as he
himself put it, wounded him to the quick. That he
should be thought capable of anything like an immoral
evasion, was hateful to his inmost soul. " I saw," he
says, " clearly that my place in the Movement was lost,
public confidence was at an end, my occupation was
gone. ... In the last words of my letter to the Bishop
of Oxford I thus resigned my own place in the
Movement." x 1 "Apologia," pp. 89, 90.

John Henry Newman. 107

V.
Very soon after this painful experience, and the
three heavy moral and spiritual wrench involved in it,
blows. ttjree other blows came upon him, while in
retirement at Littlemore at work on his Translation
of St. Athanasius. First, as he describes it, " the ghost
had come a second time." In the history of Arianism,
as in that of the Monophysites, he seemed to see modern
ecclesiastical parties depicted. " The pure Arians were
the Protestants, the semi-Arians were the Anglicans,
and Rome now was what it was then." x The Via
Media seemed to be the path taken by halters between
two opinions.
It is impossible as this mental impression is recorded,
so like the others previously related, not to feel that
Newman was largely under the influence of a highly
sensitive and even morbid fancy. And it must be
remembered that Dr. Dollinger once stated, that, if
Newman had paid as close and detailed attention to
later Church history, as he did to that of the fourth and
fifth centuries, he would not have found the position of
Rome so clearly on the side of orthodoxy, as he seemed
to have discovered it to be. The second blow that fell
upon him was the series of Bishops' Charges, which
appeared to him to be a formal expression of the voice
of authority in the Anglican Church, in condemnation
of the teaching of the Oxford Movement. He himself
felt and declared, that nothing had so increased the
1 "Apologia," p. 139.

108 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
tendency towards secession to Rome as the condemna
tion of Tract 90 and the language used by the Bishops.
Here, again, it is impossible not to feel that Newman.
who always felt that " the lightest word of his Bishop "
was all-important to him, failed to remember that
the lessons gathered from Church history, especially in
Arian times, ought to prevent any one from identifying
the orthodoxy of the Church of any age or country with
the opinions of the Bishops of any particular time.
Pusey once said, " Newman leant upon the Bishops, and
they broke under him. Keble and I leant upon the
Church." The third blow was the foundation of the Jerusalem
Bishopric — a most unhappy attempt to unite Anglicans
and Lutherans in one communion, under the influence
of Baron Bunsen, — which had apparently for its object
the introduction indirectly of episcopacy into the
State Church of Prussia. The Bishop, who was to be
appointed alternately by the Sovereigns of England and
Prussia, and consecrated by the Primate of all England,
was to preside over Anglican and Lutheran clergymen
in Palestine. It appeared to all Catholic Churchmen
to be a very serious and compromising lowering of the
true status ofthe Anglican Church, as well as an invasion
of the jurisdiction of the Oriental Orthodox Commu
nion. No one now defends this miserable and ill-starred
project. It is a matter of the greatest satisfaction that
the present Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem has nothing
whatever to do with the German Lutherans, and, so far
from intruding into the jurisdiction of the Eastern
Church, was appointed with the full approval of the

John Henry Newman. 109
Orthodox Patriarch. This happy change is one of the
many debts the Church owes to the late Archbishop
Benson. Probably, if there had not been other causes
to weaken Newman's faith in the Catholicity of the
Anglican Church, he might not only, as he with others
did, have made a solemn protest to his own Bishop and
to the Archbishop of Canterbury against the project,
but have lived to see, not merely that " it never did good
or harm to any one," but also that it was an insufficient
cause for bringing him "on to the beginning of the
end." Newman said of himself, " From the end of 1841, 1 was
on my death-bed, as regards my membership with the
Anglican Church, though at the time I became aware
of it only by degrees." * He had already felt that he
waning no longer could look upon the English
confidence. Church with the same confidence as of old.
It appeared to him to be somewhat in the same position
as the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, not altogether cast
off, not without grace ; prophets like' Elijah and Elisha
were sent to it, but still it was, in a serious sense, in a
state of schism ; so with the Anglican Communion, it
had the Apostolic Succession and Sacraments, but could
scarcely be regarded as in the full sense Catholic. And
yet he strove to dwell on the grace given to individuals
in spite of the defects of the branch ofthe visible Church
to which they belonged. It was with this feeling in his
mind that he wrote to his sister, who was much troubled
about his position and that of the Church, in the fol
lowing words, which seem to represent his state of mind
1 "Apologia," p. 147.

no Five Great Oxford Leaders. •
in the early part of 1842 : "Will you let me turn your
thoughts, if I have not done so already, to the duty,
and, in one sense, task of cultivating interior religion,
and, in doing so, of leaving all matters of opinion for
your Almighty Protector to determine for you in His
good time ? So far is certain, whatever misgivings you
may have had about the Catholicity of the' English
Church, that men may in it be far, far holier, may live
far nearer to God than most of us do. Let us beg Him
to enable us to aim at those inward perfections, which
He certainly does vouchsafe in our Communion. We
cannot be wrong here, we must be pleasing Him in this
proceeding ; we are in the safest way putting ourselves
under the shadow of His wings. Depend upon it, at
this day, and in our present state, we are unequal to the
great work of judging Churches, and had better leave it
alone." J
He had not long before preached four sermons, in
November and December, 1841, entitled, "The Invisible
Presence of Christ," " Outward and Inward Notes of
the Church," " Grounds for Steadfastness in our Christian
Religion," "Elijah the Prophet in the Latter Days."2
These were all intended to reassure those who were
perplexed. They were not meant for those who had
no doubt, or those who had no right to be in doubt ; and
they were evidently efforts to reassure himself. One
thing is quite clear, that, during these last few years
that he remained in the Anglican Church, he did nothing
impatiently, nothing under the influence of mere per-
] " Life and Letters of J. H. Newman," vol. ii., p. 389.
2 " Sermons on Subjects of the Day," xxi., xxii., xxiii., xxiv.

John Henry Newman. in
sonal irritation. The painful feelings excited by the
virtual condemnation of Tract 90 must not be taken as
the real cause of his final secession. Isaac Williams,
who knew him well, expresses his opinion very clearly
that, though it is quite true that " Newman was very
sensitive of such things," the change was much " more
owing to his own mind." 2 Rightly or wrongly, his
arguments for the Catholicity of the Anglican Church
were failing him one by one, and yet he was kept back
from joining Rome on account of his inability to accept
some of her teaching, and, with delicate scrupulousness,
he was careful to exercise his influence in restraining
others from becoming Romanists.
Early in February, 1842, he removed to Littlemore
with his books and other belongings, only going to
Oxford from Saturday till Monday for his duties at
St. Mary's. He had a year and a half before this
desired to retire from St. Mary's and keep Littlemore ;
but the Provost was unwilling to agree to the proposi
tion. His removal to Littlemore caused the circulation
of many rumours as to his position and actions, and the
Bishop of Oxford, Dr. Bagot, wrote to him to ask whether
he was actually building a regular Anglo-Catholic monas
tery. He replied, that while he wished to make his house
at Littlemore a place of retirement, where, he might live
a life of greater religious regularity, he was not making
any sort of attempt to found a monastic institution.
The letters, written by him in the course of that year
to his sisters, to Keble, and others, were, on the whole,
calm and quiet in their character. But, in August,
1 "Isaac Williams's Autobiography," pp, 104-115.

1 1 2 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
1843, one of his friends, who had been living with him
at Littlemore, was received into the Church A PAINFUL
of Rome. This appeared to him to demand crisis.
some definite action on his part. He could no longer
remain in the active ranks of the Anglican ministry, he
must retire into lay communion. He determined,
accordingly, to resign St. Mary's, and with it Little
more. He preached his last sermon at St. Mary's on
September 17th, and at Littlemore, September 25th.
Just before this last date he wrote the following letter
to his sister, Mrs. J. Mozley : " You cannot estimate
what so many (alas !) feel at present, the strange effect
produced on the mind when the conviction flashes, or
rather pours, in upon it, that Rome is the true Church.
Of course it is a most revolutionary, and therefore a
most exciting, tumultuous conviction. For this reason
persons should not act under it ; for it is impossible in
such a state of emotion that they can tell whether their
conviction is well founded or not. They cannot judge
calmly. ... It pains me very deeply to pain you ; but
you see how I am forced to it. You will not say, I
think, that I am less affectionate to you from the bottom
of my heart, and loving, than I ever have been."1
There are, perhaps, no words of any preacher that
have come down to us so full of anguish as those of his
last sermon, preached at Littlemore, on " The Parting
of Friends." They are the revelation of a heart torn
with grief at the state of that Church for which he had
laboured so earnestly, and his inability to remain any
longer ministering at her altars or teaching in her
1 " Life and Letters of J. H. Newman," vol. ii., p. 424.

John Henry Newman. 113
pulpits. They are not bitter words expressing mere
a sad personal disappointment, but wrung from
farewell. an unwilling breast by what appeared to
him a stern necessity : " O mother of saints ! O school
of the wise ! O nurse of the heroic, of whom went
forth, in whom have dwelt, memorable names of old,
to spread the truth abroad, or to cherish and illustrate
it at home! O thou from whom surrounding nations
lit their lamps ! O virgin of Israel ! wherefore dost
thou now sit on the ground and keep silence, like one
of the foolish women who were without oil on the
coming of the Bridegroom? Where is now the ruler
in Sion, and the Doctor in the temple, and the ascetic
on Carmel, and the herald in the wilderness, and the
preacher in the market-place ? Where are thy ' effectual
fervent prayers,' offered up in secret, and thy alms and
good works coming up as a memorial before God ?
How is it, O once Holy place, that ' the land mourneth,
for the corn is wasted, the new wine is dried up, the oil
languisheth . . . because joy is withered away from the
sons of men ? ' ' Alas for the day . . . how do the
beasts groan, the herds of cattle are perplexed, because
they have no pasture, yea, the flocks of sheep are made
desolate.' ' Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down ;
Sharon is like a wilderness, and Bashan and Carmel
shake off their fruits." O my mother, whence is this
unto thee, that thou hast good things poured upon thee
and canst not keep them, and bearest children, yet
darest not own them ? Why hast thou not the skill to
use their services, nor the heart to rejoice in their love ?
How is it that whatever is generous in purpose and
I

r- 14 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
tender or deep in devotion, thy flower and thy promise,
falls from thy bosom and finds no home within thine
arms? Who hath put this note upon thee, to have
'a miscarrying womb, and dry breasts,' to be strange
to thine own flesh, and thine eye cruel towards thy
little ones ? Thine own offspring, the fruit of thy womb,
who love thee and would toil for thee, thou dost gaze
upon with fear, as though a portent, or thou dost loathe
as an offence — at best thou dost but endure, as if they
had no claim but on thy patience, self-possession, and
vigilance, to be rid of them as easily as thou mayest.
Thou makest them ' stand all the day idle,' as the very
condition of thy bearing with them ; or thou biddest
them begone, where they will be more welcome; or
thou sellest them for nought to the stranger that passes
by. And what wilt thou do in the end thereof . . . P"1
The effect of Newman's resignation of St. Mary's was
most striking ; indeed, it was quite appalling, the empty
For many years that voice had been heard '',ILP'T-
and listened to with rapt attention. His sermons have
been described as having " done more perhaps than any
one thing to mould and quicken and brace the religious
temper of our time. They have acted with equal force
on those who were nearest and those who were furthest
from them in theological opinion. They have altered
the whole manner of feeling towards religious subjects.
. . . These sermons are also among the very finest
examples of what the English language of our day has
done in the hands of a master. Sermons of such intense
conviction and directness of purpose, combined with
1 J. H. Newman, " Sermons on Subjects of the Day," p. 408.

John Henry Newman. 115
such originality and perfection on their purely literal
side, are rare everywhere." J
Another has said of him, " I had then never seen so
impressive a person ; I met him now and then in private.
I attended his church and heard him preach Sunday
after Sunday. He is supposed to have been insidious,
to have led his disciples on to conclusions, to which he
designed to bring them, while his purpose was carefully
veiled. He was, on the contrary, the most transparent
of men ; he told us what he believed to be true : he did
not know where it would carry him." 2
And now all this was to come to an end ; no longer
would crowds of men, young and old, hang upon his
lips, and go away in silence, deeply moved, pondering
things in their heart. One who was at that time an
undergraduate has told us in striking language what he
felt when it was known that Newman had ceased to be
Vicar of St. Mary's : " On these things, looking over
an interval of five and twenty years, how vividly comes
back the remembrance of the aching blank, the awful
pause which fell on Oxford when that voice had ceased,
and we knew that we should hear it no more. It was
as when, to one kneeling by night, in the silence of some
vast cathedral, the great bell tolling solemnly overhead
has suddenly gone still. . . . Since then many voices
of powerful teachers may have been heard, but none
that ever penetrated the soul like his." 3
1 Saturday Review, June 5, 1879.
2 JVA. Froude, Good Words, 1881, p. 612.
3 Shairp, " Studies in Poetry and Philosophy."

u6 Five Great Oxford Leaders.

VI.
During the remainder of 1843, and throughout the
next year, Newman was in close retirement inward
writing to his sisters, to his friends, J. W. distress.
Bowden, Keble, and J. B. Mozley — his mind still
strongly drawn towards Rome, but listening, as he said,
to the waning doubt in favour of the Anglican Church,
as he had formerly listened to the waning doubt in
favour of Rome. How touching are the following words
of his sister, Mrs. J. Mozley, when, in March, 1845, she
wrote as follows of his probable secession : " It is like
hearing that some dear friend must die ; I cannot shut
my eyes to this overpowering event that threatens, any
longer. What the consequences may be I know not.
Oh, dear John, can you have thought long enough,
before deciding on a step which with its probable effects
must plunge so many into confusion and dismay. I
know what you will answer, that nothing but the risk
of personal salvation will lead you to it, and I quite
believe it ; . . . but think what must be our feelings who
cannot entertain your view, but can only deplore it as
a grievous mistake."
How equally pathetic are the words of his reply :—
" I am distressing all I love, unsettling all I have
instructed or aided. I am going to those I do not
know, and of whom I expect very little. I am making
myself an outcast, and that at my age. Oh what can
it be but a stern necessity which causes, this . . .?
Continually do I pray that He may discover to me if
I am under a delusion — what can I do more ? What

John Henry Newman. 117
hope have I but in Him ? . . . May He tell me, may I
listen to Him, if His will is other than I think it to be."1
If any one were inclined to think harshly of Newman's
action in leaving the English Church and submitting
to Rome, any severity of judgment would be greatly
mitigated by the perusal of such letters as these and
others written at the same time. There can be no
doubt that the last two or three years of the period, now
under consideration, were to him years of intense mental
and spiritual anguish. No one, who honestly endeavours
to understand his position, can think of him as the
insidious conspirator, or the subtle suggester of doubts.
That has been the description sometimes given of him.
Nor can it be for one moment allowed that he clung
to any position in the English Church for the sake of
undermining her authority and teaching. As soon as
he was convinced that he could not any longer act as a
representative of that authority or the mouthpiece of
that teaching, he resigned office. Two things he notes
that he did in the year 1 843 : he retracted all violent
charges that he had made against Rome, and he
resigned the Vicarage of St. Mary's. But, before he
could take the final step, he felt it just and right to
clear his mind of vague misgiving by writing his cele
brated essay on " Development."
He had already dealt with the subject, to a limited ex
tent, in the last of his "University Sermons : "
ESSAY ON ' ' '
develop- but the complete investigation of the theory,
ment. which has since been largely adopted by the
champions of modern Romanism, required a much fuller
1 " Life and Letters of J. H. Newman," vol. ii., pp. 457-461.

118 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
and detailed treatment. The theory, as Newman treated
it, was undoubtedly a new departure. The original ground
taken by Roman Catholic controversialists was, that
Rome held fast to the original Apostolic tradition from
which ancient heretics and modern Protestants departed,
Newman introduced a new method, in order to account
for the discrepancy between the later teaching of the
Roman Church and the witness of primitive traditions.
Those who answered Newman's theory, like Bishop
Moberly, William Palmer and J. B. Mozley, distinguished
between the true development, which is essential to
a Divine Revelation through the changing ages of the
world's history, and that addition of dogmas and
devotions of which there are no true germs in the
original promulgation of " the faith once for all delivered
to the Saints."
Some persons have seen in Newman's bold theory
a kind of anticipation of the Darwinian hypothesis of
Evolution : others regard it as opening the way for
the most extreme form of rationalism. Certain of the
positions taken up by him are very startling, notably
his reference to the Arian controversy, where he
appears to teach that the great mistake of the Arians
consisted, not so much in bringing into the sphere of
theology a personality almost Divine and yet not
sharing in the supreme Godhead, a creature and yet
worthy of the highest form of devotion, as in assign
ing that Personality to the Son of God, rather than
to her whose rightful dignity it was, the Blessed Mother
of our Lord.
The effect upon himself of the working out of this

John Henry Newman. 119
theory was that, as he advanced, his mind was so cleared
of doubt that he ceased to speak of " Roman Catholics,"
and plainly called them " Catholics."
" The Oxford tradition, we are told, says that, as
Newman month after month stood at his desk writing
the Essay on Development, he grew ever thinner and
more transparent, till at last, when he suddenly dropped
his pen, and made up his mind that he had attained the
fullest conviction that he must no longer delay his
submission to Rome on peril of sinning against light,
you could almost have seen through him." x
On October 8th he wrote from Littlemore to a number
the final of friends, " I am this night expecting Father
step. Dominic, the Passionist. . . . He is a simple,
holy man, and withal gifted with remarkable powers.
He does not know of my intention, but I mean to ask
of him admission to the one fold of Christ." His
departure from Oxford he describes as follows : " I left
farewell Oxford for good on Monday, February 23,
to oxford. T846. I slept on Sunday night at my dear
friend's, Mr. Johnson's, at the Observatory. Various
friends came to see the last of me : Mr. Copeland, Mr.
Church, Mr. Buckle, Mr. Pattison, and Mr. Lewis. Dr.
Pusey came, too, to take leave of me ; and I called on
Dr. Ogle, one of my very oldest friends, for he was my
private tutor when I was an undergraduate. In him
I took leave of my first college, Trinity, which was so
dear to me, and which held on its foundation so many
who had been kind to me, both when I was a boy and
all through my Oxford life. Trinity had never been
' R. H. Hutton, " Cardinal Newman," p. 185.

120 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
unkind to me. There used to be much snap-dragon
growing on the walls opposite my freshman's rooms
there, and I had for years taken it as the emblem of
my own perpetual residence even unto death in my
University. On the morning of the 23rd I left the
Observatory. I have never seen Oxford since, excepting
its spires, as they are seen from the railway." *
In estimating the effect of Newman's secession it would
be as easy to exaggerate as to minimize THEEESULTS
its importance. Two eminent statesmen of the
have given their opinion as to the great SECESSI0N-
gravity of the event. Disraeli said, many years after
wards, that it was "a blow under which the Church of
England still reeled ; " and Gladstone has recorded his
opinion that " it had never yet been estimated at any
thing like the full amount of its calamitous importance."
On the other hand, it has been pointed out that,
among those who seceded to Rome in con- the
sequence of Newman's influence, very many seceders.
" were persons who looked upon him at a slight dis
tance, or mixed with a feeling of inferiority as younger
or less intimate; and especially such as 'sat under
him,' to use a popular sectarian expression, — such as
Oakeley, Manning, Ward, Faber, and perhaps a hundred
or more of others. . . . There does not appear to have
been any who associated with Newman on terms of
equality, either from age or position, or daily habitual
intercourse or the like, in unrestrained familiar know
ledge, who have followed his example in seceding to the
Roman Church — such, I mean, as Fellows of Oriel."2
1 " Apologia," p. 236.
2 "Isaac Williams's Autobiography," pp. 121, 122.

John Henry Newman. 121
There can be no doubt that it was a very terrible
blow to the Tractarian Party, and to the Church of
England also : that the leader, to whom so many had
looked up, from whom they had learnt so much, and
who at one time appeared to be leading a triumphant
host of followers to a victorious position in an awakened
Church, should be forced by the overthrow of his own
convictions to make the surrender of his office in that
Church, to give before the world the practical denial of
the whole position he had so ably defended, came with
crushing and overwhelming pain. They felt, as one
said at the time, that they had "leant upon Newman, lived
upon him, made him their other and better nature, so
the crash was most overpowering." Some of those who
had been active in the spread of Tractarian principles
drew back, and relapsed into comparative indifference ;
others were driven further still, and, by a kind of reaction,
lost their hold, not only on Catholic principles, but on
the great fundamental doctrines of Christianity. Their
admiration of Newman, their trust in his personal
guidance had been more to them than their grasp of
the Church's teaching. There can be no doubt that for
some years, at least, to a very considerable extent, the
Tractarian Party was like an army demoralized by the
loss of its general, with no one to issue the word of
command, uncertain in what direction to move, and
without confidence in the future. Not that this was
the true of all, and certainly not of some of
steadfast, j-he m0st prominent leaders, — Keble, Pusey,
Church, and James Mozley said that, to use the words
of the last-named writer, " they could no more leave

122 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
the English Church than fly; one's spiritual home is
an unsettled and stormy one, but still it is one's
home." They felt that, whatever lessons Newman had
taught them they could not unlearn merely because he
had been led to distrust the grounds of his teaching.
The teaching was to .them so irrefragably true, that no
allegiance to , a personality, however great, however
noble, could claim their relinquishment of truths based
upon what to them was nothing less than Divine tes
timony. And so, great as was the blow to the party,
terrible as was the effect upon the Church as a whole,
which, as has been said, "reeled to its very foundations " at
a most critical moment of her history, all was not lost,
when the greatest mind ofthe English Church in modern
times failed her in her hour of need.
It may be said that, from one point of view, the loss
of Newman in the long run prevented the „„,
° A NEW ERA
Tractarian Movement from resting too im- of the
plicitly upon one great mind. It has been M0VEMENT-
often remarked, that in the sixteenth century the Refor
mation in England was not started and guided by one
strong spiritual character like Luther or Calvin, it was
rather the result of mingled forces which were not
dependent on the guiding hand of some overmastering
intellect or dominant will. It may, perhaps, have been
as well that the second stage of the great Tractarian
revival should have been begun and carried on apart
from the strong influence of a single great leader. It
had more chance of becoming less personal, less in
danger of taking the form of a mere party or sect, and
more able, slowly indeed, and with diminished brilliancy,

John Henry Newman. 123
to leaven by degrees the whole Anglican Communion.
In earlier days the party received the nickname of
Newmanites or Neomaniacs ; these epithets soon died
out. For some years later the strong character and
active mind of Dr. Pusey caused the world to call the
party by the name of Puseyite. Happily these names
are rarely used now, and the reason of this is to be
found in the fact, that the whole Church has been so
largely imbued with the Catholic teaching of the first
leaders of the Tractarian Movement, that it is now seen
to be absurd to use their names as if they were mere
leaders of a school of thought, instead of being true sons
of the Catholic Church, who revived her ancient teaching
without any ulterior motive of personal self-assertion.
On the other hand, it would be useless to disguise
effect on the mischief done at the time by Newman's
foes. secession on the minds of those who looked
upon the whole movement as a Romanizing one. It
seemed entirely to justify all that had been said in
Bishops' Charges, controversial newspapers, and on
Protestant platforms, of the dangerous results of Trac
tarian teaching. Rancorous Puritanism and exulting
Romanism united in pointing to the secession of New
man, and those who followed him or preceded him, as
the discomfiture of the school of the Via Media, and
the evident proof that there was no halting-place
between Ultramontanism and its opposite, extreme
Protestantism. It cannot be denied that, for many
years, the spread of Anglo-Catholic principles was
hampered by the dread of Rome. A great deal of the
panic that the " Papal aggression " aroused had its

124 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
origin in Newman's submission to Rome in 1845, and
that of Manning and others a few years later. The
spectre of secession haunted many minds who other
wise would have been ready to accept the Apostolic and
Primitive doctrines that the Oxford School had revived.
Some of the leaders who remained steadfast felt this
very keenly, and, like J. B. Mozley, considered it
their absolute duty to speak plainly on the subject of
Newman's secession. He wrote as follows, when pre
paring an article for the Christian Remembrancer:
" The article will, perhaps, have a decisiveness of tone
to many ears, which (as being a new kind of tone to
use in any sort of connection with Newman) will annoy
some people. I expect it will ; but the fact is not to
be avoided that a new relation is begun between New
man and the English Church, and somebody must be
the person to express that new relation. I have had
the office, and a most disagreeable one it has been, as
I say. But I feel strongly that, staying in the English
Church as I do, I stay to support her, and not to give
her up or stand loosely by her. There would be no
excuse for staying on this latter ground, after this
secession." x
There were those who, without having followed
Newman implicitly, and who had disliked some of his
propositions as stated in Tract 90, yet had LOss of
nevertheless a profound admiration for his strength to
character and ability, and felt that his seces- TEACHiNg
sion weakened the power of the Anglican power.
Church to resist that flood of scepticism, which they had
1 " Letters ofthe Rev. J. B. Mozley," p. 173.

John Henry Newman. 125
the foresight to realize was coming on, and all the more
likely to make headway, in proportion as men lost
confidence in the great principle of authority incul
cated by the Tractarian School and supported by the
study of the Fathers. The following words of one
who might be described as a moderate Tractarian,
express what was in the mind of many : " Those who
least favour Newman are right to feel that, in losing
him, the English Church has lost the man possessed of
the greatest theological stores and ability in her Com
munion, and the most competent to cope with the
German rationalism, which all agree is likely to come
even at Oxford, and more likely as young men have
lost confidence in the Church Movement, and are likely
to give up reading Fathers, etc., if it must lead to a step
like Newman's." *
That these anxious forebodings were not unfounded,
no one who has studied the history of the University
and of the Church in the quarter of a century that
elapsed after Newman's secession can deny. It is not
too much to say that Newman's profound grasp of the
Divine origin and inspiration of the Holy Scriptures,
combined with his clear recognition of the Divine
Presence in the Church, would have made him a splen
did champion at a time when such a keen thinker was
sorely needed. The man who delivered the lectures on
" Holy Scripture in Relation to the Catholic Creed,"
would have been of invaluable service in defending both
the authority of the Church and the Divine character
of the written Word.
1 " Life of H. W. Burrows," p. 194.

126 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
Newman was not a German scholar, and therefore
not specially qualified to deal with the BIBLE
writings of the " Higher Critics ; " but, criticism.
nevertheless, his Biblical knowledge was great, and his
sense of the relation of the Church to Holy Scripture
keen. Some idea may be formed of the manner in
which Newman would have dealt with the question of
the Higher Criticism from a remarkable article of his
in the Nineteenth Century, February, 1884, on "The
Inspiration of Scripture," where, after laying down the
great principle that Holy Scripture is the fountain of
all saving truth and all instruction in morals, and that
the Church and therefore the Pope is the infallible
interpreter of the inspired Word, he deals with the
question of what is obligatory on a Catholic to believe
about the inspiration of the Scriptures. " There are
two agencies," he says, "Divine grace and human
intelligence co-operating." The mind of the writer is
inspired, not only in composing, but in selecting and
embodying pre-existing documents. "Thus Moses
may have incorporated in his manuscript as much from
foreign documents as is maintained by the critical
school ; " and the Chaldee and Greek portions of the
Book of Daniel may not have been actually written
by Daniel : for inspiration does not require and imply
" that the book inspired should in its form and matter
be homogenous." He discusses the Psalter in the same
way, stating that the whole collection is not required
by the Church to be accepted as necessarily the writing
of David. The titles of the canonical books, and their
ascription to definite authors, either do not come under

John Henry Newman. 127
their inspiration or need not be accepted literally. In
short, there can be no doubt that the tendency of
Newman's teaching was against the hard literalism that
would make verbal inspiration the implied equivalent
of the inspiration of Holy Scripture. He would, at the
least, have been at one with Dr. Liddon in the accept
ance ofthe idea expressed in the phrase "the inspiration
of selection," and it is highly probable, that his powerful
mind and wide influence would have had a beneficial
effect in moderating the heat of controversy between
the older school of Bible interpretation and the later
developments of the Higher Criticism. The following
words of Thomas Mozley seem to remind us that
Newman's work, while specially influencing the Church
in one direction, inspired it in many others, including
an awakened interest in Biblical criticism : " Upon the
whole, the movement must be credited with the in
creased interest in Divine things, the more reverential
regard for sacred persons and places, and the freedom
from mere traditional interpretation, which mark the
present century in comparison with the last. The
Oxford Movement, unforeseen by the chief movers, and
to some extent in spite of them, has produced a genera
tion of ecclesiologists, ritualists, and religious poets.
Whatever may be said of its priestcraft, it has filled
the land with Church crafts of all kinds. Has it not
had some share in the restoration of Biblical criticism,
and in the revision ofthe Authorized Version 7"1
1 T. B. Mozley, " Reminiscences," vol. ii., p. 41.

128 Five Great Oxford Leaders.

VII.
After his reception into the Roman Catholic Com
munion, at the advice of Cardinal Wiseman,
A y y ¦ f-y • -kt i NEWMAN'S
who confirmed him at Oscott in .November, work as a
1845, he went to Rome in October, 1846, R0MAN
CATHOLIC
where, after a short probation, he was or
dained Priest. At the end of 1847 he returned to
England, and, joining the Community of St. Philip
Neri, started the Oratory at Birmingham, a branch of
which was founded in London in 1849 under Father
Faber. St. Philip Neri's character seems to have had
a great attraction for Newman. He has told us not a
little of St. Philip. He preached a sermon in 1850, on
the first anniversary of the Birmingham Ora- Birmingham
tory, in which he gave at length a full account oratory.
of the life, and character, and times of this attractive
Saint. His address was marked by thorough historical
and theological knowledge. He contrasted the political
and external reform of Savonarola with the purely
spiritual labours of St. Philip Neri. He drew out his
deep, humility, quoting his words, " To despise the whole
world, to despise no member of it, to despise one's self,
to despise being despised." In another sermon on " St,
Paul's Gift of Sympathy," preached in the University
Church, Dublin, he noted the likeness between St. Philip
Neri, the Apostle of Rome, and the great Apostle ofthe
Gentiles, in their tender sympathy and gentleness. He
also called the attention of the members of St. phiup
the Oratory to the keen interest taken by NER1,
St. Philip in the missionaries sent from Rome to England,

John Henry Newman. 129
under circumstances of great risk, at a time when he
himself would gladly have ventured on so dangerous an
enterprise, but felt himself debarred from doing so.
At Birmingham, Newman devoted himself, not only
to the instruction of the educated, but also to ministra
tions amongst the poor in the slums. During the great
outbreak of cholera in 1849, he spent much time in
visiting the sick and dying. His old pastoral instincts,
developed at St. Clement's and Littlemore, once more
manifested themselves. But nevertheless he felt that
his principal vocation was the instruction of cultivated
minds, and his discourses addressed to " mixed congre
gations," published in 1849, and other sermons de
livered then and afterwards, appealed mainly to his
more educated hearers. In the early days of his new
position, he naturally devoted much of his
CONTROVERSY. ..,.', , r . ,
energies to showing the weakness of the
Anglican claims. This he did, not only in a work of
fiction called " Loss and Gain," but in his well-known
lectures on " Anglican Difficulties '' ; with keen irony he
used all the powers of eloquence and illustration to
describe how, what appeared to him, the disillusion of
his early view of the Church of England had taken
place. In his lectures on " Catholicism in England " he
gave the reins to an almost exaggerated description of
the ignorant and fanatical Protestantism of the time.
Allowing for his change of position, and the natural
tendency of a convert to make the worst of the Com
munion h'e has left, and the best of that which he has
adopted, it must nevertheless be said that Newman, at
this time, somewhat exceeded the limits of sober-minded K

130 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
controversy. There is a distinct contrast between the
tone of his utterances at this time, with regard to the
Anglican Church, and those of his later years.
A statement made in the fifth lecture of his course
on "Catholicism" brought upon him an
... , . , r t^ a i-ii- DR. ACHILLI.
action for libel, raised by Dr. Achilh, one
of those occasional and unsatisfactory seceders from
the Roman Catholic Church and Priesthood who, from
time to time, acquire a certain notoriety, and bring as
little honour to the new Communion they join, as they
gave to the one they leave. This person had been
charged at Rome with grave moral faults, while he
himself maintained that his enemies had attacked him
on account of the change of his religious opinions.
Newman lost his case, though at the time it was thought
that the judge's charge was not an impartial one, and,
besides the fine, was condemned to pay ;£i 2,000 in costs.
This vast sum was paid by contributions from all parts
of the Roman Catholic world. In 1852, he was sent
to Dublin to deliver a course of lectures on " University
Teaching." The success of the University Movement
among the Roman Catholics in Dublin does not seem
to have been very great, but Newman's lectures, entitled
" The Idea of a University," remain as an .. jDEA 0F A
admirable monument of his broad-minded university."
views on the comprehensiveness of a true University
education. Of course, he maintained the great import
ance of theology as the dominant and essential science,
which must consecrate all other sciences and act as a bond
of union in their midst. But he held also that all other
branches of secular knowledge and literature must find

John Henry Newman. 131
their place in the curriculum of a University, unless the
students are to go out into the world unprepared to
meet the moral and intellectual temptations that they are
bound to face. " If, then, a University is a direct pre
paration for this world, let it be what it professes. It
is not a convent ; it is not a seminary : it is a place to
fit men of the world for the world. We cannot possibly
keep them from plunging into the world, with all its
ways and principles and maxims, when their time
comes ; but we can prepare them against what is
inevitable ; and it is not the way to learn to swim in
troubled waters never to have gone into them. Proscribe,
I do not merely say particular authors, particular
works, particular passages, but secular literature as
such ; cut out from your class-books all broad manifesta
tions of the natural man : and these manifestations are
waiting for your pupil's benefit at the very doors of
your lecture-room in living and breathing substance.
They will meet him there in all the charm of novelty,
and all the fascination of genius or of amiableness.
To-day a pupil, to-morrow a member of the great world ;
to-day confined to the lives of the Saints, to-morrow
thrown upon Babel — thrown on Babel without the
honest indulgence of wit, and humour, and imagination
having ever been permitted to him, without any fasti
diousness of taste wrought into him, without any rule
given him for discriminating 'the precious from the
vile,' beauty from sin, the truth from the sophistry of
nature, what is innocent from what is poison." a
There were from time to time unfounded rumours
1 "The Idea of a University," discourse ix., § 8.

132 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
that Newman was dissatisfied with his position in the
Roman Church, and that he even contemplated a return
to the Anglican Communion. These were unfounded
absolutely baseless, but in 1862 he thought it rumours.
necessary to deny the statements made in a newspaper,
that he was about to leave the Oratory as a preliminary
of his return to the Church of England. After stating
that he had not had " one moment's wavering of trust
in the Roman Catholic Church ever since I was received
into her fold," that he had "a supreme satisfaction in
her worship, discipline and teaching," he concluded :
" I do hereby profess ex animo, with one absolute
internal assent and consent, that Protestant- THE
ism is the dreariest of all possible religions ; Anglican
that the thought of the Anglican Service CHUECH-
makes me shiver, and the thought of the Thirty-nine
Articles makes me shudder. Return to the Church of
England ! No ! ' The net is broken, and we are
delivered.' I should be a consummate fool (to use a
mild term) if in my old age I left 'the land flowing
with milk and honey ' for the city of confusion and the
house of bondage." x And yet Newman might have
passed a less severe judgment than this on the Anglican
Church. He might have made more allowances for
the difficulties of its insular position (now so marvellously
modified), its connection with the State, its very position
between the Protestant Communities and the rest of
Western Christendom which has called forth significant
notice from Roman Catholic writers. He might have
understood and expressed for the Church of England
1 " Letter to the Globe f June 28, 1862.

John Henry Newman. 133
what he has contended for in his own adopted Com
munion, that abuses and errors take long to eradicate,
and demand patience and faith. " Evil will pass away
from this world and from the Church very slowly, nay
(if we are to imagine that the moral system advances
after the analogy of the advance in the physical system),
so slowly that one or two generations afford no available
measure of calculating the rate of advance." x
Newman certainly used gentler and more kindly *
language than this towards the Anglican Church in his
later days, much more so indeed than he had done in
the early years of his great change. But he never gave
any real occasion for such idle rumours as those above
noticed. It is well known how to the end of his life
he felt the charm of the English Bible which he has so
touchingly described. He says of the beauty of its
language : " It lives on the ears like a music that can
never be forgotten, like the sound of the Church bell
which the convert hardly knows how he can forego."
Newman always delighted in making use of any
opportunity of listening to the Cathedral music of the
English Church, such as was afforded him from time to
time when he visited the late Dean of St. Paul's ; and it
may, perhaps, surprise some rigid champions of Gregorian
tones to be told that Anglican chanting was particularly
pleasing to his musical taste. He did not refuse to
allow that "the National Church had hitherto been
a serviceable breakwater against doctrinal errors more
fundamental than its own," though he was careful to
1 "Five Letters of Cardinal Newman," Contemporary Review,
Sept., 1899.

134 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
explain that a "serviceable breakwater" was not the
same thing as " a great bulwark," which was the form
inadvertently given to his words at the time.
In 1864 Mr. Kingsley, in a review of Froude's "His
tory of England," quoted from a sermon of C0NTR0VERSY
Newman's on " Wisdom and Innocence," x with
preached on February, 1843, in support of a KINGSLEY-
statement of the Reviewer that " truth never has been
and never need be a virtue of the Roman Clergy."
Newman at once challenged the assertion, and a spirited
controversy took place, out of which Mr. Kingsley did
not come with an increased reputation for impartiality
and fairness. Certainly his charge of tortuousness of
mind in Dr. Newman was not borne out by any state
ments of Newman himself. The controversy had one
great result, and that was the publication of Newman's
"Apologia pro Vita sua," otherwise called THE
"The History of my Religious Opinions." "apologia."
This book has been rightly called a " singularly frank
and straightforward story of the growth of Newman's
convictions ; " it reveals him as " the last man in the
world to feel the smallest sympathy with untruthfulness
or dishonesty — indeed, not to feel the utmost repulsion
towards it. A man so genuine in character, so ingenuous
in judging himself, has hardly made himself known to
the world."2 1 " Sermons on Subjects of the Day," xx.
2 R. H. Hutton, " Cardinal Newman," p. 230.

John Henry Newman. 135

VIII.
On the publication of Dr. Pusey's " Eirenicon " Dr.
dr. pusey's Newman addressed him a letter, which was
"eirenicon." afterwards published with notes. He ex
pressed his feeling of joy at any proposal being made
by his old friend for the reunion of Christendom. He
recognized Dr. Pusey's long and unremitting labours,
his great influence, and the large numbers whom he
represented in belief and aspirations. He did not
complain of the strong statement of difficulties in the
way of reunion, but he thought that Dr. Pusey had, both
in the matter and in the manner of his volume, done
not a little " to wound those who love you well, but
love truth more." He added, " There was one of old
time who wreathed his sword in myrtle ; excuse me,
you discharge your olive-branch as if from a catapult." x
He dealt with Dr. Pusey's quotations from Continental
theologians, and stated his own preference for English
habits of belief and devotion to foreign. But he justified
the teaching of the Roman Church on devotion to the
Blessed Virgin and the Immaculate Conception in a
very able statement, which he reinforced by reference
to the strong language used towards the Blessed Virgin
in the Eastern Liturgies. If the letter was not a com
plete answer to Dr. Pusey's strictures on the exaggera
tions which he pointed out in his "Eirenicon," if it
failed to be as convincing as its author expected, it yet
showed that controversy could be carried on' between
1 " Letter to Dr. Pusey," p. 9.

136 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
these two old friends, separated for so many years in
outward communion, in a temperate and even affec
tionate tone ; and, at all events, the controversy called
out a repudiation of not a few of the statements which
Dr. Pusey felt to be serious obstacles to wholesome
reunion. Newman said of these, " Sentiments such as
these I never knew of till I read your book, nor, as
I think, do the vast majority of English Catholics know
them ; they seem to me like a bad dream." 1
In all probability the survey of his past life, and
the self-introspection which the publica- "grammar
tion of the " Apologia " involved, gave the OT assent."
occasion for the composition of his book called the
" Grammar of Assent," an elaborate work on the
groundwork of faith, and the reasons for arriving at
a feeling of certitude on the great questions connected
with religious belief. This book was published at the
time when, men's minds were aroused by the assembling
of the Vatican Council, in 1870. It was
„ , ,., , infallibility
well known that a strong attempt was likely AND
to be made to define the infallibility of the Vatican
the Pope, and that the principal persons
who were most active in urging on the definition
were the Ultramontanes, represented by Mr. W. G.
Ward and Dr. Manning. Newman, though he never
could be regarded as an opponent of the definition in
itself, considered the time for transforming an implicit
into an explicit dogma inopportune, and likely to throw
back the advance of the Roman Catholic Church in
England indefinitely. He wrote a letter addressed to
1 " Letter to Dr. Pusey," p. 119.

John Henry Newman. 137
Bishop Ullathorne, which was never meant for publica
tion, in which he strongly deprecated the action of what
he called " an aggressive and insolent faction." It was
not so much that he was personally affected by anything
that might be defined, but he said, " I cannot help
suffering with the many souls who are suffering, and I
look with anxiety at the prospect of having to defend
decisions which may not be difficult to my own private
judgment, but may be most difficult to maintain logi
cally in the face of historical facts. What have we done
to be treated as the faithful never were treated before ?
When has definition de fide been a luxury of devotion
and not a stern, painful necessity ? Why should an
aggressive, insolent faction be allowed to make the
heart of the just sad, whom the Lord hath not made
sorrowful ? Why cannot we be let alone, when we have
pursued peace and thought no evil ? " 1
After the definition was proclaimed, he made it quite
clear in a letter to The Guardian in answer to some
statements by Mr. Capes, that he had no change of
mind to make, as regards the truth of the doctrine of the
Pope's infallibility, in consequence of the Council, and
referred to many of his works, written in the years
ranging from 1845 to 1857, to show he had always
taught it. But nevertheless he said of the above letter,
" I have not a word to retract."
Newman may have been of the number of those who
thought the definition inopportune, but he never dreamt
of taking up the position adopted by Dr. Dollinger and
his party, though he had publicly to contradict certain
1 R. H. Hutton, " Cardinal Newman," p. 240.

138 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
rumours that he was likely to do so. In fact Newman
was quite capable of criticizing the abuses existing in
the Church, and the action of individual Popes, without
in the least losing faith in the rightfulness of the Papal
system as a whole. He could speak of the St. Bartholo
mew massacre as " an insane act," and deprecate " Pope
Gregory's hasty approbation of so great a crime." He
could realize that the Court of Rome, " frightened out
of its wits," might then and at other times be " mixed
up with mere politicians and unscrupulous men," and
make serious mistakes that could not be defended.1
The condition of the Papacy at any particular date did
not disturb his confidence in it as a Divinely appointed
institution. " The temporal success, talent, and renown
of the Papacy did not make me a Catholic, and its
errors and misfortunes have no power to unsettle me."
To a correspondent, who asked him in 1875 to ex
plain some of the apparent serious abuses and wrong
doings of the Papacy which had never been disowned,
he replied that he could not fail to recognize "the
existence of that flood of evil which shocks you in
the visible Church, but for me, if it touched my faith
mortally in the Divinity of Catholicism it would, by
parity of reason, touch my faith in the Being of a
personal God and moral Governor." 2 And so, after
the promulgation of the Vatican decrees, there was not
the slightest idea in his mind of doing anything but
accept them.
1 " Five Letters of Cardinal Newman," Contemporary Review,
Sept., 1899.
2 Ibid.

John Henry Newman. 139
But there can be no doubt that he felt very strongly
that the definition was certainly likely to throw back
the conversion which he hoped for of multitudes of his
Anglican friends. He felt, as he said, " that all he could
do in the matter was to bow his head to God's adorable,
inscrutable Providence." Still when, a few years later,
letter to ^r' Gladstone published his articles on
the duke " Vaticanism," it was Newman who, by com-
of Norfolk. mon consenii was called upon to answer
them, in a letter addressed to the Duke of Norfolk.
The purpose of this letter was intended to remove the
impression that submission to the Vatican decrees was
incompatible with true patriotism and loyalty to the
Sovereign and Government of England. On the whole
it may be said with truth that, while Newman implicitly
accepted the Vatican decrees, he did his utmost to
make them acceptable to the English world by a process
which was not unfairly called " minimizing." This line
of action was certainly not in favour with the Ultra
montane party in England and Ireland, nor quite in
accordance with the mind of Pius IX., and the Roman
Curia ; and Newman, with all his greatness, and in spite
of all that he had done for the Roman Catholic Church,
since his secession in 1845, hardly occupied the position
that seemed his due. It is an open secret that his
relations with Cardinal Manning were not of the most
"the cloud cordial kind.1 But in 1878, when Leo XIII.
lifted." acceded to the Papal throne, though there
was no reversal of Papal policy in general, there was
a deliberate effort made to impress the world with the
1 See Purcell's " Life of Manning," vol. ii., chap. xiv.

140 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
new Pope's desire to conciliate men of intellect and
temperate opinions. " The cloud lifted," as some of
Newman's friends put it, and Newman was selected for
the honour of a Cardinal's hat in 1879, and, the
in spite of some curious and not easily cardinalate.
understood statements that he had declined the dignity,1
he went to Rome, to receive the insignia of his office.
He accepted it, not because he desired in his old age to
occupy the position of a Prince of the Church, but
because those who sympathized with his action in 1870
desired to see him thus honoured.
In his address, delivered at his installation in simple
and modest language, he stated that the great object of
his life had been to oppose " liberalism in religion," by
which he meant " the doctrine that there is no positive
truth in religion, but that one Creed is as good as
another."2 Certainly the whole Catholic Church,
Anglican as well as Roman, owes a vast debt to the
powerful defence that he made of all the great funda
mentals of the Catholic faith. No injury done to the
English Church by his secession can ever make Angli
cans forgetful of all that they, with all true believers,
owe to him for doing battle in a latitudinarian age in
behalf of the great verities contained in Holy Scripture
and the Creeds. To him in no little degree it is due
that at the present day there is a more intelligent grasp
and a more courageous expression in the Church of
England of the mysteries of the faith — the Holy Trinity,
the Incarnation, as well as a devout acceptance and
1 See Purcell's " Life of Manning," vol. ii., pp. 560, seq.
2 R. H. Hutton, " Life of Newman," p. 242.

John Henry Newman. 141
reverent use of the Grace of God given in the Sacra
ments. And therefore his elevation to so high a position
in that Church for which he deserted her Communion,
was received not only without jealousy, but with no
little gratification at the honour done to one who had
been the greatest Anglican of his own, if not of any,
age. Newman was also honoured by his own two col
leges at Oxford, Trinity and Oriel, who rejoiced to
welcome him back into their societies as an honorary
member. The remainder ofhis life was comparatively uneventful.
his It was occupied with frequent devotion and
personality, simple, earnest labours, in the discharge of
his public duties. Those who knew him delighted in
their private intercourse with him ; one of his friends
says, " He was a talker of supreme eloquence, and with
no touch of arrogance." Another dwells on his " per
vading personality," " splendid urbanity," " the true
Christian equity of his temper." Another writer at the
time of his death dwelt upon "his naturalness, the
freshness and freedom with which he addressed a friend,
or expressed an opinion, the absence of all mannerism
or formality." He had a keen sense of humour, and
was a master of the use of irony. He was one with
whom a sympathetic soul could enter into the closest
intimacy. His relation to R. H. Froude was, as he said
himself, " the closest and most affectionate friendship,"
and he delighted in " the gentleness and tenderness of
nature, the free elastic force and graceful versatility of
mind, and the patient winning considerateness in dis
cussion, which endeared him (Froude) to those to whom

142 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
he opened his heart." x John William Bowden had been
his friend for twenty-seven years, and when he died
Newman wrote, "I sobbed bitterly over his coffin to
think that he had left me still dark as to what the way
of truth was, and what I ought to do in order to please
God, and fulfil His will." 2 In after life, he had close
intimacies with Father Ambrose St. John, Mr. Hope
Scott, Mr. Kegan Paul, and many others. There was a
repose and dignity about the last few years of his days
on earth, which must have been grateful to one who
had suffered not a little from the heat and conflict of
controversy. Cardinal Newman died at Edgbaston on Monday,
August ii, 1890, after a short illness, and death and
was buried at Rednal. His body had lain funeral.
in state for twenty-four hours, during which twenty
thousand people passed through the Oratory Church
at Birmingham. The funeral services were performed
with great solemnity, not only at Birmingham, but also
at Brompton Oratory. At the latter place Cardinal
Manning delivered an impressive address, recalling
reminiscences of " his brother and friend of more than
sixty years." Far more valuable were the sermons of
Dr. Paget, at Christ Church, Oxford, and of others who
bore witness to his work as a preacher of repentance
and righteousness : while the whole world of literature
pointed to him as a master of English writing.
It has been said, both by Roman Catholic writers as
well as others, that there was a great contrast between
1 " Apologia,'' p. 23.
'l " Life and Letters of J. H. Newman," vol. ii., p. 438.

John Henry Newman. 143
his writings while in the Anglican Church, and those
HIS which he published after he , joined the
writings. Roman Communion. It is thought that his
later works showed a freer, happier, and more sparkling
spirit, while the former were characterized by a sadness
and a kind of painful uncertainty. Anglicans have
expressed their opinion that he never afterwards wrote
anything that at all approaches in strong and earnest
purpose and intensity of feeling the sermons at St. Mary's,
and that his Roman Catholic discourses were more forced
and less real. Perhaps the estimate in either case is
influenced by the religious standpoint of those who
make the distinction. But in both his Anglican and
Roman Catholic writings there is a marvellous purity
of style, and an almost unexampled naturalness and ease.
" The majority of English readers seem to be agreed in
recognizing the beauty and transparent flow of lan
guage, which matches the best French writing, .in
rendering with sureness and without effort the thought
of the writer." x
Apart from their subject-matter, Newman's prose
writings will assuredly have a permanent place in the
front rank of English literature. His poems can scarcely
claim so high a rank, though those contained in the
" Lyra Apostolica " and his " Occasional Verses " will
not readily be forgotten. The fascinating poem, entitled
" The Dream of Gerontius," dedicated to his
" THE DREAM '
of friend, John Joseph Gordon of the Oratory,
gerontius." js perhaps the most remarkable attempt ever
made to realize the passage of a soul from this world
1 The Guardian, Aug. 20, 1890.

144 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
through death into the unseen. The well-known chant
of " The Fifth Choir of Angelicals," "Praise to the Holiest
in the height, and in the depth be praise," has found
its way into numerous hymnals, and has been sung at
the graveside of many an English Christian, including
Mr. Gladstone and Dean Church. If the doctrine of
purgatory had always been dealt with in the delicate,
reverent manner of this wonderful effort to realize the
state of the disembodied spirit, Christendom might
have been saved not only the horrors of the mediaeval
conception of purgatorial fires', but all the disastrous
reaction and revolt that has followed them.
" What then, — if such thy lot — thou seest thy Judge,
The sight of Him will kindle in thy heart
All tender, gracious, reverential thoughts.
Thou wilt be sick with love, and yearn for Him,
And feel as though thou couldst but pity Him,
That One so sweet should e'er have placed Himself
At disadvantage such, as to be used
So vilely by a being so vile as thee.
There is a pleading in His pensive eyes
Will pierce thee to the quick and trouble thee,
And thou wilt hate and loathe thyself ; for though
Now sinless, thou wilt feel that thou hast sinned,
As never thou didst feel ; and wilt desire
To slink away, and hide thee from His sight ;
And yet wilt have a longing aye to dwell
Within the beauty of His countenance.
And these two pains, so counter and so keen,
The longing for Him, when thou seest Him not,
The shame of self at thought of seeing Him,
Will be thy veriest, sharpest purgatory." '

" Dream of Gerontius," p. 43.

John Henry Newman. 145
" Soul : ' Take me away, and in the lowest deep
There let me be,
And there in hope the lone night watches keep,
Told out for me.
There, motionless and happy in my pain,
Lone, not forlorn, —
There will I sing my sad perpetual strain
Until the morn.
There will I sing, and soothe my stricken breast
Which ne'er can cease
To throb and pine and languish, till possest
Of its sole Peace.
There will I sing my absent Lord and Love :
Take me away,
That sooner I may rise and go above,
And see Him in the truth of everlasting day.' "1
What shall be said of the fruits of this long and
general memorable life? What has Newman done
estimate, for England and for Rome? He loved
England, and said "that when he became a Catholic,
he did not cease to be an Englishman." In 1863 he
wrote, " Of all human things, perhaps Oxford is nearest
my heart — and some parsonages in the country." 2
But he loved the Roman Church for which he had
sacrificed so much. He brought to her service a wonder
ful treasure of gifts, acquired and natural. Did that
Communion utilize to the full all that he brought ? Has
there been any adequate harvest in the Roman Church
in England of so great an increase of talent brought
into her fold ? In the " Life of Cardinal Wiseman," it is
clearly shown how great a contrast there is, between
1 " Dream of Gerontius,'' p. 50.
2 " Isaac Williams's Autobiography," p. 130. L

146 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
the state of the Roman Catholic community in England in
the early part of the nineteenth century, and its condition
at the present day. But it is just to express a doubt,
whether Newman's work for the Roman Church can be
compared, for depth of influence or wideness of extent,
with that which he exercised in the Church of England
before he left her, and even long after he ceased to be
a member of her fold. England has a larger share
in him than Rome, and England and England's Church
have grown more wonderfully and with larger promise
of future extension at home and abroad than he ever
hoped for his new spiritual Mother. In that remarkable
sermon, preached in 1852, called "The Second Spring,"
he thus spoke of the revival of the Roman Catholic
Church in England : " The past is out of date ; the past
is dead. As well may the dead live to us, as well may
the dead profit us, as the past return. This, then, is the
cause of this national transport, this national cry, which
encompasses us. The past has returned, the dead lives.
Thrones are overturned, and are never restored. States
live and die, and then are matter only for history.
Babylon was great, and Tyre, and Egypt, and Nineve,
and shall never be great again. The English Church
was, and the English Church was not, and the English
Church is once again. This is the portent, worthy of
a cry. It is the coming of a second Spring ; it is a
restoration in the moral world such as that which yearly
takes place in the physical." x "... A second temple
rises on the ruins of the old. Canterbury has gone its
1 " The Second Spring:" "Sermons preached on Various Occa
sions," p. 118.

John Henry Newman. 147
way, and York is gone, and Durham is gone, and
Winchester is gone. It was sore to part with them.
We clung to the vision of past greatness, and would
not believe it could come to nought ; but the Church
in England has died, and the Church lives again.
Westminster and Nottingham, Beverley and Hexham,
Northampton and Shrewsbury, if the world lasts, shall
be names as musical to the ear, as stirring to the heart,
as the glories we have lost; and Saints shall rise out
of them, if God so will, and doctors once again shall
give the law to Israel, and preachers call to penance
and to justice, as at the beginning." x
Nearly half a century has passed since these fervid
words were uttered, and it may be fairly asked how
far have the hopes of those who established the Roman
Catholic hierarchy in England, and of those enthusiastic
converts who brought so much culture and ardour to
their aid, been fulfilled ? The Roman Catholic Church
in England has been greatly transformed, some would
say not for the better. The old tone of thought among
hereditary adherents of the Papacy, which was akin to
Gallicanism, has given place to the " Roman spirit " and
to Ultramontanism. The Roman Communion in Great
Britain has undoubtedly a larger place of outward
dignity and respect than she had in the early days of
this present century. But is she really gaining a strong
hold upon the people of England ? Is she even retain
ing the descendants of the Irish immigration ? She
has attracted a certain number of cultured persons,
1 " The Second Spring : " " Sermons preached on Various Occa
sions," p. 178.

148 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
and drawn into her ranks some noble souls. None so
noble, none so great as John Henry Newman ! But
that England will ever return into subjection to an Italian
Prelate, whose policy is dictated by a retrogressive
Curia, that she will ever give up the English Liturgy,
the English Bible, and English ways of thinking and
acting, is beyond the belief of any thoughtful reader
of the signs of the times. If the English people are
ever as a whole to become truly Catholic, it will be
with a Catholicism robust, manly, and reasonable, not
mediaeval, scholastic or Jesuit, — a Catholicism more like
that of the conception of Newman's Oxford days than
that of Faber or Manning, of the Oratory or the
Vatican — or rather, perhaps, one not so purely patristic
even as his conception, not a mere revival of the methods
of the fourth or fifth or sixth centuries ; but a Catholicism
based upon the Apostolic primitive foundations, united
with all the spring and ardour and expansiveness of
modern life and thought. Nevertheless, that return lo
Catholicism will have derived its earliest movement
and its most powerful impulse from the self-denying
work of that Oxford School, of which Newman became
the ardent, unselfish, learned, and sincere leader, and
during ten eventful years laid the foundations of a
spiritual restoration unexampled in the history of the
Church.

EDWARD BOUVERIE PUSEY

Like all men whose name and character occupy a large
place in the religious history of the world, Edward Pusey
was brought up in a home full of spiritual influences.
His father, the Hon. Philip Bouverie, the son of Vis
count Folkestone, was a man of great generosity and
religious earnestness, whose character was briefly and
truly summed up in the words inscribed on his monu
ment by his sons, "To the memory of Philip Pusey,
pious and bounteous." His mother, Lady Lucy, daughter
of the Earl of Harborough, was a charitable, con
scientious, and affectionate woman, accustomed, however,
to conceal her feelings rather than express them. Dr.
Pusey often acknowledged the great blessings
he received from his mother's influence, and
stated that " the doctrine of the Real Presence, I learnt
from my mother's explanation of the Catechism, which
she had learnt to understand from older clergy." When
he was seven years old he was sent 'to Mitcham to be
educated, under the Rev. Richard Roberts, at a prepa
ratory school for Eton, where he had among his school
fellows the Earl of Derby. Mr. Roberts trained his
boys in accurate scholarship, and Pusey always recog
nized how much he owed to him. His brother Philip

152 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
went with him to Eton in 18 12, the celebrated Dr.
Keate being head master. Edward Pusey's
school life was not, perhaps, a very happy one,
for he was a delicate boy, and, though in the country
a good rider and excellent shot, did not take part in
outdoor games. The years he spent at Eton coincided
with the startling events of Napoleon's downfall, and
the great battles of Leipzig and Waterloo made an
impression upon Pusey's mind, of which interesting
evidence was long afterwards given in his sermons,
Hebrew lectures, and Bible commentaries.
Before going up to Oxford, he was sent as a private
pupil to the Rev. Edward Maltby, afterwards Bishop of
Durham, one of the best classical scholars of the day,
who, many years afterwards, in the midst of the Trac
tarian controversy, though he entirely differed from the
principles of the Oxford school, spoke of Pusey as " an
old and much-esteemed pupil."
In January, 1819, Pusey went to Christ Church. He
had for his tutor the Rev. T. Vowler Short, christ
afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph, for whom church.
he always felt a very great respect and affection, on
account of the religious instruction and earnest teaching
he received from him, and to whom he dedicated the
first volume of his " Parochial Sermons," praying " that
God would bless his peace-loving spirit and his zeal for
souls." Among his intimate friends were Lord Ashley,
afterwards the well-known Earl of Shaftesbury, and
R. W. Jelf. He had some time before formed an
attachment for Miss Barker, daughter of a gentleman at
Fairford. His parents were averse to any engagement,

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 153
and their decision cost him mucji depression and con
sequent ill-health. In the midst of this mental trial,
he set to work to read very hard for his degree, some
times for sixteen or seventeen hours a day, and when,
in Easter term, 1822, he was in the schools and ex
amined vivd voce by John Keble, his scholarship and
his knowledge of Aristotle were pronounced to be of
the highest excellence. His name appeared in the first
class of Litercs Humaniores along with Edward Denison,
afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, Richard Greswell, and
William Gresley.
In the vacation that followed, Pusey travelled in
Switzerland, and during that time his mind appeared to
be largely affected by what he called " Byronism." Per
haps what he meant by that was a lack of appreciation
of the serious nature of evil, and a sense of disappoint
ment, resulting in a dreamy, listless way of looking
upon things, which, to some extent, was caused by the
opposition raised to his engagement. During this tour
he came in contact with a young man who was largely
affected by unbelief, and the efforts of Pusey to remove
his friend's doubts had a wholesome result on his own
spiritual life.
He was on the most affectionate terms with his
brother Philip, who was, after a long engagement,
married, in 1822, to Lady Emily Herbert. The Whig
principles of this lady's family had long been a stum
bling-block in the way of their marriage, so strong a
Tory was Pusey's father. She was for thirty years a
kind friend to her brother-in-law, a comfort to him in
the early days of his widowhood ; while he himself

154 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
ministered to her in her last hours, to her great comfort
and support,
Before he had taken his degree, Pusey had formed
the intention of competing for a fellowship oriel
at Oriel. He had made the acquaintance of fellowship.
John Keble at Fairford, and was greatly attracted by his
personality and character, and on that account anxious
to belong to the same college. In the autumn of 1822
he first met Newman, who has described him, as at
that time with '' a light curly head of hair, walking fast
with a young manner of carrying himself." In 1823,
on March 29th, the examination for the Fellowship
began. Pusey was unwell, and in despair tore up his
essay, which was, however, picked up and put together
by one of the Fellows, and found to be an excellent one.
On a later day he desired to retire, but at the request
of the Fellows persevered, and the result was, that he
was elected. He now entered the celebrated Common
Room at Oriel, and though he never attained that
clear, accurate style which was so characteristic of the
Fellows of that College, yet he gained one mental
qualification, a desire to accumulate all facts that might
bear upon a given issue. This is very apparent in some
of his writings, as for instance the exhaustive list of
authorities accumulated in his tract on " Baptism," his
work on " The Real Presence," the " Eirenicon," and also
in his book on " Everlasting Punishment." Among the
Fellows that he knew best were Hawkins and Newman,
Keble having gone to live at Fairford early in 1823,
Pusey's character at this time made a deep impression
upon Newman, and the two had much intercourse and

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 155
conversation on religious and devotional subjects. Pusey
attended the " Divinity Lectures " of Dr. Lloyd, after
wards Bishop of Oxford, and always recalled with
respectful gratitude the thoroughness and exhaustive
method of his teaching. He has related that, in his
first lecture on the Epistle to the Romans, he did not
get beyond the first four verses, a manner of exposition
very different from what had been usual up to that
time. Such a method had much influence on Pusey's
own careful and exhaustive method of commenting on
Holy Scripture.
In 1824 he gained the Latin Essay, and, in the
following year, failed in his competition for
GERMANY. ,. , .
the English one. His education was, how
ever, to be extended greatly beyond the ordinary limits
of an English university course ; and, in June, 1825, he
left England for a prolonged visit to Germany. His
object in going there, in obedience to the advice of
Dr. Lloyd, was to study thoroughly the language and
literature of Germany in the country itself. He had
also a great desire to make himself acquainted with the
writings of the German critics and theologians. He
visited Gottingen and Berlin, and was brought in contact
with Eichhorn, Schleiermacher, Tholuck, and Neander.
During the time he was abroad he occupied himself
not only with diligent study of the works of the great
German writers, but interested himself in the spiritual
life and devotions of the German people. Much of the
simple piety of the latter seemed to him, as it has to
others, to be strangely out of harmony with the
rationalism of their pastors. Pusey returned to Oxford

156 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
in October, 1825, and spent much of his time in re
sidence at Oriel in studying the Old Testament, and
learning Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac. The next year
he went once more to Germany, and attended the
lectures of Hengstenberg, as well as those of Neander
and Schleiermacher. He was most diligent in his study
of Arabic, which he had first learned at Oxford, under
Dr. Macbride, spending fourteen to sixteen hours a day
in this particular branch of reading. At this time he
was introduced to Ewald, who had a high opinion of
Pusey's Hebrew scholarship, and was on very friendly
terms with him ; and even in later days Pusey had a
kindly feeling towards Ewald, in spite of the serious
religious differences which had grown up between them.
Pusey suffered the sad loss of his youngest brother at
this time, and this, added to excessive work, tried his
health to a very serious extent. But the price paid for
this important element in the training of Pusey's mind
was not, perhaps, too costly ; for the knowledge ac
quired in Germany placed him high in the ranks of
accomplished Oriental scholars, and made him well
acquainted with the vast field of German theological
literature. Soon after his return home he became definitely
engaged to Miss Barker, the objections that his parents
had made having quietly passed away. It is interest
ing to note that even in his early correspondence with
the lady who afterwards became his wife, and was
always in perfect sympathy with his religious aspira
tions and work, he discussed deep theological and
scriptural questions, as well as the more special personal

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 157
experiences which Miss Barker confided to him. It is
significant of the bent of his mind that he also showed,
at this time, his sympathy with some of the Liberal
political movements of the day. Perhaps the stern
Toryism of his father caused a kind of reaction in his
opinions ; but, at all events, he was a keen supporter
of Roman Catholic Emancipation and the repeal of the
Test and Corporation Acts. In 1828 the election to
the Provostship of Oriel, vacant by the appointment of
Dr. Copleston to the Bishopric of Llandaff, took place.
Pusey, together with Newman and others, voted for
Hawkins instead of Keble, and, nearly fifty years
afterwards, expressed his deep regret at the part he
had taken. "The whole of the later history of our
Church might have been changed, had we been wiser ;
but God, through our ignorance, withdrew him, and it
must have been well with him since God so overruled
it. To us, it became a sorrow of our lives." x
Pusey's marriage was postponed on account of the
ordination sudden death of his father, but his ordi-
as deacon, nation took place on Trinity Sunday, 1828 ;
and Newman has told us how, on the evening of that
day, he read prayers for him in St. Mary's Church, and
on the Sunday following assisted him at the Holy
Communion. This Pusey himself describes in a letter
to Miss Barker, speaking of Newman as "a very valued
and dear friend with whom I should most wish to be
joined in this Holy Office." Pusey was.married
marriage. j j , . t , ,
to Miss Barker on June 12th, in London, and
returned to Oxford three months afterwards. Just
1 "Sermon preached at Keble College," 1876.

158 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
before his ordination he had published a work on the
theology of Germany. It was an answer to a volume
of four discourses by Hugh James Rose, on the state
of Protestantism in Germany, which formed a strong
statement of what Rose thought to be a practical
" abdication of Christianity " by all shades of German
Protestants. Pusey was abroad when the book appeared,
and heard much of the resentment felt by the more
orthodox German theologians at Rose's statements.
Pusey's work was a very thorough-going review of the
development of Rationalism in Germany as a reaction
against a dead " orthodoxism," and expressed a sanguine
expectation that the deep moral earnestness of German
writers would in the end lead to a great revival of belief.1
Mr. Rose replied, and the controversy was a long one,
Mr. Rose seemed to find in some of Pusey's statements
a criticism of orthodoxy and a tendency to Rationalism ;
this charge was repeated much later by critics of Dr.
Pusey, and some persons actually pointed to his books
on Germany as supporting the writers of B00KS 0n
" Essays " and Reviews." Ten years later, Germany.
however, a kindly correspondence passed between Mr.
Rose and Pusey, when both acknowledged that each
was contending for a side of truth, not contradictory
of the other, though apparently different. Rose spoke
of Pusey's far superior knowledge, and Pusey said,
" We differed about the causes and extent of Ration
alism, not for a moment . as to its perniciousness and
1 Many years later Pusey said of this expectation, " I was over
sanguine about the restoration of faith then beginning in Germany "
(" Lectures on Daniel," pref., p. xxv., note).

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 159
shallowness." x Pusey however, in later days expressed
his own want of satisfaction with the way in which
he had handled the subject, and in his will, dated
November ig, 1873, left instructions that his two books
on German theology should not be republished.

II.
After his return to Oxford, Pusey spent much time
hebrew in t^ie society °f Bishop Lloyd at Christ
professor- Church, and in theological as well as Orien-
!,u> tal study. He was soon to be called to
put the knowledge thus acquired to very important use. ,
In September, 1828, Dr. Nicholl, Regius Professor of
Hebrew, died, and on the strong recommendation of
Bishop Lloyd, who was thoroughly satisfied that doubts
as to Pusey's theological position were unfounded, he
was appointed professor.
"What will Pusey do?" said a clergyman who was stay
ing at Cuddesdon. " If," said the Bishop, " he belongs to
the old school, he will come over and see me ; if to the
new, he will write me a letter." Pusey went to see the
Bishop, driving all the way from Pusey to Cuddesdon with
his wife, to thank Dr. Lloyd for his kind offices. When
fault was found with the Duke of Wellington for not
appointing a candidate with influential political friends,
he replied, "I appointed Mr. Pusey, because I have
reason to believe he is the best scholar." The appoint
ment was well received both in England and in Germany,
1 "Life," vol. i., pp. 176, 177.

160 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
where his qualifications for the office were well known.
The professorship carried with it a Canonry of Christ
Church, and Pusey had necessarily to be ordained
priest as soon as possible. The Ordination took place
in the parish church of Cuddesdon ; he was the
only candidate for Orders, and only a few ordination
villagers were present besides his own imme- As priest.
diate friends. Dr. Pusey's biographer, speaking of the
many interesting associations connected with the parish
church of All Saints, Cuddesdon, has truly said,
" During the episcopate of Bishop Wilberforce there
were few men eminent for learning, or work, or character
in the Church of England who did not, under the spell
of his genius and sympathy, find themselves at some
time ministering or worshipping within its walls ; and to,
many hundreds of the clergy that old Norman tower-
arch and that narrow chancel are associated with the
most solemn experiences of their life. But it may be
safely asserted that no event in itself or in its conse
quences more momentous, more pregnant with influences
far-reaching and .incalculable, has ever taken place
within those walls than was enacted on that dark
Sunday in November when Charles Lloyd, Bishop of
Oxford, conferred the Order of Priesthood upon Edward
Bouverie Pusey." x
He was installed as Canon of Christ Church on
December 9th, and a few days iater celebrated the Holy
Communion for the first time at Pusey Church, where he
had been baptized. Pusey now came into residence at
Christ Church, and took possession of his lodgings, so
1 " Life," vol. i., p. 190.

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 161
well-known in after years to an immense number of
English Church people, men and women, who went to
seek his advice and spiritual help, to whom the house in
the corner of "Tom Quad," with its study lined and strewn
with books, became almost a holy spot. He began his
lectures with two sets, one elementary, the other more
university advanced. It is interesting to notice the
work. names of some who attended them — G.
Moberly, F. Oakeley, G. A. Denison, C. P. Golightly and
R. J. Wilberforce. At this time the University election
divided Pusey from some of his friends so far as politics
were concerned : Pusey supporting Peel ; and Newman,
Keble and Froude taking the side of Inglis. Bishop
Lloyd supported Peel with much power and courage in
the House of Lords on the Roman Catholic Emancipa
tion Bill, and not long afterwards died, somewhat
suddenly, to the great sorrow of Pusey, whose friend
and adviser the Bishop had long been. Pusey never
relaxed his ardent zeal for Oriental studies, and was
occupied for some years with the completion of the
Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts in the Bodleian
Library, a work of great labour and difficulty. He
called it " drudgery," and said he envied " the very
bricklayers whom I saw at work in the street," and
regretted that so much time had of necessity been with
drawn from his study of theology. In November, 1830,
Pusey had a very severe illness, from which it is recorded
by his biographer that he rose to a still higher level of
Christian life, " from the atmosphere of Bonn and Berlin,
to that of the Oxford of later years." He was now full
of various kinds of work, taking a great interest in the
M

1 62 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
Sanscrit Professorship, to which, to Pusey's great regret,
Dr. Mill, whom he called " the greatest theologian, in
the true sense of that term, which the University of
Cambridge had produced since Pearson, certainly the
greatest in the present century," just missed being
elected by seven votes. He occupied himself also with
various translations of Arabic and Hebrew works, and
in conjunction with his brother Philip and Dr. Ellerton
founded the Hebrew Scholarships, known by their joint
names. Pusey preached his first sermon before the University
on October 14, 1832, on Psa. xiv. 6: "Thy throne,
O God, is for ever and ever," and vindicated the
Messianic application of the Psalm. Full of activity
and versatility, he published at this time a pamphlet on
cathedral institutions, in a letter addressed to Lord
Henley, who, in a kind of anticipation of the Ecclesias
tical Commission, had proposed some very DEFENCE 0F
sweeping changes in cathedrals. The plan cathedrals.
showed an extraordinary lack of intelligent understand
ing of the whole subject. Pusey met the charges brought
against capitular bodies, and vindicated their name and
historical reputation by showing how many illustrious
theologians of the English Church had been connected
with cathedrals. He contended for the maintenance of
the chapters in full strength and numbers, mainly as
centres of learning and clerical education.
But other very important purposes to be served by
cathedrals did not engage Pusey's attention, and it has
been reserved for later writers, like Dean Goulburn, in
his " Cathedral System," and Archbishop Benson, in

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 163
" The Cathedral," to instruct the Church as to the true
position that the cathedrals occupy in the life and
work of the Catholic Church. Such teaching has been
exemplified in the revived life of English cathedrals
everywhere, in the great work done at St. Paul's, and
in the foundation of the beautiful cathedral at Truro.
In 1833 the great Tractarian Movement was started.
the tracts The clergy anti laity were in a very remark -
for the able manner roused to a sense of the danger
times. that threatened the Church. An address
was presented to the Archbishop of Canterbury, signed
by 7,000 clergy and 230,000 lay people, assuring him of
their loyal adherence to the doctrine and worship of
the English Church. Keble, and Newman, and others
had begun to write and circulate the Tracts, but it was
not until the end of 1834 that Pusey joined himself to
the band of writers. Of the whole number — ninety
— he contributed eight ; the first of his, No. 18, being
on " Fasting." He showed its Divine origin, the bless
ing that comes from it as a part of self-discipline
and an act of obedience to the rule of the Church.
It was criticized by Arnold and others, and Pusey
answered them in another Tract on the same subject,
pusey joins No. 66. Pusey now distinctly joined the
the move- Movement. His accession was regarded
by Newman as a great addition of strength.
" Dr. Pusey," he writes in the " Apologia," " gave us
at once a position and a name." Dean Church justly
estimates the great importance of his adhesion to
the Tractarian School : " It gave the Movement
a second head in close sympathy with its original

164 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
leader, but in many ways very different from him. Dr.
Pusey became, as it were, its official chief in the eyes of
the world. He became, also, in a remarkable degree, a
guarantee for its stability and steadiness: a guarantee that
its chiefs knew what they were about, and meant nothing
but what was for the benefit of the English Church." 1
His "inflexible patience, serene composure, resolute
self-possession '' were a most useful restraint and balance
to that natural restlessness of temper which friends of
the family recognized as belonging to both the brothers
Newman, and which, under very different conditions and
circumstances, revealed itself in the after career of each.
The " hopeful, sanguine mind " of Pusey was the great
strength of the party in its hours of trial and distress ;
it sometimes, in later years, drew forth from Newman a
scarcely veiled wonder not unmixed with irritation.2
Pusey took a prominent part along with Newman
against the attempts of Dr. Hampden to hampden
abolish subscription to the Thirty-nine controversy.
Articles ; a measure which seemed to him to be not a
little connected with the Latitudinarian and Socinian
tendencies of Mr. Blanco White — a singular person, who,
originally a Roman Catholic, had been attracted by the
Oxford School, and had been on friendly terms with
Newman and Pusey, and intimate with Archbishop
Whately, but who ended by repudiating the Catholic
Creed, and joining the Socinian body. A visit from
1 " Oxford Movement," p. 184.
2 It is probable that the name " Puseyite " became the popular
title of the party, because Dr. Pusey was the first of the Tract
writers to disclose his identity by subscribing his initials to Tracts
18 and 66.

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 165
Tholuck, for whom he had a warm regard, strengthened
Pusey in his anxiety to spend his life in defence of the
Christian faith, and he devoted himself in the next few
months to the special study of the Sacraments : the
tract on result of this was his celebrated Tract on
baptism. Baptism, consisting of three parts, included
in Nos. 68, 69, and 70 of the " Tracts for the Times."
This is one of the fullest treatments in the English
language of the great Sacrament of Regeneration, and
is an admirable specimen of Pusey's thorough and
exhaustive manner of dealing with great questions.
The Tract was largely based, as its title declared, on
" Scriptural teaching." It showed how necessary it is
not to explain away the plain and literal meaning of the
Biblical passages bearing upon the Sacrament. It
quoted largely from the Fathers and early liturgies,
and drew out the significance of the large number of
types of Baptism to be found in the Holy Scriptures.
It was said at the time that the teaching of Dr. Pusey
and other Tractarian writers, with the strong language
used by them concerning Post-Baptismal sin, tended to
a kind of Novatian doctrine. This was to some extent
recognized by Dr. Pusey himself as a possible danger,
and it was for this reason that he afterwards preached on
Absolution and the Holy Eucharist those sermons which
occasioned so much controversy, but which were intended
by him as supplemental to what he had written about
the great initial Sacrament of Regeneration.1
1 It was Pusey's teaching on Baptism, based on patristic
authorities, that proved to be the point of separation between
F. D. Maurice, and F. W. Robertson of Brighton, and the
Tractarian School. Cf. " Life of F. D. Maurice," vol. i., pp. 1 13, seq.,
and Robertson's " Life and Letters," pp. 180, seq.

1 66 Five Great. Oxford Leaders.
Anxious to spread in all possible ways a knowledge
of Catholic doctrine, he started a Theological Society,
which had very great influence on the Oxford Movement;
and papers by Keble, Isaac Williams, Charles Marriott
and others, and one by Dr. Pusey himself on the
Eucharistic Sacrifice — afterwards developed into the 8ist
Tract — form a series of able and instructive essays. He
also received into his house, and afterwards into lodgings
in St. Aldate's, young men anxious to study theology ;
among them were J. B. Mozley and Mark Pattison,
They were occupied in assisting Dr. Pusey .,
' r t> J "library
in the publication of " The Library of the of the
Fathers,"— a series of translations of the works **ATHERS"
of the great doctors of the Eastern and Western Churches,
to whom the Anglican Church had always appealed.
It was a great undertaking, and brought within the
reach of English readers the writings of Justin Martyr,
Tertullian, St. Cyprian, St. Athanasius, St. Augustine,
St. Chrysostom, the two Saints Cyril and others.
The translations were exact, and perhaps somewhat
rigidly literal. The undertaking was not finally com
pleted until many years afterwards, when, in June, 1882,
Pusey wrote : " My work on the Fathers is- done ; " and
even then, " there were," as he said, " gaps not filled up."
The work was dedicated to Archbishop Howley. It
was illustrated by a frontispiece, familiar to all readers
of the work, of St. John the Baptist seated on a rock,
with the scroll on the cross-staff, inscribed, " Vox
clamantis in deserto'' The translation of these great
works had been trusted to various younger men, some
of whom, like R. W. Church, became afterwards famous

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 167
writers ; and it should be added that, many years later,
Dr. Pusey's son Philip did a noble share of patristic
literature, in an edition of the writings of St. Cyril of
Alexandria, published with the touching dedication
"Patri meo." A kindred publication was that called
"The Anglo- Catholic Library," consisting of the works
of the Caroline divines, including Andrewes, Laud,
Cosin, and others, and brought within easy reach of the
public the works of the great Anglican writers of
the seventeenth century.
As the publication of the Tracts proceeded, not a few
roman attacks were made, anonymous and otherwise,
controversy. Up0n the writers and their teaching ; and
Pusey and Newman found it necessary to deal with the
Roman Catholic controversy. On the one side, Dr.
Wiseman was, in a very able and interesting way,
lecturing on the doctrines and practices of the Roman
Church, and making a considerable impression upon
many minds ; while, on the other hand, extreme Pro
testants in pamphlets and tracts were busy in bringing
accusations against the Tractarians of teaching Roman
doctrines. Amongst others was the publication by Mr.
Dickinson of " the Pope's Pastoral Epistle to the Oxford
Writers," an imaginary address approving of their
advocacy of certain doctrines and practices. Pusey
answered this extraordinary pamphlet, and, besides
clearing himself from general accusations, distinguished
between the Catholic practice of prayers for the dead,
as allowed by the English Church, and the Romish
doctrine of Purgatory. Newman, even at this time,
1836, was not quite at one with Pusey in his anxiety

1 68 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
to guard against possible misconceptions as to the
Romanizing tendency of the Tracts. But he was
perfectly loyal to his fellow-workers, and zealously
defended his friend when he was attacked in the
Christian Observer for his Tract on " Baptism." Among
the assailants appeared Mr. Golightly, who began to
busy himself actively as an opponent of the Movement,
and, in spite of a natural kindliness of disposition, for
some years frequently stirred up bitter attacks upon the
Oxford leaders. These assaults were, to some extent,
successful in compelling the authorities to take notice
of the leaders of the Movement, both as regards their
acts and their words. Bishop Bagot, of Oxford, had
received a number of communications complaining
of trifling innovations in the service at Littlemore and
St. Mary's — matters now regarded as either insignifi
cant or of universal use. But the attack served to
indicate a good deal of latent suspicion of the now
steadily growing movement. The battle began to be
waged elsewhere. Dr. Hook, whose admirable labours
at Leeds formed an era in the revival of parochial work
in the Church of England, was at this time in entire
sympathy with Dr. Pusey and the Tracts. These had
been attacked in a Leeds newspaper, and defended by
the Vicar, and an interesting correspondence took place
between him and Dr. Pusey, indicating their mutual
regard and sympathy. The Tracts were attracting notice
in high places, for the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr.
Howley, who was quite friendly to Pusey, appointed as
his Chaplain Mr. B. Harrison, Dr. Pusey's assistant
Hebrew Lecturer, but required some assurance as to the

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 169
real character of the Oxford School. Pusey recom
mended Harrison to accept the offer, hoping that it
would form a kind of link between Oxford and London,
and the Archbishop and the Tractarian School. But
his expectations were not fulfilled, for, as Dr. Pusey's
biographer has said of Harrison, " the traditional caution
of Lambeth was too much for him, his tone gradually
became more official and less sympathetic. He was as
years went on less the friend of the Movement than its
critic. . . . Pusey always referred in later years to the
move to Lambeth as an unfortunate experiment."

III.
In 1838 the Bishop of Oxford, Dr. Bagot, delivered a
tractarian charge, which, while approving to some extent
controversy. 0f the teaching of the Tracts, pointed out
what appeared to him to be certain dangerous tendencies.
Newman, with his excessive sensitiveness, always feeling
" that a Bishop's lightest word, ex cathedrd, was heavy,"
was in favour of stopping the Tracts at once. Pusey
was most unwilling to do this ; and, with his usual
sanguine temper, endeavoured to encourage Newman,
who, at this time, also received some kindly letters from
the Bishop. A considerable correspondence ensued
between Pusey and the Bishop on the subject of the
Tracts. The Bishop said plainly of the language he
had used in his charge about the Tracts, " My advice
was precautionary and prospective, not inculpatory and
retrospective. I think too highly of the authors and
their labours in behalf of the Church, not to be anxious

170 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
to do all that in me lies, both to see them right and to
maintain them in their right position." J
New difficulties now began. The project of the
" Martyrs' Memorial " at Oxford followed THE martyrs'
close upon this correspondence. It was memorial.
started mainly by Mr. Golightly, and was probably
intended as a protest against the publication of Froude's
" Remains," by Newman and Keble. Pusey en
deavoured to obtain from the Bishop of Oxford a
modification of the plan, which seemed to him likely
to " increase the vulgar impression that we were a new
Church at the Reformation." Pusey wished to build a
church, instead of merely erecting a monument to do
honour to the memory of Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer;
and to make it a symbol of the revival of true Catholi
cism at the Reformation, rather than of the creation of
an entirely new Protestant Communion. But the sup
porters of the memorial, who intended it to be a protest
against the Roman Church, and an assertion of the
supposed antagonism of the Anglican Reformers to
Catholic antiquity, carried the day. In consequence of
this, Pusey made up his mind to write a statement
of what were the real motives and the actual teaching
of the Tractarian School. He did so in the LETTEE TO
form of his well-known " Letter to the Bishop the bishop
of Oxford," which remains a valuable ex- 0F °
position of Catholic doctrine on the Sacraments and
Ministry of the Church, as held by the Church of
England in distinction from Roman error. It was, in
fact, an excellent promulgation of the principles of the
1 " Life," vol. ii., p. 61.

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 171
Via Media. The letter was warmly approved of by
Dr. Hook ; but it is curious to note that Newman, who
at this time received his first shock of doubt as to the
Catholic position of the English Church, did not quite
accept Pusey's statement " that stationariness is a proof
of adherence to some fixed and definite standard."
Already a difference of tone was beginning to show
itself between the two friends. Pusey was calm, and
confident, and restful : Newman carried forward by an
impulse which he scarcely understood.
Pusey at this time suffered the great bereavement
death op of his life. He had already been much tried
his wife, by more than one serious illness, and by the
loss of his infant daughter, baptized by Newman, con
cerning whom he once wrote that " the loss of our dear
Katherine was not merely a trial of my cheerful surrender
of her, but a chastisement to me." And now there came
the heavy blow of his wife's death. She had entirely
entered into all his aspirations, and cheerfully acquiesced
in all the generous sacrifices he made in his contributions
to Church extension. She gave up their horses and
carriage, and sold all her jewels, that the money might
be spent on London churches, Dr. Pusey himself giving
£5000 to Bishop Blomfield's fund. She was an active
worker amongst the poor in Oxford, and delighted in
the daily services of the cathedral. Besides being
acquainted with German and Italian, she became a
good Latin scholar, and helped her husband in his
translations, while she was also able to read the New
Testament in Greek. But her health, never very
good, gave way early, and was further weakened by

172 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
their anxiety about the delicate state of their son,
Philip. She had been baptized by a Dissenter, and,
feeling real scruples on the subject — not unnatural,
when it is remembered how lax and careless was the
manner of administering Holy Baptism in her youth —
was anxious to be baptized conditionally. After long
hesitation on the part of Dr. Pusey, with the Bishop's
sanction she was conditionally baptized by Newman in
St. Mary's Church. Various changes of air and scene
were tried, but her case was pronounced hopeless, and
she died on May 26, 1839, and was buried in the nave
of Christ Church Cathedral, where, many years after,
her husband was laid beside her. It is interesting to
note that " something more than a quarter of a century
had passed when, through the enterprise of Dean
Gaisford's successor, Dr. Liddell, the cathedral was
restored. The choir was paved at its restoration with
marble ; but few earthly things gave Pusey greater
pleasure in his later life than the discovery that, through
the consideration of the Dean, the original humble sand
stone slab had been left in its place undisturbed." x
This great sorrow had a profound effect upon
Pusey's life and character. It not only was self-
to himself "an ever-present memory," but discipline.
was undoubtedly the means of enabling him to give
the tenderest and deepest sympathy to others suffering
from bereavement. He now withdrew from general
society. His loss made him peculiarly sensitive to his
own supposed shortcomings. It led him to a more strict
method of self-discipline, and lent a very solemn tone
1 " Life," vol. ii., p. 104.

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 173
to his preaching. J. B. Mozley notices how, in his first
sermon preached after his wife's death, he came to a
complete standstill, and, dropping his voice after he had
recovered himself, added a very serious admonition
against self-indulgence amidst "breathless silence in
the church." After the first crushing effects of his loss
were somewhat lightened he set himself to work once
more. He gave great attention to assisting Keble in
keble's his metrical version of the Psalter, pointing
psalter. out to t]le author anything that was not
strictly accurate in the translation. The consequence
is that Keble's book " is free from the defects which gene
rally attach to a metrical system, indeed, in some respects,
it is a more accurate rendering of the Hebrew than the
Authorized Version itself." x Pusey was anxious to ob
tain from the Bishop of Oxford, Dr. Bagot, his authority
for the use of this version. The matter was referred to the
Archbishop, who declined to recommend any episcopal
sanction for its public use. A further instance of the
unwillingness of the Episcopate to commit themselves
to new enterprises, was the reluctance of the Archbishop
to sanction a proposal for a " Prayer Union," intended
to unite Churchmen of different shades of opinion in
supplications on behalf of the Church and its work.
The proposal therefore failed at the time in its object,
but from it sprang the forms of prayer used by members
of the Brotherhood of the Holy Trinity, a society that
has existed up to the present day in the University ;
and also much that is contained in the intercessorymanual
of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, Cowley.
1 " Life," vol. ii., p. 1 14.

174 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
Various questions at this time occupied Pusey's mind,
and caused him no little anxiety : first, TR0UBLES
Newman's desire to found a kind of reli- and diffi-
gious house at Littlemore, which never quite culties.
approved itself to his mind ; next, was the growing
tendency to use Pusey's name as the designation of a
party, — this he greatly disliked, though he took the
trouble to write a letter explaining to a correspondent
what those who used the nickname meant by it, viz.
a belief in the Sacraments, Episcopacy, the visible
Church, her fasts and festivals, her creeds and authority.
There began now to be heard rumours of individuals
becoming unsettled, and even seceding to the Church of
Rome. Pusey consulted Archdeacon Manning as to the
best methods of dealing with persons disturbed in their
minds, and received from him much useful information
and assistance. Newman and Pusey also had some
correspondence on this subject, and both of them felt
that decided steps should be taken to prevent the loss of
some of the most earnest lay disciples of the movement.
The opponents of the Oxford School were now
gathering their strength for an attack upon TRACT XC
its leaders, and the opportunity for doing so
was placed in their hands by the publication of Tract 90.
The main contentions of this Tract were entirely in
harmony with what Keble and Pusey had been teach
ing, and, though Pusey might have wished some details
different, he felt then what he said nearly thirty years
afterwards, " For myself I believe that Tract 90 did a
great work in clearing the Articles from the glosses
which, like barnacles, had enclustered round. I believe

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 175
that that work will never be undone while the Articles
shall last."
The attack upon the Tract and its author by " the Four
Tutors" was met, both by Keble and Pusey, who wrote
to the Vice-Chancellor accepting their responsibility as
having seen and approved of it before publication.
They endeavoured to prevent, without success, the pub
lication of the censure of the Board of Heads of Houses.
But Pusey wrote to the Bishop of Oxford, explaining
that Newman's intention, as well as much of his lan
guage, had been misunderstood, and assuring him that
the writer was ready to do anything that the Bishop
desired in the matter. The Bishop, in his anxiety, to
be just, and at the same time to remove the bad im
pression created in the public mind, had an interview
with Dr. Pusey at Cuddesdon, and the result was a
letter from Newman, submitting to the Bishop's wish
that the Tracts should be discontinued.
There was a great deal of dissatisfaction felt and
pusey's expressed amongst the High Church Party
defence. at the discontinuance of the Tracts. William
Palmer wrote to the Bishop, deprecating any con
cession to popular clamour, speaking as he did in the
name of the moderate High Churchmen. A perfect
deluge of pamphlets was let loose: Dr. Hook most
generously put aside his own feelings about the details
of the Tract, and in a very impetuous speech at Leeds
defended the Oxford Party. Dr. Wiseman entered the
field of controversy, and criticized the distinction drawn
in the Tract between the Decrees of Trent and the
present teaching of the Church of Rome. He was

176 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
answered by William Palmer very ably. Pusey him
self wrote a long letter to his friend, Dr. Jelf, which
plainly condemned the exaggerations of Rome, while
pointing out that the Articles, as interpreted in their
plain sense, were not meant to deny doctrines and
practices which were primitive. It is interesting to re
member that Archdeacon Manning was specially grateful
to Dr. .Pusey for the parts of his letter which were
directed against exaggerated devotion to the Blessed
Virgin. But these more moderate defenders of Tract 90
were much disturbed by the publication of two pam
phlets by Mr. W. G. Ward, which went far oakeley and
beyond the ground taken up by Newman in WAED-
the Tract. The writer was soon afterwards inhibited
from preaching in Margaret Chapel, of which his friend,
the Rev. F. Oakeley, was incumbent. Oakeley himself
also wrote an article in the British Critic, containing
severe criticisms on the English Reformation. Pusey
was greatly distressed at the action of these two writers,
who appeared to be drawing the Movement into a most
dangerous position. Newman was inclined to think
better of the action of Oakeley and Ward, and it became
more and more evident to the world that the Oxford
Party was being divided into two camps. It is not a
matter of surprise, after all that we now know of the
working of Newman's mind at the time, that this diver
gence was making itself felt. Not only the extreme
wing of the party, but many moderate men were further
disturbed by the action of Bishop Sumner of Winchester
in declining to ordain the Rev. Peter Young, curate of
Hursley, as Priest, because of his belief in the Real

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 177
Presence. Something of the same kind was also done
by Bishop Blomfield ; and Dr. Pusey, feeling the serious
ness of the event, visited the Archbishop, Dr. Howley,
who, while dealing with the question in a very kind
manner, declined to interfere. Six other Bishops began,
one after another, to deliver charges more or less in
condemnation of Tract 90, and even of other writings of
the Oxford School. This painful state of things caused
Pusey to write and publish a letter to the Archbishop,
episcopal complaining of the serious effects of the
charges. Episcopal charges, in encouraging extreme
attacks upon the supporters of Sacramental and Catholic
doctrines : and he expressed his serious apprehension
lest the effect would be a lamentable secession from
the Church of England. " What we fear is, lest a deep
despondency about ourselves and our Church come
over people's minds, and they abandon her, as thinking
her case hopeless ; or, lest individuals, who are removed
from the sobering influence of this ancient home of the
Church, should become fretted and impatient at these
unsympathizing condemnations, and the continued
harassing of the unseemly strife now carried on under
the shelter of your Lordships' names, and, losing
patience, should lose also the guidance vouchsafed to
the patient." x
Pusey, in the summer of 1841, was in Ireland, and
had the painful experience of being treated by his
former friend, Archbishop Whately, in a very cold
manner ; not being absolutely forbidden to preach, but
recommended not to do so. While he was there, the
1 "Letter to Archbishop of Canterbury," pp. 71—75, 3rd edit.
N

178 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
affair of the Jerusalem bishopric came before the public.
Pusey was sanguine enough to hope, that an THE
English Bishop might exercise a good in- Jerusalem
fluence over the Prussian Protestants ; but b*shofric.
Newman and Dr. Mill felt very strongly against it, and
vigorous protests were sent to the Archbishop. Glad
stone disliked the whole project as "inaugurating an
experimental or fancy Church," and depreciating Angli
can principles. Pusey soon felt how true this was, and
his knowledge of Germany and of Lutheran teaching
enabled him to point out to the Archbishop how
dangerous a step had been taken. One result un
doubtedly was, to add an additional cause of unsettle-
ment of Newman's confidence in the Church of England.
Another occasion of controversy was the _,THE PRO"
election to the poetry professorship. Isaac fessorship of
Williams was regarded as the candidate of F0ET*iV-
the Tractarians, and, though he was undoubtedly, in
all respects, fitted for the post, the Protestant Party
determined to oppose him, and issued circulars can
vassing for votes in behalf of Mr. Garbett of B.N.C.
Pusey, perhaps not very wisely, made a counter
movement, and wrote a letter which was sent to all
members of Convocation. A strong feeling of partisan
ship was aroused, and the result was that the Bishop
of Oxford intervened, recommending the withdrawal of
both candidates. In the end, Mr. Garbett's committee
declined to take this course, and Mr. Williams's name
was withdrawn from the contest. But a great deal of
soreness was felt by the Tractarian Party, who saw
themselves defeated and misjudged in all directions,

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 179
Soon after this, an attempt was made to remove the
censure passed on Dr. Hampden ; but, in spite of con
siderable efforts on the part of his supporters, the censure
was reaffirmed. Dr. Pusey was increasingly distressed
by Newman's evidently growing loss of confidence, and
this was largely increased by Newman's retractation of
his controversial language against the Church of Rome.
And now one of the most important events in Pusey's
life took place, one which, more than anything else,
tested and exhibited his patience under trial and unjust
suspicion, and proved his faithfulness and loyalty to the
Church of England. On May 14, 1843, he preached
the con- *"s celebrated sermon on " The Holy
demned Eucharist, a Comfort to the Penitent." It
sermon. was a practicai and uncontroversial dis
course ; it implied, rather than stated, the doctrine of
the " Real Presence," and, as he himself said long after
wards, " its one object was to inculcate the love of our
Redeemer for us sinners, in the Holy Eucharist, both
as a Sacrament and a Commemorative Sacrifice." Most
of the congregation listened to it with reverent admira
tion, and, as J. B. Mozley records, "all on a sudden
comes, like a clap of thunder on the ear, the news that
the board of heresy is summoned to sit on Dr. Pusey."
The Vice-Chancellor sent for a copy of the sermon,
and with it Pusey forwarded some extracts from the
Fathers illustrating his statements on the Eucharist.
These extracts afterwards were enlarged into that
exhaustive catena of authorities published under the
title of " The Doctrine of the Real Presence," ranging
from the time of St. Ignatius down to St. Leo. Pusey

180 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
plainly pointed out, in a letter to the Vice-Chancellor,
that he had always decidedly expressed his rejection
of the dogma of Transubstantiation, and desired to
hold the doctrine accepted by Anglican divines, in
accordance with the teaching of the " collective ancient
Church." The court of six doctors was assembled : it
included Dr. Hawkins, Provost of Oriel, who was, in
fact, the person that took the part of accuser, and well
known to be strongly opposed to the Tractarians ; and
the verdict given was the condemnation of the sermon
as contrary to the doctrine of the Church of England.
Pusey was allowed no opportunity of defending himself
before the court, and was ordered to recant THE unjust
under pain of suspension. Dr. Jelf acted as TEop^„ENT
an intermediary, and two attempts were preacher.
made, without final success, to draw up a form of recan^
tation that would be acceptable. The result was that
Pusey was suspended. He made a protest against a
condemnation of one unheard in his defence, and the
University at large certainly regarded the whole affair
as very extraordinary. Some lay members of the Uni
versity in the country, including Mr. Gladstone and Sir
John Coleridge, sent a protest to the Vice-Chancellor,
without, however, altering the position of affairs. What
was felt at the time can be best understood from a
paper written by Isaac Williams, in which he said,
" Nothing has occurred in our own time, so pregnant
with great consequences, as the late conspiracy in
Oxford. . . . Men look at each other as if some wicked
thing had been perpetrated, on which they could not
venture to speak. In all, there is a deep feeling that it

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 181
is not to end here, and a sense of love and reverence
for the injured person strongly entertained. . . . There
is also a very general impression, that the sermon itself
is no more than a handle for a preconcerted measure ;
which is confirmed by the fact that they have reso
lutely refused to mention any one objectionable propo.-
sition in the sermon, or in what way it is discordant
with the Church of England. All I have met with
consider the sermon very innocent and unexception
able." x On the recommendation of his friends, the
sermon with a preface and full notes was published, and
was warmly received. Gladstone wrote : " I cannot
tell you with what warm appreciation I read your
preface." Dr. Hook, in his impulsive way, said, "My
poor wife is crying over your protest, and I can scarcely
restrain myself. I remembered you to-day at the
altar ; " and shortly afterwards he dedicated to Pusey a
sermon preached at the dedication of Hawarden Church.
It was a very extraordinary comment upon the action
of the six Doctors that, at the Commemoration in that
same year, an honorary degree was conferred upon an
American Socinian. Pusey was advised to test the
legality of his suspension in the law-courts. But on the
advice of the Bishop of Oxford, Dr. Bagot, who, without
condemning the sermon, would not allow Dr. Pusey to
quote him as approving of it, the suggestion was not
carried into action. The effect upon the University was
to call men's attention to the need of University reform.
It was, as Dean Church said, plain that " the policy of
the authorities was wrong, stupid, unjust, pernicious."
i " Isaac Williams's Autobiography," pp. 136, 137.

1 82 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
It had also the serious effect of making younger men
distrust the leaders who were responsible for the
government of the Church and University.
Before the beginning of the term after Pusey's sus
pension, Newman resigned the vicarage of newman
St. Mary's, and with it his work at Littlemore. AND PUSEY'
Pusey was present at the anniversary of the consecration
of the little church at the latter place, and was the cele
brant of the Holy Eucharist. He came home, after hear
ing Newman's last sad sermon, " half broken-hearted," as
he said, only to hear within a month of the secession of
Mr. Seager, his assistant Hebrew lecturer. This, and
Newman's resignation, caused great anxiety to Pusey
and his friends. During the following months he often
walked out to Littlemore, where Newman was living in
retirement ; and, with his sanguine temper, he hoped
against hope, trusting that his friend might still remain
faithful to the English Church. His own heart was
sorely tried at this time by the illness of his son Philip,
and the death in the early part of the next year of his
daughter Lucy. Pusey, always anxious to seek for
consolation in devotion, and hoping also to aid other
souls, began a series of adaptations of foreign THE K0MAN
devotional books.1 Keble approved of it, books of
but Newman instinctively felt that the plan DEV0TI0N'
would prepare people's minds to join the Church of
Rome. And yet, Jeremy Taylor and Wesley had
adapted similar works, as well as Bishop Andrewes and
Archbishop Laud. Such adaptations, however, became
1 Among these may be mentioned Avrillon's " Guide to Lent ; "
"The Spiritual Combat," by Scupoli ; the "Paradise of the
Christian Soul ; '' " The Sufferings of Jesus," by Fra Thome.

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 183
in later years a cause of reproach against Dr. Pusey.
Events at Oxford followed quickly upon one another,
all of them tending to the disparagement of the Trac
tarian Party. An attempt on the part of the latter to
oppose the appointment of Dr. Symons of Wadham, as
Vice-Chancellor, was defeated by an overwhelming
majority. Mr. W. G. Ward, Fellow of Balliol, published
his work on "The Ideal of a Christian Church." It
was practically a glorification of the Roman system, and
a depreciation of the Church of England. It caused so
much alarm that the heads of Houses proposed a new
test, which was afterwards withdrawn, but a determined
attempt was made to condemn Tract 90, which was
only defeated by the courageous action of the proctors
in vetoing the proposed censure. Mr. Oakeley, of
Margaret Chapel, was, a few months after this, con
demned in the Court of Arches for holding Roman
doctrine. These events were followed by many letters between
Pusey, and Keble and Newman, on the much-dreaded
subject of the approaching secession of the last named.
Pusey was asked by more than one person to write
some public statement against Rome, but thought it
much better to work quietly, and pray for the revival of
true Catholicism in the Church of England. On October
3rd Newman wrote to Pusey, announcing the resignation
newman's of his Fellowship, saying, "anything may
secession, happen to me now any day," and on October
9th he was received into the Roman Church. A week
afterwards Pusey wrote a letter to an ideal or imaginary
friend, which was published in the " English Churchman."

184 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
It was full of pathetic regret at the loss of Newman.
" Our Church," he said, "has not known how to employ
him." And yet he could not say he was lost to him, for
" he seems to me, not so much gone from us, as trans
planted into another part of the vineyard, where the full
energies of his powerful mind can be employed, which
here they cannot." But he was far from despairing:
" For myself, I am even now far more hopeful as to our
Church than at any former period, far more than, when
outwardly, things seemed most prosperous. . . . The
growth of life in our Church has not been the mere
stirring of individuals. ... It was not through their
agency, nor through their writings, but through God's
Holy Spirit dwelling in His Church, vouch- pUSEYS
safed through His Ordinances, teaching us steadfast-
to value them more deeply, to seek them more NESS'
habitually, to draw fresh life from them, that this life has
sprung up enlarged, deepened." Keble, who felt that a
"thunderbolt" had fallen, was deeply moved and com
forted by this letter, so full of patient and faithful
confidence. Some people thought that Pusey would soon follow
his friend in the step that he had taken. But even
Newman himself knew differently. Many years after
wards he wrote, " People are apt to say that he (Pusey)
was once nearer to the Catholic Church than he is now :
I pray God that he may one day be far nearer to the
Catholic Church than he was then ; for I believe that,
in his reason and judgment, all the time that I knew
him, he never was near to it at all." *
1 "Apologia," p. 1*38.

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 185
Newman's secession happened at a peculiarly un-
st. saviour's, fortunate time for a special enterprise of
leeds. Pusey's. This was the consecration of the
church that he had erected at Leeds, at a cost of
£6000, given anonymously. He had wished that it
should be dedicated under the designation of the " Holy
Cross," his baptismal day being on September 14th,
the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The
Bishop of Ripon objected to this title, as well as to an
inscription asking for prayers for the founder of the
church. The title was changed to " St. Saviour's," but
the inscription was allowed to remain, on the ground
that the founder was still alive, and can be read to this
day: "Ye who enter this holy place, pray for the
sinner who built it." The church was built among the
dwellings of the factory people of Leeds, and was one
of the first attempts to bring home the full Catholic
teaching of the Tracts, to the poor of the great towns
of England. Since then, hundreds of similar centres of
home-mission work on Catholic principles have been
created, carried on, and greatly blessed. But the story
of St. Saviour's, Leeds, was to be a chequered and
somewhat sad one. It began under the cloud of New
man's secession ; and though its consecration and its
Octave Services were felt to be "a blessed, peaceful
week," though Dr. Hook was a genial co-operator at
the first, before many years passed great troubles arose.
Differences sprang up between Hook and Pusey, many
secessions took place among the clergy ; and Pusey,
to use the expression of his biographers, "reaped two
sad harvests of disappointment " on two very serious

1 86 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
occasions, when the clerical staff was broken up and the
work terribly hindered. And yet there were bright
spots in the story — "boys, mechanics, and mill-girls
using confession," devout and reverent Eucharists, large
numbers of the Leeds poor won to a deep affection
to the Church ; and, among the clergy, two noble
names stand out as faithful when others fell away —
Mr. Beckett, afterwards Canon of Bloemfontein, and
Mr. Gutch, afterwards Incumbent of St. Cyprian's, Mary-
lebone. For many years past an admirable work has
been carried on there under the present Vicar, the Rev.
J. Wylde, and Dr. Pusey's alms and prayers have borne
much blessed fruit.

IV
Pusey now set himself earnestly to a work which he
had for some time felt was very needful
for the Church's welfare, and that was the
foundation of Sisterhoods. Many Anglican writers of
the seventeenth century had re-echoed the eulogies of
the Fathers on the consecrated life of virgins, and
Nicholas Ferrar had established a religious community
at Little Gidding, in the time of Charles I. Pusey had
hoped that his own daughter, Lucy, would be the first
to join some community of the kind. But it was not
to be ; she was called away from this world and its
work. Nevertheless, in the spring of 1845, a number of
earnest laymen, including Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Beres-
ford Hope, undertook to raise funds for the erection of

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 187
buildings and maintenance of a Sisterhood. The small
community of devout ladies was started at Park Village
West, on Easter Monday, 1845, with a rule of life, in
cluding the recitation of the seven hours of the Breviary,
in addition to the Daily Offices of the English Prayer-
book. They worked under Mr. Dodsworth of Christ
Church, Albany Street, visiting the poor in the neigh
bourhood of the Regent's Park, and teaching in Ragged
Schools. Three or four years later, Miss Sellon began
a similar work at Devon port, where a devoted com
munity has laboured among the poor and outcast for
many years. Not a little criticism and opposition was
aroused ; strange, if not fabulous, charges were brought ;
but Bishop Phillpotts, of Exeter, gave their work his'
approval and support, and the opposition was largely
disarmed by the splendid acts of self-devotion mani
fested by the Sisters, when, in 1849, they volunteered to
visit the sick and dying during the great outbreak of
cholera in the parish of St. Peter's, Plymouth, over which
the venerable and beloved Vicar, the Rev. G. R. Prynne,
still presides. These early days of Anglican Sister
hoods, and the tentative efforts to establish religious
communities, were but the beginnings of that great and
successful creation of so many religious societies of
women, that have now come to be regarded as indis
pensable to the life and work of the English Church at
home and abroad. The name and garb of a Sister of
Mercy fifty years ago served too often to provoke scorn,
prejudice, and dislike. They are now everywhere ac
cepted as the symbols of a life of self-devotion, and
loving ministrations to the suffering members of Christ.

1 88 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
Almost at the time that the Church was convulsed
by Newman's secession, Dr. Samuel Wilber- bishop
force was appointed Bishop of Oxford. He wilberforce.
was five years younger than Pusey, and had been brought
up in the strict Evangelical School. He had never felt
quite in harmony with the Tractarian writers, and had
specially disliked Pusey's Tract on Baptism. He failed
to understand Pusey's position, and misjudged both his
teaching and his manner of expressing himself, which
seemed to Wilberforce to be egotistical and insincere.
Pusey took occasion of the Bishop's appointment to
write a letter of explanation, which failed to win the
new Bishop's approval, and the result was that his
episcopate began with a strong prejudice against the
actual leader of the Tractarian Movement.
The time now came for Pusey to preach after his
period of suspension had elapsed. Mr. sermon on
Golightly stirred up the Vice-Chancellor to absolution.
require a special subscription to the Articles before he
was allowed to occupy the University pulpit. The
Vice-Chancellor, without consenting to this, plainly told
Dr. Pusey, in a written communication, that he distrusted
him as a teacher. On February i, 1846, Pusey preached
his memorable sermon on " The Entire Absolution of
the Penitent." The church was completely thronged,
every inch of space was occupied ; Pusey passed up the
cathedral with "his perfectly pallid, furrowed, mortified
face, looking almost like jagged marble, immovably
serene withal, and with eyes fixed in deep humility on
the ground." 1 He referred to his sermon on the
1 Letter by J. B. Mozley. Quoted in " Life of Pusey," vol. iii.
p. 60.

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 189
Eucharist, as having been intended to exhibit to the
penitent one great means of restoration, and in a few
words he reasserted plainly the doctrine it contained.
He then, in a very practical and yet tender way, unfolded
the Church's teaching on Confession and Absolution.
Of the whole sermon it has been well said, " Even after
the lapse of years, the sermon cannot be read without
renewing something of that moral and spiritual glow
which illuminated the souls of the majority of the great
congregation which listened to it. The concluding
paragraphs are a magnificent exhortation to those who
have sinned deeply, and have been pardoned, to devote
their lives to some self-denying form of Christian
work." *
No attempt was made on this occasion to censure the
pusey's sermon. Pusey had been careful to use the
self-humili- language of the Prayer-book, and of recog-
ation. nized Anglican divines ; and the sermon,
after publication, was quietly received, and by many
leading clergymen thoroughly approved. The doctrine
of the sermon was something more to Pusey than a
mere academic theory. He was led on at this time
to greater efforts at self-discipline, self-humiliation, and
the use of private confession in his own case. He
sought counsel and direction from Keble, and set him
self more and more to take a lowly place and form
a humble estimate of himself. Some persons have
criticized not only the language that he used of his
own unworthiness, but the whole attitude of his mind,
as revealing a lack of joyousness, an element in the
1 " Life," vol. iii. p. 64.

1 90 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
Christian life as essential at least as that of humility.
Bishop Walsham How, whose own religious temperament
was particularly bright and sunny, when Pusey's life
was published, expressed his regret at this apparent
lack in Pusey's spiritual life. But it has been recorded
that Pusey's favourite text was, " Rejoice in the Lord
alway." Dr. Liddon has related that, during a very
serious illness, when all around him thought that Dr.
Pusey was quite unconscious, he said afterwards that
he was "well occupied." In answer to the question,
" What were you doing ?" he replied, " By God's mercy
I could remember the Epistle for the Fourth Sunday in
Advent, out of the Philippians, which begins, ' Rejoice
in the Lord alway.' This I made a framework for
prayer; saying the Lord's prayer two or three times
between each clause, and so dwelling on the several
relations of each clause to each petition in the Lord's
prayer." This lasted four or five hours, and then he
began again : " I was very happy," he said, " and, had
it been God's will, did not wish to get better."1
Assuredly, in the lives of the holiest persons, there is
often a remarkable combination of the deepest self-
humiliation, and even vehement self-condemnation, with
a never-absent sense of the Divine presence and the
Divine love. The Psalter is full of such intermingling
of apparently contradictory spiritual experiences, and it
is no greater matter for surprise that this was the case
in a man like Pusey, than in that of Henry Martyn
or other devout servants of God of whom the same has
been recorded. 1 "Passiontide Sermons," xvii. p. 271.

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 191
For no little time Pusey had much solitude to endure
and no little persecution to bear. The troubles at
St. Saviour's, Leeds, and the constant attacks of Pro
testants in the press and on platforms, kept him pain
fully conscious of the suspicions under which his life
was passed. He was accused, not only of leading
people to Rome, but actually of recommending them
to secede. Once more he was urged to take publicly
an anti-Roman attitude, and again he declined. Decla
mation, he thought, was not the best way to retain
people within the Church of England. He turned away
as much as possible from controversy to a subject very
bible com- near his heart, a commentary on the Bible,
mentary. to be undertaken by some of the Oxford
writers, among whom were mentioned Keble, Mill,
Moberly, Manning, and Isaac Williams. But events
that followed prevented the successful carrying out of
the project, and all that was achieved was Pusey's own
share of it : and a most valuable work it is, the " Com
mentary on the Minor Prophets," which was not com
pleted until many years afterwards.
Two very serious events occurred within the next few
dr. hampden, years : the first was the nomination of Dr.
bishop of Hampden to the bishopric of Hereford. It
Hereford. wag bought, not without reason, that this
selection, and a similar one of Dr. Lee to Man
chester, were intended as a distinct blow on the part
of the Government to the Oxford Party.1 Pusey and
Keble thought it their duty to take every step to
1 For a kindly view of Bishop Lee's religious character, see
" Life of Archbishop Benson," vol. i. pp. 36, seq.

192 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
challenge the appointment. But the Chapter of Here
ford elected Dr. Hampden with one dissentient, and,
when the Confirmation took place at Bow Church, it
was ruled that, though objectors were invited to come
forward, no objection could legally be heard. An
appeal was made to the Court of Queen's Bench for
a mandamus to compel the Archbishop to hear objec
tions ; but the judges were equally divided, and the
appeal failed. Half a century has elapsed, and still, from
time to time, the old farce is repeated, and the Church
has to stand by, in enforced silence, when the solemn
Confirmation of an elected Bishop takes place in the
Court of the Metropolitan. Her only safeguard, perhaps
an increasingly sure one, rests on the faithfulness of the
Archbishop and his Suffragans, who may be trusted to
refuse consecration to an unworthy or heretical person.
The other event was the case of Mr. Gorham. Ap
pointed to a benefice in the diocese of Exeter, to which
the Bishop, after a long examination, declined to insti
tute him on account of his unsound views on Holy
Baptism, Mr. Gorham moved the Court of Arches to
compel the Bishop to admit him to the living. The
Dean, Sir Herbert Jenner Fust, upheld Dr. Phillpotts'
action ; but, on an appeal to the Privy Council, Mr.
Gorham was pronounced not to have gone beyond or
come short of the teaching of the Church of England.
Though the decision of the Court was the gorham
grounded on statements not quite identical controversy.
with those advanced by Mr. Gorham, nevertheless, in
the eyes of the public, it appeared that the highest
authorities of the Church of England had decided to

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 193
treat the grace and efficacy of Baptism as an open
question ; and, in spite of great efforts on the part of
the Bishop of Exeter to obtain some statement from
the Primate and the other Bishops, clearing the Church,
and his steady refusal to institute Mr. Gorham, the latter
was instituted by the Dean of Arches, under the authority
of the Archbishop, Dr. Sumner. A most serious state
of feeling was aroused. Public meetings were held, and
protests signed and presented. The principal questions
that caused anxiety were, firstly, the apparent denial of
the Church's teaching on Holy Baptism, and, secondly,
the usurpation of a civil Court to decide questions of
Church doctrine and discipline. Pusey endeavoured
to take up a calm and moderate attitude. But some
of the more vehement minds were discontented with
any appearance of compromise, and, before long, im
portant secessions took place — Mr. Maskell and Mr.
Allies, Mr. Dodsworth and H. W. Wilberforce left the
Church of England. Perhaps the most important
manning secession at this time was that of Arch-
secedes. deacon Manning. He, in earlier days, had
been "a loyal and somewhat stiff Anglican." He had
been decidedly anti- Roman, and had used language far
less charitable towards the Roman Church than Pusey
ever permitted himself to employ. But when the
question of Church authority and the invasion of it
by the royal supremacy came to the front, Manning,
whose mind was always largely influenced by theories
of law and authority, thought that the Anglican Church
stood revealed as the mere creation of the Royal Supre
macy. It is not surprising that, when he did secede, he
0

194 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
committed himself to the exaggerated form of Papal
authority known as Ultramontanism. Another very
serious loss to the Anglican Church was that of Arch
deacon Robert Wilberforce. He was a theologian of
no little ability, and had published a remarkable work
on the Incarnation, which still holds its place as a
standard book. This was followed up by a work on
Holy Baptism, and, later on, by. another on the Holy
Eucharist. He had for some years been very much
disturbed in his mind on questions concerning the
Royal Supremacy, and the lack of decisive action by
Anglican ecclesiastical authorities after the Gorham
decision greatly shook his faith, and four years later he
followed the example of Manning, and was admitted
into the Roman Church.
Looking back after the lapse of nearly half a century,
it is not difficult to sympathize with the feelings of alarm
and almost despair under the heavy blows that shook
the confidence of such able men as the seceders of 1850.
Since that time, however, Churchmen have learnt to dis
tinguish between the voice of the Church herself, and
the unauthorized statements of Courts that have, in the
minds of Catholics, no claim to real spiritual jurisdiction.
The case is bad enough at the present time: it is
altogether monstrous that a Court never intended to
pronounce decisions on spiritual cases should, even in
appearance, decide questions involving the doctrine and
worship, of the Church, as if it were a sacred synod.
But in those days the Court was regarded by most
people as a spiritual tribunal, and its judgments sounded
like the utterances of the voice of the Church herself;

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 195
and the consequences were most disastrous. There
still remains for Catholic Churchmen the necessary,
though difficult, task of restoring the lawful machinery
of ecclesiastical Courts, and of adjusting them with the
right of every citizen to appeal to the Crown for justice
in the last resource. V.
The much tried Tractarians had no sooner recovered,
to some slight extent, the heavy blow of the Gorham
papal judgment than there occurred that period of
aggression, excitement occasioned by the "Papal Aggres
sion." Pius IX. took upon himself to establish a new
hierarchy in England, with an Archbishop and twelve
Suffragans. Dr. Wiseman, Cardinal and " Archbishop
of Westminster," published a somewhat verbose and
grandiose letter from Rome, announcing that he had
been appointed to rule over the Province and the
Diocese assigned to him in England by the Pope.
This, and the whole action of the Court of Rome, not
unnaturally caused great irritation, both in the Church,
and also in the country at large. A hasty and,
as it turned out, „a futile Act of Parliament was passed,
making the use of ecclesiastical titles, created by the
Pope, illegal. Lord John Russell wrote his notorious
letter to the Bishop of Durham, including in the same
attack the Roman aggression and what he called
"the mummeries of High Church superstition." The
popular feeling was roused against the Tractarians,
and was to a certain extent encouraged by some of
the language used by Bishop Blomfield, of London, in

196 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
his charge. Dr. Pusey felt called upon to answer some
of the objections raised by the Bishop, and he did so in
a very remarkable letter, defending his teaching on the
Holy Eucharist and Absolution, as well as LETTEKT0
explaining his motives in adapting certain the bishop
Roman Catholic books of devotion. He 0F L0ND0N-
declared that he was free from all taint of Romanism,
and said of his teaching and that of his friends, "It
was out of Hc'y Scripture and the formularies of the
Church that Tractarianism arose. It was cherished by
our English divines, it was deepened by the Fathers,
it was ripened while most of the writers knew scarcely a
Roman book, and only controversially. Tractarianism
was entirely the birth of the English Church." l
Dr. Pusey had another trial to bear. His own Bishop
who, five years before, had entered on his
. ,, r ,. r_ , , INHIBITION.
episcopate full of distrust of Pusey s work,
now complained of his adaptation of Roman Catholic
¦books, and other details of practice and teaching. Pusey
earnestly strove to remove the Bishop's objections, but
without success; and Dr. Wilberforce proceeded to inhibit
Dr. Pusey from preaching, except in his native parish,
Pusey, where his ministrations would be "harmless."
Keble endeavoured to mediate, and strongly urged upon
the Bishop that, so far from Pusey's teaching leading
people to Rome, no one had done more to check seces
sion. A long correspondence ensued, and in the end
the inhibition was withdrawn. After this time happier
relations existed between Pusey and his Bishop, and
in later days Dr. Wilberforce invited him, year after
1 " Letter to the Bishop of London," p. 259.

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 197
year, to preach in the well-known Lenten Courses at
St. Mary's and St. Giles', Oxford.
In spite of the heavy blows received, and the many
hindrances that gathered round the Tractarian School,
its principles were slowly making way. The Gorham
judgment raised in men's minds the whole subject of
Church synods. Bishop Phillpotts, at Exeter, had
called a diocesan synod to deal with the Gorham judg
ment : in the Colonies and in America, ecclesiastical
assemblies, more or less moulded on ancient lines, had
been established ; and in November, 1852, through the
revival oe efforts of some devoted Churchmen, Convo-
convocation. catjon met for business after an interval of
135 years. The results of this revival of England's
sacred synods, after more than forty years of trial,
may not have produced any very great or remark
able fruits, such as the enactment of new canons ;
but it would be a serious mistake to imagine that the
meetings of Convocation have been, and still are,
nothing more than the debates of an ecclesiastical
society. They have had a very great educational value,
and some direct as well as indirect results of a beneficial
kind. Men have at least begun to learn the lesson that
the Church is not a mere department of the Civil
Service ; that she has a voice of her own, as well as a
constitution and an origin independent of, and ante
cedent to, that of the State. And Convocation, in
alliance with Houses of Laymen, will find increasing
opportunities of usefulness, and win an increasing
measure of respect.
The controversy on Holy Baptism was soon to be

198 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
followed by one equally serious on the Holy Eucharist.
Pusey preached a sermon in 1853, exactly eucharistic
ten years after the celebrated discourse controversy.
which had been condemned, without any open
opposition or attack taking place. But Archdeacon
Denison delivered three sermons in Wells Cathedral,
plainly teaching the doctrine of the Real Presence and
all that it involved. Mr. Ditcher, Vicar of South Brent,
thought it his duty to accuse the Archdeacon of false
doctrine, and the latter was cited to appear before the
Archbishop on a charge of heresy. Pusey published, in
1855, his remarkable work on the Real Presence which
has been already alluded to, and the book was declared
by Bishop Phillpotts to be " a well-timed and triumphant
statement of the doctrine of the Church." The Arch
bishop's Court, however, pronounced against the sermons
of Archdeacon Denison, giving him a period
within which to make a retractation. In the
meantime, a protest was drawn up against the Arch
bishop's judgment, asserting the Real Presence and the
lawfulness of Eucharistic adoration. It was signed by
Pusey, Keble, Isaac Williams, Mr. Carter of Clewer,
Dr. Neale, and others. But on October 22nd Arch
deacon Denison was deprived of all his preferments, and
at once proceeded to appeal to the Court of Arches;
and, after some legal delays, the Dean of Arches reversed
the decision of the Court of the Archbishop at Bath, on
technical grounds, and this decision was upheld by the
Privy Council. Two important works were the result
of this controversy — Keble's " Eucharistical Adoration,"
and Pusey's " Real Presence, considered as the Doctrine

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 199
of the English Church." The latter book contained
an interesting dissertation on the English Prayer-book
and Articles as distinguished from the Zwinglian and
Calvinistic Confessions on sacramental questions.
Another important Eucharistic trial took place shortly
after this. Mr. A. P. Forbes, a friend of Dr.
FORBES. _ , , , , '
Pusey s, who had been appointed Vicar of
St. Saviour's, Leeds, was elected Bishop of Brechin in
Scotland. His life and work, as one of the most devoted
and learned Bishops of the Anglican Church of the
present century, deserve special notice, but cannot be
here described.1 In his primary charge he enlarged
upon the doctrines of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, the Real
Presence and Eucharistic adoration. Several of the
Scottish Bishops took great exception to the language
he used, and a Synod was held in Edinburgh, when a
document was published, signed by the six other Bishops,
condemning much of the teaching of Bishop Forbes.
Keble, who, as Honorary Canon of the Collegiate
Church at Cumbrae, had some official connection
with the Church in Scotland, published a pamphlet
with Pusey's assistance, pointing out the weak points
in the statements of the Scotch Bishops ; but in the
summer of 1859, Bishop Forbes was presented before
the Synod, and his trial took place in March in the
following year. The Synod pronounced judgment
in a not very satisfactory form, condemning certain of
Bishop Forbes's statements, and the matter ended in a
somewhat mild, if not lame, manner, for with " admoni-
1 Memoirs by Miss Skene (1876) and Canon Mackey (1
supply interesting information.

200 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
tion and brotherly love," the Bishop of Brechin was
entreated to be " more careful in the future." 2
In 1854 a new state of things had been inaugurated
at Oxford, as the result of the University THEGREEK
Commission, and together with it there arose professor-
in gathering strength a liberal, or rather SHIP-
rationalistic, movement. Pusey felt that a great con
flict was at hand, such as he had anticipated when
in Germany thirty years before. With great care
he prepared and preached before the University two
sermons, on " Faith " and the " Relations of Reason " to
it ; and, in notes added to the published sermons, he
called attention to the inadequate teaching of Mr. Jowett,
the Professor of Greek, in his "Essay on the Atonement,"
and his " Commentary on St. Paul's Epistles." At the
same time a proposal was made that the University
should increase the stipend of the Greek Professor from
a mere nominal sum to £300 a year. It was very
unfortunate that the question of Mr. Jowett's lack of
orthodoxy should have been mixed up with this proposal:
and though some of the orthodox party were not sorry
for the opportunity thus given for expressing their dis
like of the Professor's teaching, Pusey, who was
incapable of treating an opponent shabbily, did his best
to alter the scheme into a measure for augmenting two
Professorships, those of Civil Law and of Greek, and
thus avoid an indirect attack on Jowett's religious views.
The Bishop of Oxford and Gladstone agreed to this,
1 A full and by no means one-sided review of the Eucharistic
controversy in Scotland is given in " The Episcopate of Charles
Wordsworth," by the Bishop of Salisbury, pp. 140, seq.

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 201
but Professor Stanley, afterwards Dean of Westminster,
pressed for the temporary endowment of Jowett's
professorship. Stanley's proposal was calculated rather
to exasperate the other side, by whom it was defeated ;
and, while the matter was being negotiated, there
appeared the volume called " Essays and Reviews," to
which Jowett had contributed an essay. This added
considerably to the theological difficulties of the situa
tion, and Pusey's plan was also defeated. Several other
propositions were made, only to be rejected ; and, now
that Pusey's compromise had failed, it was thought
right to prosecute Jowett directly for his theological
errors. A trial was begun in the Chancellor's Court,
which ended in a decision adverse to the jurisdiction of
the Court in this particular case. Pusey, who had been
supported by Keble, and Drs. Ogilvie and Heurtley,
declined to appeal against this decision, and, contrary
to the wishes of many of his friends, decided to propose
the endowment of the Greek Chair ; for, after having
done all that he could to make a stand in behalf of
orthodoxy, he thought it better by a timely and
generous concession to remove all occasion of heart
burnings. But, through the influence of Archdeacon
Denison and a number of persons who were in a state
of genuine alarm at Jowett's influence, the proposal
was rejected. Finally, a plan was adopted by which
Christ Church increased the stipend to ^500 a year ;
after it had been discovered that there was some
obligation, though by no means a certain one, resting
on the Dean and Chapter to do so by the tenure of
certain lands. It is believed that this solution of what

202 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
had been a subject of painful dispute was largely due
to the tact and considerateness of Dean Liddell.
The volume entitled " Essays and Reviews," published
early in i860, contained seven papers, quite "essays and
independent of each other in origin, and reviews."
differing widely in character. Some of the statements
were crude and reckless, and were pronounced by
Stanley himself, at the outset, to be rash, offensive, and
irritating. Among the writers were Dr. Temple, head
master of Rugby, afterwards successively Bishop of
Exeter and London, and Archbishop of Canterbury;
the Rev. H. B. Wilson, one of " the Four Tutors " who
had assailed Tract 90 in 1841 ; and Professor Jowett.
Dr. Tait, then Bishop of London, himself one of "the
Four Tutors," spoke of the folly of the publication of
the essays, and deplored their spirit. Many men, even
of the Broad Church school, were alarmed at the book
and its probable effect. Perhaps the wisest course
would have been to treat it with dignified silence. But
the excitement throughout the Church, and the presenta
tion of petitions, largely signed by the clergy, compelled
some notice on the part of the authorities. Dr. Rowland
Williams, one of the essayists, was prosecuted by the
Bishop of Salisbury ; and a suit was begun by the
Rev. J. Fendall against Mr. Wilson : the cases were
heard in the Court of Arches ; and, on the decision
being given against them, an appeal was made to
the Privy Council, when they were both acquitted,
Two great questions seemed to be involved in this
decision : " the inspiration of Holy Scripture," and " the
eternity of punishment." The two Archbishops had

Edward Bouverie Pusey, 203
openly dissented from the judgment, and endeavoured
to reassure the minds of Church people.
ATTEMPTED r c
union with Pusey looked upon the crisis as an occasion
evangeli- for uniting the Low Church and High Church
CALS. parties in common action in defence of the
Church's faith. He wrote to the Record to that
effect, and drew a very interesting reply from Lord
Shaftesbury, who said, "Your letter to the Record
shows, at least I think so, that you are of the same
mind as myself. We have to struggle, not for Apos
tolical Succession or Baptismal Regeneration, but for
the Atonement itself, for the sole hope of fallen man,
the vicarious Sacrifice of the Cross." Pusey replied in
warm and affectionate language, " I have ever loved the
(to use the term) Evangelical Party, even while they
blamed me, because I believed they loved our redeeming
Lord with their whole hearts." Pusey was also much
drawn towards his Bishop at this time, and they took
counsel together as to how to meet the crisis. A declara
tion was drawn up for circulation among the clergy,
which was signed by 11,000; but Mr. F.D.Maurice
entered into a correspondence with Dr. Pusey, strongly
criticizing the declaration as a kind of threat held over
the younger clergy. Dr. Stanley, who had become
Dean of Westminster, invited Pusey at this juncture
to preach at the Abbey. He refused, though with no
little reluctance, because, in his own opinion, and in
that of Keble and Bishop Hamilton of Salisbury, to
preach there, at that particular time, would in the
eyes of the world bear the appearance of indifference
to vital errors, on the part of one who had taken up

204 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
so strong a position in opposing those who taught
them.
The appearance of '' Essays and Reviews," and the
serious controversy they gave rise to, were but symptoms
of a very widespread and deeply-seated movement.
What has come to be called the Higher Criticism, had
long been making itself felt in the minds of students,
and had been publicly presented to the world in the works
of Dr. Colenso, and other crude and rash speculations
of the same kind. But many educated persons among
the laity, and a certain number of the clergy, were
seriously disturbed, and Dr. Pusey determined to make
a defence of one of those Books of the Old Testa
ment which had been specially singled out for attack,
and that was the Book of Daniel. The lectures on
lectures he delivered and published on this daniel.
book are remarkable for their elaborate care, varied
knowledge, and thorough and trustworthy scholarship.
Competent judges have declared that " These lectures
on Daniel are acknowledged, not only to be replete with
learning, but also to sum up, with masterly ability, the
conservative position with respect to this part of the
Bible." In the tone that he adopted towards the destruc
tive school of criticism he was thought to be very severe,
and he expressed his firm and sad conviction that, even
those who thought it possible to unite such criticism with
belief in the Divine origin of revelation, must in the end
choose between the surrender of their faith or the re
jection ofthe supposed ascertained results ofthe Higher
Criticism. What was in his mind is best expressed
in his own language : " The faith can receive no real

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 205
injury except from its defenders. Against its assailants,
those who wish to be safe God protects. If the faith
should be (God forbid !) destroyed in England, it will
be, not by open assailants (such as the writers in the
Westminster Review, etc.), but by those who think they
defend it, while they have themselves lost it. So it was
in Germany. Rationalism was the product, not of the
attacks on the gospel, but of its weak defenders. Each
generation, in its controversies with unbelief, conceded
more of the faith, until at last it was difficult to see what
difference there was between assailants and defenders." x
It is too soon to say with certainty whether this sad
foreboding is to be realized, or whether the attempts
that are being made to retain a full belief in the great
verities of the Catholic faith, together with a surrender,
more or less complete, to the claims of the Higher
Criticism will prove successful and permanent.
In addition to this more elaborate work, Dr. Pusey
made use of the University pulpit to deal with the
serious questions involved in the controversy raised by
the " Essays and Reviews." He preached on " The
Value of the Old Testament as Prophetic of our Lord,"
" The Atonement," " Everlasting Punishment," and
science and " Prayer." He gathered younger members
religion. 0f the University to his house, and discussed
with them difficulties that had been raised about the
Old Testament. He was invited to read a paper at
the Norwich Church Congress, on "The Bible and
Geology," and dealt with the subject in so conciliatory
a manner as to call forth the warmest expressions of
approval from scientific men. Among them was Mr.
1 " Lectures on Daniel," pref., p. xxv.

206 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
Rolleston, Professor of Physiology at Oxford, who said,
" I wish all writing on the subject had been in the same
spirit of caution and courage. ... It will prevent much
mischief being done to the cause of revelation, on the
one side by its foes, and on the other by its friends."

VI.
Pusey was also at this time occupied in discussing
the late decision of the Privy Council, and published a
pamphlet on the "Judgment." He and Keble felt most
strongly the need of a change in the constitution of the
Court of Appeal. He said, " Let men band together to
support no candidate for Parliament who will not
pledge himself to do what in him lies to reform a Court
which has, in principle, declared God's Word not to be
His Word, and eternity not to be eternity." The Times
attacked Pusey's position, and Keble defended it with
calm courage. The assailants were not only from the
side of the Rationalists, but were joined by Dr. Manning,
who published a pamphlet, maintaining that the Church
of England was not in any sense a Church, and was the
occasion of unbelief to many souls.
Dr. Pusey determined to answer Manning, but after
a time he resolved to make his reply take the form of
a general vindication of the English Church, The
and an explanation of the reasons that com- "eirenicon."
pelled Anglicans to reject certain portions of the Roman
system. Out of this grew his famous "Eirenicon,"
which developed into a considerable work, published
in three parts. , The first was a letter addressed to

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 207
"The Author of the Christian Year," and began by
clearing the English Church of the charges brought
against her by Manning. It went on to show that
the English Church taught all Catholic doctrine, and
only rejected later Roman errors. It claimed for the
Anglican Church a real belief in, and a share in, organic
Catholic unity. It specially pointed out exaggerations
of Roman theologians with regard to the Blessed Virgin,
and the devotions offered to her. The second and
third parts were letters to Dr. Newman, and enlarged
still further on questions connected with the Blessed
Virgin, especially with regard to the Immaculate
Conception. Dr. Pusey's thorough and exhaustive
treatment of any subject he took up is very apparent
in this work. It contains an analysis of Cardinal de
Turrecremata's " Treatise on the Conception of the
Blessed Virgin," prepared for use at the Council of
Bale, as well as an elaborate collection of authorities,
ranging from St. Augustine down to St. Thomas
Aquinas, in which it was shown that the dogma had
no claim to primitive and Catholic authority. The
third part was principally concerned with discussing
how far " healthful reunion " was possible, and called
attention to serious errors and shortcomings on the
part of many of the Popes condemned by Church
Councils, which amounted to a proof that Papal in
fallibility was not part of the primitive or Catholic
tradition. The "Eirenicon" is a singular instance of
Dr. Pusey's loyalty to the Anglican Church, and his
loving anxiety to take some steps to bring about the
reunion of Christendom. He knew that it must cause

208 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
pain to those of his friends, like Newman, who were
within the Roman fold. He knew, as he himself said,
at the close of the third part, that " The Evangelicals,
with whom my defence of the common faith had gained
me popularity for the time, would be alienated." But
yet he fearlessly wrote and published this work and
committed it to God, " Who," as he said, " had taught
me to turn into an Eirenicon, what, at the earnest
desire of others, I had begun as a Defence." He and
thousands of others were longing for reunion, and
praying that the " ' middle wall of partition ' would be
effectually shattered." But " whenever reunion is
thought of," he said, " certain subjects start up like
spectres, and motion us away." Still he hoped for
better things. "Evil days and trial-times seem to be
coming upon the earth. Faith deepens, but unbelief
too becomes more thorough. Yet what might not God
do to check it, if those who own one Lord and one
faith were again at one, and united Christendom should
go forth bound in one by love — the full flow of God's
Holy Spirit, unhemmed by any of those breaks, or jars,
or wranglings to win all to His Love Whom we all
desire to love, to serve, to obey. To have removed one
stumbling-block would be worth the labour of a life." x
As is well-known, Newman replied to the " Eirenicon,"
and defended authorized devotions to the efforts for
Blessed Virgin, while deprecating exagge- reunion.
rated and foreign forms of it.2 Other writers criticized it,
but there is no doubt that it served an admirable pur
pose in strengthening Anglicans in their confidence in
1 " Eirenicon," part iii., p. 342. 2 Cf. supra, pp. 13;, 136.

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 209
the Catholicity of the English Church, as well as in
instructing Continental Catholics as to the real position
and teaching of that Church. Dr. Pusey was not con
tent with only writing an " Eirenicon," he entered into
direct communications with French ecclesiastics. Bishop
Forbes of Brechin had recently published his well-
known work on the Thirty-nine Articles, and this was
thought by Dr. Pusey likely to smooth the way to
a better understanding ; and, when the Pope summoned
the Vatican Council, Pusey was anxious to lay the true
position of the Anglican Church before the assembly of
Bishops. This is not the place to relate the story of
that Council. But it is probable that, the same influence
which brought about the definition of Papal Infallibility,
prevented the works and letters that Pusey sent to some
leading Prelates from being received at Rome. The
final issue of Pusey's efforts was apparent failure. But
in spite of what appeared a great disappointment, it has
been well said, " Pusey knew that he was on the win
ning side, and continued to pray as he had prayed for
thirty years, in the Brotherhood of the Holy Trinity : —
' Vouchsafe, we beseech Thee, O Lord, to grant to Thy
faithful people, unity, peace, and true concord, both
visible and invisible, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.' " J
Dr. Pusey had some years before this Council suffered
death op the sad loss of his friend, Mr. Keble. Dr.
keble. Liddon has told us how he found him, on the
day of the funeral, " quite overcome, unable to speak."
It was a severance of affectionate ties and common work
for the glory of God, and when the news of Keble's
1 " Life," vol. iv., p. 194- p

210 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
death came to him, he could only write " that it is past
words." He took a keen interest in the foundation of
Keble College, and made a great speech when the first
stone was laid. He spoke of it " as a college which
would react upon the rest of the University.8' He said
that they were acting like the man who bought the
ground, on which the camp of Hannibal was pitched,
at its full price. Oxford was beleaguered, but they
were laying "a stone founded on the Rock, which is
Christ." Pusey wished that Liddon should be the first
Warden, and his refusal was a great disap- keble
pointment, though he rejoiced greatly at college.
the appointment of Dr. Talbot, and continued to take
a deep interest in the progress of the college.
In the years that followed, controversy arose on what
was popularly called " Ritualism." The ritualism.
revival of ceremonial had not occupied much place in
the work of the early Tractarians. Dr. Pusey, as he
himself often said, " never was a Ritualist." He had
indeed, many years before, been called upon to explain
to Bishop Bagot, in answer to some accusations, the
reasons for the introduction of a credence table and an
eagle lectern, and a stole with crosses, and turning to
the East, at Littlemore and St. Mary's. He had also
expressed in a letter to the Rev. J. F. Russell, as far back
as 1839, when attempts were being made to restore the
ancient ornaments of the Church and her ministers, his
preference for beginning with the decorations of the
Church and the altar, before the rich vestments of the
Priest were restored. It was entirely in keeping with
his own self-restraint to say, " As far as externals will

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 2 1 1
contribute to greater reverence, it was far better, and
far more influential to begin with that which is farthest
removed from self. . . . We are in danger, also, lest
these ornaments should evaporate into mere sentiment."
Of the use of the cross in churches, he said " it must
come as the expression of that which is within, else it
will be a matter of taste, and a witness against us."
In 1866, when there was much clamour raised against
" Ritualism," Dr. Pusey spoke at a meeting of the English
Church Union, explaining the attitude taken up by
the early Tractarians on the question. He said, "To
have introduced Ritual before the doctrines had widely
taken possession of the hearts of the people, would only
have been to place an obstruction in their way. . . .
Now, in these days, many of the difficulties which we
had in the first instance to contend with have been
removed. In the first place, I suppose that this is from
its very centre a lay movement. The clergy have
taught it to the people, and the people have asked it
of the clergy. We taught it them, they felt it to be
true, and they said, set it before our eyes." When, in
1 87 1, the Rev. J. Purchas, of Brighton, was prosecuted,
and what is called the " Eastward position " was pro
nounced to be illegal ; Dr. Pusey, though charitably
refraining from the practice at Christ Church on account
of the feelings of some of his brother Canons, felt it
his duty to give his countenance to the clergy who
adopted it, and from 1874 took that position on all
occasions. He never could commit himself to Ultra-
ritualism as he called it, and endeavoured to restrain
some of those who in his mind were causing needless

212 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
irritation, by injudicious actions and language. But he
strongly resented the judgments of the Privy Council,
both in the Purchas and Ridsdale cases ; and, though
at one time on the point of leaving the E.C.U, for what
seemed to him sufficient reasons, he was persuaded by
Mr. C. L. Wood, now Lord Halifax, to remain a member,
and was regarded by the President for the rest of his life
as a kind of censor of all the proceedings of the Union.
Once more controversy on the Holy Eucharist called
forth Dr. Pusey's vigorous defence. The the bennett
Rev. W. J. Bennett, Vicar of Frome, had CASE-
published a pamphlet in which he used some exaggerated
and inaccurate language about the Eucharist, and the
Church Association commenced a prosecution. Pusey
made every effort to be included in the suit, but to
no purpose. At Dr. Pusey's advice Mr. Bennett cor
rected his first statements, and the result was, that in
the Arches Court it was decided that the Church of
England allowed her clergy to teach "the Objective,
Real, Actual, and Spiritual Presence of our Lord in
the Holy Eucharist," as well as the doctrines of the
Eucharistic Sacrifice and Eucharistic Worship. The
final Court of Appeal confirmed the decision of Dr.
Phillimore, greatly to the delight of Pusey. This
decision of a Court never favourable to the Catholic
interpretation of the Anglican formularies, marks a period
in the controversial history of the Church of England.
After all the long agony of continued attacks on
those in the Church of England who taught the Real
Presence, from the day when Pusey preached his cele
brated sermon in 1843, down to 1872, when the final

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 213
judgment in the Bennett case was delivered, the victory
rested with Pusey and all others who, with him, accept
in their plain meaning the words of our Lord at the
Institution of the Eucharist, and the interpretation
given to them in the Catechism of the Church, which
Pusey learnt from his mother's lips.
Among the controversies of his later days was that
the athana- connected with the proposal to remove the
sian creed. Aithanasian Creed from its place in the
public Service of the Church, or to alter and mutilate
it. It required a most vigorous effort, on the part of
Catholic members of the Church of England, to with
stand these disastrous proposals. Pusey sent a remark
able petition to Convocation, and did his best to gain
Bishop Wilberforce, then of Winchester, to take his view
of the case. But it was not until Pusey and Liddon
had distinctly announced that they would resign all
their positions in the Church of England, that Arch
bishop Tait, who with Dean Stanley was an active
promoter of the dangerous scheme, found it impossible
to persuade Convocation to go with him.
On July 19, 1873, Bishop Wilberforce met with a
deaths of sudden death by a fall from his horse. All
bishop recollection of old disputes passed out of
^eaThook?' Pusey's mind, and he said, " It is indeed a
and bishop grievous loss ; he was always full of kindness
forbes. and a great check to persecutors." A little
later Dean Hook lay dying, and sent a loving message,
through Liddon, to "that Saint whom England per
secuted, our dearly beloved Pusey," and received an
equally affectionate reply, recalling the long life of

214 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
friendship begun in Hook's " rooms in Peckwater, fifty-
four years ago." In 1875 another dear friend was
removed, Bishop Forbes of Brechin, whom Pusey had
known since 1846, when the Bishop was curate of St.
Thomas's, Oxford. Of his death he said, " It is a great
gap to me, he was so tender and loving."
Two controversies, on the subject of Confession, called
out Pusey's defence of the right of English
_,, , , , . confession.
Church people to make use of private con
fession to a Priest. In 1873 a petition, signed by 483
clergymen, presented to Convocation, excited what
Pusey called " a tremendous storm." Pusey, while by
no means wishing to be identified with all that was
contained in the above petition, generously came to the
front to assert the lawful liberty of English Catholics
in the matter. The controversy was revived again at
the Lambeth Conference of 1878, when Archbishop
Tait did his best to carry a resolution condemning
"habitual" confession, and Pusey corresponded with
the Archbishop, protesting against any condemnation
of what he and others had been teaching for forty
years. The resolution, as it was finally carried, was
somewhat ambiguous and self-contradictory, and the
result was little more than a rather vaguely worded
disapproval of exaggerations in practice, supposed to
be urged by some of the advanced clergy.
Of course it is quite unnecessary to state, that all that
Dr. Pusey wrote and said about confession, was not
merely derived from books or only based on theory.
No one, perhaps, in our day had such opportunities
for testing the value of private confession, and the

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 215
blessings that resulted from it, when rightly used, as
he had. No one could have been a more tender, more
fatherly Priest, or a wiser guide of souls. No one could
ever accuse him of using undue pressure to bring men
and women to private confession. His advice to the
clergy always was, not so much to be ever alluding
to private confession in their public teaching, as to be
faithful in endeavouring to bring people to true repent
ance; contrite hearts would of themselves be led on
by God to unburden themselves ; and private confession
would be used by those for whom its use was right and
profitable. Many a Priest, called to minister to sin-
laden souls, would look to him for counsel and advice
in dealing with difficult cases of conscience, and found
him never wanting in giving prompt attention to such
questions, at the cost of adding to an already overwhelm
ing correspondence. How much of the ignorant clamour
against every form of private confession, that finds vent
on party platforms or in the columns of extreme
Protestant newspapers, raised most often by persons
who have had no sort of experience of confession as
practised in the Anglican Church, would be silenced,
if it were possible (as, of course, it is not) to record
something of this great servant of God's loving, faithful
ministrations to the sad and sorrowful souls of the
countless penitents who sought his aid.
VII.
For some years Pusey's health had been seriously
breaking up. He had spent his strength in
the services of the Church, and toiled night

216 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
and day as a teacher of her doctrine and a guide of
souls. He withdrew from some of his public offices,
the Hebdomadal Council and the Governing Body of
Keble College. He spent much of his time at Ascot,
where there was a branch of the Devonport Sisterhood,
established by Miss Sellon, whose death in 1876 was
one of the many sorrows of his later years. In 1878
he prepared two sermons, to be preached before the
University, on what he called " un-science," last
meaning that dogmatism of some scientific sermons.
men which attacked Revealed Truth in what appeared
to him a most unscientific manner. He was not well
enough to preach them, and Liddon delivered the first
in the pulpit of St. Mary's in his stead. It has been well
said, " It was a strange, perhaps a unique scene, a sermon
written by one of the greatest preachers of one genera
tion, equalling, at least in range, intellectual force and
moral power, any sermon that he had ever prepared, was
being read for him by the greatest preacher of the next." J
The second sermon, on the following Sunday, was
read by the Rev. F. Paget, afterwards Dean of Christ
Church, and now Bishop of Oxford. While the first
was a kind of eirenicon between genuine Science and
genuine Theology, the second was a defence of the
Old Testament prophecies of our Lord's Person and
work.2 In January, 1880, another heavy
bereavement fell upon him, in the loss of DEATH °*
. PHILIP PUSEY.
his son Philip. He had for many years
been sadly afflicted, crippled, and deaf, but full of
1 " Life," vol. iv., p. 334.
2 It is interesting to note the similarity of the subject matter of
Dr. Pusey's first and last University sermons (cf. supra, p. 162).

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 217
indomitable courage and religious earnestness. In spite
of his physical weakness, he had won second-class
honours in mathematics, both in Moderations and in the
Final Schools. His pathetic figure was well known in
Oxford, but few were aware of his industry and ability
in theological study. He edited the works of St. Cyril,
and in his untiring investigation of manuscripts visited
numberless libraries in Europe and Egypt. He was
well known to the monks of Mount Athos, who inquired
of their English visitors, " How is Philippos ? " He was
called away suddenly, and his death was deeply felt,
both for his father's sake as well as for his own.
The last important controversy in which Pusey was
controversy engaged was that with Dr. Farrar, Canon of
with Westminster, and now Dean of Canterbury.
dr. r . .pke latter had preached a course of sermons
published under the title of "Eternal Hope." The
author was understood to repudiate every form of belief
in everlasting punishment. He himself denied that he
held the ordinary doctrine of Universalism ; but, as he
had included Dr. Pusey among those whose views on the
subject of hell were to him too dreadful to be believed, the
latter felt called upon to answer statements which seemed
dangerous and heretical. The book he published, entitled
" What is of Faith as to Everlasting Punishment ? " was,
in the first place, a repudiation of exaggerated popular
opinions as to the eternal punishment of the majority
of mankind, and as to a necessary belief in a material
fire as the instrument of that punishment. But the
book had also its positive side, and dwelt on the neces
sary connection between man's free will and God's

218 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
judgment upon those who, in the exercise of their free
will, reject His love. It maintained the received belief
as to the meaning of the word aldviog, and dwelt upon
the need of a right faith in the Intermediate State and
some purifying process after death, as well as the value
of prayers for the faithful departed. The book con
tained a valuable catena of authorities, drawn from the
writings of the Fathers of East and West, compiled with
his usual characteristic thoroughness. An interesting
correspondence followed between Pusey and Farrar,
and the result was, on the whole, to clear men's minds
of exaggerations on either side. Pusey's last words in
the correspondence are worth remembering — "Forgive
me, but I think that in your eagerness to overthrow the
narrow (I suppose Calvinistic) opinions in which you
were educated, you took up the arguments which came
to hand without weighing them. ... I think, too, you
have fixed your eyes exclusively on the one side of the
question, the exceptions which you have thought could
be found, and did not take time to think on Whose
word the awful doctrine as believed by the incomparably
larger body of Christians rested." 1
There were not wanting indications in various quarters
that the Church as a whole, and to some increasing
extent the world also, had begun to estimate SHOWNT0
at its true value, Pusey's saintly character him.
as well as his great abilities, profound knowledge, and
unwearied theological industry. His letters to the
Times on important controversies were treated with
respect and given an important place. He was received
1 " Life," vol. iv., p. 355.

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 219
with great consideration and even enthusiasm, when
on rare occasions he appeared in public, not only on the
platform at meetings of the E.C.U., but at the larger
gatherings of the Church Congress. In his own
University and Cathedral he was an object of the
deepest veneration, and young undergraduates passed
him in the street with something of awe and reverence.
His colleagues at Christ Church, however much some
of them might decline to accept his teaching on very
many important questions, were united in their
affectionate regard towards one whose character and
attainments did so much honour to the House. An
interesting occasion for an expression of their feelings
occurred in 1878, when the Dean presented to him a
paper signed by all resident members of the governing
body of Christ Church, requesting that he would permit
his portrait to be painted and placed in the Great Hall.
Dr. Liddell, whose character for justice as Head Master
of Westminster School and Dean of Christ Church was
well known and deservedly respected, took a special
pleasure in being the mouthpiece of the House on this
occasion. He had never disguised his disagreement
with the school of thought of which Dr. Pusey was the
great head and representative, but he had always
honoured the character and learning of the Tractarian
leaders. But Pusey had forty years before made a solemn
resolution never to have his portrait taken ; it had be
come to him, as he said, " a matter of religion : " and so
future generations will have to be content with a sketch
or two, some caricatures, some fairly good busts, and a
posthumous portrait not wholly adequate or successful.

220 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
In the last few years of his life, though Dr. Pusey did
not appear in public, he took a keen interest
in all the Church questions of the time. He epf°Rts.
supported Dean Church's memorial in favour of toleration
of ritual, and wrote an important letter on the in
defensible character of the judgments of the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council on ritual questions.
He was keenly alive to the scandals arising out of the
imprisonment of Mr. Green and Mr. Enraght for dis
obedience to Lord Penzance's rulings. He exerted
himself to inform those who had charge of the Bill for
legalizing the marriage with a deceased wife's sister, on
the Biblical and Ecclesiastical law forbidding such
marriages, and called attention to the evil consequences
that had resulted in many parts of Germany from a
relaxation of that law.
He spent his last days at Ascot, full of interest in
the work of the Home, and up to the end endeavouring
to do something in behalf of Mr. Green, still shut up in
Lancaster gaol. But on August 25 th he was taken ill,
and after various rallies and relapses he died on the
morning of September 16th. Some of his last words
seemed to indicate his anxiety to execute his
J .,- LAST HOURS.
office as a Priest, as he pronounced in his
delirium the words of the Administration of the Holy
Sacrament, or of the Absolution, which he had so often
in life bestowed on penitents. Words from the Te
Deum were faintly caught from his dying lips, and
" the death-sweat was on his brow, when he
, , . , , . . , . , DEATH.
was heard to sigh out a last aspiration which
summed up his life — ' My God.' " x
1 See p. 384-

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 221
His body was laid to rest in Christ Church, in the
„,„„„ same grave with his wife and two eldest
h UlN Jli\ A I., daughters, on St. Matthew's Day. The Dean
and Canons of Christ Church, the Bishop of Oxford,
Mr. Gladstone, and a large procession of clergy, were
present at the funeral. His old friend Newman's hymn,
"Lead, kindly Light," was sung, and his younger friend,
Dr. Liddon, committed his body to the grave.
Of a life so full and rich in labour for the glory of
general God, it is impossible in this short sketch to
estimate. gjve any lengthened estimate, or to present
any adequate specimens from that long list of sermons,
theological works, letters and tracts, which is to be
found in the appendix to his biography. One thing,
however, must always be remembered — that, through a
long life, harassed by controversy and clouded by sus
picion, he had never lost his love for God's poor ; to
whom he ministered from the early days, when, as a
student at Bonn, he snatched a few hours from his
laborious studies to visit sick and suffering people, to
the time when in the summer of 1866 he took a lodging
in the City Road, where he spent some weeks in visiting
the sufferers from the cholera epidemic in Bethnal Green.
He greatly delighted in the privilege of ministering to
his "cousins in Spitalfields," as he called them, alluding
to the weavers of that district, whose Flemish descent
he shared in common with themselves. His love for the
young, and especially for the young men ofhis University,
seemed to increase year by year. He addressed the
undergraduates in his later sermons at St. Mary's as
" My sons," and few who heard it will ever forget that
sermon of his, specially intended for them, on " The

222 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
Thought of the Love of Jesus for us the Remedy for
Sins of the Body," preached in Lent, 1861.
There was in truth a great tenderness about this much
tried man, which showed itself very remarkably in his
preaching1. It sprang from a great love for
t, , / • 1 r 1 c SERMONS.
God and a yearning love for souls, bpace
will not permit quotation of his language, but the very
titles of many of his sermons are eloquent enough. He
did not use the pulpit merely or chiefly for controversy,
to win a cause or proclaim a dogma, but to set forth
" God with us," " The Incarnation," " Christ risen, our
Justification," "How to detain Jesus in the Soul;"1 or
"Faith," "Hope," and "Love," "Patience," "The Re
creation of the Penitent," " The Power and Greatness
of Love," " Our being in God." 2 He could be severe
and stern in laying bare the follies and luxury of modern
society or religious unreality, in sermons addressed to
fashionable congregations ; as, for instance, on " Why did
Dives lose his Soul ? " preached at All Saints', Margaret
Street,3 or "Our Pharisaism," delivered at St. Paul's,
Knightsbridge : 8 but more often he loved to dwell on
" The Prodigal Son," " Repentance from Love of God
lifelong," " Suffering the Gift and Presence of God,"
during Lent and at other solemn seasons.8 One of the
most beautiful of his works, " Addresses to Companions
of the Love of Jesus," an intercessory society, teems
with the most profound teaching on the value of the
soul, and the love of God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost
for individual souls. In the pulpit to strangers his
appearance was not particularly striking, nor his voice
1 " Parochial Sermons," vol. i. 2 Ibid., vol. ii.
3 " Lenten Sermons," 1858-1874.

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 223
musical. His language was sometimes obscure and his
sentences long and involved. But no one ever failed
to be impressed by his wonderful earnestness, by the
spiritual power that made itself evident, by the reverential
awe towards God and gentle patient affectionateness
towards man, that characterized these beautiful sermons.
It was felt that he was indeed a " Man of God," a prophet
faithful in rebuke, uncompromising in the delivery of
his message, a teacher of " all the counsel of God," the
Catholic faith in its fulness. And yet there was no lack
of tender human sympathy, charitable recognition of
the weaknesses of men and women, and compassionate
anxiety to apply every spiritual remedy to their needs.
Dr. Liddon has said of him, " Dr. Pusey's life had
testimonies : two marks especially set in it by Divine
by liddon, Providence — it was a life of controversy and
a life of suffering. He often deplored the necessity
which obliged him to spend so much of his time and
thought in religious controversy. It was, he firmly
believed, the Lord's controversy in which he was thus
engaged, and he accepted a task from which much
in his character would have held him back, as a duty
laid on him by providential wisdom. . . . Certainly he
did all that could be done to sweeten controversy by
the charities and courtesies that were natural to his
chastened temper. . . . And his life was largely a life
of suffering ; assuredly it did not lack the print of the
Nails. He had his full share of home sorrows, which
the affectionateness of his character sharpened to the
utmost. . . . Troubles there were of another order
which wounded him even more deeply. The separa
tion which for some years followed the secession of

224 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
Dr. Newman, the desertion of friends who remained,
and from whose sympathy he might well have hoped
for much, the coldness or active hostility of persons
in high authority, the failure of younger men to answer
to his reasonable expectations or to be true to them
selves, above all the lacerations of the Church, to
whose well-being and growth he was devoted heart
and soul — these things cut him to the quick. . . . And
this intimacy with suffering was probably one chief
secret of his moral power, because it endowed him
so richly, as it had endowed St. Paul, with the gift
of sympathy." x
Lord Salisbury has borne witness to one aspect of
his work. "He was above all things a by lord
Christian Apologist. His most earnest Salisbury,
aims were not associated with the controversies,
deeply interesting though they were, with which his
name in public estimation was specially bound up.
His mind was chiefly bent upon one thing, that in
an age when Christian faith was exposed to many
dangerous attacks, the first duty of her sons, and of
those whose learning could give her support, was to
defend it in all its integrity. It was as a defender
of the Christian Church as a whole — as a defender of
the faith once given to the Saints, and as a champion
of the Church of eighteen centuries — that he lived and
worked ; not as many have thought simply as a fighter
of one of the transient conflicts which from time to time
divide the Church." 2
Dean Church, on the first Sunday of the term following
1 Liddon, " Clerical Life and Work,'' p. 369.
2 " Life," vol. iv., p. 392.

Edward Bouverie Pusey. 225
his death, preached in the University pulpit, and his
by dean sermon included the following words :—
church. "What is the judgment upon him — not on
the representative of ideas, or the champion of a cause,
or the worker in the field of knowledge, but on the
man ? I think that there is but one answer from those
whose hearts thrill at the memory of all that he was
to them, and from most of those — from many, I am
sure — who stood against him, disapproved, resisted
him. First and foremost, he was one who lived his
life, as above everything, the servant of God. He
takes rank with those who gave themselves and all
that they had, and all that they wished for, their
unsparing trouble, their ease, their honour, their powers,
their interests, to what they believed to be their work
for* God : who spared nothing, reserved nothing, shrank
from nothing, in that supreme and sacred ambition
to be His true and persevering servant. The world
will remember him as a famous student, the powerful
leader, the wielder of great influence in critical times,
the man of strongly marked and original character,
who left his mark on the age. Those who knew and
loved him will remember him, as long as life lasts
with them, as one whose boundless charity was always
looking out to console and to make allowance, as
one whose dauntless courage and patient hopefulness
never flagged, as one to whose tenderness and strength
they owed the best and the noblest part of all that
they have felt, and all that they have done. But
when our confusions are still, when our loves and
enmities and misunderstandings have become dim and
insignificant in the great distance of the past, then his
Q

226 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
figure will rise in history as one of that high company
who really looked at life as St. Paul looked at it." x
Dr. R. W. Dale, of Birmingham, on reading Pusey's
'' Life," •' closed the book with a deep impression of the
nobleness and massiveness of his nature, and feeling
more than ever that the power of God was with him." 2
The tangible memorial raised in Oxford to com
memorate one whose life was bound up with the
University and the Church in that city for the pusey
more than sixty years, is the Pusey House library.
and Library. But such a monument is but a very
inadequate recognition of all that Oxford owes to him.
It was well to raise such a monument ; but without it
he could not be ever forgotten : for, as Dr. Liddon has
said, " Not that Dr. Pusey's memory would die, if
Churchmen could have resolved that nothing should
be done to perpetuate it. His writings will command
attention long after our generation has passed away;
he lives, and will live in his Commentaries on Holy
Scripture, in his doctrinal treatises, in his heart-searching
sermons, in the abundant provision which God guided
him to make for the spiritual life of men. Yes, he lives
at this moment in the devotional life of thousands ; in
their prayers, in their repentance, in their efforts to love
and serve God, and to correspond with His grace; he
lives in them too constantly, too intimately, to be
forgotten, if it were possible that others could conspire
to forget him." 3
1 Dean Church, " Cathedral and University Sermons,"
pp. 267-270.
2 " Life of R. W. Dale," p. 666.
3 Liddon, " Clerical Life and Work," p. 370.

HENRY PARRY LIDDON

I.
In the days of defeat and reproach, after the great
catastrophe of Newman's secession, the Movement,
though far from being dead, was almost of necessity
working in quiet ways, spreading slowly and steadily
among many of the clergy, and not a few of the laity.
The second great disaster, consequent on the Gorham
Judgment followed by the loss of Manning and other
prominent leaders, might well have made less faithful
and patient hearts than those of Pusey and Keble faint
with despair. But, at this very time when there was
so much to cause depression and doubt, there was
growing up and being trained a vigorous mind and
a strong personality destined to carry the Movement
into the forefront and centre of English life.
Henry Parry Liddon, son of Captain Liddon, R.N.,
the friend and comrade of Captain Parry,
early life. , - ,, .T ^ L .„
explorer of the North-west Passage, was
born in 1829. After a few years at a preparatory
king's col- school, he went up to King's College School,
lege school. London. Here he spent two years, finding,
as he himself has told iis, " training for the intelligence
in abundance ; " though, as he has said with reference
to the motto of the college many years after when

230 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
preaching in the chapel, "the sapienter was well pro
vided for, but not so the sancte' 'x He was, however,
careful to state, too, that in this respect since his school
days all had been changed for the better. He went
up to Oxford at the age of seventeen, being nominated
to a studentship at Christ Church under CHriSt
the old system. In his undergraduate days church.
the earnest young man, who had received but slight
help in spiritual matters at school, but who already
had yearnings after a high and lofty standard for his
own soul and for his future work, came under the
influence of the Tractarian Movement. He had not,
like some others, to pass from an Evangelical or Low
Church atmosphere into the larger and loftier region
of Catholic experience and teaching ; but it may be
well believed that the development of his belief was
not very unlike that which he described in the case
of his venerated friend, Bishop Hamilton of Salisbury.
He was fascinated and conquered by "the earnest,
holy, Christian lives of the men who represented the
Oxford School ; if the fruits of the Spirit were to be
taken as an evidence of His guiding Presence, the
Tractarians of the day had that evidence on their
side. . . . The first attraction to the Oxford School
was ethical and spiritual rather than doctrinal, and the
Movement appealed to a desire to lead a the oxford
holy life, rather than to any craving to fill movement.
up gaps which the 'reason of faith' could not but
detect in an imperfect creed. The intellectual or
dogmatic interest came later, when the true and lasting
1 The motto of King's College is " Sancte et Sapienter."

Henry Parry Liddon. 231
doctrinal springs of ethical beauty had been laid bare
to the eye of the anxious conscience." x His youth and
the class the rules of the House, which required its
UST- members to pass their final examination
earlier than at other colleges, hindered him from
attaining the highest honours, and he was placed in
the second class in the school of Litercs Humaniores.
Those were the days before the Honour School in
Theology had been established ; but Liddon showed
his capacity for such studies by obtaining the Johnson
Theological Scholarship in 185 1. His life at college
was quiet and reserved, as it had been at school. Mr.
Frederic Harrison speaks of his "sweet and gentle
melancholy." He took no part in the games or athletic
sports, though he was far from being without interest
in them. He said many years later, from the pulpit
of St. Mary's, "The younger of us know the pleasure
which is felt at the cheers which follow an athletic
victory, or a conspicuous service rendered to the college-
boat on the river, or a brilliant speech in the Union
or upon the generous congratulations which are called
out by expected or unexpected success in the schools."2
But he assigned all these things their right place in
" the true life of man," and certainly never approved of
that exaggerated importance too often given to games
in our public schools and universities.
In very early days he had shown signs of a vocation
for Holy Orders, and in 1852 he was ordained on his
Studentship at Christ Church, and began his work
1 " Life of Bishop Hamilton," p. 13.
2 " Passiontide Sermons," xvii., p. 266.

232 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
as assistant curate at Wantage, under Mr. Butler, after
wards Dean of Lincoln. Among those who
, , . , . . . , . . . WANTAGE.
received their early ministerial training in
this famous " school of curates " must be mentioned the
Revs. A. H. Mackonochie, Montague Noel, V. S. Coles,
Canon Newbolt, Precentor Woodward. At that time,
besides other centres of good Church work in the
diocese of Oxford, there were in Berkshire alone two
parishes (to which a third — Newbury — was added soon
afterwards) where the principles of the Oxford Move
ment were being carried into everyday practice. At
Clewer under Mr. Carter, at Wantage under Mr. Butler,
at Newbury under Mr. Leslie Randall, it was found
possible to influence middle-class people in country
towns, and bring them to an intelligent understanding
of the Church, her worship and teaching. In two of
these above-named places the foundation of THE sister-
a Sisterhood had already been attempted. H00D-
Here, in the early beginnings of that great community,
which has been so greatly blessed by God, and so
widely extended throughout England, and whose good
works reach far beyond the limits of the United King
dom, Liddon learned to understand and value "a
Sister's work," its self-sacrificing love based upon a
"consecrated life," in devotion to a Divine Person. He
has beautifully described it : " She works neither for
pay, nor for human approval, nor for her own inward
satisfaction in the work she does. She works, indeed,
side by side with^ other workers on earth, but her eye
is upturned to Heaven. There she sees the Lord Jesus
in His glory, shedding on her poor efforts His most

Henry Parry Liddon. 233
gracious and indulgent smile ; entitled as He is of right
to so much, yet deigning to bless and accept so little." J
In all three of the above-named places, as, indeed, in an
ever-increasing number since, a restored Church, daily
services, frequent Eucharists, well-organized schools,
and numerous opportunities for spiritual intercourse
between Priest and people by classes, private confession,
and pastoral visitation, made up the complete machinery
parochial of a well-ordered parish. Liddon found
work. himself in a congenial sphere. Not only did
he at once impress people by his power as a preacher,
but he took great delight in visiting the poor in their
cottages and in the workhouse. Throughout his life
he never lost that keen sense of the value of souls, that
need for direct and close dealing with individuals which
is the duty and privilege of the true shepherd who
"knows his sheep" and "is known of them." He was
regarded by those who knew him best as having a
special "honour for each soul in its separateness," and
yet, though he had great qualifications as a spiritual
director, he always, with characteristic modesty, shrank
from every invitation to conduct a retreat. This
pastoral experience was a valuable element in the
formation of his character, and developed one of those
two " secrets of clerical power " — sympathy — which he
himself has so well described. The other was equally
apparent in him. From the moment of his ordination
onwards, though he never lost the air of distinction, the
beaming look of alertness, the playful manner, the keen
sense of humour, and the old-world courtesy for which
1 "Sermons preached on Special Occasions," ix., p. 116.

234 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
he was so remarkable, yet never could he be reproached
with any serious breach of that second element, so
essential to the true Priest, " consistency." Much of the
secret of the development of his character may be taken
to be self- revealed in that essay entitled " The Priest
in his Inner Life," written in 1857. Here the recitation
of the daily Services, meditation, prayer, and a careful
rule of life, are all enumerated by him as necessary
parts of the priestly life.1 Even then it is THE PRiESTly
probable that he realized and accepted for LIFE-
himself the great advantages of a celibate life for that
unfettered liberty in ministerial work to which he
alluded in after years. While speaking respectfully
and even sympathetically of the marriage of the clergy,
and recognizing " the grave disaster " that may follow
upon any attempt to impose a rule of celibacy on
" thousands of men," he yet expressed a " wish that the
freedom of choice in this matter were more often exer
cised than it is in favour of a single life," and proceeded
to enumerate at length the advantages of greater free
dom of action and independence, less risk from harassing
family cares and expenses.2
But he was not to be left long to labour in this quiet
parish in the Berkshire Downs. Bishop Wilberforce was
anxiously looking for some one to undertake the im
portant office of Vice-Principal of his new Theological
College at Cuddesdon, and, on the recom-
,.'<-•««¦ t» 1 1 ¦ i CUDDESDON.
mendation of Mr. Butler, he was appointed
in 1854 The organization of this new institution
1 " The Priest in His Inner Life," pp. 5, seq.
2 " Sermons preached on Special Occasions," xv., p. 330.

Henry Parry Liddon. 235
devolved largely upon Liddon, and he threw himself
with all the vigour of his character into the work. We
know from his own words what, in his mind, were the
true functions of a theological college — to teach the
ology as a science, to inculcate the body of truth
respecting the " Being of beings," to prepare men to
understand their fellows, to study human nature in all
its fulness ; but, to do all this effectively, the college
must, above all things, aim at the formation of character,
and that the character of a self-denying consecrated
Priest.1 If ever a college succeeded in imprinting a
very distinctive character on its sons it was Cuddesdon.
This was acknowledged by its friends, and formed the
reproach of its foes. It may be said that, for many years,
even after Liddon left it, the impress of its first traditions
was felt upon successive generations of students.
That white group of buildings — chapel, hall, and
library — in earlier days small, yet dignified in its simple
Gothic architecture, afterwards somewhat more extended
in memory of its founder, lying near the road, and
catching the eye as one came up from Wheatley, or
over the hill from Oxford, became very dear to many.
The restful change of that quiet year, after the three or
four of University life with its excitements and strain
of examinations, its round of amusements and sports, its
gaieties and social meetings, not always wisely enjoyed,
was very welcome to scores of men as a helpful aid to a
right preparation for Holy Orders. The lectures that,
for the first time perhaps to most of them, opened out
1 "The Work and Prospects of Theological Colleges,"
PP- 5°, 57, 63, seq.

236 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
the vast fields of scriptural and theological study made
men feel ashamed of knowing so little of the " Queen
of Sciences." The quiet services of the chapel -and
the parish church, or the impressive solemnities of the
Cuddesdon ordinations, laid deep down in many a
man's soul the foundations of reverent worship for
himself and his people. The intercourse with fellow-
students and friends over from Oxford for dinner on
Sunday, the recreations that saved the life from being
too much cast in the mould of a narrow seminary, all
form part of the pleasant memories of a Cuddesdon
man. Above all, the walks and conversations with the
principal, or the vice-principal, or the chaplain, in the
garden or the Palace Grounds, or over Shotover, or by
Wheatley, and the opening of the heart in close friend
ship and intimacy, and the more solemn ministrations
and spiritual counsel and advice, are consecrated and
hallowed experiences that are treasured up as precious
gifts of God. At the joyous annual festivals old
students gathered, and Bishops and other great leaders
of the Church at home and abroad preached and spoke,
and stirred young hearts to embrace high ideals, and
consecrate their lives in self-sacrificing labour. And so
it came to pass that not a few heroic spirits were led to
follow the Divine guidance, and pass from Cuddesdon
to the far distant mission fields of Central Africa and of
India, and from thence to their final rest and reward.
The teaching and the services of the college were
undoubtedly of a type that would not com-
, ,, , , . , , , TROUBLES.
mend themselves to the outside world,
untouched as yet by the Oxford Movement, and still

Henry Parry Liddon. 237
less to the declared opponents of the teaching of the
Tracts. And yet, as compared with later developments
elsewhere, both doctrine and worship at Cuddesdon
were moderate and restrained. Liddon's views had
been plainly made known to the Bishop of Oxford by
his friend Butler, of Wantage, and there never was any
suspicion that the vice-principal was anything but
thoroughly loyal to his superiors. But busy persons,
publicly and privately, in letters and in articles in
reviews, could not leave the college alone. The result
was, that, feeling his position untenable on account of
the attacks that were made upon the college, after five
bishop years of laborious and loving work, Liddon
wilberforce. resigned. Bishop Wilberforce yielded to ex
ternal pressure, and lost his services as vice-principal,
but retained till death, and after death, his loyal and
ungrudging admiration. No one ever spoke more
affectionately of Bishop Wilberforce, no one defended
his sincerity and the disinterestedness of his character
with greater insistence than did Liddon, and on no
occasion with more success than in his memorial sermon
on the text, " I am made all things to all men, that I
might by all means save some." 1
II.
Liddon now returned to Oxford, and became Vice-
Principal of St. Edmund Hall. At Christ
Church he was brought into contact and
close friendship with Dr. Pusey ; from him he received
1 " Clerical Life and Work," serm. xii.

238 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
the warmest affection and the wisest counsel ; and, above
all, that introduction into the rich stores of
Patristic knowledge which he himself after
wards so well-developed in his Bampton Lectures.
Pusey was to him, as he had been to the earlier leaders
ofthe Movement, 6 fiiyac;. The wonderful stores of learn
ing that he possessed, and the beauty of his character,
were the constant theme of his admiration. What this
intercourse and fellowship with Pusey meant, Liddon
himself has told us in his memorial sermon of his great
friend : " He did not merely now and then talk and
think about God — in the language of the Bible, he
' walked with God.' No facts were so constantly
present to his mind as God's encompassing closeness,
His mind, His will, in their bearing on the thoughts and
duties of our daily life. None of the human beings
among whom he lived and worked visibly influenced
him as did this gracious and awful Friend, with whom
throughout the day he was constantly communicating
in prayer. And thus, to visit him was, as has been often
said, to move out of the world into another atmosphere,
where the language of the Bible was translated into
reality." x
Now it was that Liddon began to take his place as a
leader in the new spring of the Oxford Movement. He
himself has recorded his own impressions of what that
Movement was.
" If a Church is stricken with the languor of death,
it must be quickened in the old way, — by contact, new
and earnest contact under the guidance of the Spirit,
1 " Clerical Life and Work," serm. xiv., p. 362.

Henry Parry Liddon. 239
with the sacred past. We may have heard, perhaps, of
such a Church, which public opinion was already, some
five and forty years, preparing for burial, while the band
of Moabite spoilers was seen hovering, not indistinctly,
in the distance — ready to sweep down upon the prey.
Then by God's good providence it was thrust into the
grave of Elisha ; it was confronted sharply with its own
past — the past of Christendom. The real sense of
Scripture, the majesty and pathos of the Apostolic Age,
the great teachers later on, who ruled the thought of
the undivided Church — Augustine, Jerome, Chrysostom,
Athanasius — those who tower so high above the
diminished stature of any in our impoverished and
divided Christendom — these were for such a Church
the bones of Elisha. Out of that glorious past — which,
though it lies in its tomb, in our libraries and our
museums, is, we know, imperishable — there was a power
of life to stream forth into the intellect and heart and
conscience of a Church which indifference, or irreverence,
or misbelief, or half-belief had so seriously enfeebled.
It might now learn to believe in its mission from
Heaven, in its Divine origin, in its glorious destinies.
It might learn real faith in the Cleansing Blood, in the
power of the Spirit, in the power of the Sacraments.
Our Lord might become again to it, what He was to
His Apostle, a living Being, walking amidst the golden
candlesticks." x
The Oxford Movement at this time seemed specially
to demand a great orator who should proclaim the long-
forgotten truths of the Catholic faith, with a persuasive
1 "Sermons on Old Testament Subjects," xxii,, p. 331.

240 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
eloquence that was the fruit of clear conviction and the
outcome of a character trained in deep bishop
spirituality. The experiences of Wantage Hamilton.
and Cuddesdon, intercourse with the versatile genius of
the " remodeller of the Episcopate," were admirably
followed up by his relationship to Bishop Hamilton
of Salisbury, whose chaplain he became in 1859, and
who appointed him Prebendary in 1864. The personal
holiness of this Prelate was supplemented by a remark
able courage, in proclaiming to the world his unflinching
adherence to the fulness of Sacramental truth. His
celebrated Charge, which some persons at the time
ascribed to " one of his chaplains," though certainly not
composed by Liddon, must have met with his grateful
and dutiful approval. At Salisbury he learnt fresh
lessons of that true sacerdotalism which he described
in a University sermon in after years, when he defended
it as the heritage of the Christian layman generally, and
the Christian Priest in particular, in language not
unlike that of another Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Moberly.1
With reference to commonplace objections to the doctrine
of the Christian Priesthood, he said of our Lord, " He
is the Prophet of whom Moses sang : He is the King of
Kings and Lord of Lords of the Apostolic vision. Yet
He is not dishonoured if His teaching office is exercised,
however imperfectly, by human instructors ; and the
objection of the Fifth Monarchy men to an earthly
sovereign would hardly be repeated at the present day.
Nor is He less truly alone as a Priest upon His heavenly
1 "Bampton Lectures," 1868. Cf. Professor R. C. Moberly,
" Ministerial Priesthood," chap. iii.

Henry Parry Liddon. 241
Throne, in His work of sacrifice and intercession, because
there is a Priesthood of the Gospel commissioned by
Himself here on earth, whose business it is, as ministering
the 'Word and Sacraments to bring His mediation home
to the souls of men." x
Certainly his intercourse with Bishop Hamilton, of
which we have so tender a record in his memoir of
that Prelate, deepened his sympathy and enlarged his
experience. He had already gained a great reputation as'a preacher
bampton in London and Oxford when, in 1866, he
lectures, delivered his " Bampton Lectures," which
he undertook at a short notice on account of the
illness of the Rev. A. W. Haddan. The subject and
the manner in which he dealt with it are typical of
the general character of his teaching. A clear firm
grasp on " the Divine Personality of the Eternal Son,"
"anticipated in the Old Testament," "testified by His
work in the world," " witnessed by His consciousness,"
" recorded by St. John," " taught by the other Apostles,"
"asserted by the Catholic Church." All the great
consequences of this doctrine were drawn out : " the
infallibility of Christ's teaching," "the virtue of His
Atonement," "the grace of the Sacraments." He did
not shrink from making a fearless use of the "great
dilemma," almost terrible in its strength, that the claims
of our Lord to be God declare Him to be indeed what
He claimed to be, or else a deceiver. A strong vein of
eloquent admiration and devout homage, breaking out
at times into actual invocation of the Saviour, culminated
1 "University Sermons" (second series), x., p. 200. R

242 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
in a splendid appeal to his hearers, to realize "the
ethical fruitfulness of the doctrine," to imitate the Divine
Christ, and enter upon a life spent for the glory of God.
It was felt throughout England, that these lectures,
delivered with so much force and fire, had translated
into splendid oratory the literature of the Tractarian
Movement, which aimed first and foremost at presenting
once more before men the true living Christ, the object
of the Church's worship, the Head of the living Church,
in union with Whom through the Sacraments men are
able to become the sons of God. There was a holy
vigour and sanguine enthusiasm pulsating through all
the lectures, and men felt that a great and gifted
champion of the Catholic faith had been given by God
to His Church.
Liddon's University sermons were spread over many
years, and have been published in two series. UNIVErsity
They are marked by the same homage to sermons.
the same Person as were the lectures, for "he was
devoted to the Crucified Redeemer, the Infallible, Im
peccable, Adorable Lord Jesus." x In his self training
as a preacher he took for his models certain of the
great French masters of sacred oratory, and his manner
and style were to some extent influenced and coloured
by them. A friend has said, " His mental tone was
intensely practical ; it was Latin, it was French, in
sympathy and type : for Teutonic speculation he had
a most amazing repugnance." 2 His choice of subjects
reminds one sometimes of Lacordaire, and sometimes
1 Dr. Bright, " Memorial Sermon," Sept. 14, 1890.
2 Scott Holland, Contemporary Review, Oct., 1890.

Henry Parry Liddon. 243
of Massillon. " God and the Soul," " Immortality,"
" Lessons of the Holy Manger," — these were some
of his earlier sermons. Among the later may be
named " Faith and the Athanasian Creed," " Christ in
the Storm," " Sacerdotalism," " Christ and Human Law."
In the latter sermon, which may be compared with
another on " Law and Human "Liberty," with that un
flinching courage which was one of his chief character
istics, he did not shrink from denouncing the Divorce
Act, and the encroachments of the Judicial Committee
of the Privy Council, in the very presence of Her
Majesty's Judges of Assize. Oxford heard him again
and again with admiration and growing affection. St.
Mary's was thronged, when he preached, with men of all
ages, including masses of undergraduates, who, impa
tient as a rule of sermons, were content to find standing
room for upwards of an hour.
It was not only in the University Church that this
life at influence was exercised, but for many years
oxford. he gathered large numbers of young men at
St. Edmund Hall and Christ Church on Sunday even
ings for Bible Readings, which left their mark for good
on many a man's reason and heart. This was continued
as a labour of love during his long connection with
Oxford, and persevered in when he was not seldom physi
cally unfitted for the strain through fatigue or ill-health.
Though naturally somewhat shy and reserved, he formed
many friendships with junior members of the Univer
sity. As had been the case at Cuddesdon, so now at
Oxford, he was found in their rooms, and they in his.
He took them for country walks, and bound many of

244 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
the younger school of Oxford men to him in affectionate
sympathy. " He gave himself to them in simple and
delightful familiarity ; he introduced into our midst the
intensity, the fibre, the moral toughness of the older
Tractarians."1 Nor was his influence confined to the
University. Bishop Wilberforce utilized his great gifts
year after year as one of the preachers in the never-
to-be-forgotten Lenten courses of sermons at St. Giles'
and St. Mary's Churches, and many Oxford residents
outside the circle of the University came under the
spell of his strong personality and fervent eloquence.
In the " sixties " Oxford was deeply impressed by his
vigorous spiritual work, and his striking personality
formed one of the great features of the place.
III.
The University was to retain him, in part at least, for
twelve years more, as Ireland Professor of
Exegesis. But henceforth his strength and
gifts were mainly to be spent in the great work of pro
claiming Divine truth in the very centre and heart of
English life. He was appointed to a Canonry of St.
Paul's in 1870 — it is not too much to say, far less by the
will of the Prime Minister than by the providence of
God. For his appearance in the pulpit of S*- Paul's
was a distinct step onwards in the Oxford Movement.
Now its teaching was to be proclaimed in the greatest
church in England, by an orator who was a professor
and a theologian of the highest calibre, with rare
gifts of nature, trained with conscientious industry, and
1 Scott Holland, Contemporary Review, Oct., 1890.

ST. PAULS.

Henry Parry Liddon. 245
consecrated to the service of God. Such figures as that
of Liddon in the pulpit of St. Paul's are rare. Melville
in some respects may have equalled or even surpassed
him. But Liddon gathered round him hearers that
were not confined to one school of thought. It was a
the great wonderful congregation that, in ever-increas-
congrega- ing numbers, was assembled under the great
tions. dome, with uplifted faces listening, on Sunday
afternoons, to great truths about God and Christ, the
passing character of earthly things, the abiding nature
of things eternal, man's destiny and death and judg
ment. There were brought together men of education,
engaged in professional or commercial life ; statesmen
of different shades of politics ; people from the country
on business or pleasure ; travellers from America and
the Colonies ; clergymen who delighted to hear the
doctrines of their Church so vividly, so lucidly unfolded ;
great Nonconformist leaders, who heard the celebrated
Anglican with respect and admiration, and caught " the
contagion of his intense sympathy, a sympathy that
made more manifest the uniform sobriety of his judg
ment, a fire that enforced his masculine reasoning."1
His appearance was striking, his voice sweet and pene
trating, his influence magnetic. And yet there was
about him a holy self-restraint that kept in check " the
explosive forces of that sensitive physique."
He himself realized the great sphere to which he
was called. Five years before he became Canon of
St. Paul's, in a great sermon, entitled " Profit and Loss,"
delivered in that cathedral, he spoke of the awful
1 Dr. Clifford, quoted in the Guardian, Sept. 17, 1890.

246 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
question asked by our Lord, "What shall it profit a
man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own
soul ? " " ' What shall it profit ? ' . . . On no other
spot on earth," he said, " is it asked so earnestly and so
often as in this very city of London, the home and
centre of the commerce of the world. With The great
an eagerness unrivalled elsewhere, you ask opportunity.
the question ' What shall it profit ? ' in the
corridors of your National Bank, or on the steps of your
Royal Exchange." x He realized the tremendous forces
of materialism concentrated in the great metropolis, the
great temptations to worldliness, sensuality, and un
belief that were focussed there. The Church, and the
great Cathedral of St. Paul's as its representative,
formed, as he said in his great sermon on " St. Paul's
and London," " a city set on a hill," a spiritual fortress
from which was to go forth regenerating power to do
battle against evil, and a spiritual fountain to carry
healing influences all around.2 It could have been with
no light heart that he entered upon his London work.
It certainly was not without earnest and careful pre
paration. He had made himself acquainted with
modern German literature, he had not left unstudied
Oriental speculations, and especially Buddhism. He
kept himself well abreast of the general trend of scientific
thought, though he never laid claim to any special
knowledge of science. He had many sympathies in
the direction of art, and appreciated the highest kind of
music, the use of which, in the services of the church,
1 " Sermons Preached on Special Occasions," iv., pp. 80, 81.
2 " Christmastide Sermons," xxv.

Henry Parry Liddon. 247
he distinctly approved of, as in the case of Bach's
Passion music. Poetry was to him something more
than a pleasure. His essays on Dante show that he
regarded it as a vehicle of sacred thought. Painting
and architecture appealed strongly to his taste and
imagination. The adornment of his own cathedral he
regarded as a worthy acknowledgment of the honour
of God. " Do you suppose," he says, " that the devotion
which expresses itself in enriching the Temples of the
Crucified dies away into the walls ? If you think thus,
you know little of the secrets of the moral world. . . .
Distinct from the moral strength which every act of
sacrifice confers upon a man's own soul, is the effect of
it upon the souls of others. The building or beautify
ing of a Christian Church is a visible proclamation of
the importance of all that touches God's worship." x
With such a rich intellectual and spiritual equipment,
lectures at he entered upon his work. Early in his
st. james', London career he delivered a celebrated
Piccadilly. course of lectures at St. James's Church, Pic
cadilly, in Lent, 1870. They were entitled, "Some Ele
ments of Religion," and dealt with some of the great
difficulties that have shaken men's faith, and still have
power to disturb men's minds. Materialism, Deism,
Pantheism were passed in review, and shown to be
utterly unsatisfying. The soul can only rest in a
personal God, to Whom it cries for deliverance from sin
in earnest prayer. In the last lecture, he set forth
Jesus Christ as the Mediator between God and the
soul, and the Guarantee of religious life. The teaching
1 " Christmastide Sermons," xxv., p. 421.

248 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
of this course embodied something of what he had
already delivered in his University Sermons and Bamp
ton Lectures. But it was produced in a form likely to
help the world of London ; men from the clubs attended
St. James's Church in large numbers, and " London
Society" came there, and also to St. Paul's, with a
genuine ardour enkindled by his magnetic influence, to
listen to his telling and moving sermons. If they were
long, men somehow scarcely knew how the time went.
The Dean's verger kept a record, and has stated that
the longest was an hour and twenty minutes, the
shortest three-quarters of an hour. And yet there were
many like Dean Stanley, who once said, " Liddon took
us straight up to heaven, and kept us there an hour."
Liddon was conscious of being called to deliver a
great message : his sermons were emphati- HIS SEEM0NS
cally the presentment of the great facts of and their
the Creeds of Christendom. A large propor- sub"ects.
tion of them have been gathered, as indeed they were
preached, round the great festivals of the Christian
Church. "Advent at St. Paul's," "Christmas at St.
Paul's," gave him frequent opportunities of proclaiming
the Person of Christ, as a Divine Redeemer, the Incar
nate Son, the Hope of lost mankind, and yet the Awful
Judge and Glorious King. The seasons of Passiontide
and Easter offered him an inexhaustible theme for
winning men by "the attraction of Jesus THE INCAR.
Crucified," and by insisting upon the great nate son of
fact of the Resurrection as the keystone of Goa
Christianity. No one could say that his Gospel was
one-sided ; no one could deny the earnest evangelical

Henry Parry Liddon. 249
teaching of such sermons as those on "The Accepted
Offering " and " The Cleansing Blood." But his warmest
and most moving appeals never failed to urge his
hearers to pass from an awakened emotion to a true
surrender of the will and the affections. He knew too
well the danger of trusting to mere religious emotion :
" The transition is easy," he said, " only too easy, from
ardent religious emotion, to very serious transgressions
of the Divine Law. The fact is, that the raw material
of the two opposite impulses is, sometimes the same ;
the passion which, when sanctified by grace, pours itself
out in adoration of the Eternal Beauty, may easily, in
its natural and selfish form, become an instrument of
man's deepest degradation. Our composite nature, half
angel, half brute, lives on the frontier of two worlds,
and the impulse which may raise it to the Heaven of
Heavens is but a transformed and spiritualized form of
the impulse that may bury it in all that is lowest and
foulest on earth." 1
But, nevertheless, his appeals to the emotions were
very thrilling, not to say terrible. His Advent sermon,
entitled "The First Five Minutes after Death," and
another on " The End," in the latter of which he intro
duced, with very solemn effect, the meaning and purpose
of the passing bell, made serious impressions that
would not easily wear out.
The Person and work of the Head of the Church
the holy were to him indissolubly linked with the
catholic work of the Church herself: devotion to
church. christ carried with it, in his mind, " devotion
1 " Passiontide Sermons," xiii., pp. 206, 207.

250 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
to the Church of Christ." He was a zealous pleader
in behalf of the mission work of the Church,
at home and abroad. He was much attracted
by the self-sacrificing labours of Charles Lowder, in
what was originally called St. George's Mission, East
London, and, afterwards, St. Peter's, London Docks,
The Bishop of London's Fund and the S.P.G. owed
much to his eloquent appeals. Christian christian
education formed the theme of one of his education.
ablest sermons preached at St. James's, Piccadilly, in
1869, and the following passage from that sermon
deserves to be remembered : " The future of edu
cation in this country is a question infinitely more
important than any one other of the anxious ques
tions which are under discussion at the present time.
Nothing, as I believe, would cut out by the roots the
Christian faith of the English people so effectually
as a system of compulsory secular education ; the
influence of parents and pastors would be no match
whatever for the secular educator, for reasons which
have been hinted at. And two powerful currents are
running in this fatal direction. There are those who
ask for a really national system of education, with a
view to making it secular. There are others who
consent, more or less unwillingly, to the prospect of
a secular system, in their passionate desire for a national
one. Nothing that could fall from a Christian pulpit
could have weight with the first of these classes ; but
of Christians who lend name or influence to the latter
demand, I would ask as earnestly as I can, Which is
really most for the good and happiness of man — a

Henry Parry Liddon. 251
uniform system of instruction in such knowledge as is
only serviceable for this world, or a less uniform effort
to base the thought and life of the coming generation
on the One Foundation, Jesus Christ our Lord. It
seems to me that Roman Catholics and Protestant
Dissenters must agree with members of the English
Church, so far as to admit that our deepest differences
are insignificant in the presence of a dreary materialism
which utterly ignores the other world : and that, until
we can once more worship around the same altar, no
union can be more certainly blessed by God, or bene
ficial, in the highest sense to man, than a union among
all who name the precious Name of our Redeemer to
resist to the very utmost all attempts at imposing a
system of compulsory secular education on the people
of this country." x
Undenominationalism was a thing to arouse his
indignation. It was utterly abhorrent to his soul.
Convictions clear and certain on the facts of the Catholic
faith, the authority of the Church as the Divinely
appointed teacher of the world, made it impossible for
him to contemplate for one moment any compromise
of truth or mutilation of the Church's message. This,
to him, was part of the false liberalism that had stirred
the souls of the first Tractarians to reassert long-
forgotten truths. Conscience clauses and other attempts
to meet supposed popular demands in that direction
were to him departures from the rightful position of
the Church as the Divinely-appointed organ of the
Holy Spirit's teaching.
1 " Sermons Preached on Special Occasions," x. 241.

252 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
He was keenly alive to the blessings of higher edu
cation, both for men and women. But " the education
new woman " of the platform and the public 0F women.
meeting, or of the works of fiction of modern days, was
not an agreeable figure in his eyes. " We are told," he
once said, " that the condition of woman in Christendom
is one of undue subjection ; and efforts are being made
to place her, in a new sense, on an equality with man,
by giving her a man's education, a man's taste, a man's
ambitions, a man's occupations, a man's character.
The difference between these modern efforts to improve
the condition of women, and that of our Divine Re
deemer when He entered this world as a Son of a
Virgin-Mother, is that He respected the characteristic
virtues and graces of the sex, while persons in our day
imperil or sacrifice them. It is easier to produce an
occasional Catherine de Medici of France, or a Cathe
rine II. of Russia, than a St. Agnes or a St. Monica, or a
Eugenie de Guerin, or a Hannah More. It is easier to
unsex woman, by making her man's rival, in the struggle
of life, and a pallid caricature of masculine self-asser
tion, than to develop those qualities of purity, modesty,
self-devotion, in which her highest power and excellence
consist. The new friends of woman are not her best
friends ; they are tempting her to engage in a rivalry
with man on his own ground, in which she must ulti
mately be worsted. Mary, the meekest and lowliest
of maids, is also the very first of women ; nay, in her
office, she is the very first of human beings who are
only human : and it is her sweetness, her grace, her
modesty, which so admirably adorn her rank. As St.

Henry Parry Liddon. 253
Paul says, in a passage which has been misunderstood,
woman is saved by the ' Child-bearing ; ' that is to say,
by the Birth of the Divine Child of His Virgin-Mother.
Depend upon it, my brethren, the best guarantee of
woman's liberty and influence is to be found in the fact
that the Eternal Son deigned to be born of a woman." x
His sermons always exhibited care and method in
contempo- the arrangement of their subject-matter.
rary history. There was usually a prelude or introduction,
and the main subject was arranged under several heads,
generally three. The peroration was always vigorous
and practical, and no one could leave St. Mary's,
Oxford, or St. Paul's, London, when he preached, with
out carrying away something very definite. He con
stantly made use of passing events to illustrate spiritual
truths or enforce their application. Great wars, such
as those between the Northern and Southern States of
America, France and Austria, France and Germany, or
Russia and Turkey, gave him opportunities for striking
illustrations. The death of a great man frequently
gave point to a sermon preached at the close of the
year ; and, on one occasion, on the Sunday after Christ
mas of 1873, quite a long list of eminent persons was
included in his sermon on " The Perishing and the Im
perishable," — among them, Napoleon III., John Stuart
Mill, Lord Westbury, Bishop Wilberforce, and Sir
Edwin Landseer. And on another Sunday, at the
end ofthe year, in 1888, a still longer list occurred near
the close of his sermon on " Providence and Life,'V-
among them, the Emperors William and Frederick,
1 " Christmastide Sermons," v., p. 84. Cf, " Sermons on the Old
Testament Subjects," pp. 103-105.

254 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
General Sheridan, Count Melikoff, Marshal Bazaine,
Dean Burgon, Matthew Arnold, Laurence Oliphant,
and the Earl of Devon. Liddon's sermons were almost
always written. He felt the great importance, in such
a place as St. Paul's, of being as free as possible to give
sufficient care to their delivery and to the STYLE AND
management of his voice, without the anxiety delivery.
of having to give form to his thoughts at the moment.
Yet he could at times preach an extempore sermon
with admirable clearness and beauty of language, and,
even in his written sermons, he not infrequently added
passages which, as he said, "were given him at the
time." He took the greatest care when passing his
sermons through the press for publication, and his
alterations were always considerable, sometimes even
necessitating the resetting up of the type. Mention
has already been made of the power and sweetness
of his utterance ; but he could, when the occasion
demanded, speak in stern and} scathing phrases. One
characteristic was a certain incisive and almost im
perious certitude. Another prominent teacher of his
time, often introduced a statement with the preface, " I
venture to suggest," while Liddon used as a prelude the
words, " Depend upon it, my brethren," and a careful
examination of his sermons leads to the discovery that
this phrase was very frequently on his lips.
Great social questions appealed to his chivalrous love
for the people. The monotony of dreariness social
and squalor in the poorer quarters of our questions.
great towns ; the great social inequalities noticeable
in London and elsewhere ; the exhaustion of life by
excessive labour ; the degradation of men, women, and

Henry Parry Liddon. 255
children, through the loss of self-respect under the
miserable conditions of their life, touched him keenly.
He longed for the spread of useful knowledge, practical
kindness, and beneficent laws. " These," he said, " are
not the gospel, but they are, and may be, its hand
maids." He welcomed all true philanthropy, and
permitted his leisure frequently to be invaded by ardent
philanthropists, sometimes even when their methods
and principles did not greatly commend themselves to
his judgment. But, for him, mere philanthropy and
social experiments were inadequate to remedy the
sufferings of his poverty-stricken brethren. He longed,
indeed, for a sufficient number of regular holidays
secured by law, as in bygone ages the Church secured
them by her festivals for the working poor ; for the
reasonable restriction of the hours of daily labour ; for
better homes and better education for the toiling
masses : but all these, he maintained, would fail to
secure the desired results unless the gospel were
preached in all its fulness to the poor.1 For, as he
loved to remind people, our Lord Himself passed
among men as the carpenter's Son, His first disciples
were poor, "so it was with His earliest Church. The
Church of the Apostles was a Church of the poor ; of
silver and gold it had none. One of the first incidents
in its history was an economical experiment for the
relief of poverty. Of St. Paul's time and thought a large
portion was devoted to organizing collections among
the Greek Churches for the poor Christians in Palestine.
In St. James's short epistle nothing is more remarkable
than the apostolic energy with which he upholds the
1 " University Sermons," second series, xv., p. 291.

256 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
rights, the dignity, of the poor against the insolence of
their wealthy neighbours. Here and there, no doubt,
there were converts who brought learning, station, and
wealth, within the folds of the Church. But, upon the
whole, it was at once the reproach and the glory of
apostolic Christendom, that it first won its victories, and
then lavished its blessings, chiefly among the poor." x
So earnest a lover of his fellow-men could not fail to
take a keen interest in everything that con- POLITICS
cerned the welfare of the nation. Politics, in
the narrow sense of the word, had no charm for him.
But he was keenly alive to everything that contributed
to the real progress of his country. He fully realized
how greatly God had blessed England in the past, and
he yearned for a continuance and an extension of our
national greatness. But what was in his mind was not
the greatness of material wealth and commerce, or
successful extension of the boundaries of our Empire,
but the recognition of the obligations that power and
wealth imply, and the exercise of regenerating influence
among the nations of the earth. This was the not infre
quent expression of his feelings as a patriot. " Patriotism
is not a decaying virtue, because the country, like the
family, is a creation of God's providence. It is not by
chance that such and such races are fused together,
occupying the same territory, governed by the same
dynasty, the same laws, the same historical traditions ;
and as it is a sure sign of moral mischief when family
affections and the sense of family duties are impaired,
so it bodes no good when men think little of their
1 "University Sermons," second series, xv., p. 184.

Henry Parry Liddon. 257
country, and are unwilling to make sacrifices for her.
May God save us English from this, which certainly
was not among the errors of our forefathers. They
may have been prejudiced, because they knew little of
any countries but their own. But if we have learnt to
do justice to others, let us not forget what is due to our
own land and race. We have no reason to despise
pther nations ; we have, in truth, much to learn from
them : but the first homage of our hearts is due to
the great country which gave us birth."1 Or again,
"Brethren, Jesus Christ has been with us Englishmen
as a nation for at least some sixteen or seventeen
hundred years. As a nation, do we know Him ? Are
our laws — our marriage laws, our poor-laws, for instance
— all of them, in clear agreement with His law of high
and pure morality ? Are our habits, our great currents
of opinion, our national enthusiasms and aversions, such
as become His disciples ? Is He our King, not merely
recognized in our temples, but honoured in our streets,
in our organs of national opinion and feeling, in our
great representative assemblies, in our halls of science,
as well as in our sanctuaries ? " 2
He was a Liberal, not in the sense of that latitudi-
narian spirit against which Newman and the early
Tractarians contended with, all their might, but a
Liberal in desiring freedom for the Church, to live and
do her work unfettered by the spirit of the world, a
Liberal in his desire to see England setting her face
against all forms of tyranny and espousing the cause
1 " Some Words of Christ," xvi., p. 246.
2 Ibid., xxi., p. 318.

258 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
of the oppressed. He felt keenly the disgrace that
seemed to him to rest upon England and the other
Christian powers when Turkey, in 1876, cruelly slaugh
tered the Bulgarians, as she did the Armenians twenty
years later. He had seen with his own eyes tokens of
the savage massacres and outrage perpetrated upon a
defenceless people by a barbarous soldiery. He passion
ately threw himself into the controversy, and lent his
voice and pen to all those earnest people in England
who were protesting against the repetition of the great
mistake of the Crimean War, when Christian powers
united in maintaining — for, what appeared to many,
selfish political reasons — the corrupt and debasing
Government of the Porte. It was a cruel disappoint
ment to Liddon that a change of Government did not
bring with it any strong policy in aid of the unhappy
Bulgarians. In all questions of politics that more
particularly affected the Church, the Divine origin rather
than the political privileges of the Church of England
held a foremost place in his teaching. He spoke of the
Church as founded by our Lord, " a new Society which
should sanction and satisfy, in ample measure, those
instincts of union, brotherhood, improvement, order, of
which earlier forms of association among men were the
outcome and assertion. This Society, in virtue of its
origin, its objects, and its compass, He named the
Kingdom of Heaven. As described by Himself and
His Apostles, it was to have no political or social
limits ; it was to embrace all sorts and conditions of
men and women ; it was to transcend the barriers of
sense and time, and associate those who still live

Henry Parry Liddon. 259
here below with their fellow-citizens in the invisible
world." x
He did not approve of disestablishment or of the
disestablish- secularization of the Church's revenues either
ment. in Ireland or in England. For he saw the
great advantage that resulted from the clergy not being
too dependent upon the few wealthy laymen of their
congregation. And yet he was fully alive to the necessity
of enlisting the support and sympathy of the people
in l the maintenance of the services of the Church.
"Popular agitators," he said, "may mean mischief; but
we should do ill to fear the people whose best interests
are our own. The Church of this country has every
thing to gain by throwing herself on the classes to which
the gospel was preached at first ; for the Church is the
real mistress of that social science which either makes
want or suffering more than endurable, or which relieves
and assuages it. An ecclesiastical absolutism may rule
abroad ; a sour fanaticism may endeavour to proscribe
faith and reverence nearer home ; but the eccentricities
of human error pass and are forgotten while Christianity
remains." 2
His knowledge of the admirable work that was being
carried on in the poorest districts of London and other
great towns, made him sanguine as to the ultimate
relations of the labouring people of England to the
Church. The self-denying ministrations of Father Low-
der, Mr. Mackonochie, and the brothers Pollock of St.
Alban's, Birmingham, of devoted clergymen at Liverpool
1 " Sermons Preached on Special Occasions," xv., p. 326.
2 " University Sermons" (Second Series), ix., 181.

260 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
and Leeds, had met with a grateful response from the
toiling workpeople in the factories and workshops. He
felt that the Church had only to extend her work in
these directions, and there would be no fear of serious'
danger to her position from the public agitation of the
Liberation Society.
Liddon dreaded the subtle advance of a dangerous
Erastianism far more than assaults from
declared foes. Under the influence of those
periodical panics which seem to come over the English
people every quarter of a century, a movement was
made by a leading nobleman of the Evangelical school,
and supported by the Primate, "to put down Ritualism "
by Act of Parliament. Lord Beaconsfield attempted
to cover the Catholic school with ridicule and suspicion
when he uttered his famous phrase concerning "the
Mass in masquerade." The result was the Public
Worship Regulation Act, resisted by Mr. Gladstone, and
recognized now by friends and foes as an unwise and
abortive measure. How Liddon regarded the situation
may be gathered from words in his celebrated sermon
at the consecration of the Bishop of Lincoln. It must
be understood that he by no means approved of all the
developments of so-called " Ritualism," and an attitude
of rebellion against the Episcopate was utterly contrary
to the respect for Church authority which to him was
a mark of the true Catholic. But he rose up in arms
against the invasion of the Church's rights, whether by
in Erastian Act of Parliament or a Privy Council acting,
as was said, "on mere motives of policy." "We may
well," he said, "indeed be grateful to the law for the

Henry Parry Liddon. 261
position which it secures to the clergy by making every
benefice a freehold. Yet a freehold may be converted
into a fortified castle from within whose walls a rebellious
son sets at nought the counsels of a spiritual father.
But that which of late years has most frequently veiled
from the eyes of the clergy the kindly face and hand of
a father in Christ, is the unhappy fact that under the
form of interpreting documents which have a legal
aspect, the most sacred questions of doctrine and morals
are not decided in the last resort by the commissioned
guardians of the faith, but by accomplished lawyers
who may, or may not, be Christians. This fatal weak
ness in our Church polity was aggravated by the pro
visions of the Public Worship Regulation Act. . . .
Only those who wish ill to the English Church can
desire to -perpetuate a state of things which is not
necessary to the union of Church and State, or to the
maintenance of the Queen's supremacy, and which,
among the many mischiefs which it entails, does more
than anything else to impair, in the eyes of faithful
clergy, the fatherly character of the Episcopate." x

IV.
Liddon from time to time was compelled to deal
with the Roman controversy. A well-
known Roman Catholic ecclesiastic who
had become prominent in London in connection with
the secession of several aristocratic persons, had in the
1 " Clerical Life and Work," xi., p. 304.

262 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
course of the year 1875 thought fit to criticize the
language of certain devotional manuals in use among
advanced Anglicans. Liddon, with much generosity
and skill, defended the Anglican position — though he
was careful to dissociate Ihimself from any approval
of language incompatible with the teaching of the
Anglican Church on such tenets as Transubstantiation
and the direct Invocation of Saints — on the doctrines
of the Real Presence and the lawful use of Private
Confession and Prayers for the Dead.1 Then and at
1 What were his views on the subject of Transubstantiation
may be gathered from the following passage in his sermon on
" The Recovery of St. Thomas : " — " Whether our Lord really rose
with His wounded body from the grave or not, was a question
to be settled by the bodily senses ; - and our Lord therefore
submitted Himself to the exacting terms which St. Thomas laid
down as conditions of faith. Here we may see how to answer
the question whether, at the Holy Communion, the bread and
wine remain bond fide bread and wine after the Consecration.
That is a question which must be decided by the senses of sight
and taste and touch. If these senses report that the bread is still
bread, and the wine is still wine, that question is settled. True,
our Lord has said of either element, " This is My Body ; this is
My Blood ; " and serious Christians will not take liberties with
His language by resolving it into metaphor and rejecting its strictly
literal force. But then, how are we to reconcile the two : the
report of the senses on one hand, and the plain meaning of the
words of Christ on the other ? We answer that we do not know :
just as we do not know how to reconcile the experienced fact of
the Divine Sovereignty ; we cannot get nearer the truth than by
saying that these elements, remaining in their natural substances,
are yet, in some way to us unknown, veils of the Sacred Presence
which is plainly identified with them in a pregnant sense by the
words of Christ. But it will not do, in order to give what we may
think a fuller effect to His words, to say that the bodily senses are
deceived — that the bread is no longer bread, though it seems to

Henry Parry Liddon. 263
other times he never shrank from recognizing on the
one hand the splendid history and devoted labours of
the Churches that are subject to the Papal See. He
admired intensely the great Orders, many of whom
were the converters and civilizers of barbarian Europe,
and the educators of the poor for many centuries ; who
were conspicuous for a passionate devotion to the Person
of our Lord, and who, along with the Roman Catholic
missionaries to the heathen in later days, have vindicated
for the Communion of which they were the devoted
servants its claim to be a real descendant of the Apostolic
Church. But he was too good a student of history not to
recognize, on the other hand, the great failures and
corruptions of the Roman See and the mediaeval
Church ; and for him at least " the corrective and
expurgatory action of the Reformation has been a
substantial service to the Christian faith." 1 Of the later
developments of modern Romanism, he plainly showed
how dangerous was the position by which they were
defended by Newman — " His Essay on the development
of Christian Doctrine," he says,2 "presents this among
other aspects — it is a theological confession ; it is a
be so. For to say this, is to sap one of the bases of our hold on
truth : since the same senses which report to us the continued
existence of bread in the consecrated elements reported the
reality of the wounded Hands and Side of the risen Jesus. If the
one report is illusory, so may be the other ; and nothing is gained
in the long run for religion by anything which casts doubt on the
true functions of sense."
1 " University Sermons " (Second Series), xv., p. 296.
2 Ibid., vi., p. m.

264 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
confession that the creed of the modern Church of
Rome cannot be said to be strictly identical with the
creed of the Apostles ; that at the best they are linked
with each other by a law of substantial growth, as is the
oak with the acorn ; and even that Roman Catholicism
in its full development contains elements which have
no germinal counterpart in the age of the Apostles,
since they have come to it by accretion from without.
Bellarmine and Bossuet had supposed that the Roman
faith in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries respec
tively was exactly the faith of the Apostolic and
Primitive Church. But writing in the nineteenth,
Mohler and Newman knew too much to entertain such
a supposition. There were patent differences which
had to be accounted for in some way, and there were
tendencies in modern thought not unlikely to suggest
or to recommend the method that actually presented
itself. The theory of development in its English form
was the most striking apology that could be made for a
step to which its author was led by independent con
siderations ; but it is an apology which would serve
other causes, ancient and modern, at least as well as
that of the Church of Rome. . . . The Church cannot
know more than was known by the Apostles, and any
thing which men might claim to know which was
unknown to the Apostles, is not Apostolic doctrine but
something else." He spoke sadly of "unhappy defi
nitions," and "untenable positions," such as were
involved in the declaration of the Immaculate Con
ception as an article of faith, or the devotions rising out
of the Festival of the Assumption — based as it is upon

Henry Parry Liddon. 265
a shadowy legend — and, above all, the promulgation of
the Infallibility of the Pope at the Vatican Council in
1870. '
In the face of all this it was no mere Protestant bias
or narrow Anglicanism which made him declare that
" when instructed faith, accustomed to the aspects and
to the frontiers of Apostolic teaching, encounters this
hypothesis, it recoils as from a block of foreign and
intrusive matter ; it whispers to itself, ' By God's help I
will live and die in the complete circle of truths unveiled
by the Apostles, but I cannot be wiser than they.' " x
Liddon always held sanguine views of the possibilities
reunion of of the Reunion of Christendom. He gave
Christendom, expression to the hope that the Roman
Church might even take the lead in this work, that
" she, the largest division of the Christian Church," might
"without forfeiture of her historic continuity . . . un
dertake to reunite the scattered worshippers of her
Redeemer in one fold." 2 He followed with intense
earnestness and warm sympathy the publication of
Dr. Pusey's " Eirenicon," and the efforts made by him
and Bishop Forbes of Brechin to open out negotiations
with foreign ecclesiastics, and especially with Arch
bishop Darboy, of Paris, murdered by the Communists
in 1871, and the celebrated Bishop Dupanloup of
Orleans, for a better understanding between the author
ities of the Continental Churches and the Anglican
Communion. He and Dr. Pusey both had hopes that
in some way or another opportunities might be given
1 " University Sermons " (Second Series), vi., p. 114.
2 Ibid., p. 115.

266 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
at the Vatican Council for a statement of Anglican
principles, and perhaps for the defence of English
Orders and Sacraments. These hopes were destined to
disappointment, and after the promulgation of the
dogma on the infallibility of the Pope, more than ever,
as Dr. Pusey had said once, "the shores of Italy"
seemed to be " perpetually receding." Those who had
looked for a successful resistance to the clamour of
what Dr. Newman called "an insolent faction," and
who expected that in the Council, as before it, the
German Episcopate and a considerable portion of the
French Bishops would refuse to accept the decree, soon
discovered that universal submission, with scarce an
exception, was the order of the day. But in Germany
a band of learned and pious divines declined to stultify
themselves as their superiors had done. Foremost among
them was Dr. Ignatius Dollinger, of Munich, who, in the
opinion even of the Ultramontane school, enjoyed the
best established reputation in Europe as a learned and
accurate theologian. He was the pupil and friend of
Mohler, and even before the Vatican Council had come
to the conclusion that Ultramontanism could not be
defended as the representative of the Primitive Catholic
Church. Of his breach with Rome, and the aid that
he lent to the Old Catholics of Germany, whom he
never definitely and publicly joined, this is not the place
to speak. But a few years after the Vatican Council,
Dr. Liddon, when on a visit to Munich, had received
from the great German Doctor a suggestion for the
assembling of a Conference of Theologians belonging
to different communions to discuss certain questions

Henry Parry Liddon. 267
that separated various branches of the Catholic Church.
the bonn The result of this suggestion was that in
conferences. x 874 and the following year, conferences
were held at Bonn, under the presidentship of Dr.
Dollinger. In addition to other Old Catholic theolo
gians, there were present Bishops and clergy and Pro
fessors of the Orthodox Churches, Russian and Greek,
among the latter of whom was Archbishop Lycurgus,
of Syra and Tenos, well known and respected in
England. The American Church sent some of its
leading clergy, and the Anglican Communion was fur
ther represented by several English theologians, of
whom Dr. Liddon was the most prominent. The reports
of these conferences were translated and published in
England, with prefaces and notes by Liddon. As
might have been expected, the principal and most
difficult question between the Oriental and Western
Churches was that of the Double Procession of the Holy
Ghost. The Western divines at Bonn were willing to
allow that the addition of the Filioque in the Creed was
not made in a canonical manner, and that any idea of
holding two " Principles " in the Trinity was heretical.
All agreed in accepting the Ecumenical Creeds and the
dogmatic decisions of the undivided Church and the
form of the doctrine of the Holy Ghost as taught by
the Fathers. Six propositions drawn up respecting the
Holy Ghost, based mainly on the teaching of St. John
Damascene, were unanimously accepted by the Con
ference. In addition to this, Dr. Dollinger defended
Anglican Orders in a lucid address for the benefit of
the Oriental theologians, and some other questions,

268 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
such as Purgatory, were dealt with by the President of
the Conference.
The conferences and their results were criticized with
much rancour by the Ultramontane Press, with some
scorn by the secular newspapers, and with no little bitter
ness by the representatives of Puritanism. Dr. Pusey
was by no means happy about the formula that the
Bonn Conference had accepted. He thought it was
practically a surrender of the position for which the
Western Church had contended for so many centuries,
He somewhat distrusted the attitude of the Oriental
theologians, and thought the American divines were
too ready to give up the Filioque. He even went as
far as to say, " The loss of the ' and the Son ' would to
our untheological English mind involve the loss of the
doctrine of the Trinity." x Dr. Liddon discussed Pusey's
objections in a Report of the Second Bonn Conference,
and the final result was that the Bonn propositions,
though somewhat ambiguous and incomplete, were
considered to be capable of becoming at least a basis
for future discussion of the very difficult problem
involved in the Double Procession. " We sow the seed,"
said Pusey, "trusting that God may give the increase
in a later generation."2 V.
With regard to controversies within the Church in
which Dr. Liddon was engaged, the most important
1 " On the clause ' and the Son : ' a Letter to H. P. Liddon,
D.D.," p. 179.
2 Ibid., p. 181.

Henry Parry Liddon. 269
was that connected with the Athanasian Creed. An
the athana- attempt had been made, in the Ritual Com-
sian creed, mission appointed in 1867, to suggest the
optional instead of the compulsory use of the Creed.
Dr. Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury, lent the aid of his
high office to this proposition. Dean Stanley, as might
have been expected, vehemently urged the disuse of the
Quicunque vult ; Liddon publicly stated that he would
resign all his offices and preferments if the Athanasian
Creed were tampered with ; Dr. Pusey conveyed the
same assurance to the Archbishop. A compromise was
suggested either in the direction of a retranslation of
certain passages, or the alteration of the rubric prescrib
ing its use. Bishop Wilberforce of Winchester gave
more support to the attitude taken up by Pusey and
Liddon than any other occupant of the Episcopal
bench. Thousands of the clergy and laity were greatly
alarmed. A very large and influential meeting, organized
by the E.C.U., was held in St. James's Hall, on January
31st, 1873 ; and when Liddon rose to speak he was
greeted with great enthusiasm, rendered all the more
striking when he read a letter written by Dr. Pusey
from abroad, urging Churchmen to maintain the Creed
at all hazards. All this made a great impression on
the public mind. The final result was that the Creed
was retained in use and unmutilated, though the Houses
of Convocation accepted a synodical declaration with
regard to its warning clauses. Liddon, almost in the
midst of the controversy, preached a sermon at Oxford
before the University on "The Life of Faith, and
the Athanasian Creed." He defended the title, the

270 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
use and the substance of the Creed ; to disuse or
mutilate it was "the first great step in a theological
revolution." He showed how the Anglican Church at
the Reformation had increased the frequency of its use,
and how Hooker had valued it as a bulwark against
the blasphemies of foreign heretics in those Continental
Protestant Communions where "Athanasius' Creed is
not heard," " If the Creed were discarded it would
remain patent to all men that, after using this Creed
for the last three centuries on the greatest Festivals of
the Christian year, the English Church had deliberately
abandoned it, and the friends and foes of faith would
alike draw their own conclusions as to the meaning of
such a step." Liddon referred in a note to the published
edition of this sermon to congratulations addressed by
the Socinians at Belfast to the revisers of the Irish
Prayer-book on the disuse of the Athanasian Creed.
" But," he continued, " the Creed would be really
rejected because it is too faithful an echo of that gospel
which men do not venture openly to reject. 'This is
life eternal, that they may know Thee, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent' Eternal
life consists in a practical knowledge of God, the Holy
Trinity, and of Jesus, God and man. And thus ' he that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, but he that
believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of
God abideth on him.' Nothing can be urged against
the principle of the warning clauses which is not equally
applicable to the principle of such a passage as this." 1
Another controversy sprang up shortly afterwards on
1 " University Sermons " (Second Series), vii., pp. 138, seq.

Henry Parry Liddon. 271
the subject of Private Confession. A petition to Convoca
tion, signed by 483 clergy, asking among other
confession. ' s a, ¦ ,. \, fu v>- u c
things for the appointment by the Bishops of
Licensed Confessors, aroused great popular excitement
through the whole of the summer and autumn of 1873.
Convocation was the scene of much disputation, and
the Church Association took pains to arouse popular
prejudice. After much correspondence, a full and
admirable declaration was drawn up and published,
giving in clear and moderate language the teaching of
the Anglican Church on the true use and value of Con
fession and Absolution. It was signed by Liddon,
along with Dr. Pusey, Father Benson, Mr. Butler of
Wantage, Canon Carter of Clewer, and others, and
forms an admirable exposition of what is the true
Anglican teaching and practice on the subject.
Another important question arose out of what is
known as the Purchas Judgment. Among
RITUALISM. , . ,.,,,, t ,. . 1 fy
other points decided by the Judicial Com
mittee of the Privy Council against Mr. Purchas, was
what is called the Eastward Position. Great numbers of
moderate High Churchmen, who were not in the least
committed to any extreme or elaborate ritualism, were
alarmed at this decision. It appeared to them that, if
enforced, a valuable expression of belief in the sacrificial
aspect of the Holy Eucharist would be lost. A large
number of them petitioned in favour of a rehearing of
this part of the case without success. The Bishops, and
among them the Bishop of London, announced that
they had no option about enforcing the judgment. The
two Senior Canons of St. Paul's, the Rev. R. Gregory

272 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
and Dr. Liddon, at once announced to their Bishop
their intention of maintaining the Eastward Position.
Liddon wrote a letter to Sir John Coleridge, who was
entirely in sympathy with those who criticized the
judgment ofthe Privy Council; and Pusey published a
letter to Liddon on the subject, encouraging resistance
for conscience' sake. Dr. Pusey's own practice had been
to refrain from the Eastward Position at Christ Church,
out of deference to two of the older Canons. But after
his practice had been quoted against that of Liddon at
St. Paul's, he made it his rule only to consecrate at the
North end when either of these two Canons were present.
There can be no doubt that the action taken up by
Dr. Liddon and his brother Canon did much to secure,
for the future, liberty to use the Eastward Position, and
to teach by visible action, as well as by preaching, that
in the Holy Eucharist the Church takes her part, under
the leadership of the earthly priest, with the presenta
tion of the One offering made once for all on Calvary,
and perpetually pleaded by the great High Priest in
Heaven. With regard to the later developments of Ritual,
Liddon, like Pusey, had no personal love for elaborate
ceremonial. There never was, indeed, a man
. REVERENCE.
who realized more deeply the meaning of
reverence in worship. "Reverence," he once said, "is
the sincere acknowledgment of a greatness higher than
ourselves. . . . Worship is the conscious self-presen
tation of a reasonable creature before the illimitable
greatness of God. Worship is the highest expression
of reverence, which cannot help prostrating itself in

Henry Parry Liddon. ' 273
adoration. . . . Worship is a preparation ; it is an edu
cation for the inevitable future." x And, again, " beha
viour in church is not by any means the only province
or exercise of reverence. Far from it. But it is a very
important one, and it is a very good test of our reverence
in respect of other matters ... as a rule, if a man's
bodily posture is irreverent, his thoughts and feelings
are irreverent too. The reason is because the soul
and body are so intimately linked to each other, that
the body cannot be for long in postures which are
hostile to movements of the soul. ... If a man sees
God, he will behave as it is natural to behave in the
presence of the Almighty. ... To see God is to feel
it to be an imperious necessity to prostrate ourselves
before Him. O come, let us worship and fall down
and kneel before the Lord our Maker, is the voice of
true reverence for all time."2 Nothing could be more
expressive of a deep sense of the Divine Presence than
was Liddon's own careful, quiet, and reverent manner
of celebrating the Holy Eucharist, without any exag
geration of gesture or demonstrative self-consciousness.
Liddon had the greatest possible respect and affection
privy f°r tne devoted men whose names were promi-
council nently connected with the advanced Ritual
judgments. that had been caueci jn question, and con
demned in the Purchas and Ridsdale judgments. He,
like Dr. Pusey, recognized the love of souls and great
devotion that inspired the life and labours of Mr. Mac-
konochie, and others like him ; but he was alarmed at
1 "Advent in St. Paul's " (" Sense of Reverence "), p. 353.
2 " Easter in St. Paul's " (" Reverence "), p. 330. T

274 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
what appeared to him unwholesome symptoms and
indications of exaggeration, both in doctrine and cere
monial, which might imperil the progress of the whole
Catholic movement, and at Pusey's suggestion they
both united in writing a letter to Mr. Mackonochie,
pointing out some of the over-elaborated ceremonial
and ill-considered language sometimes found among
so-called Ritualists, and appealing to him to use his
influence against giving needless offence by forcing
unaccustomed ceremonial upon unprepared people.
But nothing came of it in the shape of any definite
action on the part of the extreme section of the High
Church party. Liddon disliked the use of the word
" Mass," which, he said, " alienated thousands who ought
to belong to us."
But with all his anxiety not to press externals in
cases where the spiritual truths that underlay them
were not apprehended, his own sympathies, character
and temperament went entirely along with all efforts
to improve the services of the Church in England. He
was a true Tractarian in placing doctrine first, and
symbolism second ; but he admired and supported the
younger school of Catholic clergy in the general principles
that guided them in the revival of doctrine, discipline
and worship. They looked to him as the great leader
and teacher of those truths which they were endeavour
ing to set forth in the parishes and missions which they
served. He may have disapproved of this or that
expression, and disliked this or that detail of ceremonial ;
but he was the last man to damp the ardour and
enthusiasm of devoted priests, who went further than

Henry Parry Liddon. 275
he did in language or action, by unnecessary criticism,
whatever were his private opinions about particular
details of ceremonial. But he was not content with
adopting anything like an attitude of benevolent
neutrality. He saw that the resistance even to im
prisonment on the part of two incumbents, the Revs.
T. P. Dale and R. W. Enraght, was not due merely to
a "silly and obstinate adherence to an illegal ceremonial."
The details of the ritual condemned might or might not
be unimportant and insignificant, though in Liddon's
mind such things could not be regarded as mere trifles
in view of the care shown by St. Paul with regard to
the dress of Christian women in Christian Churches, the
behaviour of Christians at the Holy Communion, as well
as the far higher and graver matters concerning morals
and faith. But in reality, great and important principles
were at stake, and Liddon was well aware of this.
In 1881 he published four sermons with an important
"thoughts preface under the title of "Thoughts on
on present present church Troubles ; " he dealt with the
CHURCH '
troubles." common charge brought against the so-called
Ritualistic clergy, of lawlessness, and said, "There is
occasion for considering whether some error in legislation
may not for the time* being have made obedience to the
law of the land inconsistent with some higher sense of
duty, in the case of unquestionably good men who are
also not demonstrably unreasonable." He then went
on to discuss the claims of the Judicial Committee of
the Privy Council, and the Judge created by the Public
Worship Regulation Act, to be regarded as legitimate
authorities in spiritual questions. He recalled the

276 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
principle affirmed by the "statute for the restraint of
appeals" that ecclesiastical courts should interpret all
statutes relating to spiritual questions ; that when
ecclesiastical causes came before the Court of Delegates
that court should be composed only of ecclesiastics
and ecclesiastical lawyers. He showed that in the
opinion of Lord Brougham the transference of eccle
siastical causes from the Court of Delegates to the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, was scarcely
contemplated by the authors of the change ; and while,
carefully laying it down that he did not desire the
abolition of the Royal Supremacy, denied that that
Supremacy is necessarily identical with the supremacy
of the great lawyers, and strongly urged the desirability
of creating an Episcopal final Court of Appeal. "If,"
said he, " the members of such a Court were elected by
the Episcopate, they would all have been nominated to
their Sees by the Crown, and no effect could be given
to their decisions on any questions of property unless
the Crown lent the aid of its coercive jurisdiction."
Eighteen years later, Churchmen are still hoping that
an Episcopal Court may prove the means of bringing
about a peaceful solution of Church troubles.
But Liddon also gave, in clear and trenchant language,
reasons why it was difficult for Churchmen to regard
Lord Penzance as, in any sense, a real Dean of the
Arches. To them he appeared merely as "a civil
judge, invested with no more spiritual authority than
an Act of Parliament can confer." Lord Penzance had
distinctly failed to comply with the regulations of the
canons in taking the oath required of ecclesiastical

Henry Parry Liddon. 277
judges. It is said that this was done deliberately, and
that he could not defer to the provisions of the canon
without implying that the statute was insufficient to
make him what he claimed to be. "But," said Dr.
Liddon, "so long as the 127th Canon is unrepealed by
the Church, Lord Penzance is a standing violation of
her laws ; and there is surely something to be said for
the conscientious difficulties of clergymen respecting
any act which would involve the acknowledgment of
his ecclesiastical authority."
The titles of the four sermons are significant : " The
Coming of the Divine Kingdom," in which the spiritual
power of the Church was shown to be independent
ofthe accidents of Empire and State; "The Attrac
tiveness of the Saints," where the character of St. John
the Baptist was indicated as the type of that which,
when realized in men of the present day, takes captive
the world, by its severity and saintliness : " The Law
and the Gospel," where the essence of Christianity was
shown to be based, not so much on rules as to external
observances, as on the great principles of a living and
working faith ; and " The Power of Martyrdom," in
which it was contended that while the force of such an
heroic death as St. Stephen, and of countless other
martyrs, was felt in the extension of the Christian
Church throughout the world ; yet persecution must
always be a criminal folly, at least in all who name the
Name of Christ. Those who heard these sermons could
be under no mistake as to the meaning of the preacher,
the subject he referred to, and his own opinion, as
conveyed in the following characteristic passage: —

278 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
'"Maintain, if you like, that your Bible is honeycombed
with mistakes and legends, provided only that you do
not maintain it too coarsely and too provokingly. But
beware, oh ! beware of the crime for which our modern
wisdom practically reserves its sternest condemnations,
the crime of wearing a vestment too many or a vestment
too few ; since this error may perchance expose you to
ruder punishments than any which are at the disposal
of a spiritual society. ' We can imagine, I had said,
a Christian Church holding this language ; but I correct
myself — we cannot imagine it. We can only suppose,
that if she should seem thus to speak, some other ruling
influence than hers must, for the moment, have taken
the seat of her own pastors, and that it is using terms
which they would fain repudiate if they could."
At all events he warmly approved of the great
changes that transformed both the fabric and „,.„..
services of St. Paul's Cathedral. Up to and its
about the middle of the century nothing services.
could have been more dreary than the appearance of
the structure, and nothing more depressing than the
character of the services in the great Cathedral of
London. What was Liddon's share in the great changes
may be learned from the following testimony of one
competent to tell us : —
"The crowds which came to Liddon's sermons had
carried the ordinary Sunday service out of the choir
into the dome, and, once there, it never went back. . . .
The personal factor by which the claim of St. Paul's,
to become once more a wide spiritual home for London,
could make itself heard and felt over the hearts of large

Henry Parry Liddon. 279
multitudes, was to be found in the preaching of Dr.
Liddon. That voice reached far and wide. It fixed the
attention of the whole city on what was going forward in
its midst. It kindled the imagination, so that the big
world outside was prepared for great things. It com
pelled men to treat seriously what was done. No one
could suppose that the changes in the services and
ritual at St. Paul's were superficial or formal, or of small
account, so long as that voice rang on like a trumpet,
telling of righteousness and temperance and judgment,
preaching ever and always, with personal passion of
belief, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It is impossible
to exaggerate the value of Liddon's presence at St.
Paul's, for these twenty years, in the way of making
acceptable and justifiable to reasonable men the type
of worship which was to be asserted under the leader
ship which now made it practicable." x

VI.
Of Liddon's work as Dean Ireland's Professor of
Ireland pro- Exegesis there is not space to say much.
fessorship. He had been offered the post of first
Warden of Keble College in 1869. This he felt it his
duty to decline, and when he was offered the canonry
of St. Paul's, Pusey was anxious to retain him at Oxford.
Bishop Hamilton of Salisbury, who urged the accept
ance of the offer, realized, as others have done since, the
' Canon Scott Holland in " Dean Church's Life and Letters,"
pp. 216, 217.

280 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
great work that a cathedral might do, and, above all,
such a cathedral as St. Paul's, in the very centre of
English life. It is somewhat surprising that Pusey
failed then, as he had more than thirty years before in
his pamphlet on "Cathedral Reform," addressed to
Lord Henley, to grasp the great opportunities that
may be given to a well-worked cathedral. He would
have wished to keep Liddon altogether at Oxford, first
as Warden of Keble, and then afterwards as Ireland
Professor. To him no other place in England was
equal to Oxford as a centre for influencing English
thought, and when Liddon went to St. Paul's it seemed
to him a personal loss. The great ideal of a cathedral,
which Dr. Benson gave expression to in both writing
and act, had not presented itself to the mind of Dr.
Pusey. Perhaps the peculiar circumstances of Christ
Church, Oxford, which linked together a Chapter a
Professoriate, and a College, made it less easy for him
to estimate the true value of the Cathedral system, not
merely as a centre of learning, but as the Mother Church
of the diocese. Nearly two years later, Liddon was
suffering from the strain of his twofold work. Few can
realize what complicated duties and ramifications of
engagements, personal and public, gathered round his
position at St. Paul's. His correspondence was very
large ; he was always ready to answer letters of inquiry
sent to him respecting statements made in his sermons ;
he was ever most conscientious in endeavouring to
remove doubts or misapprehensions arising out of
language that he had used. Many persons also sought
his counsel on spiritual matters, and this involved not

Henry Parry Liddon. 281
only interviews but a voluminous and continual corre
spondence. It was no matter of surprise that his health began
to give way, even at that early date, 1872. He threw
such energy into his preaching, and attended so con
scientiously to the preparation and delivery of his
lectures, that to retain both offices seemed impossible.
He seriously contemplated the resignation of his Pro
fessorship. Dr. Pusey regarded the Oxford work as
a relief from the strain of his duties at St. Paul's, and,
at his earnest request, Dr. Liddon retained the Pro
fessorship until after Pusey's death. It may be suffi
cient to give some account of one great monument of
Liddon's Professorial teaching, contained in
LECTURES. . ,„.,,_
his lectures on the Epistle to the Romans.
To assist those who attended his lectures in following
the sequence of teaching contained in this, the greatest,
most elaborate, and most difficult, of St. Paul's epistles,
Dr. Liddon had printed a series of papers, which formed
a kind of skeleton or outline of the argument. They
were afterwards enlarged and altered, and published
after his death exactly in the form in which he left
them. The author himself tells us that he had largely
followed Meyer, whose scholarship he admired, though
he often had to differ from his theology. As might
have been supposed, he drew largely from patristic
writers, both Greek and Latin, and it is interesting to
notice how he marshals a series of eleven writers of
Christian antiquity in favour of applying the Doxology
in chapter ix. 5, to Christ our Lord. He gathered
illustrations and arguments from Anglican writers like

282

Five Great Oxford Leaders

Hooker, Pearson, and Butler; and Lutheran divines
like Martensen and Delitsch ; and numerous references
to classical writers, Greek and Latin, to Plato and
Homer, Cicero and Seneca, may be found in the pages
of this book. Perhaps, of all writers, St. Augustine was
most frequently quoted — a saint whose life and character
had a very great and permanent attraction for him.
The whole Epistle was most elaborately analyzed in
a form easily apprehended by the eye. Difficulties are
never shirked, and, in referring to it, a student will not
experience the not uncommon disappointment that
meets him in commentaries on finding the very point
he looked for passed by. The well-known passage in
chapter vii. 14-25, is most carefully discussed. Dr.
Liddon has recorded in these notes the great difficulty
he felt in arriving at a solution of the question whether
the experience of the regenerate or unregenerate man
is there described. Even after the printing of his
Analysis he changed his opinion, but did not ob
literate the record of his earlier view. The work is
very valuable for its keen logic and accurate scholarship.
It contains profitable warnings against Lutheran per
versions of St. Paul's teaching, and sets forth in Liddon's
happiest manner the Person and work of our Lord as
the object of our faith. See, for instance, his notes on
chapter x. 9, "Faith unites the soul to the Crucified
One, living because risen, and true faith cannot but own
Him as the soul's Kipiog before men. The necessity
of an outward profession of the truths to which we
yield internal assent is taught by our Lord (St. Matt. x.
32), and especially in the fragment of an Apostolic

Henry Parry Liddon. 283
hymn, quoted at 2 Tim. ii. 12. Not merely in con
versation and example, but in creeds, in worship, if need
be at the cost of suffering, must this 6fio\oyia be made.
The confession before the world of the Kvpiorne of
Jesus, while acknowledging His present relation to the
iriaTtviiJv and to the Church, also glances back at His
pre-existent, as yet unincarnate Person ; He is the
eternal Kvpiog as the Son of God, and this is powerfully
proclaimed to the world by His Resurrection (Rom.
i.4)" St. Paul's Epistles formed the principal part of the
bible subject of his lectures, as well as of his
readings, private Sunday Evening Bible Readings ;
and it is interesting to note the great attraction that the
personality, career, and writings of the great Apostle
had for one who served the Cathedral Church that
bears his name. In January, 1874, Dr. Liddon de
livered two lectures on week-day evenings on the life
st. paul and of St. Paul : the first on " The Prepara-
his writings, tion of the Apostle for his Work ; " the
second on " his Career as the Missionary, the Church
Ruler and the Martyr." The concluding sentence of the
latter of these two lectures was as follows : — " There is
no serious critical reason for rejecting the ordinary
account of his martyrdom ; he was beheaded outside
the gate of Rome which looks towards the port at the
mouth of the Tiber, and which is now called the Gate
of St. Paul. A splendid church, first erected by the
Emperor Constantine, and lately rebuilt after the great
fire of 1824, marks the neighbourhood, at any rate, ofthe
spot on which Paul of Tarsus passed to receive, as he

284 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
believed, a crown of righteousness. But his enduring
monument at this moment, and to the end of time, will
be his great unrivalled place in the Sacred Canon, and
the gratitude of millions of hearts, to whom he is the
incessant minister of a truth whereby the two deepest
longings of the human soul may be satisfied — the long
ing to be inwardly righteous, and the longing for a true
inward peace." It is not surprising that Dr. Liddon
selected a large number of the texts of his sermons
from the writings of St. Paul ; and, besides those included
in other volumes, nineteen have been collected and
published since his death, which illustrate a number of
the leading ideas of the great Apostle.1 Such subjects
as "The Resurrection," "The Foolishness and Power of
the Cross," "Victory over the Last Enemy," "Justifying
Faith," obviously direct one to the great Epistles that
enshrine the fundamental truths that St. Paul preached.
Other sermons on such subjects as " Considerations for
Criminals," preached before the Lord Mayor and Judges,
" Intelligent Prayer," " Christian Growth," contain a
wealth of illustration from ancient and modern Church
history, and practical teaching on a great variety of
subjects social and moral, as well as on the spiritual life
of the individual.
Some specimens of these sermons may well be
quoted : — " The Bible is power — the power of an
Infallible Spirit teaching the souls of men from pages
which have been preternaturally preserved from the
taint of error, and with a living force which bridges the
centuries that have passed since its latest books were
1 " Sermons on Words of St. Paul."

Henry Parry Liddon. 285
written, a force which is to us what it was to its earliest
readers. The Creed is power ; as we repeat it to-day,
we touch with lips and heart truths of imperishable
import ; with the heart we believe them unto righteous
ness, and with the mouth we make confession of them
unto salvation. The Sacraments are power ; the power
of the Living and Eternal Christ veiling His tenderest
and most intimate dealings with the soul under the
simplest of outward transactions, and robing the lowliest
and poorest members of His Kingdom, before the eyes
of His Angels, with majesty and beauty, and force and
light, by uniting them to Himself ; the Church is power,
so far as she claims her true rank as God's spiritual
Kingdom upon earth, so far as she wields with faith and
love the heavenly weapons which God has given her, so
far as she can rise to love men well enough to tell them,
at all costs, the truth."
In his sermon on " Intelligent Prayer '' are some
admirable words on the use of the vernacular in public
worship. " The Latin language was like the tongues of
Corinth — magnificent ; but too generally unintelligible.
And when she translated the old Latin services, which
she had used for centuries, into the Common Prayer-
book of our day, the Church of England said with the
Apostle, 'As heretofore, let me pray with the spirit,
but I and my children will endeavour to pray with the
understanding also.' "
In the sermon of " Victory over the Last Enemy "
may be found some eminently practical and searching
words on sin, as the sting of death. " Apart from grave
violations of. God's moral Law, we may well be conscious

286 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
of a general habit of life which is sinful, in that it is not.
in accordance with what we know to be God's will.
Our waste of time, our waste of money, our purpose-
lessness in what we do with ourselves, our frivolous
or ill-natured conversations, our petty and enduring
jealousies, our subjection to unworthy prejudices and to
feeble irritability ; the empires of states of thought and
policy which, like a blight or a pest, kill all that is tender
and beautiful in a life ; the empire of unchaste imagina
tions ; of unresisted sloth ; of vague desires for place
and promotion ; of lazy, unconfronted, unverified doubt.
We think little of these things taken separately ; but in
the aggregate they mean a life which is not in accordance
with the Divine Will, and which in its bent, direction,
spirit, physiognomy, is a sinful life. Possibly no
monstrous sin has as yet disfigured it — no thoroughly
deliberate lie, no successful theft, no flagrant adultery.
But its general character is such that we shrink as with
a pang from the thought of death."
There was much to make Liddon's life at Oxford
happy and congenial. At Christ Church, in oxford
addition to the intimacy with Dr. Pusey, friends.
which was one of the great joys of his life, he had the
happiness of being surrounded with colleagues and
friends thoroughly in sympathy with his belief and work,
Dr. King, who had the same experience as himself at
Cuddesdon, was at this time in residence along with him.
Of him he has recorded in the sermon he preached at
his friend's consecration, the following appreciation : —
" Never probably in our time has the great grace of
sympathy, controlled and directed by a clear sense ofthe

Henry Parry Liddon. 287
nature and sacredness of revealed truth, achieved so
much among so many young men as has been achieved,
first at the Theological College of Cuddesdon, and then
from the Pastoral Chair at Oxford, in the case of my
dear and honoured friend." Dr. Bright, Regius Professor
of Ecclesiastical History, shared his friendship, and has
recorded what that intimacy was to himself and others : —
" We recall the charm of that intense, unique personality,
at once so commanding and so attractive ; that conver
sation, so enriching, so illuminating, with its brilliance
and its humour, its fulness and energy of thought, its
refined and perfect accuracy of expression ; we think of
what he was as a friend, how tender, helpful, and faithful,
how pathetically generous in his estimate of the most
trivial kindnesses ; of the pains which he would take
in answering questions even when he was well-nigh
tired out ; of the sympathy which he would spend on
the difficulties and anxieties of others ; of the exquisite
old-world courtesy which flowed forth simply and
without effort, to persons of all sorts and conditions, on
the principle of ' honour due to all men for the Son of
Man's sake.' " x
Among the younger Oxford men of those days who
were greatly influenced by him, and were rising up in
their turn to carry on, each in his own characteristic
way, the main principles of the Oxford Movement, were
Scott Holland, F. Paget, C. Gore. The former has
recorded in telling language what was the value of
Liddon's example and teaching to those whom he
1 Sermon preached at Christ Church, Sunday, September 14,
1890

288 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
described as " the younger brood at Oxford, shaken and
confused by the new powers that had taken hold of the
intellectual life. We were staggering about ; we were
often lifted off our feet ; we were weaklings caught in a
strong stream. And it was everything to have before
us one who gave us a standard of what spiritual con
viction should mean ; one who never cringed, or shrank,
or compromised, or slid ; one who looked unswervingly
on the eternal things ; one who was evidence to us of
what the Sacraments of the Incarnation could work in
those who yielded to them in body, soul, and spirit ; one
who had committed his all to the dominion and service
of Christ, 'casting down before it all reasonings and
every high thing that exalteth itself against the know
ledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought
to the obedience of Christ' There he was ; there was
no mistaking him. He would die gladly for his Creed ;
we felt it ; we knew it ; and it shamed us and braced
us just when shame and bracing were most needful."1
But probably Liddon hardly realized what his in
fluence was at Oxford, for it seldom happens „„.„„_- ,„
*¦ CrIAiN(jli*o lvi
that it is given to a man to see in his life- the
time the results of his own teaching and UNIVERSITr-
example. And as the years went on, he became more
and more depressed by the effects and results of what to
him was the great "Revolution" in Oxford. He had
known it in the time, when, in spite of many deficiencies
and lost opportunities, it held its place as a great
Christian University, living and acting, with a brief in
terruption in the seventeenth century, as the handmaid
1 Contemporary Review, OctoLer, 1890.

Henry Parry Liddon. 289
of the Church of England for a thousand years. One
after another, great changes had taken place, notably
the abolition of religious tests, and the consequent
admission of non-churchmen to Fellowships and Tutor
ships. As early as 1868, Bishop Gray, of Cape
Town, writes, describing the festival at Cuddesdon —
" Liddon preached one of his great sermons ; his
account of the state of Oxford and its prospects, most
distressing and alarming, but borne out by all I heard
from the Vice-Chancellor, Rector of Exeter, etc." 1 This
despondent view was not confined to High Churchmen,
for in the " Life of Henry Bazeley, the Oxford Evan
gelist," the alarming spread of scepticism among the
undergraduates at that period is noted and deplored.
Those were the days of the restlessness consequent on
the publication of " Essays and Reviews," and the fears
of what might be the result of the Colenso controversy.
As time went on, the wave of scepticism and doubt to
some extent passed away ; but step by step inroads
were made upon the old Oxford of Liddon's youth, culmi
nating in the second University Commission. Then it
seemed to_ him as if Oxford had become "a chaos of
disintegrated convictions." It appeared to him almost
on the point of being changed into " a place of purely
secular instruction, which might have been founded last
week by a company of shareholders." To him the
slight concessions made to religious teaching and worship
such as the Professorships of Divinity, the single Clerical
Fellow in certain colleges, were hardly worth con
sidering. He would have preferred for the Church to
1 " Life of Bishop Gray," vol. ii., p. 422. U

290 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
have retained two or three colleges out of her great
inheritance, perhaps those only founded since the Refor
mation, and for the rest to have been frankly secularized.
There were occasions, no doubt, when he realized the
brighter side of all these changes, which those who have
come after are perhaps better able to perceive. That
religion in a University may gain by becoming less
official and more spontaneous ; that a vocation to Holy
Orders may be far more real and spiritual if there be
no prospect of the College Fellowship and future bene
fice, he was ready to allow ; but the danger on the
other side was always before his mind, and he described
it in sombre colours. " A young man," he says, " has
been trained in a Christian family, and is looking for
ward to serving God in Holy Orders ; but he comes to
Oxford to unlearn, one by one, the convictions which
his mother had taught him, and to make up his mind
that he cannot become a clergyman, on the ground that
he doubts whether he can still honestly profess himself
a Christian. This is no imaginary picture ; nor should
it, in reason, occasion us any surprise. Young men are
naturally influenced in religious matters by those whose
information and powers of thought they have learnt to
respect when studying other subjects ; and if those who
teach are, in whatever sense, unfriendly to the claims of
Divine revelation, it is not singular that their pupils
should be so too." *
It was for this reason that • he so earnestly threw
himself into the foundation, first of Keble KEBLE
College, and then of the Pusey Library, college.
1 " Clerical Life and Work," xiv., pp. 372, 373.

Henry Parry Liddon. 291
They were to supply a new need not felt under the old
conditions of the University. Bearing honoured and
venerated names, they were destined, he hoped, to
become homes of sacred learning and rallying points
for Christian faith. Through them the old traditions
of centuries past, and the revived worship and teaching
of the Church, the fruit of the Oxford Movement, were
to be preserved, handed on, and extended. If that
Movement, with all its great influence, had been met
with cold suspicion and active hostility — if, as he said,
" to a certain extent the opposition triumphed ; some of
the best men of the Movement moved away to another
Church which knew how to welcome and honour them ; "
if ... " all that the opponents of the Movement would
themselves have valued, or nearly all, has perished," it
remained for the Church in our time to make use of the
fresh opportunity, given in a new foundation, of main
taining the Christian revelation as understood by the
ancient and undivided Church of Christ.

VII.
It has been sometimes said that Canon Liddon's
mind was saturated with " the magic and music of the
ecclesiastical past," rather than with the most urgent
science and problems of the present, and that, in the
religion. case 0f physical science especially, he had
but little sympathy with its more recent developments.
But this is scarcely a just criticism. It is, of course,
perfectly true that he had not the special qualifications
that were found in Aubrey Moore, who, if he had lived,

292 Five Great Oxford Leaders
might have achieved a still larger measure of success
in reconciling the claims of theology and science than
he actually was able to effect. Liddon had not Moore's
scientific training, and the bent of his mind was in the
direction rather of dogma than of scientific observation.
But he was always just to the claims of true science, to
which he gave a very high value in many of his public
utterances. Take, for instance, his recognition of law
in all God's works : " He acts, we may be sure . . .
whether in nature or in grace, by some law which His
own perfections impose upon His action. He may
have given to us of these later days to see a very little
deeper beneath the surface of the natural world than
was the case with our fathers . . . the frontier of our
ignorance is removed one stage further back."1 And
again, " Certainly theology, if she understands her own
interests, can have no wish to disparage or discounte
nance this kind of knowledge. She will, indeed, decline
to revise the Creed or the Bible in deference to some
tentative hypothesis, which the imagination rather than
the positive knowledge of this or that eminent writer
may suggest But the mental habits which, in its
higher moods, physical science encourages, are all her
own. Love of positive truth, perseverance under diffi
culties, intrepid accuracy, are virtues which theology
also cultivates." 2
He refused to recognize that religion and science
were in an irretrievable position of antagonism.
" Science may for the moment be hostile ; in the long
1 " University Sermons " (Second Series), v., p. 81.
2 Ibid., ii., p. 40.

Henry Parry Liddon. 293
run it cannot but befriend us. We may have to sur
render misapprehensions, or to make explanations along
the frontier where the Faith touches on the province of
physics ; science will help us if she forces us to sur
render the untenable." x As an example of this fairness
towards science and its modern exponents, reference
may be made to a remarkable sermon preached on
Sunday, April 23, 1882, at St. Paul's, entitled "The
Recovery of St. Thomas," and afterwards published with
notes. In the sermon Dr. Liddon made one of his
graphic references to Mr. Darwin, whose death had just
occurred. He spoke sympathetically of the great
naturalist's patience and care in observing and register
ing facts. He maintained that Darwin's works, which
when they first appeared, were largely regarded as
containing a theory hostile to religion, need not of
necessity be so interpreted. Evolution and natural
selection may very well be found to be the methods
of the creative activity of God, rather than the older
theories of catastrophes. In the notes and preface,
while upholding the constant watchfulness of the
Personal Creator over His handiwork, as distinguished
from the mechanical theory of the natural world, acting
under secondary causes, in independence of the infinite
mind of the Creator, he was quite willing to make
reasonable concessions which did not impugn the truth
of such fundamental doctrines as the Creation of the
world by the Almighty, or the Incarnation of the Son
of God. "Man's true dignity depends not upon the
history of his physical frame, but upon the nature of
1 " University Sermons " (Second Series), ix., p. 180.

294 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
the immaterial principle within him, and, above all,
upon the unspeakable honour conferred upon both parts
of his being when they were united to the eternal Person
of God the Son in the Divine Incarnation. But Holy
Scripture tells us that ' the Lord God formed man of
the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life, and man became a living soul.' If
the Church should hereafter teach that this formation
was not a momentary act, but a process of development
continued through a long series of ages, she would not
vary the traditional interpretation so seriously as was
done in the case of passages which appeared to con
demn in terms the teaching of Galileo. Nor would the
earlier description of the creation of man in the sacred
record present any greater difficulty. It is very far
from clear that the Darwinian hypothesis has so estab
lished itself as to make such a modified interpretation
necessary ; only let it be considered that here, as else
where, the language of the Bible is wider than to be
necessarily tied down to the terms of a particular
account of man's natural history."
There was one very serious cloud that overshadowed
the latter days of Liddon's Oxford life, and THE higher
that was the spread of doubts of the authority criticism.
of the Old Testament and its claims upon Christians.
The matter had long been gathering head, first in
Germany and then in England. Writing in November,
1889, Dean Church said to Liddon, "Ever since I could
think I have felt that these .anxious and disturbing
questions would one day or other be put to us, and that
we were not quite prepared, or preparing, to meet them

Henry Parry Liddon. 295
effectively." Dr. Pusey had said exactly the same thing
sixty years before. Liddon was a devout student of
the Old Testament, and used it largely for subjects
of his sermons. He did not shrink from dealing with
difficulties such as Deborah's blessing on Jael, or the
miracles in the life of Jonah, or the fall of the walls
of Jericho, or the bones of Elisha, though on other
occasions he selected subjects rather for moral and
spiritual teaching. Among the latter may be mentioned
the sermon on the Disobedient Prophet. It would be
difficult to find a finer discourse than this. The sin of
elder persons in chilling the enthusiasm of younger
ones is admirably drawn out : " Do I say that young
men are never guilty of extravagant enthusiasms, and
that old men are not bound to set them right? Far
from it. But it is one thing to pour cold water on a
noble and burning impulse ; another to give it a right
direction." x
Liddon did not treat criticism lightly or scornfully ;
he faced it with faith and courage. " Criticism," he
once said, " has its great duties and its ascertained rights.
It may brace the air which religion breathes, it may
sweep, the home which she tenants. But criticism is
not religion, nor is she always the servant of religion.
Criticism may have done us an ill turn in unkindly or
unskilful hands, but it has more weapons to place at
the disposal of the faith, than opportunities of wounding
it ; and when, as is sometimes the case, criticism virtually
usurps the place of faith, the soul is starved even to
death upon the dry husks which are all that are offered
1 " Old Testament Sermons," p. 178.

296 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
for spiritual nutriment." 1 And again, when speaking of
enthusiasm in the cause of Christ and His Church, he
said, " It may be thought that this form of enthusiasm
belongs to a day when the Old Testament had not yet
been largely resolved by criticism into late forgeries or
doubtful legends, and when the heroes of popular novels
had not yet cast off the dust of their feet against the
Creed of Christendom. No, my brethren, these features
of our time do not really affect the religious situation.
Wait a little, and you will see that, as after inquiry, to
which Cambridge has contributed more than her share,
the New Testament has survived Strauss and Baur and
Schwegler, so the Old will not finally go to pieces at
the bidding of Kuenen and Wellhausen. All that
negative criticism can do is to modify some incidental
feature of our traditional way of looking at Scripture ;
the main fabric remains intact." 2
He, who had so firm a belief in the unceasing presence
of Christ in His Church, and of the indwelling power
of the Holy Ghost, could have no serious doubts of the
future of the written Word of God as the abiding record
of the Divine Revelation. He feared little the assaults
from without ; what wounded and pained him. were
the concessions from within to the advancing tide of
criticism. The pain was all the greater from the fact
that the concessions came from the very quarter where
resistance might have been expected, from the very
walls of that institution bearing the honoured name
of his spiritual master, which he had hoped would be
1 " University Sermons " (Second Series), vi., p. 116.
- " Sermons on Special Occasions," xv., pp. 339, 340.

Henry Parry Liddon. 297
a bulwark against the disintegrating forces of negative
criticism. What was most serious to him was the apparent
attempt to make the supposed results of the Higher
Criticism acceptable to Christians, at the expense of the
infallibility of our Lord Jesus Christ. While he had all
along, as early as his Bampton Lectures, recognized
limitation of knowledge in our Lord's human mind, he
emphatically resisted all teaching that implied that the
Incarnate Son of God could err on any matters on
which He made positive affirmation.
In January, 1890, and in the following May, he
two great preached two important sermons which were
sermons, published at the time : the first entitled
" The Worth of the Old Testament," the second " The
Inspiration of Selection." In the former, which was
preached at St. 'Paul's, he dwelt on " the trustworthiness
of the Old Testament," which could not be maintained
if large portions of it, such as Deuteronomy, or Daniel,
were held to be merely dramatized or fictitious narratives.
Our Lord's acceptance and treatment of the Old
Testament set a seal upon its trustworthiness, and it
is no true way to meet the supposed difficulties raised
by the Higher Criticism to assert that our Lord never
claimed a critical knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures.
" If we believe," said Dr. Liddon, " that He is the true
Light of the world, we shall close our ears against sug
gestions impairing the credit of those Jewish Scriptures
which have received the stamp of His Divine authority."
The sermon went on to enlarge upon the vast difference
between the Jewish Scriptures and even the noblest

298 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
literature of ancient or modern times. " Could any
merely human authors have stood the test which the
Old Testament has stood ? Think what it has been
to the Jewish people throughout the tragic vicissitudes
of their wonderful history. Think what it has been to
Christendom. For nineteen centuries it has formed the
larger part of the religious handbook of the Christian
Church ; it has shaped Christian hopes ; it has largely
governed Christian legislation ; it has supplied the
language for Christian prayer and praise. ¦ The noblest
and saintliest souls in Christendom have, one after
another, fed their souls on it, or even on fragments of
it ; taking a verse and shutting the spiritual ear to
everything else, and in virtue of the concentrated
intensity with which they have thus sought, for days,
weeks, and months, and years, to penetrate the inmost
secrets of this or that fragment of its concentrated
language, rising to heroic heights of effort and endurance."
He dwelt upon the second or deeper sense of Scrip
ture underlying the literal, superficial sense, and showed
how the Church in all ages had recognized our Lord
Jesus Christ as the end of the law, and of the whole of
the Old Testament, to every one that believeth, and he
quoted the profound and oft-repeated saying of St.
Augustine, "that as the Old Testament is manifested
in the New, so the New Testament is latent in the Old."
He spoke of the great interest to be found in the Bible,
the great variety of literary forms gathered up into it ;
he compared it to the great Cathedral in which he was
preaching. " The great Temple of Christ," as he called
it, with all its magnificence of structure, of faultless

Henry Parry Liddon. 299
proportions, the many monuments of the dead every
where meeting the eye ; and in language that recalls
the beautiful poem of Isaac Williams entitled " The
Cathedral," he went on to say, " And when we take up
the Bible, we enter in spirit a far more splendid temple,
which it needed some fifteen centuries to build, and the
variety and resource of which distances all comparison
—a temple built, not out of stone and marble, but with
human words, yet enshrining within it, for the comfort
and warning, the correction and encouragement of every
human soul, no other and no less than the Holy and
Eternal Spirit. Of that temple the Old Testament is
the nave, with its side-aisles of Psalm and Prophecy ;
the Gospels are the choir — the last Gospel, perhaps, the
very sanctuary ; while all around and behind are the
Apostolic Epistles and the Apocalypse, each a gem of
beauty, each supplying an indispensable feature to trie
majestic whole. With what joy should we daily enter
that temple ! With what profound reverence should we
cross its threshold ! With what care should we mark
and note — where nothing is meaningless — each feature,
each ornament, that decorates wall, or window, or roof!
How high should be our expectations of the blessings
that may be secured within it ! How open, and yet
how submissive, should be our hearts to the voices —
they are not of this world — that might touch and change
and purify them ! "
The second sermon, entitled "The Inspiration of
Selection," preached at Oxford, treated of the work of
the Holy Ghost in glorifying Jesus Christ in three
ways: (1) The transformation of human character;

300 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
(2) the organization of the Christian Church ; (3) the
creation of the sacred literature of the New Testament.
The preacher showed that in the inspiration of the
Gospels, the method of selection had been used to
record the life and teaching of Christ, in a manner best
fitted for teaching mankind. The same method is
observable in the Apostolic Epistles. Nor was this a
new method of selection from, and interpretation of
already existing materials ;. for it may be traced in the
historians and prophets of the Old Testament. The
early history of Genesis, the ritual of the tabernacle and
temple, were embodied in the old covenant from tradi
tions and ceremonials originally existing among pagan
people. Again, St. Paul used rabbinical arguments and
quoted heathen writers ; St. John perhaps referred to
the philosophy of Philo ; while, as time went on, insti
tutions and philosophy, originally Jewish or Gentile,
were consecrated to the service of the Catholic Church.
But to attribute the language employed by David, or the
addresses ascribed to Moses in Deuteronomy, to writers
of the age of Josiah or of the days after the exile ; or
to say that Daniel's predictions are merely a history
written in the form of a fictitious prophecy, is really to
show that the Holy Spirit could not have inspired the
writings in question. Much more to say that the dis
courses of our Lord, as reported by St. John, are merely
the voice of some Platonized Jew of the second century,
or that the Apostolic sermons in the Acts or their
Epistles were composed in order to procure Apostolic
authority for the organizations of a later age, is to
ascribe to the Holy Spirit fiction in an historical guise.

Henry Parry Liddon. 301
" The Book of Truth," said Liddon, " cannot belie either
the laws of truth or the Spirit and Source of Truth."
It was evident from these sermons, and from other
statements, that Liddon was greatly distressed at the
line taken by some of his younger friends. To them
he seemed " to have closed the door instinctively " to
things which they had felt bound to deal with. He
"held at arm's length" much that they had absorbed
and made their own. To him their attitude seemed to
be dangerously near to a betrayal of the Church's
deposit, and to a surrender of a complete and un
swerving faith jn the infallibility of Jesus Christ as the
great Teacher of the Church. Perhaps it will be possible
for a future generation to trace the restraining influence
of the great preacher of the Godhead of "his dearest
Lord" (to use an expression employed by one who
preached a memorial sermon on him) * on the younger
school of men who were largely affected by the Higher
Criticism. The difference between the attitude towards
Biblical Criticism taken by the Tractarians and their
immediate successors and that adopted by the school
represented by " Lux Mundi " is serious and grave, but
perhaps, as the years go by, a reconciliation will be
discovered which shall retain unimpaired the truth of
the Incarnation as Liddon held and taught it, and the
Divine authority of Holy Scripture as the inspired
Word of God, with a new understanding of the origin
and development of the literary vehicle in which that
Word is enshrined.
1 The Dean of Gloucester, quoted in the Guardian, September
17, 1890.

302 Five Great Oxford Leaders.

VIII.
The death of Dr. Pusey in 1882 was soon followed
by Liddon's resignation of his Professorship, death op
He. had been constantly in his society, and DR- pusey.
been able to give him much useful and affectionate
service. It is interesting to find that it was Liddon, in
1872, who was able to arrange a meeting between
Gladstone and Dr. Pusey, at Oxford, after a separation
of two years consequent on the strong disapproval felt
by the latter of the appointment of Dr. Temple to the
see of Exeter. During Pusey's serious illness in 1878,
Dr. Newman, with affectionate anxiety, wrote to Liddon
to inquire, not only after the health, but the spiritual
state of his old friend. Liddon was able to assure him
that he had not a shadow of doubt "as to the entire con
sistency of his position as to the revealed Will of God."
In 1879, Liddon, in a letter to Dr. Pusey, expressed his
wish to resign his Professorship, and write a life of his
friend. In spite of Dr. Pusey's great unwillingness,
Liddon made up his mind to that which he afterwards
carried, at least in part, into effect. The " Life of Dr.
Pusey " became the labour of love of the last years of
Liddon. He wrote portions of it in full, both in the
earlier and latter pages of the book, and gathered
immense quantities of material for the completion of
the whole. He was abroad when Dr. Pusey's last illness
began, and in spite of his attempt to get back to
England in time, he was too late to see him again alive.
He was able, however, to take part in the funeral service
at Christ Church, and to read the opening sentences,

Henry Parry Liddon. 303
as well as to commit " his dear body " to the grave.
What were his feelings at the loss he had sustained
may be learned from his diary : " So he has left us —
most dear and revered of friends, of whose friendship I
have been all along so utterly unworthy. How little I
can realize it, though I have been looking forward to
this day for twenty years. Now that dearest Dr. Pusey
is gone, the world is no longer the same world. . . . He
Who created and trained Dr. Pusey, can train successors
if He will. Requiescat in pace amicus dilectissimus."
Liddon edited several minor works, among which were
minor a " Manual of Private Prayer " and " Prayers
works. for a Schoolboy," also an excellent edition of
Bishop Andrewes' "Manual for the Sick." Following
the suggestion of Bishop Forbes of Brechin, to whose
memory he dedicated the book, he brought out an
edition of Rosmini's "Five Wounds of the Holy
Church," translated into English, with a preface and
notes. The author was a liberal Catholic in the
political sense, though in doctrine an Ultramontane.
The " Five Wounds " were the (1) Division between the
people and the clergy in public worship ; (2) The in
sufficient education of the clergy ; (3) Disunion among
the Bishops ; (4) The nomination of Bishops by the lay
power ; (5) The infringement of the Church's rights of
property. Rosmini had great hopes that, on the acces
sion of Pius IX., a new era was opening for the Church
in Italy ; those hopes were destined to be disappointed,
and his writings were vigorously attacked, although in
the end pronounced to be free from censure. Liddon
thought that in spite of the Ultramontanism of the

1 :l

304 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
writer, there was much that English Churchmen might
learn from the work of this far-seeing Italian. Especially
did he long for a better standard of education for the
clergy. On this point he asked, " If the Universities are
failing us, is the effort to establish and raise the standard
of Theological Colleges sufficiently general and hearty
to secure to the Church of England a highly educated
and devoted clergy, in the troublous days that are
probably before us ? " Again, on the appointment of
English Bishops, he had another question to put, " Are
they always selected with a view to the spiritual interests
of the body over which they are to preside, and without
any reference to political sympathies or to personal
bias?" With regard to Church property, again he
asked a question : " Must not we of the Church of
England feel the justice of our author's remarks, re
specting the idea of Church property changed from that
of a common fund, held in trust for the support of the
clergy and the relief of the poor, to that of a number of
separate estates absolutely appropriated by the holders
of single benefices ? "
The busy life, the strain of preaching, and the labours
entailed by the great undertaking of writing
the biography of Dr. Pusey, told heavily ILL*HEALTH-
upon a physique never very robust. In the end of 1885,
after some months of serious ill-health, Dr. Liddon was
persuaded to take "the one long holiday he allowed
himself in his life of serious work."1 Acting under
medical orders, he made a journey to Egypt and
1 Preface to "Dr. Liddon's Tour in Egypt and Palestine,"
p. v.

Henry Parry Liddon. 305
Palestine, accompanied by his sister, Mrs. King, and
her daughter. The story of the six months' tour is
admirably told in a series of letters written by his sister.
How sympathetic a companion she was is revealed, not
only in the letters, but in the pathetic dedication to her
of her brother's beautiful Sermons on the Magnificat,
published in 1889: "To my dear sister, Annie Poole
King, in the joyful conviction that as our days on earth
are drawing towards their close, we are more and more
united in heart and mind with respect to those things
which are of lasting value."
The tour brought Liddon into places and scenes full
eastern °f the deepest interest. Egypt and its
tour. monuments revealed what was a constant
theme of his teaching — that the real business of this life
is a preparation for death. The sacred scenes and holy
places in Palestine were of absorbing fascination to him ;
he spared himself neither trouble nor fatigue in investi
gating everything within his reach. He delighted in
the interviews that he was able to have with Oriental
ecclesiastics, Orthodox and Coptic ; and had the joy of
celebrating the Holy Eucharist in the Chapel of
Abraham, within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
The six months of travel did much to refresh him in body
and mind. But they were not altogether free from
serious anxieties. At the very beginning of the Eastern
deanery op tour, he received the offer of the Deanery
Worcester 0f Worcester, which he declined on the score
AND
bishopric of of ill-health; just before he left Constanti-
edinburgh. nople on his return home,, the news of his
election to the Bishopric of Edinburgh reached him.
X

306 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
This, after no little sorrow and regret, he declined, as
he had done more than one previous offer, on the
conscientious principle that the most important posts
of the Church in Scotland should be held by Scotsmen.
Many of his friends regretted this decision ; they hoped
that the bracing air of Scotland, and a change of work,
which would have set him free from many anxieties
and disappointments, might have prolonged his life.
Certainly it might very well have been expected that
his presence in St. Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, and
the power of his sacred oratory, to say nothing of the
force of his personal influence, would have brought
immense strength to the Church in Scotland. But his
decision was based upon a principle, and a similar
refusal of the see of St. Alban's, in 1890, was doubtless
grounded on equally conscientious motives. That
Liddon should have received no offer of Episcopal
preferment in earlier life, has been the subject of much
regret and of some idle speculation. But that it was
owing to some personal dislike on the part of a great
Personage has been contradicted on the highest
authority. But so it came to pass that he was to die
as he had lived, not as the exalted Prelate and busy
administrator, but in that office for which he had so
splendid a vocation — the great preacher of the Catholic
Faith. Thus he went back to carry on his work in
London, with all its fatigues and strain, its self-sacrifices,
its zealous efforts for the good of the Church and of
separate souls, for a few years longer : and then to lay
down his burden.
During the summer of 1890, Dr. Liddon had been far

Henry Parry Liddon. 307
from well, and gave his friends considerable anxiety,
sudden but his comparatively sudden death on
departure. September 9, at Weston-super-Mare, came
with a surprise and shock to the world. The end was
so little expected that a tour in Switzerland was being
arranged for him. Surely it was not really sudden to
him, who in his Bampton Lectures had said, "The
expectation of a life after death enables us to see things
in their true proportions," and who in his Advent
Sermons has thus spoken of the solemnity of death : —
" Surely, ' Prepare — prepare for death ! ' is the voice
of prudence. The one certain thing about life is that
we must leave it. The one certain thing about death is
that we must die. What will happen first, we know not.
How much time will pass before our hour comes, we
know not. What will be the manner of our death,
violence or disease, an accident or what we call natural
causes, we know not. Where we shall die, at home, or
on a visit, in our beds or in the street, or in a railway
train, or in a sinking steamboat — this, too, we know not.
Under what circumstances we shall die, in solitude or
among friends, with the consolations of religion or with
out them, in spasms of agony or softly, as if we were
going to sleep — we know not." x
On September 16 his remains were laid to rest in
the the Crypt Chapel of the great Cathedral,
funeral. wnere he so often proclaimed the truths
of the Catholic Faith, with eager love for souls and
fervent eloquence. Leading statesmen of both parties
in the State, eminent laymen and clergy, servants from
1 " Advent at St. Paul's," xxvii., p. 327.

308 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
Oxford, vergers and workmen of St. Paul's, Wantage
Sisters, business men, Nonconformist ministers, together
with a number of Bishops, among whom were naturally
conspicuous the Bishops of Oxford and Lincoln, gathered
round the grave, while the choir of St. Paul's sang — in
addition to the usual funeral music — some of those
Gregorian hymns in which he so much delighted.
More than one memorial will keep his fame before the
minds of future generations. First the beautiful monu
ment in the great Cathedral, next the scholarships
at Oxford, founded in his name, for the training of
candidates for Holy Orders in the careful and scientific
study of theology, and last the side chapel in Keble
College dedicated to his memory. But his character and
life will never be forgotten so long as English Churchmen
gratefully recall the debt they owe to him in HIS PLACE IN
the noble band of Oxford theologians and THE M0VE-
preachers. Single-hearted, perfectly free from
all vulgar craving for honour or preferment, courageous
in proclaiming truth, the friend of the oppressed, gene
rous in giving almost to lavishness, considerate and
tender to lowly men and women, his example as well as
his splendid gifts will be for ever linked with that great re
vival ofthe Church in England in which he played so noble
a part, and which he has thus so graphically described : —
" Nearly forty years have now elapsed since a few of
the purest and loftiest spirits that ever breathed the air
of this place saw, in the suppression of some Irish sees,
a warning to prepare for more serious emergencies.
They, too, might have said that as private clergymen
and teachers they might well let things take their course,

Henry Parry Liddon. 309
or leave the work of struggle and of protest to those
who were set in the high places of the Church. But
their insight into the future, such as it was, was their
own, and they could not transfer to others the respon
sibility of possessing it. They knew that the real cause
ofthe present disaster, and the most serious menace of
future danger, lay not in any exceptional irreligion on
the part of the State, but in the fact that Churchmen
were, at best, half-hearted in professing their Creed.
Samson's locks had been shorn, and who could wonder
that the Philistines were upon him ? If the Church of
England was to be loved and worked for in the years
to come, it must be by men who recognized in her
something nobler than the plaything and creature of
Parliament and statesmen, something more than one
of many organizations designed to promote co-opera
tion among believers in Christ. If she was not a branch
of Christ's Body, her sacred language was a studied
unreality ; if her Sacraments were not channels of
Divine Grace, were not their administrators like the
heathen augurs of old, who could not but smile as they
passed each other in the Forum? These men under
stood that a Church, to be upheld, must be believed in ;
but they would have failed, and deservedly, if they
had endeavoured to reinvigorate a faith which they
themselves held to be untrue. In their belief that,
whatever came of it, they must go forward — in their
simple sincerity — lay the secret of their strength. Out
of the old materials which were ready to their hands,
they set themselves to build an ark of fresh and strong
convictions ; they laboured by all avenues to public
thought and feeling that they could command, to

310 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
persuade their contemporaries to mean the Creed which
daily passed their lips, and to act upon it.
" It may be true that that Movement has been pushed
to some unwarranted and lamentable consequences ;
that its original principles have been, in some cases,
caricatured or perverted ; that it has indirectly created
some bewilderment and confusion. What is this but
to say that its originators and conductors were human,
and that they have enjoyed no guaranteed exemption
from human liability to error ? But look at it generally,
and as a whole ; look at it as its opponents, I venture
to say, will look at it, when, in the clear daylight of
history, it can be viewed without any disturbing rays
of intervening passion ; and it will, it must, be said to
have saved the Church of England from impending
death either by spiritual hysteria or by spiritual atrophy.
It has poured a tide of life — the life of earnest con
viction and of earnest work — through all the arteries
and veins of the Church of this land, and it is, year by
year, adding to the spiritual force which alone can
enable Christians to face the speculative or political
anxieties of the future. He who exclaimed from Bagley,
forty years ago, ' The flood is round thee, but thy
towers as yet are safe,' at the sight of Oxford, foresaw
clearly what was coming. And now that he is gone to
his rest, it is not too much to say that he has done more,
perhaps, than any in these last times to enable us of a
younger generation to look forward to the rising flood,
if not without fear on the score of our own possible dis
loyalty, yet certainly without misgiving as to the general
and final issue of the Kingdom of Christ in England." *
1 " Sermons preached on Special Occasions : " " Noah," p. 263.

RICHARD WILLIAM CHURCH

" High gifts are rare ; brilliancy and strength and
talent are rare ; men of genius and great masters in
thought and style are few, indeed, and far between.
But rarer, perhaps, than all other rare and precious
things is a character which wins its way to wide and
significant recognition amid all the noise and throng of
men, by the sheer force of its spiritual beauty. It is
this peculiar rarity which belongs to the life of Richard
William Church." '
This is the testimony of the writer of a leading article
in the Guardian, that organ of the Anglican Church
which Dean Church did so much to found, develop, and
maintain in a high state of literary efficiency. It states
in a concise form the true estimate of a very beautiful
life and character of one, who was not only intimately
connected with the great crisis of the Tractarian Move
ment, but carried on its best traditions, and commended
them to men's minds by the literary beauty of his
writings, no less than by the attractiveness of his
personality. His life may be said to have been cast into a sin
gularly symmetrical form, and can be divided into four
separate and almost equal periods : (i) His early life
1 The Guardian, December 17, 1890.

314 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
until he went up to Oxford ; (2) his University career ;
(3) his life at Whatley ; (4) his rule at St. Paul's
Cathedral. He was born at Lisbon, April 25, 1815, of a family
of Ouaker origin, which had in later times
» => ' EARLY life.
rejoined the Church of England. His uncle,
Richard, entered the army, and became a distinguished
officer, and afterwards commander of the Greek
armies in the War of Independence. Mr. John Dear-
man Church, father of Richard William Church, was a
merchant of Lisbon, and in 1816, retiring from business
on account of the serious state of his health, went to
reside in Florence. For thirteen years, ITALY
Richard Church lived abroad, sometimes at
school at Leghorn, at other times in the south of Italy,
visiting his uncle, who held at that time a military
command in the Kingdom of Naples ; but mainly with
his parents at Florence. This early experience of
foreign travel had a very important effect upon Church's
character and tastes. It expanded his sympathies and
emancipated him from the narrow insularity and pre
judice which were more general among Englishmen of
that time than is now the case. So early a contact with
the beautiful scenery, language, and people of Italy,
must largely have moulded his mind, and implanted
in him that capacity for understanding the genius of
the Italian people, which is so observable in works like
the "Gifts of Civilization," or " Influences of Christianity
on National Character," and, above all, his " Essay on
Dante." He had plenty of boyish occupations, though
of a different character from those enjoyed at English

Richard William Church.

o1^

schools, and took much pleasure in wandering about
among the shipping in the harbours and ports of Italian
cities. The death of his father in 1828 brought his mother
and her three children to England. Richard Church
was sent to school at Exeter, but after a
short time was transferred to Redlands, near
Bristol, where he remained till 1833. Those were days
of political ferment and excitement, and young Church
saw many of the tokens of the great movements of the
time, for while he was at school the great riots of
October, 1831, occurred, when the Bishop's Palace and
other public buildings were burnt by the mob. Though
the standard of teaching he received was not very high,
he appears to have worked hard, and laid the founda
tions of good scholarship and of studious habits. He
was known as a reserved, industrious boy, and a great
lover of books, and often spent his spare time in turning
over old volumes at the second-hand bookshops in
Bristol. The religious teaching at' the school was of
the so-called Evangelical type, and strong anti-Roman
addresses formed a part of the instruction of the elder
boys. With this kind of mental and religious preparation,
wadham Mr. Church went up to Wadham College,
college. Oxford, in the never-to-be-forgotten year
1833. His College was then, as it has continued to be
regarded ever since, an Evangelical centre. But through
the marriage of his mother to a connection of George
Moberly, afterwards Headmaster of Winchester, and
Bishop of Salisbury, and at that time Fellow and Tutor

316 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
of Balliol, he passed under different influences. He
wrote of those days, " I shrank from the very pronounced
Evangelical men*; my friends were mostly men of no
special colour . . . the only out-college man, of any
mark, except Moberly, that I knew much of while I was
at Wadham, was Charles Marriott." * From that time
until his death he enjoyed the friendship of one " who,
if any, deserved the title of Saint."
In 1835 he was brought into contact with Newman
and Keble, to both of whom he had looked NEWMAN'S
up for some time with "great interest and influence.
veneration." As to the latter, he had been warned in
his early undergraduate days that " The Christian Year ''
was not quite sound about vital religion ; but he was
rapidly becoming emancipated from such narrow views.
His first impressions of Newman's preaching led him to
see how entirely his sermons were out of the beaten
track. They gained so much power over him that he
afterwards became a regular attendant at St. Mary's.
A sermon entitled " Ventures of Faith," 2 is recorded by
him to have inspired him to make a special effort of
self-denial, and was felt by him to have been the
turning-point of his life. Of Newman's preaching
he has left his recollection.8 " As a tutor of Oriel,
Mr. Newman had made what efforts he could, some
times disturbing to the authorities, to raise the standard
of conduct and feeling among his pupils. When he
became a parish priest, his preaching took a singularly
practical and plain-spoken character. The first sermon
1 " Life and Letters," p. 13. 2 Cf. supra, pp. 90, 91.
3 " Oxford Movement," pp. 21, 129.

Richard William Church. 317
of the series, a typical sermon, ' Holiness necessary for
sermons at future blessedness ' — a sermon which has
st. mary's. marJe many readers grave when they laid it
down— was written in 1826, before he came to St. Mary's,
and as he began he continued. No sermons, except
those which his great opposite, Dr. Arnold, was preach
ing at Rugby, had appealed to conscience with such
directness and force. A passionate and sustained
earnestness after a high moral rule, seriously realized in
conduct, is the dominant character of these sermons.
They showed the strong reaction against slackness of
fibre in the religious life ; against the poverty, restless
ness, worldliness, the blunted and impaired sense of
truth, which reigned with little check in the recognized
fashions of professing Christianity ; the want of depth,
both of thought and feeling ; the strange blindness to
the real sternness, nay the austerity, of the New
Testament." x
" None but those who remember them can adequately
estimate the effect of Mr. Newman's four-o'clock sermons
at St. Mary's. The world knows them, has heard a
great deal about them, has passed its various judgments
on them. But it hardly realizes that without' those
sermons the Movement might never have gone on,
certainly would never have been what it was. Even
people who heard them continually, and felt them to
be different from any other sermons, hardly estimated
their real power, or knew at the time the influence which
the sermons were having upon them. Plain, direct,
unornamented, clothed in English that was only pure
1 " Oxford Movement," pp. 21, 22.

318 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
and lucid, free from any faults of taste, strong in their
flexibility and perfect command both of language and
thought, they were the expression of a piercing and
large insight into character and conscience and motives,
of a sympathy at once most tender and most stern
with the tempted and the wavering, of an absolute and
burning faith in God and His counsels, in His love, in
His judgments, in the awful glory of His generosity
and His magnificence. They made men think of the
things which the preacher spoke of, and not of the
sermon or the preacher." *
He read hard for the schools, receiving considerable
help from Moberly ; but he relates with
l J .1. ._ i- -rz- ^ PI .. THE SCHOOLS.
much modesty that his .birst Class was a great
surprise to himself. There were only three other names
in the same class with him. In the second appeared
among others those of F. W. Faber, J. R. Cornish (after
wards Mowbray) and Gathorne Hardy.
For a year and a half after taking his degree he
remained at Oxford taking pupils, and making a trans
lation of St. Cyril of Jerusalem's Catechetical Lectures,
under the editorship of Newman, as part of the "Library
of the Fathers."
In April, 1838, he entered for the Oriel Fellowship.
In a letter written in 1885 to Dr. Liddon he 0RIEL
gives a very interesting, not to say amusing, fellowship.
description of the examination and all that preceded
and followed it. Oriel men who were at college under
Provost Hawkins will recognize the graphic touch of
the following words : " They never advertised vacancies
1 " Oxford Movement," pp. 129, 130.

Richard William Church. 319
in those days ; the Provost held his head high, and said
if persons wanted to know if there were any fellowships
to be filled up they could come and inquire." J The
Latin letter written to the Provost, the visits to the
room of torture — " the Tower " — and the final intro
duction to the Provost in his stall at chapel, when the
great man, "as if much surprised, asked you, Domine
quidpetis, to which you answered, Peto beneficium hujusce
Collegii in annum" make up a vivid description of the
whole event. Mark Pattison, afterwards Rector of
Lincoln, was an unsuccessful candidate for the Oriel
fellowship. It is a singular testimony to the attractive
ness of Church's character and disposition that one so
little given to say kind things of others should on this
occasion have felt and spoken so warmly of Church.
"I presume that Church was Newman's candidate,
though so accomplished a scholar need not have required
any party push. I have always looked upon Church as
the type of the Oriel Fellow ; Richard Michell said at the
time of the election : ' There is such a moral beauty
about Church, that they could not help taking him.' " 2
Among the fellows and tutors of Oriel at that time
were Fraser, Clough, Matthew Arnold, Grant and
Burgon. The Common Room had not yet lost its fame
for wit and learning, and Church found himself in an
intellectual atmosphere much to his taste. Beyond the
college walls he made ample use of all that the University
could give of varied teaching in history, scholarship and
theology. He attended lectures in botany, astronomy,
1 "Life and Letters," p. 18.
1 Quoted in " Life and Letters," p. 17.

320 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
and histology, and trained his versatile intellect in
numerous directions. But it was in the region of religious
thought that he was most profoundly influenced at this
period of his life.
He was soon drawn into close intimacy with Newman
and with other well-known men under his
, r y • n i ORDINATION.
wonderful influence, among whom were
Frederic Rogers, afterwards Lord Blachford, and James
Mozley. From this time he was carried onward in the
stream of the great Oxford Movement, in which he was
called to play no mean part. He was ordained Deacon
at Christmas, 1839, along with A. P. Stanley, with whom
he always maintained pleasant relations ; and, somewhat
to his regret, was obliged to undertake a tutorship at
Oriel. This interfered greatly with his quiet reading,
and was not very congenial to his tastes. However, he
spent his long vacations partially in foreign travel, but
more often in his rooms at Oriel ; it was during this
period that under the influence of Newman and Marriott,
he learned to realize the true Catholic position of the
Church of England. The narrowness of his early
religious training quietly dropped off, and he laid the
foundations of that strong Churchmanship, which,
without being narrowly ecclesiastical or pedantically
mediaeval, never swerved under the stress of religious
panic or popular dislike, from its deeply laid Catholic
foundation. In February, 1841, Newman brought out No. 90 of
the Tracts for the Times, and from that date
to 1845, Church had to stand by his friend TRACT xc-
through an almost ceaseless storm of controversy.

Richard William Church. 321
Church, in a letter to Frederick Rogers written on the
14th of March, 1841, records the circumstances that
immediately preceded and followed the publication of
the Tract.1 There had been attacks on the Tractarians
in many of the newspapers, especially the Conservative
press. The Times had rather defended the Oxford
School ; but the appearance of the Tract and the letter
signed by the four tutors, aroused popular feeling to an
almost incredible extent. Church describes the excite
ment in London, and relates that 2500 copies were sold
in less than a fortnight. Church — knowing the attitude
taken by his Provost towards the Tracts and their
writers — thought it his duty to resign his tutorship, on
account of his intimacy with Newman, and his own
strong sympathies with the general principles of the
Tract ; and he knew also that Keble had written to the
Vice-Chancellor to the same effect. But he still retained
office in his college, and in the following year became
Treasurer, and gave a very amusing account of the
audit, and the Provost's love for starting small perplex
ities and difficulties.

* II.
And now began the latter days of the first great
epoch of the Oxford revival. Dean Church has de
scribed, in his "History of the Oxford Movement,"
three great events that took place in 1842 and 1843,
which he calls the three defeats. The first was the
1 " Life and Letters," p. 27.

322 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
failure of Mr. Isaac Williams in the contest for the
Professorship of Poetry ; he was identified with the
Tractarian party, and the so-called Liberals and Evan
gelicals united against him. The second was the
hindrances raised to the granting of the degree of B.D.
to Mr. Macmullen, and the third was the suspension
of Dr. Pusey for his celebrated sermon on the Holy
Eucharist, and the unhappy condition of the University
at this time is thus clearly described by him : CONTROVERSY
" If the men who ruled the University had
wished to disgust and alienate the Masters of Arts, and
especially the younger ones who were coming forward
into power and influence, they could not have done
better. The chronic jealousy and distrust of the time
were deepened. And all this was aggravated by what
went on in private. A system of espionage, whisper
ings, backbitings, and miserable tittle-tattle, sometimes
of the most slanderous or the most ridiculous kind, was
set going all over Oxford. Never in Oxford, before or
since, were busybodies more turbulent or more unscru
pulous. Difficulties arose between heads of colleges
and their tutors. Candidates for fellowships were
closely examined as to their opinions and their asso
ciates. Men applying for testimonials were cross-
questioned on No. 90 as to the infallibility of general
councils, purgatory, the worship of images, the Ora
pro nobis, and the intercession of the Saints ; the real
critical questions upon which men's minds were working
being absolutely uncomprehended and ignored. It
was a miserable state of misunderstanding and distrust,
and none of the University leaders had the temper

Richard William Church. 323
and manliness to endeavour with justice and know
ledge to get to the bottom of it. It was enough to
suppose that a Popish conspiracy was being carried
on. These suspicions touched Church himself, and caused
some anxiety to his friends. So much so that he felt
it necessary to write to assure his mother. He begged
her " earnestly not to suspect me. ... I believe myself
in no danger. ... I never felt a temptation to move.
. . . We must be content to live, and perhaps die
suspected." 2
In April, 1844, he was elected to serve as Proctor
junior along with Mr. Guillemard of Trinity, and
proctor, he has recorded, in a humorous letter to his
mother, some of his experiences of police supervision
and inspection. But his duties were not to end there,
for his term of office was destined to be a very stormy
one. First of all, there was the attempt of the Trac
tarians to challenge the nomination of Dr. Symons to
the Vice-Chancellorship, with the result that they were
defeated disastrously by a majority of 883 to 183. But
this was only a kind of preparatory skirmish to the
much more serious event of the determination to
degrade Mr. Ward from his degree, as well as to
condemn his book, together with the institution of a
new test for compelling members of the University to
subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles "in the sense in
which they were both first published and now imposed."
This latter proposition was withdrawn, and in its place
1 " Oxford Movement," pp. 334, 335-
2 " Life and Letters," p. 46.

324 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
an attempt was made to secure a condemnation of
Tract 90.
How some of the younger clergy of the day felt about
the proposed condemnation may be gathered from the
following letter of the Rev. W. H. Burrows, of Christ
Church, Albany Street, and afterwards Canon of Ro
chester : " For both these reasons, I shall oppose the
condemnation of No. 90, should it be brought forward ;
not because I admire the way in which it deals with the
Articles, sympathizing so little with them, and glad to
make them mean as little as they can, but because I
think men holding such opinions may certainly be
borne with as Fellows of Colleges and parish priests,
if not as college tutors or professors of the University ;
and we have allowed so many errors to be uncon-
demned, some imperilling the Creed, some denying
cardinal Church doctrines, such as Regeneration in
Baptism, that I dislike the uncatholic appearance of
being more tenacious of our differences with Rome,
than of our common truths ; and I cannot like such a
body as Convocation taking in hand such matters." x
In the short interval of ten days, leading men a
London and Oxford, including Mr. Glad
stone, Mr. Stanley, and Mr. Jowett, ex
pressed their opinion that the joint veto of the proctors
should be employed to prevent this measure being
carried ; and it is believed that it was the steadfast
purpose and courage of the Junior Proctor that made it
certain that the right would be actually exercised. On
February 1 3, amidst snow and sleet, Oxford was crowded
1 "Life of W. H. Burrows," p. 114.

Richard William Church. 325
with throngs of undergraduates and members of Con
vocation, gathered from all parts of England. The scene
in the Sheldonian Theatre was most exciting. Ward was
allowed to make his speech in English amid cheers and
groans. The first proposal was carried by 777 to 386 ;
the second by a far more equal division of 569 to 511.
But when the third, involving the censure of Tract 90,
was proposed by the Vice-Chancellor, the two proctors
rose, and the senior, Guillemard, pronounced the veto,
"Nobis Procuratoribus non placet," with, as James
Mozley writes, " immense effect. A shout of ' Non '
was raised, and resounded through the whole buildings,
and ' Placets ' from the other side, over which Guille-
mard's 'Nobis Procuratoribus non placet' was heard
like a trumpet, and cheered enormously." a Church
has recorded the effect of this vote : " Such a step, of
course, only suspended the vote, and the year of office
of these proctors was nearly run. But they had ex
pressed the feeling of those whom they represented. It
was shown not only in a largely signed address of
thanks — all attempts to revive the decree at the ex
piration of their year of office failed. The wiser heads
in the Hebdomadal Board recognized at last that they
had better hold their hand. Mistakes men may commit,
and defeats they may undergo, and yet lose nothing
that concerns their character for acting as men of a
high standard ought to act. But, in this case, mistakes
and defeat were the least of what the Board brought on
themselves. This was the last act of a long and
deliberately pursued course of action ; and, if it was
1 " Letters of the Rev. J. B. Mozley," p. 165.

326 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
the last, it was because it was the upshot and climax :
neither the University nor any one else would endure
that it should go on any longer. The proposed attack
on Mr. Newman betrayed how helpless they were, and
to what paltry acts of worrying it was in their judgment
right and judicious to condescend. It gave a measure
to their statesmanship, wisdom and good feeling in
defending the interests of the Church, and it made a
very deep and lasting impression on all who were
interested in the honour and welfare of Oxford." x
Of his own part in the exercise of the Proctorial veto,
he wrote to his mother : " The only thing to relieve the
day has been the extreme satisfaction I had in helping
to veto the third iniquitous measure against Newman.
It was worth while being Proctor to have the unmixed
pleasure of doing this." 2
After the long vacation of this year, Church had the
inexpressible sorrow of hearing that Newman newman's
had joined the Church of Rome. What this secession.
was to him no one will ever know, for he was remark
ably reticent on all matters of the kind. His friendship
with Newman had been very close, and highly valued
by the latter. In April, 1845, he wrote: "I don't like
you to go out of office without my thanks for your
kindness to me last February 13 ;"8 and in 1871,
when dedicating a new edition of his "University
Sermons," spoke of Church as one of those " dear friends
resident in Oxford . . . who did so much to comfort
1 " Oxford Movement," pp. 381, 382.
2 " Life and Letters," p. 57.
3 " Letters of Newman," vol. ii., p. 466.

Richard William Church. 327
and uphold me by their patient, tender kindness, and
their zealous service on my behalf," and he makes
special allusion to the exercise of the Proctorial veto by
Church. The secession of Newman was not merely a
sharp personal grief to Church, but it brought with it all
the pain of feeling that multitudes would point to it as the
confirmation of their prophecies, and the condemnation
of the whole Movement. To Church, the departure of
Newman from the Anglican Communion, preceded and
followed by that of many earnest and even eminent
men, was an appalling disaster, and is described by him
as " the catastrophe " of the Movement. But he was
never one to yield to despair. He was sanguine enough
to believe that the cause of the English Church and of
the Movement, as a whole, was not by any means lost
The state of feeling which existed in the hearts of
state of the those who, like James Mozley and Church,
party. remained hopeful and steadfast, is best de
scribed in the words of the latter : " The feeling which
had often stirred, even when things looked at the worst,
that Mr. Newman had dealt unequally and hardly with
the English Church, returned with gathered strength.
The English Church was, after all, as well worth living
in and fighting for as any other ; it was not only in
England that light and dark in teaching and life were
largely intermingled, and the mixture had to be largely
allowed for. We had our Sparta, a noble, if a rough
and incomplete one ; patiently to do our best for it
was better than leaving it to its fate, in obedience to
signs and reasonings, which the heat of strife might well
make delusive. It was one hopeful token, that boasting

328 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
had to be put away from us for a long time to come.
In these days of stress and sorrow were laid the begin
nings of a school whose main purpose was to see things
as they are ; which had learned by experience to dis
trust unqualified admiration and unqualified disparage
ment ; and determined not to be blinded even by
genius to plain certainties ; not afraid to honour all
that is great and beneficent in Rome ; not afraid, with
English frankness, to criticize freely at home ; but not
to be won over, in one case, by the good things, to
condone and accept the bad things ; and not deterred,
in the other, from service, from love, from self-sacrifice,
by the presence of much to regret and to resist. . . .
' A new stage has begun ; let no one complain ' — this,
the expression of individual feeling, represents pretty
accurately the temper into which the Church party
settled when the first shock was over. They knew that,
henceforward, they had difficult times before them.
They knew that they must work under suspicion, even
under proscription. They knew that they must expect
to see men among themselves perplexed, unsettled,
swept away by the influences which had affected
Mr. Newman, and still more by the precedent of his
example. They knew that they must be prepared to
lose friends and fellow-helpers, and to lose them some
times unexpectedly and suddenly, as the wont was so
often at this time. Above all, they knew that they had
a new form of antagonism to reckon with, harder than
any they had yet encountered. It had the peculiar sad
bitterness which belongs to civil war, when men's foes
are they of their own households — the bitterness arising

Richard William Church. 329
out of interrupted intimacy and affection. Neither side
could be held blameless ; the charge from the one of
betrayal and desertion, was answered by the charge
from the other of insincerity and faithlessness to con
science, and by natural, but not always fair attempts to
proselytize ; and undoubtedly, the English Church, and
those who had adhered to it, had for some years after
1845, to hear from the lips of old friends the most cruel
and merciless invectives which knowledge of her weak
points, wit, argumentative power, eloquence, and the
triumphant exultation at once of deliverance and
superiority, could frame." x
One token that the Oxford Movement, though shat-
"the tered at least for a time, and so far as the
guardian." University was concerned, no longer powerful
in Oxford, was not by any means dead, was shown in
the foundation of the Guardian newspaper. Its first
number appeared in January, 1846, on the same day as
the first issue of the Daily News. Church was associated
with the origin of what has since become the most impor
tant and powerful organ of the High Church party, and,
indeed, the most adequately representative newspaper
of the whole Anglican Communion. Among its first
principal contributors were Frederick Rogers, James
Mozley, Thomas Haddan, Montague Bernard. Church's
share in the work was mainly in the writing of reviews,
some of which largely helped in gaining consideration
for the new venture, and attracted notice by the
beautiful style for which the writer has become so
deservedly famous. 1 " Oxford Movement," pp. 402-405.

330 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
It is interesting to note that many years afterwards,
in 1 88 1, Church records "Gladstone's enthusiastic eulogy
of the Guardian" " It was," he said, " by far the best
weekly account of news to be found in selection and
arrangement ; it was this point that he dwelt upon : a
person reading it, could, except for immediate use, dis
pense with the reading of the daily papers ; the news
part of it was quite admirable." x
III.
The greater part of the following year was spent by
Church abroad, in Greece and Italy, and par- foreign
ticularly at Athens, where he visited his travel.
uncle, General Church. The Greek scenery and the his
toric associations are described by him in letters written
to friends and relations. The Acropolis, the Piraeus,
Marathon, and a hundred other classic scenes drew out
all his love for the Greek people and their history.
Homer, Herodotus and Thucydides were constantly on
his lips, and when he reached Constantinople, he "wished
for a Gibbon twenty times a day." His foreign tour
ended with a stay in Florence, in company with his
brother, a place they had not visited since their father's
death in 1828. This time spent on the Continent was
turned to good account in the gathering of much
material, afterwards used in essays and articles on
Italian and French politics, and it is related that his
copy of Dante, which had been laid on the poet's tomb
at Ravenna, is filled with notes bearing witness to his
1 " Life and Letters," p. 291

Richard William Church. 331
observations of places and associations during these
months abroad.
The immediate literary fruit of this study of the great
Italian poet was his well-known Essay on
DANTE Dante, which was published in the Christian
Remembrancer in 1850, and has become quite a standard
work. It was reprinted in his volume called "Essays
and Reviews" in 1854, and republished in 1878, together
with a translation of the De Monarchia by his son. He
himself said that those who know the Divina Commedia
best will best know how hard it is to be the interpreter of
such a mind. It was " a novel and startling apparition
in literature, " x abnormal, obscure in phrase, obscure in
purpose ; yet it not only repels by its strange incongruity,
but attracts by its marks of genius as mighty as it is
strange. Church was remarkably well qualified to
write on such a poem ; Italy, its history, its politics, its
scenery, its cities, had been well known to him from
his earliest days. Its language, which the great poet
increasingly loved and valued in spite of his own
veneration for Latin, was familiar to Church from his
boyhood. Of Dante he said, " He honoured the Latin,
but his love was for the Italian ; he was its champion
and indignant defender against the depreciation of
ignorance and fashion."2 Church showed how Dante
was "the restorer of seriousness in literature."3 He
was also a true son of the Church, not sparing the vices
of the Church's rulers, but holding fast to the Divine
mission and spiritual powers of Holy Church. The
discipline, the prayers, the melodies, the ritual, the
' "Dante," p. 56. 2 Ibid., p. 115. 3 Ibid., p. 119.

332 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
hours of devotion, the Sacraments of the Church, mould
the form of much of his great poem. He rises above
the mere popular estimate of Saints, and recognizes the
great men of all times ; Justinian, Constantine, Charle
magne, as well as Augustine, Bernard, Aquinas and
Bonaventure. He realized that the good heathen, like
Cato, Virgil, Trajan, had a real guide and light from
above. " Dante's all surveying, all embracing mind,
was worthy to open the grand procession of modern
poets." x Church has noted the poet's beautiful allusions
to the hours of day and night, the sinking of the sun,
the flaming sunset, the sheet-lightning of summer, the
stars coming out one by one, the fire-flies of the Italian
summer night ; the scented freshness of the breeze
before daybreak, the chill before early morning, the
dawn stealing on, the blue gradually gathering in the
east, the distant sea-beach quivering in the early light.
"Light in general is his special and chosen source of
poetic beauty ... he must have studied and dwelt upon
it like music." 2 There are fearful images and pictures
in the Inferno, but they are drawn to make men shudder
and shrink at the awfulness of human sin. Dante's
own character and life are admirably depicted, and the
connection between his own trials and his poem is
noted. " It is the work of a wanderer ; the very form
in which it is cast is that of a journey, difficult, perilous,
toilsome and full of change ... it belongs in its date
and its greatness, to the time when sorrow had become
the poet's daily portion and the condition of his daily
life." 3 Church has described in language that almost
1 " Dante," p. 131. 2 Ibid., p. 152. 3 Ibid., p. 48.

Richard William Church. 333
expresses his own ideas of the relation of the Church to
the State, Dante's hopes of a future Christian Govern
ment for Italy. "In his philosophy, the institutions
which provide for man's peace and liberty in this life
are part of God's great order for raising men to per
fection ; not indispensable, yet ordinary parts, having
their important place, though but for the present time ;
and, though imperfect, real instruments of His moral
government. He could not believe it to be the intention
of Providence, that on the introduction of higher hopes
and the foundation of a higher society, civil society
should collapse and be left to ruin, as henceforth useless
or prejudicial in man's trial and training ; that the
significant intimations of nature, that Taw and its
results, justice, peace and stability, ought to be and
might be realized among men, had lost their meaning
and faded away before the announcement of a Kingdom
not of this world. And if the perfection of civil society
had not been superseded by the Church, it had become
clear, if events were to be read as signs, that she was riot
intended to supply its political offices and functions.
She had taught, elevated, solaced, blessed, not only
individual souls, but society ; she had for a time even
governed it ; but, though her other powers remained,
she could govern it no longer. Another and distinct
organization was required for this, unless the temporal
order was no longer worthy of the attention of
Christians." x
: It is not difficult to understand that with such
thoughts- as these in his mind, Church should have
1 " Dante," p. 89.

334 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
written at the same time that very important article
on " Church and State " which also made its church and
appearance in the same publication. The state.
effect of this admirable statement of the true relation of
the Church of England to the Royal Supremacy was to
quiet many minds which had been grievously disturbed
by the Gorham judgment delivered in the same year.
Among these was his friend James B. Mozley, who
wrote : " Church's article is very good, and will, I hope,
have the effect of quieting some minds who think so
fearfully of our Reformation Erastianism. It had the
effect upon me as if one whole side of the truth, which
had been completely suppressed throughout this con
troversy, and all the controversy of the last twenty
years, had now fairly come out. Of course, we shall
displease our ultra friends who are eager for a convul
sion. I confess I am not. Nor do I see anything, in
the temper of those who are, which attracts me." x
Its main purpose was to claim for the Church eccle
siastical freedom, and for the unhampered spiritual
liberty of an English National Synod. At the same
time it clearly pointed out that in many parts of Europe
the sovereign had exercised very considerable powers
in connection with the discipline, worship, and doctrine
of the Church. Justinian in the Eastern Empire, and
Charlemagne in the revived Western Empire, each with
the consent and even approval of the Church, took an
active part in the definitions of doctrine, in the regula
tion of worship, and maintenance of discipline. The
minute rules concerning clerical life and duties, the
1 " Letters of Rev. J. B. Mozley," p. 203.

Richard William Church. 335
abolition of Gallican liturgies in favour of the Roman
rite, the maintenance of the Western type of the so-
called Creed of Constantinople, are measures quite as
strong in their way as any of those carried out by Tudor
or Stuart sovereigns. Later French and English kings,
before the great upheaval of the sixteenth century, did
not shrink from at least a visitatorial power in their
own realms. Church pointed out that the great diffi
culty of the present day was the changed condition
of the royal prerogative, not only in England, but in
other countries as well, and he strongly urged that it
would be very unjust to interpret the Royal Supremacy
as meaning a recognition of the sole and supreme
authority of Parliament in the legislation of the Church.
The Church in olden times had to deal with a personal
sovereign, and one, moreover, who recognized and
respected the spiritual authority of the Church. He
believed, however, that the autonomy of the Church,
fairly stated, would commend itself to the conscience
of the nation. Disestablishment to him was by no
means a desirable solution of the difficulty. " If it
comes," he said, " we may turn it to account, as it has
been turned to account abroad. But, before it came,.
the Church abroad shrank from no sacrifice which she
could consider lawful to avert it ; she well knew what
she would lose by it, whatever might be its compensa
tions. And, surely, the Church here would be in
excusable if she courted it, or needlessly let it come to
pass. This great nation of Englishmen is committed
to her trust ; if she cannot influence them, what other
body has a more reasonable hope ? If they will break

336 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
away from her or cast her off, let it be clearly their fault,
not hers and that of her clergy." x
Church never saw any reason to change or modify
the general principles contained in this essay, for he
republished it without alterations more than thirty
years afterwards, and a recent reprint of it may serve
to show that it may have a permanent value in settling
the still unsolved problem of how to maintain the union
between Church and State without the sacrifice of
Catholic principles or the denial of the just rights of
the civil Government
That he never retreated from this position is proved
by the fact that, many years later, in 1881-83, a Com
mission was appointed to inquire into the constitution
and working of the Ecclesiastical Courts, and ECClesiasti-
Dean Church was called upon to supply in- cal courts
formation. He contributed a very important C0MMISSI0N'
paper, entitled " Notes on the Constitutional System of
the Gallican Church," and traced in outline the history
of the relations between the Crown, the Pope, and the
Church. . He gave a full account of the appeals allowed,
and illustrated it from events and precedents, carrying
the history right down to the concordat of 1801 between
Napoleon and the Pope. He also appeared as a
witness, and was examined at considerable length.
Perhaps the substance of his evidence may be best given
in a paper which he read and put in at the close of his
examination : " Points important to be attended to —
(1) Arrest the tendency, which is comparatively a new
one, to govern the Church by case-made law. Guard
1 Christian Remembrancer, April, 1850, lxviii., p. 516

Richard William Church. 337
against absorbing it by legislation, such as that which
created the present Arches Court into a department of
the State. I find this sentence quoted from a German
book (Rothe, ' Anfange der Christlichen Kirche,'
quoted by Mr. Gladstone, 'The Theses of Erastus,' ill,
p. 22). ' The Church is destined, according to the law
of nature and of Providence, to be absorbed in the
State.' That, I believe, is the opinion of a considerable
number of people in the present day ; and that, I think,
we have to guard against. Then (2) restore to the
Church, as required by the changes of time, the reason
able and just power of dealing with her worship, subject
to the cognizance and check of the State. . (3) Dis
countenance the spirit of persecution, for which all
parties have suffered, and for which all parties are to
blame, but most those who make special boast of
tolerance; and give to the different parties in the
Church what each can fairly claim on the ground of
documents and formularies. Lastly, I venture to put
this : Remember that behind all these questions is the
Roman controversy, and that one of the most telling
allegations on the Roman side is that the English Church
is the creature of the State, so tied and bound that it
cannot settle so small a matter as its ritual, or so great a
question as its doctrine, except by a State or lay court." x
Church's opinions and judgment had by this time
reached a mature form, and his life at Oxford, which
was soon to come to an end, had greatly enriched
" and deepened his life." " Oxford has been a glorious
1 "Report of the Commissioners on the Constitution and
Working of the Ecclesiastical Courts," vol. ii., p. 353. Z

338 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
place for me," he wrote. In those eighteen years he
had had great anxieties as well as great happiness.
The great sorrow of Newman's secession, quickly
followed by the domestic grief of his mother's death,
were not without their lasting effects upon his character.
He passed, as it were, through a fire which purified and
braced him. Henceforth he " called no man master."
He learned more and more to form his judgment
independently, except in entire trust in Divine guidance.
Healing and softening influences in his engagement to
Miss Bennett, niece of Dr. Moberly, and in restored
friendship with the Provost of Oriel, were soon to
follow ; but even these did not prevent his departure
from Oxford being felt as a serious trial.
It is impossible not to gather that the general subject
of that beautiful series of sermons entitled
" The Discipline of the Christian Character," PLINE 0F THE
dedicated to Lord Blachford, " in remem- christian
brance of a long friendship," contains the
experience, conscious or unconscious, of much that he
passed through in the eighteen Oxford years. These
sermons unfold the various stages of the development
of the Christian character — the recognition by the soul
of its separate responsibility as it is revealed in the
story of Abraham. This is the first awakening to the
reality of religion, which he illustrates by a quotation
from Newman's Sermons, vol. i., p. 23: "God is God,
and I am I ; and we begin by degrees, as it has been
said, to perceive that there are but two beings in the whole
universe, two only supreme and self-evident luminous
beings, — our own soul, and the God Who made it." x
1 Cf. " Apologia," p. 4.

Richard William Church. 339
In the second sermon, the next important element in
the development of the Christian character is shown
to be the moral law ; without obedience to the Divine
Command, and to the certainties of duty, great religious
characters have been spoilt, and great religious efforts
marred. "Let us not fall," he said, "into the deadly
self-deceit that, because we are religious in wish, in
feeling, we are dispensed from the obligations and
restrictions which we see bind others ; because we are,
as we think, 'good people ;' because we have the feel
ing of being in the right way ; because God, it may be,
has greatly favoured us, we may venture on what con
science persists in warning us is unlawful, is wrong.
Let us not think that because we frequent Sacraments
and delight in Divine Service, and feel devotion and
uplifting of heart in prayer, we need not fear the temp
tations which are ' common to man ; ' that we can
afford to indulge our dislike of trouble, or relax our
care and vigilance, or neglect plain duties, or can be
bold in things more dangerous still. Not the stern and
vigorous Law only, but the New Testament, puts this
danger before us. It has some dreadful foreshadowings
of self-deceit, dreaming of its innocence, and exposed
too late. Even good people like to do what their hearts
prompt them to, and shut their eyes to the question
of right or wrong ; and this is the answer that may one
day meet them, when they ask whether they have not
been devoted to the service and household of Christ —
' I never knew you.' " J
To the severe ethical schooling of the Law there
1 " The Discipline of the Christian Character," pp. 48-50.

340 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
follows the devotional education of the Psalms, and the
training of the imagination and thoughts in the vast
and diversified domain of prophecy. In the third ser
mon this subject was thus dealt with ; " The Psalms are
to many of us our daily companions. Week after week,
and month after month, they are the universal language
of worship in the whole Christian Church ; and if any
thing is certain in the world, it is that they will still be
found the language of worship when He comes again.
The Prophets still teach, inspire, rebuke us. Nothing
in the whole range of poetry, nothing in Greek or Italian
art, equals to English minds and feelings the wondrous
beauty of those passages of Isaiah, which take soul
and ear with their inexplicable charm of thought and
melody ; which surprise us in hours of joy and trouble
and hope, with new and unthought-of force of meaning,
which haunt our memories with their undying music.
And through all this long and varied schooling — varied
in degree and in method, which we trace from Abraham
to the Prophets, there is one thing always growing in
depth and strength and purity — the passion for right
eousness, the hatred of iniquity." x
In the fourth sermon, he showed how the perfect
standard and ideal of religious character was manifested
in Jesus Christ. All the rest had been leading up to
this ; and the realization of this character in the fol
lowers of Christ is the one thing wanted in every age
of the world's history. "My brethren," he said, "be of
those who have done something to raise the standard of
righteousness in the world. Some of you may have
1 " The Discipline of the Christian Character," pp. 77, 78.

Richard William Church. 341
noticed the saying, quoted the other day, of a keen
observer, who was not a believer: 'The advance of
society' — he might have said, the 'advance of the. King
dom of God' — 'depends on the constant exertions of
the good man ; when he abandons these exertions, it
drops back like lead.' Do we not need, in these
perilous times — of which the splendour, and power, and
bewildered moral and religious thought remind us, at
moments, of the closing days of the Roman Empire —
do we not need to clear our confused fancies, to re
adjust our standard, to retemper our slack souls, to
refresh our hopes, by setting before us the health and
directness and simplicity of the religious character,
shown in the New Testament ? " *
In the last sermon he enlarged upon the imitation of
Jesus Christ, as having been the great power in the
world, since the times of Apostles* and Martyrs, down
through all the ages. The character of Christ reflected
" in all variations of thought and manners, in all sorts
and conditions of men, from the king on his throne, an
Alfred and St. Louis, statesmen, soldiers, merchants,
students of nature or science, down to the lowly maid
servant or labourer, whose humble and Christlike good
ness amid pain and sickness so touched and wrought on
men round them, that the popular love and reverence
canonized them and raised them into the guardian
saints of their cities." 2 And he illustrated this leading
idea of the closing sermon of so beautiful a series, with
words from Thomas a Kempis and Bishop Wilson, and
1 "The Discipline ofthe Christian Character," pp. 108, 109.
2 Ibid., 123, 124.

342 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
the following last sentences of his own : — " The serious
love of the unseen Christ, a great sentiment, and the
highest of all affections raised to the power of a master
principle of life, has not yet died out. It still wields its
power over the wills of men. By God's mercy, God be
thanked, it has yet great things to do. It has asked,
and received the sacrifice of richly-equipped and noble
lives ; it still asks and receives the sacrifice of lives that
might have been spent amid all that modern life can
most innocently give, to the hard and distasteful tasks
for which modern life so urgently calls ; it may be that
last great sacrifice that man can offer — 'Greater love
hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for
his friends.' This — this charity that never shall fail —
this is the finish and crown of the religious character as
it was new-created in Christ, as it can be on earth.
This, while we are Tiere in the flesh, is to have the
' mind of Christ.' " J

IV.
Towards the close of 1852, Church was offered the
living of Whatley, near Frome, in Somerset, a parish of
three hundred inhabitants, at that time ten miles away
from a railway station. The church, with its pointed
spire, stands high above a deep and wooded valley in a
pretty undulating country. He was ordained Priest in
Advent, and went to reside immediately after-
. TT. . , , . , marriage,
wards. His marriage took place in the
1 "The Discipline ofthe Christian Character," pp. 138, 139.

Richard William Church. 343
following July. Here in a quiet rural village, far
removed from any great centre, the cultured Oxford
scholar found himself in the midst of rustics unaccus
tomed to strangers, and without any experience of the
advantages of a resident incumbent and his family, for
the previous Rector had for many years been
non-resident. The church was of the ordi
nary type of those days, with its gallery full of school
children, its decorations only to be seen at Christmas in
the form of sprigs of holly stuck about the pews. Tate
and Brady's version of the Psalms, and the few Hymns
usually printed at the end of the Prayer-book, formed
the only hymnary. The Holy Communion had only
been celebrated quarterly, and at Christmas and Easter.
There was, indeed, apparently nothing to make up for
the loss of friends and interests which he had left behind
him at Oxford. " The weather is very fine," he wrote,
" and the country looking very pretty ; but it does not
reconcile me to my transplanting ; I think all day long
of Shotover and the bowls at the Observatory, and my
den, cold and dirty as it was, at Oriel." 1
But so loving a character, and so earnest a servant of
parochial his Master, did not long allow these uncon-
work. genial surroundings to stand in the way of
his fulfilling his duty to his flock. He spent much time
with the children in the Week-day, Sunday and Night
Schools; and, not content with taking part in the
ordinary religious instruction, he instituted amusements
for both boys and girls, and brought to bear his know
ledge of botany in interesting them in the wild flowers
1 "Life and Letters," p. 138.

344 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
of the neighbourhood. He entered into the daily life
of the people, their work and their gardens, and, as has
been said by one who knew him, " they felt that he was
interested even in their pigs." He soon knew them.
all — their faces, their names, their dispositions. His
influence among the rough lads and men resulted in a
great improvement in manners. He could be very
tender in the sick-room, where he often sat for hours
watching with the dying ; but he could also be very
stern when occasion required, as Dean Paget has said :
" But patient as he was, he could be angry when need
came ; angry with a quiet and self-possessed intensity,
which made his anger very memorable. The sight of
injustice, of strength or wealth presuming on its advan
tages, of insolence — a word that came from his lips with
a peculiar ring and emphasis — called out in him some
thing like the passion that has made men patriots when
their people were oppressed, something of that temper
which will always make tyranny insecure, and persecu
tion hazardous." x
Mr. Church effected many material improvements
at Whatley. The rectory, which was prettily rESTora-
situated, and had a northern aspect, was -nous.
completely altered in order that the sitting-rooms might
have the advantage of that sunshine which was so dear
to one born in Italy. He planted in the grounds slips
of cypress brought from Michael Angelo's garden ;
built a conservatory, and took great pains with his
flowers. During his incumbency the church was
entirely restored; a new chancel was built in 1858
1 " Life and Letters," p. 21.

Richard William Church. 345
under Mr. Street, the architect, and the rest of the
church renovated in 1870. With characteristic pathos
he expressed in a letter his regret " that we were taking
leave of the church as it is, and has been since I have
been here ; and the last meeting, even with the horrid
old pews which we have been accustomed to so long,
has something touching in it. - On ne se ddtache jamais
sans douleur,' Pascal says, even from the church decora
tions of old William Shore ! " x
But what struck people more than the external
improvements that he carried out, was the
WORSHIP. r 1 ¦ • - „ ._• 1 fi
reverence of his ministrations and the
earnestness of his preaching. One who lived for years
at Whatley has recorded the impression made by his
manner of celebrating the Holy Eucharist. " The first
thing that impressed us all was the extreme solemnity
and devotion with which Mr. Church celebrated the
Holy Communion. We had heard nothing there about
the Eastward Position ; but I can see now his slight
figure, bent in lowly reverence before the altar, giving the
whole service a new and higher and holier meaning by his
bearing and entire absorption in the act of worship." 2
Of his preaching at this time, it is not difficult to
village judge of the matter and method, from the
sermons, volumes of his village sermons, which have
been published. It has been said of them, "The
thinking is clear as crystal, and the language simplicity
itself." They embrace a large range of subjects, in
cluding the great doctrines linked with Advent, Lent,
Easter, and the other great festivals. The person, the
1 " Life and Letters," p. 193. 2 Ibid., p. 141.

346 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
mind, and the character of Christ are constantly dealt
with. But they are wonderfully practical, and must
have been easily understood by the country-folk who
heard them. Christ's never-failing sympathy is thus
spoken of in a sermon on the Marriage at Cana : " He
will be with us not only in church and in prayer, not
only in times of trouble and visitation, when we need
Him to help us, but in times of rejoicing and holiday, to
make our joy greater and our holiday brighter. He is
ready to be with us on those great days which are the
white days of our life, and which we keep in remem
brance all our days after — a marriage, a christening, a
first sight and visit in some new place which fills us
with wonder and gladness, a meeting with an old friend
long out of sight, a pleasant company, a happy day
of pleasuring, an unexpected piece of good fortune."
Very simple but profitable are the following words on
the never-failing providence of God : " We know not
what God may choose to take from us ; what light in
our sky He may darken or put out ; what power in our
souls He may cloud over or withdraw. We know not
what a day may bring forth. But what we do know
is that in it all and with it all there comes to those who
put their trust in God, a Hand which wisely and strongly
orders all things ; there comes the Providence which
beholds all things from end to end ; there is present the
same protection of that everlasting Goodness which has
never failed those that hope in Him, which is able, through
all appearance of loss and overthrow and perishing, to
save to the uttermost what is committed to His charge." J
1 " Village Sermons " (Second Series), i., p. 42.

Richard William Church. 347
Of the duty of coming to the Lord's Table, and not
letting the convenient season pass by, the following
impressive words speak for themselves : " It must be
in yourself that the change must be. It must be you
yourself, and not outward things, sickness or calls or
impressions from others, which is to make the step and
fulfil the duty. It is you who must make the oppor
tunity, not wait for it ; or rather, I will say that God
will most surely give you the opportunity, but you
must seize it for yourself. You must make the con
venient season, and make that convenient which is the
only season you can make sure of — the present ; and be
sure that there is no truer word in the world than this,
that he who waits for the convenient season in matters
of duty will never find it." x
Nothing could be easier to grasp than the following
words on the great importance of the Holy Eucharist :
" As the sacrifice and death of Christ is the greatest, if
we may so speak, among Christian truths, so the Sacra
ment of the Lord's death is the greatest among Christian
ordinances. And the reason of the greatness of the
Sacrament is the greatness of the truth from which it
flows, of which it is the witness and pledge, with which
it is joined in all our thoughts of it, in the blessings
which we hope for in it. Because we hope in the death
of Christ we are drawn to remember it in the Sacrament.
Because the love of Christ crucified is the salvation of
the world, we thankfully embrace that which is on earth
its never-changing token." 2
1 "Village Sermons" (First Series), p. 241.
2 Ibid. (Second Series), p. 112.

348 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
Two more quotations seem to include some personal
experience of the preacher. " Never does this state of
trial come to an end. The particular trial and temptation
may, but not the state of trial itself. One trial is over
come and disappears, but another comes at once into its
place, to challenge us again to show our heart, our
courage, our faith. For we have lost our title to rest
and ease ; it is a blessing that we have the chance given
us here to regain, for a day which is yet to come. When
we have borne the heavy blow, which has perhaps taken
from us one whom we loved, then comes the long course
of daily life, in which we have to learn to do without our
best and wisest adviser, our most faithful stay. When
Christ had overcome the devil in the wilderness, then
came, one after another, the temptations of every day,
from the thankless or selfish or the malicious men
around Him." *
" So rest and trust. Rest and be calm. Rest and
look back and take account of what is gone ; and give
thyself time to feel and measure better the love where
with God has loved thee, and the bonds and ties which
ought to fasten thy heart to Him. Rest and wait. If
He send thee comfort, wait and thank Him ; if it be not
His pleasure to take away the clouds, or if He exercise
thee with pain, yet abide His will and wait. Wait His
will, wait what He may yet have to show thee. Wait
His time, now especially that the long round of time
and opportunities and chances is well-nigh run through
and thou canst no longer make time, make oppor
tunities as once it used to be possible. Wait for He is
1 " Village Sermons " (Third Series), p. 228.

Richard William Church. 349
pleased with waiting when men wait patiently and
humbly."1
He was a very acceptable member of the local clerical
clerical society. He rarely took part in verbal dis-
meetings. cussions at the meetings, but if any friend,
after they were over, could catch him, he would open out
his mind and give his judgment on the subjects con
sidered in a very interesting and instructive manner.
Occasionally he was persuaded to read papers on one of
the Fathers, as for instance, St. Jerome, and those who
recollect them regret that they have not been published,
if indeed they have been preserved.
Much of his leisure at Whatley was occupied with
corre- correspondence with several intimate friends.
spondence. Among these were Dr. Asa Gray, the
eminent American botanist, whose acquaintance he had
made at Oxford ; Mr. Manuel Johnson of the Observa
tory, Oxford ; Mr. Frederick Rogers and Professor
Mozley. In these letters will be found not only in
teresting reference to scientific questions, such as the
distribution of species, cross fertilization, and astro
nomical observations, but discussion of great political
and social events. It is remarkable how well balanced
is his judgment on so many different subjects. Of the
first Oxford University Commission he could say he
was a well-wisher to many of the changes ; but, remem
bering the cultivated thought that Oxford had turned
out, he was nervous as to the result, which might be a
revolution rather than a reform. Of Mozley's book on
Baptismal Regeneration, which had disturbed the minds
1 " Village Sermons " (Third Series), p. 337-

350 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
of many High Churchmen, he could write calmly in
favour of not narrowing " the liberty of thinking." He
was able to appreciate the just criticisms "essays and
passed on " Essays and Reviews," which he reviews."
described as " a reckless book, though in it were many
good and true things." ..." But," he says, " there has
been a great deal of unwise panic, and unjust and hasty
abuse, and people who have not an inkling of the diffi
culties which beset the questions, are for settling them
in a summary way, which is perilous for every one ;
however, I hope the time of protest and condemnation
is now passing away, and the time of examination and
discussion in a quieter tone beginning." x
In the opposition to the consecration of Bishop
Temple, he thought there had been much exaggeration
on the part of those who criticized his share in the
publication of that book. But at the same time he
thought that Dr. Temple might very well have given
some explanation without any compromise of liberty.
At any rate, his estimate of Bishop Temple as an
energetic, high-souled and most religious Bishop, has
been amply verified. The Vatican Council and the
treatment of the party that opposed the papal in-
definition of infallibility called forth his fallibility.
wonder at the internal condition of the Roman Church.
"People there" (at Rome) he said, "have been talking
rhetoric for ages beyond their real thought, and now
that they are taken at their word, they are all in
confusion." His view of national education
, -. _ , _,„ education.
was that Mr. Forster s Bill was meant to
1 " Life and Letters,'' p. 157.

Richard William Church. 351
be studiously impartial in its dealing with religious
teaching. But the antagonism of the Nonconformists
led them to throw themselves on the secular side,
rather than let the Church get an advantage. The
following statement is characteristic : " I should not be
for an Established Church in a country like this if all
was to begin de novo. But with our history, habits and
conditions of life, what damages the Church, damages
the best chances of simple unsectarian religion. It
would be a long time before any system could grow up
to take the place of our parish churches and super
intendence in country places." x
In politics he declared himself a Conservative by
instinct and feeling, but was repelled by the
negative and barren policy of the Conserva
tive party. Gladstone appeared to him " very great and
noble," but wanting in knowledge of men, and apt to
speak rashly. Of great political events outside his own
country, he expressed himself freely. The Chinese war
of 1857 he declared to be a war "on false pretences,"
though he could not help allowing that the Chinese
were " a very provoking people." The great struggle in
America, which ended in the destruction of slavery,
interested him greatly. During the terrible war between
France and Germany in 1870, while he could see the
corruption of the Empire, and the insolence of France
bringing down retribution, yet he always admired the
French nation as "too grand a race, with all their
faults, to be missed out of the civilized world." 2
" Poor France," he said, "my feelings go backwards and
1 " Life and Letters," p. 189. 2 Ibid., p. 192.

352 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
forwards. How terribly appropriate is the chastisement
for her awful offences. . . how piteous is the foreign
sight of a nation like France, so full of all events.
that is kindly and good, fairly going to pieces." x But,
on the other hand, he dreaded the growth of the military
spirit in Germany, lest with all its complete and masterly
display of great qualities, it should lead to the establish
ment of an unscrupulous audacity, like that of the
Prussia of Frederick the Great. It may be thought
that the carefully balanced statements, to which he
gave expression • on so many and so widely differing
questions, might imply a lack of decision in framing a
definite judgment. But one who knew him well has
judged rightly of his manner of looking at things. " It
was probably through this diversity of gifts and studies
that he gained a peculiar breadth of thought in delibera
tion and in judgment. He saw things largely, with an
ample and appreciative survey of their conditions ; that
which would especially appeal to the scholar or the man
of science, neither displacing nor being displaced by the
dominant interest of the historian. And, ms powers of
scanning thus the richness of the view, he JUDGMENT-
was apt to take with him, in judging the affairs and cases
of ordinary life, a broader volume of thought, a greater
multitude of considerations, than most men bear in mind.
He was less likely than most men to forget, in forming a
judgment, something that should have been remembered ;
something that told upon the problem, and might help
one towards precisely solving it. . . . Statesmanship has
always been a rare quality among men, and it has so
1 " Life and Letters," p. 194.

Richard William Church. 353
often and so disastrously been claimed or imagined,
where it was not, that its very name is in some danger
of discredit. But it is hard to find another word which
would as well suggest the Dean's way of making up his
mind, his broad range of thought, his prompt dismissal
of all that was irrelevant or unimportant, his steady
hand in balancing considerations and his just sense of
proportion, his patient endurance and frank avowal of
uncertainty, his strong refusal to be unjust even to his
own side, his undismayed anticipation of great perils
and unexcited contemplation of great aims, his quality
of courage for self refraining, and for decisive action." l
In addition to other dangers the great snare of the
Tractarian party was the tendency to regard great ques
tions from a narrow Anglican point of view ; but a wide
range of study, a thorough knowledge and experience
of foreign countries and their history, and a natural and
acquired breadth of character, not only prevented Church
from falling into that danger, but enabled him to educate
largely the High Church party, in following him in his
statesmanlike method of treating difficult problems.
The quiet years at Whatley were rich in literary study
and work. Among these may be mentioned
his interesting life of St. Anselm, originally
published in 1853, in a volume entitled "Essays and
Reviews," but enlarged and republished in 1870. It is
an admirable specimen of his historical work. The
history of the monastery of Bee, the constitution and
the inner life of a Norman religious house, the greatness
of Lanfranc, and the beauty of the character of Anselm
1 " Life and Letters," pp. 14-16. 2 A

354 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
are delightfully described. He does full justice to the
ecclesiastical administration of William, and his impartial
choice of worthy men, irrespective of all prejudice of
family and nation. " While the Conqueror lived," he
said, "there was government in the State and the
Church ; there was a strong love of order, the purpose
of improvement, the sense of the value of law, the
hatred of anarchy and misrule, and the firm mind to
put them down." x When the Red King succeeded, all
was changed, all was brutality and misrule, kingdoms
and states were treated " as a wicked landlord treated
his tenants." 2 Anselm, against his will made Arch
bishop of Canterbury, had to fight the battle " of law
against tyranny, of reason against self-will, of faith in
right, against worldliness and brute force." 3
It is characteristic of Church's great fairness to judge
Anselm in his appeal to Rome, not in any narrow
Anglican spirit, but from the point of view of the neces
sities of the time. " We see, perhaps in what he did,
an appeal against his king, against the constitution of
England and the independent rights of the nation, to
a foreign power. If we see with the eyes of his own
age, we shall see the only appeal practicable then from
arbitrary rule to law." 4 How true is his contention
that the attempt to erect the papal throne as a tribunal
of truth and justice may have proved "the grandest
and most magnificent failure in human history. But it
had not yet been proved to be a failure." 5 This is the

1 " St. Anselm," p. 141. 2 ibid., p. 165.
Ibid., p. 253.

1 " St. Anselm," p. 141. 2 ibid., p. 165.
» Ibid., p. 223. i ibid., p. 225.
6 IhiH. n nci

Richard William Church. 355
very view he had expressed as early as 1844 in a letter
to Archdeacon Manning, when he recorded his appre
ciation of the great good attempted, and sometimes
achieved, through the papal supremacy. He drew an
interesting parallel between the deathbed of Anselm
and Richard Hooker, and the true place of the former
in the history of the Church is well described : " I have
mentioned that the last Abbot of Bee was M. de Talley
rand. The Pope who formally canonized St. Anselm
is said to have been Alexander VI., Roderic Borgia.
In the visible Church the evil are ever mingled with
the good . . ." " But a very different judge had already
interpreted the opinion of Christendom about Anselm.
Before he had suffered the indignity of canonization at
the hands of Borgia, Dante had consecrated his memory
and assigned him a place with those whom the Church
honoured as her Saints. The great singer of Christian
Europe, in his vision of Paradise, sees him among the
spirits of light and power, in the sphere of the sun —
the special ' ministers of God's gifts of reason ' — among
those whom the Middle Age reverenced as having
shown to it what the human intellect, quickened by the
love of God, could do, in the humblest tasks and sacri
fices and in the highest flights, with prophets, historians,
and philosophers ; with theologians and jurists ; with
the glories of the great Orders — St. Thomas Aquinas
and St. Bonaventure, and with their lowly firstfruits." x
Other publications of this period of his life were the
first book of Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, with an
introductory essay, and a volume of University Sermons ;
1 " St. Anselm," pp. 301, 302.

356 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
but this limited reference to his works gives scarcely
any adequate idea of the literary fulness and diligent
study of the quiet life at Whatley, which was soon to be
broken up by the great change of his appointment to
the Deanery of St. Paul's.

V.
It is interesting to notice other similar changes that
took place about this time. Two of his A great
Oriel friends were brought out of com- change.
parative retirement like his own into important spheres,
of influence — Fraser was sent from Ufton to rule the
huge diocese of Manchester ; and James Mozley to
the Regius Professorship of Theology at Oxford,
to which he was to add new honours by his remark
able lectures and sermons. These three instances of
great minds, trained in quiet retirement and study for
future years of influence and labour, are by no means
singular in the history of the Church. It is sometimes
objected that the Anglican system of patronage often
leaves men of great talents to live out their lives in
obscure parishes, among uncongenial surroundings and
unappreciative people. But not seldom the isolation
and the retirement bring with them valuable oppor
tunities for self-culture. This was certainly the case
with Church, who used the time thus given him in the
training of his powers, and the accumulation of ever-
increasing stores of knowledge. The country life, which
at first seemed dreary and trying, as the years went by,

Richard William Church. 357
brought with it many charms. He always felt the
distance from London as a hindrance to hearing and
seeing persons and things that might interest and help
him. But there was no element of discontent in his
acquiescence in so long a period of separation from the
active and busy life of a University or city, and he
never grasped at any proffered opportunity of changing
his sphere of work. The offer of a Canonry at Worcester,
by Mr. Gladstone, though in many respects pleasing and
inviting, was declined with much regret, not for the
Canonry which he refused, but because it might appear
ungracious towards Mr. Gladstone. His real motives
were a dread of appearing as " a lucky High Church
man " rewarded for taking the side of Irish Disestablish
ment, and, what was still higher, the resolve not to
accept greater responsibility than he felt competent
to deal with. When the offer of the Deanery of St.
Paul's came to him, he hesitated long, and not until
" Gladstone would not let him off," and friends from all
sides pressed him to accept, did he yield.
When the time came for him to leave Whatley, the
sense of what he was parting from was keenly painful.
He said plainly, " I have made a great mistake in
changing this peaceful life ... for that tangle and
whirlpool of ecclesiastical politics." x
Now, with all their force, he realized the blessings
of that country life — "Sun and air, green fields and
flowers," home in a lovely spot, a centre of "deep
and growing affection." 2 And in front of him, London
—with its gloomy atmosphere, the Deanery like a
1 " Life and Letters," p. 202. " Ibid.

358 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
prison shut in with high walls, weary official work,
busy administration, reform of abuses — it was with such
sinkings of heart, and much self-depreciation, that he
looked forward to the great task laid upon him.
Perhaps for the very reason that he felt so keenly the
difficulties of his new position, he was able to meet its
crushing responsibility and constant demands with ever-
increasing wisdom and faithful, patient courage.
He expressed tenderly, with a pathos that rivals the
.famous Littlemore Sermon by Newman on farewell to
" The Parting of Friends," the deep sorrow THE c°™TRY'
that he felt at parting from his parishioners, in a farewell
sermon. He preached from i Cor. vii. 29, 31, and
dwelt on the many striking events that had passed
during the nineteen years of his incumbency — the wars,
like those of the Crimea and the Indian Mutiny, that
had touched them closely, even in that quiet spot ; the
great wars of Europe and America, and the help given
by labouring people to the sick and wounded. He
spoke of all that had passed in the perfect quiet of their
village, the festivals, the services, the happy meetings,
the death-beds. He gave thanks for the unbroken
peace and happiness of his own home, and of the joy it
had been to him to see the Church restored. He spoke
humbly of the shortcomings of his own ministry ; he
besought them with his last words to begin once more a
better life in prayer, church-going, and Communion.
He commended his successor to their love and charity ;
he asked their forgiveness for any cause of offence given
by him, as solemnly as if he were on his death-bed ; he
invited them to lay aside all differences and misunder-

Richard William Church. 359
standings, and be united. And these were his closing
words: "And now the end is come. We shall go
home to our firesides, never more to meet as we have
met this afternoon, as we have met well-nigh every
Sunday afternoon for nearly nineteen years. And is
not the time short? Have we, indeed, brought 'our
years to an end as it were a tale that is told ' ? It has
passed as the days will again pass between this and our
last day in this life. Man goeth forth to his work and
to his labour until the evening ; and the evening, the
last evening, is here. O kind and loving friends, 0
warm-hearted and attached neighbours, O loyal, affec
tionate hearts, we must be together no more. You have
been to me what no other people have ever been to me,
what I cannot hope that any others ever will be. There
is but one place where again we can be together, and
that is not on this side the grave. Here we part for
good. Oh, my dear friends, let us look on to that other
meeting, and being together ! Let us wait and help one
another, and remember one another till that meeting
comes ; it will not be long coming. How shall I bid
you farewell? May we not take the words in which
the great Apostle bade farewell to those whom he loved ?
Can I wish you better than he wished in to-day's
Epistles : ' For this cause we ... do not cease to pray
for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the
knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding ; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord
unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and
increasing in the knowledge of God ' ? "
" May I not end with this earnest adjuration : ' Finally,

360 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be
of one mind, live in peace ; and the God of love and
peace shall be with you. And now, brethren, I com
mend you to God, and to the Word of His grace, which
is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance
among all of them which are sanctified.' " x
The great task he had to undertake was "to set
St. Paul's in order as the great English st paul's
Cathedral before the eyes of the country." 2
Those only who are old enough to remember the aspect
of the great building and the character of its services,
up to the middle of the present century, and to compare
them with their present condition, can realize how great
the transformation has been. It must, of course, be
remembered that Dean Milman had done something to
remove the reproach of the neglected condition of St.
Paul's, and that Dean Mansel in his short tenure of
office had made many plans and preparations in view of
a complete reformation. But it was left mainly to Dean
Church to carry out successfully that work which has
made St. Paul's so great a centre of Church life in
London, and so splendid a model of what
a cathedral can be and do. He was happy
in having such colleagues as Liddon, Gregory, Light
foot, and afterwards Scott Holland. Any one who
understands what is meant by the united action of a
Dean and Chapter, inspired by the same zeal for cathe
dral work, love for their Church and its services, clear
apprehension of the immense value of the cathedral
1 " Village Sermons," xxii.
2 " Life and Letters," p. 200.

Richard William Church. 361
system when worked loyally and efficiently, will see
how great an opportunity was placed in Church's
hands. Nothing can be more disastrous to the success
of a cathedral than the filling: up of its
the chapter. or
Chapter with men who have little in common,
and who have no special qualifications for capitular
work, and no real love for cathedral institutions. The
Canons of St. Paul's under Dean Church were admirable
friends and coadjutors. Powers of oratory, business
capacity, theological attainments, were contributed by
them each according to his measure, and all lent their
united aid to place things on a worthy footing.
The condition of the choir was far from satisfactory.
There were many old abuses to be dealt
THE choir. .,, ., , , ,
with, the music was far from adequate, the
whole tone of the services sadly lacking in devotion
and reverence. If he was happy in being surrounded
by a body of Canons, so remarkable for their great gifts,
he was also singularly fortunate in having as organist,
Dr. Stainer, and as Master of the Choristers, the Rev.
A. Barff ; the value he placed on the great and success
ful services of the latter is expressed in his dedication to
him of his Advent Sermons in the following words :
"Who by his faithfulness and wisdom has made the
choristers' work a religious service." Stainer's trans
formation of a slovenly performance and perfunctory
rendering of thinly attended daily services and unim
pressive Sunday worship, into a magnificent type of a
great musical act of homage offered to the Almighty,
besides attracting large and devout congregations,
demands a separate record. It is sufficient to say that

362 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
the choral services of St. Paul's, and especially the
choral Eucharist, have been pronounced by great
musicians to be almost without rivals in Europe.
Those who knew St. Paul's sixty years ago, could
never have looked forward to the time when, " in
addition to the eighteen professional gentlemen who
form the men's voice part of the regular cathedral
choir, there is a body of volunteers who sing at 7
p.m. Evensong on Sundays, and are known as the
Evening Service Choir. There is also another Voluntary
Special Service Choir, numbering some three hundred,
who take part in those services when an augmented
choir is needed." x Our grandfathers would never have
dreamed of the great orchestral rendering of Bach's
Passion Music in Holy Week and Mendelssohn's " St.
Paul " at the Patronal Festival, and Spohr's " Last Judg
ment " in Advent. Equally would the list of musical
works now used throughout the year, which is annually
augmented by fresh additions from the compositions
of the best composers, Foreign and English, surpass
all their experience. In this list it will be found that
the names of early English writers of Church music —
Purcell, Tallis, Boyce, Green, Blow, Croft — retain their
due place; that Mozart, Bach, Handel, Beethoven,
Mendelssohn, Gounod, Spohr, Dvorak, contribute their
best works in company with Sterndale Bennett,
Ouseley, Wesley, Barnby, Goss, Hopkins, Tours and
Stainer. In connection with the many developments in the
*For this and other details I am indebted to the interesting
Report for 1898, issued by the Rev. Lewis Gilbertson, Succentor.

Richard William Church. 363
practical purposes to which the great cathedral was put
the fabric may be mentioned not only the re-arrange-
and services. ment 0f the organ and screen, but the throw
ing open of the dome and nave for great congregations,
the constant use of one chapel for the daily Eucharist,
and of another for special services ; the establishment
of lectures in the Chapter House, and mid-day services
for busy people ; of the Three Hours' Devotion on Good
Friday, and all those manifold adaptations of old things
to modern needs, and new importations of fresh methods,
which are now taken for granted as part of the work of
every great cathedral throughout England.
It would be impossible adequately to give any state
ment of all the special services held for great societies
and on other occasions. There are great choral ser
vices for Gregorian and Anglican associations ; festivals
for the great missionary societies, the G.F.S., the
C.E.T.S., Medical Guilds, Lay Helpers, Sunday School
Institutes, Army Guilds. The Deaf and Dumb have
their special celebration of the Holy Communion, and
the Bands of Hope their anniversary ; the Freemasons
are not left out, and Post Office workers have their
quiet day ; and the Welshmen have their Service on
St. David's Day, or near it. There are retreats and
quiet days for clergy and laymen, and the Church
Training Colleges are gathered to a great service ;
and even in the heart of London, far away from
green fields and the sight of reapers among the
corn, under the smoke-laden atmosphere that begrimes
the great cathedral, the "Harvest Home" is not for
gotten.

364 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
Preachers from all parts of England, the United
States, and the Colonies occupy the pulpit on Sunday
evenings ; and many a man who has been invited to
do so, has been proud and glad to accept the summons
without being too much alarmed at the risk of meeting
the experience so quaintly indicated by one who was
not likely to have undergone it himself, the late Canon
H. W. Burrows, who said to some one perhaps a little
too elated at the prospect, " Well, the Dean's verger
will show you the way to the pulpit, and, as you go, •
you wil! see the greater part of the congregation leaving
the cathedral." x
And so St. Paul's became, and is still becoming more
and more, first to London and its diocese, and the position
then to the whole country, the Colonies, and OF THE great
the United States, a great rallying-place of cathedr al in
Churchmen; a true Mother Church em
bracing and welcoming all the sons and daughters of
the Anglican Communion, bidding them enter her doors
and take their places for prayer and praise, private and
public, choral office, Eucharist and intercession, without
being hindered and hampered and worried by harassing
restrictions and troublesome regulations.
What the Dean's share was in all this let one who
knew well relate : "It is impossible to single out points
in which the Dean's initiative can be directly detected,
Indeed, a marked initiative would not be in his manner,
He would not formulate proposals nor frame a policy
That would be wholly unlike him. Rather within the
Chapter, as without, in his relations to the Church at
1 " Life of H. W. Burrows," p. 178.

Richard William Church. 365
large, he stood as a judicial conscience, up to the
standard of which all must be brought. If it was a
matter of liturgical or devotional rule, Liddon would be
set to frame a scheme ; if it was a bit of financial or
administrative business, Gregory would make his pro
posal. But, always, there was a judgment to face,
which would be anticipated by each as they worked at
this task. Every plan must be such as would satisfy
the sensitive and delicate estimate of right or wrong,
which was so pre-eminently characteristic of the Dean." J
The story is told that when asked once what was the
' secret of the great success at St. Paul's, the Dean said,
after a minute's pause, " We try to be punctual." How
much did that mean in so busy a centre as the heart
of London ! What an admirable principle for the
guidance of all who are responsible for the arrangement
of Church services !

VI.
Besides the great improvement in the services, which
attracted immense numbers, and inspired and helped
multitudes in London and strangers from all parts of
the world, much had to be done in placing
finance. • ¦' °
the finances of the cathedral on a satis
factory basis. Canon Gregory had already impressed
the Ecclesiastical Commissioners with the necessity of
large and liberal revenues, and during the first years
of Church's office the new scheme was started. The
1 "Life and Letters," p. 220.

366 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
whole staff of officials and each department of the
cathedral underwent a thorough reformation. Then
again, the internal decoration of the building with all
its many difficulties, not even at the present day finally
solved, demanded much care and attention. All these
things were harmoniously thought out and acted upon
by the Chapter, and his approval or the reverse was
the most important element in maturing any plan or
fixing any decision. This great talent of judgment was
by no means confined to the work of the Chapter. It
was looked up to by a great number of persons, who
more and more began to realize what a power for wise
decision resided in a personality so apparently shy and
timid. " What does the Dean say ? " was a THE DFAN As
question often asked in those days, whether an adviser.
the difficulty of the moment was concerned with a crisis
in politics, or a controversy concerning doctrine or
ritual, or on the character of a man or the tendency
of a book. Great men consulted him, notably Mr.
Gladstone, who, it is said, would have been well content
to see him occupying St. Augustine's throne.
He had a dislike to putting his name to declarations
on doctrine, and so declined an invitation of Dr.
Pusey's to sign one on the subject of Confession
and Absolution. He had no personal liking for ela
borate ceremonial. He said once, "What we want
is to frighten Ritualists out of self-will and
, , , . , ritualism.
extravagance, and the people in power from
worrying the Ritualists."1 But, as early as 1856, he
wrote about the Knightsbridge Ritual Case, " It is this
1 " Life and Letters," p. 260.

Richard William Church. 367
determination in courts of justice to find a meaning and
a direction where there is none, and to close questions
which at least are open ones, that is enough to drive
fair and quiet men into savage thoughts and feelings." x
In 1874, after the introduction of the Public Worship
Regulation Act, he expressed his intention of signing
the declaration in favour of the Eastward Position and
a distinctive Eucharistic dress, though, as regards the
vestments, he says, "For myself, I should feel very
uncomfortable if I had to wear them." After the Act
was passed, he expressed his opinion very strongly
against any narrowing of "the principle of an intelli
gent appropriate expressive outward form or shape of
worship within the lines of the Prayer-book fairly
interpreted." Sometimes he was asked to write letters
explaining important points of doctrine, and there are
two letters of his on original sin, which are so important
as to find a place in Prebendary Gibson's Commentary
on the Thirty-nine Articles. The painful affairs of the
imprisonment of Mr. Tooth and the Folkestone ritual
case affected him gravely. Such things appeared to
him as tending through a policy of coercion towards
disestablishment. Of this he said, "that it may be
averted by any sacrifice except of justice and honour,
I pray day and night."2 And yet all these grievous
troubles never damped his enthusiasm or destroyed his
faith in sanguine hopes for the future of the English
the church. Church. He could speak thus to Dr. Benson,
first Bishop of Truro, after his consecration: "I hope
you may be -permitted to add in Cornwall another to the
1 " Life and Letters," p. 158. 2 Ibid., p. 256.

368 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
many victories which the revived English Church has
achieved, and which, in spite of disasters and many
troubles, make it the most glorious Church in Christen
dom." x And again he wrote in the same strain to the
warden of Keble : " There is no more glorious Church
in Christendom than this inconsistent English Church,
nor one that has shown such wonderful proof of
Christian life." 2
Sometimes the difficulties of the time made him think
that the resignation of his office might show the world
that he had no thought of inconsistency and weak
compliance with unjust decisions. But, on the other
hand, he did not wish to do anything to shake con
fidence in the English Church, and so he remained at
his post. Later on, other ritual cases and imprisonments
caused him to pay attention once more to the great
needs of the Church, especially in the region the court
of courts of appeal. He was inclined to OF APPEAL-
leave the Privy Council, as a purely secular court, to
decide Church causes in temporalities, and to have a
spiritual court of appeal of Bishops to deal with doctrine
and discipline. One thing he made quite clear, and he
wrote to the Times to that effect, that neither he nor
any true Churchman could assent to "the proposition
that an Established Church is what Parliament makes
it or allows it to be, and nothing more," and it was a
great relief to him when, in 1881, he found the Primate,
Dr. Tait, attending to certain reasonable communications
from himself and Mr. Carter of Clewer.
More.than once Church was appointed Select Preacher
1 " Life and Letters," p. 257 2 Ibid., p. 258.

Richard William Church. 369
at Oxford, and the volume entitled "Cathedral and
his University Sermons " can only now be named
sermons. witj1 the sjmpie statement that they are
serious, sympathetic, and practical, full of tender appeals
based upon solid dogma. As a preacher there was
nothing outwardly to attract in "the short stature, small
spare figure," and the not very powerful utterance. But
"the upward look, the quiet reading ofthe text, and the
discourse that followed, subdued the congregation into
breathless attention by the wonderful spiritual power of
the man." x
Among his sermons should be noted those on Pascal,
Bishop Butler, Bishop Andrewes, and in the same
volume a very characteristic one on foreign travel
preached in St. James's, Piccadilly, as part of a course
on " The Use and Abuse of the World." He proposed
the two questions, "What ought foreign travel to do
for us ? " " What ought we to do, that its opportunities
may not be thrown away ? " In answer to the first
question, he said, "Change of scene, of object, is a
remedy to the sick mind and body." Refreshment,
education, enlargement of ideas, and above all, new
thoughts of the greatness of God, His purposes, His
thoughts come to us, by such change. Secondly, he
dwelt on the dangers of foreign travel, frivolity, careless
ness: "Lazy, unintelligent travelling is like lazy reading;"
and, again, he called attention to the risk of forming
hasty judgments on foreign nations, their habits, and,
above all, their religion ; and finally, the peril of throw
ing off accustomed restraints, and neglecting religious
1 " Life and Letters," p. 304. 2 B

370 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
habits while abroad. "No place more befitting the
seriousness of self-judgment and penitence than when
we are alone in the solitude of the sea or the desert ; no
place where the mingled greatness and littleness of man,
and the love and righteousness of God, prompt more
naturally the great strains of the Te Deitm, than in
concert with the roar of mighty torrents, or when
morning breaks over the silence of the everlasting hills."
Perhaps no other literary production of Dean Church
gives so good an idea, not only of the richness „
. . . J "GIFTS of
of his historic knowledge, and the acuteness civiliza-
of his critical insight, but the breadth of his tion."
intellectual and spiritual view of things, as the remark
able sermons preached at Oxford, in the years 1866-68,
on " The Gifts of Civilization." As a sequel to these, and
published in the same volume, five lectures were
delivered at St. Paul's in the year 1872 and 1873, on
" Civilization before and after Christianity," and " Some
Influences of Christianity on National Character." A
mere brief notice of this, perhaps the most important
work that he has left behind, must suffice. He recognized
civilization as a Divine gift as real as the " sun and air
and rain" in its power of doing good. "Civilization
and religion have each their own order, and move in
their own path." The latter may influence more or less
the former, but they are not identical. Civilization
brings liberty and peace, and strength of social counte
nance to what is right. Christianity has been brought
in not to make us despise or even dread the gifts of
civilization, but to help us to look for something more
beyond, while we understand and value and use the

Richard William Church. 371
great endowments of this present life. " We are sinners
who have been saved by a God Who loved us ; there is
a religion which is our hope beyond this time, and the
incommunicable character of it is love." He drew a
powerful contrast between the religion of the Sermon
on the Mount and Christianity as it now is in society.
But he did not draw the inference from this contrast
that " the history of Christian society was a history of
a great evasion." While allowing for failures and short
comings from the high standard of the primitive days,
he showed that the mission of the Church was not to
remain outside of and apart from society, but to absorb
it and act on it in endless ways. The gracious presence.
of Christ has been felt where it could least be expected.
" Even war and riches, even the Babel life of our great
cities, even the high places of ambition and earthly
honour, have been touched by His Spirit — have found
how to be Christian. Shadows as they are, compared
with the ages that are before us, and tainted with evil,
we believe that they have felt the hand of the great
Healer, to Whom power is given over all flesh ; all
power in Heaven and on earth." 1
The great power in the Christian Church to enable
it thus to affect society around it, is " character," and
the example of what character is, is to be found in our
Lord : " He does what is most human, but He lives
absolutely in the Divine." His life is the pattern of
faith, and truth and love. The Church has constantly
been striving after this standard ; " an age of intellectual
confusion " saw, in the Christ of the Gospels, the ideal of
1 " Gifts of Civilization," p. 48.

372 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
the great teacher and prophet and healer of human
error. The monastic spirit saw in it a vocation to a life
of poverty as the condition of perfection. The Refor
mation saw in Him the breaker-up of formalism and the
quickener of the dead letter. In modern times men
dwell most upon His perfect manhood, so great and true
and just. None of these give more than a partial side
of this ideal and perfect character. Every age looks
forward to its children becoming greater and better still,
through their apprehension of this example. And so
he called upon his hearers, while guarding against that
wrong view of civilization which thinks that society has
outgrown Christianity and can dispense with it, to
realize how noble a thing civilization is ; the more it
extends and develops, the more demand there is for the
Church to exercise her influence and to consecrate
society in all its " intellectual, moral and civil perfection."
Civilization may appear at times to be advancing in
lines hostile to the Church, and threatening the founda
tions of the Christian faith, but this apparent danger
ought not to cause despondency. One thing is needful,
that every separate member of the Church has to realize
his or her office in supplying the salt and the light and
the leaven — " There are reasons for looking forward to
the future with solemn awe. No doubt signs are about
us which mean something which we dare scarcely
breathe. The centre of gravity, so to speak, of religious
questions, has become altogether shifted and displaced.
Anchors are lifting everywhere, and men are committing
themselves to what they may meet with on the sea.
But awe is neither despair nor fear ; and Christians have

Richard William Church. 373
had bad days before. Passi gravicra. A faith which
has come out alive from the darkness of the tenth
century, the immeasurable corruption of the fifteenth,
the religious policy of the sixteenth, and the philosophy,
commenting on the morals, of the eighteenth, may face
without shrinking even the subtler perils of our own.
Only let us bear in mind that it is not an abstraction, a
system or an idea, which has to face them ; it is we who
believe. The influence of the Church on society means,
in its ultimate shape, the influence of those who compose
it. The Christian Church is to be the salt of the nation
if Christians are true to their belief and equal to their
claim ; nothing can make it so, nothing can secure that
what has been, shall be, if they are not." *
No one can read these remarkable sermons and the
ms breadth essays which accompany them, without be-
op view, coming convinced that Church was quite
emancipated from any narrow ecclesiasticism, that he
had no dread of scientific inquiry, no distrust of human
society as a whole ; that he had a calm belief in the over-
' ruling providence of God in nature, in mankind as well
as in the Holy Catholic Church. It was by no means
the case that he did not distinguish between the great
supernatural powers of the Kingdom of God, and the
progress and development of human society, but he
looked forward with a kind of sanguine optimism to the
transformation and consecration of the latter, by the
gradual extension of the Divine graces of the former.
In the opinion of the wisest of his contemporaries the
Churchmanship of the Dean of St. Paul's was not only
1 " Gifts of Civilization," pp. 118, 119.

374 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
wider but truer than that of Newman. It certainly was
more human and sympathetic.
He never attempted to deal definitely with the teach
ing of the advancing school of Biblical criti- bible
cism. But he certainly was not unmindful criticism.
of the seriousness of the question. He more than once
declared that England and the English Church were
singularly unprepared for meeting the new theories ;
but he was always calm in his own mind on the subject,
and recommended calmness in others. He drew " a
contrast between the certainties of physical science, and
the contradictory and uncertain results, the barrenness
as a whole, of criticism." He advised courage and
honesty, but also patience, which is essential to a real
love of truth. It was not dishonest to feel that there
are some questions which had better be left alone,
some which will never be answered on this side of the
grave, and perhaps not on the other. It was part of
his large-hearted, broad-minded character that, while
belonging to an older generation, he still did not hold
himself aloof from those who had advanced on to new
and perhaps perilous grounds, and probably by his
sympathy and wisdom he was able to guard and correct
some exaggerations and impetuosities.
Many of his works can only be briefly mentioned.
Essays on "Bacon" and "Spenser;" a charm
ing account of Brittany, based upon reminis- ESSAYa-
cences of a tour he made there ; " The Rise of the Early
Ottomans," are specimens of widely differing subjects
that illustrate the versatility ofhis literary powers. His
style has been often spoken of as possessing the scholarly

Richard William Church. 375
finish of the best educated English in all ages. He
was once asked how style could be studied
STYLE. 1 r , »»
and formed. He said he did not recognize
in himself any special training for style. " The great
thing in writing is to know and feel what you want to
say, and to say it in words that come as near to your
meaning as you can get them to come." He quoted the
saying, " Always cut out a passage which you are most
proud of." He attributed great value to careful reading
of good English in the best writers. And it is very
characteristic and touching to note that he said, " Besides
these, I heard and read a good deal of Mr. Newman's
preaching, and it is, I am sure, to him that I owe it that
I can write at all simply, and with the wish to be
real."1

VII.
It was not only in his writing that he possessed so
great a charm, but in his conversation at home and in
society. He had a very keen and delicate sense of
humour, and yet maintained perfect dignity without the
loss of simplicity and ease. " Austerity and sympathy "
ms have been described as two great notes in his
character, character, and he was able, as Canon Scott
Holland has said, to be in favour with all men, and yet
never to swerve from the line of duty, and never to
submit to the taint of compromise.
Of his kindness and courtesy many stories are told,
1 " Life and Letters," p. 326.

376 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
and one is particularly characteristic of the man. One
Good Friday, on leaving the cathedral, he saw a party
of Italian emigrants standing on the western steps.
They had been unable to visit the whole ofthe cathedral
on account of the Good Friday services. The Dean
spoke to them in their own tongue, and found that one
of them came from a valley well-known to him. They
were all delighted by his kindness, and were enabled
the next day to see the whole of the cathedral from
crypt to dome, accompanied by a member of the choir
who spoke Italian,
Though not gifted with great vocal powers for preach
ing, his reading was always a treat to those
who heard him, whether it was one of Scott's PERS0NALIT'r-
novels, or a poem of Tennyson, in his drawing-room at
Whatley in the evening, or his clear and impressive
reading of the lessons in St. Paul's, at the great special
services, when his perfect pronunciation and intonation
made him easily heard.
He was an untiring and industrious student, and
never dropped any of his early studies. Homer and
Virgil, Sophocles and Lucretius, were never put away
on his shelves after Oxford days. But he was also an
indefatigable correspondent, and wrote from abroad
delightfully fresh accounts of the places he visited.
His visit to Rome, in 1882, was late in life, and it is
remarkable to note the effect of the great city upon his
mind. His feeling was " one almost of hatred for the
place — a mixture of all incompatible things, ruins and
magnificence, waste and civilization, tumble - down
squalidness and untidiness, and stateliness and grandeur

Richard William Church. 2>77
such as one has never seen elsewhere, and an anti-religious
world, and an ostentatiously religious world, really as
worldly, and also an undeniably magnificent organiza
tion of high religion quite unique."1 Of Florence he
wrote : " It is certainly most beautiful ; I suppose the
harmony of everything, the characteristic buildings, the
river, the hills round about, and the unconscious asso
ciation with all the wonderful works of art and beauty
in it, gave it this, to me, unique character." 2 But
foreign travel never diminished his keen appreciation
of England and the English.
He maintained delightful friendships with all sorts
of people. Dr. Asa Gray, whose scientific
friends. , , , ,
knowledge was for many years a source of
refreshment and interest ; Dean Stanley, with whom
he differed greatly, but whom he valued and admired,
and whose death, in 1881, caused him a great shock;
Lord Blachford ; the Warden of Keble (Dr. Talbot), and
many others, were among his correspondents. The later
years of his life were greatly overshadowed by losses of
bereave- friends — Dr. Asa Gray, Lord Blachford,
ments. Cardinal Newman. His friendship with the
latter, which had been broken off when the sad secession
of 1845 took place, was renewed once more in 1866, and
continued to the end. They met occasionally, and
corresponded from time to time, the Dean going as a
guest to Edgbaston, and the Cardinal visiting the
Deanery. Very soon after Newman's death came the
sudden blow of the loss of Dr. Liddon, and this seemed
to be the final stroke in breaking down the Dean's own
1 " Life and Letters," p. 295. 2 Ibid., p. 299.

3 7S Five Great Oxford Leaders.
strength. At the funeral of Dr. Liddon his voice was
heard for the last time in the great cathedral when he
committed the body of his valued friend to the grave.
But that which had crushed him most was the loss of
his only son, a bright and scholarly young man, full
of all the classical and cultured tastes of his father, and
who had already shown not a little literary skill, likely
hereafter to have developed into something remarkable.
He passed away peacefully at Hyeres in January, 1888.
One of the latest of his works is that which will
perhaps hand down his memory as much as <.THE oxford
any other, and that is the " History of the movement."
Oxford Movement." It is, of course, but a fragment,
for it deals only with twelve years, from 1833-45. But
he told the story that he knew best, and left it for
others to complete ; indeed, as he said, he scarcely had
the heart to write more of it himself. But the book
describes most graphically, and in perfect good taste
and charity, the striking figures, the ebb and flow of
controversy, the successes and failures of perhaps the
most remarkable epoch in the whole of the modern
history of the Church. His own final estimate of the
outcome of the Movement is perhaps best described in
the following passage : " It was the resolute and serious
appeal from brilliant logic, and keen sarcasm, and
pathetic, impressive eloquence, to reality and experience,
as well as to history, as to the positive and substantial
characteristics of the traditional and actually existing
English Church, shown not on paper, but in work, and
in spite of contradictory appearances and inconsistent
elements ; and along with this, an attempt to put in a

Richard William Church. 379
fair and just light the comparative excellences and
defects of other parts of Christendom — excellences to
be ungrudgingly admitted, but not to be allowed to bar
the recognition of defects." x
The death of his son caused him to live greatly in
retirement, and it was only occasionally that
last days. ' . ',,..„
he was drawn out into public view. One
occasion was a Conference of representatives of the
High Church and Low Church parties, with special
reference to the prosecution of the Bishop of Lincoln,
and almost the last event of importance that occurred
in those last days was the delivery of Archbishop
Benson's judgment on the case. Of the decision he
said, "It is the most courageous thing that has come
from Lambeth for the last two hundred years." 2
On December 9, 1890, he passed away quietly. By
death and his own wish, his body was laid to rest in
funeral. Whatley churchyard, close to the south side
of the chancel wall. But, previously, funeral services
took place in St. Paul's Cathedral, with celebration of
the Holy Communion early, and full musical rendering
of the Burial Service at noon. The Archbishop of
Canterbury and the Bishop of London were present,
and large numbers of friends and representatives of the
clergy and laity. It was a happy thought that New
man's hymn, " Praise to the Holiest in the height," was
sung at the close of the service. He was very anxious
that no memorial either at St. Paul's or at Whatley
should be erected to his memory. His son-in-law, Dean
Paget, has brought out the secret of this and so many
' " Oxford Movement," p. 401. 2 " Life and Letters," p. 349-

380 Five Great Oxford Leaders.
other acts of self-effacement in his life in the restraining
influence of "a constant recollection of his
something that was awful and even dreadful humility.
to him ... he seemed to bear about with him a certain
hidden, isolating, constraining and ennobling fear."1
He dreaded unreal exaggeration of men's merits, and
shrank from anything approaching to undue praise of
himself. The following very remarkable words, which
he wrote to Dean Paget not long before his death,
reveal his thoughts on the subject : " I often have a
kind of waking dream ; up one road the image of a
man decked and adorned as if for a triumph, carried up
by rejoicing and exulting friends, who praise his good
ness and achievements ; and on the other road, turned
back to back to it, there is the very man himself, in
sordid and squalid apparel, surrounded not by friends, '
but by ministers of justice, and going on, while his
friends are exulting, to his certain and perhaps awful
judgment. That vision rises when I hear, not just and
conscientious endeavours to make out a man's character,
but when I hear the loose things that are said — often
in kindness and love — of those beyond the grave." 2
It is quite in accordance with the feelings expressed
in these words, that he desired that his grave at Whatley
should be marked only with a stone similar to the one
placed over that of his son at Hyeres, and that the
same inscription should be engraved upon it — the
sombre, penitent, and loving prayer from the Dies
Ira — 1 " Life and Letters," p. xxii.
2 Ibid., p. xxiv.

Richard William Church. 381
" Rex tremendae majestatis
Qui salvandos salvas gratis,
Salva me, fons pietatis.
" Quasrens me sedisti lassus,
Redemisti crucem passus,
Tantus labor non sit cassus."

Such a life as that of Dean Church is a great en-
general couragement and consolation to loyal sons
estimate. 0f the Church of England. It serves to
assure them that, in spite of apparent failures and short
comings, in the midst of great entanglements from her
connection with the State, though scarcely ever free
from harassing controversy and strife of tongues,
though many who claim membership in her ranks seem
strangely to have failed in absorbing her true Catholic
spirit, she has not yet lost the power of training great
and noble children. She has not altogether failed to
retain the allegiance of men of learning, culture, taste,
and, above all, of Christian character in its noblest form.
Dean Church commended the Church of England to
men of intellect by his extraordinary thoroughness and
depth of reading ; he adorned the doctrine of Jesus
Christ, of His Holy Church, by a beautiful life ; he ex
pounded the Catholic faith in writings of unrivalled
purity of style ; he could make the simple truths of
Christianity intelligible to the peasants of Somerset,
and the mysteries of the Kingdom of God more and
more acceptable to the intellectual apprehension of the
University students of Oxford, and the busy men of the
world in London. The stamp of his influence will remain

0

82 Five Great Oxford Leaders.

for many a year on the capitular life and cathedral services
of St. Paul's Cathedral ; and the fearless courage of the
Junior Proctor of 1845 will long be remembered as an
inspiration for all who love justice and true liberty of
thought, and are willing to face unpopularity rather
than betray the truth. Having once learned from
Newman and others at Oxford what is im- his loyalty
plied in the "Kingdom of God, he never TO "the
faltered in a life-long witness in its behalf, kingdom of
Of this Kingdom he has said: "It is high
spiritual interests that we have to guard, the highest
that we can conceive among us — the faith, the spirit,
the gifts, the life of what we believe to be Christ's Holy
Catholic Church. This high idea of what we mean by
the Church is not only the true one, not only the one
really worthy the enthusiasm of Churchmen, but it is
the safest and most powerful appeal to the thoughts of
reasonable men. It was this that, in days of danger
fifty years ago — the revival of the great idea of the
Church, the extrication of it, in its religious and spiritual
significance, from the earthly associations which had
encumbered and obscured it — it was this which, in spite
of great difficulties, great troubles, great disasters,
staved off the dangers, and infused new life and eleva
tion and strength into all our religion." x
And then taking up the words of our Lord, " My
Kingdom is not of this world," he spoke of the warnings
they convey as to the temper and method of the Church's
warfare. "And above all," he said, "they warn us
against a temptation which has before now come in the
1 " Advent Sermons," p. 82.

Richard William Church. 383
path ofthe Church, and may again — the temptation of
paying too high a price to gain or to retain the advan
tages of this world. There are few among us with
knowledge so large and thought so comprehensive as to
be able to take in the full measure of the blessing of a
Church like ours, which can speak to the nation as
nothing else can, which holds such a machinery for good
in its hands. But we may be asked to pay too highly
for keeping what we so value. We may be asked to
give up in exchange what we have no right to part with ;
to barter things that concern the life of the Church as a
religious body ; to turn the Church which we have
received into something different ; to consent to pre
cipitate experiments and ill-considered compromises ;
to .rush, under the alarm and perhaps danger of the
moment, into projects of hasty change, in the hope of
stopping a cry. Let us do our best ; let us try to leave
things better than we found them in the Church and in
the world ; let us ' quit us like men ' — men of sense,
men of courage, if we are forced into a struggle which
must be a trying and a stern one ; but let us remember,
amid all its fortunes, Who has said, ' My Kingdom is not
of this world.' " l 1 " Advent Sermons.," p. 86.

Note to Page 220.
Since the "Life" was published the following more
accurate account has been given : —
" It was about ten o'clock that I heard the faint but distinct
utterance, ' Thou Lord God of Hosts,' as if he were conscious of
a Presence we could not see. Later on there came a sort of
triumphant burst, with the words, ' My Lord, and my God.' It was
not as given in the ' Life,' only ' My God,' — any one could say that.
He said the words with an emphasis of victorious, assured faith, as
if the vision were revealed to him of the Master he had loved and
served so faithfully." — " Story of Dr. Pusey's Life," p, 552.

INDEX

Absolution,. 53, 188, 189, 196, 366
Achilli, Dr., 130
Ampfield, 42
"Apologia," 10, 11, 59, 73, 78, 80,
82, 85, 98, 99, 100, 106, 107, 109,
120, 134, 142, 184, 338
Apostolical Succession, 27, 62, 82,
85, 109, 203
Arnold, Dr., 14, 163
 , Matthew, 319
Articles, Thirty-nine, 103, J^., 132,
199, 209
Ascot, 216, 220
"Assize Sermon, The," 26, 60, 81
Athanasian Creed, 213, 269, 270

B
Bagot, Bishop, 106, ill, 169, 173
Bampton Lectures, Liddon's, 241,
287
Baptism, Keble on, 50, 51
 , Pusey on, 165
Barff, Rev. A., 360
Barker, Miss, 5
Bennett, Rev. W. J., 212
Benson, Archbishop, 109, 162, 280,
367» 379
Birmingham Oratory, 128, 129, 142
Blomfield, Bishop, 8, 171, 177, 19S
Bonn, 161, 221
 Conference, 267, 268
Bournemouth, 57
Bowden, J. W., 73, 116, 142
Bright, Dr. W., 242, 287

Bulgarian atrocities, 258
Burgon, Dean, 10, 14, 61, 3I9
Burrows, Rev. W. H., 125, 324,
304
Butler, Bishop, 7, 56, 78
 , Rev. W., 57, 232, 234, 237

Carter, Rev. T. T., 198, 232, 268
Christ Church, Oxford, 152, 159,
160, 172, 201, 219, 220, 230,
237> 243. 280, 302
" Christian Year, The," 16-20, 43,
96
Church, R. W., early life, 314;
Wadham College, 315, 316;
spiritual education, 316-318 ;
degree, 318 ; Oriel Fellowship,
318, 319; Ordination, 320;
Junior Proctor, 323, seq. ; the
veto, 324-326 ; relations with
Newman, 316-318, 326, 327;
the Guardian, 329, 330 ; foreign
travel, 330, 369, 370, 376,
377 ; Dante, 331, seq. ; Church
and State, 334-336 ; Ecclesi
astical Courts, 336-338; disci
pline of the Christian character,
338, seq. ; marriage, 342 ; What
ley Vicarage, 343, seq., 357-36° ;
village sermons, 345, seq. ; cor
respondence, 349, seq. ; powers
of judgment, 352, 366; St.
Anselm, 353, seq. ; Deanery of
St. Paul's, 356, seq. ; the Chap
ter, 361 ; the Choir, 361, 362 ;
2 C

386

Five Great Oxford Leaders.

services, 362, seq. ; finance,'
365 ; ritualism, 366, 367 ; con
fidence in the Church, 367, 368 ;
sermons, 369 ; " Giffs of Civiliza
tion," 370-373 ; Bible criticism,
374 ; breadth of view, 373 ;
style, 375 ; character and per
sonality, 375-377, 380 ; friends,
349. 377. 378 ; the Oxford
Movement, 378 ; last days and
death, 379; funeral, 379, 380;
estimate, 381-3S3
Church, General, 314, 330
"Church and State," 334-336
Clough, A., 319
Colenso, Bishop, 37, 204
Coleridge, Sir j., 13, 19-21, 28,
35. 42, 44. 57. *°5
Confession, 53, 189, 214, 215, 271,
366
Convocation, revival of, 197
Copeland, Rev. W. J., 5, 84
Copleston, Dr., 14, 15, 22, 75, 157
Cuddesdon, 159, 160, 175, 234-237,
240

Dale, Dr. R. W., 58, 226
 , Rev. T. P., 275
Daniel, Book of, 126, 158, 204, 205
Dante, 247, 331-333
Darwin, C, 118, 293, 294
Denison, Archdeacon, 36, 54, 198,
201
 , Bishop, 153
Development, essay on, 117, 118,
263
Disraeli, B. (Lord Beaconsfield),
120, 260
Dollinger, Dr. I., 97, 107, 266. 267
Dodsworth, Rev. W., 187, 193
" Dream of Gerontius," 143-145
Dumford, Bishop, 73
E
"Eastward Position," 21 1, 271, 345
Ecclesiastical Courts, 336, 337

"Eirenicon," the, 135, 206, seq._,
265
E.C.U., 2ii, 219, 269
Enraght, Rev. R. W., 220, 275
" Essays and Reviews," 37, 38, 53,
202, seq., 205, 350
Evangelicals, 98, 203, 315, 316

Faber, Rev. F. W., 120, 128, 148,
3i8
Farrar, Dean, 217, 218 '
Fairford, 43, 154
Forbes, Bishop A. P., 37, 54, 57,
199, 213, 214, 303
Fraser, Bishop, 14, 319, 356
Froude, J. A., 24, 87, 115, 134
 , R. H., 10, 11, 14, 23-27,
79, 80, 82, 83
 , " Remains " of, 25, 59, 103,
170"

Germany, 155, 158, 159, 178, 294
Gibbs, W., 65
Gladstone, W. E., 9, 20, 62, 63, 87,
97, 12°. 139. M4, *78, 181, 186,
221, 260, 330, 337, 351, 357
Golightly, Rev. C. P., 97, 161, 170,
188
Gore, Rev. C, 287
Gorham Controversy, 36, 52, 192-
*95. '97
Goulburn, Dean, 162
"Grammar of Assent," 72, 136
Gray, Bishop, 37, 289
 , Dr. Asa, 349, 377
Green, Rev. S. F., 220
Gregory, Dean, 271, 360, 365
Gresley, W., 153
Greswell, R., 153
Guardian, The, 137, 313, 329, 330
Guillemard, Rev. H. P., 323-325
H
Haddan, Rev. A, W., 5, 241
Hadleigh Meeting, the, 11, 27, 81

Index.

387

Hamilton, Bishop, 202, 203, 230,
240, 279
Hampden, Bishop, 94, 164, 179,
191, 192
Hawkins, Provost, 14, 22, 74, 76-
78, 157, 180, 319, 321
Heathcote, Sir W., 16, 35, 42
Herbert, George, 7, 96
Higher Criticism, the, 53, 126, 127,
204, 294, seq., 374
Holland, Rev. H. S., 242, 244, 279,
360
Hook, Dr., 8, II, 58, 61, 168, 171,
181, 185, 213
Howley, Archbishop, 166, 169, 177
Hursley, 16, 35,39, 42-44, 57

Jelf, Rev. R. W., 152, 180
Jerusalem bishopric, 108, 178
Johnson, Professor M., 119, 349
Jowett, Professor, 58, 200, 201, 324
K
Keate, Dr., 152
Keble, J., author of Oxford Move
ment, 9, seq. ; early life, 13 ;
Corpus Christi College, 13 ; Oriel
Fellowship, 13-15 ; curacy, 15,
16; "Christian Year," 16-19;
professor of poetry, 20, 21 ;
Provostship of Oriel, 22 ; pupils,
23-26 ; Assize Sermon, 26 ;
" Tracts for the Times," 27, seq. ;
defends Tract XC, 27-29 ; letters
to Newman, 30 ; " Lyra Imocen-
tium," 30-34; Psalter, 173 ; Hurs
ley, 35 ; marriage, 36 ; work for
the Church, 36-38 ; parochial
life, 38-40 ; ritualism, 40-42 ;
church restoration, 42, 43 ;
meeting with Pusey and New
man, 43 ; personal appearance,
56, 57; character and personal
religion, 21, 45-47 5 sermons, 47-
52 ; controversy, "52^-54 ; confes
sion, 54, 55; "Life of Bishop

Wilson," 55, 56; last days, 57;
death, 57, 209 ; funeral, 57, 58 ;
estimate of, by Liddon, 21, 66,
67
Keble, Mrs., 35
Keble College, 64-67, 210, 216,
279, 290
King, Bishop, 14, 260, 286, 379
Kingsley, Rev. C, 134

Lambeth Conference, 1878, 214
Law's "Serious Call," 55, 72
"Lead, kindly Light," 80, 221
Leo XIII., 139
"Library of the Fathers," 85, 166,
3*8
Liddell, Dean, 172, 202, 219
Liddon, H. P., early life, 229 ;
Christ Church, 230 ; ordination,
231 ; Wantage curacy, 232, seq. ;
priestly training, 233, 234 ; Cud
desdon, 234-237 ; St. Edmund's
Hall, 237 ; relations with Dr.
Pusey, 238, 302, 303 ; Bishop
Hamilton, 240, 241 ; Bampton
Lectures, 241, 242 ; University
sermons, 242, 243 ; life at Oxford,
243, 286-291 ; Canon of St.
Paul's, 244, seq., 360, 365 ; ser
mons, 247, seq. ; Roman contro
versy, 261-265 5 efforts at re
union, 265, 266 ; Bonn Confer
ences, 267, 26S ; Athanasian
Creed, 269, 270 ; confession,
271 ; ritualism, 271, seq. ; Privy
Council judgments, 273, seq. ;
work at St. Paul's, 278, 279,304,
306 ; Ireland Professorship, 279,
seq. ; Bible Readings, 283, seq. ;
science and religion, 291, seq. ;
the Higher Criticism, 294-301 ;
minor works, 303, 304 ; " Life
of Dr. Pusey," 302, 304 ; Eastern
tour, 305 ; preferment declined,
305, 306 ; death, 307, 377 ;
funeral, 307, 308 ; estimate, 308-
3I0

388

Five Great Oxford. Leaders.

Lightfoot, Canon, 360
Littlemore, 30, 97, 98, 100-102,
107, in, H2, 119, 129, 174, 182,
2IO
Loyd, Bishop, 155, 159-161
Lock, Dr. W., 18, 31, 57, 65
"Loss and Gain," 129
Lowder, Rev. C, 60, 250, 259
" Lux Mundi," 301
"Lyra Apostolica," 80, 81, 143
" Lyra Innocentium," 31-34, 43

M
Macbride, Dr., 156
Mackonochie, Rev. A, H., 232,
259. 273, 274
Maltby, Bishop, 152
Manning, H. E., Cardinal, 120,
124, 136, 139. 148, 174. 176, 191,
*93> *94» 206, 207, 229
Mansel, Dean, 360
Marriott, Charles, 5, 166, 316
Martyrs' Memorial, 97, 170
Maurice, Rev. F. D., 165, 203
Mill, Dr., 162, 191
Milman, Dean, 360
Milner's " Church History," 73
"Minor Prophets, Commentary
on," 191
Moberly, Bishop, 5, 20, 57, 118,
191, 240
 , G. H., 33
Moore, Rev. Aubrey, 65, 291, 292
Mozley, Rev. J. B., 5, 12, 116, 118,
121, 124, 166, 179, 320, 325, 327,
349
 , Rev. T. B., 14, 15, 27; 57,
59. 72, 101, 127
1  , Mrs. J., 112, 116
N
Newman, J. H., early life, 72;
Trinity College, 73 ; degree, 73 ;
Oriel Fellowship, 74; Curate of
St. Clement's, 75 ; theological
education, 76; St. Alban's Hall,

76; Oriel Tutorship, 77, 78;
Vicar of St. Mary's, 78, seq. ;
foreign tour, 79-81 ; " Tracts for
the Times " begun, 82 ; sermons
at St. Mary's, 86, seq. ; Hamp
den controversy, 94 ; Via Media,
95-99 ; life at Littlemore, 100,
seq. ; Tract XC, 103, seq. ; Jeru
salem bishopric, 108 ; sermons
on the Church, no; resignation
of St. Mary's and Littlemore,
112; farewell sermon, 112-114;
Essay on Development, 117, seq. ;
secession, 30, 120, 183; its effect,
120-125, 326 ; farewell to Oxford,
119; Birmingham Oratory, 128 ;
controversy with Anglicans, 129,
132, 134 ; action against, by
Dr. Achilli, 130 ; University
Lectures, 130, 131 ; controversy
with Kingsley, 134 ; with Pusey,
135; 136 ; "Grammar of Assent,"
136; on infallibility, 136-138;
letter to Duke of Norfolk, 139 ;
created cardinal, 140 ; person
ality, 86, 87, 141, 142 ; death,
"43. 377 5 writings, 143 ; poems,
80, 143-145 ; estimate, 145-148

O
Oakeley, Rev. F., 103, 120, 161,
176, 183
Oriel College, description of, 13 ;
importance of, 14, 15 ; Fellows,
74. 3*8, 319; common room, 76,
Hi, 154; Provostship, 22, 77,
78
Otterbourne, 42
Oxford Movement, origin, 4-8 ;
author of, 9-12 ; " History of,"
by Church, 5, 23, 24, 26, 59, 83,
94. 96, 97. 104, 164, 313, 316-
318, 321, 323, 326, 329, 378,
379 ; real character of, 58-60 ;
Liddon, Dr., on, 230, 238, 239,
303-310; results of, 36, 60-64

Index.

389

Paget, Rev. F., 142, 216, 287. 344
379, 38o
Palmer, Rev. W., n, 27, 82, 83,
97, "8, 175
Papal aggression, 123, 195
Penzance, 57
 , Lord, 220, 276, 277
Perceval, Hon. and Rev. A.P.,27, 82
Phillpotts, Bishop, 187, 192, 197, 198
Pius IX., 139, 195, 303
Privy Council, 37, 53, 192^., 198,
243, 260, 271, 274, 276, 368
Proctors' Veto, 325, 326
Prynne, Rev. G. R., 187-
Public Worship Regulation Act,
260, 261, 275
Purchas, Rev. J., 211, 271
Pusey, E. B., early life, 151, 152 ;
Christ Church, 152 ; Oriel Fellow
ship, 154 ; in Germany, 155, 156 ;
ordained deacon, 157 ; marriage,
157 ; books on Germany, 158,
159 ; Hebrew professor, 159-161 ;
ordained priest, 160 ; Canon of
Christ Church, 160; defended
cathedrals, 162 ; joins Tract Move
ment, 163 ; Tract on Baptism,
165 ; " Library of the Fathers,"
166 ; defence of Tracts, 167-169 ;
letter to Bishop of Oxford, 170;
wife's death, 171 ; self-discipline,
172; defends Tract XC, 175,
176 ; letter to Archbishop of
Canterbury, 178 ; his sermon
condemned, 179-182, 322 ; devo
tional books, 182 ; letter on New
man's secession, 183, 184; builds
St. Saviour's, Leeds, 185, 186 ;
founds Sisterhoods, 186, 187 ;
relations with Bishop Wilber
force, 188, 196 ; sermon on Abso
lution, 188, 189 ; self-humiliation,
189, 190 ; Bible commentary,
191 ; Hampden controversy, 164,
191, 192 ; Gorham controversy,
192-194 ; letter to the Bishop of
London, 196 ; inhibition, 196 ;

the Real Presence, 198, 199; rela
tions with Jowett, 200, 201 ; letter
to Record, 203 ; to Lord Shaftes
bury, 203 ; lectures on Daniel,
204, 205 ; sermons on science,
etc., 205 ; " Essays and Re
views," 202-206; "Eirenicon,"
206-208 ; work for reunion, 208,
209 ; speech at foundation of
Keble College, 210 ; opinions
on ritualism, 210, 211 ; the Ben
nett case, 212 ; the Athanasian
Creed, 213 ; confession, 214,
215 ; last sermons, 216 ; contro
versy with Farrar, 217, 218;
respect for him, 218, 219 ; last
hours, 220 ; funeral, 221 ; ser
mons, 222 ; estimate of, 223,
226 ; personal appearance, 154,
219
Pusey, Mrs., 157, 171, 172
 , Lucy, 186
 , Philip, 167, 172, 216, 217
 Library, 226, 290
 Church, 160
" Puseyite," 123, 164, 174
R
Randall, Rev. J. L., 232
Real Presence, the, 19, 151, 179
198, 262
Reunion of Christendom, 208, 26?.
266
Robertson, Rev. F. W., 165
Ritualism, 40-42, 210, 211, 260,
261, 271, seq., 366, 367
Rogers, F. (Lord Blachford), 58,
320, 321, 338, 340, 349, 377
Romanism, 5, 25, 30, 80, 95, 98,
100, 103, in, 112,117, 120, 123,
129, 132, 145, seq., 167, seq., 176,
182, 183, 191, 193, seq., 206, seq.,
¦2.(z\, seq., 326, seq., 337, 350.
See Vatican Council
Rose, Rev. H. J., 10, 11, 27, 158
Rosmini on " Five Wounds of the
Holy Church," 303, 304
Russell, Lord John, 195

390

Five Great Oxford Leaders.

St. Alban Hall, 76, 77
St. Anselm, 354, seq.
St. Clement's, Oxford, 75, 77, 102,
129
St. Edmund Hall, 237, 243
St. James', Piccadilly, 247, 250, 369
St. Mary's, Oxford, 76, 78, 86, 100,
101, in, 114, 115,117, 143,172,
182, 244
St. Paul's, London, 244, 278-281,
307, 308, 360, seq., 382
St. Philip Neri, 128
St. Saviour's, Leeds, 185, 186, 191,
199
Salisbury, Marquis of, 224
Sanday, Professor, 6, 46
Scott's " Commentary," 72
Secession, Newman's, 30, 31, 119-
125, 183, 326
Sellon, Miss, 187, 216
Sermons, Church's, 225, 338, seq.,
345,'*?-, 358, 359, 3^9, '«?¦, 382,
383 ; Keble's, 47-52 ; Liddon's,
242, 243, 247, seq., 275, 283, 297,
305 ; Newman's, 75, 76, 86-93,
316-318 ; Pusey's, 162, 179, 188,
198, 216, 222
Shaftesbury, Earl of, 152, 203
Shairp, Professor, 17, 45, 86, 87, 115
Short, Bishop, 152
 , Rev. T., 73, 74
Sikes, Rev. T., 84
Sisterhoods, 186, seq., 232, 233
Stainer, Dr., 361, 362
Stanley, Dean, 17, 201, 202, 203,
213. 269. 32°. 324. 377
Sumner, Archbishop, 193
 , Bishop, 176

Tait, Archbishop, 104, 202, 213,
214, 269, 368

Talbot, Bishop, 65, 210
Temple, Archbishop, 202, 302, 350
Tooth, Rev. A., 367
Tract XC, 27-30, 61, 103-106,
in, 174, 177, 320, seq.
Tract on "Baptism," 85, 165
"Tracts for the Times," 6, 27, 29,
81-84, 93, 98, 163, seq., 169, 320
Trinity College, Oxford, 73, 119,
141
Truro Cathedral, 64, 163

Vatican Council, 136, 139, 209,
266, 350
Veto, Proctors', 324, 325
Via Media, the, 95, 100, 123,
171 W
Wadham College, 183, 315
Wantage, 57, 232, 237, 240
Ward, W. G., 30, 103, 120, 136,
176, 183, 323, seq.
Whately, Archbishop, 14, 74, 76,
78, 177
Whatley, 342, seq., 379, 380
Wilberforce, R., 23, 161, 194
 , Bishop S., 14, 61, 160, 188,
196, 213, 234, 237, 244
Wilkinson, Bishop G. H., 14
Williams, Isaac, 5, 6, 23, 46, 98, 103,
III, 120, 178, 191, 198, 299, 322
 , Dr. Rowland, 202
Wilson, Bishop, 7, 55, 56, 83
 , Rev. H. B., 104, 202
Wiseman, Cardinal, 79, 99, 1281
*45, *75, 195

Yonge, Miss C, 39, 42, 57
Young, Rev. Peter, 33, 176

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the Bishop's Hostel, Lincoln. [In preparation.
THE CHURCH, ITS MINISTRY AND
AUTHORITY.
The Rev. Darwell Stone, M.A.,
Principal of the Missionary College,
Dorchester. [in preparation.
EARLY CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
The General Editor. [Published.
THE APOSTLES' CREED.
The Rev. H. F. D. Mackay, M.A.,
Pusey House, Oxford. [In preparation,
A HISTORY OF THE RITES OF THE
CHURCH.
The Rev. F. E. Brightman, M.A.,
Pusey House, Oxford.- [In preparation.
MEDIEVAL uHURCH MISSIONS.
C. R. Beazley, M.A., Fellow of
Merton College, Oxford [In preparation.

A HISTORY OF THE CHURCH TO 325.
The Rev.H. N.*Bate, M.A., Ex
amining Chaplain to the Bishop of
London. [Published.
AN ELEMENTARY HISTORY OF THE
CHURCH IN CREAT BRITAIN.
The Rev. W. H. Hutton, B.D.,
Fellow and Tutor of St. John's
College, Oxford. [Published.
A HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
The Right Rev. Leighton Coleman,
D.D., LL.D., Bishop of Delaware,
U.S.A. [In preparation.
THE REFORMATION ON THE CONTINENT.
The Rev. B. J. Kidd. B.D., Keble
College, Tutor of Non - Collegiate
Students, Oxford. [Published.
THE REFORMATION IN CREAT BRITAIN.
H. O. Wakeman, M.A., and the
General Editor. [Published.
A COMPARATIVE HISTORY OF RE
LIGIONS.
TheGENERAL Editor. [In preparation.
HISTORY OF THE PRAYER-BOOK.
The Rev. J. H. Maude, M.A., Ex
amining Chaplain to the Bishop of St.
Albans. [Published.
INSTRUCTIONS IN CHRISTIAN DOC
TRINE.
The Rev. V. S. S. Coles. M.A.,
Principal of Pusey House, Oxford.
[In preparation.
A MANUAL FOR CONFIRMATION.
By the Rev. T. Field, D.D., Warden
of Radley College. [Published.
THE ARTICLES OF THE CHURCH OF
ENGLAND. In Two Volumes.
The Rev. B.J. Kidd, B.D.
Vol. I. — Articles i.-viii.
Vol. II. — Articles ix.-xxxix.
Or in i Vol., 2*., net. [Published.
THE FUTURE STATE.
The Rev. S. C. Gayford, M.A.,
Vice-Principal of Cuddesdon Theo
logical College. [In preparation.

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