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L E T T E E

THE REV. F. D. MAURICE,

PROFESSOR OF XHEOLOGV IN KING S COLLEGE, LONLON.

ATTEMPT TO DEFEAT THE NOMINATION OF
DR. HAMPDEN.

LONDON :
W. PICKERING, 17 7, PICCADILLY.
OXFORD; F. MACPHERSON.
MDCCCXLVII.

The friend to whom this letter was addressed, has
some hesitation in availing himself of the Author's
permission to give to the world what, as may easily
be conjectured, could not have been written with
out a painful sacrifice of personal feelings to a sense
of public duty. But, that permission having been
accorded, it hardly seemed right to withhold so
important a testimony to the cause of truth and
justice on an occasion which seemed especially to
invite the repetition of the same protest which three
years ago he offered against a similar agitation
from an opposite quarter. Probably, by the time
that these pages have passed through the press, the
question to which they refer will have been settled
in the only way in which it can be settled consist
ently with the dignity of the Constitution, and the
best interests of the Church of England : but it still
may be of use to have left this record, that it was
possible to feel a deep antipathy to Dr. Hampden's
views, and yet to feel more strongly the claims of
judgment, mercy, and truth, and that there are
some sincere members of the Church and the
Universities, who feel that the only insult which
can be offered to them on the present occasion
would be not in the carrying out of the de
liberate nomination of the Crown, but in the

levity of withdrawing it in deference to a clamour
which can always be raised by a few active agitators
against a clergyman whose opinions on difficult
theological questions are not understood by the
mass of his profession, and which is likely
wholly to disregard the personal merits of the
individual. No apology is offered for the brevity of Mr.
Maurice's letter. To discuss the merits and de
merits of the Bampton Lectures themselves, would
indeed require not pamphlets but volumes. But to
expose the danger and absurdity of making such
questions the ground of popular agitation, and of
resting on a University censure of which the prin
ciple is hardly defended by any one, the earnest re
monstrance of these few pages may be as effectual
as the lengthened argument of many chapters. And
if any one should be inclined to cavil at the noble
generosity and wonted carelessness of self which
has induced the Author of the letter to allow his
name to appear on such an occasion, it is hoped
that the blame whatever it be will be thrown upon
those who have taken upon themselves the respon
sibility of publishing it.
December 6, 1847.

My Dear — ,
I have heard with deep concern that an
effort will be made to prevent the intentions of her
Majesty's ministers respecting Dr. Hampden from
taking effect. I think you know how little I can
be pleased with their choice. The philosophical
and theological views expressed in Dr. Hampden's
article on Aquinas, in the Encyclopaedia Britannica,
are, I suspect, more offensive to me, than they
can be to the great body of his opposers. His
pamphlet on the Admission of Dissenters seemed to
me, when I read it, especially weak and unsatisfac
tory. Of his Bampton Lectures I am not compe
tent to speak, for as I had no vote in 1836 I was
not bound to read them, as of course those were
who pronounced judgment upon them ; but all the
extracts .which I have seen, whether made by friends
or foes, have puzzled me exceedingly. I could be
lieve that they were open to the bad construction
given them by his accusers ; I could as easily see
that they were susceptible of the meaning he gave
them himself in his Inaugural Lecture. Lastly, I
have not heard of any subsequent utterance of his
which would awaken in me any special interest or
sympathy.

Having these impressions, I believe that I am
quite impartial when I offer the following reasons
why consistent members of the English Church
should not take part in this new agitation.
I. Those who attempt to prevent Dr. Hampden's
election to the See of Hereford, under pretence that
the opinions he has put forth disqualify him for the
office of a Bishop, do in effect endorse and sanction
the opinions of all the Bishops whom they have not
opposed. Or if they do not go this length, they
confess that they have been wrong in permitting
the election of previous Bishops, and they pledge
themselves to oppose all hereafter from whose views
they may dissent. I see nothing but the most dan
gerous sacrifice of truth in the first alternative,
nothing but the threat of hopeless and interminable
agitation in the second. Each Bishop elect will be
met at Bow Church by a troop of High Church or
Low Church opponents, who will hold him bound
to answer according to their maxims ; and if he
does not, will cause the See to be vacant for some
months. II. If it shall be alleged that this is not a case of
condemning opinions upon private judgment, that
the verdict of the University has gone forth against
Dr. Hampden, then I solemnly protest that the
Church is not bound by the decree of so utterly
incompetent and unrighteous a tribunal as the
Convocation of Oxford. And I am certain that
the chief opponents of Dr. Hampden must join in
this protest, unless they are prepared to retract very

deliberate sentiments which they expressed at the
time of Mr. Ward's degradation.
III. The charges which were produced against
Dr. Hampden, are contained in certain sentences
or half sentences selected from his different writings,
precisely in the same way in which sentences and
half sentences were collected from the writings of
the (so called) Low Church divines, in the time of
their unpopularity, from the writings of the (so
called) Tractarian divines, in the time of their un
popularity, for the purpose of producing an impres
sion which must be onesided and unfair. It is a
duty to denounce this system in one case, and in all
cases. Every one who abets it, or connives at it, is
the supporter of one of those lies which can endure
but for a moment ; he is not a lover of truth, what
ever he may pretend ; his injustice will assuredly
recoil upon himself. If the experience of the last
ten years has not taught us this, we must expect
ten more terrible years of bitter strife, confusion,
and hatred, to fix it in our hearts.
IV. Believing the statements of Dr. Hampden re
specting facts and doctrines to be very confused, I
yet will not be tied down, as I shall be if I denounce
his election, to the views of his opponents on these
points. And let them beware of shaking their fists
at me, and calling me a Rationalist because I say
so. In certain books called " Lives of the Saints,"
we are taught that fictions were as good as facts,
provided certain true ideas were suggested by them.
This assertion involves, as the Quarterly Review

observed, the very principle of Strauss. Rationalism
in its highest development. Against this Rational
ism. — put forth under the sanction of Dr. Hampden's
ablest opponent, the man from whom the whole
school of Ms opponents have derived all the wea
pons thev wield against him, — the assertion, far too
exclusive I admit, of the all-importance of facts m
the Bampton Lectures, is a useful testimony. It
his horror of dogmatism may lead bv one route to
a denial of the faith, their love of it, we see. takes
us along the same road rather more rapidly. I
have no wish to assume that this must he the ter
mination of an intellectual confusion in their ease :
hut then do not let them assume that it must he so
in his. I do not think he ought to retract his asser
tions respecting the dignity of facts ahove dogmas.
I believe these assertions to contain most precious
truth. He may have drawn it out imperfectly : he
may have opposed it to other truth: he mav, under a
strong1 impression, have used exaggerated language.
which he has since endeavoured, perhaps not suc
cessfully, hut I think with perfect honesty, to
modify hy statements of a different kind. But we
cannot afford to let go his truth, even apparently
to set it at nought, when we see such fearful conse
quences springing from the denial of it.
T But clergymen will say to themselves, ** These
opinions of Dr. Hampden are rationalistic : Ration
alism was slightly at work in the minds of young
men ten years ago : it is far more actively at work
now : what we denounced moderately then, we

should denounce with far gxeater severity now."
Yes! if you have found the resistance you adopted
ten years ago effectual ; if it did restrain the ra
tionalistic tendencies of young men ; if it did make
them orthodox and holy, go on with it ; try again
what you have found so profitable, let us have more
votes of Convocation, more letters of Presbyters,
more ravings of High Church newspapers. But if
these are the things which have made the hearts of
the young men sick, which have taught them to
loathe their University, their country, their Church,
their faith, wiiich have begotten in them the sus
picion that the whole system we are living in is
rotten and false ; if all birds of evil omen, the crows
and screech-owls of Rationalism and Commimism
are crying in their different tongues, "Long life to
c' these Mahmouds ; so long' as these last we shall
" never want dismantled and desolate hearts to perch
" upon and to roost in ;" then indeed it is time to re
solve that we will not go on in this course, whoever
may urge us to it ; that we will separate our zeal
wholly, absolutely from spite against particular men ;
that we will seek to assert truth, more than to detect
error ; that we will watch the bye ways and back
doors by which evil and falsehood may enter into
our own hearts, not speculate upon the degrees in
which they possess those of our brethren. If may
be long before we learn to carry out these maxims ;
hut it is time that we should begin to practise them,
at least if we heed the words of Him who said, " It

" must needs be that offences come, but woe to that
" man bv whom the offence cometh ;" and " With.
" wThat measure ye mete it shall be measured to you
" again." Very truly yours, F. MAURICE.

OXFOBD :
PKINTED BY I. SHKIMPTON.

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