Thomas

T3

THE REPROOF

IGNORANCE AND CALUMNY,

A REPRINT

ADDRESSES OF LARGE BODIES OF THE CLERGY

MEMBERS OF CONVOCATION

WHO MET IN THE

COMMON ROOM OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE

DURING THE CONTROVERSY OF 1836,

WITH THE ANSWERS TO THE SAME.

OXFORD,
JOHN HENRY PARKER ;
AND 377, STRAND, LONDON.
1848.

Extract from Lord John Russell's Letter, Dec. 10, 1847.
" I had hoped the conduct of Dr. Hampden, as Regius
Professor of Divinity, and head of a Theological Board at
Oxford, had effaced the memory of that unworthy proceed
ing."

Extract from the Letter of the Bishop of Exeter,
Dec. 13, 1847.
"Without presuming to question the right of your Lordship,
as ap individual, to condemn any public act of any body of
men whatsoever, I yet may take the liberty of saying, that
I cannot recognise the fitness (I am unwilling to use a stronger
word) of the First Minister of the Crown thus publicly and
officially holding up to indignation a solemn decree of one of
the most eminent and venerated bodies, not only in England,
but in Europe."

BAXTER, PRINTER, OXFORD.

Address from the Clergy of the Deanery of
Furness, in the Diocese of Chester.
To the Rev. Vaughan Thomas and the Members of
Convocation of the University of Oxford, assembled
in the Common Room of Corpus Christi College.
Ulverstone, March 10, 1836.
We, the undersigned Clergy of the Deanery of
Furness, in the Diocese of Chester and County of
Lancaster, feeling the deepest interest in the im
portant question now at issue in the University of
Oxford, (in which we consider the character of that
University, and the purity and soundness of our
Christian Faith, to be most awfully involved,) and
being now assembled for the purpose of signing a
Petition to His Majesty on the present state of our
Ecclesiastical affairs, are unwilling to separate without
availing ourselves of this occasion to offer the as
surance of our respectful gratitude and admiration to
those Resident Members of Convocation who have,
at such an important crisis, and under circumstances
of such painful but urgent necessity, so nobly stood
forward, with such exemplary courage and perse
verance, to rescue the character of the University,

and of the Church of England, from the imputation
of countenancing heretical and sceptical opinions,
calculated to unhinge the Faith of our people, and
to destroy the influence of Divine Truth on the minds
of men.

fgf° Answer mislaid.

Address from the Clergy of Ripon and its
Neighbourhood, in the County of York.
To the Rev. Vaughan Thomas and the Members of
Convocation of the University of Oxford, assembled
in the Common Room of Corpus Christi College.
Ripon, March 30, 1836.
We, the undersigned Clergy of Ripon and its
neighbourhood, are desirous to express in the most
respectful manner the sense of our grateful obligations
to those Members of Convocation in Oxford, who,
during the important Question which is now at issue
in that University, have so powerfully stood forth in
Defence of those blessed Truths, on which the very
existence of Christianity depends.
We earnestly hope, that the temporary check which
has been given to these exertions, will only be the
occasion of redoubled activity and perseverance in this

sacred cause, and shall be anxious to cooperate in any
measure which may hereafter be adopted, to secure the
sound and orthodox instruction of those who may be
solemnly entrusted with the Ministry of Christ's holy
Word, and who thereby may contribute to preserve
that efficiency, which the Church of England, as an
instrument in the hand of God, has hitherto main
tained in Christendom by the purity of its Faith and
the integrity of its Practice.

First Answer.
To the Rev. the Dean of Ripon and the Clergy of the
Neighbourhood. C. C. C. April 3, 1836.
Rev. Sir and Gentlemen,
Many Members of Convocation are absent, but as
soon as they meet again, the important Document I
received from you shall be communicated; in the
mean while I beg to assure you in the name and
behalf of the Committee, that we esteem very highly
such an expression of Christian feeling and conviction
upon the momentous questions which lie involved in
the business we have in hand. Up to the present time,
the University has ever supported the character of
Guardian of the pure and unadulterated truths of the

Gospel, and especially of those great Trinitarian
verities which heresy made it necessary to set forth
in formal propositions against the gainsayers, who had
successively contradicted them. Our Statute Book
bears witness to the solicitude of the University in
this matter. The Academic honours conferred upon
Bull, the Earl of Nottingham, Waterland, Burgh, and
Jones, all concur in the same proof] and doubtless
the University, mindful of its ancient constancy, will in
a farther stage of this business act in a, manner worthy
of its ancient fame, and established character.
I have the honour to be,
With the greatest respect,
Your most obedient and obliged servant,
V. THOMAS.

Second Answer.
To the Rev. the Dean of Ripon, and to the Clergy of
Ripon and its Neighbourhood, in the County of
York. C. C. C. April 30, 1836.
Gentlemen,
Upon the first Meeting of the Gentlemen of the
Committee after the Easter Vacation, I laid before
them the encouraging Testimonial which was trans-

mitted to mc by the Rev. the Dean of Ripon. I am
instructed in their name and on their behalf to express
the sense which they entertain of this mark of the
approbation of the Rev. the Dean and of the Clergy of
Ripon and its Neighbourhood. It is to all of us a
source of great satisfaction to find, that the principles
which have governed our conduct, and the great ends
we have been anxious to accomplish, are approved of
by our respected Brethren. These Principles of con
duct are, as we humbly hope, no other than those
which St. Paul has so strenuously pressed upon the
observance of the Ministers of Christ, when the Truths
of the Gospel are assailed : and as to the great ends
we have proposed to ourselves, they are the same with
those which have received the warranty of God's Holy
Word, and the sanction of the Church, the defence
and confirmation of the Gospel, and the driving away
all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God's
Word. I am,
Rev. Sir and Gentlemen,
With the greatest respect,
Your most obedient and obliged Servant,
V. THOMAS.

Address from the Clergy of the Diocese of
Canterbury.
To the Rev. Vaughan Thomas, B.D. and the Members
of Convocation of the University of Oxford, as
sembled in the Common Room of Corpus Christi
College. Canterbury, April 22, 1836.
We, the undersigned Clergy of the Diocese of Can
terbury, though not pretending to any jurisdiction in
matters connected with the Regulation of the Univer
sities, yet we cannot, as Ministers of the Established
Church, either regard with indifference the events
which have recently taken place at Oxford, nor can we
be satisfied that we shall have done our duty, so long
as we neglect to express our sympathy in that Godly
jealousy, with which you have struggled to preserve
the channels of Theology pure and untainted. Deeply
as we regret that an occasion for the exercise of this
jealousy should have arisen, we feel, that, under the
circumstances which called it into action, we owe to
you, to ourselves, and to the Church of which we are
Ministers, a public profession, that we are not insensible
to the magnitude of the interests involved in the points
at issue, nor to the debt of gratitude due to you, for
the noble stand you have made in defence of sound
doctrine. Signed on behalf of the Clergy of the Diocese,
JAMES CROFT,
Archdeacon.

Answer.
To the Venerable the Archdeacon and the Reverend the
Clergy of the Diocese of Canterbury.
C. C. C. April, 1836.
Gentlemen,
Your gratifying and encouraging Testimonial was
laid before the Members of Convocation assembled in
Corpus Common Room, on the first occasion of their
meeting after the Easter Vacation, it having been
some time before communicated to the Committee.
In the name and behalf of all, I have to express
our grateful sense of so distinguished a mark of your
approbation. Most truly does that important Docu
ment speak of the magnitude of the interests involved
in the points at issue. Those interests are no other
than the interests of revealed truth and of our truly
scriptural and apostolical Church, which, under Divine
Providence, is in these realms its" appointed witness,
keeper, and defender.
Most of the fundamental verities upon which (and
upon a right faith in them) it has pleased God to
make man's salvation to depend, have been in many
ways assailed by Dr. Hampden in his publications;
but in no way have they been so systematically im
pugned as by the representation, that, as those verities
are drawn out and stated in our Creeds, they are the
mere figments of Scholasticism, although it is well
known that some of the most momentous of them,

10
(I mean, those holy, primitive, and universal truths
which heresies had made it necessary for the first four
General Councils to assert and vindicate,) had their
existence as decrees of the universal Church above
700 years before Scholasticism as such was known
to the Christian world ; whilst in addition to these
historical facts, it is equally well known, as our
Church has asserted and maintained, that they may
be all proved by most certain warrants of Holy Writ.
Connecting Dr. Hampden's opinions as set forth in
his Bampton Lectures, his causes of Religious Dissent,
and its Postscript, with his recent appointment, I have
been led to the conclusion, that some Latitudinarian
measure is contemplated by the powers that be for
the abolition of all tests of a true faith, all articulations
positively of what is true, or negatively of what is
false, and all those other criteria of sound and
unsound in doctrine, by which (as by fences and
inclosures) the Lord's Vineyard and the labours of
His Workmen are protected from those who would
bring desolation upon the one, and interrupt and
ill-treat the other. I have the honour to be,
With the greatest respect.
Mr. Archdeacon and Gentlemen,
Your most obedient faithful servant,
V. THOMAS.

Address from the Clergy of the Diocese of
Rochester, and of the Peculiars therein.
To the Rev. Vaughan Thomas and the Members of
Convocation who have assembled in Corpus Christi
Common Room, Oxford. Rochester, May 10, 1836.
We, the undersigned Clergy of the Diocese of
Rochester, and of the Peculiars within that Diocese,
desire to express our gratitude to those Members of
Convocation at Oxford, who on the late trying occasion
have, according to our judgment, advocated the com
mon cause of the whole Christian Church.
It has been with profound regret that we have seen
a person appointed King's Professor of Divinity, whose
published Works impugn the judgment of all Christian
Antiquity, and are more particularly at variance with
the Articles of the English Church. We are aware
how painful it has been to those who are bound to
Dr. Hampden by the ties of acquaintance or Academical
connection to forget personal considerations in defence
of the Faith. We admire the temper, as well as the
firmness, which their conduct has exhibited. And we
intreat them to persevere (and such by the help of
God we profess to be our own determination) in main
taining the purity of that Apostolic system which we
have inherited from our fathers.

12

Answer.
To the Reverend the Clergy of the Diocese of Rochester,
and ofthe Peculiars within that Diocese.
C. C. C. May 12, 1836.
Gentlemen,
In the name of those Members of Convocation, who
lately assembled in the Common Room of Corpus
Christi College, in this University, in the discharge of
duties imposed upon them by Ministerial as well as
Academic obligations, I have to return our grateful
thanks, for an expression of approbation so numerously
signed, and by those of our brethren, whose practical
and parochial knowledge has enabled them to perceive
the fearful bearings of the questions at issue in the
present controversy, and also to appreciate the difficulty
of contending for the faith in such a temperate state of
mind, as neither to offend against the law of charity
through an excess of earnestness, nor against the
claims of truth by an over-studious complacency.
The cause in the support of which we have been
(and I fear must be still considered to be) engaged, is,
as you justly observe, " the cause of the whole Christian
Church." For amidst the many kinds and degrees of
error which have more or less deformed the Con
fessions of foreign Churches, their agreement in the
belief of the Trinitarian verities, (as set forth in the
three Creeds,) has hitherto served in some degree as

13
a bond of Christian fellowship, as well as a note of
orthodox belief; and any thing written to degrade or
disparage those ancient and universal foundation-
truths, is an attack upon the faith of the whole Chris
tian world.
The constancy which you have been pleased to
commend, will serve as a guarantee to you and to all
our brethren for our future perseverance; and may
He who has given us grace by the confession of a true
faith to acknowledge the glory of the Eternal Trinity,
and in the power of the Divine Majesty to worship the
Unity, ever keep us stedfast in that faith, and make us
forward as well as constant in affirming it against all
sorts of depreciation and disparagement, as well as
against the more open assaults of the infidel, and the
bolder scoffs of the scorner. I have the honour to be,
Gentlemen,
With respect and gratitude,
Your most obedient faithful servant,
V. THOMAS.

14

Address from the Archdeacon and Clergy of
the Archdeaconry of Exeter.
To the Rev. Vaughan Thomas, B.D. and the other
Members of the University who met in Corpus
College Common Room. Exeter, May 10, 1836.
We, the Archdeacon and Clergy of the Arch
deaconry of Exeter, as Ministers of the Established
Church, assure you, that we have regarded with
anxious interest the events which have recently taken
place at Oxford; and we are desirous to express to
you our deep sympathy in the jealous earnestness with
which you have contended to maintain all sound doc
trine in the education of the Clergy, and to prevent
any principles detrimental to the Christian Faith from
circulating uncondemned under the sanction of the
University. In performing a task, involving very painful discus
sion, you exposed yourselves to many misapprehensions
and much obloquy. We feel ourselves bound there
fore, by a sense of duty to the nation, and to the
Church of which we are Ministers, to declare the debt
of gratitude we owe to you for the noble stand you
have made in the defence of Christian Truth; and we
fervently trust, that the decision which you have
successfully obtained, will secure sound doctrine to
the students placed under your care, and maintain
inviolate the fundamental safeguards of the Church.

15

Answer.
To the Venerable the Archdeacon and Clergy of the
Archdeaconry of Exeter.
C. C. C. May 13, 1836.
Gentlemen,
In the name of the respected and distinguished
Members of Convocation, who were recently led by a
clear judgment and an uncompromising resolution to
vindicate the sacred truths which in their consciences
they believed to have been impugned and disparaged
by Dr. Hampden's writings, I return thanks for the
honour of your communication.
Ignorance in some few instances, but injustice for
the most part, has so misrepresented the origin, nature,
and object of our late Proceedings, as to render these
Testimonies of our Brethren in our behalf, not only
gratifying and encouraging as expressions of appro
bation, but useful as means and instruments of defence.
They serve to silence the clamours of the ignorant,
to counteract the imputations of the unjust, and to
undeceive those who have been deluded, so as to
enable them rightly to perceive and understand the
motives of our opposition to Dr. Hampden's appoint
ment, and the grounds upon which we have condemned
his doctrines.
But these numerously-signed attestations of our
Brethren on our behalf have a bearing and tendency
beyond their immediate uses and objects. They direct
the attention of the Ministers and Members of our
Church to the great characteristic doctrines of their
faith, and to the necessity of defending them against the
inroads of a Concessory and Latitudinarian Theology.

16
They serve to remind them of the danger of suffering-
the conscience to be seduced from its rectitude by an
evil spirit of compliance, by a reckless desire of pleasing
men, by an unworthy love of peace, operating in its
excess against the love of truth, and even against the
duty and the desire of protecting it.
When the pacific principle puts forth such baneful
energies as these, and manifests its mischievous effects
in the surrender of Christian Truths and Doctrines, it
militates against all that the Almighty has been pleased
to reveal for the guidance of man's Faith and Charity,
and in the performance of the opposite but not irrecon-
cileable duties of controversy and conciliation. We are
to contend for the Faith, but without uncharitableness ;
we are to concede for the sake of peace, but without
giving place by subjection to any one principle of error,
and without betraying or endangering any one doctrine
of Revelation.
Such considerations have become necessary in an
age like the present, over-studious of secular ease and
political accommodations in matters of Religion.
If we have discharged our pacific and controversial
duties on this occasion rightly, and to your satisfaction,
the praise is due to the Giver of every good gift : but
to you, Mr. Archdeacon, and to all our brethren, who
have approved of our earnestness in the maintenance
of sound Doctrine, and the stand which we have made
in the defence of Christian Truth, we present these
acknowledgments of respect and gratitude.
I am,
Mr. Archdeacon, and Gentlemen,
Your most obedient and faithful Servant,
V. THOMAS.

17

Address from the Clergy of the Deanery of
Stockton upon Tees, in the Diocese of
Durham.
To the Rev. Vaughan Thomas, B.D. and the Members
of Convocation who have assembled in Corpus Christi
Common Room, Oxford. Stockton upon Tees, June 8, 1836.
We, whose names are underwritten, Clergymen of
the Deanery of Stockton upon Tees, in the County and
Diocese of Durham, desire to express our grateful
acknowledgment to those Members of Convocation
of the University of Oxford, who have laudably and
strenuously laboured to sustain the pure doctrines of
the Church of Christ.
We regret exceedingly the late appointment of the
Regius Professor of Divinity in an University so long
and so justly eminent for the profession of those sound
principles of Religion on which the Established Church
of these Dominions is founded. And we cannot but
admire the truly Christian spirit and uncompromising-
firmness which have characterised the conduct of those
Members of Convocation, whose exertions, on a late
occasion, have contributed, under God, to vindicate
and maintain the stability of our invaluable Church.

18

Answer.
To the Clergy ofthe Deanery of Stockton upon Tees in
the Diocese of Durham. C. C. C. June 10, 1836.
Gentlemen,
In the name of those Members of Convocation, who,
mindful of the duties which Academic oaths and Minis
terial vows had imposed upon them, lately took counsel
in the Common Room of this College how they might
best be able to oppose the mischiefs arising out of Dr.
Hampden's recent appointment, I return you grateful
thanks for the great benefit of your approbation ; for
when reckless Calumny prints and reprints its false
hoods, the Calumniated are greatly benefitted by such
testimonies of regard.
The regret which you express at this appointment
is shared by every real friend of the Church and
University ; it is very extensively shared by those who
supported Dr. Hampden upon the Academic question
before Convocation, and it is to practise a deceit upon
the public so to represent the sentiments of the
majority and minority upon that occasion, as to lead
the ignorant to suppose, that the whole of the 94 who
composed that minority approved of Dr. Hampden's
opinions and appointment. So far is this from being
true, that of that minority, one half at least may be
said to have disapproved of both ; and that, upon the
religious questions involved in this controversy, they

19
much more nearly agreed in opinion with the majority
(474) than with those who belong to the Latitudinarian
or Syncretistic School. And further, it is to be observed,
that all the bitter things which have been said, written,
and depictured by the disciples of this School against
bigotry and illiberality, repercussively strike the opinions
of some of the most strenuous of those who voted with
them upon the particular measure brought into Con
vocation. A better proof of this cannot be found than
that supplied by a Pamphlet entitled " Reflections
after a Visit to the University of Oxford. By E. W.
Grinfield, M.A." That learned Divine, the Author
of " The Connection between Natural and Revealed
Theology," (whose knowledge of the Doctrine of
Analogy, and extensive application of that argument
in 1822, makes me the more regret the severity with
which he has spoken of Dr, Hampden's opponents,)
has made so many and full admissions of the doctrinal
downfalls of him whose deprivation he opposed, that
he has scarcely left any interval between his own opinion
and ours, with respect to " the faults of the School,
and the errors of the Creed" of Dr. Hampden, (see p. 7.)
With the frankness which belongs to the integrity of
his character, he tells us, " that he honours the zeal
of the Country Clergy who hurried up to Oxford to
support the side of Orthodoxy ; that he venerates that
love for our Articles and Liturgy which they so signally
manifested on that occasion." He denies (p. 7.) that
by voting for Dr. Hampden, he meant to shew any
approval of his Theological Opinions. He admits
(p. 8.) that Dr. Hampden " has fallen into many
grievous misstatemenls of Christian Doctrine in his

20
Bampton Lecture." That in attributing Scholasticism
to the Trinitarian and other verities enunciated by the
ancient Catholic Church, Dr. Hampden is " historically
incorrect, and that his whole argument is built upon
the fallacy of non causa pro causd." (p. 14.) We here
see, that upon all the great points of doctrinal error
which deform the writings of Dr. Hampden, there is
almost an identity of opinion between the 474, and
him who certainly is one of the most distinguished of
Dr. Hampden's supporters. I am, Gentlemen,
With respect and gratitude,
Your obliged and faithful Servant,
V. THOMAS.

Address from the Clergy Resident in the
Deanery of the Isle of Wight and Diocese of
Winchester. To the Rev. Vaughan Thomas, B.D.
Newport, June 4, 1836„
Reverend Sir,
We, the Undersigned Clergy, Resident in the
Deanery of the Isle of Wight and Diocese of Win
chester, desire to express to yourself as Chairman, and
through you to the Committee and to the other Resident
Members_of the University of Oxford who acted with

21
you in the recent transactions regarding the Regius
Professor of Divinity in that University, our high
sense of the zeal, temperance, and firmness with which
you have acted in your late painful but necessary
proceedings; and we thank you for thus coming
forward to withstand the spread of doctrines fatally
at variance with the orthodox faith of our apostolical
communion ; and so we very heartily bid you God
speed.

Answer.
C. C. C. June 8, 1836.
Gentlemen,
When in February last, upon the rumoured appoint
ment of Dr. Hampden to the royal chair of Divinity in
this University, we humbly addressed the King's most
excellent Majesty, we could not as loyal subjects and
faithful Ministers of the Gospel withhold the expression
of our apprehensions, that the most disastrous conse
quences would ultimately arise to the soundness of the
faith of our Students and to the Church itself, if
Dr. Hampden's opinions received the constructive
sanction of such an appointment ; and if by a more
fortunate concatenation of circumstances, it had so
happened that what we had written and signed with
every sentiment of loyal and devoted affection, had been
presented to his Majesty's gracious consideration, it is
confidently believed that it would have induced his
Majesty to interpose the offices of his paternal love, or
the counsels of his royal vigilance, or if necessary the

22
constitutional exercise of his personal authority on a
matter of Religion, and by such interposition to avert
the dangers which we foresaw, and prevent the appoint
ment which we deprecated. For it is not to be
supposed at a time when attention is so readily given
to the remonstrances of Dissenting Teachers of every
denomination, and upon every matter which however
remotely may refer to their respective Creeds and
Disciplines, that the like attention would not have
been paid to the representations of seventy-six Ministers
of the Established Church, official Guardians and
Instructors of Academic Youth, and bound by the
most sacred engagements to provide for the integrity
ofthe Christian instruction which was to be administered
by him who was to occupy the seat of Royal Professor
of Theology.
Failing in our first hopes and applications, we were
obliged to have recourse to some of those protective
measures which are so variously suggested and supplied
by the Statutes of the University ; and if during these
four months of controversy, we have so steered our
course through the dangers and difficulties which have
surrounded us, as to have deserved the praise you have
been pleased to bestow upon our zeal, temperance, and
firmness, we have abundant reason to be thankful to
Him who enables the understanding to perceive, the
will to choose, and the courage to persevere in that
straight and right line of conduct, which lies between
errors of excess and defect, both in the performance of
the controversial and the pacific duties.
The present age has much to learn and much to
unlearn upon these matters. — The times are fast ap
proaching, when the proper bounds of Concession and

23
Resistance will be forced upon the studies of all. For
I am led by my view and estimate of the present
appointment to conclude, that it is but the first of a
series of measures intended to put down as by the
hand of Power all recognised distinctions between
sound and unsound, true and false, right and wrong in
Doctrine, and to amalgamate in the confusion and
deformity of one vast national Syncretism all sorts of
error with all sorts of truth, all varieties of disagreement
on matters fundamental, with all varieties of disagree
ment on things indifferent ; in short, to pull down the
walls of our Sion, that her towers may be occupied by
foes as well as friends, by those who wish her well, and
those who would lay her in the dust.
I recognise with gratitude the comprehensive kind
ness of your concluding salutation. — None but those
who bring with them the doctrine of St. John are
entitled to the Apostolic " God's speed ;" the preacher
of universal love forbids us to give it to any but those
who teach the truths which it was his special appoint
ment to teach and vindicate. Fully convinced and
deeply sensible of your devotion to those doctrines, in
my own name, and in the name of the distinguished
Academics with whom it has been my happiness and
honour to be associated upon this occasion, I return to
you the like brotherly commendation to God's holy
keeping and speeding. I am,
Reverend Friends and Brethren,
Your faithful and obliged servant,
V. THOMAS.
BAXTER, PRINTEH, OXFORD.