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THE PROTEST

AGAINST

TRACT FOR THE TIMES, No. 90.
RESOLUTION OF
THE HEBDOMADAL BOARD,
AND
MR. NEWMAN'S LETTER TO THE VICE-CHANCELLOR.

OXFORD,
FEINTED AND PUBLISHED BY J. VINCENT.
1841.

TRACT FOR THE TIMES, No. 90.

-|p@gj-
To ihe Editor of ihe " Tracts for the Times'.

Sir, Our attention having been called to No. 90
in the series of "Tracts for the Times, by Members
of the University of Oxford," of which you are the
editor, the impression produced on our mind by its
contents is of so painful a character, that we feel it
our duty to intrude ourselves briefly on your notice.
This publication is entitled " Remarks on certain
Passages in the Thirty-nine Articles ;" and, as these
Articles are appointed by the statutes of the Univer
sity to be the text-book for tutors in their theological
teaching, we hope that the situations we hold in our
respective colleges will secure us from the charge of
presumption in thus coming forward to address you.
The tract has, in our apprehension, a highly dan
gerous tendency, from its suggesting that certain very
important errors of the Church of Rome are not con
demned by the Articles of the Church of England :

for instance, that those Articles do not contain any
condemnation ofthe doctrines —
1. Of Purgatory,
2. Of Pardons,
3. Of the Worshipping and Adoration of Images
and Relics,
4*. Of the Invocation of Saints,
5. Ofthe Mass,
as they are taught authoritatively by the Church of
Rome ; but only of certain absurd practices and
opinions, which intelligent Romanists repudiate as
much as we do. It is intimated, moreover, that the
declaration prefixed to the Articles, so far as it has
any weight at all, sanctions this mode of interpreting
them, as it is one which takes them in their " liter
and grammatical sense," and does not " affix any new
sense" to them. The tract would thus appear to us to
have a tendency to mitigate, beyond what charity re
quires, and to the prejudice of the pure truth of the
gospel, the very serious differences which separate the
Church of Rome from our own, and to shake the con
fidence of the less learned members of the Church of
England in the scriptural character of her formularies
and teaching.
We readily admit the necessity of allowing that
liberty, in interpreting the formularies of our
Church, which has been advocated by many of its
most learned bishops and other eminent divines ; but
this tract puts forth new and startling views as to the
extent to which that liberty may be carried. For if
we are right in our apprehension of the author's

meaning, we are at a loss to see what security would
remain, were his principles generally recognised, that
the most plainly erroneous doctrines and practices of
the Church of Rome might not be inculcated in the
lecture-rooms of the University, and from the pulpits
of our churches.
In conclusion, we venture to call your attention to
the impropriety of such questions being treated in an
anonymous publication, and to express an earnest
hope that you may be authorized to make known the
writer's name. Considering how very grave and
solemn the whole subject is, we cannot help thinking
that both the Church and the University are entitled
to ask that some person, besides the printer and
publisher of the tract, should acknowledge himself
responsible for its contents. We are, Sir,
Your obedient humble Servants,
T. T. CHURTON, M.A.
Vice-Principal and Tutor of Brase-nose College.
H.B. WILSON, B.D.
Fellow and Senior Tutor of St. John's College.
JOHN GRIFFITHS, M.A.
Sub- Warden and Tutor of Wadham College.
A. C. TAIT, M.A.
Fellow and Senior Tutor of Balliol College.
Oxford, March 8, 1841.

At a Meeting of the Vice- Chancellor, Heads of
Houses, and Proctors, in the Delegates' Room,
March 15^,1841.
Considering that it is enjoined in the Statutes of
this University, (Tit. III. Sect. ii. Tit. IX. Sect. ii.
§. 3. Sect. v. §. 8.) that every Student shall be in
structed and examined in the Thirty-nine Articles,
and shall subscribe to them ; considering also that a
Tract has recently appeared, dated from Oxford, and
entitled " Remarks on certain Passages in the Thirty-
nine Articles," being No. 90 of the Tracts for the
'Times, a series of anonymous Publications, purporting
to be written by Members of the University, but
which are in no way sanctioned by the University
itself; Resolved, That the modes of interpretation, such
as are suggested in the said Tract, evading rather
than explaining the sense of the Thirty-nine Articles,
and reconciling subscription to them, with the adoption
of errors, which they were designed to counteract,
defeat the object, and are inconsistent with the due
observance of the above-mentioned Statutes.
P. WYNTER, Vice-ChanceUor.

Mr. Vice-Chancellor,
I write this respectfully to inform you, that I
am the author, and have the sole responsibility, of the
Tract on which the Hebdomadal Board has just now
expressed an opinion, and that I have not given my
name hitherto, under the belief that it was desired
that I should not. I hope it will not surprise you if
I say, that my opinion remains unchanged of the truth
and honesty of the principle maintained in the Tract,
and of the necessity of .putting it forth. At the same
time I am prompted by my feelings to add my deep-
consciousness that every thing I attempt might be
done in a better spirit, and in a better way ; and,
while I am sincerely sorry for the trouble and anxiety
I have given to the members of the Board, I beg to
return my thanks to them for an act, which, even
though founded on misapprehension, may be made as
profitable to myself as it is religiously and charitably
intended. I say all this with great sincerity, and am,
Mr. Vice-Chancellor, Your obedient Servant,
JOHN HENRY NEWMAN.
Oriel College,
March Wth, 1841.

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