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A LETTER

REV. THE VICE-CHANCELLOR

THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD,

MEASURES INTENDED TO BE PROPOSED TO CONVOCATION
ON THE 13th OF FEBRUARY,
IN CONNEXION WITH THE CASK OP
THE REV. W. G. WTARD, M.A.
FELLOW OF BALLfOL nOLLEOH.

A. C. TAIT, D.C.L.
tn
HKAD AIASTKR OF RUGBY SCHOOL,
LATE FELLOW AND TUTOR OF BALLIOL COLLEGE.

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS,
EDINBURGH AND LONDON.
MDCCCXLV.

The three propositions intended to be brought before
Convocation, on the 13th of February, are : —
1st, (After the recital of certain passages from Mr.
Ward's work,) " That the passages now read from the book
entitled ' The Ideal of a Christian Church considered, '
are utterly inconsistent with the Articles of Religion of the
Church of England, and with the Declaration in respect of
those Articles made and subscribed by William George
Ward previously and in order to his being admitted to the
degrees of B.A. and M.A. respectively, and with the good
faith of him the said William George Ward in respect of
such Declaration and Subscription."
2d, " That the said William George Ward has disentitled
himself to the rights and privileges conveyed by the said
degrees, and is hereby degraded from the said degrees of
B.A. and M.A. respectively.'"
3d, The following is the form of the Test intended to be
imposed on all persons, Lay or Clerical, who may here
after be suspected of unsound opinions, in place of simple
subscription, as at present : —
" Ego A. B. Articulis Fidei et Religionis necnon tribus
Articulis in Canone xxxvi". comprehensis subscripturus,
profiteor, fide mea data huic Universitati, me Articulis
istis omnibus et singulis eo sensu subscripturum, in quo eos
ex animo credo et primitus editos esse, et nunc mihi ab
Universitate propositos tanquam opinionum mearum certum
ae indubitatum signum."

Renishaw, 31st Dec. 1844.
My Dear Mr. Vice-Chancellor,
I fear that you will hardly thank me for thus pub
licly addressing you ; and you may perhaps think,
that by so doing I am stepping out of my proper
province. My excuse must be, that I have been
urged by so many of my juniors in the Uni
versity, whose conduct, in the ensuing contest, may
be liable to misapprehension, to state publicly what
I think, and wherein I agree with them, that I
feel I can hardly, in fairness to them, remain
silent. Besides, circumstances have perhaps made
me more conversant than most men with the feel
ings of very opposite parties, as I have lived on
terms of very intimate friendship with persons of
almost every shade of theological opinion in the
Church ; and therefore I may be able to put you
in possession of the feelings of many, whose co
operation and sympathy it is of the utmost im
portance that you should carry with you, in your
present arduous struggle for the well-being of the
Church. It has long seemed to many, that the great evil
to be guarded against in all Oxford legislation, is
that ignorance of the sentiments and opinions of

their juniors, which not unnaturally exists amongst
the senior and governing members of the Uni
versity. All men have a tendency to think,
as life advances, that public opinion cannot have
entirely changed since they were young ; and
when sentiments are brought forward, which they
never heard of in former times, they naturally
enough conceive that these are merely the follies
of youthful inexperience, or the vagaries of some
eccentric fancy ; but certain it is, that in every
generation, the greatest difference of opinion,
often in matters involving the gravest principles,
will be found to exist between young men and
old ; and not all the experience and calmness
which age gives, will enable any of us to legislate
for our juniors, unless we make great efforts to
qualify ourselves for understanding their opinions,
and entering into their feelings. And, whether
we look to politics or theology, or to the ordinary
rules of conduct, perhaps there never was any
age in which greater difference existed between
the opinions of old and young, than the present.
Now, I confess, it appears to me, that the Heb
domadal Board, in their present praiseworthy
efforts to vindicate the character of the Pro
testant University over which they preside, have
fallen into this common error — that they have
judged of the rising generation, by what they re
member of themselves ; and have proposed to

remedy existing evils, by a cure which, might have
been effectual for their purpose thirty years ago,
but which is altogether unsuited for the present
state of men's minds, and still more for that to
which they are every day more and more tending.
You will excuse me for plainly expressing my
strong conviction, that, unless the Heads of Houses
take more pains than they appear lately to have
done, to ascertain distinctly the feeling of the
great body of Masters of Arts, before they frame
their measures, they will soon find, that they have
lost their influence in the University, and every
proposition which they make to Convocation, will
run great risk of being at once rejected.
The subject to which I am anxious to direct
3rour attention, is the third proposition intended
to be brought before Convocation on the 13th
of February, or, as it is commonly called, the
" New Test." Against the two first propositions
I have nothing to say. I may regret that no
quieter or calmer way of disposing of this case
could be found, than by an appeal to Convoca
tion : but I am bound to suppose that the Board
considered this, which they have adopted, as the
most legitimate and fair course to pursue. I am
sure they would not have involved the University,
in the turmoil of a stormy meeting of Convoca
tion, if they could have found any better course.
I am sure that it was their bounden duty to the

Church and University, not to allow the challenge,
which Mr. Ward had so publicly and boldly
uttered, to pass unnoticed. Holding Mr. Ward
to be a Boman Catholic in every thing but the
name, however much I esteem him as an in
dividual, I cannot disapprove of the punishment
with which it is now proposed to visit him. I
would not, of course, be understood to speak, as if
it were just or proper to pledge one's self to vote
for his condemnation, before the accused has made
that defence, which it is proposed to allow him on
the 13th of February ; but, according to the prima
facie view of the case as it now stands before us,
I must consider that the most vital interests of
the Church of England require some distinct
announcement on the part of the University, to
mark that the misinterpretation of the Articles
which he advocates is inconsistent with his posi
tion as one of its authorized teachers. And unless
I much mistake the character of Mr. Ward him
self, after an intimate acquaintance with him for
above ten years, I am sure that he will look with
very great contempt upon the Protestantism of
any, who are not ready to urge the necessity of
his challenge being accepted, and his teaching
condemned. I repeat, that, with the greatest
esteem for Mr. Ward's private character, with a
full appreciation of much that is earnest and re
ligious in his book, I should consider it a derelic-

tion of duty in the heads of the University, if they
allowedhis challenge topass unheeded; and I firmly
believe, that, by keeping silence on this occasion,
they would destroy the whole security which the
nation has, that the authorized teachers of Oxford
are not inculcating on their pupils Bomanism on
the one hand, or Arianism, Socinianism, or mere
Infidelity on the other.
Those who know Mr. Ward, and the boldness
and straightforwardness of his character, will not
doubt, that, as he felt uneasy in the idea of holding
his present opinions without openly proclaiming
them, when he wrote his book it was in the full
hope that his challenge would be answered, and
the question finally settled by competent authority,
whether or not a Clergyman of the Established
Church, and (as a graduate) an authorized teacher
in one of its Universities, is entitled to retain all the
authority and influence which this double position
gives him, while he glories that he rejects no
one doctrine of the Church of Bome. And as
the Bishops of our Church seemed unwilling to
move in the case, the thanks of the community
are due to the Heads of Houses in Oxford for
taking upon themselves the odium and trouble of
this most painful conflict.
But in proportion as I feel that the Heads have
discharged a great duty by taking up this question,
the more deeply do I lament, that by the third
B

10
proposition, which they intend to bring before
Convocation, they have plunged into a new field,
in which they must lose the support of those who
are most able and willing to stand by them. And
here it is, I believe, that they have shown their
misunderstanding of the state of feeling on such
subjects, at present existing in the country. They
seem to have neglected to look sufficiently beyond
the bounds of their own circle, and to have supposed,
because they were themselves ready to embrace
the intended test, that it would be equally accept
able to others. Whereas I firmly believe, that,
except for the sake of gaining an immediate vic
tory over a dreaded antagonist, there is no con
siderable body of thoughtful men throughout the
nation that would not altogether disapprove of this
third proposition.
Of men below the age of forty-five throughout
the kingdom, there may be a few — but they are
very few, and their number is to be counted by
units — whose mind is a sort of transcript of the
thirty-nine Articles and Prayer-book — who have
so habituated themselves from their earliest years
to look upon all which they find therein written as
infallible, that their thoughts have never ranged
beyond the prescribed limits. But, if the Board
looks to have its third proposition carried by
these, it must find itself in a very small minority.
Of the various theological schools, according to

11
which the younger members of the Church of Eng
land generally may be classed, there is only one,
viz. that which claims for itself the title of Anglo-
Catholic, which at all approaches to such a method
of theologizing as that which I have now mention
ed : And this school, though large, is not, I think,
so important as is often supposed, and certainly
contains in its ranks comparatively few men of
great intensity or earnestness of thought. It is the
school of the gentlemanlike, aristocratical, and re
spectable clergy1; but hardly that of deep thinkers.
It is the school of Bubrics and Church architec
ture, which, however respectable and amiable, is
not likely either to repel the fierce assaults of
infidelity, or to guide the burning thoughts of a ge
neration displeased with its present state, and crav
ing for something deeper and more truly earnest.
Of course there are in this school bright excep
tions ; and there is no possibility of laying down
fixed rules as to the way in which earnest minds
may, by early prejudice, be warped ; but, speak
ing generally, I feel certain of the more earnest
and thoughtful of this school, that the more they
sift their opinions, and the more deeply and ear
nestly they accustom themselves to think, the
more will they desert the untenable ground on
which they now stand, and the more will they fall
off — some few of them into open or concealed
Bomanism — the great majority into a consistent

12
and Evangelical Protestantism. The school, as
it stands at present, never can be the guide of
the young generation that is treading on our re
tiring steps.
Now this school is the only one which can, with
any consistency, support the proposition of the
Board of Heads for a new Test ; and yet I doubt
extremely whether, if the Heads of Houses are
thus left to its sole support, they will find it very
likely to bear them through in the present diffi
culty. Certainly of all the members of this
school whom I happen myself to have met with
during the last three weeks, there has not been
one, who has not positively declared his intention
of opposing the Test. And indeed it is hardly to
be expected, that they will feel any strong wish to
take vigorous, and what to many will seem harsh
measures, against the very men, to whose earlier
writings they know it to be owing, that their favo
rite theology has been resuscitated from the death
like slumber into which it had sunk.
The other Theological Schools in the country
are — 1. The small compact body of the decided
followers of Mr. Newman, against whom the Test
is primarily directed. 2. The School commonly
called Evangelical. 3. A large and growing body
of younger men, who are, for the most part, what
is commonby called Low Church in matters of dis
cipline, and whose doctrinal theology is in a great

13

measure modified, if not formed, by the study of
the great Protestant writers of the Continent.
There are, of course, many individuals amongst
us, whose place it may be difficult exactly to as
sign, who have kept themselves from falling under
the dominion of any school : but those, which I
have noticed, are the four great classifications,
and I think no one can mention any other school,
which has any influence on the generation that
will soon occupy all posts of importance in the
nation. The fact is that the old High Church or
mere Church-and- State theology of fifty years ago,
is fast becoming extinct. It has been reproduced,
certainly with several improvements, under the au
spices of that school, which claims to itself the
title of Anglo- Catholic ; but even this school, we
have seen, can have no real wish to co-operate in the
establishment of this test.
Of the other schools, the Evangelical can only
pledge itself to adopt the test, from a momen
tary forgetfulness, in the midst of conflict, of
its own real position. It is impossible that the
Divines of this school, can be anxious for any
more stringent assertion of their agreement in
the doctrine of the Baptismal Service, or of the
Catechism. With that fair liberty, which has
always been allowed in the Church of England,
(and without which it must cease at once to be
the Church of a great thinking nation, where di-

14
versities of opinion must prevail,) the Divines of
this school, sign their assent to the Articles and
Prayer-book with the most perfect honesty, because
they know that it is the wish of the Church and its
authorities, that this fair liberty of interpretation
should be allowed : And they do not much con
cern themselves with the opinions of the original
framers of the various parts of the Catechism and
Baptismal Service, nor yet with the sense put on
these formularies by the official, who administers
their oath. But the proposed test might any day
be directed against them, as it is intended now
to be directed in another quarter : And I fully be
lieve that not very many years ago, it might, and
would have been employed for ridding the Univer
sity of them, as regarded by the authorities of that
time, to be mere Methodists, and concealed Dis
senters. Surely we are not rashly to arm with
fresh weapons, any authority similar to that from
whose determined hostility John Wesley thought
himself forced to take refuge in dissent, and which
would have been glad in later times, to have
crushed Thomas Scott, Cecil, or Wilberforce, as
sectarians, and enthusiasts.
With all respect for the office which you now
hold, and the Board which co-operates with you, and
with much reason for personally esteeming yourself,
and many others who now form that Board, I can
see no guarantee that your place is always to be oc-

15

cupied by religious men. And I believe that the
proposed test, if passed, wieldedbyirreligioushands,
may become an engine of destruction, that will crush
at some future day, the very parties who now sup
port it. This is no visionary apprehension. The
history of the University, in our own day, proves
the possibility of such a result. It is but a few
years since Dr. Pusey called for the revival of
the old statutable power of the six Doctors, that
he might overwhelm Dr. Hampden by the weight
of their authority, and he is even now reeling under
the blow which they have since dealt against him
self. I cannot therefore believe, that the Evan
gelical school can with any safety or consistency
advocate the adoption of this Test.
Of the fourth remaining school, I would now
briefly speak. B there is one point to which they
are, from their very principles, pledged, it is to a
dislike of more Tests than are absolutely neces
sary. The damnatory clauses of the Athanasian
Creed, and the 18th Article, (to say nothing of
many other points of difficulty, which have not,
like these, been made public by an appeal to Par
liament,) must of necessity warn them to pause,
before they bind themselves more strictly than
now to the letter of the Articles. The late Dr.
Arnold, who was always in his sympathies, as well
as in his energy, much younger than his years,
may be taken, not perhaps in his peculiar views

16
of Church discipline, but generally, as a fair spe
cimen of this rising school : And I leave any
one who has read his life to say, whether he would
either have approved of this Test, or have taken
it, if it had been administered to himself.*
* Perhaps I ought more distinctly to have stated what I
mean by this growing School, whose theology derives much
of its character from the works — especially the critical and
exegetical works — of the great Protestant writers on the
Continent. This School, though distinctly Protestant, by
no means confines its sympathies to Protestantism. Its
theological predilections are catholic enough, to appreciate all
symptoms of intellectual vigour and earnest thought, where-
ever they are to be found. My belief is, that this School
contains by far the greatest amount of the talent of the
rising generation. Now there can be no doubt that it is
a most essential characteristic of this School, to promote
free discussion and patient inquiry on all subjects, as the
only sure method of arriving at truth ; and that its members
generally look with no very friendly eyes, even on the easy
bonds by which our existing Tests confine the range of
our intellects. This School, I suspect, will soon be found
to contain the best scholars, metaphysicians and poets, of
the rising age. It contains men of very various characters,
who differ in many matters of opinion and, who perhaps
often fancy themselves to belong to opposing parties ; but
they are all united by the same eclectic-philosophical
spirit, and the same admiration of intellect wherever it de-
velopes itself — an admiration which seems sometimes in
danger of leading them astray from the simplicity of the
Gospel, and to blind them to the excellences of those de
voted servants of Christ, who are content to obey their
Lord, without reasoning on his doctrines, and to walk in
unquestioning humility within those somewhat narrow
limits which the Evangelical School prescribes. When it is
said that Dr. Arnold may be regarded as a specimen of this
School, it is meant that he represents it, not in the dogmatic
results of his investigations, but in that freedom of enquiry
which he so boldly advocated and practised.

17
I believe, therefore, that this Test can be
honestly or consistently supported by a very small
body indeed, of the more thoughtful members of
Convocation. Nothing but the momentary ex
citement of party spirit, can ensure to the pro
posers any prospect of success.
Without presuming to identify the distinguished names
I mention with any School, perhaps I may be excused for
saying, that the view of the theology of Mr. Newman and
his immediate followers likely to be taken by the very
different men of whom this class consists, may be judged
of from the famous charge of the present learned Bishop of
St. David's ; and that perhaps also we may gain some help
on this point from an attentive consideration of the writings
of Mr. Frederick Maurice.
As the theological sympathies of this School are at
present very comprehensive, seeming almost to range from
Mr. Carlisle or Schleiermacher on the one hand, to Mr.
Newman or the Hermesianer of Germany, or Miiller's
Symbolik on the other, so also are their politics. They
will seldom be found to belong to any distinct party, but
appreciating what is good and noble, and abhorring what
is low and selfish in all. While, in fact, the small section
in Parliament which arrogates to itself the representation of
the youthful talent of England, is but the froth that bubbles
at the surface, these men are really the deep and powerful
current, which bears on the destiny of the coming age.
If the men of this School can be saved from too lati
tudinarian and rationalizing a spirit — if their eclecticism
does not degenerate into indifference or scepticism — if
they can be made really to appreciate the vital importance
of Evangelical truth maintained in all its distinctive fea
tures, while they protest against the narrow-mindedness
which would divorce it from the pursuits of intellect — if
they can be made to sympathize with moral, as much as
they do now with intellectual, vigour,. — it is to this School
that we must look as the best hope of the generation that
is to stand in our place when we are dead.

18
But then the question will immediately arise —
if this liberty be claimed by so many already,
who are all honestly included within the Church
of England, why is Mr. Ward to be blamed ?
The answer is obvious ; liberty may degenerate
into license, and in his case it has done so. He
has raised the standard of rebellion against the
Church, whose minister he is. I believe there is
scarcely any fair man, whatever be the degree of
liberty which he wishes to see tolerated in the
Church of England, who can think it right to in
vest a man with authority, as one of its recognized
teachers, whose open avowals prove that he will
use all his influence within its pale, for destroying
its whole character as a Beformed Church. If any
M.A. becoming a Socinian were to proclaim, that
he had signed the Articles in a non-natural sense,
holding them only so far forth as they are con
sistent with enlightened human reason, the autho
rities of the University would be right to remind
him, that he had gone beyond the bounds of all due
liberty, and to deprive him of the authority to
teach, which he received on the distinct under
standing of his renouncing Socinian error. The
same holds with Mr. Ward, who has received his
commission as an authorized teacher on condition
of his renouncing Bomish error. But let the
University deal with each of such cases as it arises.
There is no need of our narrowing the limits of

19
the Church of England, because some amongst us
wish to make it too wide.
In conclusion, I would only remark, that through
out I have gone upon the supposition, that the
test is to be a reality, and possess some binding
force. Others will urge against it many other
objections, and not amongst the least grave will
be the charges, that it will only be a snare to
conscientious men — that the very wording of it
assumes a complete unity of opinion between the
existing University and the first Beformers, as if
the Vice-Chancellor for the time being, and his
coadjutors, were to be constituted, by an Act of
Convocation, infallible interpreters of the mind
of the Church — and that those who can elude
the present subscription will find no difficulty
in evading the test also, in future times at least,
if not at present, while its meaning is clearly
enough ascertained by what we know of the feel
ings of its proposers. These and many other ob
jections I prefer however to leave untouched.
I have tried to regard the present measure as hav
ing a real meaning, and as such, I feel convinced
that from nothing but momentary popular clamour
can it have, the slightest chance of being sanc
tioned by Convocation.
I have therefore made bold thus earnestly to
draw your attention to the inexpediency of this
third proposition. I am sure that many of the

20
best friends of the University are anxious that it
should even now be withdrawn, and the case of
Mr. Ward, and all other cases that may arise,
left to be dealt with on their own merits, with
out the whole business being perplexed by its
connexion with the general question of subscrip
tion. We surely do not need to have our Statute-
book burdened with new laws, or that the Uni
versity should have the present limits of its fair
comprehensiveness narrowed, in order to show
that we are Protestants.
I remain, My Dear Mr. Vice-Chancellor,
Tour very faithful Servant, A. C. TAIT.

NOTE.
It has been urged by a friend, for whose opinion I have
generally the deepest respect, that the adoption, by Con
vocation, of the two first Propositions, without the third,
will end in a mere brutum fulmen — a decision on a theolo
gical point by a body possessing no ecclesiastical authority.
This view seems to me quite incorrect.
I. I have already met this objection incidentally, by
pointing out, that the M.A. and B.A. degrees, are licences
to teach in the University, and that they are conferred by
Convocation on certain conditions. If these conditions are
violated, it seems only fair and just, that the power which
gave should withdraw the licence.
II. Let it be remembered, that the adoption of the two
first Propositions, without the third, would seem of neces
sity to lead to farther results.
If, from any provision in the Statutes of Balliol College,
Mr. Ward were to lose his fellowship in consequence of
his proposed degradation, he would, of course have an action
at law against the University for depriving him of a pecu
niary benefit ; and the question would at last be finally
settled by a competent judicial authority, whether or not
a clergyman of the Church of England is entitled to re
tain his emoluments as its minister, without renouncing
any one Romish doctrine.
If, on the contrary, Mr. Ward still continues to be a
Fellow of Balliol, he will, by the act of Convocation, be
placed " in statu pupillari," and therefore become amenable
to the discipline exercised over persons in that condition.

2F

iif

He may, therefore, at any time, by the authorities of
College, or of the University, be required. to liscontinr, >-
his residence in Oxford for an indefinite lengih of time,
and thus an important College vi!! be saved from shfi
strange anomaly of having one of its ablest and most in
fluential resident Fellows, availing him^Ff of his position
within its walls for indoctrinating those who come within
his sphere with the principles of Rome.
It may be said, that Mr. Ward does not teach, but
only believes in the doctrines of Rome. But any one
who knows the manliness and straightforwardness of his
character, will at once acknowledge that it is physically
impossible for him strongly to believe any set of opinions
and not give utterance to them.

EDINBURGH: F1UMIED BY T. CONSTABLE, 11, THISTLE STREET,
l'RIKTKB TO HER MAJESTY.