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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

From the
COLLECTION OF OXFORD BOOKS
made by
FALCONER MADAN
Bodley's Librarian

LETTERS FROM OXFORD,

( (

1©4S S

IGNOTUS. "

WITH NOTES.

'H/ierkpti Sb ttoXis Kara /liv Atog svor' oXeirai
Atffav, Kat fiaKapqiv Qeuiv fpevag aQavaTtpv
AvToi Se <p9eipuv jisyaXriv TroXti' aippaSiyaiv
Aaroi jSovXovTaL 
Ati/iov S' Tiyiiiovifv aSiKOQ vooj  SOAaNGS EAEFEIA.
No Heaven-sent judgment, now seems prompt to fall
On, or within, our Zion's holy wall.
Bnt, of the Warders, some of late have chose,
To parley with Her worst — most-watchful foes;
And followed close by many a ductile mind,
" Straggle towards Rome". — ." blind leaders of the blind."
: FJVtAD a¥
DUBLIN:
ANDREW MILLIKEN, 104, GRAFTON-STREET
BOOKSELLER TO THE UNIVERSITY.
J. HATCHARD & SON, PICCADILLY, LONDON.
1843.

dttblin:
G-ffOHGE Folds. Printer, 1, Saint Andrtcw-Strtcet,
OPPOSITE TRINITT-aTRTEKT.

Biol

1843.

"Well," quoth Master Ridley, " so long as the breathe is in my
bodie, I will never denie my Lord Christe, and his known
truthe." " God's will be done in mee." ....
" Then they brought a faggotte, kindled with fire, and laide the
same down at Dr. Ridley's feete, to whom Master Latimer
spake in this manner — ' Be of good comforte. Master Ridley,
and play the manne ; we shall this daie light such a candlle by
Godde's grace, in Englande, as I trust shall nevere bee putte out.'"
"When he (Archbishop Cranmer,) began to speak more of
the Sacrament, and of the Papacie, some beganne to crie out
. . . specially Master Cole cried out — ' Stoppe the heretick's
mouthe, and take him awaie." . . . then Cranmer, being
pulled down from the stage, was ledde to the fire. . . . But
when he came to the place where the Holy Bishops and Martyrs
of Godde, Hugh Latimer and Ridley, were burned before
himme, for the confession of the truthe, kneeling down, he
praied to Godde, and, puttinge offe his garments to his shirte,
he prepared himself for Deathe."
The Martyrologie.

Thou, she-weet, OXFORD, contrasts sad and strange.
Here ! true to dea-fch — The Witness Fathers sealed
Their evidence in blood) — and from the pile
Furnished hy ruthless Rozno, sent through the Isle,
Light, -wrherein Truth hae since stood cleaa: revealed.
But -while a ISTation's -thankfulness bids rise
Their fair Memorial! — thy- voice seems to change
Some, their time-hono-ured names* at nought do prize,
Mock at their martyr-ser-vicef — deem the light
They died to kindle, sho-ws the truth too bright—
And through a veil againj -would have us read.
The saving verities of Britain's Creed;
If THEsa be right — this Monument deface.
If THOSE ! — -why give their poor defamers place ?

* "Keally I hate the Reformation and Beformers, more and more. . . Why do
you praise Ridley ?*' . . . — Fronde's Remains.
* " A professor of Divinity would find his equanimity trespassed on by a living,"
.... Cranmer or Hooper. — Rev. T. Moseley, late Fellow of Oriel College,
in British Critic, 1841.
t " What we say is, that to call the early Reformers martyrs is to beg a question,
which, of course, Protestants do not consider a question, but which no one pre
tending to the name of Catholic can for a moment think of conceding — namely,
that the cause for which these persons suffered was the truth I f t" — Rev. F. Oakley,
Fellow of Ballot College — British Critic, 1841.
X " Many a person, who knelt to a crucifix in a village church-yard, might
have done so under a more true sense of that faith which is unto Ufe, than those
who are able to express the most enUghtened knowledge." — Tracts on Reserve,
Part I, p. 77, hy Rev. T. Williams, of Trinity College, Oxford.

TO THE REV- DK SINGER, S.F.T.C.D.

Dear Sir,
I have solicited permission to address You
as the Representative of those Friends for whose gratifi
cation the subjoined letters were written, because I felt
that, in obtaining it, I should give the Public a guarantee
that they contained nothing contrary to the real — the best
interests of " the true Religion established amongst us."
The readiness with which you have granted the
permission asked, increases the sense I entertain, of
unvarying kindness, from early Academic days to the
present, when I remain,
Very faithfully and sincerely yours,
Jn respect and gratitude,

6th Makch, 1843.

CONTENTS.

LETTER I,
Introductory Matter Page 9
LETTER II.
Parties at Oxford „ 17
LETTER III. f
The Tractarians and Mk. Newman „ 43
LETTER IV.
Quo Tendimus ? — To what are we coming ? „ 63

LETTEES FEOM OXFOED.

LETTER I.
My dear Friend, Leaving Ireland with a purpose of
visiting this •' Ancient seat of learning," several
friends requested that " I would let them know
what I thought of things here ;" and as I possess
neither a copying machine or lithographic press, I
know no better way of gratifying them than by
making you their representative, and addressing one
and all in these published letters. I take the request
as referring not to the " Literary treasures of the
" vast Bodleian," — nor to the " Collegiate Institu
tions," nor yet to the picturesque buildings which
adorn this beautiful city ; these being matters on
which any common Guide Book would give better
and fuller information than I could pretend to offer ;
but I understood my friends, and I am sure cor
rectly, to desire such a judgment as I could form of
the progress and tendencies of those opinions which
emanating from Oxford as a centre, are now fur
nishing matter of so much exultation, anxiety, and

10

alarm to the Empire, may I not say to Christendom ;
to this point, therefore, I shall direct any obser
vations I may make, during the course of my
sojourn. I must beg you to receive these letters as written
under two limitations.
First — Being received at Oxford with an hospi
table kindness fully equal to, if not surpassing that
for which our Island has " received a good report,"
I must not be understood as offering any remarks,
derived from the unreservedness of private inter
course, — It has been too much a fashion in modern
days for Tourists and Travellers, to obtain admission
to the privileges of social or domestic circles, with
the intention of " taking notes," but without giving
any intimation that they mean to " prent them."
Having ever condemned, I can in no measure
follow so reprehensible a practice, whatever I state
in these letters, will be no more than a stranger,
not altogether uninformed on what for want of a
a better name, I must call " Tractarianisra," could
learn by his own unaided observation during a short
visit to Oxford.
Secondly — My remarks must be taken as in no
wise intended to enter into the merits or demerits
of the opinions referred to, I shall only endeavour
to show " things as they are" on the surface. To go
deeper into the subject " et veras cognoscere
causas," requires an abler pen than mine ; this
general remark I inill make, that it is now quite
idle to call this a " mere Church question," meaning

11

thereby differences of opinion within the Church
on certain matters* of Church polity, or Church
regulation ; such as Swift once ridiculed under the
fable of the " high and low heeled parties in the
Court of Lilliput" — this is a statement of the case
which has heretofore entrapped more than one
Churchman into a false position, from which he

* I think it may be useful to subjoin here a very remarkable
avowal lately made to me by a Clerical friend, holding Tractarian
opinions ; and I may state, that his full knowledge of the
subject on which he spoke, and an acuteness of mind which
thoroughly qualifies him for tracing principles to consequences,
gives considerable authority to his mere " dictum."
Speaking of Tractarian opinions, he avowed that " he could
not conceive the possibility of the public mind becoming pos
sessed by them, to any considerable extent, without producing a
complete revolution of the present constitution of the Church
of England — the people would (he said) demand it — because
the Church of England, as now constructed, was utterly inade
quate to satisfy the tastes, or to allow the devotional practices or
observances which the Tract principles were generating and
fostering.'' Having myself, heretofore, come to the same con
clusion, and advanced it as one of the strongest practical dangers
of Tractarianism, I was rather surprised to find a disciple of
that school not only candidly admitting, but calmly looking
forward to such a consummation. I now insert it here, submitting
it to the attention of every Churchman who, professing to
love his Church as it is, may yet have allowed himself, in a
" flirting" penchant for " Tractarian," under the guise of " Church
principles." Extremes meet — we used to dread that our calmly
pious ritual would be deserted for the heating extravagance of
the conventicle. We have now to fear that men will retreat for
satisfaction of their " pious longings" in another direction ; for,
as the Tractarian " Lyra Apostolica" sings —
" Thou dost soothe the heart, thou Church of Rome,
By thy unwearied watch, and varied round
Of Service."

12

finds it by no means easy to extricate himself ; but
the question has long burst it's Church shell, and
grown far beyond any such limit. The " Catholic
Tractarian," (as I shall have occasion to show
hereafter,) already begins to scoff at the " halting"
high Churchman who hesitates to follow his princi
ples to their full results, and assuredly sooner or
later — perhaps the sooner the better — these ques
tions must issue in an open conflict between false
and true doctrine — formalistic, and vital religion —
God's Church, and the system of Him " whose
coming is with all deceivableness."
On the subject of these Opinions, I regret to
observe that (thanks to our free press,) the public
mind of England is kept, by the repetition of idle
rumours, in a state of continued irritation and ex
citement which must tend to impair its energy and
unanimity, whenever a case may arise, calling for
some unequivocal declaration of the Protestant
sense of the nation. There is a regulation (in
which I once could read but mere despotism, but
now perceive much wisdom,) forbidding the Officers
of any ship of discovery to publish or circulate a
single journal or log-book, until the Board of
Admiralty had had supervision of the whole, and
decided on giving an authorised account to the
public. Many a subordinate officer has fretted and
raved at being thus deprived of the " first of the
market" for his crude though wonderful details.
But the restriction has been for the public good —
and one can scarce help wishing that it were pos-

13

sible to institute some such " Board of Control" to
check and regulate the circulation of the ten thou
sand reports, true and untrue, which are continually
put forward respecting Oxford. It may be curious
to trace the progress of one of the rumours referred
to. A. writes to B. that he has heard of some
"Popish observance" practised, or "Romish opinion"
maintained, by the " Oxford men" — the representa
tive of the " Oxford men" being possibly some raw
and rash young man, who has taken some of Mr.
Newman's opinions into a weak head, and forthwith
goes farther, either in word or act, in the application
of them, than would be just yet pleasing to his
master. B. being thus informed, " upon the best
authority," in confidential " honor" whispers the
intelligence to C, with an earnest request " that it
may go no further." C, anxious to comply with
his friend's request to the letter, merely mentions
it as " the report of the day" to an editor " agape
for news," thenceforth " V affaire est faite" — and
after it has gone the round of the journals, it
sometimes (though not always,) happens that some
one thinks it right to explain the slight misconcep
tion, or no foundation, in which the report ori
ginated. Not seldom, some wily, watchful Romanist
lays hold of the idle rumour, and converts it into a
peg whereon to hang a plausible apology for, or
showy exposition of, the doctrines and practices of
his Church. Thus did Dr. Wiseman lately, when
he took occasion, from the report that his neophyte
Mr. Sibthorp declined to " confess," or "pray to the

14

Virgin," to advertise (without stamp duty) that gen
tleman as " sitting every Saturday in the confessional
of St. Chad's, Birmingham."
What has just happened here ? — All Oxford was
"astir" last week, in consequence of a statement
appearing in one of the Newspapers — that an
officiating Clergyman of one of the City Churches
had formally declared, that he saw no objection to
committing his Charge or his Pulpit to an avowed
Romanist : this week the explanation came — that
the Clergyman referred to, being about to leave
home, was waited on in what he considered an
intrusive and unauthorised way, by a gentleman,
who questioned him in an improper manner, as to
" who he was to leave as substitute to do duty in his
absence?" to this interrogation he admits that he
answered somewhat in the mood of "pestered"
Hotspur, " neglectingly he knew not what," but
something which he neither intended to be taken as
his meaning, nor to be put before the public by his
over-zealous interrogator." Or take another in
stance — there is at this moment lying in the " Com
mon Room" of every College in Oxford, a letter,
which, though not signed by Mr. Newman, is marked
by all the peculiarities of his style, and which
purports to be a penitential acknowledgment and
recantation of his previous hard sayings against
Rome and Romanism. All men read this letter,
but no one seems able to say, positively, whether it
be genuine or not ; and it is a curious illustration
of the " reserve" which these opinions have induced

15

in the University, that no one thinks of asking Mr.
Newman the plain question — " Is this letter your's ?"
If it be genuine, the document is remarkable, as
proving upon what a reed Mr. Newman's admirers
or apologists leant, when they trusted to those
former declarations against Romanism of which he
drew up a regular " catena" in his letter to the
Bishop of Oxford, concerning Tract 90. If it be
not genuine, but a mere imitation of his style, put
forth either to annoy, or to elicit some further
declaration of anti-Romish views from Mr. Newman,
it is very probable that such a proceeding will only
cause a man of his character to retreat further into
himself, and to say with the Roman poet — " Mea
virtute, me involvo." These sort of things are
worse than useless, and the following will be but a
few of the real results : First, that over-zealous
watchmen for our Zion, by crying " Wolf" too often,
and on slight cause, will come to be unheeded when
they may have matter of serious import to commu
nicate. Secondly, the public mind will become
perplexed, and unable to discriminate between real
danger, and needless alarm. Last, and not least
evil, — it is to be feared, that if, according to the
elegant illustration of Junius — " in controversy the
passions become engaged, and create a maternal
interest in the cause for which we suffer," — there is
danger lest the Tractarians themselves, finding in
so many cases " things laid to their charge which
they know not," may become altogether indifferent
to public opinion, and thenceforth hold a reckless

16

course, the issue of which may be as unfortunate
for themselves as for the Church at large.
It is as little desirable that the Tractarians should
hold their course unobserved, as it is to provoke
them, and excite the public byunwarranted or trifling
charges. A man of sound mind and discriminating
judgment would do as good service to the Church
by giving steady heed to the progress of things at
Oxford, and sounding alarm where necessary, as
a person of opposite character may do injury by
attempting to perform the same duty.
In my next, I shall endeavour to give you such
a short sketch as I can take " currente calamo" of
the classification of parties at Oxford ; and mean
while, I remain, Faithfully yours,
Ignotus.

17

LETTER IL

PARTIES.
Dear Friend, Those persons who quiet their
fears about " Tractarianism" with the notion, that
like other Ephemeral errors, it will " live its day
and die," would seem but careless observers of the
reach of purpose which its Leaders evince, or of the
subtle ingenuity with which they are enlisting into
its service means and agencies which, at first sight,
appear most remotely, or not at all, connected with
their Scholastic or Mediaeval principles.
Nobody, I believe, at the outset saw any relation
between the exquisite Poetry of "Keble's Christian
Year," and the Theology of the " Catena Aurea of
St. Thomas Aquinas," and yet the former was but
a pilot baloon sent forth from the same school,
which has since reproduced the latter, — " Give us
the divine aid of Poesy on our side" vaunted the
Tractarians (who already felt secure of seating Mr.
Williams in the Poetry Professor's Chair) " and we
shall have in our hands powers that laugh to scorn
the petty dominion of Hebdomadal Boards, or
other deciding authorities, against our views." It

18

was this untimely boast which gave so serious a
character to the contest of last year, which ended
in putting Mr. Garbett, a worse Poet, but less
objectionable Divine, into the place sought for Mr.
Williams, the author of " The Cathedral" and of
"Reserve" — thus with one of the " fine arts." Again,
if we look to Architecture we shall see the astute
ness with which Tractarianism has called it to aid
its ultimate objects. Architecture — Gothic (as
Christian) Architecture seems to be at present quite
"the rage" in England. Attention has been, of
late, much directed to the untasteful atrocities which
modern church-builders have been perpetrating —
remember, I am now speaking of architecture as an
art — and without pretending to a great deal of know
ledge on the subject I am constrained, writing as I
do with the architectural beauties of Oxford all round
me, to confess, that there is much reason for outcry
against the worse than Vandal taste which has long
ruled over our Ecclesiastical designs and buildings.
God forbid I should be supposed to forget, that
the Gospel may be preached, and souls saved, in
these unsightly buildings as soon, and as sufficiently,
as in the rude " upper rooms" (vTrepwa) in which
the first Christians used to meet and make disciples ;
but I own, I see no good reason why our Churches
should, unnecessarily, be so constructed as to place
the tastes and principles of worshippers in collision
with each other. We are not followers of that
" Brother Jack," who saw no better way to rid him
self of " Lord Peter's" fashions, than by " tearing
his coat from top to bottom," and then " darning it

19

again with a packthread and skewer."* And yet,
many modern Church builders and repairers would
seem, by their doings, to have known no better.
The Tractarians are not slow to avail themselves of
this crisis. " See," say they, " the consequences of
neglecting Church principles" — (our principles) —
and by means of their " Ecclesiological" and other
Societies, they are gradually instilling into the
public mind notions about the " essential proprie
ties" of places of worship, which all savour of a
return to the " weak and beggarly elements" of
formal religion. It may be supposed to what a
point these matters are likely to be carried, when
these people begin to speak of the " symbolism of an
eight-sided font !" for baptism. The subject is too
long for a letter, but I may briefly say that the
Tractarians, in their zeal to give a holy significance
to every part and parcel of our places of worship,
are often scurrilous towards those who do not go
their lengths, (Vid. The British Critic & Ecclesio-
logist, passim.) sometimes absurd, and not unfre
quently betray a family likeness to the followers of
the "religion of the senses" Popery, with a more
remote aflfinity to those who " served their courses"
under the " worn out and ended" ritual of Judaism !
Nor are they less attentive to certain small minutiae,
such as the " style" and " bringing out" of their pub
lications, with which the press is now teeming. The
publishers of the " Bijou Annual," or the *' Book of
* Vide "The Tale of a Tub."

20

Beauty," cannot be more precise in the matter of
printing or embellishing, than the contemplative as
cetics of the Tract School. Elegant rubrical title-
pages, Emblematical vignettes and Tail-pieces meet
us in most finical prettiness at every turn, and ex
hibit a settled purpose to invade the public mind by
every avenue. Last of all, these " men of the olden
time" " go down to Egypt for help," and are not
ashamed to call to their aid the abomination of
" Religious Stories," or, (to use the stilted name of
one of their own publications,) " Didactic Fictions,"
and the Tract School is now issuing its " Milford
Malvoisins," and " Bernard Leslies," and " War
dens of Berkenholt,"* with a profusion which
threatens to rival that of the " Minerva Press" of

* While on this subject, it is impossible to pass without special
remark the " Story Books" emanating from the Rev. F. E. Paget,
a Beneficed clergyman, who seems to devote himself to advancing
Tractarianism, by writing tales of Fiction, somewhat in the style
of the " Pickwick Papers" — and who affixes to them a quasi-
Episcopal " Imprimatur," by informing us, on his title-page, that
he is " Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Oxford." No one can
deny that this Gentleman, ( I speak from his writings, knowing
nothing of him ijersonally,) possesses a natural vein of broad
humour, and a strong sense of the ludicrous, which, to some men
in his position, would be " a thorn in the flesh to humble them,"
or, " a besetting sin to mortify," rather than a propensity to
indulge. Mr. Paget, however, seems to use them otherwise ; for,
in those of his publications which I have seen, he has risen from
one degree of license to another, until, in the story last named
above, he has attained a gTossness of libel and personality, which
might be looked for rather in the columns of the " Penny
Satirist" than in a religious ! story, from the pen of a clergyman.
The page purporting to be " a copy of a placard announcing a

21

olden days — these are men who professedly eschew
the independence of ultra-Protestantism, the prin
ciples on which they originally banded themselves
were intended to lay private judgment in the dust ;
they therefore lie under the old rule of responsi
bility — " one for all, and all for one." They boast
of doing nothing unadvisedly, and hence, when we
see them moving all agencies — from Mr. Newman's
la.st elaborate argument in favor of " Ecclesias
tical,"* (as distinguished from Scriptural) miracles,
down to the colouring of the type in which their
principles are put before the public, I am warranted
in saying that Tractarianism is no light move,
and that it demands to be met with seriousness,
vigilance, and energy.
It is time to come to the professed subject of this
letter, namely, the state of Parties here. Nearly two
years since I read in a leading Tractarian publication
the following passage, which I then thought arrogant

Meeting of the Bible Society," is a sample of what I allude to ;
it libels, almost by name, some of the most influential and
efficient clergymen of the Church of England. It is but justice
to the editor of the " Irish Ecclesiastical Journal," (no unfriendly
critic of Mr. Paget' s,) to observe, that in his notice of this
volume, (January, 1843,) he reprobates, with proper indignation,
the line Mr. Paget has thought proper to pursue. The Rev. Mr.
Gresley's works are of a graver tone — may be described as
" Philosophy in Sport," — and as sober people often do, when
they attempt unwonted gambols, Mr. Gresley plays heavily — is
rather prosy — and, though undisguised, is not likely to be a very
effective advocate of the Tractarian cause.
* See note to page 62.

in the extreme, but now find to be painfully correct
in its general assertions. —
" It is fit that the world should know how Oxford does most
naturally divide itself, what are the two most decided hues,
there are people who dream of an orthodox party in the University,
as distinct from what we venture to call the Catholic. There are
some also who dream of a so called Evangelical party of numbers
and strength — But these are dreams, comfortable dreams perhaps,
but still dreams, neither of these parties exists ; there may be a
few men who separately, indistinctly, and waveringly hold views
that might be so described, but we appeal to all who know Oxford
whether it does in fact divide itself naturally into more than two
descriptions or tendencies, those who are zealous for Catholic
Unities, and those who are indifferent to all doctrine as such," —
And if any shall tell us that they see in the former division the
promise of Popery, we can safely reply that we can produce in
the latter the earnests of Socinianism. Brit. Critic, for July, 1841.
I came to Oxford with this daring challenge full
in my thoughts ; and with a feeling that the party
putting it forth, must either be very rash and
presumptuous; or else hnoio its own strength well.
I am sorry to say that the latter appears to be the
view nearest the truth, and though I cannot pretend
to answer the appeal as one who " knows Oxford,"
yet the result of observation and inquiry as far
as it has gone, favours the assertion of that predo
minancy in the University, which they so proudly
claim for themselves.
When I speak of the predominancy of Tractarians
in Oxford, I must explain that it does not consist
so much in their numbers, as in the energy, ability,
and unity, with which they pursue their purpose, in

the midst of a " mixed multitude" some more or
less friendly, and few lifting a voice of decision or
authority to oppose them ; in such circumstances,
a compact handful of men, self-possessed, and with
definite objects in view is A Host whose every move
ment tells with efi"ect upon or against the purpose
less numbers around them. The resolution of the
Hebdomadal Board, on the 15th of March, 1841,*
against Tract 90, would appear per se, a strong
move in condemnation of Tractarianism ; but it
stands alone, not followed up by any further Uni
versity Act in opposition, moreover deniedt to be
* At a meeting of the Vice-Chancellor, Heads of Houses, and
Proctors, in the Delegates' Room, March 15, 1841 — Resolved
— " That modes of interpretation such as are suggested in the
" said Tract, (No. 90, of a series of Anonymous Publications
" purporting to be vreitten by members of the University, but
" which are no way sanctioned by the University itself ) Evad-
" ing, rather than explaining, the sense of the Thirty-nine
" Articles, and reconciling subscriptions 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 statutes of the University." P. WYNTER. Vice-chancellor.
f " If books before this (Tract 90,) have been condemned in
the University, the condemnation has been passed by an act of
convocation, which is the proper and only representative of the
University, in matters of great moment," if therefore the
resolution of the Hebdomadal Board, were to be represented as
an act of the whole University on a formal decision on a theolo
gical question, it would assuredly introduce a novel and unsta
tutable proceeding. I have requested the Vice-Chancellor to read
over these remarks, and I am happy to be able to state that
he has not suggested any alteration." — P. S. to Sewell's Letter to
Pusey, on the publication of Tract 90.

24

properly speaking an " University Act," in the full
sense of the word. And when we come to consider,
we shall find its effect and importance still less, for
though the Tractarians sagaciously classify Oxford
into two great natural divisions, yet a closer analysis
would subdivide their section still further, at least
I venture to do as follows.
First, there is the Old High Church Party,
which, having long ruled in high places at Oxford,
may be likened to a dynasty outliving the principles
and energy which called it into existence and power ;
and only waiting for some stirring crisis to consign
it to the list of things that " have been." Although
Tractarianism has grown and strengthened under
the favour and protection of the men of this Party,
let it not be supposed that they are in any measure
responsible for aiding, or abetting this " new
agitation," on the contrary — agitation of any kind
is their bane and detestation ; these are men who
would not, or could not discern the signs and tracks
of that " Great innovator," Time passing over insti
tutions, " they considered and do consider that the
system they loved, worked well," at* least well
enough to satisfy their views of what a Church
ought to be, and though they could not decently
refuse to nod approvail to men who came forward
* Richard Cecil, in his " Remams," (a Christian Classic,)
draws one of this class to the life — he speaks of frequently visiting
" Dr. Bacon, the father of the University, in his day," at his
parish near Oxford, and receiving much wise and wholesome
counsel from him ; but he concludes thus — " this wise man had

25

with the professed purpose, to revive and spread
" Church Principles ;" yet I dare pronounce, that
it would have satisfied them much better, if the
stirring men of their side, had still kept the old
ways and left " well (as they thought it) alone." —
Nothing can be thinner, than the covering with
which the more forward Tractarians veil their con
tempt for such a Party as this ; they know and
boast, that they have brought Old High Churchism
(a "Church and State" prejudice rather than a
principle,) to a " complete stand still" upon what
they sneeringly and figuratively call " a crus-
taceous theology covering a fearful vacuum ;
formed by the cooling and contraction of the
explosive gasses of that great eruption of the
sixteenth century," (the Reformation) — such is the
becoming language applied by the Tractarian autho
rities, to describe the position of men, under whose
shadow they have grown, and been warmed into
vitality. And yet with all this ribald contumely,
thus poured upon them by the " Catholics" of
Oxford, I fear it is not to be doubted, that if at
any future time the " dream of an Evangelical
party here," should turn into a reality (for not-

not just views of serious religion — he was one of those who
are for reforming the parish — making the maids industrious, and
the men sober and honest — but when I ventured to ask, " Sir —
must not all this be effected by the infusion of a Divine principle
into the mind ? A union of the soul with the Great Head of
influence." " No more of that, no more of that I pray."
Cecil's Remains, p. 146.
C

26

withstanding Tractarian scoffs, such a thing may be
in the " good pleasure" of that God, who has before
now confounded a boasting Rabshakeh,) should such
a thing take place, I fear the " Old High Church
Party" would still throw their dead weight influence
into the Tractarian scale, and stand on their side of
the line of division ; for though they may dislike
Tractarian activity much, it is to be feared that
their distaste for Evangelical religion is still greater,
and that in their sincere horror of the Socinian
bug-bear with which the Tractarians adroitly terrify
them, they would be blind to the reality of " that
promise of Popery" which has already been signally
verified, and — " the end is not yet."
Next comes what I must call for distinction sake
the " Church Principle" Party* endeavouring to

* As the "British Critic" is to be considered "the Berecynthian
horn" of the Tractarians, so may the " Quarterly Review" be
termed the " silver trumpet" of the " Church principle'' school at
Oxford ; and it cannot have escaped the notice of any attentive
reader of that influential Periodical that it has been " uttering
an uncertain sound" lately ; few " Quarterly's" are published
without an article bearing more or less remotely upon these
subjects, and from " Oxford Theology" in 1839, to " Markland
on Sepulchral Monuments," in 1842, " ex pede Hercules," I
think I can trace the same " fine Roman hand" through them all,
and I now ask, would the Reviewer, (whose " Oxford Theology,"
in 1839 was obviously written, as a sedative to the public alarm
about the proceedings at Oxford,) after the experience of the
intervening four years, repeat his commendation of the Tract
writers ? would he now speak of them as dealing ambi-dexter
blows, to ultra Protestantism on the one hand, and Popery on the
other ? would he re-assert their care not to " trench on justification
by Faith" ? do they " continue gratefully to acknowledge the

27

hold the most difficult of all positions, that on the
side of a steep hill, half way between the inert
torpidity of the old Churchmen at the top, and the
startling activity with which their more forward
friends are " developing Romish tendencies" below
them. This party is not deficient in men* of

blessings of the Reformation ?" could he (with the assaidt on
Dr. Faussett fresh before him,) now venture to praise them, as
"having written throughout as Christians should write," "ab
staining from bittemess and invective, and censures on indi
viduals," would he still talk with composure, of the " perfect quiet
of Oxford," of " the students being of course, kept aloof from
the controversy,'' " and held under a discipline which permits
no extravagance." Since the Reviewer could write thus, " a
change has come over the spirit of the dream" a great but not
unnatm-al move in advance has been made, " Tract 90 has
been published," the "needs be" which urged its author to
write it, has been disclosed ; and the Quarterly Reviewer has,
with much sagacity, changed ground accordingly; we read no
more apologies for " the theological movement" conducted by
men of commanding position," " with a resolved dedication
of great talents and learning to one definite object," on the
contrary, blasts of warning are now blown at intervals, telling
us that the banded powers of Romanism, marshalled by the
tactics of Jesuitry are swarming round us ; the Quarterly Reviewer
is now doing every thing that " Church principles' will allow,
to correct the first mistake.
* As fair Representatives of the views and objects of the
" Church Principle" Party, I would adduce Dr. Jblf, Canon
of Christ Church, and the Rev. Wm. Sewell, Vice- Principal
of Exeter College ; the former as he expresses himself in a
sermon entitled " Via Media," in which he maintains that our
Church hath ever kept the true mean between the " excess" oi
Romanism, and the " defects" of Dissent ; this Sermon is
marked by a strong Anti- Romish character throughout, and the
writer gives an effective though hasty sketch of the evils and

28

ability and sagacity to perceive to what point things
are approaching, and I have no doubt that what
" man can do" will be done by them, to stay the

corruptions which Rome has brought into the Church, on the
principle of " innovation by addition." And yet with a thorough
sense of Rome's " grievous errors" and " usurpations," Dr. Jelf
manifests somewhat of that guileless simplicity, which conducted
Dr. Pusey, " in very integrity of heart," into the painful positions
in which he placed himself in Ireland. The following passage
will explain what I mean.
" After all, it is painful thus to dwell upon the failings of a
sister Church {of Rome,) which amidst all her corruptions has
retained many Christian truths and holy practices in common
with om-selves, would God that she would " remember from
whence she is fallen and repent and do the first works.'' What
might not Christendom have become, if instead of setting herself
obstinately against the purification of the temple, she had
co-operated with ourselves in the blessed work of amendment,
and even now, " if peradventnre God should give her repentance
to the acknowledgment of the truth" — if she would repeal the
decrees of Trent ! If she would purify her service books, and
rigidly deny to the creature the smallest portion of the worship
due to the Creator, if her Bishop contenting himself with that
" upper room" in the college of bishops, which in honour of the
imperial city was awarded to him during many ages, would lay
aside the utterly groundless claim to universal supremacy ; and
that fearful name of Universal Bishop denounced by his own
predecessor in the sixth centmy as ' Nomen istud blasphemise,'
if these and similar reformations were conceded !!! she might
become once more, what Christian Rome was, in the first ages a
true branch of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, and we
might communicate with her." — Jelfs Via Media p. 20-1.
The portentous number of ifs in the foregoing is but a repe
tition of the " detur fulcrum" of Archimedes, and lead to the same
conclusion of, hopeless impossibility ; for Rome has condemned
herself to incurableness ; those who lean most to her, see her
need of a reform which she has rendered impossible by that
assumption of infallibility, which obliges her to allow even the

29

plague which they have been instrumental in intro
ducing ; for be it observed, that at first these men
went hand in hand with, and were not behind the

theory of Gallileo into her Schools, as it were by stealth ; and
to teach the philosophy of Newton, under pretence of combating
an heretical hypothesis.
With respect to the Rev. Mr. Sewell, as one of the authorities
of this party ; instead of allowing him to speak for himself, I shall
copy the not too favourable opinion of an hostile reviewer.
" The works of Mr. Sewell have a distinct character of their own,
they belong in their general tone to the Tractarian school, but
with important differences and exceptions ; they contain a strong
protest against Papal usurpation, and Romish idolatry, a protest
which does not seem as in the leading Tractarians, a faint and
reluctant whisper to appease the stubborn prejudices of his
countrymen, but distinct, hearty, sincere; their extreme high
Church principles are also modified by a large infusion of
Heathen philosophy; the two elements, as might be supposed,
are not the most easy to combine, and the broken stumps of
Greek Metaphysics, look uncommonly grotesque, when thus
embedded in the stratified sediment of Church forms and
human traditions. Brilliant thoughts, and foolish paradoxes
follow in rapid succession ; exhortations to implicit faith in the
parish Clergyman are mixed with ethics from Aristotle, and
theories from Plato ; and a lament over the disuse of exorcism
and spittle in baptism is followed by deep and just reflections on
the essential unity of goodness."
To the foregoing, at least the first part of it, I entirely assent,
if any man can keep those of his principles from " straggling
towards Rome," by apjjlying an acute and cultivated mind, in
" hearty sincerity" to the painful task of tracing and exposing
the " errors of Romanism," I believe Mr. Sewell will do it ; but
whether the principles to which he would have us all "stand fast"
can be maintained, or whether, if maintained, they would " edify
the Church in our most Holy Faith ;" is another question. In re
ference to the opinion formed by this Reviewer of the " grotesque
effect" ofthe admixture of "Greek Metaphysics" in Mr. Sewell's
theories, I must own myself so far from perceiving it, that, on

30

"very chief Apostles of Tractarianism," in develop
ing the germs of the system. Agreed with them on
premises, they refuse to draw the same conclusions.
Wishing to introduce a measured flow of what they
call " fundamental truths" into public opinion, they
begin to fear that they have acted like the foolish
peasant, who having prayed that his parched garden
might be watered by the Ganges, was swept away,
and " all that he had" in the inundation, invoked
by himself. These men, allowing them to be sincere

the contrary, I consider he evinces no ordinary power of mind,
in extricating, as he occasionally does, an abstract truth from the
rubbish of exploded Pagan systems — and shewing how the
" ordered and sure plan" of our Divine Religion adopts, and
adapts to itself, all those fragments of original truth, by the aid
of which, from " the fall" to the " fulness of time," when God
sent forth his Son, " philosophy, falsely so called," had kept its
various systems buoyant — there is one treatise of Mr. Sewell's more
particularly before my mind at this moment : — namely, an article
in the British Critic on " The Republic of Plato" — from which,
by a curious mistake both as to the author, and as to the real
author's real meaning. Doctor Miller selected a passage as speci
ally embodying Tractarian opinions — at a time when Mr. Sewell
was evidently beginning to "walk no more" with the advanced
section of the party. Now this very article is one to which I
would point as having given scope for the happiest exercise of the
author's analytic ingenuity and power of tracing a thread of truth,
through the mazes and subtleties of Heathen Philosophy ; there
is a peculiar beauty in the mythos of " dream like polity" with
which the article terminates — in reading it we are almost carried
out of ourselves into a conception of " a new heavens and new
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness," and when we tum from
such a picture of what " ought to be," to what is — excitement is
succeeded by its usual reaction — and we find " the cold reality
too real."

31

and vigilant watchmen to their Church, have a
difficult post to maintain, and I should not wonder
if they felt their responsibility to be very painful
and onerous ; the Tractarians ridicule their incon
sistency for not going all lengths with them ; just
as Mr. Sibthorp and others who have openly passed
into the ranks of Popery, in their turn ridicule the
Tractarians for stopping short in their " retrogra-
dation from the principles of the Reformation, and
the anathematised name of Protestantism." The
" Church principle men" are deeply bound to "them
selves, to their Church, and their God," to mark
if they can by characters which cannot be mis
interpreted, the distinction between those " funda
mental principles" which " the Tracts advocate,"
and they approved, and those "subordinate opinions
from which they dissent," the Tractarians challenge
them to this, by maintaining that all their opinions
hang in a chain of inevitable consequence, nor should
the assertion of wise and sagacious men be forgotten,
that in comparison to the principles of this party,
tractarianism is innocuous, that its disingenuous
character is apparent to all, while these men are
more covertly spreading snares, for the good and
pious members of the Church of England. I do not
mean here to discuss their opinions, but giving them
all credit for meaning what they say and no more,
it does not appear to me that they have good reason
to complain of the doubt and distrust evinced
towards them, until they have unequivocally purged

32

themselves from the suspicions, arising out of their
former confessed associations.*
There remains for consideration the great
advanced body of the High Church school. The
Tractarians Proper, but they suggest too much
matter, to be introduced at the end of a long letter
like this. I therefore reserve this subject, together
with some observations on the public ministrations of
the Great Leader Mr. Newman for another occasion,
meanwhile you will say, what I not a word of the
" other divisions ?" not a word of the " Socinian
tendencies" or of the Evangelical party ? Yes ! a
few, and but a few. As to that " earnest of Soci
nianism" asserted by Tractarians to be found in their
opponents, it may easily be supposed that it would
not be likely to obtrude itself on the notice of a
passing observer — and that, considering its distin
guishing character to be rather the negation or
omission of what is true, than an assertion of what
is false, — it might happen to present itself, and yet

* Home Tooke said that his friends (the Jacobins,) might, if
they pleased, go as far as Slough ; he should go no further than
Hounslow, but that was no reason why he should not keep them
company so far as their roads were the same. The answer
is easy. Suppose you know, or suspect that a man is about to
commit a robbery at Slough, though you do not mean to be his
accomplice, have you a moral right to walk arm in arm with him
to Hounslow, and by thus giving him your countenance, prevent
his being taken up. The history of all the world tells us, that
immoral ineans, will ever intercept good ends.
Coleridge Table-Talk vi. ¦^. 121.

33

be overlooked, or something else might be mistaken
for it. What a blunder I should make for instance,
if I asserted that I had heard a Socinian Sermon,
which studiously omitted all reference to " the
Eternal Power and God-Head" of the Redeemer,
and that it turned out to be delivered by a Preacher
of the Tract School, preaching a sermon carefully
composed on the principle of " reserve in commu
nicating Religious Knowledge." Such a mistake
would ruin my character as an observer for ever —
and therefore I shall only say of Socinianism, that
it did not present itself to my notice at Oxford.
With respect to the " Evangelicals," to use a
name thrust upon faithful men, whether they will
or not. I am glad to know that there are those at
Oxford who would not shun this name, (the modern
"offence of the cross,") any more than they
would assume it ; but, as a party, they are powerless
in the University — and though, doubtless, the Lord
has his " hidden ones" there, who do not bow the
knee to the Baal of Oxford, to a larger number
than is apparent, still they can make little demon
stration of effective resistance. Will it ever be
otherwise ? — God knoweth. — I am not of the incre
dulous spirit of him of old who said, " If the Lord
should make windows in Heaven, might such a
thing be," but, I own, I have been led to look on
the probability of the formation of an Evangelical
party in the University as very faint and remote.
And yet, there is no doubt, that some elements of
such a party are to be found there, — nor does there

34

seem any reason why, loAera Tractarians "conspire"
Evangelicals should not combine. And, if circum
stances should beget opportunity, and God bestow
that spirit of a sound mind* which "giveth no
offence, that the ministry be not blamed," such a
party may yet stand forward, and give an effective
check to the " false doctrine" which is involved in
the very essence of the Tractarian movement.

* In reference to this subject, an observation has been just
suggested to me, by the following slap-dash impertinence from
Mr. Fronde's Remains, — " / reality do feel sceptical whether
Latimer was not something in the Bulteel line,'' this reminds
me that some years since a Clergyman, and Fellow of Oxford,
named Bulteel, had created quite "a sensation" by making one
of its pulpits ring with faithful and bold statements of Evangelical
truth. One " Published University Sermon'' of his, at St. Mary's,
was so very bold and uncompromising in its tone, as to remind
us of the way in which John Knox is said to have once " laid
about him" when preaching before the magnates ofthe assembled
Court of Scotland. On inquiring after this Gentleman here, I
found that he had left the " mean between two extremes" — that
he had forsaken the post so providentially committed to him in
Oxford, and hidden the light of his testimony in the obscurity of
some little Dissenting lantern, to the grief and disappointment
of some, and the joy and exultation of Messrs. Froude and Co.
Such an end, of such a beginning, must do more damage to the
cause of Evangelical truth in Oxford than Mr. Bulteel will easily
repair, though he should preach from the pulpit of his present
"Chapel" with "the tongue of men and angels.'' Alas, why —
why is it, that when " grace is given to the acknowledging of the
truth," there does not appear with it accompanying wisdom to
use the dispensation of the Gospel committed to us, as may most
glorify God in our generation ? " by-gones must be by-gones,"
but we cannot help asking, in bittemess of soul, what might not
Mr. Bulteel have been now honoured to do, had he continued on
his post, and not flung his opportunities away ?

35

As for those Gallio-like men who care for " none
of those things," who fill their Fellowships or other
offices, and will continue to fill them, floating in
calm indifference on whatever tide of opinion may
prevail — they cannot well be discussed, nor are they
worth it. No movement in any direction can inte
rest them, until it comes sufficiently near to threaten
their own special comforts or privileges ; these are
men who would sleep quietly while the stately and
time-honoured buildings of their beautiful city were
blazing, provided it did not endanger their " own
set of rooms." And, for all they care, the National
Church of the land may be depraved or destroyed
to any extent in the next generation, provided it will
only last their time, and hold together as long as
they have a " vested interest" in its continuance.
How few, or how many, these men may be, it would
be impossible for me to conjecture, nor does it matter
much ; it will be here as elsewhere, master minds
will give to the University its effective character, and
there have been, and will ever be, learned as well as
unlearned ot TroXXol. Yours, IGNOTUS.

POST SCRIPTUM.
In reading the foregoing letter for the press, it
appears to me that I have scarcely dwelt sufficiently
upon the important part which the " Church Prin
ciple Party" may be called to act, and the solemn

36

responsibility which may hereafter rest on them, in
reference to the weal or woe of England and it's
Church ; it is to this party, that the minds of men
of high station and influence are likely to turn in
any forthcoming struggle, and on the spirit and
demeanour of this party will mainly depend, whe
ther in a common danger a large portion of the
religious mind of England shall be drawn to, or
repelled from the standard of the National Church.
No one, even slightly acquainted with the history
of these " unhappy divisions," which for 300 years
have impaired the force of our National testimony
against the Papacy, can have failed to remark that
there have been at intervals, turning points of crisis
in all Church questions, when more moderation on
one side, and less stiff-neckedness on the other,
might have arranged our intestine disputes, and
enabled us to turn our united strength against a
common enemy. I hope I shall not be considered
an advocate for that licentious liberty which will
bear no yoke of order or rule, when I avow my
conviction that resistance has often been begotten
by high-handedness ; and that I fear the rule assert
ed by our Church as having regulated the com
pilation of our Liturgies, namely, " a mean between
too much stiffness in refusing, and too much easiness
in admitting," has not always regulated her adminis
tration ; there have been periods in our Church's his
tory when her rulers, like Rehoboam,* abused more
than one golden opportunity, when "to be kind to the

^ * 2 Chronicles, x. 7.

37

people" and "please them," and "speak good words
to them," would " have made them her servants for
ever." Who, for example, can read the narrative of
the " Hampton-Court Conference," between the
Bishops and Puritans, before James the First, with
out sighing at the haughty tenacity with which some
small points of "forbearance," towards "honest
ministers in Suffolk," and " godly effectual preachers
in Lancashire,"* were rejected. " I will make them
conform, or harrie them out ofthe land," was the vain
glorious boast of that " wisest fool in Christendom"
who presided ; we know how fearfully this threat
was reversed in a generation after, when the "time
of fruit" of the seed sown at that conference may be
said to have arrived. We are now left to speculate
how far, the "soft answer which turneth away
wrath," could have saved the Crown and Church of
England from sore judgments, and the Nation
itself from heavy sins ; it is not certain that a milder
course would have turned away these visitations, but
it is undeniable that the more unbending course
pursued, failed to attain its purpose as signally, as
did the " whips and scorpions" of Rehoboam ; these
are things " happened for our ensamples, and writ-
* As an argument for " forbearance'' towards the Lancashire
Ministers, it was pleaded, " many won by th&ir preachmg of the
Gospel with revolt to Popery.'' Bishop Bancroft (who as Fuller
tells us spake "politicly" when not "passionately,") opposed
himself to indulging their scruples " lest no fruit grow of the con
ference," it is a curious subject for speculation, how far the fact of
Lancashire being now the great Papal stronghold in England^
may be considered a " fruit of that conference."

38

ten for our learning," and though there be now no
question of "harrieing non-conformists out of the
land," there may be other modes of " laying the
yoke upon them," more adapted to the spirit of the
times ; which may produce results not exactly simi
lar, yet equally disastrous, and involving a dominant
Church party in equally fearful responsibility.
As the tenor of these letters can leave little doubt
to which Party within our Church the writer gives
his adhesion. I will take occasion to offer a few
reflections upon what I conceive to be " the princi
ple of the difference between the High and Low
Church parties ;" first observing, that as regards
approval of the constitution of our Church, desire
to observe her discipline and order, and conviction
that outside her pale, there is no communion on
earth, whose polity is so conformable in theory, to
the plan of God's moral government ; so far as
these points are concerned I yield to no Churchman,
in attachment to the Church of England.
The opinions which essentially distinguish high
and low Churchmen from each other, appear to have
arisen almost inevitably from the moment that the
Church of England took an attitude of protest
against the corrupted Religion of the Bishop of
Rome — this Great event induced a necessity for
returning to " first principles," and of considering a
question which the circumstances of Christendom had
long laid in abeyance ; namely, what are the com
ponent parts ESSENTIAL to make up the complex
idea of a Christian Church ? According to the
answer men give to this question, it appears to me

39

that they will, " ipso verbo," write themselves down
High or Low Churchmen. When they make a cer
tain order of Church Government (namely the
Episcopal) of the essence of Christianity, and vital
to the administration of its sacraments, then are
they high Churchmen ; the question is not whether
this form of Church government be the best — the
most ancient — the primitive — for on these points the
low Churchmen may " ex amino" agree with them.
High Church assumption will be satisfied, with no
such admission as this,* when carried to excess, the
following language, no less profane than arrogant,
is it's true expression, — "I should like to know why
you flinch from saying, that the power of making
the Body and Blood of Christ is vested in (us) the
successors of the apostles." This point is more deli
berately and formally expressed in Mr. Keble's " ma-
tured account" of the principles on which the
Tractarians originally " banded themselves." From
the eminence which they thus assume to themselves,
High Churchmen look down, not only upon other
Communions which either from choice or necessity
are deficient in Episcopal rule ; but also upon their
fellow Churchmen, who cannot adopt their views.
I once heard the High Church principle declared
in a short sorites, thus — " no Bishop, no Church ;
no Church, no Sacraments ; no Sacraments, no sal
vation," this pithy expression of sentiment High
* This spirit of High Churchmanship, reminds me of the
anecdote of a morose fellow who on entering a tavern said " bring
me a glass of water," and on the waiter's civilly replying " I will
sir," retorted " will sirrah," you must."

40

Churchmen are not fond of repeating in so many,
or rather so few words, for a naked conclusion
which thus "deals damnation round the land," is so
repugnant to the mind and spirit of Christianity ;
and goes so far beyond the warrant of God's word,
that it is commonly softened in their statements, by
an expedient similar to that with which the Papacy
tries to veil the deformity of its tenet of exclusive
Salvation ; and as the Romanist endeavours to
escape the dilemma of condemning those who may
" confess Christ," but do not " receive the Papal
mark on their foreheads," by muttering something
about " invincible ignorance," so do we find High
Churchmen occasionally easing their minds about
" Lutherans, Presbyterians," and " such small deer"
by consigning them to " the «?z-covenanted mercies
of God."
The position so nobly defended by the "judicious
Hooker," was not the " High Church Principle ;"
he " withstood to the face" the Genevan Church
constitution, when it's upholders insisted that it was
"that platform of discipline" alone laid down by
God in Scripture, in contravention to which posi
tion this wise Champion of Episcopacy desires it to
be " noted," that " as the necessity of speech
among mankind may be affirmed without import
ing that all men must necessarily speak the same
language." So, " the necessity of Church polity
or regimen in all Churches, may be held without
asserting any one form to be necessary for them
all, and he elsewhere clearly distinguishes between
" matters of Faith," and " in general matters

41

necessary to solvation," as " of a different nature
from ceremonies, order, and the kind of Church
Government," of which the one is necessary to
be contained in the word of God, or else mani
festly collected out of the same ;" the other free,
if nothing against them may thence be alleged.''
Whether, holding these views, Richard Hooker was
an efficient or successful maintainer of the con
stitution of the Church of England, I am not now
called to argue, and indeed the confession of friends
and foes alike has long settled that question, but I
conceive that " without controversy" the avowal of
such opinions ranks the holder of them, with "Low
Churchmen." It is in the view of the matter here taken, that
the constant tendency of the High Church Party,
(as expresssed in the passage of Dr. Jelfs Sermon
before given,) to speak tenderly and soothingly of
the Church of Rome, becomes intelligible. Even
at the moment when they are laying bare those
corruptions and additions, to her creed, by which
she neutralises the truth she continues to confess,
and " makes of none effect" that Cross which she
professes so much to venerate ; these men are still
mollified towards her by the value they attach to
that " Church Polity," which she has in common
with us, while the maintenance of the essential
verities of the Catholic Faith, by other Protestant
Communities is valueless in their eyes, because
" they follow not with us ;" to those who would
" discern the signs of the times," it is ominous of
D

42

evil to see men's desires and acts tending rather
to unite with an " erring Church" " ivhich gives
no one sign of repenting of the evil of her ways"
than to win or invite to us, those whose fault is one
of " defect and not of excess," of unfortunate
circumstances rather than of wilful pravity. I am
happy in being able to adduce the respected name of
the Rev. George S. Faber, as a veteran son of the
Church of England whose allegiance to her has
never been questioned, and who in his " Provincial
letters," avows himself " undeterred by the fear of
being set down as a stark rationalist," from taking
the same view which I have endeavoured to explain
of the case of " Churches which preferred* Pres-
byterial orders without Idolatry, to Episcopal
orders with Idolatry. May England long continue
to number among her " mercies from God" the
Providential ordering which in her " deliverance
from the Papal yoke," (if Mr. Oakley will pardon
the " undutiful" expression) preserved her from
the necessity of any such choice.
* After what has been stated above it would be unfair to Doctor
Jelf, not to notice the fact within my knowledge that he has so far
descended from, the extreme High Church Principle, as to speak
kindly of " foreign Protestant Communities,'' he quotes approv
ingly, an expression of Bishop Bull's " Fratres nostri Lutherani,"
charitably and truly calls them " imperfect Churches," and sug
gests that approximation to our Church is possible. When the
discussion of these questions is approached in such a spirit; if
agreement be not possible, at least the asperities of difference
will be avoided ; in the same kind spirit is his quotation of a
sentiment of Archbishop Bramhall's, that " every one involved
in a schism is not a formal schismatic."

43

LETTER III.
THE TRACTARIANS AND MR, NEWMAN.

Dear Friend, Coming now, to what may properly
be called the subject of these letters, I find myself
almost reduced to the confession of the needy
knife-grinder in the Anti-jacobin, " Story, God
bless you, I've none at all to tell, Sir," The
general reserve and distance of Oxford men unac
quainted with each other, has been parodied in the
anecdote of a Gentleman drowning in the Isis, who
would not permit another to pull him out of the
water, because, " they had never been introduced !"
and this general shyness has been so much increased
by late events, that I can easily believe the fact to
be as thus stated to me, — " You will hear more of
Tractarianism anywhere you go, than at Oxford,
whence it all originates." I do not think it
would be right or becoming, even if I had oppor
tunity, to offer any view of matters, caught up from
whispers, and guesses, and surmises, and dove-tailing
of the conjectures of one man on the supposed
principles of another ; this sort oi patchwork infor
mation bespeaks a sense of danger, without any

44

self-possession or ability to meet it, and must only
serve to give the Tractarians such confidence as a
practised fencer obtains, when, after a few wild and
random passes, he perceives that he has to do with
an antagonist who is, to use the common phrase,
" all abroad."
I have already said, that The Tractarians
Proper are comparatively few, but energetic and
fearless ; and looking to the " rise and progress" of
their movement, as detailed by Mr. Perceval, it is
wonderful to see what a few men, by combined
and well-directed efforts, may accomplish. If the
University were polled, I am inclined to think that
the number prepared to avow themselves thorough
disciples of the Tracts would not be very numerous —
and yet, that the University, and thence the Parochial
Clergy of England, are becoming largely leavened
with their principles, is too apparent to be doubted.
All those rash and silly acts of which, at a distance,
we hear and read as characteristic of the present
state of Oxford, such as the ostentatious exhibition of
a crucifix — the practice of genuflections — of private
confession — the purchase of Breviaries* — and such
* " Roman Breviaries." — the " importation of these, by Mr.
Parker of Oxford, for profit" is a fact curiously illustrative of
the progress which " the movement" naturally makes, as soon as
" feelings of awe, mystery, and devotedness" are set in motion
towards Rome. Mr. Newman, (not "wantonly" as he says, but
advisedly) rouses curiosity by " Selections from the Roman
Breviary," in which he " does all he can' to "discriminate and
separate the Roman corruptions from the primitive Chm-ch" —
condemns the " invocation of the Virgin and of Saints'' as a " chief

45

like, are traceable to the younger disciples of
Tractarianism, who, with the ardour of Neophytes,
spurn at any restraint, — who catch at a hint,
and carry it further than it was ever meant to be
carried, and in spite of all exertions of their leader,
will *' straggle from their ranks," through curiosity
or impatience — what wonder if they meet the com
mon fate of stragglers, and fall into the hands of
the advanced guard of the enemy — these " unstable
and silly ones" remind me so much of the Poet's
description of the followers of " Him of the Silver
veil," that I borrow and accommodate his words to
describe them —
" On either side with ready hearts, and hand.
His chosen guards of bold Believers stand.
Young fire-eyed disputants — they deem he sins.
Who halts a moment when the march begins ;
And such their zeal, that as " towards Rome they stray,"
Ardour hke their's, ill brooks their Chief's delay."
This "Chief," the "facile Princeps," to whose
creed and standard the Tractarians flock, is the Rev.
J. H. Newman, Fellow of Oriel College, and Vicar
practical grievance of the Roman system" and a "violation of
our allegiance to our only Saviour." This may have been all
well intended, but the appetite which he excited could not long
content itself with the scanty allowance thus afforded — a.nA forth
with followed " the (to the British Critic) gratifying fact" that
Mr. Parker "finds it worth while" to import Parisian and Roman
Breviaries, every year, in numbers which nothing but purposes
of private devotion could account for" — the demand is, probably,
very steady; for, on looking over the well-stored shelves of Mr.
Parker's shop, I could see but one copy of the Breviary left.

46

of the Collegiate Church of St. Mary, in Oxford.
Doctor Pusey' s name seems to have been connected
with the movement rather by some droll play of
words, such as that which first nicknamed the Wes
leyan Methodists " Swaddlers," than from his having
held or assumed the post of Leader, at all events if
he was ever so considered, the unsuspecting simpli
city and want of caution, evinced in his proceedings
during his visit to Ireland fully decided his unfitness
for the post. Men of all parties unite in acknow
ledging his amiable qualities, and in expressing
respect for his personal character ; but they also
shake their heads and sigh, when any allusion is made
to the manner in which he permitted himself to
" make sport for the Philistines," in his consorting
with the Romanists of Dublin. Dr. Pusey's writings
and actions, as far as regards Rome and Romanism,
are specially marked with the common error of his
party — that of attempting to "cut blocks with a
razor" — men of thoughtful, sensitive, delicate, minds,
who would themselves feel a rebuke like a wound,
are utterly unfit to deal with the coarse, brawling,
thick-skinned, agents of the Papal system. Dr.
Pusey may know his own meaning, but appears not
to know the " incurable gentleness of his own man
ner." I would select the section of his letter to Dr.
Jelf on Tract 90, on " Tendency of individuals to
Romanism," as an example of what I mean, I think
it probable that Dr. Pusey considered that he was
dealing deadly blows to the system, when he wrote
it, and no doubt it does contain much clear and

47

calm testimony against Rome and Romanism, but —
the language is too subdued ; the censure in one part
too much qualified by the concession in another, so
that such blows fall like thistle down upon the sturdy
heads for which they are intended. The Romanists
will endure the worst wrath of a gentle assailant
like Dr. Pusey, so long as they can make use of
other proceedings of his and his associates in their
operations upon the mind of England ; their case
may be compared to that of some impudent fellow
who should force his way into your parlour, take his
seat at your table, and devour your dinner ; if, while
he is satisfying his hunger at your expense, you
confine yourself to remarks that his conduct is "in
correct," " out of rule" " ungentlemanly" he can
bear it all, the only rebuke such personages feel is
a call to the servants to turn the intruder out of
the house.
I suppose every one fashions to himself, some
ideal portrait of a person of whom he has heard,
and is likely to see, and in nine cases of ten,
there is no resemblance whatever, to the original.
I had been thus drawing " fancy's sketch" of Mr.
Newman, and for once was tolerably correct, the
moment I saw him, though mixed up with other
" Magnates" of the University, I instantly said to
myself "that is Newman" — and it was — a spare ascetic
looking person, with deep thought looking out from
eyes protected by spectacles, and firmness written on
the line of the thin closed lips, and the abstraction
of manner, attendant on constant converse with

48

the ages that are past, were just what I anticipated,
and what I saw. There were many fine intellectual
countenances in the rows of Doctors, and other
Chief men ranged at the University service in St.
Mary's, but I think any observer must at once have
singled out Mr, Newman from among them and
said, " that is a remarkable man."
The poet speaks of " a voice low and sweetly
toned, an admirable thing in woman." Mr. New
man possesses it in more perfection, than is perhaps
pleasant in a man. I attended all the services of
one Sabbath at St. Mary's, and though there
was occasionally a kind of recitative in Mr.
Newman's " praying" not very agreeable, yet, in
some passages of his reading and preaching, he
used his voice with a thrilling effect which I never
heard surpassed. One of the lessons for the "service
of the day," Isaiah chap. lxiv. was peculiarly suited
throughout to call all the tones of his " very
pleasant voice" into full play ; these two last verses
especially, " Our holy and our beautiful House where our Fathers praised
thee, is burned up with fire, and all our pleasant things are laid
waste." " Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things. Oh Lord ? wilt
thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore ?"
were delivered by Mr. Newman with a plaintive
effect I shall never forget, nor was it an effect
derived from any, the slightest attempt, at what is
called " finished reading," but evidently from the
reader being himself deeply engrossed in the touching

49

passage he was delivering. Knowing what I do of
Mr. Newman's opinions, I think it probable that he
and at least one of his hearers applied the lament of
the Prophet to a very different kind of desolation,
but whatever might be the application, the reading
of the passage was pathetic and beautiful beyond
expression. There was considerable peculiarity in Mr. New
man's mode of performing divine worship, which I
think I should have noted even though report had
not been busy on the subject. He makes unusually
long pauses between the different divisions of the
service, as if engaged in mental prayer, and sug
gesting recollections of the " mementos" appointed
by the Romish ritual. Also when Mr. Newman
kneels, he makes what I should call a "genuine genu
flexion," falling on his knees and rising again with
a practised rapidity which to me looked rather scenic,
possibly I may be remarking on peculiarities belong
ing to the man, and having no precise intention or
object. There was a Communion, and I hope there was
no irreverent curiosity in the close attention with
which I observed all the ministrations. Everything
was conducted with the strictest rubrical propriety.
I saw for the first time in the beautiful Chancel of
St. Mary's this rubric of the first communion service
of King Edward the Sixth put in practice, " then so
many as shall be partakers ofthe Holy Communion
shall tarry in the Quire, or in some convenient
place nigh the Quire, the men on the one side, and

50

the women on the other." There was no " Cre
dence" or " Table of Prothesis," (as the Ecclesiolo-
gist calls it,) but Mr. Newman, with much reverence,
took the Elements from one of the ancient Sedilia
in the wall of the church, and placed them upon
the Communion table — there were four officiating
Clergymen, who administered to the communicants,
as they knelt in the seats of the Chancel and not at
the Rail as usual ; and the whole of the service
was performed with a quiet decorum and reverence
much to be approved. In only one particular did Mr.
Newman appear to me to infringe, or go beyond that
exact Rubrical obedience otherwise observed, and
that was, during a mental prayer in which he engaged
after the consecration of the Sacred Elements, his
attitude then was exactly what the Explanatory De
claration after our Communion Service seemed to
anticipate, might be " misconstrued or depraved
by ignorance, if not by malice" — it amounted to
" adoration !" as far as an act could express it — it
was not reverent kneeling at the Lord's Table, but a
prostration of himself wwcJer it — suggesting thoughts
of that " Idolatry to be abhorred of all good Chris
tians" — from which our Church, in the same " Decla
ration," purges herself. I intend no hyper-criticism
by this remark, but considering, that, in the formal
statements of Mr. Newman's School, (Tract 10,
and elsewhere) on the subject of the Sacraments, —
there is so much ambiguity of expression, as gives
room for misconstruction of action ; I think Mr.
Newman would judge better if he did not put a

51

stumbling block in the way of those who worship
with him, by such postures.
There are one or two characteristics which always
mark a man for a Leader, and these Mr. Newman
would appear to possess largely, one is, a quiet in
difference to consequences, if they do not interfere
with a primary object ; another is, — a power of adap
tation to circumstances as they arise. When Napo
leon determined to gain a particular position he was
indifferent whether it cost him five hundred or ten
thousand lives ; and it would seem that Mr. Newman
is calmly intent on carrying out his views, even
through the wreck of the whole present Ecclesiastical
System of England. One of his associates, (Rev. W.
G. Ward,) avows " that he is exercising an incom
parably great influence in retaining within our own
communion persons tempted to quit it." But again,
both he and Dr. Pusey are much and loudly blamed
for not checking and restraining the extravagancies
of young disciples, it being generally considered that
they could do it with a word. Mr. Newman seems
determined " to let things take their course" — he is
scattering principles in profusion, he leaves others
to appply them — and calmly goes on to fulfil his
destiny, seemingly without giving much thought to
that responsible position in which circumstances have
placed him, of raising with every stroke of his pen
some question of momentous import to the destinies
of Christian England.*
* Mr. Newman must always have been a remarkable man, but
the position he now occupies gives to his slightest act an import-

52

Mr. Newman and his friends endeavour to evade
this responsibility lying thus on them, by asserting a
" movement of the religious mind of our Church"
ance of no ordinary kind ; it is therefore with no small sui-prise
that, just at this moment, when "Estaticas, and Adoloratas
in Europe (and Youghal !)" and "Celestial Appearances"
in China, denote that Thaumaturgy is the present " order of the
day" at Rome, we find him bringing before the English Public
" Fleurt's History of the Church in the Fourth Cen
tury" — introduced by " an elaborate Essay on, and in favour
OF, the Miracles ! of the period," which Essay is recommended
by an approving reviewer, as " one of the most masterly pieces
of reasoning which has appeared since the days of Bishop Butler."
This coincidence is, to say the least, remarkable ; — " all things
are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient," says St. Paul.
Unless there be some influence higher than his own judgment,
overruling and determining the direction of Mr. Newman's mind,
surely it might have occuiTed to him that however it might be
" lawful" for him to translate and comment on Fleury as, and
when, he pleased, he might have found a " more expedient" time
for this publication than when Rome is putting out afresh her
" signs of deceivableness " to cause the " World to wonder after
her." Again, — I dare say Mr. Newman " smiles superior" at the
vulgar notion that he is " a Jesuit in disguise" — but he should
consider that such acts as these, are what betray people at a
distance into such foolish fancies, being the very acts which a
Jesuit in his position, would be likely to do. I am much struck
by a remark which an acute friend of Mr. Newman's lately made
to me, which was — " that the best — the only service he could do
the Church, just now, would be to remain j)erfectly quiet — for
that his activity, in any direction, ivould be sure to do harm."
I believe this opinion to be sound and just. Yet a question
remains — would quiescence be possible for such a mind as Mr.
Newman appears to possess ? — it is to be feared not; and that it
possesses a quality, like that of the gastric juice, which if not
furnished with food to act upon, turns its solvent powers against
the stomach itself; and therefore that Mr. Newman, in ceasing
to write, would act against the wholesome old rule — " Cor ne
edito."

53

towards an " undeflnable something" which "Rome
has, and we have not," and they wish to disclaim alike
" the praise or blame" of being the individuals who
have set the Age a-going after " that something," —
this appears to me an extremely painful, (I had
almost said, paltry,) disclaimer ; it sounds like the
mean excuse of the mischief-maker, who having
given a death blow to the peace of a family, by
insinuating some tale of slander, or disgrace, should
justify himself by saying, " If I had not done so
somebody else would." We can no more blot a
line of the tracts, or lift the curtain which covers
their ultimate results, than we can "pluck from the
memory a rooted sorrow," but my conviction is
deep, that they have suggested to thousands, and
tens of thousands, notions which they would never
have entertained otherwise, that they have first un
fastened many minds from their moorings, and then
given them for their guidance, principles which they
do not know how to apply or manage  But for the
tracts, it would be long, before English Church
men arrived at the discovery that their Church was
" working in chains," and "speaking in stammering,"
or that " Catholic liberty" was to be sought in the
direction of Italy, or that there was anything " deep,
holy, or tender" to be coveted " in the Church of
Rome ;" — But for the tracts, we should never have
seen from " A Fellow of Oxford," such language
applied to the Venerable men who bore "the bloody
burthen and fiery heat" of our deliverance day ; as
must pain every member of England's Church to

54

read or listen to. And to sum up all in one instance
it is rather " too bad" to hear the Author of Tract
Ninety, the " be all and end all" of these publica
tions, trying to relieve himself of his responsibility
for its appearance, by cooly saying "it was certainly
very inexpedient for one class of persons, but it was
meant for another!" " I thought it would be useful
to them without hurting any one else!!!" (New
man's letter to Jelf, pp. 25-27-) " is this a man to
GUIDE SAFELY THE MIND OF AN EMPIRE ?"
" When" (observes a Tractarian article often be
fore referred to,) " you want anything extrava
gant, unwarranted, and presumptuous, to be done,
commend us to a modest man" " who knows no mean
between bashfullness and impudence." The supposed
writer of this sentence, may take the tale* which fol
lows it, "very near home," to himself, for it is gene-
* The tale here referred to is found in a number of the British
Critic, containing an article of unmeasured censure and ridicule
upon one of the University Authorities, who, we are led to sup
pose, was one of the " far niente " class ; roused at length, by
Tractarian agitation, to direct a lecture against it from one of the
Divinity Chairs of Oxford — in the course of this lecture, the
Professor was led to say, that " his understanding as well as his
feelings were outraged by insinuations against the so-called Re
formers." Upon this text, the article proceeds to comment —
stating, among other things, that the Worthy Professor " had
blown a blast too loud." And then " apropos," comes a story,
much of the point of which must be lost to us, who are not suffi
ciently " behind the University Scenes" to understand the personal
allusions — but it is to the following effect : — " that some years
since, after a lecture on musical sounds, in the course of which
sundry string and wind instruments were jsroduced, the " Grandees
of the University" approached the Lecturer's table to examine the

55

rally believed that few men would have ventured on
the experiment of " holding up his mouth at a bold
angle of elevation," and "emitting" interpretations so
utterly at variance with the every day " sense and un
derstanding of the world," as Tract 90 puts forth " but
the most bashful, shrinking, unobtrusive man in
the University Mr. Newman,"— and every after act
connected with that Tract, — his avowal of authorship
to the "Vice-Chancellor," — his" Explanation to Dr.
Jelf — and his letter "on occasion thereof" to his Dio
cesan, the Bishop of Oxford, — are all conceived in
the same spirit of entire self-possession under what
aforesaid instruments — and among them some " certain Junior
Proctor," a man of remarkable backwardness and modesty of
manners — " confiding in the passport of his velvet sleeves," com
menced an inspection of trumpets and dulcimers.'' Bye and bye
a blast is heard — dissonant, harsh, loud, utterly unlike the every
day sounds — grating and grinding "through bench and wall,
body and soul." " All eyes were tumed to the spot whence it
came, and were in time to see the most bashful man in the Uni
versity holding to his mouth, at a bold angle of elevation, a very
long metal pipe, whose micouth appearance certainly might have
dictated greater caution, before one committed to it the whole
strength of his lungs." — So far the story, I don't know how truly
it may illustrate the character and proceedings of the " Margeret
Professor" — but if it be more applicable to him, than to the con
trast between the shy shrinking demeanour — the low-toned voice,
and plainness of diction which Mr. Newman exhibits — and the
bold blast in which he endeavoured to blow away the sense and
intention of the Articles of the Church of England, the parallel
must be very happy indeed — the whole article has been pro
nounced " more worthy of Maynooth than Oxford." I should call
it more in the style of one of those " Corn Exchange" harangues
in which Mr. O'Connell discharges the vials of his " ridicule" upon
any one bold enough to cross his path — a sneer is a convenient
missile, where an argument is lacking.

56

may be called girlish simplicity of expression ; there
is a mysterious quaintness in his avowals which would
almost seem affected. " / have not given my name
hitherto (as author of Tract 90) under the belief
that it was desired I should not." " Everything
I attempt might be done in a better spirit and in
a better way." "I am far from saying there is any
one evil temper or motive, which may not have
it's share in anything that I wrote myself." " I
readily and cheerfully obey your Lordship,
(Bishop of Oxford) in discontinuing the Tracts,
and at the same time express my great sorrow
that any writing of mine should be judged ob
jectionable by your Lordship, and of a disturbing
tendency." Does not this sound more like the
breathings of some pious anchorite pouring out his
heart in self-abasement before God, than the apology
of A Promulgator of "new and startling views cal
culated (in the opinion, ofthe authorised Theological
teachers of the University,) to shake the confidence
ofthe less learned members ofthe Church of Eng
land in the scriptural character of her formularies
and teaching,"* but the contrast is more striking
*" This Tract (90) puts forth new and startling views of the
extent to which the liberty of interpreting the Thirty-nine Articles
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
erroneous doctrines and practises af the Church of Rome might
not be inculcated into the lecture rooms of the University, and
from the pulpits of our churches." —
Letter of the Four Tutors of Oxford, March 8, 1841.

57

when we find this self-abased man in the same breath
declaring, " / cannot repent of what I have pub
lished," and " whatever has been said or done,"
in consequence of my publishing, " though it may
grieve me, I trust it will not vex me, or make me
less contented and peaceful in myself," and there
upon suiting the act to the word, he allows two, three
or four editions of the tract to be published. If this
be not something like the "raost bashful man in the
University," blowing the " Berecynthian horn," I
must leave you to judge*.
This calm self-sustained complacency appears to
be accompanied by a readiness of adaptation to cir
cumstances which in the opinion of many, renders
Mr. Newman's proceedings peculiarly dangerous ;
" he placed himself at his Bishop's disposal" in regard
to the tracts ; and they were discontinued in conse
quence. Many, both friends and foes, thought that
the " movement" was thereby stopped — not at all —
it has merely shifted from a railway-carriage to
other vehicles, and the banded Tractarians, though
dispersed, are as busy as ever. Again — the Church
of the fourth century was at first set up as the true
standard, to which conformity was to be sought ;
but whether the position taken by the author of
" Ancient Christianity" compelled Mr. Newman to

" Saeva tene cum Berecynthio
Comu tympana, quee subsequitur cacus amor sui." —
Hor. Od. Lib. 1. 18.

58

shift his ground ; or whether (as I think most
probable,) Tractarianism, as it progressed, found
this ground too narrow for all the quasi-Catholic
principles it seeks to establish ; it seems that Mr.
Newman is now promulgating the notion of a deve
loping or expanding quality in Christianity, which,
if received, gives " ample room and verge enough"
to take in, as " Catholic," every " innovation and
addition" which may be made to the end of time.
This thought appears borrowed from the same
storehouse where the " unwritten tradition" of the
Papacy is laid up — and if admitted, renders nu
gatory all historical evidence against novelties or
corruptions, for it would justify them by the plea,
that they were not, nor could be ancient, because
the time for their development was not yet come.
On this principle the Rationalists of Germany might
have claimed admission for their successive theories ;
nay further, — I do not see, on this principle, how we
could " prima facie" refuse to hear the claims of
" Joseph Smith, jun." of Navoo, to engraft the gold
plates of Mormonism on the Christian Revelation,
as having been "hidden through the ages," until
revealed to the prophet (trusty Joe himself,) in the
" fulness of time !"
Here I take leave of Mr. Newman and his Party,
repeating the assertion, " the end is not yet." That
he will stamp a character on his generation is unques
tioned — " it may be for good" in various ways ; his
proceedings may force on a premature exposure of

59

the designs of Rome in these realms.* The deep
thought and devotedness evinced in every thing he
does, may beget corresponding depth and earnestness
in those who dread and oppose his views. God forbid
we should distrust Him of whose " noble works we
have heard in our fathers' days, and in the old time

* It will not be inappropriate to remark here, that at more
than one critical period since the Reformation, (as far as second
causes are concerned) our Israel has owed its deliverance from
the overwhelming Host of Rome, as much to the boasting rash
ness of the Romanists themselves, as to the sagacity or prudence of
Protestant Councils. All historians unite in ascribing much of the
unhappy course of James II. to the headlong bigotry of Father
Petre, his Confessor; and unless the mind of England be "given
over to a strong delusion," it wUl not be insensible to the premature
rejoicings which now and again are heard from the Romish party,
for the approaching re-conversion of England, of which I select
for specimen, Mr. O'Connell's vulgar boast, lately uttered in the
(Roman) "Catholic Institute of Britain" — that he hoped "to
live to see Mass celebrated in Westminster Abbey." On the
slightest symptoms of success, their ordinary caution and tact
seem to forsake the Romanists, and heretofore their boasts and
anticipations have been loudest, when their cause has been on the
eve of some signal and unforeseen overthrow. May it prove so
in the present case.
A curious illustration just occurs to me: It is well known,
that when James the Second was in the heyday of his hope of
reducing England to the Papal yoke, Dryden, his Poet Laureate,
was, among others, " closetted" and " converted" by his Royal
Master. This happened about the year 1686-6 — and, with the
rapidity of inspiration, the poet's pen produced the well-knovm
fable of " The Hind and Panther," for the purpose of writing-up
the " Dispensing Power'' usurped by James, the " Royal Lion" of
the allegory. In this Poem, "The Milk- White Hind" sym
bolizes the Church of Rome, and " The Panther" the " Church of
England" — and I refer to it now, because the full-blown hopes
of the Romanists, at that period, are expressed in the four

60

before them." But " we must stand still to see
His salvation," and how he may please to accom
plish it ; for unquestionably Mr. Newman appears
to be leading a large section of our Israel into
" Pihahiroth," (the jaws of the mountains,) with
the sea of confusion before, and the Papal Enemy
" following hard after" to devour and destroy. Let
us trust that the deliverance will be as signal as the
extremity appears serious.
I am, yours faithfully,
Ignotus.

concluding lines of the Poem, — to which I venture to append
a short historical summary of the series of events which, to
their confusion and disappointment, ended in the Revolution of
1688 :— " The Hind withdrew, and wishing to her guest
The peace of Heaven ; betook herself to rest.
Ten thousand angels on her slumbers wait.
With glorious visions of her future state."

Vain-" glorious visions !" all too soon dispelled.
For James his headlong course so madly held,
And Toleration's masque so loosely wore.
Men heard behind the Romish " Lion's" roar :
Proud in prerogative, he deemed all laws,
As barriers to his sovereign will, but straws ;
Goaded by Closet-Councillors, his hand
Sought conflict with the Conscience of the land,
'Till loyalty to Him, to God were sin.
And a roused people welcomed William in.
Then, seemingly of wonted sense bereft,
By nearest friends in direst danger left —
Near, and more near, the gathering danger drew —
Loud, and more loud, a. Nation's threat'nings grew —
Then, as its thunders rolled about his head.
The baffled Bigot heard — despaired — and fled.

61

POST SCRIPTUM.
It may be supposed that " Littlemore," its
" Monastery," and its Church, attracted some of
my attention while at Oxford, but I cannot offer
much to gratify the curiosity which may have been
excited by occasional notices in the " Record," and
elsewhere. Littlemore is, I believe, a chapelry attached to
Mr. Newman's Vicarage of St. Mary's, about two
miles from Oxford. It consists of a small hamlet,
with a very modest Church and small School-House
attached, and Mr. Newman has lately built or
enlarged what rumour has entitled a monastic esta
blishment, where he generally resides, with one or
two gentlemen, his curates, and, as I believe, his
parochial schoolmaster. In all this there is nothing
very extraordinary — nothing that is not perfectly
intelligible in individuals of collegiate habits. If
it were not for the feverish anxiety with which
every movement of Mr. Newman's is now observed,
these things would never claim a second thought. —
For my own part, I walked from Oxford, intending
to solicit, as a stranger, admission to what I was
led to set down as "one of the lions," but when I
arrived opposite to what, in Ireland, we should call an
ordinary Glebe-house, and saw through the windows
that it seemed fitted up like any other gentleman's

62

habitation, I felt that I could not, unintroduced,
solicit admission, without betraying impertinent
curiosity — I therefore returned as I came. The
small Church, which the " Ecclesiologist" calls " the
model of a Church as it ought to be," had nothing
very reraarkable in or about it. The School was a
neat, well-built, well-arranged village school, with
the average allowance of chubby, stolid, infantine
faces in it. The only extra articles were, a piano !
for teaching the elements of Church Music, and on
the wall, some very exquisite German prints, of
Scriptural and other subjects — one only of which I
would note with disapproval — namely a beautiful
Madonna, with the narae "Mother of God!"
written under it. I am bound in justice to say,
that the name, being in German ! — iMutttt
<^0tt$*0 — did not probably convey any impression
to the minds of the young English peasants ; but,
for the picture itself, from the loveliness of the face
and expression, it was just such an one as Dr.
Wiseman would have chosen, to instil into a young
child's mind " the unbounded love to the Mother of
God," which he describes to have been entertained
by the young Italian peasant, at Poestum (Vid. his
Letter to Mr. Newman, p. 26.) Mr. Newman
would do well to remove this stumbling-block,
trifling as it may seem.

LETTER IV.

QUO TENDIMUS ?— TO WHAT ARE WE COMING ?
Dear Priend, " What next ?" is a question very
commonly asked, as each fresh tale of wonder
reaches the public, in this age of discoveries and
inventions. It was asked when Mr. Duncombe
lately begged leave to introduce the " ^rial Navi
gation Bill" ! It was asked, as " Sibthorp," and
" Wackerbarth," and " others," successively " went
to their own place," by passing into the ranks of
Rome : ! I ask, in a different and more serious
sense, and in reference to the future and permanent
interests of our Church — What next ? The name
" Evangelical" is become a bye-word, (not merely
in the mouths of the irreligious, for that could
never surprise, but) in the language of the "Catholic
Tractarians" of Oxford. The Doctrine of " Jus
tification by Faith only", is without circumlocution
denounced. The most esteemed, influential minis
ters, now labouring with zeal and effect in England's
Church, are unsparingly scoffed at as " Lutheran !"
"Low Churchmen" — every thing denotes the settled,
sweeping purpose of these Catholics to " slay Evan-

64

gelicism,"* and " take possession of its portion" at
no distant period ; and this, too, on the old pre
tence, and for the old reason — " they set them on
Naboth's stool, as a raark among the people" and
charge them with " blasphemy against Catholicity,"
"St. Thomas a Beeket," and other such "blessed
saints and martyrs of the Most High,"t because

* It is many years since the late Robert Hall, in a truly
Catholic spirit, and in one of the (too few) Reviews he has left
us, volunteered an able defence of this section of the Clergy of
our Church, and wrote thus, "Are the Clergy styled Evangelical
to be blamed for the doctrines they preach ? Before this can be
allowed, the Articles must be cancelled by the same authority by
which they were established, or it must be shown how it consists
with integrity, to gain an introduction to the Church by signifying
an unfeigned assent to certain Articles of Religion, with the
intention of immediately banishing them from notice." Had Mr.
Hall survived to the days of " The Newmania,'' (as it has been
wittily called) he would have been shown that there are other ways
of banishing the doctrines of the Articles from notice, without "can
celling" them ; the endeavour to make the Articles symbolise with
the decrees of Trent is the most startling novelty of the day —
but it is not the first time that Popery has used a Protestant hand
to blacken the Refonnation — it stimulated, and paid Cobbett, to
write a libel under the title of its " History." We may imagine
the Papal Agents, in the unreservedness of private communication,
using the language of Mr. Froude, and saying, " What good
genius has possessed these men to do our dirty work." P !
-f- A late British critic apologised for inflicting on its readers a
quotation from blunt Bishop Jewell, who ventured to say — " the
very true cause of Becket's death, was his ambition and vanity,
aud willful maintenance of manifest wickedness in the clergy, to
the great dishonour of God's holy name." On which, the author
of the article — the " most modest man probably" in the diocese
of London, remarks thus : — " One is hardly restrained from

65

they will not quietly surrender " the inheritance of
their fathers." Suppose, then, Tractarianisra to go
on, as it desires, in " receding more and more from
the principles of the Reformation" — suppose the
Bishop of Oxford's apprehension to be realised when
he said : " I have more fear of the disciples
than of the teachers" — what is to come, when
the generation now passing shall have joined " the
past," and the Parishes and Pulpits of the land
shall be committed to men deeply leavened with
the Tractarian views ?
In the Pulpit, their evil will be negative. What
the Apostle speaks of " the foolishness of preach
ing," meaning to express that it is " a weak thing"
to be made "mighty" in the hand, and by the
" grace of God" — these men take in literal depre
ciation of the pulpit as an edifying ordinance at
all, when they talk with a holy horror of the Pulpit
or Desk being sometimes so placed as to hide the
Communion-Table — there is more than mere pro
priety of arrangement referred to — and men who
boastingly declare (as I have heard sorae* of them
indignation on hearing the blessed saints and martyrs of the
Most High (Beeket) thus slandered by these Teachers of
Yesterday" — truly it is very hard to restrain indignation at
" something" in the above extract. One would wish to ask " for
information sake," on what principle these men admit the saint-
ship of St Thomas a Beeket — and demur to that of the last
mintage — St. Francis Liguori.
* This was not at Oxford, but the declaration of an ofiiciating
clergyman, after being, as he stated, " crushed to death" in the
throng of the parish church of an admired evangelical preacher.

66

do,) that " they make it a rule never to give more
than fifteen minutes to a sermon by any
chance" — will not do much positive injury by their
preaching powers ; but when to these poor, meagre
allowances of pulpit instruction, are joined — a
" ceaseless round" of services,* assimilated as nearly
as they dare to the soothing ceremonial of the
Church of Rome — when prettiness after prettiness
is added to Church decoration — when " altar flow
ers" — and " fauld-stools" — and " gilt crosses" — and
" stained glass," are restored, and the " Gregorian
Chaunt" adopted as an excellent mode of " preach
ing the Gospel to the poor."t When all these
matters of Tractarian longing become realities,
* " Thou dost soothe the heart — thou Church of Rome,
By thy unwearied watch, and varied sound
Of service." — Lyra Apostolica.
\ Unless I could give " chapter and verse" for this opinion,
held by the Tractarians, of part of the system they are trying to
restore, I should fear that the reader might accuse me of endea
vouring to misrepresent them for purposes of ridicule — but in the
British Critic for December, 1840, in an article on Chanting,
the following passage occurs : —
" From what we can leam the Gregorian Chants are making
considerable way in England; ***** it is .said they
take wonderfully with the poor ! which is true indeed of all the
distinctive characters of the ancient church system : and a curi
ous fact it is, considering what is said in Holy Scripture about
the Gospel itself." Whether the above half profane, half absurd,
remark, refer to one of our Blessed Lord's own averments of his
Messiahship, in the words " the poor have the gospel preached
to them," or whether to another passage in which it is said " the
common people heard him gladly; " I think it would sm-pass all

67

then may we fear that the flock of God in these
lands, left without " a teaching Priest" will grow
poor, and lean, and cold, — and if under such
tending they should wander here and there, and
seek other pastures — this word of God will surely
apply to the case. " TV^oe to the pastors that
destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture" —
" Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them
away — / will visit upon you the evil of your
doings, saith the Lord."
To continue the illustration but vary the inquiry
we may ask " These sheep, what have they done ?"
Never was there a greater error than to think that
the laity of England are wishing for, or inviting
the change which is coming over the ministrations
of its Church, " Delirant Regis, plectuntur Achivi"
may in this case be thus paraphrased, — Some Clois
tered " Dons" having " waxed fat" in the learned
ease of Oxford " kick" against the present consti
tution of the Church of England — and the whole
Isle is to be " frighted from its propriety" in conse
quence. Some few laymen of station and piety
and strong Church principles may zealously affect
these views, and possibly from the various agencies
at work of which I spoke in a former letter, their
number may somewhat increase — ^but the Church
of England, as a body, is only interested in the
the united subtlety of the authors of Tracts 80 and 90 combined,
to bring the remotest sanction for the Gregorian Chant from either
passage ; or from any other relative to the " preaching of the
Gospel," that I can remember.

68

subject as it is alarmed and startled by sorae of the
vagaries of those rainisters who have already begun
the change they meditate — the laity are as yet clear
in this matter.
The Bishops of the Church once before obtained
the thanks and blessings of it's people by standing
" resigned to the will of God" between them, and
an insidious attempt to bring in formal popery.
Will they do the sarae now when virtual popery is
threatening us in another direction ? — it is grievous
to give utterance to the doubt and disappointment
felt in all quarters in consequence of the " halting"
language of some late " Episcopal Charges" — let us
hope, however, that sooner or later the bishops will
prove that they have been acting on the principle
of " suaviter in modo fortiter in re."
Our main danger appears to be two-fold. — First,
that the party are practising a delusion on them
selves — and Secondly, that they will try to practice
another delusion on their superiors.
The first delusion is expressed by an apologist
for this unfeeling and offensive spirit manifested
by the late* Mr. Froude towards the Church of
England, thus : —
" He considered himself a minister, not of any human establish
ment, but of the One Holy Church Catholic, and thus allowed
himself to indulge in a looking and longing for some fuller
development of Catholic principles than he could easily find."

* " Fronde's Remains," — had the subject of these " Biogra
phical Fragments" lived, it is very difficult to conjecture what
would have been his present position; whether, he could have
found sufficient exercise for his " hearty hate" of Reformers and

69
The same idea appears to have dictated the too

the Reformation, in vFriting " anathema" letters like Mr. Palmer,
(of Magdalen) ; or whether, taking his place with Mr. Sibthorp,
he would long since have tumed his " plainness of speech" upon
his former associates, and said, " he should like to know why
they flinched from folloiving him," to Rome!' These are matters
on which it is not possible now to decide, but it is of much more
importance to consider, why such a book as these " Remains"
deliberately put forth in separate Livraisons, volume by volume,
should ever have been published. It was " rash" said some —
" unfair and unfriendly to his memory' obseiTed others — to give
his " random," " confidential" sentiments to the world in such a
manner. " It was not rash" retorted "His Editors" — " he was not
a man who spoke at random" — " he writes in a lively ofiF-hand
way," but with " a reality which does not belong to compositions
more carefully studied," explains an apologetic Reviewer ; and
another Reviewing authority, speaking some years since, almost
gives up the " Publication as inexplicable.'' Let us see, whether
" the course of time'' has not given some clue to an understanding
of the affair.
We know, that matter which would be " treasonous libel," if
spoken against a living King, becomes allowable discussion of
" an historical subject," in an hour after he is dead, this principle
may be reversed, and sentiments which it may not be safe, pru
dent, or timely for a living man to disclose, or utter, may with
safety and advantage he announced to the public, as contained
in " unfinished papers foimd in the Portfolio of a departed friend."
If the law of libel could apply beyond the grave, the Fathers ofthe
Church of which Mr. Froude was a minister, might lay "heavy da
mages'' againsthim. Wehavereadof the Brokers of Constantinople
disposing with profit of the garments of the victims of the plague,
by announcing them as " a consignment from foreign parts" —
and at home there are tales of " disconsolate widows," putting off
an " unsound horse" to advantage, by the taking advertisement of
" belonging to a gentleman lately deceased, the late  Esq."
Now to apply — " coming events cast shadows long before," —
things have happened and opinions have been promulgated since
Mr. Fronde's death, which compel the conclusion that " The

70

celebrated Letter of Mr. Palmer, * in which he
speaks of the Church of England as
"A branch of One Catholic and Apostolic Church essentially
opposed to the principle of general Protestantism, and essen
tially one with all other churches of kindred origin," — he pro
fesses himself to be " merely and simply Catholic ;'' and thus
concludes — " I once more publickly profess myself a Catholic, and
a member of a Catholic Church, and say Anathema to the
principle of Protestantism."
I should not wish you for a moment to suppose
that I object to the cultivating of a Catholic spirit
Editors'' " two Principal Contributors to the Tracts," put forth
these " disjecta membra'' as skaiters cast a stone on the ice, before
they venture their own living weight — and that they have tumed
dead Mr. Froude to profit, by putting forth from his lifeless lips
opinions which they dared not, at the time of publication, utter
from their own. Having " innoculated" the public mind, and
" receded more and more from the principles of the hateful Re
formation," they have been bolder of late.
* The mantle of a predecessor in his Fellowship, would
appear to have descended upon Mr. Palmer, (of Magdalen) who
was evidently desirous to have enacted the part of The Doctor
Sacheverel of the Nineteenth Century — but his avowal of
himself as "merely and simply Catholic" — his "utter rejection
and anathematizing of Protestantism as a heresy, with all its
forms, sects, or denominations" — ^his threat, ( on sufficient provo
cation,) " to reject ! and anathematize ! ! the Church of England
itself!!!" — all appear to have fallen to the ground, and to lie
there, like the exuviae of a fallen star — as a " mere and simple"
ebullition of fanatical spleen. The rashness and indecorum of
an individual's expressions, may be best rebuked by neglect, yet
the matter itself seems worthy of further notice — the systematic
dislike and hostility manifested by this party to the word
Protestant, deserves consideration.
I do not believe many persons would be found to "break a lance"
in defence of the " mere and simple'' noun adjective " Protestant."

71

in individuals — so far from it that it appears to me
one of God's marks upon his children, — nor do I
desire now to criticise the direction which the
Catholicity of these men has taken, nor will I
it is a term called into use fi'om hard necessity, arising out of the
corruption of primitive truth — and the principle it expresses per
vaded the Fonnularies of the Church at a very early period.
" The Confession of Christian Faith," commonly called " The
Creed of Saint Athanasius,'' is essentially a Protestant
Formulary, framed defensively against Arian and Sabellian
heresies — its affirmations of truth, and its " negations of error,''
are correlative to each other ; and as it asserts, what Christian
verity " compels us to acknowledge," so does it protest against
what " the Catholic Religion forbids us to say." Let us suppose
a member of our Church, called on to repeat the Symbol of
Pope Pius the Fourth, which consists of the Nicene Creed, toge
ther with sundry additions embodying the chief Papal novel
ties added thereto — he can and must repeat the former in the
spirit of A Catholic — he must reject the latter in the character of
A Protesting Christian, of the Communion of the Church of
England. Until Rome " repeals the Council of Trent," ours is
a Protestant Church, and Protestant she must remain.
The growiag opposition to the use of the word " Protestant,"
requires further notice. Since these letters went to press, I am
informed, by a published letter from Mr. Hill, of Cheltenham —
(the excellent author of a seasonable "Letter to the Laity" on
these subjects,) — that A Rev. Mr. Watson, (the. personification
of Tractarianism in that town,^ objected to propose a Resolution
at a Meeting of the " Christian Knowledge Society," because it
contained the expression " Protestant Church of England."
This is carrying matters rather far, — it is necessaiy to see
whether they may not be carried somewhat further.
In a Letter from Rev. Mr. Newman to his Diocesan, the Bishop
of Oxford, I find "mysterious allusions" " to applications from
Friend and Stranger !" to co-operate in " attempts to gain
additional power for the Church." In the same passage I find it
acknowledged that, " movements tending to the repeal of the Sta
tutes of Pr^munire, have been frequently agitated .'" — and it
is obscurely intimated that "Time, the great innovator," may

72

question the boundary line within which they limit
its lawful exercise — but I must remark, upon the
irarainent danger to the order and welfare of our
Church frora its becoraing a " mere and sole" rule
produce " a course of events" which would "put the Church in
possession of greater liberty of action," as " in time past it
abridged it."
Now these are really "noticeable" intimations — Mr. Newman is
a very different man from Mr. Palmer (of Magdalen) nothing that
he says should fall to the ground unheeded — it may be a per
plexing, but it is not an unnatural question to ask — who have
been frequently agitating the repeal of the Statutes of Premu-
nire ? " We know one party that is doing every thing possible
to insinuate how much Absentees and Tourists would be " con-
venienced" by the appointment of a Resident British minister at the
Court of Rome ; but these are the Papists. Who were the " friends
and strangers'' who have sought to enlist Mr. Newman's powers
and influence in these high matters — it would be well to know ?
It is right to call public attention to the bearing of this anti-
Protestant spirit, upon two very important documents :
1 — The Act, Settling the Succession of the Throne.
2 — The Coronation Oath of the Sovereign.
In the former of these " old almanacks" the succession to the
Throne is limited to the Descendants of a certain Individual
"being Protestants." In the second, the reigning Monarch
of England is solemnly sworn to " maintain and preserve the
Protestant Religion as by Law Established."
I do not charge the Tractarians with disloyalty, in act or
thought, to our present Gracious Sovereign, whom God preseive,
but I do accuse them of tampering and fiddling, whether design
edly or not, with some of the securities and fastenings by which
"peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, have
been established among us for Generations," — they may not
" know what they do," but may do not the less mischief not
withstanding. An anecdote connected with the first rise of the mighty for
tunes of Napoleon, is not inapplicable. At the memorable Siege
of Toulon, this master-genius completely mystified the Civilian

73

of practise and conduct, leading individuals to
" intrude into things too high for thera," to
" unsettle land raarks," and relax the obligations of
their particular calling and position in the corarau-
nion to which they belong — in this " Catholic spirit"
did "Mr. Ward visit Oscot"— and Mr. Palmer
himself go to Russia to look into the possibility
of re-union with the Greek Church — and Dr. Pusey
knelt " near !" but not " to !!" the altar in a
Romish Chapel — and Mr. Newman wrote " Tract
90" to show " stragglers towards Rome," that they
might believe what the Trent Fathers decreed
and stay where they were — and in this sarae
spirit does one of their chief organs make a
whining appeal to Rome, to " acknowledge thera
as a church when they become like a church"

Dejjuties from the Convention, by directing his assault against a Fort
quite distant and separate from the city itself. They criticised —
they murmured — they complained that he was "doing nothing.''
" Be quiet," said the Man of Destiny, " that Fort once gained
and the city is yours.'' The event justified his prediction — let
Popery once succeed in proscribing the name of Protestant, let
the feelings and sentiments expressed in it, be once Nationally
merged in the " -mere and simple Catholicity" of Messrs. Palmer
and Co. Let these men once succeed in erasing from public docu
ments the epithet " Protestant," as offensive and unfit, and then
" Cessante ratione, cessat ipsa lex." " The Great Innovator" will
have done his work on the Act of Settlement of these Kingdoms,
and the Coronation Oath will need amendment and altera
tion. — In this point of view, the hostility of the Tractarians
to the name of Protestant is something beside silly — it becomes
dangerous. F

74

i. e. more conformed to herself. These marked
instances are results of the error of endeavouring
to apply an abstract truth to circumstances wholly
unsuited to it — it is, to use a (common illustration,)
as if a private soldier should endeavour to regulate
his manual exercise by the international law of
states, the " Jus Gentium" — it is (pardon the
momentary digression to politics) the error of the
"free trader" — who deranges our whole social and
monetary system, by his attempts to enter into un
restricted commercial relations with nations who will
take all the benefits England may give, but grant no
reciprocal advantage in return. As to the Greek
Branch of the Church Catholic, we know nothing
of the results of the mission which Mr. Palmer is
said to have undertaken to hers ; but as regards
Rome we know this, that while She is picking off one
by one, the less wary or more unstable holders of
these opinions, she has never shown the slightest
disposition towards reciprocity — never disavowed
one of her high pretensions, or unholy assumptions
of " lording it in the temple of God" — never
manifested the least intention of " ceasing to be
Papal, and becoming Catholic" by " repealing the
Council of Trent !" according to Dr. Jelfs
naive postulate — it is, therefore, matter to create
most lively alarm, when we see the Tractarians
still indulging in " Catholic longings" in a direction
whence they can imbibe nothing that is not contrary
to their allegiance to their own Church — where

75

the very air is impregnated with hatred and con
tumely to the Reformed Church of England.*
The second danger to which I advert consists in
this, that this subject will be studiously presented
to the Bishops in the character of a " Church
question," and precedents, and " names of authority"
will be showered upon them in puzzling profusion,
while views and doctrines, which are inseparably
connected with the system, will be as carefully kept
from Episcopal notice at present — it is not wonderful

* While these sheets are passing through the press, we are
furnished with the " last, but not least," proof of the unmitigated
hatred with which the Papacy regards the Church of England.
In the current debates on the " Factory Education Bible," the
Earl of Arundel and Surrey, son of the Premier Duke of
England, ventured to admit, in his place in parliament, that
" the Established Church of the Nation was entitled to the control
of any General System of Religious Instruction,'' this being a
truism most damnatory of the Suicidal Pro-popish Policy which
has regulated British councils for years, the Tablet, the leading
Papal Organ of England, vents its wrath in an article headed
thus, — " Treason or madness of Lord Surrey" in which the
Church of England is spoken of in the following decorous
terms : —
" The Established Church is an organised heresy and schism of the
most portentous kind ; its establishment and power are purely noxious,
and propogative of error."
Poor Lord Sun-ey! in all his "pride of place''; we must pity
even a Magnate of the Land when he cannot utter an honest
conviction of a truth, without being accused of Treason to his
" Lord the Pope," meanwhile we adopt the words, and say, while
the Papacy, by its organs, avows its sentiments so openly, there
are no teims fit to describe the conduct of those sons of the
Church of England who make signals of amity to her, but those
she herself supplies. Treason, or Madness, or, as the charity
which hopeth all things would add, "Strong Delusion."

76

that our Bishops should be favourably disposed to
wards men who profess the most profound deference
for their opinion, call their "lightestword ex cathedra
heavy" — and declare that the " very head and front
of their offending hath this extent — no more ;" that
they desire to carry out the rubrical and canonical
provisions of our Church to the letter ; this seems
all plain and plausible, and our Church Rulers,
doubtless feel themselves bound to adhere to the
principle " doth our law condemn any man before it
hear hira and know what he doeth ?" but the danger
is that their Lordships will not know all their dutiful
disciples are doing. An " erainent Protestant Pre
late" reraarked openly in a conversation at Oxford,
" that it was impossible to read some late numbers
of the British Critic, without seeing that the writers
in it were in heart and spirit Roman Catholics."
This was in 1841, the spirit of that Journal has
continued the same ever since, and there is no
other difference between the writers of that Journal
and the submissive Tractarians who lay themselves
and their proceedings at their Bishops' feet, but that
one write, in propria persona, the other, in a
masque and domino. Let any one compare the
tone and language of a Tractarian addressing his
Diocesan with the less guarded statements of their
Reviews and Magazines, wherein they tell the
public more freely, what they look for and expect,
and the evident difference will fully explain what I
mean. " What would you do if the Bishops refuse their

77

consent ? (to a re-union with Rome) was a
question asked in a remarkable, a publicly an
nounced and never denied conversation, held in the
Refectory of a. Romish College between a Trac
tarian guest, and one of the Romanist hosts. The
answer, as interpreted by subsequent events is worth
noting. " We would compel them by a pressure
from without !" Already do these men feel
inclined to try their strength in this matter ; and in
reference to a question lately asked in the Com
mittee of one of our leading religious societies,* it
is impossible to put any other interpretation upon
it but this — " Tell us if you dare, and at your
peril, that you will refuse to sanction and employ
men holding the opinions of the Tracts." The
Bishops should " gird up the loins of their minds,"
to answer a similar query, it will be put to them
before long.
Shall I send my son to Oxford University ?
may be a very perplexing question to answer in a
year or two hence, if it be not so now. The
active influences of the University, threaten much
danger to any young man of serious character, or
looking to the Church as his calling. There will
always be the average amount of giddy and careless
men to fill the Colleges and halls. The Tract-men
may grow yet more " ascetic" than they are, but
there will "still be cakes and ale" for all that.

* Vid. Con'Bspondence of Rev. F. Close of Cheltenham, and
the Secretary of the Society for Propagation of the Gospel.

78

Pigeon shooting will still be practised on BuUingdon ;
and Rowing parties, formed by those young men who
" care for none of those things will still haunt Ifley"
and Nuneham ; I must avow, but, when I saw the large
proportion of students, who of their own " mere
motion" and by no " University" requirement hung
upon the dulcet accents of Mr. Newman's preaching
to imbibe thence their religious views, that I could
not, without the deepest alarm, expose a thoughtful,
serious young mind to the seductions presented by
that system of doctrine which he teaches ; a system
laying itself out to stimulate instead of regulating,
the " feelings of awe, mystery, tenderness, reverence
and devotedness," which belong to the age at which
students oftentimes take their bias and destination for
life. If a vulgar ignorant gipsey woman can so work
on refined and educated rainds, as to lead thera to
seek raysterious knowledge by raeans of her pre
tended skill in palraistry ; with how much more effect
think you, must a man of Mr. Newman's powers, who
occupies a teachers place, and can " discourse such
sweet music," bewitch a youthful mind just opening
to serious impressions, and unguarded by any settled
views on religious subjects.
It has been frequently pleaded for Oxford ; that,
" these are not the opinions ofthe University," but
of individuals in it, yet in the same breath it has been
said that these opinions are " the natural produce of
her institutions ;" and sometimes of late, the youn
ger and raore ardent who hold them, have called
" Question" and "Divide" as loudly as the boyish

79

Members of the House of Commons do occasionally.
Of one thing there can be no question at all, that
the "far niente^' " the passive resistance" system
will not do in this case ; Oxford quiescent will be
reckoned as Oxford acquiescent, and the Tracta
rians may, as tliey do, claim that " not being
against thera she is on their part." Nothing short
of judicial blindness, can cause the University Rulers
to permit a " body of men," who are said to be
" really learned," who " act slowly and deliberately"
" under mutual correction," to go on applying the va
ried influences of "poetry," and " patristic lore," " an
cient names," and "new theories of interpretation,"
to supersede the authorised provisions for teaching,
withoutybrwia/ rebuke ; if Professors in the Chair of
Office are to be assailed with most unrestrained
contumely ; — if men dating from her Halls and
Colleges are to lay the axe to the root of opinions,
which as the Nursing mother ofthe reformed Church
of England, Oxford has hitherto inculcated ; — and
if Oxford continues to look on in helpless passive-
ness ; — we shall soon have "University Authorities,"
" de facto," and " de jure ;" and the Farce of the
Romish (ScAoo/* in which Ptolemy holds the Teacher's
truncheon, while Copernicus instructs the Class,
will be re-enacted " with unbounded applause" at
Oxford. On the other hand it has more than once been
intimated " in terrorem," that any condemnatory
move of The Church or University would induce a
" risque of subjecting persons whom we should

80

least like to loose or distress to the temptation of
joining the Church of Rome, or of withdrawing
from our own Church,'' if the articles of religion
be " closed" as " the received method of teaching
closes them ;" adraitting the risque here spoken of,
let us see to what it amounts ; it admits that " the
received" interpretation of the articles " closes"
thera against what the Tractarians chuse to call
"primitive," but every one else calls "popish"
meanings : the great leader in so many words
(Tract 90 p. 83) says " we will not be excluded."
" the economy ofthe Reformers is our protection,"
" they drew up their articles on as Catholic a plan
as they could ; we have found a Catholic mode of
interpreting them, and they cannot now repudiate
our meaning ;" this is at least plain language, and
any hesitation as to the course which should be
taken upon it, resembles the indecision of the
commander of a Fortress who should leave his gates
wide open, rather than shut out some of the Garri
son who were in the interest of the besieging eneray ;
the real question is whether there be not infinitely
more risque, in retaining than loosing such men ?
And whether in keeping thera, or consenting to
their stay on their own terms. The Church and
University do not keep what is legally called
" damnosa hoereditas," or in popular phrase " gain
a loss." It is proudly asserted for Oxford, that she is
" A City built on a Hill," " A Metropolis of
the English Church," and that words there spoken

81

in the ears, " will be proclaimed through the Land
upon the house tops." Truly this is as " weighty
a responsibility as it is a high dignity," and Her
Authorities should look well, how they discharge
it. Without any Acaderaic relations to Oxford
myself, I can, in some measure, understand and
sympathise in the deep enthusiasm with which
the recollections of her attached sons, turn to
her " towers, and halls, and groves," as " rerum
pulcherriraa ;" the more necessary then is it, that
care should be had, lest with these early and en
grossing associations, noxious principles, as wither
ing to the life of God in the soul, as the poisonous
parasite of the Araerican forest to its majestic
trees, should creep and wind theraselves round
the young affections and understandings of its
students ; the University will be called to a choice
before long, or the rainds of men must be made
up, either willingly to see these views adopted by
the rising generation, or to expect the constant
miracle that " pitch can be touched and not
defile." I cannot conclude without adverting to a piece of
amusing audacity, copied from one of the late Trac
tarian manifestoes : —
" Should Oxford, which is scarcely conceivable, decide against
'the Catholic truth' (Tractarianism to wit) it becomes a duty to
declare the fact, that foreign influences are at work therein —
that it is not Oxford awake, but Oxford asleep and dreaming —
not Oxford itself, but Oxford beside itself — that some cruel step-
dame has drugged its reason."
There is so much boldness in this statement, that
if it came from any but a "modest man!" it would

82

be prodigious ! so then it appears that " the foreign
influences" which threaten our Church in the present
day ; the cruel " Step-dame"* who is attempting to
" drug the reason" of England with the cup of her
abominations, is in the pay and interest of the oppo
nents of tractarianisra I — passing strange this. But
after all, this astounding assertion sounds very like
the speech of a bungling lawyer, who is sometimes
said to " hang his own client." I would " join
issue" with all the " bashful men in this Univer
sity together," on this point, and send this question
before any jury in the land, whether the party who
" import Parisian Brevaries," and " malign the
Martyrs" who call " deliverance from the Papal
yoke" "undutiful talk," and themselves "talk of
St. Ignatius Loyola." Whether these men or their
opponents are obnoxious to the charge of bringing
"foreign infiuences" to bear on The Universities,
The Church, or The Mind ofthe Nation ? I should
not call a witness in our defence, but, merely point
ing attention to their own evidence, await the
verdict on such an issue with confidence.
These are but gloomy considerations with which
to close these letters, — and yet, writing from a
locality so specially dedicated to the maintenance
* By a curious coincidence, here is the language of one of
their early authorities speaking of that Church to which Mr.
Newman is " now no longer opposed."
" Oh mother Church of Rome, why doest thy heart.
Beat so untruly towards thy northern child 
Why give a gift, nor give it undefiled ?
Drugging the blessings with a step-damed' art I"
Lyra Apostolica, p. 234.

83

and support of England's Church, I must avow,
with a sad satisfaction, that, if faithful to herself,
the Church, in this worst crisis she has yet passed
through, possesses resources and raeans of deliverance
of which all other communities seem destitute. In
such a "conflict of the elements" as this, the
individuality of Dissent can offer no more resist
ance than a rope of sand. If the Papacy could,
either by assault or sap, overcome the Protesting
Church of England, she might then sit down and
take her rest ; the other little opposing bodies would
fall to her, by the natural and easy process of
absorption. Save her from her friends, and, though
her huge assailant raay corae with a spear whose
staff is like a weaver's beara, she may defy him in
the name of " the God of the armies of Israel."
Let the Church carefully put off this Tractarian
armour which "she has not proved," and she will
find that her God, " whose is the battle," can deli
ver her by the simple means which has saved her
hitherto, namely, adherence to His Revealed Truth,
and the maintenance of c* much order as truth can
observe in an evil world.
It is time to release you from my tediousness,
and to Subscribe myself, for the last time,
Faithfully yours,
IGNOTUS.
Oxford, February 8th, 1843.

Recently Published,
BY
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BOOKSELLER TO THE ITNIVERSITY,
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LORD ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH, AND PRIMATE OF ALL IRELAND,
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