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A REYIEW

TRACTS FOR THE TIMES,

MEMBERS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD,

so FAK AS THEY RELATE TO

APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION".

REPRINTED "FROM THE OONGKEGATION AL MAGAZINE.

LONDON :
.TACKSON AND WALFORD,
18, ST, Paul's church yard.
1838.
ih'^ 5"s2- PRICE THREE PENCE,
0

ADVERTISEMENT.

It having been suggested to the Proprietors of The Congregational Muyuz'uie
that the following article, which appeared in that periodical for the present
month, would be very useful, if printed in a distinct form, they now publish
it as a cheap tract, in the hope that its more extended cii'culation may contribute
to refute an error alike dangerous to the peace and unity of the catholic church,
and to the efficiency and holiness of the christian ministry.
November .'j, 1838.

A REVIEW, ETC,

Tracts foe the Times. Vols. I. II. III. By Members of
THE University of Oxford.
London : Rivingtons. 1838.
Journeying up a romantic valley in the heart of the present
pashalic of Acre, the traveller finds, at its eastern extremity, upon
the brow of a hill, a hamlet of inconsiderable dimensions and un
attractive appearance ; but the word Naszera repeated by his Arab
guide, reminds him that he is approaching one of earth's most
famous shrines, and that he is traversing those " blessed acres,"
which, eighteen centuries ago, were impressed with the footsteps of
the world's Redeemer and Lord, Looking either to the right hand
or to the left, he sees no monument, " majestic though in ruins,"
standing to testify to any passenger of prouder and more auspicious
times ; no vestige tells of pomp and power departed with the flight
of years; no evidence is there that the place has been descending in
the downward scale from grandeur to obscurity. On the contrary,
as far as extent and consequence are concerned, its present aspect
appears to be a faithful type of its former character. Amid the
remembrances which the neighbourhood of such a scene will crowd
upon the mind, the thought will naturally occur, that this retired
spot was the cradle of the christian faith ; that here, far removed
from the highways of human glory, its author spent the greater por
tion of his earthly existence ; that in this obscure corner of an ob
scure part of the territory which recognized the rule of the Cagsar,
he " grew in stature and in wisdom," in whose monarchy all other
empires are finally to merge ; and that here was that truth matured
and proclaimed wliich has outlived the sophisms of Greece, the
abstractions of orientalism, and originated whatever ofthe great and
good, now marks the character and condition of men. With a
nation comparatively destitute of military power, scientific attain
ment, and commercial importance ; with a scene of civil and poli
tical insignificance ; with a town opprobrious among the thousands
of Judah ; with artizan employ of fhe humblest kind ; the name of
the founder of Christianity is associated, an arrangement of infinite
wisdom, analogous to those modes of divine procedure now in na
ture and in providence, not isolated, but often recurring, where
illustrious ends are worked out by an apparently feeble instrumen
tality, and the utmost opulence of result is extracted from a seem
ingly stinted and parsimonious expenditure.
The actions of our Lord, when he threw aside the cloud of mys
tery which enveloped his early life, whenhe emerged from the deep
h in illustrations of a modest,
obscurity of his Nazarene home, are ric A

6 Tracts J'or the Times.
had, "after the manner of men, to fight with beasts at Ephesus;"
he was publicly scourged in the most barbarous manner, and soon
after died of the bruises received from his compeers, whom history
has justly stigmatised, an assembly of robbers, avyoSoe X-rjarpiicri.
This act led to the Chalcedonian council, which was called by the
emperor at the request of the Roman pontiff, Leo, to whom the
murdered bishop had appealed before his death. Historians seem
to have exhausted all their descriptive powers in representing the
pomp and gorgeousness of the conclave. More than six hundred
dignitaries appeared in episcopal costume in tlie splendid church ot
St. Euphemia ; the chancel was occupied with twenty lay commis
sioners of consular and senatorian rank ; right and left of these the
bishops of the east and west were arranged in the usual order of
precedence ; tlie Gospels were exhibited in a conspicuous situation to
the view ofthe assembly; but the reverend members had other
authorities, who found equal favour in their eyes, as, ever and
anon, they loudly vociferated, " Such is the faith of the Fathers." — ¦
" Peter hath spoken by Leo" — " Cyril taught so" — " Eternal be
the memory of Cyril" — " Pope Leo believes, as Cyril did" —
6 Tzaivac, A.eii)v irus Tricrrevi. Kt/piWog sroic eiriarevasv.
Seventeen years afterwards the muffled tones of a hundred steeples
in Rome, announced to the inhabitants of the capital that death had
entered the episcopal palace, that their primate had gone to his
account, that the chair of Peter was vacant. Who was to wear the
mitre, and occupy the throne of the departed Anastasius ; to be in
vested with his dignities and involved in his cares ; to have the
custody ofthe kej^s in the metropolis of western Christendom, was
the all-engrossing theme of enquiry and debate in the city. Let us
glance our eye back to the " upper room" in Jerusalem, and mark
how the hundred and twenty who frequented it, filled up a blank in
the apostleship. Peter rose up and declared :
" Wherefore of tbese men which have companied with us all the time thatthe
Lord Jesus went in and out among us,
" Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken
up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.
" And they appointed two, Joseph, called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus,
and Matthias.
" And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all
men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen,
" That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas,
by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.
" And they gave forth their lots : and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was
numbered with the eleven apostles."
How different was the conduct of the power-girt church in the
fifth century, though boasting the direct descent of its bishops from
the very apostle, whose words we have quoted, and in the very city
where a stately Basilica, the erection of imperial wealth, was sup
posed to indicate the spot where his martyred body reposed. Two
candidates appeared, Symmachus and Laurentius, men without
meekness of spirit or holiness of life, but guilty of almost every
crime which the decalogue denounces. Both were elected by their

The Apostolical Succes.sion. 7
respective partisans, and both maintained the validity of their elec
tions. Then began a desperate civil war in Rome ; the city was a
scene of riot by day, and assassination by night ; while the rival
claimants charged each other with the practice of the grossest
abominations. By the aid of the Emperor Theodoric, the ponti
ficate at length became the prize of Symmachus, stained as he was
with the blood of his opponents, and with the infamy of vices too
hideous to be mentioned.
Centuries rolled away, and still the days were evil. The fourth
Alexander in the papacy seems to have thought so, and therefore
summoned the spiritual advisers of Europe to attend him in cogi
tations grave and long in his palace at Lateran. Three hundred
bishops obeyed the mandate, and among other matters decided the
knotty point, how many horses a bishop might keep, without being
guilty of extravagance or pride. But a greater evil under the sun,
than that ofa stud too extended, remained to be redressed. Piety,
not in name, but in its pure meek spirit, long discarded from the
hearts, hearths, and churches of dignified ecclesiastics, had found a
home in secluded vallies, and devoted followers among the shep
herds and husbandmen of Savoy and Gaul, Blamelessness marked
the lives of these poor men, and purity their faith ; they reposed
" their belief in God, and in the articles of the creed ;" but here
was their crime, a solitary one ; they " blasphemed the Roman
church and clergy." So says Reinerius Sacco, their most furious
persecutor — " et bene omnia de Deo credant, et omnes articulos,
qui in symbolo continentur ; solummodo Romanam ecclesiam blas-
phemant et clerum." Fortli then came from the Lateran palace
the edict subjecting these heretics to a curse — " both themselves,
their protectors or harbourers, and all persons who admit them into
their houses or lands" — their houses and goods must be confiscated,
and themselves reduced to slavery by their princes" — " further, we
take off two years penance from such of the faithful, as shall by the
counsel of their bishops, take up arms against them." Milton's
noble sonnet tells us the result of this and subsequent decrees :
" Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold ;
Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old,
When all our fathers worshipt stocks and stones,
Forget not : in thy book record their groans
Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold
Slain by the bloody Piedmontese that rolled
Mother with infant down the rocks."
Pass we now from the walls of the eternal city to the beautiful
waters of Constance, and down the stream of time to the early part
of the fifteenth century. The scene that presented itself in the city
at the head of the lake, was animated and imposing, when the
council that assembled within its gates commenced its long and
celebrated sessions. Princes, potentates, and powers were there,
whose kingdom was of this world ; cardinals, archbishops,
bishops, and abbots, with goldsmiths, bankers, and confectioners,
the bakers of the papal court, the vintners of the wine of Italy, the

8 Tracts for the Times.
money-changers of Florence, and seven hundred common women,
according to Dacher's list, or fifteen hundred, according to that
of Vienna. On the 28th of October, 1414, the Pope John XXIII,
entered Constance, The clergy, in solemn procession, preceded
him, bearing the relics of saints ; four chief magistrates rode by his
side, supporting a canopy of cloth of gold ; the Counts Rudolph de
Montfort and Berthold des Ursins held the bridle of his horse ;
while after him came the cardinals, in cloaks and red hats. When
the episcopal palace was reached, Henry of Uim, the burgomaster,
presented the offerings of the city, to the Head of all Christendom,
the viceroy of the King of kings ; these consisted of a cup of silver,
four casks of Italian wine, four vessels of wine of Alsace, eight
vessels of the country wine, and forty measures of oats. And who
was the august personage thus honoured ? It was Balthasar Cossa,
who, in the twelfth session of the council, was charged and con
victed of being immodest, lascivious, a liar, a rebel to his father and
mother, the poisoner of his predecessor, Alexander V., the poisoner
of his physician, Daniel de St. Sophia, guilty of fornication with
maids, adultery with wives, incest with his brother's wife, and liber
tine freedoms with nuns.
Now for what purpose have we taken this retrospect, beginning
with the apostles, and ending with the precious vagabond who
entered Constance in purple and fine linen, greeted by the homage of
assembled thousands ? It is to prepare our readers for the subject we
have now to discuss — a proposition asserted by persons of no mean
name in the present day, with all the confidence that belongs to an in
fallible oracle — a doctrine assiduously preached to theheads of houses,
fellows of colleges, graduates and under-graduates, freshmen and ser
vitors of Oxford — published to congregations of sensible christian
men in our metropolis, and prominently addressed to the royal ear ;
bruited abroad in sermons, tracts, papers in periodicals, charges of
prelates, and biographies of the dead — that a peculiar class of men
were appointed by the apostles, and endowed by Christ, with ex
clusive power to commission others to preach the gospel, and admi
nister its ordinances ; that these men were bishops in the diocesan
sense, whose representatives are now the bishops of the church of
England, to whom the authority aforesaid has descended in an un
broken line of succession ; that therefore those persons only within
the realms of our Sovereign Lady the Queen, have a right to minis
ter in holy things, or can expect to do it with effect, who have been
ordained by them ; piety in the heart, conviction in the conscience,
usefulness to the people, and competent intellectual attainments, as
ministerial qualifications, being as the " small dust of the balance,"
when compared with a certain mysterious, indefinable, ordaining in
fiuence, of which such places as Lambeth, Bishopsthorp, Fulham,
Buckden, and Farnham Castle may be said to be the nuclei. It
follows then, that the ecclesiastics of Nice, Chalcedon, Lateran, and
Constance, murderers and debauchees, as manj^ of them were
having been validly ordained by those who had received the rio-ht
validly to ordain, were true ministers of Christ — men who, whatever
might be their moral character, were armed with power to confer

The Apostolical Succcs.'iion. 9
spiritual gifts, and in cases of necessity, to wield the awful weapon
of rejection from the Saviour's fold — men who, when reeling in the
stews, practising "all uncleanness with greediness," had official fel
lowship with apostles, and spiritual connexion with the Holy One
and the Just.
This is no inference which we deduce from the premises which
others maintain : as unflinchingly is the inference held as are the
premises avowed. Now for the proof.
In the autumn of 1833, a presbyter at Oxford, now known to be
Dr, Pusey, the Hebrew Professor, was led to take into solemn
consideration the measures of the Government, the state of the
Church, the condition of the country, and the aspect of the times.
These topics were pondered over by him, not alone indeed, but in
union with Mr. Harrison, of Christ Church, his assistant Lec
turer in Hebrew ; Mr, Keble, the Poetry Professor ; Mr. Newman,
Vicar of St, Mary the Virgin ; Mr. Froude, Fellow of Oriel College ;
and others, whose names are not known to fame. One fact was ap
parent to all these gentlemen, that danger threatened both the
monarchy and the church ; that the latter especially was in peril,
and that partly owing to an abandonment of her proper position ;
that vigorous and continuous efforts were therefore desirable to bring
the people, clerical and lay, to a right mind. To attain this object,
the press was set in motion, and a series of " Tracts for the Times"
appeared, commencing in the September of that year, addressed
ad Clerum, ad Populuin, and ad Scholas. These tracts have been
since continued at different intervals, and that nothing may be
wanting to give them sanctity and weight, their dates, which, in the
vulgar tongue, may smack of paganism, and which were observed
in the early series, are omitted in the later, and the ecclesiastical
eras of their birth announced, such as " The Feast of St, Thomas,"
" The Feast of the Circumcision," " The Feast of St. Matthias,"
" The Feast of St. Michael, and all angels," We have seventy-six
of them before us, and now proceed to give a few extracts, solely
confined to the point we have mooted.
The Presbyter observes, ad Clerum,
" Should the government and the country so far forget their God, as to cast
off the Church, to deprive it of its temporal honors and substance, on what
will you rest the claim of respect and attention which you make upon your
flocks ? Hitherto you have been upheld by your birth, your education, your
wealth, your connexions ; should these secular advantages cease, on what must
Christ's ministers depend ? Is not this a serious practical question 1"
It is, Dr, Pusey, a " serious practical question," and seriously
did Paul reply to it, when he said, " For ye remember, brethren,
our labour and travail ; for labouring night and day, because we
would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the
gospel of God. Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and un-
blameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe,"* But
what says the Presbyter— * 1 Thess. ii. 9,10.

10 Tracts for the Times.
" There are some who rest their divine mission on tlieir own unsupported
assertion; others who rest it upon their popularity; others on their success;
and others who rest it upon their temporal distinctions. This last case has
perhaps been too much our own ; I fear we have neglected the real ground on
which our authority is built — Our Apostolical Descent.*
" We have been born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor ofthe
will of man, but of God. The Lord Jesus Christ gave His Spirit to His
Apostles ; they in turn laid their hands on those who should succeed them ; and
these again on others; and so the sacred gift has been. handed down to our
present Bishops, who have appointed us as their assistants, and in some sense
representatives. " Therefore my dear Brethren act up to your professions. Let it not be said
that you have neglected a gift ; for if you have the Spirit of the Apostles on you,
surely this is a great gift. ' Stir up the gift of God which is in you.' Make
much of it. Show your value of it. Keep it before your minds as an honour
able badge, far higher than that of secular respectability, or cultivation, or
polish, or learning, or rank, which gives you a hearing with the many. Tell
them of your gift. The times will soon drive you to do this, if you mean to be
still any thing. But wait not for the times. Do not be compelled by tbe
world's forsaking you, to recur as if unwillingly to the high source of your au
thority. Speak out now, before you are forced, both as glorying in your privi
lege, and to insure your rightful honor from your people. A notion has gone
abroad that they can take away your power. They think they have given and
can take it away. They think it lies in the Church Property, and they know
that they have politically the power to confiscate that property. They have been
deluded into a notion that present palpable usefulness, produceable results,
acceptableness to your flocks, that these aud such like are the tests of your Divine
commission. Enlighten them in this matter. Exalt our Floly Fathers the
Bishops as the Representatives of the Apostles, and the Angels of the Churches ;
and magnify your office, as being ordained by them to take part in their ministry."
—No. I.
No, 4. Ad Po2ndum, says —
" Their principle (that of the Bishops and Presbyters of the first five cen
turies in preferring their claim to canonical obedience) was this : That the Holy
Feast on our Saviour's sacrifice, which all confess to be ' generally necessary to
salvation,' was intended by him to be constantly conveyed, through the hands of
commissioned persons. Except therefore we can shew such a warrant, we can
not be sure that our hands convey the sacrifice ; we cannot be sure that souls
worthily prepared, receiving the bread which we break, and the cup of blessing
which we bless, are partakers of the Body and Blood of Christ. Piety then,
and Christian Reverence, and sincere devout Love of our Redeemer, nay, and
Charity to the souls of our brethren, not good order and expediency only, would
prompt us, at all earthly risks, to preserve and transmit the seal and warrant of
Christ. " Why should we talk so much of an establishment, and so little of an
Apostolical Succession ? Why should we not seriously endeavour to im
press our people with this plain truth ; — that by separating themselves from our
communion, they separate themselves not only from a decent, orderly, useful
society, but from the only church in this realm which has a right to
BE quite sure that SHE HAS THE LoUd's BODY TO GIVE TO HIS PEOPLE."
We call the attention ofour readers to the following passage. We
have read it carefully again and again, and must declare our solemn
conviction, that it contains the germ of a scheme which can have
* We shall cite from the Tracts the passages exactly as they occur, employing
no capitals or italics of our own.

The Apostolical Succession. 1 1
no other object than that of depriving the people of all freedom of
thought and liberty of speech in spiritual concerns, exalting the
clergyman above the restraints of law, and prostrating the intellect
and piety of the nation at his feet,
" I readily allow that this view ofour calling has something in it too high and
mysterious to be fully understood by unlearned Christians. But the learned
surely are just as unequal to it. It is part of that ineffable mystery called in
our Creed, The Communion of Saints ; and with all other Christian mysteries,
is above the understanding of all alike, yet pract'icalli/ alike within reach of
all, who are willing to embrace it by true Faith, Experience shews at any rate
that itis far from being ill adapted to the minds and feelings of ordinary people.
On this point evidence might be brought from times, at first glance the most
unpromising; from the early part ofthe 1 7 ih century. The hold which the
propagandists of the ' Holy Discipline' obtained on the fancies and affections of
the people, of whatever rank, age and sex, depended very much on their inces
sant appeals to their_/a?iCi£(iApostohcal Succession. They found persons willing
and eager to suffer or rebel as the case might be for their system ; because they
had possessed them with the notion, that it was the system handed down from
the Apostles, 'a divine Episcopate;' so Beza called it. Why should we de
spair of obtaining in time, an infiuence far more legitimate and less dangerously
exciting, but equally searching and extensive, by the diligent inculcation of our
true and scriptural claim.
" For it is obvious, that, among other results of the priraitive doctrine of the
Apostolical Succession, thoroughly considered and followed up, it would make
the relation of Pastor and Parishioner, far more engaging as well as more
awful, than it is usually considered at present. Look on your pastor as acting
by man's commission, and you raay respect the authority by which he acts, you
may venerate and love his personal character, but it can hardly be called a reli-
gious veneration ; there is nothing properly sacred about him. But once learn to
regard him as the Deputy of Christ, for reducing man to the obedience of God ;
and every thing about him becomes changed, every thing stands in a new light.
In public and in private, in church and at home, in consolation and in censure,
and above all, in the administration of the Holy Sacraments, a faithful man
naturally considers, ' By his messenger, Christ is speaking to me ; by his very
being and place in the world, he is a perpetual witness to the truths of the sacred
history, a perpetual earnest of communion with our Lord to those who come duly
prepared to his Table.' "
What do the Puseyites mean by this, but that they want to ac
quire such an influence over their people, as will lead them " to suffer
or rebel, as the case might be, for their system ?" And what is ar
rogant impiety, if that is not, to declare that he who is not a suc
cession minister, has nothing " properly sacred about him ?" Who
was it that said of ordinary believers, " Ye are the temple of the
living God ?" But to proceed with our extracts.
No, 4, is by a Layman, who tells us,
" Even though we may admit that many of those who formed the connecting
links of this holy chain were themselves unworthy of the high charge reposed in
them, can this furnish us with any solid ground for doubting or denying their
power to exercise that legitimate authority with which they were duly invested,
of transmitting the sacred gift to worthier followers ?
" The very question of worth, indeed, with relation to such matters, is absurd.
Who is worthy ? Who is a fit and meet dispenser of the gifts of the Holy
Spirit ? What are, after all, the petty differences between sinner and sinner,
when viewed in relation to Him whose eyes are too pure to behold iniquity, and
who charges His veiy angels with folly?" (Surely there was some difference, after
B

12 Tracts for the Times.
all, betsveen John the Evangelist and John XXIII.) "And be it remembered
that the apostolic powers, if not transmitted through these, in some instances,
corrupt channels, had not been transmitted to our times at all. Unless then we
acknowledge the reality of such transmission, we must admit that the church
which Christ founded is no longer to be found upon the earth, and that the pro
mise of his protection, so far from being available to the end of the world, is
forgotten and out of date already.
" The unworthiness of man, then, cannol prevent the goodness of God from
flowing in those channels in which He has destined it to flow ; and the Christian
congregations of the present day, who sit at the feet of ministers duly ordained,
have the same reason for reverencing in them the successors of the Apostles, as
the primitive Churches of Ephesus and of Crete had for honouring in Timothy
and in Titus, the Apostolical authority of him who had appointed them."
We scarcely know whether to laugh at the extravagance, or de
spise the vanity, or protest against the blasphemy of the following.
No. 10. Heads of a Week-day Lecture —
" It may be asked, who are at this time the successors and spiritual de
scendants of the Apostles? 1 shall surprise some people bythe answer I shall
give, though it is very clear, and there is no doubt about it ; The Bishops — I
repeat the Bishops are Apostles to us, from their witnessing Christ and suffering
for Him.
" 1 . They witness our Lord in their very name, for He is the true Bishop of
our souls, as St. Peter says, and they are Bishops. They witness Christ in their
station; — there is but One Lord to save us, and there is but one Bishop in each
place. The meetingers* have no head, they are all of them mixed together in a
confused way; but we of Christ's Holy Church (blessed be God!) have one
Bishop over us, and our Bishop is the Bishop of—  -. Many of you
have seen him lately, when he confirraed in our Church. That very con
firmation is another ordinance in which the Bishop witnesses Christ. Our
Lord and Saviour confirms us with the Spirit in all goodness ; the Bishop
is His figure and likeness, when he lays his hands on the heads of children.
Then Christ (as we trust) comes to them, to confirm in them the grace
of Baptism. Moreover the Bishop rules the whole Church here below, as
Christ, the true and eternal Sovereign, rules it above ; and here again the
Bishop is a figure or witness of our Lord. And further, it is the Bishop who
is commissioned to make us Clergymen God's Ministers. He is Christ's instru
ment; and he visibly chooses those whom Christ vouchsafes to choose invisibly,
to serve in the Word and Sacraraents of the church. And thus, in one sense, it
is from the Bishop that the neivs of redemption und the means of grace have come
to all men ; this again is a witnessing Christ. I who speak to you concerning
Christ, was ordained to do so by the Bishop ; he speaks in me — as Christ wrought
in him, and as God sent Christ. Thus the whole plan of salvation hangs toge
ther — Christ the True Mediator above ; His servant, the Bishop, His earthly
likeness ; mankind the subjects of His teaching ; God the Author of Salvation."
These are certainly remarkable documents, but so much is Hilde-
brand himself out-Hildebranded by them, that we should not have
thought them deserving a moment's attention, did we not know that
they find favour in the eyes of a powerful circle in the most ancient
university in England ; have sturdy champions among the fellows of
Oriel, and are advocated without much modification, from both
evangelical, and non-evangelical pulpits in the establishment. Dr,
Hook, the present vicar of Leeds, says —
* Our readers need not be surprised at the vulgarity of this pbrase. The
Tract purports to have been delivered as a Lecture to " a country congreo-ation
in  shire." The Oxford men are wise in their generation. They
accommodate their speech to their auditors.

The Apostolical Succession. 13
" The prelates, who at this present time rule the churches of these Realms,
were validly ordained by others, who, by means of an unbroken spiritual
descent of ordination, derived their mission from the Apostles and from our Lord.
This continued descent is evident to every one who chooses to investigate it.
Let him read the catalogues of our Bishops ascending up to the raost remote
period. Our ordinations descend in a direct unbroken line from Peter and Paul,
the Apostles of the Circumcision and the Gentiles. These great Apostles suc
cessively ordained Linus, Cletus, and Clement, Bishops of Rome ; and the
Apostolic succession was regularly continued from them to Celestine, Gregory,
and Vitalianus, who ordained Patrick Bishop for the Irish, and Augustine
and Theodore for the English. And frora those tiraes, an uninterrupted series
of valid ordinations has carried down the Apostolical succession in our Churches
to the present day. There is not a Bishop, Priest, or Deacon, among us who
cannot, if he please, trace his own spiritual descent from St. Peter or St. Paul.*
There is a species of metempsychosis, of which in controversy we
have had abundant experience, unfavourable to the interests of truth,
and trying to the temper of its advocates. When positions are
proved to be untenable, when opinions and reasonings are shown (o
be inconclusive and illogical, they ought in all honesty to retire from
the arena of debate upon a parole of honour not to return, and
henceforth to dwell among the tombs with the rest of the defunct.
But this cousummation devoutly to be wished is seldom realized.
Scarcely is a decent interval allowed to elapse after the interment,
when the remains are exhumed by some needy dialectician, bone is
added to bone, and sinew to sinew, and they come forth in bodily
shape " With twenty mortal murders on their crowns
To push us from our stools."
Error has the vitality of a reptile, and the face ofa strumpet: we
may crush, but we do not kill, we may convict, but we do not shame.
The resuscitated indeed seldom venture forth in their ancient garb ;
various guises are assumed to protect them from an unwelcome recog
nition; the marks of former defeats are carefully concealed; but the
attempt to parade the old incurables before us as fresh recruits, will
not deceive a practised eye ; they are easily distinguished by their
limping gait and conscience-stricken countenances ; and though as
in duty bound again we tend them to the grave, it is only to be cast
up when our backs are turned, at the call ofthe first breathless and
hard-pressed combatant.
These remarks apply to the doctrine propounded by the Oxford
Tract divines ; often it" has been shown to be not only unsupported by
Scripture, but at variance with its whole tenor ; yet still the silly
conceit is maintained, the bold bravado is uttered. It may indeed
.shift its foundation, and alter its appearance, yet it is easy to recog
nize the " old dog in a new doublet." We are reluctantly therefore
compelled to treat in self-defence of topics, which have been discussed
to satiety. . _ i_ -^ i ^ ,i
I We maintain that not a single passage can be cited from the
New Testament, which favours, either by assertion or implication,
the notion that the apostles appointed a class of men, endowed with
any power, authority, or rights over ordinary ministers,
* Two Sermons on the Church, &c. pp. 7, 8.
B 2

14 Tracts for tlie Tirnes.
The apostleship terminated with the lives of the apostles, for no
one appeared after them invested with the power of working miracles ;
it was privileffium personate and privilegium personate personam
sequitur, et cum persona extinguitur. Bishop Jeremy Taylor in
deed, in his anxiety to throw the apostle's mantle over the shoulders
of some one, actually stooped to a false translation, rendering avvepyog,
as applied to Epaphroditus, Phil, ii. 25. my " compeer f^ but if
this be admitted, then were Aquila and Priscilla compeers likewise,
for they are called, Rom, xvi, 3. tovq irvyepyove fiov, and so of
course they stand at the head of a race of second-rate male and
female apostles. The terms bishop or overseer, presbyter or elder,
are convertible, and mark the same office, that of stated pastors.
For proof of this, we must refer to the passages where these titles
occur. Bishop Stillingfleet thus gives the opinion of the ancient
church. — " I believe, upon the strictest enquiry, Medina's judgment
will provetrue, that Jerome, Augustin, Ambrose,Sedulius, Primasius,
Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, were all of Aerius's judgment,
as to the identity of both name and order of bishops and presbyters
in the primitive church." Of the same sentiment are Wickliffe,
Erasmus, Cranmer, Calvin, Beza, Melancthon, Bochart, Grotius,
Vitringa, Mosheim, Suieer, Schleusner, Archbishop Usher, &c. &c.
In fact, when the word e-airTKo-iroc is never used in the New Testa
ment, to denote oversight over ministers, but only over the flock of
Christ — when e-irnTKonovQ and ¦KpeafivTepovQ have the same qualifica
tions, ordination, duties, and authority — when the latter inthe course
of the same discourse are addressed as the former — if this does not
destroy all idea of distinction and superiority, and establish identity,
then evidence has no force, or, from some peculiarity of mental
constitution, conviction is impossible,
II. We maintain that the criteria ofthe Scriptures, with reference
to the ministry, are completely at variance with the succession scheme.
These criteria are the call of God, as signified by the voice of con
science and the church, holiness of life, and soundness in the faith ;
these are the signs of ministerial character, recognized bythe authority
of holy writ; and he who has them not, no matter how correctly he
may establish an external lineage with the unquestioned ambassa
dors of Christ, is not a true servant of the altar. It is the doctrine
of our Lord, that the sheep must enter the fold by himself as the
door : the position applies to private members of the church, but it
applies also, and with peculiar force, to its pastors, inasmuch as the
greater always includes the less, and inasmuch as the pastoral office
is a station of greater relative importance than that of mere member
ship : therefore to come in by succession, is to " climb up some other
way," than that which the Scriptures unfold, and subjects the indi
vidual who does so, to the suspicion of being " a thief and a robber."
The apostle Paul explicitly defines those to whom the ministry of
reconciliation has been committed, to have been first reconciled
themselves — " God, who hath reconciled us to himself— and hath
given to us the ministry of reconciliation." The " ministers of God"
are said to be " approved" as such, not by any ecclesiastical ancestry,
but <' by pureness, by knowledge, by long-siiffering, by kindness, by

2'lie Apostolical Succession. 15
the Holy Ghost, and by love unfeigned"— and a " bishop" is indi
cated, not by a correct ofiicial genealogy, not by his having received
a virgin crosier which has been untouched through all time, save by
episcopal hands, but by being " blameless— not accused of riot— a
lover of good men, sober, just, holy and temperate." So strongly is
soundness in the faith insisted upon, that the apostle declared, " let
him be accursed," who preached any other gospel different to his—
a sentence from which a being in the succession is no ahield, since the
offence to which it refers, is predicated of " himself or an angel from
heaven," The truth of the ministry is determined, by the truth of the
doctrines that are preached, the integrity of the character that is main
tained, the purity ofthe motives that impel, and the approval of the
church given ; these are the only signs of right to discharge pastoral
duties, and to exercise pastoral power, which the scriptures recognise;
like the " cherubims and the flaming sword which turned every
way," they are sanctions, intended to keep those out of the garden
of God, to whom they do not apply; and what is it but an attempt
to prostrate the divine authority before human inventions, to talk
of personal succession and episcopal ordination, as the test ofa valid
ministry? Ill, We maintain that the directions which the Scriptures teach
us to observe, with reference to unworthy ministers, are wholly
opposed to the succession scheme. Let the following passage be
thoughtfully considered — "Beware of false prophets, which come
to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns,
or figs of thistles ? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit;
but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit." Our Lord and the
successionists are here decidedly at variance, for it is the doctrine of
the latter, that true ministers are to be discriminated from the false,
by antecedents and not by fruits, by their qualifiers and not by their
qualities, by their earthly authorities and not by their lamb-like or
wolfish demeanour. But lest there should be any mistaking the
Saviour's meaning, the same language is immediately repeated,
" Wherefore by their fruits ye shall knovc them." And what is to
be done, when the fruits are bad ? Then we are to " beware" — to
guard against receiving them as the heralds of heaven, following their
guidance, and respecting their mission — or as the rule is elsewhere
expounded, we are to " let them alone," to leave them, " they be
blind leaders of the blind." In opposition to all this, the Oxford
Tract men tell us to judge of the prophet, not by his fitness for his
office as evidenced in the discharge of it, but by the medium through
which it is obtained; they then inform us, that if the medium is
episcopal, the officer is to be received as divinely sent, however mani
festly unworthy ; they assure us for our consolation, that no matter
how evil are tlie fruits of the tree, it is a good tree after all, if planted
by a bishop; and then they solemnly admonish us, in the face ofour
blessed Lord's direction, to beware how we leave such men, and
cease the very profitable employment of seeking to " gather grapes
of thorns and figs of thistles !" _
Further, if Dr, Pusey and his brethren are right in their views,
nothing can possibly justify the conduct of Paul to those who dis-

16 Tracts for the Times.
turbed the peace of the church in Corinth. These he calls " false
apostles, deceitful workers," even " ministers of Satan." But what
is the proof that he advances of their falsity, deceit, and alliance
with the arch-enemy ? Their irregular introduction into the minis
try ? their invalid ordination? their ante-episcopal origin? _No, for
his very language, in this respect, puts them into the succession, and
shows that he had no fault to find with their orders — " Are they
ministers of Christ? I am more." But they " handled the word of
God deceitfully," corrupted it by false doctrine, denied the resurrec
tion, and thus forfeited all title to the ministerial character, and all
claims upon the people's respect. Therefore he branded them as
wicked and heretical, and insisted upon it as the right and duty of
the Corinthians to abandon their guidance. So to the Galatians he
declared, " such teachers are to be held accursed by us" — " I
would," says he, " that they were even cut off that trouble you."
Let us put, however. Dr. Pusey in the place of the apostle, and let
his tracts supplant the epistles, and these men, so heretical in doctrine,
and irregular in life, doomed by the awful authority of inspiration to
excommunication and cursing, are at once transformed into accredited
messengers of the King of kings, whom it would be spiritual treason
to disobey, if they can only make out, as many of them unquestionably
could, the fact of their regular ordination.
Through all the pages of the New Testament, it is a plainly re
cognised principle, that holiness of life, and soundness of doctrine,
are essential to the christian ministry ; that all pretensions to it, in
their absence, are false and inv,alid ; and that such are to be for
saken who assume the office without these qualifications. Now we
have a few questions to ask of these Oxford Tract divines about their
pedigrees ; and we think that it will not be difficult to show, that
there are not a fevi' gaps in the chain of their ancestry, and some
fatal stains upon the scutcheons of their spiritual fathers. It
is curious indeed to observe, when political considerations are out of
sight, what soft and measured phrases they apply to the Romish
church, as an object more of pity than of blame, as " deceived
rather than a deceiver," for " surely," says one, " if the church and
communion of Rome be what our over-heated controversiali.sts
would have it, the line of the apostles is lost, and the sheep of God
are left in the wide world without the continuous provision of shep
herds." It is easy to perceive the animus of this ; it amounts to
a confession that the succession is at an end, if common opinion as to
the wickedness and profligacy of the papacy is correct ; but with re
ference to this point, those who listen to the voice of history, have
no smooth things to prophecy. Tt is not a task that we like, to
recur to the enormities of the would-be successors of Peter ; it is a
picture too filthy and horrid to be contemplated without disgust ;
but lest truth should suffer, we will venture to show, that the Homi
lies of the Church of England are not in error, though their plain
ness of speech must be unpleasant to some modern ears, in pro
nouncing the church of Rome as " not only an harlot (as the Scrip
ture calleth her,) but a foul, filthy, old, withered harlot."* King
¦•'The whole passage is as follows : — " For she [the Church of l-lome] being not
only an harlot, as the Scripture calleth her, but ulso u foul, filthy, old, withered har-

The Apostolical Succession. 17
Edward's Prayer Book had the following petition :-" From the
Bishop of Rome, and all his detestable enormities, Good Lord de
liver us.
We will not take our views of the Romish church, as she existed
forages, from the writings of " over-heated controversialists," but
from the productions of sound Catholics themselves. The Italian
poet, Dante, does not hesitate to send some of the popes to perdition :
he pictures Nicholas III. ofthe family of Orsini, like the rich man
in hell, lifting up his eyes, being in torments," expecting the
arrival of his successor, Boniface.
" Ah ! why delude a tortured soul ! he cried,
But if a strong desire my doom to know.
Led your adventurous feet so far below,
Know, late I reigned o'er Rome in mitred pride:
" Orsini claims my blood — illustrious narae!
To raise her honours, thus I sunk to shame;
Unfriended, and unwept, but not alone :
Many a proud prelate learns below to weep ;
Above the fatal pass I'm doomed to keep :
Till Boniface forsakes the hallowed throne.''
What a frightful scene does Cardinal Baronius unveil in the ninth
century, in the well known passage — " Qua tunc fades sa.nctai Ec-
clesim Romanes! quam fccdiss'ima cum Romm dom'inarentur poten-
tissimm eeque et sordidissiniiw meretrices !" ^-c. " Oh what was
then the face of the holy Roman church ! how filthy when the vilest
and_ most powerful harlots ruled in the court of Rome ! by whose
arbitrary sway dioceses were made and unmade, bishops were conse
crated, and which is inexpressibly horrible to be mentioned ! false
popes, their paramours, were thrust into the chair of Peter, who, in
being numbered as popes, serve no purpose, except to fill up the
catalogues of the Popes of Rome, In this manner, lust, sup
ported by secular power, excited to frenzy in the rage for domina
tion, ruled in all things," And yet, through this mass of iniquity,
the Oxford Tract men assert, that a pure current of ministerial au
thority has streamed ; and that rakes, drunkards, and infidels, as
were the officers of the Romish church in the middle ages, they had
each and all a ministerial commission handed down to them by
ordination, which showed their connexion with the apostles, as evi
dently as the face of Moses, when its skin shone, displayed the am
bassador of God.
It is due to Dr, Hook to say, that in the extract we have made
lot — for she is indeed of ancient years — and, notwithstanding her lack of natural
and true beauty, and great loathsomeness which of herself she hath, doth, after
the custom of such harlots, paint herself, and deck and 'tire herself with gold,
pearl, stone, and all kinds of precious jewels, that she, shining with the outward
beauty and glory of them, may please the foolish phantasy of fond lovers, and
so entice them to spiritual fornication with her, who, if they saw her, I will not
say naked, but in simple apparel, would abhor her, as the foulest and filthiest
harlot that ever was seen ; according as appeareth by the description of the gar
nishing ofthe great strumpet of all strumpets, the mother of whoredom, as set forth
by St. John in his Revelation, chap, xvii." — Homily against Peril of Idolatry,
third part, 1563.

18

Tracts for the Times.

from him, he appears rather nervous upon this point ; and hence, to
avoid the abominations ofthe middle ages, he dexterously abandons
Rome in the time of Vitalianus ; but though the Vicar of Leeds lets go
the Pope in the seventh century, we shall see that the Pope keeps
fast hold ofthe Vicar, Many ofthe bishops ofthe Anglican church
were ordained by the popes, and not by their own metropolitans ;
and the following list will show this to have been generally the case
with the metropolitans from the seventh to the fifteenth centuries :
Archbishops of Canterbury,

668.

Theodore . . .

. . Rome.

735.

Northelm . . .

. . Rome. Pope Gregory III.

753.

Larabert , , , ,

. . Rorae. Paul I.

891.

Plegmund . . .

, . Rorae. Formosus.

1020.

Agelnoth ....

. Rome.

1138.

Theobald ....

. . London. Cardinal Albert, the Legate

1174.

Richard . . , .

. Anagni. Alexander ITI.

1207.

Stephen Langton

, Viterbo. Innocent III.

1245.

Boniface ....

. Lyons. Innocent IV.

1278.

John Peckham . ,

. Nicholas HI.

1294.

Robert Winchelsey . .

. Rome. Cardinal Sabinus.

1313.

Walter Raynold

. Robert Winchelsey.

1327.

Simon Mepham , . .

. Avignon Nicholas, by order.

1333.

John Stratford , .

. Avignon. Cardinal Vitalis.

1349.

Thoraas Bradwardine

. Avignon. Cardinal Bertrand.

1366.

Simon Langham

. Simon Islip.

1414.

Henry Chichley . . .

. Sienna. Gregory XIT,

Archbishops of York
1119. Thurstan ....
1147. Henry Murdao , .
1154. Roger 
1191. Geoffrey Plantagenet
1215. Walter Gray . . .
1258, Godfrey de Kinton .
1279. William Wickwane
1285. John Romanus . .
1299. Thomas Corbridge .
1305 William de Greenfield
1307. William de Melton .
1342. William le Zouch ,

Pope Calixtus.
Eugenius.
Archbishop Canlaur.
Tours. By Pope's Order.
Archbishop Cantaur.
Rome. Rome.
Rome.
Boniface VIII,
Lyons. Clement V.
Avignon .

. Avignon. Clement VI.
In vain then does Dr, Hook, or any of the Oxford men, attempt
to affiliate themselves upon Peter, without going through the filth of
the popedom. His Grace of Canterbury now bears upon the panels
of his carriage the evidence of his descent, through Rome, in the
pall which adprns his coat of arms, the ensign of archiepiscopal
authority, which his predecessors received on their accession from
the Pope,
IV, We maintain the notion of a personal succession from the
apostles, even through Rome, as an historical question, to be a gross
delusion. The Presbyter indeed, in Tract No. I. declares,
"If we trace back the power of ordination from hand to hand, of course we
w'- "^"""^ '° ** apostles at last. We know we do, as a plain historical

fact,

Again, in No. VII, we are told,

T'hc Apostolical Succession. 19
" Every link in the chain is known from St. Peter to our present metro
politans." Dr, Hook talks in the same style of an " unbroken spiritual de
scent," of " a direct unbroken line," of a " continued descent evi
dent to every one." Now we might naturally infer from these dog
matical assertions, that an ecclesiastical genealogy had been care
fully kept from the time of Peter's decease ; or that some registry
existed, like that of Doctors' Commons, containing a faithful list of
all episcopal ordinations from the apostolic age, to which the Vicar
and the Oxford men had obtained access. Let us turn, however,
from their statements to the- page of history, for here we have to do
with a " plain historical fact." Not quite so confidently did Euse
bius write, though fifteen hundred years nearer the time of Peter
than we are. He speaks of having to " tread a solitary and un
broken way, and can no where find so much as the bare steps of any
men who have passed the same path before ; excepting only some
shows and tokens, divers here and there have left us, particularly de
claring of the times they lived in, holding forth torches as it were
afar off, and lifting up their voices from on high, and calling as out
of a watch-tower, which way we ought to go, and how, without error
or danger to order our discourse." Plainly then, to Eusebius, the
chain was not very continuous, the line direct, every link known, as
no^V to the Oxford Presbj^ters.
Granting that Peter was the first Bishop of Rome, though no man
can prove it, or that he ever saw the city, the cjuestion occurs, who
was his successor ? Tertullian, Rufinus, and Epiphanius say Clement ;
Irenseus, Eusebius, Augustine, and Jerome say Linus, But who
then succeeded ? The Romish Pontifical says Cletus, Clement, and
Anacletus : the Fathers are all for the latter, and evidently know not
that any such person as Cletus ever existed. But who then suc
ceeded ? Bishop Prideaux says, " no certainty is to be had."
Cabassute declares " the whole question is very doubtful." Howel
states, " it is evident how very doubtful and uncertain is the per
sonal succession of the Roman bishops." Dr. Comber confesses,
" there is neither truth nor certainty in the pretended personal suc
cession of the first popes." Yet the Oxonians boldly aver, " every
link in the chain is known from St, Peter to our present metro
politans !"
For five centuries after the ninth, it passed as an unquestioned
fact, that a woman, having disguised her sex, made her way into the
chair of St. Peter ; and though this has been disputed in more
recent times, yet the number and authenticity of the records which
attest it, seem to leave no doubt as to the existence of a real Pope
Joan, Among those who have left evidence of the fact are jEneas
Sylvius, afterwards Pope Pius II. and Marianus Scotus. Platina
and other papal secretaries admitted its truth ; nor is there any cir
cumstance in history better attested than that she gave the world a
popeling in the streets of Rome, John Huss insisted upon it at the
council of Constance in his defence, without a shadow of contradic
tion being given to him. For upwards of two years her Holiness

20 Tracts for the Times.
reigned, so that here there was a decided breach in the succession,
and, alas, for Dr. Hook's unbroken chain.
The numerous schisms in the popedom show how utterly idle is
the notion of a direct spiritual descent. When John XXIII.
Gregory XII. and Benedict XIII, were all popes together, and were
all deposed by a general council, some links must surely have been
broken by their fall, and one was undoubtedly an Archbishop_ of
Canterbury, Chichley's epitaph distinctly specifies his consecration
by the hands of Gregory XII ; the same man who was afterward.s
declared to be no Pope of Rome, no bishop at all; so that Chichley
received false orders himself, and communicated false orders to the
English bishops, during his twenty-six years archiepiscopate.
We have said enough to show that the notion of personal suc
cession, as an historical fact is untenable ; and that, as a scripture
doctrine, it is not only without the slightest shadow of support in
tlie oracles of God, but that it directly contravenes their prin
ciples and spirit. We feel almost ashamed at having taken up
the subject at such length, but our reason for so doing, is the
respectability of the Oxford advocates, their strenuous efforts to
circulate their opinions, and their dangerous tendency. Conscien
tiously do we believe them to be only calculated to vitiate the minis
terial character, by substituting an external sanction for those
qualities of spirituality, truth, usefulness, and conviction which 'jhe
Scriptures demand ; to extinguish those indications of evangelical
sentiment and feeling which the Anglican church for the past quarter
of a century has been evincing ; and thereby wholly to make it in
practice what it is in theory, a mere worldly institution. We feel
indeed that to that church the days are evil, when its eminent
names, those who should be employed in promoting its spirituality,
in carrying out the great work ofthe reformers, and delivering it from
the arms of Roman antichristianism, are busily engaged in tram
melling it more and more with the human inventions from which it
was escaping.
We thank God that there has been a succession from the apostles,
not personal only but spiritual, a continued descent from the fountain
which they opened at Jerusalem, ofthe water of life. We glory in
being able to go up to primitive times, and to connect ourselves with
those chosen vessels ofthe Lord, upon whom the " cloven tongues
like as of fire" rested. It is our boast and joy. But it is not
through the medium of episcopal consecrations that we do this; it is
not by claiming affinity with the licensers of Roman £ourtezans, and
the leaders in, Roman vice ; but by holding communion in faith and
feeling with the English Lollards, the German Lutherans, the French
Hugonots, the Bohemian Hussites, and the Piedmontese shepherds.
Thus we travel up the path of time to the fishermen of Galilee, and
unite with them, and all who have been followers of their faith, in
recognizing the sentiment, " One is your Master, even Christ, and
all ye are brethren."

Dennett, Printer,
Union Buildings, Leallier Lane.

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