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Mhg57 1845 B2I

A LETTER

THE HEBDOMADAL BOARD

ON

MR. WARD'S CASE,

A.ND THE

NEW TEST.

BY THE
REV, WILLIAM BRUDENELL BARTE&, hi
RECTOR or BORGHCLERE AND HIGHCLERE,
AND LATE FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD.

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*¦* «<;.#• LONDON: .
JAMES BURNS, 17 PORTMAN STREET,
PORTMAN SQUARE.

1845.

LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM DAVY & SON,
Gilbert Street, Oxford Street.

A LETTER TO THE
MEMBERS OF THE HEBDOMADAL BOARD,

Though I entertain no sympathy with Mr. "Ward's
erroneous opinions, which appear to me to spring
from heretical principles, and have expressed my
judgment upon those opinions in strong and un
equivocal language, an imperative sense of justice
will prevent me from supporting by my vote the
degradation you propose to inflict upon him ; as I
know that among those judges to whom you
appeal for a sentence, there are men much more
guilty, — whose offences are notorious, — and yet
whom you have never visited with the slightest
censure. It is this which makes me view your
proceeding in the light of a vindictive act, com
menced and carried out under the influence of party
clamour ; it is this which strips your proceeding of
that character of dispassionate and even-handed
justice which every measure emanating from your
Board, ought in appearance and in effect to have.
For Mr. Ward's errors, however great, are not

calculated to undermine the very foundation of
Christianity ; no passage in his works has ever
tended to lower in the minds of his readers the
holy and mysterious nature of the Son of God, nor
to represent that Saviour of the world,— -not as by
Himself God and Lord, not as very God of very
God, — but as a mere personification of the Divinity
to answer the purposes for which He was sent into
the world. Mr. Ward has never written a history of
his Saviour's life in a sceptical tone, and on sceptical
principles, nor employed his ingenuity in explaining
away the miraculous nature of those works, for
which very works' sake, the Redeemer commanded
men to believe on Him. But all this has been
done by Members of Convocation, and you have
been silent, and have not even spoken in the tone
of earnest expostulation, which, in every such case,
without respect of persons, you were entitled to
assume. This argument cannot be fairly met by
admitting the criminal nature of the writings to
which I allude, but at the same time contending
that they ought to have been considered when they
were first published, that the time is past, and that
you are more rightly employed in paying your
attention to the pressing affair of the present
moment. I say this is no answer to my argument;
the writings of living authors cannot claim the
benefit of any statute of limitation ; whilst they are

circulated under the authority of those who wrote
them, the original offence is perpetually renewed ;
although in point of mere time, the publications of a
past day, they are yet in the eye of reason and of
justice, and in their operation on society the works
of the present hour; the length of time during
which the poison has been disseminated is an
urgent call on you for an antidote ; every passing
year increases the deliberate nature of the offence,
and upbraids your delay in bringing the offender
before you.
Again, to speak of things of minor importance, but
of minor importance only in comparison with those
errors in doctrine which lead by a direct course to
infidelity itself; Mr. Ward has never held up to
contempt any Catholic verity, much less those
doctrines which are plainly accepted by our Church
in her sacred services for the baptism of her infants
and the ordination of her priests ; but all this has
been done repeatedly by members of the Church
and of the University, without one indignant com
ment from any member of your Board. The only
plausible excuse which can be made for such men
is, that they conscientiously hold the opinions they
avow, and do not think them inconsistent with
Church Membership ; the benefit of this plea you
tacitly allow to them, while you deny it to Mr.
Ward; you call on us not only to degrade him, but
to pronounce on his bad faith by a vote in which
Christian charity must prevent me from concurring.

There are some, I know, who agree in the justice
of all these remarks, but say, that Mr. Ward is the
representative of a party, the progress of whose
opinions is dangerous, and ought to be checked;
and that, for this reason, you are justified in the
course you have taken. A plain and satisfactory
answer may be given to this statement: Mr. Ward
represents himself, and hardly any one besides; of
the men who are said to be of his party, not more
than one or two are known to hold the opinions on
which you rest his proposed degradation, and none
of name or influence do hold them; this assertion
I make with the fullest knowledge of the fact, and
pledging myself to the truth of what I affirm; if
then Mr. Ward be degraded, nothing is done — the
evil which you fear is not hit ; no effectual blow is
struck, only an individual is harshly treated.
I hope therefore that the calm — the considerate —
those who look to the permanent result of their
actions, who are attached to the substantial interests
of liberty and justice, whatever shades of opinion
they may hold, will pause before they sanction, by
their concurrence, this one-sided and extreme act
of judicial power. This measure is of the deepest
importance to all the Clergy, not only as Members
of Convocation, but as Ministers of our Church; for
the Archbishop of Dublin has told us, that an
intention exists to institute a court similar to yours,
a court which is to take cognizance of our acts and

expressions, and he has called on the Clergy to
give their opinion on the matter. For my own
part, though I consider that we are bound to obey
those who are placed over us, in all things lawful,
without answering again, I deprecate more stringent
enactments to enforce uniformity, and look to the
increase of self-denial and devotion in our Church, as
the only legitimate means of binding us more closely
together. This, however, is manifest, that if these
tribunals be not conducted on the principle of
impartial justice, they will not be the less inquisi
torial, because originally instituted to put down
Romanist tendencies. If therefore subscription to
our Articles, and a declaration of Conformity to
our Liturgy, be not considered sufficient safeguards
against heresy — if the liberty of expressing our
religious opinions, within these limits, is to be still
further restrained, I will humbly entreat you, as
the first act of your power, to examine the writings
of those Members of Convocation who fill the
highest stations, and who have advocated the errors
to which I have alluded. By such a commence
ment of your labours, you will at once establish
your own authority among us by an exhibition of
equal justice ; nor will you be employed at first in
the perplexing and endless undertaldng of deter
mining what censure should be passed on Romanist
developements, or upon those of a Sectarian cha
racter, which, if you persevere in your present

course, you must in justice prosecute with equal
rigour ; on the contrary, you will be treading in a
less difficult and tangled path, you will be more
profitably engaged in the high and holy duty of
preserving uncorrupt the great truths of Chris
tianity, and among others the equality of the Son
with the Father, in defence of which, in its primitive
purity, the Holy Army of Martyrs " loved not their
lives unto the death."
I proceed to consider the proposed Statute by
which the Vice-Chancellor will be enabled to
enforce a Subscription to the Articles in the sense
in which our Reformers compiled them.
Now the Reformers who compiled our Articles
were men of different periods and different shades
of religious faith, and the Reformers themselves
may be divided into two classes ; the one consisted
of men who endeavoured to cleanse our Church
from Romanist corruptions, and to restore to it its
primitive purity. I have no objection to sign the
Articles in the sense in which these men held
them ; not that in this instance I would accept the
interpretation of any man, or set of men, for such
an act, however strong the Protestant feeling may
be from which it emanates, involves in itself the
very essence of Popery ; but, because these Re
formers avowed the principle of teaching nothing
but " what is agreeable to the doctrine of the Old
and New Testament, and has been collected from

9
that very doctrine by the primitive doctors and
fathers of our Church," which rule of interpretation
I most readily acknowledge as being in other
words the teaching of Christ and His Church.
There was, however, another set of Reformers, it
must not be forgotten, children of a Reformation
which began with the plunder of the church, and
ended with the murder of the King, and I fear that
the sense in which we may be called on to subscribe
to the Articles may be found to approach more
nearly the interpretation which might have been
contemplated by such persons. For I know there
is a numerous party among us too nearly resembling
this latter class of Reformers in their principles and
in their conduct, who will consider this attempt as
a point gained in their favour and will cheer you
onwards in your present course as with the voice of
a single man : they care little for the ingenious
discussions that are going on with regard to the
legality or illegality of the test, its fairness or
unfairness ; they take little comparative interest in
its final success or rejection. Should the exposure
of its manifold absurdities end in its withdrawal,
still their point is gained ; the very wording of the
test is a triumph of their principles ; it has shewn
that you are on their side, and that you desire to
exclude their opponents from all academical ho
nours, and from the Ministry of the Church of
England; this they hail as a great advance, a

10
sufficient encouragement to persevere in their sys
tem of threatenings and violence. I shall confine
my observations to this view of the case ; I shall
entreat you seriously to consider whether an al
liance with these men be consistent with your
honour, the interest of the University and the safety
of the Church ; for this is the real point at issue ;
all other discussions are comparatively beside the
mark. It would be most easy to bring forward sayings
and doings of the men of ultra opinions in this
party, sayings and doings which, by comparison,
would give the appearance of sobriety to Mr.
Ward's startling assertions; but the attempt to
crush a party by such means would be unworthy
of an honest man, and must ultimately recoil on
those who adopt it. I do not allude to men of
ultra opinions in this party when I say, that it is
opposed in principle to those peaceful and conciliatory
measures which all of us, and you most especially, are
bound to adopt in the present distracted state of our
Church. I do not allude to men of ultra opinions
in this party when I say, that no piety, no self-
denial, no devotion to the cause of the Redeemer,
ever persuades them to extend their confidence to
the man who holds not their shibboleth; while, on
the other hand, the accepting it obliterates at once
the deepest stains of guilt, and obtains for the
convicted and deliberate Parricide a testimonial of

11
fitness to instruct the young in the paths of religion
and virtue. I allude only to the deliberate deeds
of those who are classed by their adherents among
the moderate and cautious members of our Church,
and who have purchased a character for moderation
(alas! at too high a price) "of them which are
without," men who, by their influence and that of
their friends, have exercised for some time a para
mount authority in the affairs of the Church of
England, have told the Christian Knowledge
Society what Tracts it should disseminate, and the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Avhat
Missionaries it should send forth. Is there any
bond of union between this party and the majority
of your Board"? Are you prepared to welcome the
cry of No Popery, when you know it proceeds from
men who have raised it with equal vehemence
against the memory of Bishop Wilson, and many
others of his devoted and Apostolic character1? And
what is their shibboleth1? As for the doctrine of
Justification by Faith, there can be nothing more
than a difference of terms with respect to it
between those who feel their need of a Redeemer,
though by the perverseness of man it has been
changed from a bond of union into a party watch
word. What is it then 1 If it be not unbelief in
the existence of a visible Church, if it be not thus
identified with independency, thus much we know,
it is an opponent principle to the Apostolic charac-

12
ter and authority of the Church of England; for its
fruits are separate societies for religious purposes,
separate funds for buying up Church preferments,
separate subscriptions for building separate churches.
And by what means is an impulse given to this
principle of disunion'? Some men of rank, of
talent, and of eloquence lend their assistance; but
the moving power is a press as vile, as scurrilous, as
unprincipled as that which disseminated similar
opinions nearly two hundred years ago, and ended
its unholy work by realizing its ideal of a Christian
Church, by establishing Independency on the ruins
of the Church of England; surely the alliance is
new and unnatural between such a party and the
University of Oxford.
I do not underrate the power of this party ; it
fraternizes readily with men of unsound religious
principle, as well as with those who profess no reli
gious principle at all — with the Harrisons and
Bletsons of the present times; it has the world
decidedly in its favour; but whilst history clearly
proves that the triumphs of this party never have
promoted the cause of unity and concord, common
sense as clearly shews they never can. The con
fusion of languages would not have prevented the
men of Babel from pulling down the tower, though
it put an effectual stop to their building it up; and
the power of such a party may not be inaptly com
pared to the force of those implements of destruc-

13
tion, which having reached their mark, spread a
wide ruin around them, but are broken themselves
at the same moment into a thousand worthless
fragments by the conflicting elements within them.
I say that I do not underrate the destructive
power of this party; on the contrary, when I see
the apathy of those who hold the truth, and contrast
it with their activity, it appears to me, that, if you
persevere in your present course, yielding to their
threats and rejoicing in their assistance, and an
Abbot should succeed our venerated Metropolitan,
our Church will become, what it was recently called
in the highest assembly of our land, a sect among
sects, — will be stripped of its holy and Apostolic
character, — that its ruin will be complete, and,
humanly speaking, irreparable.
It is most painful to me to expostulate with the
Authorities of an University which I have regarded
from my infancy, not only as the favoured seat of
learning and of loyalty, but as a venerable fortress
of our holy faith, preserved in the midst of our land
by the merciful interposition of Providence, to pro
tect our Church equally from the inroads of Ro
manist and Sectarian assailants; but as I know
that you will carry your measure, if it be carried at
all, by the united influence of a party which is
opposed to her best interests, I think it the most
honest and straightforward course to declare, that
without a sense of moral degradation, which I am

14
unwilling to incur, I cannot submit to a Test, the
imposition of which will be a triumph of such prin
ciples. Rejoicing as I do in our Church's bright
inheritance of Catholic truth, thankful as I am for
the purity in which it has been preserved by our
Reformers, I cannot, and will not, acknowledge the
narrow views and dicta of a party to be binding on
my conscience and opinions.
With high consideration for many of your num
ber, but with deep anxiety as to what you may do
in your corporate capacity, I remain, Yours, &c,
W. B. BARTER.
Burghclere,
January 22nd, 1845.

POSTSCRIPT.
I had sent this letter to the press before I heard of the
withdrawal of the New Test. As I said before, this act is, com
paratively of little importance ; let me now entreat you not to
aim at the same end by means better adapted to the purpose ;
meditate no more enactments which will exclude the conscien
tious, and the conscientious alone, from the University and the
Church, at the instigation of a party, which history plainly shews
you can never satisfy or conciliate. For if so great a blow is to be
struck at the cause of truth, of charity, of toleration, how altered,
how humiliating will be the position of that time-honoured and
venerable University which will be unfortunately committed by
your acts. Her piety and learning have constantly opposed those
very principles which you have endeavoured to force upon us ; by
her firmness and constancy the Church of England has hitherto been
preserved from the untiring enmity of a party, for whose bitter fana
ticism there is no congenial resting place in her Articles and Liturgy
while they remain unaltered. The truth of this is keenly felt by
the leaders of the present movement, they plainly tell you that
nothing short of the mutilation or destruction of the Prayer Book
will content them ; and to effect this purpose, they will readily
combine with all that is lax in doctrine, or loose in practice.
For it will avail them nothing to put their own construction on
the Articles, it will avail them nothing to exclude from the
Church men distinguished by the possession of high talent,
devoted self-denial, by the superior power with which they an
nounce the message of reconciliation to others, and by the contrast
of their own christian bearing in this bitter controversy; it will
avail them nothing to exclude such men from the Church, it will
avail them nothing to strike down the polished pillars of the
Temple, while the Prayer Book maintains its place in the courts
of the House of God, while it forces from unwilling lips the
teaching of our Catholic and Apostolic Church. May he who
alone can order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men
preserve this teaching in all its fulness to us and to our children.

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