The Oxford Movement, being a selection from Tracts for the Times;

THE SCOTT LIBRARY.

C-/75' ^^^

THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

»*» FOR FULL LIST OF THE VOLUMES IN THIS SERIES,
SEE CATALOGUE AT END OF BOOK.

The Oxford Movement. Being
A Selection from Tracts for
THE Times. Edited, with an
Introduction, by William G.
Hutchison.

THE WALTER SCOTT PUBLISHING CO., LTD.

LONDON AND FELLING-ON-TYNE.

NEW YORK: 3 EAST 14TH STREET.

CONTENTS

Introduction . . . . . vii

Advertisement to " Tracts for the Times,"

Vol. I. ..... 3

Tr.\cT'I. Thoughts on the Ministerial Com-
mission ... .6
/II. The Catholic Church . .12
III. Thoughts on Alterations in the

Liturgy . . . • 17
IV. Adherence to the Apostolical Suc-
cession the Safest Course . 27

IX. On Shortening the Church Services 37

XL The Visible Church, Part I. . 41

XX. The Visible Church, Part II. -52

XLVIL The Visible Church, Part III. . 58

' XV. On the Apostolical Succession in

THE English Church . . 63

XVIII. Thoughts on the Benefits of the
System of Fasting enjoined by
our Church . . -76

vi CONTENTS.

PAGE

Tract XIX. On Arguing concerning the Apos-
tolical Succession . .Ill
XXIII. The Faith and Obedience of
Churchmen the Strength of
the Church . . .116
XXIX. Christian Liberty, Part I. .119
XXX. Christian Liberty, Part II. . 135
XXXIV. Rites and Customs of the Church 1 46
. XXXVIII. Via Media, No. L . . .155
XLI. Via Media, No. II. . . . 168

Advertisement to " Tracts for the Times,"

Vol. II. ..... 182

Tract XC. Remarks on Certain Passages in

the Thirty-nine Articles . 187

INTRODUCTION.

It will not be counted against me, I hope, as presumption, if,
before proceeding to a short account of an ecclesiastical revolu-
tion, I make personal confession of such indifference to the
matters in dispute as Gulliver may have had to the question of
high and low heels, which excited to civic strife the rival factions
of Tramecksan and Slamecksan. No one who questions the
validity of all religious dogmas can taste the excitement of
taking sides in the collisions of contending dogmatists; he must
needs remain as little a partisan as the average person who
studies the Wars of the Roses, and finds small cause to
sympathise with either York or Lancaster. Yet indifference to
the subject-matter of the controversy does not imply lack of
appreciation of its extreme interest, both by reason of the great
personalities engaged, and of its influence on the Church to
which they belonged, and which some of them forsook.

It is characteristic of religious bodies to be periodically
possessed with panic by the trend of the prevailing time-spirit,
when that time-spirit happens to be a progressive one, promising
to realise itself in anti-clerical legislation. For about a decade
round 1830 the time-spirit was one of revolution, and this
country knew a period of political ferment and agitation.
Political and philosophical writers like the two Mills, the two
Austins, Bentham, and Grote were at the zenith of their
influence, and reform of the Constitution, reform of the Law,
and reform or disestablishment of the Church had their keen
advocacy. In 1828 the Test and Corporation Acts were re-
pealed, in the following year Catholic Emancipation was con-
ceded; all the while a growing sense of the need for parlia-

viii INTRODUCTION.

mentary reform was making itself felt throughout the land, and
culminated in the Reform Bill, brought in in 1831 and finally
passed, after titanic struggles, in 1832. The French Revolu-
tion, which had scared all classes out of advanced thinking, no
longer obsessed the minds of the majority with its old terror;
people were beginning to ask whether what was ancient was
necessarily admirable, whether class privilege might not with
advantage be reduced, whether, to take a concrete instance, a'
ruined mound should send two representatives to the House of
Commons and nearly a million Londoners have no representation
at all. There were, of course, plenty of stubboni and con-
scientious opponents of every attempted change. Sir R. H.
Inglis, member for the University of Oxford, on the first night
of the Reform Bill debates concluded his speech with an im-
passioned appeal for the pocket boroughs.^ Inglis was a faith-
ful representative of his constituents; the typical clergyman of
the day hated all that threatened the comfortable status quo of
the more fortunate members of his class. There was a general
clerical belief in having an easy time, slackness in doing duties
prevailed, pluralities abounded, the possibility of serving God
and Mammon was triumphantly demonstrated. The Church
was still the humdrum, worldly Church of the eighteenth
century, unadapted to more strenuous times. Religion was too
generally accepted as the "correct thing" to require discussion.
The disproportion between the Church's ideals and the actual
life of her clergy had grown too great.- It was not that the
latter were like so many of the mediaeval clergy, notorious evil-
livers. Rather they erred by over-respectability : " The beauty

' "It is only by this means," he said, "that young men who are
unconnected by birth or residence with large towns can ever hope to
enter this House, unless they are cursed — I will call it cursed — with
that talent of mob oratory which is used for the purpose of influencing
the lowest and most debasing passions of the people."

^ "Once Dr. Liddon, walking with me down the hall of Christ
Church, pointed to the portrait of an extremely bloated and sensual-
looking prelate on the wall, and said, with that peculiar kind of

INTRODUCTION. ix

of the English Church in this time was its family life of purity
and simplicity; its blot was quiet worldliness.'" The clergy
were not in practice a priesthood set apart; they lived like their
neighbours, distinguished only by their dress and more careful
demeanour. The Church was asleep when the new and some-
times crude ideas of the Reform days came to jostle it into
wakefulness. The somewhat rhapsodical hero, or rather victim,
of the Nemesis of Fail h has a scathing passage on this topic
which deserves quotation :

"A foolish Church, chattering, parrot-like, old notes, of which it
had forgotten the meaning; a clergy who not only thought not at all,
but whose heavy ignorance, from long unreality, hung about them like
a garment, and who mistook their fool's cap and bells for a crown of
wisdom, and the music of the spheres; selfishness alike recognised
practically as the rule of conduct, and failh in God, in man, in virtue,
exchanged for faith in the belly, in fortunes, carriages, lazy sofas, and
cushioned pews; Benlham politics, and Paley religion; all the thought
deserving to be called thought, the flowing tide of Germany and the
philosophy of Hume and Gibbon; all the spiritual feeling, the light
froth of the Wesleyans and Evangelicals; and the only real stern life to
be found anywhere, in a strong, resolved and haughty democratic inde-
pendence, heaving and rolling underneath the chaflF-spread surface.
How was it like to fare with the clergy gentlemen and the Church
turned respectable, in the struggle with enemies like these ?"'-'

Bentham's Utilitarianism was, indeed, the dominant philo-
sophy, and inspired the reforming legislation of the day.
Reforms were so badly needed that there was a disposition to
take short cuts to improvement by over-riding obstacles, in
preference to going a long way round. Both Roman Catholics
and Nonconformists had flagrant grievances, which nobody
nowadays would defend, yet round which men rallied then as

mincing precision which added so much to the point of his sarcasms :
' How singular, dear friend, to reflect that that person was chosen, in
the providential order, to connect Mr. Keble with the Apostles.'" —
G. \V. T.. Russell: Collections atid Recollections, p. 82.

' Dean Church: Oxford Movement, p. 4.

- J. A. Froude: Nemesis of Faith (Scott Library), p. 166.

X INTRODUCTION.

something sacred. But science as well as liberty was at last
having its innings, and the prospect for upholders of ecclesiasti-
cal privilege seemed to them black indeed. A typical Church-
man, William Palmer of Worcester College, the learned author
of Origines Liiiir-giccc, tells in his emotional way of the ominous
situation. God, in consideration of England's adherence to the
faith in the Revolutionary epoch, gave her prosperity ; but this
prosperity has engendered pride and forgetfulness, and a new
generation has arisen, which ignores God and imagines its
wisdom can correct and amend the whole world. The
Romanists are having every encouragement from Govern-
ment, they have received the news of emancipation with
" savage exultation " and look for the " revival of the funeral
piles of heretics." True religion, on the other hand, is going
down : mention of God's name is tabooed in polite circles ;
society begins to ask for the exclusion of the supernatural from
the Christian system; allusions to God's being and providence
are distasteful to the British Parliament.^ " In Oxford," says
Palmer elsewhere, " we were more than once alarmed by reports
that the Birmingham Political Union intended to march through
Oxford on their way to London, and to sack and burn the
Colleges."- Thomas Mozley writes similarly : "While at Oxford
that year one heard every day dreadful accounts of what was
done, said, threatened, and designed in all quarters."^ Lord
Liverpool was darkly reported to have said in private conversa-
tion that the Church was a mare's nest, and he had certainly
warned the Bishops to set their houses in order. No wonder
that, as J. A. Froude says, " the Whigs of those days were to
young Oxford apostles the forerunners of Antichrist."-*

The Church thus exposed to impending "threatenings and
slaughters" was, of course, not one uniform whole. Apart from

^ W. Palmer : Narrative of Events connected %vith the Publication of
Tracts for the Times, p. 21.

- Ibid., p. 113, note.

^ T. Mozley : Reminiscences of Oriel College and the Oxford Move-
ment, vol. i. p. 253. * Short Studies, vol. iv. p. 245.

INTRODUCTION. xi

individual members with ideas of their own, including such
Liberals as VVhately, Arnold, Blanco White, and Milman, it
had two great parties : the old High Churchmen and the
Evangelicals. The first were the inheritors of the Anglicanism
of the past, of such men as Hooker, and Wilson, and Waterland.
The best of these "High and Dry" clergy preached sober ser-
mons without appeal to the emotions, set up as their standard
a reasonable and serious conception of duty, and bestowed
blankets and good advice on their parishes. The worst, from
a religious point of view, were the preferment seekers, the
pluralists, the "two-bottle orthodox," the country gentlemen in
orders who hunted, shot, danced, and farmed, making the best
of both worlds, especially the present. Good and bad alike
were usually creatures of routine, performing " the daily round,
the common task" without initiative, without enthusiasm, and,
not seldom, with insufferable pomposity. To this average there
were, of course, shining exceptions like the Kebles, Dr. Pusey,
Dr. Hook, and Hugh James Rose. The party generally regarded
as the religious party was that of the Evangelicals. Despite the
great influence of some of its members on such public questions
as prison reform and the abolition of slaver)', its preaching was
of a shallow and sensational kind, a claptrap appeal to the
religiosity of those who prefer to find salvation, not in building
up character by a godly, righteous, and sober life, but in a
sudden conviction that God has arbitrarily laid their sins on his
innocent Son. A short and easy method certainly, but even a
Rationalist can sympathise with the strenuous opposition which
the High Church has always maintained to such puerile con-
ceptions of the meaning of Christianity. One High Churchman
wrote of it thus: —

" The impression of the system on my mind . . . was that il put the
character of Jesus Christ entirely out of account, and that it reduced the
.Sermon on the Mount, all the discourses of our Lord, and all the moral
arguments and exhortations of St. Paul and other Apostles, to mere
carnalities that no real Christian need have anything to do with." ^

T. Mozley: Keminiscences, vol. i. p. 187.

xii INTRODUCTION.

At the time of which I write what usefulness the Evangelicals
may have had was passing away; they had grown popular, even
fashionable, and on easy terms with the world; their message to
mankind was delivered in floods of verbosity; they were "great
on platforms and profuse of eloquence at tea-meetings."

The position, then, was this: two mutually distrustful allies, a
great historic High Church party, scarce conscious of its tradi-
tional position and responsibilities, and an active but degenerat-
ing Evangelical party, were, like Canute, confronting a rising
tide, the tide of scientific inquiry and expanding political free-
dom. The Oxford Movement began in the conviction that the
Church was in peril, and that a great efYbrt must be made to
stem the threatening flood.

If any one deserves credit for being the first begetter of that
Movement, it was John Keble, whose Christian Year (1827),
mediocre as poetry though it be, had presented an exalted ideal
of churchmanship. Keble, though unbending and severe in
principles, was modest and retiring in temperament. After
winning all the honours that Oxford University could give him,
he went home to be curate of his father's country parish, and,
living out of the world, remained a keen observer of what was
going on in the religious sphere. As Churchman he was a strong
adherent to tradition, in politics a staunch Tory; none the less
he denounced all luxury and show, and practised and preached
the ascetic life. The key-note of this good man's life was the
beautiful text from Isaiah which he placed on the title-page
of The Christian Year — " In quietness and confidence shall
be your strength." He had serious limitations indeed ; his
thoughts ran in a groove, his insight into human problems was
shallow, he had no sympathy with any but the religious passions
of man; "if he had not been Keble, he would have been called
(treason though it be to write the words) narrow-minded."^ I
have stated him the first begetter of the Movement; but he was
disqualified for being its leader by his shyness, incapacity for
debate, impatience of contradiction. His main contribution to

^ J . A. Froude : Short Studies, vol. iv. p. 267.

INTRODUCTION. xiii

the Catholic revival was his influence on two brilliant men who
made that revival what it was, a living force gathering strength
and vigour as it swept on its way.

The first of these was the enfant terrible of the Oxford Move-
ment, Richard Hurrell Froude, one of the most original and
engaging personalities who have ever enlivened the dulness of
theological controversy with their audacity and wit. He had
great gifts both for attaching friends to him and repelling foes;
a keen, logical intellect, loftily impatient of compromise and
cant, and at times aggressive and intolerant ; a whole-souled
conviction of the rightness of his cause, and a merciless eye for
what he counted the fallacies and pretences of his opponents.
With all this, he was his own severest critic. Rightly or
wrongly, his inner life was laid bare to the world by the publica-
tion of his diary and letters after his death, and some of those
who had had the rough side of his tongue made merry over the
revelation of his humble efforts after the good life. Yet, Pepy-
sian as some of the entries in the journal may be, they reveal a
hunger and thirst after righteousness for which all honour is
due.* People who disliked him — and he inspired great dislike

* Some idea of these candid confessions can be gathered from the
following random extracts: — "I do not reckon the day to have been at
all well spent. I have ate and drank too much, and thought too little;

enjoyed the laugh against when he talked politics after dinner. I

feel too that I am getting stingy and anxious to save in all manner of
little things, — wished to win at cards when we were playing for six-
pences, etc." " Looked with greediness to see if there was a goose on
the table for dinner." " Was ashamed to have it known that I had no
gloves. Talked about matters of morality in a way that might leave
the impression that I thought myself free from some vices which I
censured; this was unintentional but silly." "Meant to have kept a
fast and did abstain from dinner ; but at tea ate buttered toast when I
knew it was bad for me. . . , Have rather stuffed at breakfast — can-
not help taking my money out at a meal — must get rid of this vulgar
feeling." "My first impulse was to be pleased when I found there
was no evening prayer, a proof of my laziness and want of steady
religion." — R. H. Froude, Keinains, vol. i. pp. 14-22.

xiv INTRODUCTION.

as well as great love — put down his audacities of language^ to
flippancy and arrogance; but, as those who knew him best have
testified, his nature was essentially sweet.

" Unpleasant as irony may sometimes be, there need not go with jt,
and in this instance there did not go with it, the smallest real asperity
of temper. . . . His irony arose from that peculiar mode in which he
viewed all earthly things, himself and all that was dear to him not
excepted. It was his poetry."^

While he found his chief recreation in baiting loose and wordy
reasoners, the asceticism which he practised did not prevent
him from being a handy man in a boat in dirty weather, and a
bold cross-country rider.

In several respects this young man, whose short life burned
so fiercely, was a curious contrast to that learned and pious
country parson, John Keble. But to Keble he gave the allegi-
ance of a devoted disciple. Under his influence he formed his
principles and his standards, his reverence for the past and for
tradition, his dislike of novelty, his sturdy conservatism which
did not preclude an occasional fling at " pampered aristocrats "
and the "gentleman heresy."

"Mr. Keble's goodness and purity subdued him, and disposed him
to accept without reserve his master's teaching ; and towards Mr.
Keble, along with an outside show of playful criticism and privileged
impertinence, there was a reverence which governed Froude's whole
nature."'

It was through Froude that Newman became intimate with
Keble. At Oriel, where he was appointed a fellow in 1826, a

^ They are certainly rather startling sometimes in the mouth of a
clergyman. He thus describes in one of his delightful letters a joint
mission of Anglicans and Wesleyans in Barbadoes: "The Rural Dean
and the clergy ' went a whoring ' after the Wesleyans, Moravians, and
the whole kit besides, to concoct a joint plan of general education."
— Remains^ vol. i. p. 400.

^ T. Mozley, in British Critic, April 1840.

^ Church: Oxford ]\fovenient, p. 41.

INTRODUCIION. xv

tutor in 1827, Fronde found Newman, of whom he and his
friends knew little, save that he was an able man, a friend of
Whately's, and reputed a Liberal who had been through an
Evangelical stage earlier ; at this time, in fact, he " loved to
choose and see his path." The two, nevertheless, were mutually
attracted. " Newman is a fellow that I like more, the more that
I think of him; only I would give a few odd pence if he were
not a heretic," wrote Froude in 1829.^ Newman, however, was
in process of sloughing his Liberal heresy (in 1829 he took part
in the Tory agitation which turned out Peel, and thus broke
with Whately's party),- and the process seems to have been
materially hastened by the influence of his new friend, who had
been a High Churchman and Tory from the first with no doubts
whatever. From Froude Newman learned reverence for the
hierarchical system, conviction of the supernatural powers of
the priesthood, dislike of the Reformers, scorn of "Bible
Christianity." Froude in his way was a fanatic, Newman a
groper, who allowed himself to be led by the " kindly light "
which he found in his colleague. Keble was not particularly
an.xious at the outset to know Newman; the odour of Liberalism
which hung about him was offensive to his nostrils. But Froude
carried his point, for he recognised that in Newman he had
found an ally to translate Keble's ideas into action. " Do you
know," he writes, " the story of the murderer who had done one
good thing in his life? Well, if I was ever asked what good
deed I had ever done, I should say that I had brought Keble
and Newman to understand each other."^ This turned out to
be a notable triple alliance. The O.xford Movement, says Dean
Church, was the direct result of the searchings of heart and
communings from 1826 to 1833 of these three men.

They had plenty to occupy their minds. The break-up of

' Remains, vol. i. p. 232.

■'' By the ^larch of 1831 he could write to a friend: "They are
Liberals, and in saying this I conceive I am saying almost as bad of
them as can be said of any one." — Newman, Letters and Correspond-
ence, vol. i. p. 209. " Retnaius, vol. i.

xvi INTRODUCTION.

parties due to Catholic Emancipation, followed by the French
and Belgian Revolutions of 1830, gave fresh encouragement to
English reformers who saw their time approaching. Froude
was disgusted with Whigs and Tories alike, and assailed them
both.

" Froude is growing stronger and stronger in his sentiments every
day," writes James Mozley in 1832, "and cuts about him on all sides.
It is extremely fine to hear him talk." And again: "Froude is most
enthusiastic in his plans, and says, ' What fun it is living in such times
as these ! how could one go back now to the times of old Tory
humbug?'"^

He found great exhilaration in thus speaking his mind, and
neither in conversation nor correspondence minced his words.
Thus he writes in a letter of August 28th, 1831 :

" A most respectable clergyman of the name of , who has the

reputation of being a very sensible man, proposed at 's dinner

* the health of those dissenting ministers who have laboured in the
cause.' Did he recollect that the Prayer Book would translate his
words, * the health of the promoters of damnable heresy l'"^

His brother, J. A. Froude, said of him that his notions of the
Evangelicals must have been taken from some unfortunate
specimens, for he used to speak of them as "fellows who
turned up the whites of their eyes and said Lawd/"'^

Space merely permits me to mention in passing the tour in
Southern Europe which Froude and Newman made together
in the winter of 1832-33 ; the latter did not return till July 1833,
having gone through a dangerous illness in Sicily after his
companion's departure. This stay in Roman Catholic countries
was a formative influence on Newman, and gave him insight
into both the practical defects of the Roman system as applied
to whole populations, and into what he considered the majesty
of its ideal conception of Catholicity. On the publication of

^ Quoted in Church: Oxford RIovement, p. 43.

- Remains, vol. i. p. 244. ^ Short Studies, vol. v. p. 254,

INTRODUCTION. xvii

Fronde's Rctiiains it even came out that when the two Anglican
pilgrims were at Rome, they asked Wiseman on what terms
they could be received into the Roman Church, and found that
they would have to swallow the Council of Trent. Newman
dismisses this statement as a jesting way of saying that they
had taken the opportunity of ascertaining the actual points of
issue between the two Churches ; but the incident, when known,
roused much distrust, expressed, for instance, by William
Palmer.'

Newman's return from Southern Europe almost coincided
with what was generally regarded as the start of the Movement.
He reached home on July 9th, 1833; five days later Keble
delivered his famous sermon at Oxford: "National Apostasy."
Its immediate occasion was the Government's proposed sup-
pression of ten Irish bishoprics and two archbishoprics, a
measure which seemed an interference with the Apostolic
Succession and a portent of further encroachments on the
privileges of the Church ; the panic-stricken Pahner was even
convinced that the real object of the party in power was the
abolition of the Anglican hierarchy, to please the Romanists,
and pave the way for a Roman establishment. The preacher's
argument was that England, being a Christian nation, was also
a part of the Christian Church, and therefore bound by the
fundamental principles of that Church. Those who acted con-
trary to this assumption were thus guilty of " direct disavowal
of the sovereignty of God." Less than a fortnight later the
Oxford Movement was born in the parsonage of Hadleigh,
Suffolk, where the Rev. Hugh James Rose, editor of a Church
periodical, the British Magazine^ summoned a meeting of
friends to discuss the position of the Church, and decide what
steps should be taken for its vindication and defence. The
group consisted of William Palmer, A. P. Perceval, and Froude;
Keble and Newman, who were unable to attend, being in full
sympathy and correspondence. There was a three days' dis-
cussion ; all were agreed on the evil — the apathy of the Church

* See Palmer's Narrative, pp. 40-42.

xviii INTRODUCTION.

in the presence of threatened changes of the most vital sort.
But it was found more difficult to agree on what means should
be adopted for awakening priests and laymen to a sense of the
Church's peril. This nucleus of a party, indeed, represented
two types of mind : Rose, Palmer, and Perceval were essentially
conservative; they did not have the same dissatisfaction with
the Church felt by Keble, Froude, and Newman, all they
wanted was to have her freed from what they deemed State
oppression. Rose thought that if they could stand ten or fifteen
years, little was to be feared. Time, however, was wanting,
something had to be done at once. An association was
mooted, and a paper drawn up, urging the formation of such
a body. But the proposed association came to nothing.
Froude objected to any narrower body than the whole Church,
and vehemently opposed the Movement getting into the
Bishops' hands ;^ Newman, who from the first insisted on a
loose formation, "had a horror of committees and meetings and
great people in London."'- The proposal, however, aroused
interest throughout the country, and a clerical address to the
Archbishop of Canterbury was resolved on, which, despite the
coldness of most of the Bishops, received 7000 signatures,
whilst a month or two later followed a lay address signed by
230,000 heads of families. These addresses had their effect :
they showed politicians that the Church was a more formidable

^ Lord Blachford writes : "I remember one day his grievously
shocking Palmer of Worcester, a man of an opposite texture, when a
council in J. H. N.'s rooms had been called to consider some memorial
or other, to which Palmer wanted to collect the signatures of many,
and particularly of dignified persons, but in which Froude wished to
express the determined opinions of a few. Froude stretched out his
long length on Newman's sofa, and broke in upon one of Palmer's
judicious harangues about Bishops and Archdeacons and such-like,
with the ejaculation, ' I don't see why we should disguise from our-
selves that our object is to dictate to the clergy of this country, and I,
for one, do not want any one else to get on the box.'" — Church: Oxford
Movement, p. 62.

'■^ Ibid., p. 106.

INTRODUCTION. xix

force than they had thought. The King himself (WiUiam IV.)
showed how the wind was setting by making on his birthday in
May, 1834, a declaration of his attachment to the Church and
his resolve to maintain her integrity. In the autumn the Tories
came into power, and, as Palmer says, "arrested the march of
Revolution."

Already, in the autumn of 1833 the Tracts for the Times'^
had begun their flow. It had been decided at Hadleigh that
some writing should be done, but there had been differences of
opinion as to methods of composition and publication. Rose
and Palmer would have made London the centre of operations,
and have issued nothing without the sanction and revision of a
committee. But Newman could not stand committees and
compromises; he felt that straight speech was essential, and
that straight speech could only proceed from an individual. It
was his principle that the Tracts should be written as expres-
sions of personal judgment without supervision. Neither he
nor Froude was much enamoured of the addresses now being
signed; they disliked the necessary watering-down of principles,
so as to let every one subscribe to what no one liked, and, as a
matter of fact, these addresses were signed by Low Churchmen
as well as High. The first of the Tracts (written by Newman)
appeared on September 9th, 1833, '^"'^i thanks to zealous
helpers, they soon attained a large circulation. "The Tracts
had to be circulated by post, by hand, or anyhow, and many
a young clergyman spent days in riding about with a pocketful,
surprising his neighbours at breakfast, dinner, and tea."- How
useful these Tractarian missionaries would have found the
cycle ! Palmer, though he thought the earlier Tracts in-
cautiously worded, helped in the distribution; but when he
found that many clergy refused their signatures to the address,
because of the supposed connection between it and the Tracts,
he had misgivings of their effect, and begged Newman to stop

' This title came later ; at first they bore no general name, but were
known as the Oxford Tracts.

- T. Mozley, Reminiscences, vol. i. p. 313.

XX INTRODUCTION.

them at least temporarily. The latter refused, however, and
a second attempt of Palmer's to secure revision was also
fruitless. It was perhaps as well for the Movement that it
was so; had Palmer and his moderates got control of the
Tracts, they would have become something much more colour-
less than they were. Owing to the rejection of his suggestions,
Palmer now withdrew from active co-operation with the Tract
writers, but his sympathy with their aims precluded him from
open opposition; he comforted himself with the reflection that
no great religious movement had ever taken place without
accompanying evils.

The early Tracts do not seem so incautious nowadays as they
did then; Dean Church describes them as "clear, brief, stern
appeals to conscience and reason, sparing of words, utterly
without rhetoric, intense in purpose."^ All they did was to
reiterate High Anglican doctrines, grown atrophied by disuse,
such as the Apostolic Succession, practically discarded by the
Low Church. The story went that a certain prelate, after
reading one of the Tracts on the question, could not make
up his mind whether he believed the doctrine or not.'* It was
inevitable that from the first they should excite the "No
Popery ! " cry, even though all they said might have the sanc-
tion of the Prayer Book and the Anglican divines. They
implicitly condemned the opinions of many in the Church, no
doubt, but that was because, rightly or wrongly, these latter
had departed from the Anglican positions. These positions
were enforced in some of the Tracts by collections of extracts
from such sound Anglican authorities as Beveridge, Wilson,
and Cosin, and from Fathers like Ignatius, Justin, and Irena?us.
These caiencr, however, came later; the earlier Tracts were
deliberately intended to startle, and they fulfilled their purpose.

There is no question that Newman, the chief contributor,
enjoyed the writing of them. After a long illness his health
and strength had come back with a rebound. It was the

1 Oxford Moveiiietit, p. lio.

- Newman: Apologia pro FiVa ^'wa (popular edition, 1904), p. 28.

INTRODUCTION. xxi

happiest period of his Anglican life, for the ardour of his zeal
for the cause banished from him for the time anxiety about his
soul. He had still the imperturbable sense of rightness in-
dispensable to the fanatical leader; he felt the pulse of the
younger men at Oxford beat in unison with his own. Here are
a few snatches of what he says of himself at this time:

" I had a supreme confidence in our cause; we were upholding that
primitive Christianity which was delivered for all time by the early
teachers of the Church, and which was registered and attested in the
Anglican formularies and by the Anglican divines. That ancient
religion had well-nigh faded away out of the land, through the political
changes of the last hundred and fifty years, and it must be restored
. . . also, on the other hand, I despised every rival system of doctrine
and its arguments too ... I thought . . . that the Apostolical form
of doctrine was essential, and its grounds of evidence impregnable. . . •
My behaviour had a mixture in it both of fierceness and of sport; and
on this account, I dare say, it gave offence to many." '

The Tracts swelled in numbers during 1834. Palmer, after
making a draft for one on the Apostolic Succession (No. 15),-
left it to Newman to complete, and did no more for the series.
Newman wrote a majority himself, but Froude, John Keble,
Perceval, Bowden, and others helped. Thomas Keble (John's
brother) contributed several in the form of didactic tales, in
which an impossibly humble, pious, and receptive young work-
man called Richard Nelson has long and edifying conversations
on usages and doctrine with his vicar. Newman's influence with
his pen was supplemented by that of his voice at St. Mary's.
Whilst Oxford men were reading and pondering the Tracts, they
were also submitting to the spell of one of the greatest preachers
the world has ever known. The many impressions of the St.
Mary's sermons which have been recorded are varied indeed, but
they all testify to Newman's extraordinary power of searching
the hearts of his hearers, of probing the most secret individual
consciences of a whole congregation. -Stories were current at
Oriel of fast men dropping in to hear him out of curiosity, and

^ Apologia, pp. 27-28. See p. 63.

r

xxii INTRODUCTION.

being reduced to cold terror. By now he was clearly recognised
as the leader of the new party. Rose, on whose initiative the
Hadleigh meeting had taken place, was unsuitable for such a
position, being a Cambridge man and out of touch with the
younger Oxford generation, obviously destined to play the
principal part in the work; he had not the necessary physical
health moreover, and died an early death in 1839. Froude did
not live so long; for his health he went to the West Indies in
November 1834, and returned home in the following year with
less than twelve months left him. Had he lived the history of
the Movement would have been profoundly modified; Newman,
with his drifting, and theory-spinning, and subtlety of reason-
ing, would have had the tonic of a strenuous and straight-
forward personality. After Froude's death there was a per-
ceptible decline in Newman's confidence in the cause.

Round about him had gathered some of the most remarkable
men then at Oxford, including Robert and Henry Wilberforce,
Thomas Mozley (to whose delightful Reminisce7ices we owe so
much insight into the Movement and its actors), J. B. Mozley,
Frederic Rogers (afterwards Lord Blachford), William Froude,
James Bliss, Isaac Williams, W. J. Copeland, and many more.
These were all men of promise, but towards the end of 1834 a
man of performance joined the Movement, with which he had been
in at least partial sympathy from the start. This was Dr. Pusey,
a learned scholar of high standing in the University, a Professor
and Canon of Christ Church, described by Dean Church as "a
venerated and rather awful person, from his position not mixing
in the easy intercourse of common-room life, but to be consulted
in emergencies.'"^ His accession was of the greatest value:

" He at once gave to us," writes Newman, "a position and a name.
. . . There was henceforth a man who could be the head and centre of
the zealous people in every part of the country who were adopting the
new opinions ; and not only so, but there was one who furnished the
Movement with a front to the world, and gained for it a recognition
from other parties in the University."-

' Oxford Moi'ement, p. 131. ^ Apologia, p. 3S.

INTRODUCTION. xxiii

Pusey, indeed, with his erudition and his loyalty to the Church,
was a kind of guarantee of responsibility, and assumed a posi-
tion in the Tractarian party almost on a level with Newman's;
he was, in fact, widely regarded as the official chief.' It was
Pusey who gave permanence to that part of the Movement
which persisted in its Anglicanism, and, when the crisis came,
did not branch off Romewards. Oakley described Pusey as the
"St. Barnabas of the Movement," and this aptly characterised
him, for his was the work of conciliation. His influence was
also felt in the Tracts, which began to be graver, more sober,
more adequately documented. Such was his own treatise on
Baptism (forming Tracts 67, 68, 69, and running to 300
pages in the first edition, 400 in the second), of which Church
writes: "The Tract on Baptism was like the advance of a
battery of heavy artillery on a field where the battle has been
hitherto carried on by skirmishing and musketry. It altered
the look of things, and the conduct of the fighting,"' Pusey
also planned a Library of the Fathers of the Holy Catholic
Church anterior to the Division of the East and West, edited
by himself, Keble, and Newman, the largest contributor being
Charles Marriott.

In 1834 the Movement was in full swing and progress was
being steadily made ; hopes ran high. It had great success
with young Oxford men of culture for whom Evangelicism was
a burden, and to whom, by reason of its very authority, the old
" High-and-dry " orthodoxy was an incentive to revolt. Men
of the dialectic type of mind were attracted by such uncom-
promising views, and historical students, whatever their opinion

' "Its enemies fastened on it [the Movement] a nickname from his
name, and this nickname, partly from a greater smoothness of sound,
partly from an odd suggestion of something funny in it, came more into
use than others; and the terms Puseismtts, Pttseisme, Ptiseista found
their way into German lecture-halls and Paris salons, and remote
convents and police-offices in Italy and Sicily; indeed, in the shape of
^^o^'i'e^(^/x6s it might be lighted on in a Greek newspaper." — Church :
Oxford Afcrvevtent,^. 183.

- Oxford Afoveiiient, p. 1 36.

xxiv INTRODUCTION.

of the Movement's tendencies, welcomed its revival of interest
in the past. But as yet it was not a popular movement in any
sense : it appealed to the educated class through the intellect,
not to the proletariat through the emotions, like Evangelicism.
Naturally, moreover, it was anything but favourably considered
in some quarters. The peremptory tone of the Tracts, their
apparent novelty of teaching, had aroused resentment in several
parties : in the Evangelicals by their alleged Romanism and
unsound views on justification, good works, and sacraments, in
the "two-bottle orthodox" by their uncomfortable ascetic ideals
among the Liberals by their rigidity of dogma.

This last Tractarian characteristic grew prominent in Oxford
when the Subscription question came up for discussion. Unlike
Cambridge, the Oxford of that day, emphatically a close pre-
serve of Anglicism, demanded subscription to the Thirty-nine
Articles on matriculation. In the great majority of cases this
was doubtless no hardship. Many men would be ready to say
with Theodore Hook: "Sign the Thirty-nine Articles.'' Oh,
Forty if you like!" But some conscientious souls might well
feel disinclined to gulp down so many absolute propositions at
such an early stage in their education. About the end of 1834
Dr. Hampden, then Principal of St. Mary's Hall and Professor
of Moral Philosophy, aroused a war of words by a pamphlet
advocating the abolition of such subscription. His leading
argument was that a distinction must be drawn between the
" divine facts " of revelation and human interpretations of them ;
the "divine facts" being binding on all Christians, the human
interpretations — and all Church formularies are such — being
only binding on those who deem them true, and therefore least
of all on undergraduates who cannot have given them due
examination. This does not seem an unreasonable contention,
though there is a logical fallacy in letting the novice off the
interpretations, but still pinning him down to the "divine facts."
However, the storm raged in the tea-cup. Oxford orthodoxy
united with Tractarianism to denounce as latitudinarian the
proposals of Dr. Hampden, who was now the most unpopular
man in the University. He had sent a copy of his pamphlet

INTRODUCTION. xxv

to Newman, and the latter wrote back that he thought its
principles would shipwreck the Christian faith, and lamented
that a first step had been taken to interrupt peace and mutual
good feeling at Oxford. Convocation rejected the proposal in
May, 1835, by a five to one majority, and for this defeat of
Hampden's the Tractarians were largely responsible by their
literary activity. He was a person they could not abide ;
Thomas Mozley, the most amiable of men, wrote of him thus :

"lie was not so much repulsive as utterly unattractive. . . .
Hampden's face was inexpressive, his head was set deep in his broad
shoulders, and his voice was harsh and unmodulated. Some one said
of him tliat he stood before you like a milestone and braced at you like
a jackass."^

But Hampden, defeated though he might have been, was still
to prove a thorn in the flesh. About the end of 1835 died
Dr. Burton, the Regius Professor of Divinity; and his death
was of the nature of an awful warning to theological disputants,
for its immediate cause is said by T. Mozley to have been a
heated argument with a dissenting farmer, which threw him
into a fever. As a successor Lord Melbourne was bold enough
to appoint Hampden, and thereby raised another storm about
the latter in the University. According to Palmer, who, as we
have seen, always took the most calamitous view of things,
Melbourne meant it as a studied insult to the University for its
past resistance to the Government, and an attempt to thrust
latitudinarian principles upon the Church. Had that statesman
seen fit he might have stopped the trouble before it had gone
far, for Hampden offered to withdraw, and might have been
solaced with some other appointment. But Melbourne stuck
to his guns, and, tempers being up on both sides, what was
called "the persecution of Hampden" went on briskly. Four
years before he had delivered the Bampton Lectures; they had
been printed and circulated with the University's sanction ; no
protest had been raised; the probability was that their dulness

^ Reminiscences, vol. i. p. 380.

xxvi INTRODUCTION.

made readers few. But now that he had openly attacked sub-
scription, and had been pushed into a high and responsible
post, his enemies made a study of the Lectures and found the
book a convenient stick wherewith to belabour the new Pro-
fessor, The Tractarians had always professed a scorn for
"Bible Christianity," and here was a man who threw over
tradition and said the Scriptures alone were to be accepted as a
basis for Christian dogma; that general councils might and did
err; that the Bible's statements on matters of faith were alone
to be implicitly accepted. Newman showed his controversial
agility in his Elucidations of Dr. Hampdetis Theological
Statements., which drew down upon him Dr. .'Arnold's famous
onslaught in the Edinburgh Review., "The Oxford Alalignants."^
Arnold wrote in a white heat of indignation, and his criticism
of Newman's methods was certainly damaging. He showed
how the quotations from Hampden were garbled by omissions,
which made it hard to acquit the author nf thf^ Elucidciiiqns
of deliberate dishonesty. From Newman he turned to the
Tractarians generally, whom with singular short-sightedness he
described as "a few obscure fanatics,' and proceeded :

" The fanaticism of the English High Churchmen has been the
fanaticism of mere foolery. A dress, a ritual, a name, a ceremony ; —
a technical phraseology ; — the superstition of a priesthood, without its
power; — the form of episcopal government, without its substance; — a
system imperfect and paralysed, not independent, not sovereign ;
afraid to cast oft" the subjection against which it is perpetually
murmuring."

Worst of all, " the attack on Dr. Hampden bears upon it the
character, not of error, but of moral wickedness.^'' Another
Liberal, Whately, was no less severe; he denounced the
Elucidations as "a tissue of deliberate and artful misrepresen-
tations." These slashing contemporary criticisms must of
course be considerably discounted in the light of history.
Dr. Abbott says of this incident that Newman did not fight

1 Vol. Ixiii. (1836), p. 225.

INTRODUCTION. xxvii

fairly, but that it does not follow he was guilty of deliberate
dishonesty, and quotes a very sane comment on the subject by
Sir James Stephen :

*' As for Newman himself, I am sorry that his integrity should be
impugned. I am convinced that a more upright man does not exist.
But his understanding is essentially illogical and inveterately imagina-
tive ; and I have reason to fear that he labours under a degree of
cerebral excitement, which unfits him for the mastery of his own
thoughts and the guidance of his own pen,"^

It must not be supposed, however, that the opposition to
Hampden was an entirely Tractarian affair. The inspiration
came in large measure from Newman and his associates; but
the whole conservative force of the University was in the same
boat. The Heads of Houses, timid of making definite charges,
did all they could to mark their displeasure by proposing in
Convocation that Hampden should be deprived of his vote in
the choice of Select Preachers. The country clergy flocked up
to the meeting, and the large majority of votes in favour of the
motion was no doubt due in part to the relative ease of reading
the ElucidatiotiSy 47 pages long, instead of the dry and weighty
tome of 548 pages which it attacked. The two Proctors,
however, exercised their power of veto, and the motion was
thrown out. Yet it was not long in being carried, for, on the
appointment of new Proctors hostile to Hampden, a second
Convocation was summoned.

The Hampden affair was a good advertisement for the Tract-
arians ; it made the London and provincial clergy recognise
their existence as a young, aggressive party. Moreover,
Hampden's appointment was so much in the teeth of average
Anglican opinion, that, in the French phrase, it gave to think
furiously of what further drastic treatment the Church might
expect from the Government. These Tractarian young men
might be audacious in statement, rigorous in application of

^ Anglican Career of Cardinal Newman, vol. ii. p. 63.

xxviii INTRODUCTION.

principles to a degree that seemed fanatical in a Church which
has never worried much about consistency, which, to use a
common phrase, has a Catholic Prayer Book, Calvinistic
Articles, and an Arminian clergy. Yet they formed a living
party, so confident of its future, that even its opponents might
concede that there was something in it, that it was at least
better than the stagnation and apathy which it arose to dispel.
For the time the Movement attracted some of the best men in
the University. In 1838 Whately, an unsympathetic observer,
writes, " Oxford has at present two-thirds of the steady-reading
men, Rabbinists — i.e. Puseyites."' When a party has several
nicknames, it is obviously a party that is being talked about,
and Tractarianism was indeed the one topic at Oxford.
G. V. Cox, an independent observer, tells us that it was
generally acknowledged that the time had come for the Church
of England to revive her claim to Catholicity and Apostolicity;
after having been so Low, it was natural that she should become
rather High, and the Movement, so far, was regarded by most
as a blessing. It was both theoretical and practical in aims.
Theoretically it asked such questions as: What is the Church?
what are her bases? what her essential constitutions? It was
practical, in so far as it insisted on personal righteousness and
devotion. The first of Newman's sermons to be published was
called " Holiness necessary for future blessedness," and this
note persisted in the teaching of the Movement. The death-
bed repentance, so dear to the Evangelicals, had no encourage-
ment from these austerer Christians. For them the principal
idea in the New Testament was not so much the Atonement as
the Incarnation, and hence the stress they laid upon the Gospels
as compared with the Epistles; hence their sense of the need of
self-discipline. This was in some cases carried to lengths
extravagant or absurd. " Early in the Movement," writes
T. Mozley, " I heard that one of the Oxford leaders fasted on
boiled mutton, because he did not like it."- The party was wide
enough to include all kinds of men. If some were inclined to

' Whately' s Life, p. 163. - Reminiscencts, vol. i. p. 411.

INTRODUCTION. xxix

be too cautious and hesitant, others, especially among the
younger, were headstrong and eager to push on without regard
for policy, and in theology paraded what the chiefs merely
hinted; as we shall see, this feature was a factor of increasing
import in the Movement.

The two leaders, Newman and Pusey, went on their way with
mutual confidence, though they by no means saw eye to eye on
all subjects; Newman's thought being much more fluid and
susceptible of change than that of his colleague. He was also
much more accessible; he gave breakfast parties and evening
gatherings, where he met men on equal terms, and the range of
talk was wide; he had the personal charm that attracts disciples,
and Credo in Ncwmantitciii became an article of faith with a
large proportion of young Oxford. And yet it must be said that
as a leader and teacher he had grave deficiencies. Those whom
he attracted he could not keep in order. AH in him depended on
a system, and he was not always sure of his system. Till he
finally reached the Roman haven of refuge where he could have
his system ready-made, he was ever a groper, never quite sure
of his position — ^"one step enough for me." His over-subtlety
of argument which perplexed friends and gave foes openings
for attack had always been opposed by the downright Froude,
who might be described as a cross-country theologian as well as
a cross-country rider, but Froude was no longer at his elbow.
With all his confidence in the cause, he was, moreover, too shy,
self-distrustful, and conscious of his own failings to lead well.
He would have been far more successful had he followed his
own judgment more and taken less heed of his friends' opinions.
In loyalty to such a chief how great the risk I Dr. Abbott
scarcely overstates it when he says:

" ' I believe in Newman' — a short creed indeed, but not 'extremely
simple.' How little those who committed themselves to it knew to
what they were committed ! Compared with this unwilling misguider,
the most fallacious of Sirens was but a beginner in deceits. All the
more deceitful, because so unwilling to deceive; so complex and
tortuous in reality, yet so fatally attractive by an obvious transparency

XXX INTRODUCTION.

of thought and superficial smoothness of expression — here was a leader
who seemed to see cleaily whatever he spoke about, yet in reality saw
but one step before him, and not always that.''^

He was still preaching his afternoon sermons at St. IMary's, and
also giving theological lectures in Adam de Brome's Chapel, an
anne.xe of that church, some of which were published as a book,
The Prophetical Office of the Church viewed relatively to
Roinanisin and Popular Protestantism (1837). Fully expecting
it to cause charges of Romanising, he dedicated it to Dr.
Routh of Magdalen, that it might have the shelter of an
orthodox and learned name.

By the end of 1837 the Movement was diffused all over
England; the year 1838 has been given as its high-water mark.
True, in the August of that year the Bishop of Oxford in his
charge disapproved of some expressions in the Tracts. New-
man was no doubt prepared for this; he had, like the fat boy,
stated his intention of making people's flesh creep. He now
offered to suppress any of the Tracts of which he had the copy-
right, but the Bishop declined the offer; he had, he said, merely
wished to give a warning. This mild rebuke was a straw to
show how the official wind was blowing. The affair of
Hampden had left a good deal of bitter feeling, which led his
supporters to answer the Tractarian attacks on his orthodoxy
with countercharges of Romanising, secret and open. The
orthodox Evangelicals who had united with the Tract party in
the heresy hunt, now joined forces with the Liberals to accuse
their late allies of treachery to the Church. The latter, indeed,
influenced in this matter by Froude, to whom Bishop Jewell was
no better than " an irreverent dissenter," openly disavowed Pro-
testantism and the Reformation, and sought the revival of
institutions for almost three hundred years left in abeyance,
like fasting, daily Common Prayer, observance of saints'" days,
and frequent sacraments. Their argument, in fact, was that if
these indispensable features of life and worship were not re-
stored, nothing could avert the triumph of Popery. In its

Abbott: Anglican Career of Newman, vol. ii. p. 35-

INTRODUCTION. xxxi

beginnings the Movement was largely inspired by this dread of
Rome, a dread deepened by the panic after Catholic Emancipa-
tion. Newman had started with the idea that the Pope was
Antichrist, and that the case against his Church was so obvious
that it needed no further proving. Under Froude's influence,
however, this extreme view was greatly modified and went on
being so. Froude admitted that despite her corruptions and
errors, the Roman Church had not, any more than the English
Church, ceased to form part of the body supposed to be in con-
tinuous connection with the Apostles. She had a strong logical
theory wherewith to confront her foes, and had more to say for
herself than people imagined. Now it was characteristic both
of Froude and Newman to have immense reverence for power
as power; their attitude to their Ueity was abject and grovel-
ling. Froude quoted as sublime in a letter to Keble the line in
Measure for Measure —

" Let the Devil
Be sometimes honour'd for his burning throne."

The Devil was to him, after all, a powerful potentate, and so to
Newman was the Antichrist of Rome. But this was in an early
stage of his opinions. He had now come to conceive, not a
pure Church on one hand, a corrupt on the other, but two great
parts of a Church that had been rent in twain, each with its
own merits, each with its own defects. He realised how much
popularly presumed Popish was ancient and Catholic, and
warned his fellow-Churchmen of the peril of hasty charges
against Rome. He had, in short, reached the stage in his
religious experience which he called the Via Media} He could
not accept infallibility, because of the way in which it was made
to overrule the " consent of the Fathers," and because it con-
tradicted the conditions of human reception of teaching, was
useless as an assurance of truth, and pernicious in its working.
In the early Church, he contended, there was authority but not
infallibility. The Via Media got the name of a paper theory

^ See p. 155.

xxxii INTRODUCTION.

from those who could see no logical halting-place between
Romanism and Protestantism, and Newman himself, as we
shall see, ultimately dropped it as impracticable;^ but the steady
growth of High Anglicanism and approximation to Roman
usages ever since the Tractarian Movement testifies that a large
party in the Church of England has some such implicit idea.

Up to 1839 the Movement, despite the prejudice it excited
and its own occasional indiscretions, had prospered fairly.
Newman was active in literary production; besides Tracts,
sermons and articles, he published such important works as
The P7-ophciical Office of the Chicrc/i, already mentioned, and
the Lectures on Justijicatioti. He also became editor of the
British Critic, 1837, which was henceforth the party organ.
But after 1839 began a stormier epoch. Internecine differences
tended to grow more accentuated. The party had been swelled
by a second generation of men, who, naturally enough, were a
little more in a hurry than those who had initiated the Move-
ment, and the hostility to it was also increasing. Towards the
end of 1838 a scheme, partly at least intended as an off-set to
the open anti-Protestantism of many Tractarians, especially as
expressed in Froude's Reniains, now published, had been pro-
posed for the erection of a memorial to the Oxford martyrs of
the Reformation. At first a few moderates of the party, in-
cluding Pusey, were disposed to support the proposal, but
Newman held aloof from glorifying men whom he deemed to
have been untrustworthy guides, and most of his friends did the
same. Nevertheless funds were subscribed, and the monument

1 Dr. Abbott somewhat scornfully sums up the stages of what he
calls Newman's dream of the Via Aledia: — (l) On collapse of his
Evangelicism seeking for basis of faith found it in the Church as set
forth by Laud; (2) read some of the Fathers hastily; (3) sketched hazy
Anglo-Primitive system; (4) proclaimed this as a new Reformation;

(5) read the Anglican divines in the hope of finding this system in them;

(6) found it; (7) discovered before ten years had passed that it was a
mere paper system and accused the Anglican divines, whom he had not
seriously studied, of having 'taken him in.'" — Anglican Career of
Newman, vol. i-. p. 330.

INTRODUCTION. xxxiii

was set up "and stood, a decisive though unofficial sign of the
University against them.'" In 1839 came a rift in the lute.
Palmer, who was highly jealous of his Anglicanism and had a
keen scent for incipient Romanism, thought he detected in
some of Newman's followers a disposition to accept the Roman
view of the invalidity of Anglican orders, as expounded by
Wiseman in a recent number of the Dublin Rez'iew. What
Newman himself thought was not then publicly known. True
it certainly was that while some Tractarians kept steadily on
the old lines of upholding Anglicanism against the Roman
system, certain others were beginning to question whether the
English Church were a true part of the universal Church,
founded by the Apostles and continued by the Fathers. For
this growing uncertainty there were two main causes.

One was the unsettling of Newman's mind. Till the summer
of 1839 the ideal he had formed of the English Church seemed
to him tenable; what he had to do was to bring that Church up
to his own standard. But a study of the Monophysite contro-
versy which he made at this time gave him disturbing reflec-
tions.'^ It was hard to make out how the Monophysites were
heretics, unless Protestants and Anglicans were heretics too,
hard to condemn the Popes of the sixteenth century without
condemning those of the fifth; the principles and proceedings
of heretics then were those of Protestants now:

"I found it so, — almost fearfully; there was an awful similitude,
more awful because so silent and unim passioned, between the dead
records of the past and the feverish chronicle of the present. The
shadow of the fifth century was on the sixteenth."''

' Church: Oxford Movement, p. 221.

- "I had seen the shadow of a hand upon the wall. It was clear
that I had a goad deal to learn on the question of the Churches, and
that perhaps some new light was coming upon me. He who has seen a
ghost, cannot be as if he had never seen it. The heavens had opened
and closed again. The thought for the moment had been, ' The
Church of Rome will be found right after all'; and then it had
vanished." — Apologia, p. 73. ^ Ibid., p. 71.

3

xxxiv INTRODUCTION.

The uneasiness thus induced was increased still more by
Wiseman's Diibli?i Review article on the Donatists, with an
application to Anglicans. It had given him a stomach-ache,
Newman wrote to Lord Blachford. St. Augustine's words
quoted therein — "Securus judicat orbis terrarum" — struck him
with a power which he had never felt from woids before. " By
those great words of the ancient Father, interpreting and
summing up the long and varied course of ecclesiastical history,
the theory of the Via Media was absolutely pulverised.'" New-
man goes on to say that after this summer of 1839 he had a
growing dislike of speaking against the Roman Church or her
doctrines, and began to suspect he had been too ready to take
the statements of the Anglican divines for granted: " I was
sore about the great Anglican divines, as if they had taken
me in, and made me say strong things which facts did not
justify."- Henceforth, while deeply resenting the political
manoeuvres of Rome, her alliance with O'Connell, from whose
methods he had an unspeakable aversion, he wished for an
Anglo-Roman union, if and when it was possible. In discussing
the differences between England and Rome, he had dwelt on the
lack of Catholicity in the former, of Apostolicity in the latter.
For long the contrast between primitive and Roman usages and
doctrines had seemed to him to bar identification of the Roman
with the Apostolic Church. But his studies were now making
him doubt the Anglican claims to primitive purity and sim-
plicity, and enabling him to explain away the Roman
departures from those qualities by his famous theory of
Development. The truth was that the Church of Rome, with
its seeming vastness, majesty, and continuity was gradually
hypnotising him into surrender. This, however, was a process
of some years' duration; his loyalty to the English Church,
degenerate though she might appear to him, survived the
"ghost" of 1839; so long as there was hope of her restoration
he felt it a duty to stand by her. Yet there was an inevit-
able falling off in enthusiasm; his growing consciousness of

^ Apologia, p. 73. "^ Ibid., p. 76.

INTRODUCTION. xxxv

Anglican defects made the struggle a harder, more ungrateful
task.

The other cause for uncertainty of outlook was the new blood
in the party. Men like Oakeley, Faber, Brande Morris, and
W. G. Ward were now joining, who lacked the almost passion-
ate attachment to the English Church of the earlier Tractarians.
Of these the most notable was Ward, who in many respects
recalls Hurrell Froude. He had the same keenness and hard-
hitting power in dialectic, the same contempt for convention
and compromise, the same love of a straight issue, and, it may
be added, the same defective historical sense. It was indeed in
great part the reading of Froude's Remains that made him
throw over Dr. Arnold, hitherto his master, and attach himself
to the Movement in its most Romanising form. "He found in
Froude's Remains" says Lord Blachford, "a good deal of his
own Radicalism (though nothing at all of his own Utilitarianism
or Liberalism), and it seemed literally to make him jump for
joy."' The literal jumping may be taken as unexaggerated, for
Ward was an amazing combination of a profound, at times
gloomy, devotee and playful jester. He had great capacity
for fun, sang a comic song to perfection, and was even famed
among intimates for his pirouetting powers as a ballerina.
"Thomas Aquinas dancing a ballet" — so one of his friends
described him/^ Ward was with the Preacher in his saying:
"To everything there is a season ... a time to weep, and a
time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;"^ for the

' Wilfrid Ward : //': G. Ward and the Oxford Movement, p. 84.

- "On one of these occasions," writes his son, Mr. Wilfrid Ward,
" the performance was more vigorous than usual, and Ward was for the
moment impersonating Cupid [one might interpolate that ho was of
generous girth]. Mr. Chapman, one of the tutors, was unable to
continue his reading in the room below, and sent his scout to ascertain
the cause of the disturbance. The scout came back with the assurance:
'It's honly Mr. Ward, sir. 'E's ahacling of a cherubym.'" — Ward
and the Oxford Movement, p. 40.

^ Ecclesiastes iii. 4.

xxxvi INTRODUCTION.

curious thing was that this bright spirit, with so keen a zest for
ife, sufifered all along from despondent reactions. His attitude
to God was as abject as that of Froude or Newman, and yet his
paradoxical turn of mind led him into occasional irreverences
of speech which horrified staider folk. Ward's genius did not
run to learning; of history he confessed, or rather boasted, his
ignorance. Before joining the Movement in 1839 he went to
Bonamy Price, a Liberal churchman, to hear what the other
side had to say, and made it clear that he knew little of the
alleged facts on which the contentions of the Tractarians were
based. Nevertheless he cheerfully persisted in his course,
on the ground that since Price's teaching led logically to
" infidelity," its grounds must needs be false. Newman was a
great influence on him — it was Ward who originated the phrase
Credo in Newinanninn — but before coming under that influence
he was singularly reluctant to expose himself to it. Newman
was preaching at St. Mary's every Sunday at five, and Ward,
then a Liberal, was often pressed to go and hear him. But he
refused. "Why should I go and listen to such myths?" he
said. At last a friend beguiled him into it by taking him for a
walk and bringing him to the church porch as the clock struck
five. " Now, Ward," he said, " Newman is at this moment
going up into the pulpit. Why should you not enter and hear
him once? It can do you no harm. If you don't like the
preaching you need not go a second time, but do hear and
judge what the thing is like." Ward walked in, and left, after
the sermon, a potential disciple of the preacher.^ In years to
come, when unable to act with Newman, he felt himself "a kind
of intellectual orphan."

None the less the spell which Newman cast upon him did
not imply complete intellectual agreement. He remained
unconvinced of the probable regeneration of the English
Church on primitive lines to which Newman was still clinging.
He thought that nothing short of a disavowal of Reformation
principles could meet the logical necessities of the case. Before

^ Ward and the Oxford Movement, p. 80.

INTRODUCTION. xxxvii

tliinking of turning Tractarian he had indeed considered the
possibihty of joining the Roman Church, whose beauty of ritual
fascinated him on his aesthetic, whose logical consistency on his
intellectual side. His becoming a Newmanist did not hasten
his Romeward progress ; it temporarily retarded it. He and
some other new recruits were "Catholics" from the first, and
saw their way clear before them. " I do not consider that for
them I am going too fast,"^ wrote Newman to Keble at the end
of 1838. He was right; if anything, he was going too slowly,
and there was a tendency among these young men in a hurry to
hustle him forward. At his weekly gatherings they would put
leading questions, suggest inferences, and imperceptibly push
him on. Newman, as I have said, was highly sensitive to the
influence of those about him; he also believed in external signs,
so perhaps he took the accession of one so advanced as Ward
to betoken that he should put on the pace. Dean Church
blames Ward, with his passion for logic and ignorance of facts,
for worrying his leader with searching questions and irresistible
inferences, and thus forcing him into conclusions which he
would fain have left in suspense, into extreme views which he
shrank from because they were extreme; but, as Dr. Abbott puts
it, " Who expects tenderness or consideration in a colonel
sending to his general for orders in some crisis ?"'" The fact
was that the latest Tractarians of Ward's kind were enthusiastic
dialecticians, bent on conclusions and impatient of trimming
and compromise ; they perplexed and upset Newman, who,
instead of saying nothing when he had nothing to say, com-
mitted himself to sometimes injudicious speech for fear lest
silence might injure the cause. He was more to blame for
letting himself be pushed than Ward and others for pushing.^

' J. H. Newman : Letters, etc., vol. ii. p. 243.

- Anglican Career of Newman, vol. ii. p. 145.

^ Newman himself recognised his defects as a guiding force; he
writes of himself in the autumn of 1839: " A firm and powerful control
was necessary lo keep men straight ; I never had a strong wrist, but at

xxxviii INTRODUCTION.

There was something undignified in the spectacle of a
general being thrust forward by one of his aides-de-camp.
And towards what was he being thrust? For Ward and the
advanced section the goal was no longer that set before it
by the Hadleigh group. At the start the Movement had
been anti-Roman as well as anti-Erastian; it was to prevent
people from becoming Romanist through ignorance. Now
it was the English Church which required apologising for,
and the professed object was to approximate her to Rome.
The younger bloods, with the easy insolence of the cock-
sure, were highly superior to those who saw no reason
for disloyalty to the English Church : "The Neo-Catholic
youths thought themselves especially clever, and regarded
Low Churchmen and Liberals as fools." ^ "How I
hate these Anglicans I " one of them is said to have
remarked.

If old-fashioned Anglicans were so hated, they for their part
made no secret of their hostility to the ]Movement in its new
phase. The conservative force of the University authorities
was now dead against it. They had never understood it, says
Dean Church, they were good, respectable men, living in a
comfortable state and ease, and these root and branch reformers
perplexed and perturbed them. Towards the close of 1839
Newman wrote to his sister that the Heads of Houses were
getting more and more alarmed by the trend of affairs. For
this, despite Church, they had some excuse; they judged the
tendency of Tractarianism by what advanced Tractarians were
saying and doing; Newman, for example, had been out of
Oxford in the autumn and had twice entrusted St. Mary's
pulpit to one of the extremest of his partisans, J. Brande
Morris. Much to Newman's vexation he preached the neces-
sity of fasting in his first sermon, and approvingly expounded

the time when it was most needed, the reins had broken in my hands"
— i.e., by the ominous presentiments caused by Monophysite studies
and Wiseman's article. — Apologia, p. 79.

' J. A. Froude, Short Studies, vol. iv. p. 255.

INTRODUCTION. xxxix

the Roman doctrine of Mass in the second.' The Bishops, a
similar type of men to the Heads of Houses, were also taking
alarm and showing antagonism. At the start they had practised
their favourite tactics of sitting on the fence. The Movement
was, indeed, for the benefit of the Church, and strongly upheld
their own direct descent from the Apostles; but it was in the
hands of irresponsible persons, who did not hesitate to wish the
Hishops the lot of early days. In the very first Tract Newman
wrote: "We could not wish them a more blessed termination of
their course than the spoiling of their goods, and martyrdom." -
To a comfortable prelate of aristocratic connections, with an
ambitious wife and a large family, such a sentiment must have
seemed little short of blasphemous. At the same time the
Bishops might well have scruples in attacking those who
exalted the episcopal ofiice, and, as a matter of fact, they let
them alone for a few years. Not that they showed them
sympathy: that would have brought the Evangelicals about
their ears, and the Evangelicals were now in favour with the
politicians in power. So they " kept on saying nothing," at
least publicly and officially.

The first episcopal bombshell to fall in the Tractarian camp
was a charge of liishop Sumner of Chester in 1838; he wrote :

" Under the specious pretence of deference to Antiquity and respect
for primitive models, the foundations of the Protestant Church are
undermined by men who dwell wilhin her walls, and those who sit in
the Reformers' seat are traducing the Reformation."

Later he amiably ascribed the Movement to Satan. Palmer,
who had helped to start the Movement, but was rather disgusted
with its present course, put all the hostility down to its offensive
expression, inconsiderate language, and unwise acts. That

* Newman wrote to Bowden : "He preached to them, lotidem
verbis, the Roman doctrine of the Mass; and, not content with that,
added, in energetic terms, that every one was an unbeliever, carnal and
so forth, who did not hold it." — Letters, etc., vol. ii. p. 291.

■^ See p. 7.

xl INTRODUCTION.

hostility, a neutral observer must admit, was not unmerited.
The Tractarians, like a contemporary politician, were in too
great a hurry for the consummation of their dreams; like him
they believed in a " raging, tearing propaganda," which was apt
to carry away the propagandists in their excitement. Some
followers again, without regard for proportion or expediency,
concentrated their attention on minor details; others, fascinated
by the leader and ignorant of the real bases of the Movement,
displayed a fatuous contempt for reasoning and argument.' To
the outside world the Tractarians seemed to be unwilling to
tackle the Roman claims, now actively pushed by Roman
Catholic theologians, who jumped at such a good chance of
catching converts; to be unduly indulgent to Rome and unduly
exacting to England. Some of the party's publications caused
a great stir, Froude's Remains especially, of which Dr. Faussett,
a sturdy anti-Tractarian, made great capital in a sermon on
" The Revival of Popery." Two Tracts also came in for much
abuse. One was No. 80 by Isaac Williams, "On Reserve in
Communicating Religious Knowledge" (1838). The other
(No. 89), issued three years later, a long essay by Keble on the
"Mysticism of the Fathers in the Use and Interpretation of the
Scriptures," suggested a new charge against the Tractarians,
that of mysticism.

Bagot, the Bishop of Oxford, who had already in 1838, as we
have seen, given mild reproof to some of the Tracts in a charge,
requested Pusey early in the following year for a declaration

^ Newman sadly acknowledged llie unruliness of sonieof his followers
in an article in the British Critic of April 1839, which summarised the
history and the present position of the ISIovement. " A mixed multi-
tude went out of Egypt with the Israelites," he said. " There will ever
be a number of persons, professing the opinions of a movement party,
who talk loudly and strangely, do odd or fierce things, display them-
selves unnecessarily and disgust other people ; persons, too young to
be wise, too generous to be cautious, too warm to be sober, or too
intellectual to be humble. Such persons will be very apt to attach
themselves to particular persons, to use particular names, to say things
merely because others do, and to act in a party-spirited way."

INTRODUCTION. xli

showing his loyalty to the Church. Pusey complied with his
well-known Letter to the Bishop of Oxford^ in which he cleared
Tractarianism, as he understood it, from any leaning to Rome,
and defended the Via Media as the faith of the primitive Church,
"after whose model our own was formed." The year 1839 also
saw the first publication of Plaiti Sermons by the Authors of
the Tracts for the Times, a series of moderate tendency, started
by Isaac Williams, among the other contributors being the two
Kebles, Pusey, Copeland, and Newman himself. The last found
them a good opportunity for checking his more violent disciples,
and Williams said the effect of these sermons was very quieting.
Early in 1840 Newman retired for a season to Littlemore, near
O.xford, a parish dependent on St. Mary's, where he had built a
church and was a frequent visitor. This short experience of the
everyday life of a country parson was a sort of oasis in his
wilderness of doubts and difficulties. He liked the place so well
that he bought nine acres, and planned the adaptation of a dis-
used range of stabling to the uses of a small monastic establish-
ment. Nothing definite seems to have been arranged then,
however, and he had to return to Oriel in the summer. He was
now entering on what Dr. Abbott calls the drifting period of his
life, and was much distressed about his position in Oxford. In
October he asked Keble's advice as to whether he should re-
sign St. Mary's: (i) because he was not influencing his own
parishioners, and did not know them personally; (2) because his
preaching was obnoxious to the University authorities; (3)
because of the tendency of his sermons to incline people to
Rome. Keble, however, wished him to stop, and he did so. His
self-justification was the argument that fair trial had not yet been
made of how much the Church of England would bear. " I
know," he said, " it is a hazardous experiment — like proving
cannon. Yet we must not take it for granted that the metal
will burst in the operation. It has borne at various times, not
to say at this time, a great infusion of Catholic truth without
damage."' During the latter part of the year and beginning of

' Apologia, p. 84.

xlii INTRODUCTION.

1 84 1 he was engaged on the last and most momentous of the
Tracts, No. 90, which may certainly be said to come under his
figure of the proving of cannon.

He wrote it to oppose the allegation, made both by opponents
of the Movement and by the more advanced Tractarians, that
the Thirty-nine Articles were in contradiction with the Catholic
teaching which he had claimed as inherent in the English
Church. Some of the weaker brethren, in fact, were beginning
to fear that the Articles committed the English Church to
heresy, and meditated flight to Rome. No. 90 sought to prove
that the language of the Articles left unaffected all clearly
Catholic, and that their real object of attack was the corruption
which had infected a great system. They were "Articles of
Peace," in which, as in the Church's sacraments and polity,
much was left out to please the Protestants, but much more left
in to satisfy the Catholics. Thus, though "the product of an
Uncatholic age," they were " patient of a Catholic interpreta-
tion," which the author forthwith proceeded to give. It is a
skilful piece of special pleading, the process being what Church
calls "the paring down of language, alleged in certain Articles
to be loose, to its barest meaning."^ Newman believed he wrote
it to keep his disciples straight, but he also wrote it to keep him-
self straight, by proving that Anglicans could sign the Articles
and yet accept practically the whole cycle of Roman doctrine.
If an Anglican could lawfully Romanise where he was, why
should he not remain in his own Church ?' James Mozley wrote
thus of its publication in a letter dated March 8th, 1841 :

" A new Tract has come out this week, which is beginning to make a
sensation. It is on the Articles, and shows that they bear a highly
Catholic meaning; and that many doctrines, of which the Romanists
are corruptions, may be held consistently with them. This is no more
than what we know as a matter of history, for the Articles were
expressly worded to bring in Roman Catholics. But people are
astonished and confused at, the idea now, as if it was quite new. And

^ Oxford Movement, p. 288.

' See Abbott : Anglican Ca>-ee> of Neiuman, vol. vii. p. 243.

INTRODUCTION. xliii

they have been so accustomed for a long time to look at the Articles as
on a par with the Creed, that they think, I suppose, that if they sub-
scribe to them, they are bound to hold whatever doctrines are not
positively stated in them, but merely not condemned. So if tliey will
bear a Tract sense, they are thereby all Tractarians."'

The eflfect of No. 90 was a revival of the anti-Traclarian
hubbub in its intensest form. Ordinary people saw an evasive-
ness in Newman's methods, which were bluntly denounced as
dishonest; and of course the usual charges of false doctrine,
history, and reasoning were freely made. Events moved fast,
with indecent haste indeed : on Februar)' 27th the Tract was
published; on March 8th four senior tutors (one of them Tait,
afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury) wrote to the editor of the
Tracts for the Times, asking for the author's name, and asserting
that he opened a way by which men, in the matter of Roman
ideas, might violate their oath to the University; on March loth
the Vice-Chancellor submitted the Tract to the Hebdomadal
Board; on March 15th that Board passed a resolution, censuring
it as " inconsistent with the due observance of the statutes which
require subscription to the Articles," which was afifixed to the
buttery-hatches of all the Colleges; on March i6th Newman
made his defence in his Letter to Dr. Jelf. The chief instigator
of the storm is said to have been Golightly, a strong anti-
Tractarian and one of the chief promoters of the Martyrs
Memorial. He puffed the Tract as a curiosity all over Oxford,
buying and planting copies on bishops and other likely people,
and when the soil was thus prepared, moved the tutors. Church
wrote at the time to Blachford : "The row, which has been
prodigious they say, has made Golly a great man ... he has
received letters of thanks for his great and indefatigable
exertions from four Bishops— London, Chester, Chichester, and
Winton."- The precipitate haste of the Heads of Houses in con-
demning Newman before he could speak in his own justification
was a blunder, and rallied to him some of the friends who had

' J. B. Mozley : Letters, pp. in- 1 12.

- Newman: Letters, etc., vol. ii. pp. 329-331.

xliv INTRODUCTION.

been getting out of sympathy with him, Hke Palmer, Perceval
and Dr. Hook. Pusey too gave his support, though he thought
the Tract injudicious and hkely to bring the charge of Jesuitism
on the party as a whole. Newman had a correspondence with
his Bishop, who treated him with much consideration, and it was
agreed that no more Tracts should be issued. The principal
feature of the war of pamphlets which ensued was Ward's
audacious defence of No. 90. He wrote two brochures on the
subject— .(4 Few Words in Defence of Tract go, and A Few
Words More, — the substance of which was to emphasise what
Newman had suggested more cautiously. While Newman left
it open whether the Reformers were Catholic or not in sentiment,
Ward held the latter hypothesis as certain; while Newman
spoke of signing the Articles in their "literal and grammatical
sense," Ward said boldly that they might be subscribed in a
"non-natural sense."^ While Pusey, who also contributed to the
controversy, and those Tractarians who shared his views thought
the two pamphlets violent and extreme, Newman himself did
not repudiate Ward's developments of his arguments. Both
supporters and opponents of the Tract regarded Ward's vindica-
tion as a plain avowal of opinions which Newman, owing to his
awkward position or over-subtlety of mind, shrank from speaking
openly."

However, leaving Ward out of account. No. 90 was sufficiently
daring in itself to provoke the protests of the Church and

^ Ward put it very candidly in his Ideal: "Our twelfth Article is as
plain as words can make it on the Evangelical side ; of course I think
its natural meaning may be explained away, for I subscribe it myself in
a non-natural sense." Such things can no doubt be done in a religious
sphere, but non-natural subscription in the business world is apt to land
people in the dock.

- In 1842 Pusey wrote to Newman, asking whether he agreed with
Ward, and Newman made the significant reply that he did not know
the limits of his own opinions : '* If Ward says this or that is a develop-
ment from what I have said, I cannot say Yes or No. ... It is a
nuisance to me to beyo;'fec/ beyond what I can fairly accept." — Apologia^
p. 106.

INTRODUCTION. xlv

University authorities. On both sides there was bitterness.
The Tractarians were in the eyes of their foes perjured traitors
and slaves to superstition ; the Tractarians retahated with
charges of heresy and persecution. At this time of day it is
ahnost amusing to read some of the attacks — that of Dr. Close,
for example, afterwards Dean of Carlisle. At a public dinner
he delivered himself of this post-prandial judgment:

" When I first read No. 90, I did not then know the author; but I
said then, and I repeat here, not with any personal reference to the
author, that I should be sorry to trust the author of that Tract with
my purse."'

Meanwhile the bishops in severe but more measured terms
were denouncing the Tract in their charges. Newman saw the
game was up;- he had abandoned the Tracts, he now relin-
quished the editorship of the British Critic, and retired to
Littlemore.

"His reasons varv, as usual, with the persons to whom he
gives them," caustically observes his mentor Dr. Abbott; to his
followers he described his withdrawal from the arena as a
strategic move, Littlemore being his Torres \'edras. With
some disciples he lived a sort of monastic life at Littlemore,
where such rigours were indulged in that one of the inmates
made himself seriously ill, and the doctor called in said very
sensibly that they would all be dead soon, if they went on in
that style. Reports, some exaggerated, were soon current
about the " Littlemore Monastery," and Newman had some

' Cheltenham Examiner, March I, 1843.

^ " I saw indeed clearly that my place in the Movement was lost ;
public confidence was at an end ; my occupation was gone. It was
simply an impossibility that I could say anything henceforlh to good
effect, when I had been posted up by the marshal on the buttery-hatch
of every college of my University, after the manner of discommoned
pastry-cooks, and when in every part of the country and every class of
society ... I was denounced as a traitor who had laid his train and
was detected in the very act of firing it against the time-honoured
Establishment." — Apologia, p. 56.

xlvi INTRODUCTION.

correspondence with the Bishop of Oxford on the subject. He
set his disciples to write the Lives of the English Saitiis, his
own work being a translation of St. Athanasius. He was, we
must remember, as he says himself, " on my death-bed as
regards my membership with the Anglican Church."^ In his
Athanasian studies the "ghost" of 1839 returned a second time;
in the Arian history he found in a bolder shape what he had
found in the Monophysite. He saw clearly now that the pure
Arians were the Protestants of to-day, the semi-Arians the
Anglicans, and that Rome then was as Rome now. There
was yet another shock to what remnant of Anglicanism he still
held by. This was the affair of the Jerusalem bishopric, to
which he applied such adjectives as "fearful," "hideous," and
"atrocious." It was an agreement made, mainly through
Bunsen's influence, by the British and Prussian Governments,
that an Anglican bishopric should be established at Jerusalem,
the appointment to be alternately filled by the two powers.
Such philandering with Lutheran heresy seemed to him an
outrage on the Catholic faith, and he presented a solemn
personal protest to the Archbishop of Canterbury. This
project, he says in the Apologia, brought him to the beginning
of the end.

Meanwhile the Movement's enemies at Oxford, heartened by
their success, went on with the war. They had an opportunity
in the autumn of 1841, when Keble resigned the Poetry Pro-
fessorship. The most appropriate successor would have been
Isaac Williams, a man of high character, literary taste, and
some merit as a sacred poet. But Williams was obnoxious as
a Puseyite, a friend of Newman, and, worse still, the author of
the notorious Tract on " Reserve," so the rival candidate, a
Mr. Garbett, of no particular celebrity, was elected by a
majority of three hundred. Another attack on Tractarianism
in the same year had temporary success. Macmullen, a
Fellow of Corpus Christi, a well-known Tractarian who
ultimately went to Rome, had, in order to retain his fellowship
to take his B.D. degree, for which he had to defend two theses.

^ Ibid., p. 91.

INTRODUCTION. xlvii

These were usually chosen by the candidate himself, but on
this occasion the examiner, Dr. Hampden, knowing his Roman
tendencies, sent him two theses which no conscientious
Tractarian could defend. Macmullen declined to submit, and
legal processes dragged on for two or three years in the courts
before he finally got his degree, by doing the required exercises
on non-searching questions. Much higher game was flown at
in the following year (1842), no less than Dr. Pusey. On
May 24 he preached a University sermon on "The Holy
Eucharist as a Comfort to the Penitent " ; its phraseology and
teaching. Dean Church assures us, were strictly Anglican.
Yet Dr. Faussett, the Margaret Professor of Divinity, who had
already shown malevolence to Tractarianism, at once requested
the Vice-Chancellor to enforce the statute De Concionibiis,
which provided that when a sermon was " delated " for heresy
to the Vice-Chancellor, he should demand a copy, let it be sat
upon by six Doctors of Divinity, and, if they found heresy
therein, condemn and punish the preacher. A board of
assessors, strongly opposed to Pusey for the most part and
including Faussett the accuser, was carefully selected. Natur-
ally the sermon was condemned, and Pusey was suspended
from preaching in the University for two years. There was
much indignation over this travesty of justice, and a protest
even came from London, signed by, among others, W. E.
Gladstone and Sir J. D. Coleridge (afterwards Lord Coleridge).
This protest made the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Wynter, a peppery
gentleman, lose his temper; he sent back the memorial to
London by the hands of his bedel, which seemed to him to show
his disapproval better than dropping it in the post, and lectured
the signatories on their presumption.

We have seen that in 1841 Newman resigned control of the
British Critic^ and was succeeded by Thomas Mozley. It at
once became more Roman in tendency than ever, and Palmer
appealed to Newman to put some check upon it.

"Newman," says Palmer, "replied under evident excitement, and
in a spirit which was new to me. He said that he was no longer

xlviii INTRODUCTION.

editor of the British Critic; that it had passed under different control;
that the heads of the Church had thought fit to condemn him, and that
they would now have to deal with younger men, whom it was not in
his power to restrain."^

Palmer now saw good to write his Narrative^ exculpating
himself and other moderates from complicity with these young
men. Ward was, of course, the keenest and most advanced.
Poor dear Mozley, editing the British Critic^ twenty miles from
a station, in the depths of Salisbury Plain, found Ward a
troublesome contributor with his prolixity and high-flying
Romanism. " Looking through Ward's articles," he says, " to
see that he was not sending us all quite into space was' itself an
anxious affair."- If he attempted any toning down, there was
trouble :

"I did but touch a filament or two in his monstrous cobwebs, and
off he ran instantly to Newman, to complain of my gratuitous imperti-
nence. Many years after I was forcibly reminded of him by a pretty
group of a plump little Cupid flying to his mother to show a wasp-sting
he had just received."^

Ward's admiration for Rome had two causes: (i) her constant
maintenance of the supernatural element in religion; (2) her
high standard of sanctity, discipline, and self-sacrifice. A nega-
tive cause of similar import was his detestation of the doctrine
of justification as professed in England, which seemed to him
profoundly immoral. All this made his British Critic papers
strongly depreciatory of the English Church, strongly favourable
to the Roman; and Palmer's alarm was not unjustified. In the
autumn of 1S43, about the same time that Palmers Na7-raiive
appeared, the British Critic, whose readers were beginning to
fall off because of its pronounced views, was discontinued.

Ward meanwhile was preparing an answer to the Nartative
and it was issued in the summer of 1844 in the shape of a fat
volume of six hundred pages, entitled The Ideal of a Christiufi

^ W. Palmer: Narrative, p. 77. - JRetniniscettces, vol. ii. p. 167.

' Ibid., vol. ii. p. 225.

INTRODUCTION. xlix

Church in Comparison with Existing Parties^ verbose and
rambling, as Ward's writings were wont to be. It makes no
denial to Palmer's accusation of Roman doctrines; rather it
asserts the right of Anglicans to hold them by the simple
expedient of signing the Articles in a non-natural sense, and
proclaims that in point of fact many Anglicans do: "We find,
oh I most joyful, most wonderful, most unexpected sight, we
find the whole cycle of Roman doctrine gradually possessing
numbers of English Churchmen."' He was proud to avow
himself one of them :

"Three years have passed since I said plainly that in subscribing the
Articles I renounced no Roman doctrine, yet I retain my fellowship,
which I held on the tenure of subscription, and have received no
ecclesiastical censure in any shape. "-

In publishing such words abroad he must have known that he
was bringing down on himself the censure which he had so long
escaped. His book appeared in the Long Vacation; early in
the October term the Hebdomadal Board handed it to a com-
mittee for consideration, and in December announced their
intention of bringing three measures before Convocation: first,
to condemn Ward's book; second, to degrade him by stripping
him of all his degrees; third, to add in future to the subscription
to the Articles a declaration by the subscriber that he took them
in the sense " in which they were both first published and are
now imposed by the University." Such an outcry was raised,
however, against this new test, that the third measure was
dropped, one censuring Tract 90 being substituted. Convoca-
tion met on February 15th, 1845. No one spoke save Ward,
whose defence merely repeated what he had said in the British
Critic and Ideal, challenged all parties in the Church equally to
vindicate their subscription to the Articles, and included a
candid statement of his faith in all the doctrines of the Roman
Church. On a vote being taken, the first measure was carried
by 777 against 386, the second by 56 against 511; in the case of

> Ideal, p. 565. ^Ibid., p. 567.

1 INTRODUCTION.

the third, the censure on No. go, the Proctors used their power
of veto, and it had to be withdrawn. It could have been
revived at a later Convocation, but no attempt was made to do
so. This incident inspired an epigram which went round
Oxford :

" It seems no matter what a man believes,
If he finds shelter 'neath the Proctor's sleeves;
When Proctor's twain pronounce their potent veto,
In vain eight hundred Masters cry, ' Scrutinium peto !"'^

After the painful scene in the theatre and the widely-felt
sympathy with Ward, there came as a humorous relief the news
of his engagement to be married, which of course caused many
comments on the backsliding of an exponent of celibacy. Ward
wrote a long letter in exculpation, saying that he had never pro-
fessed to live a celibate life himself, though he admitted it was
a higher life than a married. What the future Mrs. Ward said
of this letter history does not record.

All this while Newman was at Littlemore, very anxious to be
left alone to work out his destiny, and not being allowed to.
He had been too prominent a figure in Oxford for friends and
foes to leave him alone. Some of the latter, much to his indig-
nation, came poking about his " monastery," to see what they
could see. Though suspected of pushing some of his followers
Romeward, it was really they who were pushing him. He still
shrank from the final plunge. His sense of responsibility to
Church and University had still some vitality. Might not seek-
ing refuge in Rome drag others with him.? or, worse still, cause
a reaction in Oxford of Liberalism, antipathy to which had
brought the Movement to birth?

On the other hand he felt himself an outcast, spurned by
episcopate and University alike. The attempted censure in
Convocation must have been of critical import in his state of
suspense between the two Churches. He was now hard at
work getting rid of the last intellectual barrier across his Rome-

^ G. V. Cox: Recollections of Oxford^ p. 328.

INTRODUCTION. li

ward path by writing the Essay on the Development of Christian
Doctrine^ in which he hoped to dispose of the objections he had
formerly felt to the Roman Church for her concretions of later
beliefs and practices. If he had his will, he wrote to his sister
in March, 1845, he would wait for seven years — this was a
characteristic touch, seven being a sacred number — from the
time when the "ghost" first appeared to him. That being in
1S39, his transformation was due in the summer of 1846. But
he did not wait so long, nor was the Essay on Development
concluded. When it appeared, unfinished, it had this postscript
to the preface : " Since the above was written the author has
joined the Catholic Church." He had been formally received
into the Roman communion by Father Dominic, a Passionist,
on October loth, 1845. "On the evening of the Passionist
father's arrival, Newman, as the story goes, flung himself at his
feet, saying that he would not rise till the father had blessed
him and received him into the Church of Christ."^ The out-
ward manifestations leading up to his secession had been a
formal retractation of all the hard things he had said against
Rome in February 1843, his resignation of St. Mary's on
September i8th, and his request to the Provost of Oriel to
remove his name from the books of the College and University
on October 8th, 1845.

It was at first thought that Newman's secession had destroyed
the Tractarian party as a living force in the Church of England;
and the Evangelicals had a fine chance for saying, "We told
you so; Catholic principles lead straight to Rome." Several
members, including Ward, Oakeley, Dalgairns, Faber, and
Christie, had preceded the leader; about fifty clergy followed
him. But the moderates, Pusey, Williams, Palmer, Keble, and
the rest stayed behind to keep the Movement alive. The last
named, indeed, according to Dr. Abbott's conjecture, was almost
on the point of following Newman, who, up to the time of
»decision, had kept his friend constantly informed of the progress
of his wrestlings. The burden of so many confidences may

^ R. H. Ilutton: Cardinal Newman ^ p. 187.

lii INTRODUCTION.

have caused receiver as well as giver much painful introspec-
tion. What probably held Keble back was the last words of
his dying wife, which seemed to convince him that the Church
of England was a safe one to die in. Pusey, whilst grieving
over this breaking of ties,^ saw that prompt action was neces-
sary to save the Movement in its Anglican form. Without
delay he issued a letter, announcing himself its leader, in which
Newman was mentioned without censure as a labourer in
another part of the Lord's vineyard. Pusey was the right man
in the right place, a loyal Anglican with confidence in his
position, a man of diplomacy who brought conciliation to bear
in a party of divided opinions. He governed the High Church
cause from 1845 till 1882. The Movement had been under a
triumvirate — Newman, Pusey, and Keble; now that the first had
gone the triumvirate was still continued. A paper circulating
in the party, suggesting themes for intercession like the unity
of the Church and the conversion of sinners, bore the names of
Pusey, Keble, and Marriott.- To replace the defunct British
Critic, the Christian Remembrancer was taken over and became
the party organ, and the still surviving Guardiati was started
as its weekly periodical in January 1846. The Movement had
had a great shock, it had lost some of its ablest exponents, but
it had grown rooted in the life of the English Church, and its

^ "Mr. Ward used to relate wilh great delight how Pusey woefully
remarked, ' It is very sad. And all who have left us have deteriorated
so much — all, that is, with two exceptions. One exception is Newman,
whose nature is so beautiful, so perfect, that nothing, not even going
over to Rome, could change him. The other exception is Ward.
Ward had got so bad already that with him further deterioration was
impossible.'" — IV. G. Wai'd and the Oxford Movement, p. 367.

'■* " He was a man, under an uncouth exterior, of the noblest and
most affectionate nature; most patient, indulgent, and hopeful to all in
whom he took an interest, even when they sorely tried his kindness
and his faith in them." — Church: Oxford Movement, ^. 2>2. "No one'
sacrificed himself so entirely to the cause, giving to it all he had and
all he was, as Charles Marriott." — T. Mozley: Reminiscences, vol. i.
p. 447.

INTRODUCTION. liii

influence endures to this clay; "at present there is scarcely a
clergyman in the country who does not carry upon him in one
form or other the marks of the Tractarian Movement."* After
all, it was in every way to the prestige of the clergy ; it en-
couraged their sacerdotal pretensions to divine calliny^, powers
of absolution, and spiritual authority; it favoured all the beauti-
ful externals of worship, such as dramatic ritual, impressive
music, and seeming trivialities like costly vestments and
incense, which allure people into the psychical state of ecstasy
and devotion so conducive to faith in the Church's claims.
Palmer includes among the blessings brought about by the
Movement a deepened theology, a more zealous clergy, churches
better filled, sacraments more frequently taken. Also, he says,
though the statement is scarce correct, that for twenty years it
suppressed the " wild and sceptical " theories which had pre-
ceded it.

" It was only when the Tractarian Movement itself degenerated and
lost sight of its original principles, that the spirit of Infidelity and
Rationalism took courage to appear on the scene, and to outrage
Christianity by publications which exceed those of any European
country in blasphemy and irreligion."-

These " infidel " works began with the Essays and Revie^v
of 1861 ; what adjectives would have been left Palmer had he
survived to read Lux Mundi, and some of the Anglican con-
tributions to the Encydopadia Biblica?

After 1845 the Movement acquired a wider scope; it could no
longer be specifically denoted the Oxford Movement, for it was
now active throughout the country, and had varied fruits.
Pusey, for instance, by lay help, was in 1845 enabled to found
in London the first Anglican sisterhood for two hundred years,
and other communities sprang up as years went on. High
Church principles gradually made their way among clergy and
laity until they attained their present predominance, a pre-
dominance which, without approving the sputtering fury of

' Short Studies, vol. iv. p. 310. - Narrative, p. 33.

liv INTRODUCTION.

certain Protestant fanatics, we may regret for several reasons,
for its reactionary influence on popular education for instance.
To the neutral observer it is obvious that to-day the High
Churchmen are having the best of it, and that, for the present
at least, the Low Church is, in the French phrase,7'iai.vjci/,and
has lost much of its attraction. So much for the after-efifects
of Tractarianism on the Church at large. Its effects on its
birthplace were not so marked. It always insisted on the
essential .Anglicanism of Oxford ; it would have maintained all
barriers against Nonconformists and Rationalists, and made
culture and scholarship subservient to theology. But in this
matter the time-spirit was too strong for it. Since 1845 changes
have been many at Oxford. The tests have been swept away;
no sort of religious profession is demanded from intending
students; fellowships and scholarships are tenable by persons
of any religion or none; morning chapel is not everywhere
compulsory; there is a tendency to elect laymen to be Heads of
Colleges. For this healthy development of humanism we have
the Liberals to thank — those Liberals religiously hated by the
great writer and retrograde obscurantist who cried in one of his
sermons : " I do""not shrink from uttering my firm conviction
that it would be a gain to the country were it vastly more super-
stitious, more bigoted, more gloomy, more fierce in its religion
than at present it shows itself to be.''

WILLIAM G. HUTCHISON.
London,

March 1906.

1 Quoted by the preacher in his Apologia, p. 29.

THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

ADVERTISEMENT TO VOLUME I.

The following- Tracts were published with the object of
contributing' something towards the practical revival of
doctrines which, although held by the great divines of
our Church, at present have become obsolete with the
majority of her members, and are withdrawn from
public view even by the more learned and orthodox few
who still adhere to them. The Apostolic succession,
the Holy Catholic Church, were principles of action in
the minds of our predecessors of the seventeenth century;
but, in proportion as the maintenance of the Church has
been secured by law, her ministers have been under the
temptation of leaning on an arm of flesh instead of her
own divinely-provided discipline, a temptation increased
by political events and arrangements which need not
here be more than alluded to. A lamentable increase
of sectarianism has followed; being occasioned (in addi-
tion to other more obvious causes), first, by the cold
aspect which the new Church doctrines have presented
to the religious sensibilities of the mind, next to their
meagreness in suggesting motives to restrain it from
seeking out a more influential discipline. Doubtless
obedience to the law of the land, and the careful main-
tenance of "decency and order" (the topics in usage
among us), are plain duties of the Gospel, and a
reasonable ground for keeping in communion with the

4 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

Established Church ; yet, if Providence has graciously
provided for our weakness more interesting and con-
straining- motives, it is a sin thanklessly to neglect
them ; just as it would be a mistake to rest the duties
of temperance or justice on the mere law of natural
religion, when they are mercifully sanctioned in the
Gospel by the more winning authority of our Saviour
Christ. Experience has shown the inefficacy of the
mere injunctions of Church order, however scripturally
enforced, m restraining from schism the awakened and
anxious sinner; who goes to a dissenting preacher
" because (as he expresses it) he gets good from him":
and though he does not stand excused in God's sight
for yielding to the temptation, surely the Ministers of
the Church are not blameless if, by keeping back the
more gracious and consoling truths provided for the
little ones of Christ, they indirectly lead him into it.
Had he been taught as a child, that the Sacraments,
not preaching, are the sources of Divine Grace ; that
the Apostolical ministry had a virtue in it which went
out over the whole Church, when sought by the prayer
of faith ; that fellowship with it was a gift and privi-
lege, as well as a duty, we could not have had so
many wanderers from our fold, nor so many cold
hearts within it.

This instance may suggest many others of the superior
influence of an apostolical over a mere secular method
of teaching. The awakened mind knows its wants, but
cannot provide for them ; and in its hunger will feed
upon ashes, if it cannot obtain the pure milk of the
Word. Methodism and Popery are in different ways
the refuge of those whom the Church stints of the gifts
of grace ; they are the foster-mothers of abandoned
children. The neglect of the daily service, the desecra-
tion of festivals, the Eucharist scantily administered,
insubordination permitted in all ranks of the Church,
orders and offices imperfectly developed, the want of
Societies for particular religious objects, and the like

ADVERTISEMENT TO VOL. I. 5

deficiencies, lead the feverish mind, desirous of a vent
to its feelings, and a stricter rule of life, to the smaller
religious Communities, to prayer and bible meetings,
and ill-advised institutions and societies, on the one
hand, — 011 the other, to the solemn and captivating
services by which Popery gains its proselytes. More-
over, the multitude of men cannot teach or guide
themselves; and an injunction given them to depend on
their private judgment, cruel in itself, is doubly hurtful,
as throwing them on such teachers as speak daringly
and promise largely, and not only aid but supersede
individual exertion.

These remarks may serve as a clue, for those who
care to pursue it, to the views which have led to the
publication of the following Tracts. The Church of
Christ was intended to cope with human nature in all
its forms, and surely the gifts vouchsafed it are ade-
quate for that gracious purpose. There are zealous
sons and servants of her English branch, who see with
sorrow that she is defrauded of her full usefulness by
particular theories and principles of the present age,
which interfere with the execution of one portion of her
commission ; and while they consider that the revival of
this portion of truth is especially adapted to break up
existing parties in the Church, and to form instead
a bond of union among all who love the Lord Jesus
Christ in sincerity, they believe that nothing but these
neglected doctrines, faithfully preached, will repress
that extension of Popery for which the ever-multiplying
divisions of the religious world are too clearly preparing
the way.

Oxford,
T/ie Feast of All Saints, 1834.

TRACT I.

THOUGHTS ON THE MINISTERIAL
COMMISSION. RESPECTFULLY AD-
DRESSED TO THE CLERGY.

I AM but one of yourselves, — a Presbyter; and therefore
I conceal my name, lest I should take too much on
myself by speaking- in my own person. Yet speak I
must; for the times are very evil, yet no one speaks
against them.

Is not this so? Do not we " look one upon another,"
yet perform nothing-? Do we not all confess the peril
into which the Church is come, yet sit still each in his
own retirement, as if mountains and seas cut off brother
from brother? Therefore suffer me, while I try to draw
you forth from those pleasant retreats which it has
been our blessedness hitherto to enjoy, to contemplate
the condition and prospects of our Holy Mother in a
practical way ; so that one and all may unlearn that
idle habit, which has grown upon us, of owning the
state of things to be bad, yet doing nothing- to remedy
it.

Consider a moment. Is it fair, is it dutiful, to suffer
our Bishops to stand the brunt of the battle without
doing- our part to support them ? Upon them comes
**the care of all the Churches." This cannot be helped:
indeed it is their glory. Not one of us would wish in
the least to deprive them of the duties, the toils, the
responsibilities of their high Office. And, black event
as it would be for the country, yet. (as far as they are

I

THE MINISTERIAL COMMISSION. 7

concerned) we could not wish them a more blessed
termination of their course than the spoiling of their
goods, and martyrdom.

To them then we willingly and affectionately relin-
quish their high privileges and honours; we encroach
not upon the rights of the successors of the Apostles;
we touch not their sword and crosier. Yet surely we
may be their shield-bearers in the battle without offence ;
and by our voice and deeds be to them what Luke and
Timothy were to St. Paul.

Now then let me come at once to the subject which
leads me to address you. Should the Government and
Country so far forget their God as to cast off the
Church, to deprive it of its temporal honours and sub-
stance, on ivhat 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 connections; should these secular
advantages cease, on what must Christ's Ministers
depend? Is not this a serious practical question ? We
know how miserable is the state of religious bodies not
supported by the State. Look at the Dissenters on all
sides of you, and you will see at once that their Minis-
ters, depending simply upon the people, become the
creatures of the people. Are you content that this
should be your case? Alas! can a greater evil befall
Christians than for their teachers to be guided by them,
instead of guiding? How can we " hold fast the form
of sound words," and "keep that which is committed
to our trust," if our influence is to depend simply on our
popularity? Is it not our very office to oppose the
world ? can we then allow ourselves to cotirt it ? to
preach smooth things and prophesy deceits ? to make
the way of life easy to the rich and indolent, and to
bribe the humbler classes by excitements and strong
intoxicating doctrine? Surely it must not be so; — and
the question recurs, on what are we to rest our authority
when the State deserts us ?

8 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

Christ has not left His Church without claim of its
own upon the attention of men. Surely not. Hard
Master He cannot be, to bid us oppose the world, yet
g'ive us no credentials for so doing". There are some
who rest their divine mission on their 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 apos-
tolical descent.

We have been born, not of blood, nor of the will ot
the flesh, nor of the 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
g'ift has been handed down to our present Bishops, who
have appointed us as their assistants, and in some sense
representatives.

Now every one of us believes this. I know that
some will at first deny they do; still they do believe it.
Only, it is not sufficiently practically impressed on their
minds. They do believe it ; for it is the doctrine of the
Ordination Service, which they have recognised as truth
in the most solemn season of their lives. In order,
then, not to prove, but to remind and impress, I entreat
your attention to the words used when you were made
Ministers of Christ's Church.

The office of Deacon was thus committed to you :
" Take thou authority to execute the office of a Deacon
in the Church of God committed unto thee: In the
name," etc.

And the priesthood thus:

" Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of
a Priest in the Church of God, now committed unto
thee by the imposition of our hands. Whose sins thou
dost forg^ive, they are forgiven ; and whose sins thoti
dost retain, they are retained. And be thou a faithful

THE MINISTERIAL COMMISSION. 9

dispenser of the Word of God, and of His Holy Sacra-
ments: In the name," etc.

These, I say, were words spoken to us, and received
by us, when we were brought nearer to God than at any
other time of our lives. I know the grace of ordination
is contained in the laying on of hands, not in any form
of words ; — yet in our own case (as has ever been usual
in the Church) words of blessing have accompanied the
act. Thus we have confessed before God our belief
that through the Bishop who ordained us, we received
the Holy Ghost, the power to bind and to lose, to
administer the Sacraments, and to preach. Now how
is he able to give these great gifts? Whence is his
right ? Are these words idle (which would be taking
God's name in vain), or do they express merely a wish
(which surely is very far below their meaning), or do
they not rather indicate that the Speaker is conveying a
gift ? Surely they can mean nothing short of this.
But whence, I ask, his right to do so? Has he any
right, except as having received the power from those
who consecrated him to be a Bishop? He could not
give what he had never received. It is plain then that
he but transmits; and that the Christian Ministry is a
succession. And if we trace back the power of ordina-
tion from hand to hand, of course we shall come to the
Apostles at last. We know we do, as a plain historical
fact: and therefore all we, who have been ordained
Clergy, in the very form of our ordination acknowledged
the doctrine of the Apostolical Succession.

And for the same reason, we must necessarily con-
sider none to be really ordained who have not thus been
ordained. For if ordination is a divine ordinance, it
must be necessary; and if it is not a divine ordinance,
how dare we use it ? Therefore all who use it, all of
ns, must consider it necessary. As well might we pre-
tend the Sacraments are not necessary to Salvation,
while we make use of the offices of the Liturgy; for
when God appoints means of grace, they are the means.

lo THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

I do not see how any one can escape from this plain
view of the subject, except (as I have already hinted)
by declaring- that the words do not mean all that they
say. But only reflect what a most unseemly time for
random words is that in which Ministers are set apart
for their oflSce. Do we not adopt a Liturg-y, in order to
hinder inconsiderate idle language, and shall we, in the
most sacred of all services, write down, subscribe, and
use again and again forms of speech, which have not
been weighed, and cannot be taken strictly?

Therefore, my dear Brethren, act up to your profes-
sions. Let it not be said that you have neglected a
g-ift; 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 honourable
badge, far higher than that 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 the world's forsaking you, to recur
as if unwillingly to the high source of your authority.
Speak out now, before you are forced, both as glorying
in your privilege, and to ensure your rightful honour
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 and such-like are the tests of your Divine com-
mission. Enlighten them in this matter. Exalt our
Holy Fathers, the Bishops, as the Representatives ot
the Apostles, and the Angels of the Churches; and
magnify your office, as being- ordained by them to take
part in their Ministry.

THK MINISTERIAL COMMISSION. ii

But if you will not adopt my view of the subject,
which I offer to you, not doubtingfly, yet (I hope) re-
spectfully, at all events, choose your side. To remain
neuter much long-er will be itself to take a part. Choose
your side; since side you shortly must with one or
other party, even though you do nothins^. Fear to be
of those whose line is decided for them by chance cir-
cumstances, and who may perchance find themselves
with the enemies of Christ, while they think but to
remove themselves from worldly politics. Such absti-
nence is impossible in troublous times. " He that is not
with Me is ag-ainst Me, and he that gathereth not with
Me scattereth abroad."

[By J. II. Newman ; published 1S33.]

TRACT II.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and
every tongiie that shall rise against thee in judgment

THOU SHALT CONDEMN.

It is sometimes said that the Clergy should abstain
from politics; and that, if a Minister of Christ is politi-
cal, he is not a follower of Him who said, " My kingdom
is not of this world." Now there is a sense in which
this is true, but, as it is commonly taken, it is very
false.

It is true that the mere affairs of this world should
not engage a Clergyman ; but it is absurd to say that
the affairs of this world should not at all engage his
attention. If so, this world is not a preparation for
another. Are we to speak when individuals sin, and
not when a nation, which is but a collection of in-
dividuals ? Must we speak to the poor, but not to the
rich and powerful? In vain does St. James warn us
against having the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with
respect of persons. In vain does the Prophet declare to
us the word of the Lord, that if the watchmen of Israel
"speak not to warn the wicked from his way," "his
blood \vill be required at the watchman's hand."

Complete our Lord's declaration concerning the nature
of His kingdom, and you will see it is not at all incon-
sistent with the duty of our active and zealous inter-
ference in matters of this world. " If My kingdom
were of this world," He says, "then would My servants

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 13

fight." — Here He has vouchsafed so to exphiin Himself,
that there is no room for misunderstanding- His mean-
ins^. No one contends that His ministers ouf^-ht to use
the weapons of a carnal warfare; but surely to protest,
to warn, to threaten, to excommunicate, are not such
weapons. Let us not be scared from a plain duty, by
the mere force of a misapplied text. There is an unex-
ceptionable sense in which a clerg-yman may, nay, must
hQ political. And above all, when the Nation interferes
with the rights and possessions of the Church, it can
with even less grace complain of the Church interfering-
with the Nation.

With this introduction let me call your attention to
what seems a most dangerous infringement on our
rights, on the part of the State. The Legislature has
lately taken upon itself to remodel the dioceses of
Ireland; a proceeding which involves the appointment
of certain Bishops over certain Clergy, and of certain
Clergy under certain Bishops, without the Church being
consulted in the matter. I do not say whether or not
harm will follow from this particular act with reference
to Ireland; but consider whether it be not in itself an
interference with things spiritual.

Are we content to be accounted the mere creation of
the State, as schoolmasters and teachers may be, or
soldiers, or magistrates, or other public officers? Did
the State make us? can it unmake us? can it send out
missionaries ? can it arrange dioceses ? Surely all these
are spiritual functions ; and Laymen may as well set
about preaching, and consecrating the Lord's Supper,
as assume these. I do not say the guilt is equal ; but
that, if the latter is guilt, the former is. Would St.
Paul, with his good will, have suffered the Roman
power to appoint Timothy, Bishop of Miletus, as well
as of Ephesus? Would Timothy at such a bidding-
have undertaken the charge? Is not the notion of such
an order, such an obedience, absurd ? Yet has it not
been realised in what has lately happened? For in

14 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

what is the English state at present different from the
Roman formerly? Neither can be accounted members
of the Church of Christ. No one can say the British
Legislature is in our communion, or that its members
are necessarily even Christians. What pretence then
has it for not merely advising, but superseding the
Ecclesiastical power?

Bear with me, while I express my fear that we do
not, as much as we ought, consider the force of that
article of our belief, " The One Catholic and Apostolic
Church." This is a tenet so important as to have been
in the Creed from the beginning. It is mentioned there
as a fact, and a fact to be believed, and therefore prac-
tical. Now what do we conceive is meant by it ? As
people vaguely take it in the present day, it seems only
an assertion that there is a number of sincere Christians
scattered through the world. But is not this a truism ?
who doubts it ? who can deny that there are people in
various places who are sincere believers ? what comes
of this ? how is it important ? why should it be placed
as an article of faith, after the belief in the Holy Ghost?
Doubtless the only true and satisfactory meaning is that
which our Divines have ever taken, that there is on
earth an existing Society, Apostolic as founded by the
Apostles, Catholic because it spreads its branches in
every place; — i.e., the Church Visible with its Bishops,
Priests, and Deacons. And this surely is a most im-
portant doctrine; for what can be better news to the
bulk of mankind than to be told that Christ when He
ascended did not leave us orphans, but appointed
representatives of Himself to the end of time ?

"The necessity of believing the Holy Catholic
Church," says Bishop Pearson in his Exposition of the
Creed, " appeareth first in this, that Christ hath ap-
pointed it as the only way to eternal life. . . . Christ
never appointed two ways to heaven, nor did He build
a Church to save some, and make another institution
for other men's salvation. There is none other name

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 15

under heaven g^iven amonj;' men whereby we must be
saved, but the name of Jesus; and that name is no
otherwise g^iven under heaven than in the Church."
"This is the cong-reg-ation of those persons here on
earth which shall hereafter meet in heaven. . . . There
is a necessity of believing- the Catholic Church, because
except a man be of that he can be of none. Whatso-
ever Church pretendeth to a new beg^inning-, pretendeth
at the same time to a new Churchdom, and whatsoever
is so new is none." This indeed is the unanimous
opinion of our divines, that, as the Sacraments, so
Communion with the Church, is " g^ene rally neces-
sary to salvation," in the case of those who can
obtain it.

If then we express our belief in the existence of One
Church on earth from Christ's coming- to the end of all
thing's, if there is a promise it shall continue, and if it is
our duty to do our part in our g-eneration towards its
continuance, how can we with a safe conscience coun-
tenance the interference of the Nation in its concerns ?
Does not such interference tend to destroy it? Would
it not destroy it if consistently followed up? Now, may
we sit still and keep silence, when efforts are making to
break up, or at least materially to weaken that Ecclesi-
astical Body which we know is intended to last while
the world endures, and the safety of which is com-
mitted to our keeping- in our day ? How shall we answer
for it, if we transmit that Ordinance of God less entire
than it came to us ?

Now what am I calling- on you to do? You cannot
help what has been done in Ireland; but you may pro-
test against it. You may as a duty protest ag^ainst it
in public and private; you may keep a jealous watch on
the proceeding-s of the Nation, lest a second act of the
same kind be attempted. You may keep it before you
as a desirable object that the Irish Church should at
some future day meet in Synod and protest herself
against what has been done; and then proceed to

i6 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

establish or rescind the State injunction, as may be
thought expedient.

I know it is too much the fashion of the times to
think any earnestness for ecclesiastical rights unseason-
able and absurd, as if it were the feeling of those who
live among books and not in the world. But it is our
duty to live among books, especially to live by one
book, and a very old one ; and therein we are enjoined
to " keep that good thing which is committed unto us,"
to " neglect not our gift." And when men talk, as they
sometimes do, as if in opposing them we were standing
on technical difficulties instead of welcoming great and
extensive benefits which would be the result of their
measures, I would ask them (letting alone the question
of their beneficial nature, which is a question) whether
this is not being wise above that is written, whether it
is not doing evil that good may come? We cannot
know the effects which will follow certain alterations;
but we can decide that the means by which it is pro-
posed to attain them are unprecedented and disrespectful
to the Church. And when men say, '■'■ tJie day is past
for stickling about ecclesiastical rights," let them see to
it, lest they use substantially the same arguments to
maintain their position as those who say, " The day is
past for being a Christian."

Lastly, is it not plain that by showing a bold front
and defending the rights of the Church, we are taking
the only course which can make us respected ? Yielding
will not persuade our enemies to desist from their
efforts to destroy us root and branch. We cannot hope
by giving something to keep the rest. Of this surely
we have had of late years sufficient experience. But by
resisting strenuously, and contemplating and providing
against the worst, we may actually prevent the very
evils we fear. To prepare for persecution may be the
way to avert it.

[By J. H. Newman; published 1833.]

TRACT III.

THOUGHTS RESPECTFULLY ADDRESSED
TO THE CLERGY ON ALTERATIONS
IN THE LITURGY.

Attempts are making- to get the Liturgy altered. My
dear Brethren, I beseech you, consider with me, whether
you ought not to resist the alteration of even one jot or
tittle of it. Though you would in your own private
judgments wish to have this or that phrase or arrange-
ment amended, is this a time to concede one tittle?

Why do I say this ? because, though most of you
would wish some immaterial points altered, yet not
many of you agree in those points, and not many of
you agree what is and what is not immaterial. If all
your respective emendations are taken, the alterations
in the Services will be extensive ; and though each will
gain something he wishes, he will lose more from those
alterations w^hich he did not wish. Tell me, are the
present imperfections (as they seem to each) of such a
nature, and so many, that their removal will compen-
sate for the recasting of much which each thinks to be
no imperfection, or rather an excellence?

There are persons who wish the Marriage Service
emended ; there are others who would be indignant at
the changes proposed. There are some who wish the
Consecration Prayer in the Holy Sacrament to be what
it was in King Edward's first book; there are others
who think this would be an approach to Popery. There
are some who wish the imprecatory Psalms omitted ;

i8 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

there are others who would lament this omission as
savouring- of the shallow and detestable liberalism of the
day. There are some who wish the Services shortened ;
there are others who think we should have far more
Services, and more frequent attendance at public wor-
ship than we have.

How few would be pleased by any given alterations;
and how many pained !

But once begin altering, and there will be no reason
or justice in stopping, till the criticisms of all parties
are satisfied. Thus, will not the Liturgy be in the evdl
case described in the well-known story of the picture
subjected by the artist to the observations of passers-
by? And, even to speak at present of comparatively
immaterial alterations, I mean such as do not infringe
upon the doctrines of the Prayer Book, will not it even
with these be a changed book, and will not that new
book be for certain an inconsistent one, the alterations
being made, not on principle, but upon chance objec-
tions urged from various quarters ?

But this is not all. A taste for criticism g-rows upon
the mind. When we begin to examine and take to
pieces, our judgment becomes perplexed, and our feel-
ings unsettled. I do not know whether others feel this
to the same extent, but for myself, I confess there are
few parts of the Service that I could not disturb myself
about, and feel fastidious at, if 1 allowed my mind in
this abuse of reason. First, e.g. I might object to the
opening sentences; " they are not evangelical enough;
Christ is not mentioned m them ; they are principally
from the Old Testament." Then I should criticise the
exhortation, as having too many words, and as anti-
quated in style. I might find it hard to speak against
the Confession; but " the Absolution," it might be said,
" is not strong enough; it is a mere declaration, not an
announcement of pardon to those who have confessed."
And so on.

Now I think this unsettling- of the mind a frightful

ON ALTERATIONS IN THE LITURGY. 19

thing; both to ourselves, and more so to our flocks.
They have long- regarded the Prayer Book with rever-
ence as the stay of their faith and devotion. The
weaker sort it will make sceptical; the better it will
offend and pain. Take, e.g. an alteration which some
have offered in the Creed, to omit or otherwise word
the clause, " He descended into /;<•//." Is it no com-
fort for mourners to be told that Christ Himself has
been in that unseen state, or Paradise, which is the
allotted place of sojourn for departed spirits? Is it not
very easy to explain the ambiguous word, is it any
great harm if it is misunderstood, and is it not very
difficult to find any substitute for it in harmony with the
composition of the Creed? I suspect we should find
the best men in the number of those who would retain
it as it is. On the other hand, will not the unstable
learn from us a habit of criticising what they should
never think of but as a divine voice supplied by the
Church for their need?

But as regards ourselves, the Clergy, what will be
the effect of this temper of innovation in us ? We have
the power to bring about changes in the Liturgy; shall
not we exert it ? Have we any security, if we once
begin, that we shall ever end? Shall not we pass from
non-essentials to essentials? And then, on looking
back after the mischief is done, what excuse shall we
be able to make for ourselves for having encouraged
such proceedings at first ? Were there grievous errors
in the Prayer Book, something might be said for begin-
ning, but who can point out any ? cannot we very well
/>tv/r things as they are? does any part of it seriously
disquiet us? no — we have before now freely given our
testimony to its accordance with Scripture.

But it may be said that " we must conciliate an out-
cry which is made; that some alteration is demanded."
By whom ? no one can tell who cries, or who can be
conciliated. Some of the laity, I suppose. Now con-
sider this carefully. Who are these lay persons ? Are

20 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

they serious men, and are their consciences involuntarily
hurt by the things they wish altered? Are they not
rather the men you meet in company, worldly men,
with little personal religion, of lax conversation and
lax professed principles, who sometimes perhaps come
to Church, and then are wearied and disgusted? Is
it not so? You have been dining, perhaps, with
a wealthy neighbour, or fall in with this great
Statesman, or that noble Land-holder, who considers
the Church two centuries behind the world, and ex-
presses to you wonder that its enlightened members do
nothing to improve it. And then you get ashamed, and
are betrayed into admissions which sober reason dis-
approves. You consider, too, that it is a great pity so
estimable or so influential a man should be disaff'ected
to the Church ; and you go away with a vague notion
that something must be done to conciliate such persons.
Is this to bear about you the solemn office of a Guide
and Teacher in Israel, or \.o follow a lead?

But consider what are the concessions which would
conciliate such men. Would immaterial alterations ?
Do you really think they care one jot about the verbal
or other changes which some recommend, and others
are disposed to grant ? whether "the unseen state" is
substituted for "hell," "condemnation" for "damna-
tion," or the order of Sunday Lessons is remodelled?
No; — they dislike the doctrine of the Liturgy. These
men of the world do not like the anathemas of the
Athanasian Creed, and other such peculiarities of our
Services. But even were the alterations, which would
please them, small, are they the persons whom it is of
use, whom it is becoming to conciliate by going out of
our way ?

I need not go on to speak against doctrinal altera-
tions, because most thinking men are sufficiently averse
to them. But, I earnestly beg you to consider whether
we must not come to them if we once begin. For by
altering immaterials, we merely raise without gratifying

ON ALTERATIONS IN THE LITURGY. 21

the desire of correcting- ; we excite the craving, but
withhold the food. And it should be observed, that the
•chang-es called immaterial often contain in themselves
the germ of some principle, of which they are thus the
introduction: — e.g. If we were to leave out the impre-
catory Psalms, we certainly countenance the notion of
the day, that love and love only is in the Gospel the
character of Almighty God and the duty of regenerate
man; whereas that Gospel, rightly understood, shows
His Infinite Holiness and Justice as well as His Infinite
Love ; and it enjoins on men the duties of zeal towards
Him, hatred of sin, and separation from sinners, as well
as that of kindness and charity.

To the above observations it may be answered, that
changes have formerly been made in the Services with-
out leading to the issue I am predicting now ; and
therefore they may be safely made again. But, waving
all other remarks in answer to this argument, is not
this enough — viz., that there is peril ? No one will deny
that the rage of the day is for concession. Have w^e
not already granted (political) points, without stopping
the course of innovation ? This is a fact. Now, is it
worth while even to risk fearful changes merely to gain
petty improvements, allowing' those which are proposed
to be such ?

We know not what is to come upon us ; but the
writer for one will try so to acquit himself now, that if
any irremediable calamity befalls the Church, he may
not have to vex himself with the recollections of silence
on his part and indifference, when he might have been
up and alive. There was a time when he, as well as
others, might feel the wish, or rather the temptation, of
steering a middle course between parties ; but if so, a
more close attention to passing events has cured his
infirmity. In a day like this there are but two sides,
zeal and persecution, the Church and the world; and
those who attempt to occupy the ground between them,
at best will lose their labour, but probably will be drawn

2 2 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

back to the latter. Be practical, I respectfully urge
you; do not attempt impossibilities; sail not as if in
pleasure-boats upon a troubled sea. Not a word falls
to the ground, in a time like this. Speculations about
ecclesiastical improvements which might be innocent at
other times, have a strength of mischief now. They
are realised before he who utters them understands that
he has committed himself.

Be prepared then for petitioning against any altera-
tions in the Prayer Book which may be proposed.
And, should you see that our Fathers the Bishops seem
to countenance them, petition still. Petition them.
They will thank you for such a proceeding. They do
not wish these alterations ; but how can they resist them
without the support of their Clergy? They consent to
them (if they do) partly from the notion that they are
thus pleasing you. Undeceive them. They will be
rejoiced to hear that you are as unwilling to receive
them as they are. However, if after all there be per-
sons determined to allow some alterations, then let
them quickly make up their minds how far they will go.
They think it easier to draw the line elsewhere, than as
things now exist. Let them point out the limit of their
concessions now; and let them keep to it then; and (if
they can do this) I will say that, though they are not
as wise as they might have been, they are at least firm,
and have at last come risrht.

THE BURIAL SERVICE.

We hear many complaints about the Burial Service,
as unsuitable for the use for which it was intended. It
expresses a hope that the person departed, over whom
it is read, will be saved ; and this is said to be dangerous ii

THE BURIAL SERVICE. 23

when expressed about all who are called Christians, as
leading the laity to low views of the spiritual attain-
ments necessary for salvation ; and distressing- the
Clergy who have to read it.

Now I do not deny, I frankly own, it is sometimes
distressing to use the Service; but this it must ever be
in the nature of things; wherever you draw the line.
Do you pretend you can discriminate the wheat from
the tares ? Of course not.

It is often distressing to use this Service, because it
is often distressing to think of the dead at all ; not that
you are without hope, but because you have fear also.

How many are there whom you know well enough to
dare to give any judgment about? Is a Clergyman
only to express a hope where he has grounds for having
it? Are not the feelings of relatives to be considered?
And may there not be a difference of judgments ? I
may hope more, another less. If each is to use the
precise words which suit his own judgment, then we
can have no words at all.

But it may be said, " Everything of a personal nature
may be left out from the Service." And do you really
wish this ? Is this the way in which your flock will wish
their lost friends to be treated? a cold " edification," but
no affectionate valediction to the departed ? Why not
pursue this course of (supposed) improvement, and
advocate the omission of the Service altogether.

Are we to have no kind and religious thoughts over
the good, lest we should include the bad?

But it will be said, that at least we ought not to read
the Service over the flagrantly wicked, over those who
are a scandal to religion. But this is a very different
position. I agree with it entirely. Of course we
should not do so, and truly the Church never meant we
should. She never wished we should profess our hope
of the salvation of habitual drunkards and swearers,
open sinners, blasphemers, and the like; not as daring
to despair of their salvation, but thinking it unseemly

24 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

to honour their memory. Though the Church is not
endowed with a power of absolute judg'ment upon indi-
viduals, yet she is directed to decide according- to ex-
ternal indications, in order to hold up the rules of God's
g-overnance, and afford a type of it, and an assistance
towards the realising- it. As she denies to the scan-
dalously wicked the Lord's Supper, so does she deprive
them of her other privileg^es.

The Church, I say, does not bid us read the Service
over open sinners. Hear her own words introducing-
the Service. " The office ensuing is not to be used for
any that die unbaptised, or excommunicate, or have laid
violent hands upon themselves." There is no room to
doubt whom she meant to be excommunicated — open
sinners. Those therefore who are pained at the general
use of the Service, should rather strive to restore the
practice of excommunication, than to alter the words
used in the Service. Surely, if we do not this, we are
clearly defrauding the religious, for the sake of keeping
close to the wicked.

Here we see the common course of things in the
world. We omit a duty. In consequence our services
become inconsistent. Instead of retracing our steps
we alter the Service. What is this but, as it were, to
sin upon principle? While we keep to our principles,
our sins are inconsistencies; at length, sensitive of the
absurdity which inconsistency involves, we accommo-
date our professions to our practice. This is ever the
way of the world ; but it should not be the way of the
Church.

I will join heart and hand with any who will struggle
for a restoration of that "godly discipline," the restora-
tion of which our Church publicly professes she con-
siders desirable ; but God forbid any one should so
depart from her spirit as to mould her formularies to
fit the case of deliberate sinners ! And is not this what
we are plainly doing, if we alter the Burial Service as
proposed? We are recognising the right of men to

THE PRINCIPLE OF UNITY. 25

receive Christian Burial, about whom we do not like to
express a hope. Why should they have Christian Burial
at all?

It will be said that the restoration of the practice of
Excommunication is impracticable; and that therefore
the other alternative must be taken, as the only one
open to us. Of course it is impossible, if no one at-
tempts to restore it; but if all willed it, how would it be
impossible? and if no one stirs because he thinks no one
else will, he is arguing- in a circle.

But, after all, what have we to do with probabilities
and prospects in matters of plain duty? Were a man
the only member of the Church who felt it a duty to
return to the Ancient Discipline, yet a duty is a duty,
though he be alone. It is one of the great sins of our
times to look to consequences in matters of plain duty.
Is not this such a case? If not, prove that it is not;
but do not argue from consequences.

In the meanwhile I offer the following texts in
evidence of the duty: —

Matt xviii. 15-17; Rom. xvi. 17; i Cor. v. 7-13; 2 Thess. ill.
6, 14, 15 ; 2 Tim. iii. 5 ; Tit. ill. 10, 1 1 ; 2 John 10, 1 1.

THE PRINCIPLE OF UNITY.

Testimony of St. Clement, the associate of St. Paul
(Phil. iv. 3), to the Apostolical Succession: —

"The Apostles knew, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that
strife would arise for the Episcopate. Wherefore having re-
ceived an accurate foreknowledge, they appointed the men I
before mentioned, and have given an orderly succession, that
on their death other approved men might receive in turn their
office." — Ep. i. 44.

Testimony of St. Ignatius, the friend of St. Peter, to
Episcopacy: —

26 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

"Your celebrated Presbytery, worthy of God, is as closely
knit to the Bishop, as the strings to a harp, and so by means of
your unanimity and concordant love Jesus Christ is sung." —
Eph. 4.

"There are who profess to acknowledge a Bishop, but do
everything without him. Such men appear to lack a clear
conscience." — Magn. 4.

" He for whom I am bound is my witness that I have not
learned this doctrine from mortal man. The Spirit proclaimed
to me these words: 'Without the Bishop do nothing.'" — Phil. 7.

WitJi these and other such strong" passages in the
Apostolical Fathers, how can we permit ourselves in
our present practical disregard of the Episcopal
Authority ? Are not we apt to obey only so far as
the law obliges us? Do we support the Bishop, and
strive to move all together with him as our bond of
union and head; or is not our everyday conduct as
if, except with respect to certain periodical forms and
customs, we were each independent in his own parish ?

[By J. H. Newman; published 1833.]

(tract iv}

adherence to the apostolical suc
cession the safest course.

We who believ'^e the Nicene Creed, must acknowledg-e
it a hig'h privilege that we belong" to the Apostolic
Church. How is it that so many of us are, almost
avowedly, so cold and indifferent in our thoughts of
this privilege ?

Is it because the very idea is in itself overstrained and
fanciful, apt perhaps to lay strong hold on a few ardent
minds, but little in accordance with the general feelings
of mankind ? Surely not. The notion of a propagated
commission is as simple and intelligible in itself as can
well be; is acted on daily in civil matters (the admin-
istration of trust property, for example) ; and has found
a most ready, sometimes an enthusiastic, acceptance in
those many nations of the world which have submitted,
and are submitting themselves to sacerdotal castes,
elective or hereditary. " Priests self-elected, or ap-
pointed by the State," is rather the idea which startles
ordinary thinkers ; not " Priests commissioned, succes-
sively, from heaven."

Or is our languor rather to be accounted for by the
want of express scriptural encouragement to the notion
of a divine ministerial commission? Nay, Scripture, at
first sight, is express; whether we take the analogy of
the Old Testament, the words of our Lord, or the
practice of His Apostles. The primitive Christians
read it accordingly; and cherished, with all affectionate

6

28 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

reverence, the privilege which they thought they found
there. Why are we so unHke them ?

I fear it must be owned that much of the evil is
owing to the comparatively low ground which we our-
selves, the Ministers of God, have chosen to occupy in
defence of our commission. For many years, we hav'e
been much in the habit of resting our claim on the
general duties of submission to authority, of decency
and order, of respecting precedents long established ;
instead of appealing to that warrant, which marks us,
exclusively, for God's Ambassadors. We have spoken
much in the same tone, as we might, had we been mere
Laymen, acting for ecclesiastical purposes by a com-
mission under the Great Seal. Waving the question,
" Was this wise? was it right, in higher respects?" — I
ask, was it not obviously certain, in some degree, to
damp and deaden the interest w^ith which men of
devout minds would naturally regard the Christian
Ministry? Would not more than half the reverential
feeling, with which we look on a Church or Cathedral,
be gone, if w-e ceased to contemplate it as the house ol
God, and learned to esteem it merely as a place set
apart by the State for moral and religious instruction ?

It would be going too deep into history, were one
now to enter on any statement of the causes which
have led, silently and insensibly, almost to the abandon-
ment of the high ground which our Fathers of the
Primitive Church — i.e. the Bishops and Presbyters of
the first five centuries, invariably took, in preferring
their claim to canonical obedience. For the present, it
is rather wished to urge, on plain positive considera-
tions, the wisdom and duty of keeping in view the
simple principle on which they relied.

Their principle, in short, 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 show

THE APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 29

such a warrant, we cannot be sure that our hands
convey the sacrifice; we cannot be sure that souls
worthily prepared, receivin*;- 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.

If the rules of Christian conduct were founded merely
on visible expediency, the zeal with which those holy
men were used to maintain the Apostolical Succession
might appear a strange unaccountable thing. Not so,
if our duties to our Saviour be like our duties to a
parent or a brother, the unalterable result of certain
known relations, previous to all consideration of conse-
quences.^ Reflect on this, and you will presently feel
what a difference it makes in a pious mind, whether
ministerial prerogatives be traced to our Lord's own
institution, or to mere voluntary ecclesiastical arrang-e-
ment. Let two plans of Government, as far as we can
see, be equally good and expedient in themselves, yet if
there be but a fair probability of the one rather than the
other proceeding from our Blessed Lord Himself, those
who love Him in sincerity will know at once which to
prefer. They will not demand that every point be
made out by inevitable demonstration, or promulgated
in form, like a State decree. According to the beautiful
expression of the Psalmist, they will consent to be
" guided by " our Lord's " eye ";- the indications of His
pleasure will be enough for them. They will state the
matter thus to themselves: "Jesus Christ's own com-
mission is the best external security I can have, that in
receiving this bread and wine, I verily receive His Body
and Blood. Either the Bishops have that commission,

* Butler's Analogy, part ii. c. I. ■^ Psalm xxxii. 9.

30 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

or there is no such thing in the world. For at least
Bishops have it with as much evidence, as Presbyters
without them. In proportion, then, to my Christian
anxiety for keeping- as near my Saviour as I can, I
shall, of course, be very unwilling to separate myself
from Episcopal communion. And in proportion to my
charitable care for others, will be my industry to pre-
serve and extend the like consolation and security to
them."

Consider the analogy of an absent parent, or dear
friend in another hemisphere. Would not such a one
naturally reckon it one sign of sincere attachment, if,
when he returned home, he found that in all family
questions respect had been shown especially to those in
whom he was known to have had most confidence ?
Would he not be pleased, when it appeared that people
had not been nice for inquiring what express words of
command he had given, where they had good reason to
think that such and such a course would be approved
by him ? If his children and dependants had searched
diligently, where, and with whom, he had left com-
missions, and having fair cause to think they had found
such, had scrupulously conformed themselves, as far as
they could, to the proceedings of those so trusted by
him; would he not think this a better sign, than if they
had been dexterous in devising exceptions, in explaining
away the words of trust, and limiting the prerogatives
he had conferred ?

Now certainly the Gospel has many indications, that
our best Friend in His absence is likely to be well
pleased with those who do their best in sincerity to
keep as near to His Apostles as they can. It is
studiously recorded, for example, by the Evangelists,
in the account of our Lord's two miraculous Feasts,
that all passed through His Disciples' hands (His
twelve Disciples ; as is in one instance plainly implied in
the tioelve baskets full of fragments). I know that
minute circumstances like this, in a Parable or sym-

THE APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 31

bolical act, must be reasoned on with great caution.
Still, when one considers that our Blessed Lord took
occasion from this event to deliver more expressly than
at any other time the doctrine of communion with Him,
it seems no unnatural conjecture, that the details of the
miracle were so ordered as to throw light on that
doctrine.

But, not to dwell on what many will question (al-
though on docile and affectionate minds I cannot but
think it must have its weight), what shall we say to the
remarkable promise addressed to the Twelve at the
Paschal Supper? " Ve are they which have continued
with Me in My temptation : and I appoint unto you a
Kingdom, as My Father hath appointed unto Me; that
ye may eat and drink at My table in My Kingdom, and
sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel."
Thus much nobody will hesitate to allow, concerning-
this Apostolical Charter: that it bound all Christians
whatever to be loyal and obedient to Christ's Apostles,
at least as long as tJuy were living-. And do not the
same words equally bind us, and all believers to the
world's end, so far as the mind of the Apostle can yet
be ascertained? Is not the spirit of the enactment
such, as renders it incumbent on every one to prefer
among- claimants to Church authority those who can
make out the best title to a warrant and commission
from the Apostles ?

I pass over those portions of the Gospel which are
oftenest quoted in this controversy ; they will occur of
themselves to all men ; and it is the object of these lines
rather to exemplify the occasional indications of our
Lord's will, than to cite distinct and palpable enact-
ments. On one place, however, — the passage in the
Acts which records, in honour of the first converts,
that " they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine
and fellowship," — one question must be asked. Is it
really credible that the privilege so emphatically men-
tioned, of being- in communion with the Apostles,

32 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

ceased when the last Apostle died ? If not, who among-
living Christians have so fair a chance of enjoying- that
privileg-e, as those who, besides Purity of Doctrine, are
careful to maintain that Apostolical Succession, pre-
served to them hitherto by a gracious and special
Providence? I should not much fear to risk the whole
controversy on the answer which a simple unprejudiced
mind would naturally make to these two questions.

Observe, too, how often these principles, which are
usually called, in scorn, High-Churchmanship, drop as it
were incidentally from the pens of the sacred writers,
professedly employed on other subjects. "How shall
they preach, except they be sent?"— "Let a man so
accx)unt of us, as of the Ministers of Christ, and
Stewards of the mysteries of God." — "No man taketh
this honour to himself, but he that is called of God, as
was Aaron." I do not think it possible for any one to
read such places as these with a fair and clear mind,
and not to perceive that it is better and more scriptural
to have, than to want, Christ's special commission for
conveying His word to the people, and consecrating
and distributing the pledges of His holy Sacrifice, if
such commission be any how attainable; — better and
more scriptural, if we cannot remove all doubt, at
least to prefer that communion which can make out the
best probable title, provided always, that nothing
heretical, or otherwise immoral, be inserted in the
terms of communion.

Why then should any man here in Britain fear or
hesitate boldly to assert the authority of the Bishops
and Pastors of the Church, on grounds strictly evan-
gelical and spiritual; as bringing men nearest to Christ
our Saviour, and conforming them most exactly to His
mind, indicated both by His own conduct, and by the
words of His Spirit in the Apostolic writings? Why
should we talk so much of an Establishment^ and so
little of an Apostolical Successioti ? Why should we
not seriously endeavour to impress our people with this

THE APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 33

plain truth;— that by separating^ themselves from our
communion, they separated themselves not only from a
decent, orderly, useful society, but from the only Church
in this realm ivhich hits a right to be quite sure that she
has the Lord's body to give to His people ?

Nor need any man be perplexed by the question, sure
to be presently and confidently asked, " Do you then
unchurch all the Presbyterians, all Christians who have
no Bishops? Are they to be shut out of the Covenant,
for all the fruits of Christian piety, which seem to have
sprung- up not scantily among- them?" Nay, we are
not judging- others, but deciding on our own conduct.
We, in England, cannot communicate with Presby-
terians, as neither can we with Roman Catholics, but
we do not therefore exclude either from salvation.
"Necessary to Salvation," and " necessary to Church
Communion," are not to be used as convertible terms.
Neither do we desire to pass sentence on other persons
of other countries; but we are not to shrink from our
deliberate views of truth and duty, because difficulties
may be raised about the case of such persons; any more
than we should fear to maintain the paramount necessity
of Christian belief, because similar difficulties may be
raised about virtuous Heathens, Jews, or Mahometans.
To us such questions are abstract, not practical: and
whether we can answer them or no, it is our business
to keep fast hold of the Church Apostolical, whereof we
are actual members; not merely on civil or ecclesiastical
grounds, but from real personal love and reverence,
affectionate reverence to our Lord and only Saviour.
And let men seriously bear in mind, that it is one thing
to slight and disparage this holy Succession where it
may be had, and another thing to acquiesce in the want
of it, where it is {if it be anyivhere) really unattainable.

I readily allow that this view of our calling has some-
thing in it too high and mysterious to be fully under-
stood by unlearned Christians. But the learned, surely,
are just as unequal to it. It is part of that ineffable

34 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

mystery, called in our Creed, The Communion of Saints;
and with all other Christian mysteries, is above the
imderstanding of all alike, yet practically alike within
reach of all, who are willing- to embrace it by true
Faith. Experience shows, at any rate, that it is far
from being ill adapted to the minds and feeling- of
ordinary people. On this point evidence might be
brought from times at first glance the most unpro-
mising; from the early part of the seventeenth century.
The hold which the propagandists of the " Holy Dis-
cipline " obtained on the fancies and affections of the
people, of whatever rank, age, and sex, depended very
much on their incessant appeals to their fancied
Apostolical 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 fhe system handed down from the
Apostles, "a divine Episcopate"; so Beza called it.
Why should we despair of obtaining, in time, an in-
fluence, far more legitimate and less dangerously
exciting, but equally searching and extensive, by the
diligent inculcation of our true and scriphiral claim ?

For it is obvious that among other results of the
primitive doctrine of the Apostolical Succession,
thoroughly considered and followed up, it would make
the relation of Pastor and Parishioner far more en-
gaging, as well as more awful, than it is usually
considered at present. Look on your pastor as acting
by man's commission, and you may respect the authority
by which he acts, you may venerate and love his per-
sonal character, but it can hardly be called a religious
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 everything 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 Sacr^-

ALTERATIONS IN THE rRAYER-BOOK. 35

merits, a faithful man naturally considers, *' By this His
messenger Christ in 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." In short it must make just all
the diflerence in every part of a Clergyman's duty,
whether he do it, and be known to do it, in that Faith
of his commission from Christ, or no.

How far the analogy of the Aaronical priesthood will
carry us, and to what extent we must acknowledge the
reserve imputed to the formularies of our Church on
this whole subject of the Hierarchy; and how such
reserve, if real, may be accounted for; — these are
questions worthy of distinct consideration !

For the present let the whole matter be brought to
this short issue. May it not be said both to Clergy
and Laity: " Put yourselves in your children's place, in
the place of the next generation of believers. Consider
in what way they will desire you to have acted, sup-
posing them to value aright (as you must wish them)
the means of communion with Christ; and as they will
then wish you to have acted now, so act in all matters
affecting that inestimable privilege."

ON ALTERATIONS IN THE PRAYER-BOOK.

The 36th Canon provides that "no person shall here-
after be received into the Ministry . . . except he shall
first subscribe" certain "three articles." The second
of these is as follows: —

" That the Book of Common Prayer, and of Ordering of
Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, containeth in it nothing contrary
to the Word of God, and that it may lawfully so be used; and
that he himself will use the form in the said Book prescribed, in
public prayer, and administration of the Sacraments, and none
other,"

36 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

Now here is certainly a grave question to all who
have subscribed this Article. We need not of course
sa)' it precludes them from acquiescing in any changes
that are lawfully made in the Common Prayer; but
surely it makes it most incumbent on them to inquire
carefully whether the Parties altering it have a right to
do so. E.g. should any foreign Power or Legislature,
or any private Nobleman or Statesman at home, pretend
to reform the Prayer Book, of course we should all call
it a usurpation and refuse to obey it; or rather, we
should consider the above subscription to be a religious
obstacle to our obeying it. So far is clear. The ques-
tion follows: Where is the competent authority for
making alterations ? Is it not also clear, that it does
not lie in the British Legislature, which we know to be
composed not only of believers but also of infidels,
heretics, and schismatics; and which for what we know
may soon cease to be a Christian body even in formal
profession ? Can even a Committee of it, ever so
carefully selected, absolve us from our subscriptions?
Whence do the Laity derive their power over the
Clergy ? Can even the Crown absolve us ? or a com-
mission from the Crown ? If then some measure of
tyranny be ever practised against us as regards the
Prayer Book, how are 7ve to act?

Oxford,

September Zl'it, 1833.

[By John Keble.]

.^

/"tract IX

ON SHORTENING THE CHURCH
SERVICES.

There Is a growing" feeling that the Services of the
Church are too long; and many persons think it a
sound feeling, merely because it zs a growing one.
Let such as have not made up their minds on the sub-
ject, suffer themselves, before going into the arguments
against our Services, to be arrested by the following
considerations.

The services of our Church, as they now stand, are
but a very small part of the ancient Christian worship ;
and, though people nowadays think them too long,
there can be no doubt that the primitive believers would
have thought them too short. Now I am far from con-
sidering this as a conclusive argument in the question;
as if the primitive believers were right, and people
nowadays wrong ; but surely others may fairly be
called upon not to assume the reverse. On such points
it is safest to assume nothing, but to take facts as we
find them ; and the facts are these.

In ancient times Christians understood very literally
all that the Bible says about prayer. David had said,
"Seven times a day do I praise Thee;" and St. Paul
had said, " Pray always." These texts they did not
feel at liberty to explain away, but complying with
them to the letter, praised God seven times a day,
besides their morning and evening prayer. Their
hours of devotion were, in the day-time, 6, 9, 12, and 3,

38 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

which were called the Horae Canonicae; in the night, 9,
12, and 3, which were called the Nocturns; and besides
these the hour of daybreak and of retiring to bed ; not
that they set apart these hours in the first instance for
public worship, — this was impossible; but they seemed
to have aimed at praying with one accord, and at
one time, even when they could not do so in one
place. "The Universal Church," says Bishop Patrick,
"anciently observed certain set hours of prayer, that
all Christians throughout the world might at the same
time join together to glorify God; and some of them
were of opinion that the Angelical Host, being ac-
quainted with those hours, took that time to join their
prayers and praises with those of the Church." The
Hymns and Psalms appropriated to these hours were in
the first instance intended only for private meditation ;
but afterwards, when Religious Societies were formed,
and persons who had withdrawn from secular business
lived together for purposes of devotion, chanting was
introduced, and they were arranged for congregational
worship. Throughout the Churches which used the
Latin tongue, the same services were adopted with
very little variation ; and in Roman Catholic countries
they continue in use, with only a few modern interpola-
tions, even to this day.

The length of these Services will be in some degree
understood from the fact, that in the course of every
week they go through the whole book of Psalms. The
writer has been told by a distinguished person, who
was once a Roman Catholic Priest, that the time
required for their performance averages three hours a
day throughout the year.

The process of transition from this primitive mode of
worship to that now used in the Church of England,
was gradual. Long before the abolition of the Latin
Service, the ancient hours of worship had fallen into
disuse ; in religious Societies the daily and nightly
Services had been arranged in groups under the names

ON SHORTENING THE SERVICES. 39

of Matins and Vespers; and those who prayed in
private were allowed to suit their hours of prayer to
their convenience, provided only that they went throui^h
the whole Services each day. Neither is it to be
supposed that this modified demand was at all generally
complied with. Thus in the course of time, the views
and feelinj^-s with which prayer had been reg'arded by
the early Christians became antiquated; the forms
remained, but stripped of their orig'inal meaning";
Services were compressed into one, which had been
originally distinct; the idea of united worship, with a
view to which identity of time and language had been
maintained in different nations, was forgotten ; the
identity of time had been abandoned, and the identity
of language was not thought worth preserving. Con-
scious of the incongruity of primitive forms and modern
feelings, our Reformers undertook to construct a
Service more in accordance with the spirit of their age.
They adopted the English language; they curtailed the
already compressed ritual of the early Christians, so
arranging it that the Psalms should be gone through
monthly, instead of weekly; and carrying the spirit of
compression still further, they added to the Matin
Service what had hitherto been wholly distinct from it,
the Mass Service or Communion.

Since the Reformation, the same gradual change in
the prevailing notions of prayer has worked its way
silently but generally. The Services, as they were left
by the Reformers, were as they had been from the first
ages, daily Services; they are now iveekly Services.
Are they not in a fair way to become nionUily?

40 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

SUNDAY LESSONS.

There are persons who wish certain Sunday Lessons
removed from our Service — e.g. some of those selected
for Lent — nay, Jeremiah v. and xxii,; and this, on the
ground that it is painful to the feelings of Clergymen to
read them.

Waving other considerations which may be urged
against innovation in this matter, may we not allow
some weight to the following, which is drawn from the
very argument brought in favour of the change? Will
not the same feeling which keeps men from reading the
account of certain sins and their punishment from the
Bible, much more keep them from mentioning them in
the pulpit? Is it not necessary that certain sins, which
it is distressing to speak of, should be seriously de-
nounced, as being not the less frequent in commission,
because they are disgraceful in language? And if so,
is it not a most considerate provision of the Church to
relieve her Ministers of the pain of using their own
words, and to allow them to shelter their admonitions
under the holy and reverend language of Inspired
Scripture ?

Oxford,

October 2,1 st, 1S33.

[By R. H. Froude.]

TRACT XL

THE VISIBLE CHURCH.

[Ill Letters to a Friend.)

Part L

LETTER L

You wish to have my opinion on the doctrine of " the
Holy Catholic Church," as contained in Scripture, and
taught in the Creed. So I send you the following- lines,
which perhaps may serve through God's blessing to
assist you in your search after the truth in this matter,
even though they do no more ; indeed no remarks,
however just, can be much more than an assistance to
you. You must search for yourself, and God must
teach you.

I think I partly enter into your present perplexity.
You argue, that true doctrine is the important matter
for which we must contend, and a right state of the
affections is the test of vital religion in the heart: and
you ask, "Why may I not be satisfied if my Creed
is correct, and my affections spiritual? Have I not
in that case enough to evidence a renewed mind, and to
constitute a basis of union with others like minded?
The love of Christ is surely the one and only requisite
for Christian communion here, and the joys of heaven

42 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

hereafter." Again you say, that and are

constant in their prayers for the teaching of the Holy
Spirit; so that if it be true that every one who asketh
receiveth, surely they must receive, and are in a safe
state.

Believe me, I do not think lightly of these arguments.
They are very subtle ones ; powerfully influencing the
imagination, and difficult to answer. Still I believe
them to be mere fallacies. Let me try them in a

parallel case. You know the preacher at , and

have heard of his flagrantly immoral life; yet it is
notorious that he can and does speak in a moving way
of the love of Christ, etc. It is very shocking to
witness such a case, which (we will hope) is rare;
but it has its use. Do you not think him in peril, in
spite of his impressive and persuasive language?
Why? You will say, his life is bad. True; it seems
then that more is requisite for salvation than an
orthodox creed, and keen sensibility — viz., consistent
conduct. Very well then, we have come to an addi-
tional test of true faith, obedience to God's word, and
plainly a scriptural test, according to St. John's canon,
" He who doeth righteousness is righteous." Do not
you see then your argument is already proved to be
unsound? It seems that true doctrine and warm feel-
ings are not enough. How am I to know what is
enough? you ask. I reply, by searching Scripture. It
was your original fault that, instead of inquiring what
God has told you is necessary for being a true
Christian, you chose out of your own head to argue
on the subject; — e.g. "I can never believe that to be
such and such is not enough for salvation," etc. Now
this is worldly luisdofu.

Let us join issue then on this plain ground, whether
or not the doctrine of "the Church," and the duty
of obeying it, be laid down in Scripture. If so, it is
no matter as regards our practice, whether the doctrine
is primary or secondary, whether the duty is much or

THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 43

little insisted on. A Christian mind will aim at obey-
ing the ivhoh' counsel and will of God; on the other
hand, to those who are tempted arbitrarily to classify
and select their duties, it is written, " Whosoever shall
break one of these least commandments, and shall
teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kiiif^i-dom
of heaven."

And here first, that you may clearly understand the
ground I am taking, pray observe that I am not
attempting to controvert any one of those high evan-
gelical points, on which perhaps we do not altogether
agree with each other. Perhaps you attribute less
efficacy to the Sacrament of Baptism than I do; bring
out into greater system and prominence the history
of an individual's warfare with his spiritual enemies;
fix more precisely and abruptly the date of his actual
conversion from darkness to light; and consider that
Divine Grace acts more arbitrarily against the corrupt
human will, than I think is revealed in Scripture. Still,
in spite of this difference of opinion, I see no reason
why you should not accept heartily the Scripture doc-
trine of " the Church." And this is the point I wish to
press, not asking you at present to abandon your own
opinions, but to add to them a practical belief in a tenet
which the Creed teaches and Scripture has consecrated.
And this surely is quite possible. The excellent Mr.

, of , who has lately left , was both a

Calvinist and a strenuous High-Churchman.

You are in the practice of distinguishing between the
Visible and Invisible Church. Of course I have no
wish to maintain that those who shall be saved here-
after are exactly the same company that are under the
means of grace here; still I must insist on it, that
Scripture makes the existence of a Visible Church a
condition of the existence of the Invisible. I mean,
the Sacraments are evidently in the hands of the Church
Visible; and these, we know, are generally necessary
to salvation, as the Catechism says. Thus it is an

44 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

undeniable fact, as true as that souls will be saved,
that a Visible Church must exist as a means towards
that end. The Sacraments are in the hands of the
Clergy; this few will deny, or that their efficacy is
independent of the personal character of the adminis-
trator. What then shall be thought of any attempts
to weaken or exterminate that Community, or that
Ministry, which is an appointed condition of the
salvation of the elect? But every one who makes
or encourages a schism, must weaken it. Thus it is
plain, schism must be wrong in itself, even if Scripture
did not in express terms forbid it, as it does.

But further than this: it is plain this Visible Church
is a standing body. Every one who is baptised, is
baptised into an existing community. Our Service
expresses this when it speaks of baptised infants being
incorporated into God's holy Church. Thus the Visible
Church is not a voluntary association of the day, but a
continuation of one which existed in the age before us,
and then again in the age before that; and so back till
we come to the age of the Apostles. In the same
sense, in which Corporations of the State's creating
are perpetual, is this which Christ has founded. This
is a matter of fact hitherto: and it necessarily will be
so always, for is not the notion absurd of an unbap-
tised person baptising others? which is the only way
in which the Christian community can have a new
beginning.

Moreover, Scripture directly insists upon the doctrine
of the Visible Church, as being of importance. E.g.
St. Paul says — "There is one body, and one Spirit,
even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father
of all" (Ephes. iv. 5, 6). Thus, as far as the Apostle's
words go, it is false and unchristian (I do not mean
in degree of guilt, but in its intrinsic sinfulness) to
make more bodies than one, as to have many Lords,
many Gods, many Creeds. Now, I wish to know, how

THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 45

it is possible for any one to fall into this sin, if Dis-
senters are clear of it? What t's the sin, if separation
from the Existing- Church is not it?

I have shown that there is a divinely instituted
Visible Church, and that it has been one and the same
by successive incorporation of members from the be-
ginning. Now I observe further, that the word
Church, as used in Scripture, ordinarily means this
actually existing visible body. The possible exception
to this rule, out of about a hundred places in the New
Testament where the word occurs, are four passages
in the Epistle to the Ephesians; two in the Colossians;
and one in the Hebrews (Eph. i. 22; iii. 10, 21; v. 23-
32. Col. i. 18, 24. Heb. xii. 23). And in some of
these exceptions the sense is at most but doubtful.
Further, our Saviour uses the word twice, and in both
times of the Visible Church. They are remarkable
passages, and may here be introduced, in continuation
of my argument.

Matt. xvi. 18: "Upon this rock I will build My
Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it." Now I am certain, any unprejudiced mind, who
knew nothing of controversy, considering the Greek
word iKK\i](Tia means simply an assembly, would have
no doubt at all that it meant in this passage a visible
body. What right have we to disturb the plain sense?
why do we impose a meaning, arising from some
system of our own? And this view is altogether con-
firmed by the other occasion of our Lord's using it,
where it can only denote the Visible Church. Matt,
xviii. 17 : " If he (thy brother) shall neglect to hear
them, tell it unto the Church; but if he neglect to hear
the Church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and
a publican."

Observe then what we gain by these two passages: —
the grant of piKver to the Church ; and the promise of
permanence. Now look at the fact. The body then
begun has continued; and has always claimed and

46 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

exercised the power of a corporation or society. Con-
sider merely the article in the Creed, "The Holy
Catholic Church;" which embodies this notion. Do
not Scripture and History illustrate each other?

I end this first draug"ht of my argument with the text
in I Tim. iii. 15, in which St. Paul calls the Church
" the pillar and ground of the truth," — which can refer
to nothing but a Visible Body ; else martyrs may be
invisible, and preachers, and teachers, and the whole
order of the Ministry.

My paper is exhausted. If you allow me, I will
send you soon a second Letter; meanwhile I sum up
what I have been proving from Scripture thus: that
Almighty God might have left Christianity as a sort of
sacred literature, as contained in the Bible, which each
person was to take and use by himself; just as we
read the works of any human philosopher or historian,
from which we gain practical instruction, but the know-
ledge of which does not bind us to be Newtonians,
or Aristotelians, etc., or to go out of our line of life in
consequence of it. This, I say, He might have done;
but, in matter of fact, He has ordained otherwise. He
has actually set up a Society, which exists even this
day all over the world, and which (as a general rule)
Christians are bound to join; so that to believe in
Christ is not a mere opinion or secret conviction,
but a social or even a political principle, forcing one
into what is often stigmatised as party strife, and quite
inconsistent with the supercilious mood of those pro-
fessed Christians of the day, who stand aloof, and
designate their indifference as philosophy.

LETTER II.

I AM sometimes struck with the inconsistency of those
who do not allow us to express the gratitude due to

THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 47

tlie Church, while they do not hesitate to declare their
obligation to individuals who have benefited them. To
avow that they owe their views of religion and their
present hopes of salvation to this or that distinguished
preacher, appears to them as harmless as it may be
ill itself true and becoming; but if a person ascribes
liis faith and knowledge to the Church, he is thought to
fk^rget his peculiar and unspeakable debt to that Saviour
who died for him. Surely, if our Lord makes man His
instrument of good to man, and if it is possible to be
grateful to man without forgetting the source of all
grace and power, there is nothing wonderful in His
having appointed a company of men as the especial
medium of His instruction and spiritual gifts, and in
consequence, of His having laid upon us the duty ot
gratitude to it. Now this is all I wish to maintain,
what is most clearly (as I think) revealed in Scripture,
that the blessings of redemption come to us through
the \'isible Church ; so that, as we betake ourselves to
a Dispensary for medicine, without attributing praise
or intrinsic worth to the building or the immediate
managers of its stores, in something of the like manner
we are to come to that One Society, to which Christ
has entrusted the office of stewardship in the distribu-
tion of gifts, of which He alone is the Author and real
Dispenser.

In the letter I sent you the other day, I made some
general remarks on this doctrine; now let me continue
the subject.

First, the Sacraments, which are the ordinary means
of grace, are clearly in possession of the Church.
Baptism is an incorporation into a body; and invests
with spiritual blessings, because it is the introduction
so invested. In i Cor. xii. we are taught first, the
Spirit's indwelling in the \'isible Church or body; I do
not say in every member of it, but generally in it; — next,
we are told that the Spirit baptises individuals into that
body. Again, the Lord's Supper carries evidence of its

48 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

social nature even in its name ; it is not a solitary indi-
vidual act, it is a joint communion. Surely nothing is
more alien to Christianity than the spirit of Independ-
ence ; the peculiar Christian blessing, i.e. the presence
of Christ, is upon two or three gathered together, not
on mere individuals.

But this is not all. The Sacraments are committed,
not into the hand of the Church Visible assembled
together (though even this would be no unimportant
doctrine practically), but into certain definite persons,
who are selected from their brethren for that trust. 1
will not here determine who these are in each succes-
sive age, but will only point out how far this principle
itself will carry us. The doctrine is implied in the
original institution of the Lord's Supper, where Christ
says to His Apostles, " Do this." Further, take that
remarkable passage in Matt. xxiv. 45-51. Luke xii.
42-46: "Who then is that faithful and wise Steward,
whom his Lord shall make ruler over His household,
to give them their portion of meat in due season?
Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord, it^hen He
comcth, shall find so doing!" etc. Now I do not in-
quire ivho in every age are the stewards spoken of
(though in my own mind I cannot doubt the line of
Bishops is that Ministry, and consider the concluding
verses fearfully prophetic of the Papal misuse of the
gift ; — by-the-by, at least it shows this, that bad men
may nevertheless be the channels of grace to God's
"household"), I do not ask who are the stewards, but
surely the words, when He cometh, imply that they are
to continue till the end of the world. This reference is
abundantly confirmed by our Lord's parting words to the
eleven; in which, after giving them the baptismal com-
mission, he adds, " Lo ! I am with you al-ways, even
unto the end of the world." If then He was with the
Apostles in a way in which He was not present with
teachers who were strangers to their "fellowship"
(Acts ii. 42), which all will admit, so, in like manner.

THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 49

it cannot be a matter of indifference in any age, what
teachers and fellowship a Christian selects; there must
be those with whom Christ is present, who are His
"Stewards," and whom it is our duty to obey.

As I have mentioned the question of faithfulness and
unfaithfulness in Ministers, I may refer to the passage
in I Cor. iv. where St. Paul, after speaking of himself
and others as "Stewards of the mysteries of God," and
noticing that "it is required of Stewards, that a man
be found faithful," adds, "With me it is a very small
thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judg-
ment . . . X\\Q.rQ.{ort judge nothing before the time."

To proceed, consider the following passage: — " Obey
them that have rule over you, and submit yourselves"
(Heb. xiii. 17). Again, I do not ask tt'/to these are; but
whether this is not a duty, however it is to be fulfilled,
which multitudes in no sense fulfil. Consider the
number of people, professing and doubtless in a
manner really actuated by Christian principle, who
yet wander about from church to church or from
church to meeting, as sheep without a shepherd, or
who choose a preacher merely because he pleases their
taste, and whose first movement towards any clergy-
man they meet, is to examine and criticise his doctrine;
what conceivable meaning do they put upon these
words of the Apostle? Does any one ni/e over them?
do they in any way sxibniit theviselves? Can these
persons excuse their conduct, except on the deplorably
profane plea (which yet I believe is in their hearts
at the bottom of their disobedience), that it matters
little to keep Christ's "least commandments," so that
we embrace the peculiar doctrines of His Gospel?

Some time ago I drew up a sketch of the Scripture
proof of the doctrine of the Visible Church; which with
your leave I will here transcribe. You will observe,
I am not arguing for this or that form of Polity, or
for the Apostolical Succession, but simply the duties
of order, union, ecclesiastical gifts, and ecclesiastical

50 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

obedience; I limit myself to these points, as being per-
suaded that, when they are granted, the others will
eventually follow.

I. That there was a Visible Church in the Apostles'

day.

1. General texts: Matt. xvi'. i8; xviii. 17. i Tim.

iii. 15. Acts passim, etc.

2. Organisation of the Church.

(r.) Diversity of ranks: i Cor. xii. Eph. iv. 4-12.

Rom. xii. 4-8. i Pet.iv. 10, ir.
(2,) Governors: Matt, xxviii. 19. Mark xvi. 15, 16.

John XX. 22, 23. Luke xxii. 19, 20. Gal, ii. 9,

etc.
(3.) Gifts: Luke xii. 42, 43. John xx. 22, 23.
^ Matt, xviii. 18.
(4.) Order: Acts viii. 5, 6, 12, 14, 15, 17; xi. 22,

23; xi. 2, 4; ix. 27; XV. 2, 4, 6, 25; xvi. 4;

xviii. 22; xxi. 17-19, conf. Gal. i. i, 12. i Cor.

xiv. 40. I Thess. v. 14.
(5.) Ordination: Acts vi. 6. i Tim. iv. 14; v.

22. 2 Tim. i. 6. Tit. i. 5. Acts xiii. 3, conf.

Gal. i. I, 12,
(6.) Ecclesiastical obedience: i Thess. v. 12, 13.

Heb. xiii. 17. i Tim. v. 17.
(7.) Rules and discipline: Matt, xxviii. 19. Matt.

xviii. 17. I Cor. v. 4-7. Gal. v. 12, etc. i Cor.

xvi. 1,2. I Cor. xi. 2, 16, etc.
(8.) Unity: Rom. xvi. 17. i Cor. i. 10; iii. 3;

xiv. 26. Col. ii. 5. I Thess. v. 14. 2 Thess.

iii. 6.

II. That the Visible Church, thus instituted by the

Apostles, was intended to continue.
I. Why should it not? The o?i2(s probandi lies with
those who deny this position. If the doctrines and
precepts already cited are obsolete at this day,
why should not the following texts ?^?.^. i Pet.
ii. 13, or e.g. Matt. vii. 14. John iii. 3.

THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 51

2. Is it likely so elaborate a system should be framed,

yet with no purpose of its continuing?

3. The objects to be obtained by it are as necessary

now as then. (i.) Preservation of the faith.
(2.) Purity of doctrine. (3.) Edification of Chris-
tians. (4.) Unity of operation. V'id. Epistles
to Tim. and Tit. passim.

4. If system were necessary in a time of miracles,

much more is it now.

5. 2 Tim. ii. 2. Matt, xxviii. 20, etc.

Take these remarks, as they are meant, as mere
sug-gestions for your private consideration.

[By J. II. Newman; published 1833.]

TRACT XX.

THE. VISIBLE CHURCH.

Part II.

LETTER III.

You have some misgivings, it seems, lest the doctrine
1 have been advocating " should lead to Popery." I
will not, by way of answer, say that the question is not,
whether it will lead to Popery, but whether it is in the
Bible; because it would bring the Bible and Popery
into one sentence, and seem to imply the possibility of
a "communion" between " light and darkness." No ;
it is the very enmity I feel against the Papistical cor-
ruptions of the Gospel, which leads me to press upon
you a doctrine of Scripture, which we are sinfully sur-
rendering, and the Church of Rome has faithfully
retained.

How comes it that a system so unscriptural as the
Popish, makes converts ? because it has in it an element
of truth and comfort amid its falsehoods. And the true
way of opposing it is, not to give up to them that
element which God's providence has preserved to us
also, thus basely surrendering "the inheritance of our
Fathers," but to claim it as our own, and to make use
of it for the purposes for which God has given it to us.
1 will explain what I mean.

Before Christ came. Divine Truth was, as it were, a
pilgrim in the world. The Jews excepted, men who

THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 53

had portions of the Spirit of God knew not their
privilege. The whole force and current of the external
world was against them, acting powerfully on their
imagination, and tempting them to set sight against
faith, to trust the many witnesses who prophesied
falsehood (as if) in the name of the Lord, rather than
the still small voice which spoke within them. Who
can undervalue the power of this fascination, who has
had experience of the world ever so little ? Who can
go at this day into mixed society, who can engage in
politics or other active business, and not find himself
gradually drifting off from the true Rock on which his
faith is built, till he begins in despair to fancy that
solitude is the only safe place for the Christian, or
(with a baser judgment), that strict obedience will not
be required at the last day of those who have been
engaged in active life? If such is now the power of
the world's enchantments, surely much greater was it
before our Saviour came.

Now what did He do for us, in order to meet this
evil? His merciful Providence chose means which
might act as a counter-influence on the imagination.
The visible power of the world enthralled men to a lie;
He set up a Visible Church, to witness the other way,
to witness for Him, to be a matter of fact, as undeniable
as the shining of the sun, that there "tvas such a principle
as conscience in the world, as faith, as fear of God ;
that there 7ven' men who considered themselves bound
to live as His servants. The common answer which
we hear made every day to persons who engage in any
novel undertaking, is, "You will get no one to join
you ; nothing can come of it ; you are singular in your
opinion ; you do not take practical views, but are smit
with a fancy, with a dream of former times," etc. How
cheering it is to a person so circumstanced, to be able
to point to others elsewhere, who actually hold the
same opinions as himself, and exert themselves for the
same objects ! Why ? because it is an appeal to a/ac/,

54 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

which no one can deny ; it is an evidence that the view
which influences him is something external to his own
mind, and not a dream. What two persons see, cannot
be an ideal apparition. Men are governed by such
facts much more than by argumentative proof. These
act upon the imagination. Let a person be told ten
times over that an opinion is true, the fact of its being
said becomes an argument for the truth of it — i.e.^ it is
so with most men. We see from time to time the
operation of this principle of our nature in political
matters. Our American colonies revolt ; France feels
the sympathy of the event, and is revolutionised. Again,
in the same colonies, the Episcopal Church flourishes ;
we Churchmen at home hail it as an omen of the
Church's permanence among ourselves. On the other
hand, what can be more dispiriting than to find a cause
which we advocate, sinking in some other country or
neighbourhood, though there be no reason for con-
cluding that, because it has fallen elsewhere, therefore
it will among ourselves. In order then to supply this
need of our minds, to satisfy the imagination, and so
to help our faith, for this among other reasons Christ
set up a visible Society, His Church, to be as a light
upon a hill, to all the ends of the earth, while time
endures. It is a witness of the unseen world ; a pledge
of it ; and a prefiguration of what hereafter will take
place. It prefigures the ultimate separation of good
and bad, holds up the great laws of God's Moral
Governance, and preaches the blessed truths of the
Gospel. It pledges to us the promises of the next
world, for it is something (so to say) in hand ; Christ
has done one work as the earnest of another. And it
witnesses the truth to the whole world ; awing sinners,
while it enspirits the fainting believer. And in all these
ways it helps forward the world to come ; and further,
as the keeper of the Sacraments, it is an essential
means of the realising it at present in our fallen race.
Nor is it much to the purpose, as regards our duty

THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 55

towards it, what are the feelings and spiritual state of
the individuals who are its officers. True it is, were
the Church to teach heretical doctrine, it might become
incumbent on us (a miserable obligation !) to separate
from it. But, while it teaches substantially the Truth,
we ought to look upon it as one whole, one ordinance
of God, not as composed of individuals, but as a house
of God's building — as an instrument in His hand, to be
used and reverenced for the sake of its Maker.

Now the Papists have retained it ; and so they have
the advantage of possessing an instrument which is, in
the first place, suited to the needs of human nature ;
and next, is a special gift of Christ, and so has a
blessing with it. Accordingly we see that in its
measure success follows their zealous use of it. They
act with great force upon the imaginations of men.
The vaunted antiquity, the universality, the unanimity
of their Church puts them above the varying fashions
of the world, and the religious novelties of the day.
And truly when one surveys the grandeur of their
system, a sigh arises in the thoughtful mind, to think
that we should be separate from them ; Ciwi talis
esses, iitinam nostcr esses! — But, alas ! a union is
impossible. Their communion is infected with hetero-
doxy ; we are bound to flee it, as a pestilence. They
have established a lie in the place of God's truth ; and,
by their claim of immutability in doctrine, cannot undo
the sin they have committed. They cannot repent.
Popery must be destroyed ; it cannot be reformed.

Now then, what is the Christian to do? Is he forced
back upon that cheerless atheism (for so it practically
must be considered) which prevailed in the world before
Christ's coming, poorly alleviated, as it was, by the
received polytheisms of the heathen ? Can we conceive
a greater calamity to have occurred at the time of our
Reformation, one which the Enemy of man would have
been more set on effecting, than to have entangled the
whole of the Church Catholic in the guilt o'i heterodoxy.

56 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

and so have forced every one who worshipped in spirit
and in truth, to flee out of doors into the bleak world,
in order to save his soul ? I do not think that Satan
could have desired any event more eagerly than such
an alternative — viz., to have forced Christians either to
remain in communion with error, or to join themselves
in some such spontaneous union among- themselves, as
is dissolved as easily as it is formed. Blessed be God !
his malice has been thwarted. I do believe it to be one
most conspicuous mark of God's adorable Providence
over us, as great as if we saw a miracle, that Christians
in England escaped in the evil day from either extreme,
neither corrupted doctrinally, nor secularised ecclesiasti-
cally. Thus in every quarter of the world, from North
America to New South Wales, a Zoar has been pro-
vided for those who would fain escape Sodom, yet
dread to be without shelter. I hail it as an omen amid
our present perils, that our Church will not be des-
troyed. He hath been mindful of us ; He will bless us.
He has wonderfully preserved our Church as a true
branch of the Church universal, yet withal preserved it
free from doctrinal error. It is Catholic and Apostolic,
yet not Papistical.

With this reflection before us, does it not seem to be
utter ingratitude to an astonishing Providence of God's
mercy, to be neglectful, as many Churchmen now are,
of the gift ; to attempt unions with those who have
separated from the Church, to break down the partition
walls, and to argue as if religion were altogether and
only a matter of each man's private concern, and that
the State' and Nation were! not bound to prefer the
Apostolical Church to all self-originated forms of
Christianity? But this is a point beside my purpose.
Take the matter merely in the light of human ex-
pedience. Shall we be so far less wise in our genera-
tion than the children of this world, as to relinquish
the support which the Truth receives from the influence
of a visible Church upon the imagination, from the

THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 57

energy of operation which a well-disciplined Body
ensures? Shall we not foil the Papists, not with their
own weapons, but with weapons which are ours as well
as theirs ? or, on the other hand, shall we with a
melancholy infatuation give them up to them ? Depend
upon it, to insist on the doctrine of the Visible Church
is not to favour the Papists, it is to do them the most
serious injury. It is to deprive them of their only
strength. But if we neglect to do so, what will be
the consequence ? Break down the Divine Authority
of our Apostolical Church, and you are plainly pre-
paring the way for Popery in our land. Human nature
cannot remain without visible guides ; it chooses them
for itself, if it is not provided for them. If the Aris-
tocracy and the Church fall, Popery steps in. Political
events are beyond our power, and perhaps out of our
sphere ; but ecclesiastical matters are in the hands of
all Churchmen.

OXKORD,

Pec. 24///, 1833.

[By J. II. NF.WNr.AN.]

TRACT XLVII.

THE VISIBLE CHURCH.
Part III.

LETTER IV.

I AM sorry my delay has been so considerable in answer-
ing your remarks on my Letters on the Church. Indeed
it has been ungrateful in me, for you have given me an
attention unusual with the multitude of religious per-
sons; who, instead of receiving the arguments of others
in simplicity, and candour, seem to have a certain
number of types, or measures of professing Christians,
set up in their minds, to one or other of which they
consider every one they meet with belongs, and who,
accordingly, directly they hear an opinion advanced,
begin to consider whether the speaker be a No, i, 2, or
3, and having rapidly determined this, treat his views
with consideration or disregard, as it may be. I am
far from saying our knowledge of a person's character
and principles should not influence our judgment of his
arguments; certainly it should have great weight. I
consider the cry " measures not men," to be one of the
many mistakes of the day. At the same time there is
surely a contrary extreme, the fault of fancying we can
easily look through men, and understand what each
individual is ; an arbitrary classing of the whole

THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 59

Christian family under but two or three countenances,
and mistaking' one man's doctrine for another's. You
at least have not called me an Arminian, or a High
Churchman, or a Borderer, or one of this or that school,
and so dismissed me.

To pass from this subject. Vou tell me that in my
zeal in advocating the doctrine of the Church Catholic
and Apostolic, I " use expressions and make assump-
tions which imply that the Dissenters are without the
pale of salvation." So let me explain myself on these
points.

You say that my doctrine of the one Catholic Church
in effect excludes Dissenters, nay, Presbyterians, from
salvation. Far from it. Do not think of me as of one
who makes theories for himself in his closet, who
governs himself by book-maxims, and who, as being
secluded from the world, has no temptation to let his
sympathies for individuals rise against his abstract
positions, and can afford to be hard-hearted, and to
condemn by wholesale the multitudes in various sects
and parties whom he never saw. I have known those
among Presbyterians whose piety, resignation, cheerful-
ness, and affection, under trying- circumstances, have
been such, as to make me say to myself, on the
thoughts of my own higher privileges, " Woe unto thee
Chorazin, woe unto thee Bethsaida!" Where little is
given, little will bo required; and that return, though
little, has its own peculiar loveliness, as an acceptable
sacrifice to Him who singled out for praise the widow's
two mites. Was not Israel apostate from the days of
Jeroboam ; yet were there not even in the reig^n of
Ahab, seven thousand souls who were "reserved," an
elect remnant? Does any Churchman wish to place
the Presbyterians, where, as in Scotland, their form of
Christianity is in occupation, in a worse condition under
the Gospel than Ephraim held under the Law? Had
not the ten tribes the schools of the Prophets, and has
not Scotland at least the word of God ? Yet what

6o THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

would be thoug-ht of the Jew who had maintained that
Jeroboam and his kingdom were in no guilt ? and shall
we, from a false charity, from a fear of condemning the
elect seven thousand, scruple to say that Presbyterian-
ism has severed itself from our temple privileges, and
undervalue the line of Levi and the house of Aaron ?
Consider our Saviour's discourse with the woman of
Samaria. While by conversing with her He tacitly
condemned the Jews' conduct in refusing to hold inter-
course with the Samaritans, yet He plainly declared
that "salvation was of the Jews," "Ye worship ye
know not what," He says; "we know what we wor-
ship." Can we conceive His makings light of the differ-
ences between Jew and Samaritan ?

Further, if to whom much is given, of him much will
be required, how is it safe for us to make light of our
privileges, if we have them? is not this to reject the
birth-right ? to hide our talent under a napkin ? When
we say that God has done more for us than for the
Presbyterians, this indeed may be connected with feel-
ings of spiritual pride; but it need not. We may, by
so saying, provoke ourselves to jealousy; for we dare
not deny that, in spite of our peculiar privileges of
communion with Christ, yet even higher saints may lie
hid (to our great shame) among those who have not
themselves the certainty of our especial approaches to
His glorious majesty. Was not Elijah sent to a widow
of Sarepta ? did not Elisha cure Naaman ? and are not
these instances set forward by our Lord Himself as
warnings to us "not to be high-minded, but to fear;"
and, again, as a gracious consolation when we think of
our less favoured brethren ? Where is the narrowness
of view and feeling which you impute to me ? Why
may I not speak out, in order at once to admonish
myself, and to attempt to reclaim to a more excellent
way those who are at present severed from the true
Church.

And what has been said ot an established Presby-

THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 6i

terianism, is true (in its degree) of dissent, when it has
become hereditary, and embodied in institutions.

Further, it is surely parallel with the order of Divine
Providence that there should be a variety, a sort of
graduated scale, in His method of dispensing His
favour in Christ. So far from its being a strange thing'
that Protestant sects are not "in Christ," in the same
fulness that we are, it is more accordant to the scheme
of the world that they should lie between us and
heathenism. It would be strange if there were but
two states, one absolutely of favour, one of disfavour.
Take the world at large, one form of paganism is
better than another. The North American Indians are
theists, and as such more privileged than polytheists.
Mahometanism is a better religion than Hindooism.
Judaism is better than Mahometanism. One may be-
lieve that long-established dissent affords to such as
are born and bred in it a sort of pretext, and is attended
with a portion of blessing (where there is no means of
knowing better), which does not attach to those who
cause divisions, found sects, or wantonly wander from
the Church to the Meeting House; — that what is called
an orthodox sect has a share of Divine favour, which is
utterly withheld from heresy. I am not speaking of
the next world, w-here we shall all find ourselves as
individuals, and where there will be but two states, but
of existing bodies or societies. On the other hand,
why should the corruptions of Rome lead us to deny
her Divine privileges, when even the idolatry of Judah
did not forfeit hers, annul her temple-sacrifice, or level
her to Israel ?

I say all this, merely, for the purpose of suggesting
to those who are " w^eak," some idea of possible modes
in which Eternal Wisdom may reconcile the exuberance
of His mercy in Christ to the whole race of man, with
the placing of it in its fulness in a certain ordained
society and ministry. For myself I prefer to rely upon
the simple word of truth, of which Scripture Is the

62 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

depository, and since Christ has told me to preach the
whole counsel of God, to do so fearlessly and without
doubting- ; not being careful to find ways of smoothing-
strange appearances in His counsels, and of obviating
difficulties, being aware on the one hand that His
thoughts are not our thoughts, nor our ways His ways,
and on the other, that He is ever justified in His say-
ings, and overcomes when He is judged.

Oxford,

The Feast of All Saints [November ist, 1834].

[By J. H. Newman.]

TRACT XV.

ON THE APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION IN
THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

When Churchmen in England maintain the Apostolical
Commission of their Ministers, they are sometimes met
with the objection that they cannot prove it without
tracing their orders back to the Church of Rome; a
position, indeed, which in a certain sense is true. And
hence it is argued that they are reduced to the dilemma,
either of acknowledging they had no right to separate
from the Pope, or, on the other hand, of giving up the
Ministerial Succession altogether, and resting the claims
of their pastors on some other ground; in other words,
that they are inconsistent in reprobating Popery, while
they draw a line between their Ministers and those of
Dissenting Communions.

It is intended, in the pages that follow, to reply to
this supposed difficulty; but first a few words shall be
said, by way of preface, on the doctrine itself, which we
Churchmen advocate.

The Christian Church is a body consisting of Clergy
and Laity: this is generally agreed upon, and may here
be assumed. Now, what we say is, that these two
classes are distinguished from each other, and united to
each other, by the commandment of God Himself; that
the clergy have a commission from God Almighty,
through regular succession from the Apostles, to preach
the Gospel, administer the Sacraments, and guide the
Church; and again, that in consequence the people are
bound to hear them with attention, receive the Sacra-
ment from' their hands, and pay them all dutiful

64 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

obedience. I shall not prove this at length, for it has
been done by others, and indeed the common sense and
understanding of men, if left to themselves, would be
quite sufficient in this case. 1 do but lay before the
reader the following considerations: —

1. We hold, with the Church in all ages, that, when
our Lord, after His resurrection, breathed on His
Apostles and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost, — as
My Father hath sent Me, so send I you ; " He gave
them the power of sending others with a divine commis-
sion, who in like manner should have the power of
sending others, and so on even unto the end; and that
our Lord promised his continual assistance to these
successors of the Apostles in this and all other respects,
when He said " Lo, I am with you" (that is, with
you, and those who shall represent and succeed you)
" alway, even unto the end of the world."

And, if it is plain that the Apostles left successors
after them, it is equally plain that the Bishops are these
Successors. For it is only the Bishops who have ever
been called by the title of Successors ; and there has
been actually a perpetual succession of these Bishops in
the Church, who alone were always esteemed to have
the power of sending other Ministers to preach and
administer the Sacraments. So that the proof of the
doctrine seems to lie in a very small space.

2. But, perhaps it may be as well to look at it in
another point of view. I suppose no man of common
sense thinks himself entitled to set about teaching re-
ligion, administering Baptism and the Lord's Supper,
and taking care of the souls of other people, unless he
has in some 7vq}> been called to undertake the office.
Now, as religion is a business between every man's own
conscience and God Almighty, no one can have any
right to interfere in the religious concerns of another
with the authority of a teacher, unless he is able to
show that it is God that has in some way called and
sent him to do so. It is true, that men may as //'tends

THR APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 65

encourasfe and instruct each other with consent of both
parties; but this is something very different from the
office of a Minister of reliji^ion, who is entitled and called
to "exhort, rebuke," and "rule," " with all authority,"
as well as love and humility.

You may observe that our Lord Himself did not teach
the Gospel, without proving' most plainly that His
Father had sent Him, He and His Apostles proved
their Divine commission by miracles. As miracles,
however, have long ago come to an end, there must be
some other way for a man to prove his right to be a
Minister of religion. And what other way can there
possibly be, except a regular call and ordination by
those who have succeeded to the Apostles ?

3. Further, you will observe that all sects think it
necessary that their Ministers should be ordained by
other Ministers. Now, if this be the case, then the
validity of ordination, even with them, rests on a succes-
sion; and is it not plain that they ought to trace that
succession to the Apostles ? Else, why are they ordained
at all ? And, anyhow, if their Ministers have a commis-
sion, who derive it from private men, much more do the
Ministers of our Church, who actually do derive it from
the Apostles. Surely those who dissent from the Church
have invented an ordinance, as they themselves must
allow; whereas Churchmen, whether rightly or wrongly,
still maintain their succession not to be an invention,
but to be God's ordinance. If Dissenters say \\\ttX order
requires there should be some such succession, this is
true, indeed; but still it is only a testimony to the mercy
of Christ, in having, as Churchmen maintain, given us
such a succession. And this is all it shows; it does
nothing for t/wm; for, their succession, not professing
to come from God, has no power to restrain any fanatic
from setting up to preach of his own will, and a people
with itching ears choosing for themselves a teacher. It
does but witness to a need, without supplying it.

4. I have now given some slight suggestions by way

66 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

of evidence for the doctrine of the Apostolical Succes-
sion, from Scripture, the nature of the case, and the con-
duct of Dissenters. Let me add a word on the usage of
the Primitive Church. We know that the succession of
Bishops, and ordination from them, was the invariable
doctrine and rule of the early Christians. Is it not
utterly inconceivable that this rule should have pre-
vailed from the first age, everywhere, and without
exception, had it not been given them by the Apostles ?

But here we are met by the objection, on which I
propose to make a few remarks, that, though it is true
there was a continual Succession of pastors and teachers
in the early Church who had a Divine commission, yet
that no Protestants can have it ; that we gave it up
when our communion ceased with Rome, in which
Church it still remains; or, at least, that no Protestant
can plead it without condemning the Reformation
itself, for that our own predecessors then revolted and
separated from those spiritual pastors, who, according
to our principles, then had the commission of Jesus
Christ.

Our reply to this is a flat denial of the alleged facts
on which it rests. The English Church did not revolt
from those who in that day had authority by succession
from the Apostles. On the contrary, it is certain that
the Bishops and Clergy in England and Ireland re-
mained the same as before the separation, and that it
was these, with the aid of the civil power, who de-
livered the Church of those kingdoms from the yoke of
Papal tyranny and usurpation, while at the same time
they gradually removed from the minds of the people
various superstitious opinions and practices which had
grown up during the m.iddle ages, and which, though
never formally received by the judgment of the whole
Church, were yet very prev'alent. I do not say the case
might never arise, when it might become the duty of
private individuals to take upon themselves the office of
protesting against and abjuring the heresies of a corrupt

TIIK APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 67

Church. But sucli an extreme case it is unpleasant and
unhealtliy to conteniphite. All I say here is, that this
was not the state of thing's at the time of the Reforma-
tion. The Church then by its proper rulers and officers
reformed itself. There was no new Church founded
among us, but the rights and the true doctrines of the
ancient existing Church were asserted and established.

In proof of this we need only look to the history of
the times. In the year 1534, the Bishops and Clergy oi'
England assembled in their respective convocations of
Canterbury and York, and signed a declaration that the
Pope or Bishop of Rome had iio more jurisdiction in
this country by the word of God than any other foreign
Bishop ; and they also agreed to those acts of the civil
government which put an end to it among us. ^

The people of England, then, in casting off the Pope,
but obeyed and concurred in the acts of their own
spiritual Superiors, and committed no schism. Queen
Mary, it is true, drove out after many years the ortho-
dox Bishops, and reduced our Church again under the
Bishop of Rome; but this submission was only exacted
by force, and in itself null and void; and, moreover, in
matter of fact it lasted but a little while, for on the
succession of Queen Elizabeth, the true Successors of
the Apostles in the English Church were reinstated in
their ancient rights. So, I repeat, there was no revolt,
in any part of these transactions, against those who had
a commission from God; for it was the Bishops and
Clergy themselves who maintained the just rights of
their Church.

But, it seems, the Pope has ever said that our Bishops
were bound by the laws of God and the Church to obey
/i///i ; that they were subject to him; and that they had
no right to separate from him, and were guilty in doing
so; and that accordingly they have involved the people
of ICngland in their guilt ; and, and at all events, that //uy

' Fitie Collier: £'i(/. J/is/., vol. ii. p. 9}.

68 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

cannot complain of their flock disobeying and deserting
them, when they have revolted from the Pope. Let us
consider this point.

Now that there is not a word in Scripture about our
duty to obey the Pope, is quite clear. The Papists
indeed say that he is the Successor of St. Peter; and
that, therefore, he is Head of all Bishops, because St.
Peter bore rule over the other Apostles. But though
the Bishops of Rome were often called the Successors of
St. Peter in the early Church, yet every other Bishop
had the same title. And though it be true that St.
Peter was the foremost of the Apostles, that does not
prove he had any dominion over them. The eldest
brother in a family has certain privileges and a prece-
dence, but he has no power over the younger branches
of it. And so Rome has ever had what is called the
primacy of the Christian Churches ; but it has not there-
fore any right to interfere in their internal administra-
tion; not more of a right than an elder brother has to
meddle with a younger brother's household.

And this is plainly the state of matters between us
and Rome, in the judgment of tJie Ancient Church also,
to which the Papists are fond of appealing, and by which
we are quite ready to stand or fall. In early times, as
is well known, all Christians thought substantially
alike, and formed one great body all over the world,
called the Church Catholic, or Universal. This great
body, consisting of a vast number of separate Churches,
with each of them its own Bishop at its head, was
divided into a number of portions called Patriarchates ;
these again into others called Provinces, and these were
made up of the separate Dioceses or Bishoprics. We
have among ourselves an instance of this last division
in the Provinces of Canterbury and York, which consti-
tute the English Church, each of them consisting of a
number of distinct Bishoprics or Churches. The head
of a Province was called Archbishop, as in the case of
Canterbury and York; the Bishops of those two sees

THE APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 69

being', we know, not only Bishops with Dioceses oi' their
own, but liaving-, over and above this, the place of pre-
cedence among- the Bishops in the same Province. In
like manner, the Bishop at the head of a Patriarchate
was called the Patriarch, and had the place of honour
and certain privileges over all other Bishops within his
own Patriarchate. Now, in the early Christian Church,
there were four or five Patriarchates; c.^., one in the
East, the Head of which was the Bishop of Antioch ;
one in Egypt, the head of which was the Bishop of
Alexandria; and, again, one in the West, the Head of
which was the Bishop of Rome. These Patriarchs, I
say, were the Primates or Head Bishops of their re-
spective Patriarchates : and they had an order of
precedence among themselves, Rome being the first
of them all. Thus the Bishop of Rome, being the first
of the Patriarchs in dignity, might be called the
honorary Primate of all Christendom.

However, as time went on, the Bishop of Rome, not
satisfied with the honours which were readily conceded
to him, attempted to gain power over the whole Church.
He seems to have been allowed the privilege of arhi-
trating in case of appeal from other Patriarchates. If,
e.g., Alexandria and Antioch had a dispute, he was a
proper referee; or if the Bishops of those Churches were
at any time unjustly deprived of their sees, he was a fit
person to interfere and defend them. But, I say, he
became ambitious, and attempted to lord it over God's
heritage. He interfered in the internal management of
other Patriarchates; he appointed Bishops to sees, and
Clergy to parishes which were contained within them,
and imposed on them various relig-ious and ecclesias-
tical usages illegally. And in doings so, surely he
became a remarkable contrast to the Holy Apostle,
who, though inspired, and a universal Bishop, yet
suffered not himself to control the proceedings even of
the Churches he founded; saying to the Corinthians,
"not for that we have dominion over your faith, but

70 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

are helpers of your joy; for by faith ye stand" (2 Cor.
i. 24). This impressive declaration, which seems to be
intended almost as a prophetic warning" against the
times of which we speak, was neglected by the Pope,
who, among other tyrannical proceedings, took upon
him the control of the Churches in Britain, and forbade
us to reform our doctrine and usages, which he had no
right at all to do. He had no pretence for so doing,
because we were altogether independent of him ; the
English and Irish Churches, though in the West, being
exterior to his Patriarchate. Here again, however,
some explanation is necessary.

You must know, then, that from the first there were
portions of the Christian world which were not included
in any Patriarchate, but were governed by themselves.
Such were the Churches of Cyprus, and such were the
British Churches. This need not here be proved; even
Papists have before now confessed it. Now it so hap-
pened, in the beginning of the fifth century, the
Patriarch of Antioch, who was in the neighbourhood
of Cyprus, attempted against the Cyprian Churches
what the Pope has since attempted against us — viz.,
took measures to reduce them under his dominion.
And, as a sign of his authority over them, he claimed
to consecrate their Bishops. Upon which the Great
Council of the whole Christian world assembled at
Ephesus, A.D. 431, made the following decree, which
you will find is a defence of England and Ireland against
the Papacy, as well as of Cyprus against Antioch: —

"An innovation upon the Rule of the Church and the
Canons of the Holy Fathers, such as to affect the
general liberties of Christendom, has been reported to
us by our venerable brother Rheginus, and his fellow
Bishops of Cyprus, Zeno, and Evagrius. Wherefore,
since public disorders call for extraordinary remedies,
as being more perilous, and whereas it is against
ancient usage that the Bishop of Antioch should ordain
in Cyprus, as has been proved to us in this Council both

THE APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 71

in words and writing", by most orthodox men, We
therefore decree, that the Prelates of the Cyprian
Churches shall be suffered without let or hindrance to
consecrate Bishops by themselves ; and moreover, that
the same nilc shall be observed also in other dioceses and
provinces everywhere, so that no Bishop shall interfere in
another province which has not from the very first been
under himself and his predecessors ; and further, that if
any one has so encroached and tyrannised, he must
relinquish his claim that the Canons of the Fathers be
not infringed, nor the priesthood be made an occasion
and pretence for the pride of worldly power, nor the
least portion of that freedom unawares be lost to us,
which our Lord Jesus Christ, who bought the world's
freedom, vouchsafed to us when He shed His own
blood. Wherefore it has seemed good to this Holy
Ecumenical Council, that the rights of eveiy province
should be preserved pure and inviolate, which have always
belonged to it, according to the usage which has ever
obtained, each Metropolitan having full liberty to take a
copy of the acts for his own security. And should any
rule be adduced repugnant to this decree, it is hereby
repealed."

Here we have a remarkable parallel to the dispute
between Rome and us ; and we see what was the de-
cision of the General Church upon it. It will be observed
the decree is passed for all provinces in all future times,
as well as for the immediate exigency. Now this is a
plain refutation of the Romanists on their own prin-
ciples. They profess to hold the Canons of the Primitive
Church: the very line they take, is to declare the Church
to be one and the same in all ages. Here then they
witness against themselves. The Pope has encroached
on the rights of other Churches, and violated the Canon
above cited. Herein is the differences between his re-
lation to us and that of any civil Ruler, whose power
was in its origin illegally acquired. Doubtless we are
bound to obey the Monarch under whom we are born,

72 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

even though his ancestor were a usurper. Time
legitimises a conquest. But this is not the case in
spiritual matters. The Church goes hy fixed laws ; and
this usurpation has all along been counter to one of her
acknowledged standing ordinances, founded on reasons
of universal application.

After the Canon above cited, it is almost superfluous
to refer to the celebrated rule of the First Nicene
Council, A.D. 325, which, in defending the rights of the
Patriarchates, expresses the same principle in all its
simple force and majesty.

" Lx't the ancient usages prevail, which are received in
Egypt, Libya, and Pentapolis, relative to the authority
of the Bishop of Alexandria ; as they are observed in
the case of the Bishop of Rome. And so in Antioch
too, and other provinces, let the prerogatives of the
Churches be preserved."

On this head of the subject, I will but notice, that, as
the Council of Ephesus controlled the ambition of
Antioch, so in like manner did St. Austin rebuke Rome
itself for an encroachment of another kind on the
liberties of the African Church.

Bingham says: —

" When Pope Zosimus and Celestine took upon them
to receive Appellants from the African Churches, and
absolve those whom they had condemned, St. Austin
and all the African Churches sharply remonstrated
against this, as an irregular practice, violating the laivs
of unity, and the settled rules of ecclesiastical com-
merce; which required, that no delinquent excommuni-
cated in one Church should be absolved in another,
without giving satisfaction to his own Church that
censured him. And therefore, to put a stop to this
practice and check the exorbitant power which Roman
Bishops assumed to themselves, they first made a Law
in the Council of Milevis, that no African Clerk should
appeal to any Church beyond sea, under pain of being
excluded from communion in all the African Churches.

THE APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 73

And then, afterwards, meetinij- in a i^eneral Synod, they
dispatched letters to the Bishop of Rome, to remind
him how contrary this practice was to the Canons of
Nice, which ordered, That all controversies should be
ended in the places where they arose, before a council
and the Metropolitan."^

Thus I have shown that our Bishops, at the time of
the Reformation, did but vindicate their ancient rights;
were but actinj;- as <jrateful, and therefore jealous cham-
pions of the honour of the old Fathers, and the sanctity
of their institutions. Our duty surely in such matters
lies in neither encroaching nor conceding to encroach-
ment; in taking our rights as we find them, and using
them; or rather in regarding them altogetlier as trusts,
the responsibility of which we cannot avoid. As the
same Apostle says, " Let every man abide in the same
calling, wherein he is called." And, if Lngland and
Ireland had a plea for asserting their freedom under
any circumstances, much more so, when the corrup-
tions imposed on them by Rome even made it a duty to
do so.

1 shall answer briefly one or two objections, and so
bring these remarks to an end.

I. First, it may be said, that Rome has withdrawn
our orders, and excommunicated us ; therefore we
cannot plead any longer our Apostolical descent. Now
I will not altogether deny that a Ministerial Body might
become so plainly apostate as to lose its privilege of
ordination. But, however this may be, it is a little too
hard to assume, as such an objection does, the very
point in dispute. When we are proved to be heretical
in doctrine, then will be the time to begin to consider
whether our heresy is of so grievous a character as to
invalidate our orders ; but, till then, we may fairly and
fearlessly maintain that our Bishops are still invested
with the power of ordination.

' />/;/^//. Autitj. xvi. i, § 14.

74 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

2. But it may be said on the other hand, that if we
do not admit ourselves to be heretic, we necessarily
must accuse the Romanists of being- such; and that
therefore, on our own ground we have really no valid
orders, as having received them from an heretical
Church. But even if Rome be so considered now, at
least she was not heretical in the primitive ages; no one
will say that she was then Antichrist.^ Nay, as to the
middle ages, we may say with the learned Dr. Field,
' that none of those points of false doctrine and error
which Romanists now maintain, and we condemn, were
the doctrines of the Church before the Reformation
constantly delivered or generally received by all them
that were of it, but doubtfully broached, and devised
without all certain resolution, or factiously defended by
some certain only, who as a dangerous faction adul-
terated the sincerity of the Christian verity, and broug-ht
the Church into miserable bondage. "^ Accordingly,
acknowledging and deploring all the errors of the
middle ages, yet we need not fear to maintain that
after all they were but the errors of individuals, thoug-h
of large numbers of Christians; and we may safely
maintain that they no more interfere with the validity
of the ordination received by our Bishops from those
who lived before the Reformation, than errors of faith
and conduct in a priest interfere with the grace of the
Sacraments received at his hands.

' The following is from the life of Bernard Gilpin, vid. Wordsworth's
Ecclesiastical Biography, vol. iv. p. 94: — "Mr. Gilpin would often say
that the Churches of the Protestants were not able to give any firnie and
solid reason of their separation besides this, to wit, that the Pope is
Antichrist. . . . The Church of Rome kept the rule of faith intire,
until that rule was changed and altered hy ihc Council of Trent, and
from that time it seemed to him a matter of necessitie to come out of the
Church of Rome, that so that Church which is true and called out from
thence might follow the word of God. . . . But he did not these things
violently, but by degrees."

- See Field on the Church, Appendix to Book III., where he proves
all this. See also Birkbeck's Protestant''s Evidence.

'11 IK APOSTOLICAL SUCCKSSION. 75

3. It may be said that we throw blame on Luther,
and others of the foreign Reformers, who did act with-
out the authority of their Bishops. But we reply, that
it has been always ag^reeable to the principles of the
Church, that, if a Bishop tauf^^ht and upheld what was
contrary to the orthodox faith, the Clergy and people
were not bound to submit, but were obliged to maintain
the true religion; and if excommunicated by such
Bishops, they were never accounted to be cut off from
the Church. Luther and his associates upheld in the
main the true doctrine; and though it is not necessary
to defend every act of fallible men like them, yet we are
fully justified in maintaining that the conduct of those
who defended the truth against the Romish party, even
in opposition to their spiritual rulers, was worthy of
great praise. At the same time it is impossible not to
lament, that they did not take the first opportunity to
place themselves under orthodox Bishops of the Apos-
tolical succession. Nothing, as far as we can judge,
was more likely to have preserved them from that
great decline of religion which has taken place on the
Continent.

[I?y J. H. Newman and William Palmer (see Inlroduction,
p. xxi. ); publislied 1S33.]

^TRACT XVIII.

THOUGHTS OX THE BENEFITS OF THE
SYSTEM OF FASTING ENJOINED BY
OUR CHURCH.

To a person but little accustomed to observe any stated
Fasts, the directions given by our Church on this sub-
ject would probably occasion two very opposite feel-
ing^s. On the one hand, he would be struck by the
practical character and thoughtfulness evinced by some
of the regulations; on the other, he would probably feel
repelled by the number of days, and the variety of occa-
sions, which the Church has appointed to be hallowed.
Most Christians, who really loved their Saviour (unless
prevented by the habits of early education), would prob-
ably see something appropriate and affectionate in the
selection of the Friday for a weekly commemoration of
their Saviour's sufferings, and of humiliation for their
own sins which caused them ; or, at all events, they
would feel that there was some thoughtfulness in the
direction annexed, that this weekly Fast should not
interfere with the Christian joyousness brought back by
the Festival of their Lord's Nativity when these should
in the cycle of years coincide. Again, if they should
fail to appreciate the wisdom of appointing certain days
to be kept sacred in memory of the holy men who left
all to follow Christ, and consequently should be rather
deterred than attracted by observing that many of these
days w-ere ushered in by a preceding Fast ; still they
would hardly fail to be struck by the provision, that this
previous Fast should not interfere with the Christian's

THOUGHTS ON lilCNRFITS OK KASTINO. 77

weekly Festival of his Lord's Resurrection, but that " if
any of these Feast-days should fall upon a Monday,
then the Fast-day should be kept on the Saturday, not
upon the Sunday next before it."' Aj^ain, he must
observe that durinij certain periods of the Church's
year, which are times of especial joy to the faithful
Christian, those, namely, which follow the Nativity and
the Resurrection, these preparatory Fasts are altogether
omitted. Some or other of these reg'ulations would
probably strike most thoug-htful minds as instances of
consideration and reflection in those who framed them.
The Clerg-y, more especially, would appreciate, ab-
stractedly at least, the imitation of the Apostolic
practice of Fasting-, when any are to be ordained to
any holy function in the Church ; and some probably
will feel mournfully, that if the Church were now more
uniformly to observe those acts of Fastin*^ and Prayer
which were thoug^ht needful, before even Paul and
Barnabas'- were separated for God's work, we should
have more reasonable grounds to hope that many of
our Clerg-y would be filled with the spirit of Barnabas
and Paul.

On the other hand, it is naturally to be expected that
one not accustomed to any outward restraint in this
matter would feel indisposed to ordinances so detailed ;
that although he could reconcile to himself the one or
the other of these observances which most recom-
mended themselves to his Christian feelings, he would
think the whole a burdensome and minute ceremonial,
perhaps unbefitting a spiritual worship, and interfering
with the liberty wherewith Christ has made him free.
This is very natural ; for we are by nature averse to
restraint, and the abuse of some maxims of Pro-
testantism, such as the "right of private judgment,"
has made us yet more so : we are reluctant to yield to

' See Tables prefixed to the Common Prayer Bonk.
- Acts xiii. 24, iv. 23.

78 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

an unreasoning- authority, and to submit our wills,
where our reason has not first been convinced; and
the prevailing maxims of the day have strengthened this
reluctance; we have been accustomed to do "every
one that which was right in his own eyes," and are
jealous of any authority, except that of the direct in-
junctions of the Bible: in extolling also the spirituality
of our religion, we have, I fear, intended covertly to
panegyrise our own, and so, almost wilfully withdraw
our sight from those more humbling provisions which
are adapted to us, as being- yet in the flesh: in our zeal
for the blessed truths of the cross of Christ, and of our
sanctification by the Holy Spirit, we have begun in-
sensibly to disparage other truths, which bring us less
immediately into intercourse with God, to neglect the
means and ordinances, which touch not upon the very
centre of our faith.

The practical system of the Church is altogether at
variance with that which even pious Christians in these
days have permitted themselves to adopt ; much which
she has recommended or enjoined would now be looked
upon as formalism, or outward service: in our just fear
of a lifeless formalism, we have forgotten that wherever
there is regularity, there must be forms ; that every
Christian feeling must have its appropriate vehicle of
expression ; that the most exalted act of Christian devo-
tion, that our closest union with our Saviour, is de-
pendent upon certain forms; that the existence of forms
does not constitute formalism ; that where the Spirit of
Christ is, there the existence of forms serves only to
give regularity to the expression, to chasten what there
might yet remain of too individual feeling", to consolidate
the yet divided members " in the unity of the faith, and
of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man,
unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ."

Yet, as in every case in which the current of prevail-
ing opinions, either in faith or practice, has for some

THOUGHTS ON BENEFirs Ol' KASTING. 7.)

time set in one direction, there have not been uaiilini;-
indications that Christians have lelt their system incom-
plete; that there was somethini;- in the tranquil piety oi'
former days which they would i^-ladly incorporate into
the zealous excitement of the present; that althoujjfh
relig'ion is in one sense strictly individual, yet in the
means by which it is kept alive it is essentially expan-
sive and social ; that the only error here to be avoided
is a reliance upon forms ; that the forms themselves, as
soon as they are employed to realise thing's eternal, and
to cherish man's communion with his Saviour, become
again spiritual and edifying.

It is accordingly remarkable, in how many cases
individuals have of late been led back by their own
Christian experience to observances, in some respect
similar to those which the Church had before suggested
and provided for them. In the more advanced stages
of their Christian course, or when, by a period of sick-
ness or distress, God has granted them a respite from
the unceasing circle of active duty, they have seen the
value of those rites, the scrupulous adherence to which
they once reg^arded as sig"ns of lifelessness. In either
case they would willingly own that the union provided
by the Church is not only more ordered, and less liable
to exception, than one which individuals could frame;
but also, that, as being more comprehensive, it would
more effectually realise their objects.

It is granted, then, that the proportion of the Fast
Days enjoined by the Church will, to persons unaccus-
tomed to observe them, appear over-large, and the
variety of the occasions for which they are adapted,
over-minute and arbitrary. The question, however,
occurs, whether we ought to be influenced by such con-
siderations to reject the entire system, or whether we
ought not rather to be moved by the indications of a
practical character evinced in some regulations, to make
the trial of those whose benefit we do not at present
discern. Now it would seem plain that, in a pructical

8o THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

matter, he who from the traces of wisdom or thoui^ht-
fulness in one regulation should infer the probable
wisdom and reasonableness of others emanating from
the same source, would act more wisely than one who,
on account of the apparent unreasonableness and super-
fluity of some provisions, should proceed to condemn
the whole. For in practical matters the great test of
the expediency of any habit, for which we have not
direct divine authority, is experience: they only who
have tried a line of conduct, or narrowly watched its
effects upon others, can speak with certainty as to its
result. Of all the lesser courses of action which tend
so powerfully to form our moral habits, it would be im-
possible probably, for one who had not tried their effect,
to predict certainly what that effect would be: or if we
could guess the nature of the effect, certainly we should
not be able to foresee its degree and amount. With the
exception of gross and flagrant sins, whose character
and wages we know from authority, there is probably no
one line of action with regard to which we might not
beforehand prove very plausibly to ourselves, that it
would not have the effects to which it is in fact tending,
and which we afterwards perceive to have been its
natural results. Yet such abstract reasonings about the
possibilities or tendencies of things would not be listened
to in any other case. When sick, men easily listen to
the means, however improbable, by which any disease,
resembling their own, was removed. Be it a poison
which they are bidden to take, yet if it be proved satis-
factorily that, in cases like their own, that poison has
been the messenger of health, they would not hesitate.
They would listen to no abstract reasonings, that it was
improbable that what had been an instrument of death
could be their life ; they would look to those whom it
had restored to health, and would do the like. The
sight of one person, undeniably raised from a state of
death to life, would affect men more than any a priori

THOUC.HTS ON BICNICFITS OK FASTINO. 8i

donionstralioii that the iiiediciiie was pernicious or
deadly. Much more then, since this medicine has been
recommended to us by the ijreat Physician of our souls;
since it has been beneficial, wherever it has not been
substituted for all other means of restoring- or maintain-
ing our spiritual health. The only question open to us,
is— not whether Fasting- be in itself beneficial, this has
been determined for us by God Himself, but — whether
certain regulations concerning it tend to promote or to
diminish its efficacy; and in this case the testimony of
those who have proved their value, is manifestly ot
primary importance; the pre-conceived opinions of such
as have not tried them are but mere presumptions. When
then, in the regulations preserved in our Church, we
find instances of thought which imply that the framers
of these rules formed them upon their own experience,
or again, w-hen in the histories of these holy men, we
see that they habitually practised what they inculcated,
we have evidence of the value of their advice, which we
may not, without peril of injury to our souls, neglect.

It was in part by some such process as the preced-
ing, that the writer of these pages was led to consider
what people have come habitually to regard as the
less solemn Fasts of the Church, and now ordinarily
pay less regard to ; for the first day of Lent, and the
annual commemoration of our Saviour's sufferings, are,
I suppose, still very commonly observed. As the history
of every mind is, under some modifications, the mirror
of many others, it may to some be useful to see by what
course of reflection or experience an individual was
brought to feel the value of the regulations of the
Church in this respect.

It will perhaps to some seem strange to find placed
among the foremost of these advantages, the Protection
thereby afforded — protection against one's self; protec-
tion against the habits and customs of the world, which
sorely let and hinder one in systematically pursuing

82 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

what one imagines might be beneficial. I speak not, of
course, of any known duty; in that case the opinion or
practice or invitations of the world were nothing: but
with regard to those indefinite duties or disciplines
which one thinks may be performed as well at one
period as at another, and which on that very account
are frequently not performed at all, or at best occa-
sionally only, and superficially. No thoughtful Christian
will doubt of the propriety and duty of fasting, whatever
he may understand by the term. "The bridegroom is
taken away from us, and so we must fast in these
days:"^ the Apostles were " in fastings often:"'^ in
fastings," as well as in suflFerings for the Gospel, or by
pureness, by knowledge, by all the graces which the
Holy Ghost imparted, they approved themselves the
Ministers of God. Our blessed Saviour has given us
instructions ho7V we ought to fast,'* and therefore im-
plied that His disciples would fast: He has promised
that His Father, in the sight of all the Holy Angels,
shall reward the right performance of this exercise:
how then should it not be a duty? "Our Lord and
Saviour," says Hooker,' "would not teach the manner
of doing, much less pVopose a reward for doing, that
which were not both holy and acceptable in God's
sight." And yet, after all the allowances which can be
made for that fasting which is known to our Father
only who seeth in secret, one cannot conceal from one's
self that this duty is in these days very inadequately
practised. It is, in fact, a truth almost proverbial, that

^ Matt. ix. 15; Mark ii. 20; Luke v. 35.

^ 2 Cor. xi. 27. These were voluntary l-a>ib; St. Paul had just
spoken of involuntary privation, "in hunger and thirst." On c. vi. 5
even Calvin says, " St. Paul doth not mean hunger which arose from
want, but the voluntary exercise of abstinence." So Whitby paraphrases
V. 4, 5, "constantly enduring all sorts of sufferings, and exercising all
kinds of self-denial for the Gospel's sake."

=* Ibid., vi. 5. * Matt. vi. 16-1S.

' Eccl. Pol., b. V. § 72. Bp. Taylor, Rule of Conscience, b. ii. c. 3,
rule O.

THOUGHTS ON BENEFITS OF FASTING. 83

a duty which may be performed at any time, is in great
risk of being neglected at all times. The early Christians
felt this, and appointed the days of our Blessed Saviour's
betrayal and crucifixion, the Wednesday and Friday of
each week,^ to be days of fasting and especial humilia-
tion. Those days, in which especially the bridegroom
was taken away, the days, namely, in which He was
crucified and lay in the grave, were, besides, early con-
secrated as Fasts by the widowed Church. Nor was it
because they were in perils, which we are spared ;
because they were in deaths oft, that they practised or
needed this discipline. Quite the reverse. Their whole
life was a F'ast, a death to this world, a realising of
things invisible. It was when dangers began to miti-
gate, when Christianity became (as far as the world was
concerned) an easy profession, it was then that the peril
increased, lest their first simplicity should be corrupted,
their first love grow cold! Then^ those who had
spiritual authority in the Church increased the stated
Fasts, in order to recall that holy earnestness of life
which the recentness of their redemption, and the
constant sense of their Saviour's presence, had before
inspired. Fasts were not merely the voluntary discip-
line of men, whose conversation was in heaven ; they
were adopted and enlarged in periods of ease, of
temptation, of luxury, of self-satisfaction, of growing"
corruption.

To urge that Fasts were abused by the later Romish
Church, is but to assert that they are a means of grace
committed to men ; that they would subsequently be
unduly neglected was but to be expected by any one
who knows the violent vacillations of human im-
petuosity. It was then among the instances of calm
judgment in the Reformers of our Prayer-Book that,
cutting off the abuses which before prevailed, the vain

' See Bingham, Antiq. of the Christian Church, b. xxi. c. 3.
- Cassian. CoUat. xxi. c. 30, ap. Bingham, b. xxi. c. i.

84 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

distinctions of meats, the luxurious abstinences, the luc-
rative dispensations, they still prescribed Fasting "to
discipline the flesh, to free the spirit, and render it more
earnest and fervent to prayer, and as a testimony and
witness with us before God of our humble submission to
His high Majesty, when we confess our sins unto Him,
and are inwardly touched with sorrowfulness of heart,
bewailing the same in the affliction of our bodies."^

Our Reformers omitted that which might be a snare
to men's consciences ; they left it to every man's
Christian prudence and experience, how he would fast ;
but they prescribed the days upon which he should fast,
both in order to obtain a unity of feeling and devotion
in the members of Christ's body, and to preclude the
temptation to the neglect of the duty altogether. Nor
is the interference in this matter any thing insulated in
our system, or one which good men would object to,
had not our unhappy neglect of it now made it seem
strange and foreign to our habits. In some things we
are accustomed to perform a duty, which is such inde-
pendently of the authority of the Church, in the way in
which the Church has prescribed, and because she has
so appointed. We assemble ourselves together on the
Lord's day, because God has directed us by His Apostle
not to forsake such assemblies ; but we assemble our-
selves twice upon that day rather than once, not upon
any reason of the abstract fitness of so doing, but
because the Church has prescribed it. And yet we
should rightly think that it argued great profaneness
of mind, and a culpable carelessness of our privileges,
if we were habitually to neglect this ordinance, on the
ground that God has not in His Word directly enjoined
it. And probably, at an early period of our lives (per-
haps even later, when indisposition or indolence or any
prevailing temptation has beset us), there are few
amongst us who have not owed their regular persever-

^ First Part of the Homily on Fasting.

THOUr.HTS ON BENEFITS OF FASTING. 85

ance in public worship to this ordinance of the Church :
there is no one assuredly who, havin*;- broken this ordi-
nance, has afterwards by God's mercy been brou^-ht
back to join more uniformly in the public worship of his
God and Saviour, who has not been thankful for this
restriction. This then is protection.^

Again, to search the Scriptures is a duty expressly
enjoined by our Saviour. The Church has stepped in
to direct this study, and prescribed that nearly the
whole of the O. T. should be read in each year, the
N. T. thrice in the same period, the Psalms once every
month. Since our Daily Service has been nearly lost,
many pious individuals, it is well known, have habitually
read just that portion which the Church has allotted.
Now, laying" aside certain cases in which this duty will
be lifelessly performed (for such there will be under any
system), can any one doubt that those who have from
childhood been trained to follow this direction of the
Church, have read their Bible more reg-ularly and more
fully than others? and has not the Word of God often
exerted its power even when it has been read simply as
an act of duty, and when but for this direction it would
not have been read at all?

' " No doubt that penitency is, as prayer, a thing acceptable to God,
be it in public or in secret. Howbeit, as in the one, if men were only
left to their own voluntary meditations in their closets, and not drawn
by laws and orders unto the open assemblies of the Church, that there they
may join with others in prayer, it may soon be conjectured what
Christian devotion would that way come unto in a short lime; even so
in the other, we are by sufficient experience taught how little it
>K)oteth to tell men of washing away their sins with tears of repentance,
and so to leave them altogether to themselves. O Lord, what heaps of
grievous transgressions have we committed, the best, the perfectcst, the
most righteous among us all, and yet clean past them over unsorrowed
for, and unrepented of. only because the Church hath forgotten utterly
how to bestow her wonted times of discipline, wherein the public ex-
ample of all was unto every particular person a most effectual means to
put them often in mind, and even in a manner to draw them to that,
which now we all quite and clean forgot, as if penitency were no part
of a Christian man's duty." — Hooker, 7. c.

i

86 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

The like has undoubtedly taken place even in the
celebration of the Supper of our Lord. Individuals
have been induced to join, and that beneficially to them-
selves, in the Communion even of their Saviour's Body
and Blood just so often in the year as their Church has
prescribed to them. This is not so unusual a case as it
might seem. One cannot doubt that in many cases,
where the Holy Communion is celebrated but three
times in the year, this is so done, because such is the
smallest number of which the Church admits, and the
Minister supposes that his flock would not join with him
more frequently. Had the Church made no such regu-
lation, many probably, who now partake three times a
year, might not have joined even thus often; yet it
would not be true to say that such persons in all cases
partook without real devotion, or any love to their
Saviour. Again, where there are opportunities of a
monthly Communion, there may be some who would
not have desired the privilege, unless the provision had
been made for them, and they had been invited by the
Church so to do; yet will it not of necessity follow that
they partake coldly or unacceptably. A warmer love
would indeed lead the one to a more frequent, the other
to a more glad Communion ; nor have such persons well
understood the principles of their Church; still God for-
bid that we should judge that they had not partaken
worthily and devotionally.

Here again then is protection: in each case we have
a command of God, obeyed in such wise as is prescribed
by the Ministers, whom He has made the Stewards of
His Word and Sacraments; and since in these cases we
admit their regulation, why should we think it strange
or incongruous that they have given us their pious
admonitions in another ordinance of God?

Nor is it to the undecided, or the timid, or the
hesitating, or the novice only, that this protection is
beneficial; although no reflecting Christian will speak
lightly of the value of any means which tend to

THOUGHTS ON BENEFITS OF FASTING. 87

strengthen the bruised reed or to kindle anew the
smouldering- flax. The comparison of our own times
with those of the Reformers were proof enough of the
benefit of authoritative interposition in these matters.
Is human nature changed, or have we discovered some
more royal road by which to arrive at the subjugation
of the body, the spiritualising of the affections? or have
we, even from without, fewer temptations to luxury and
self-indulgence? or will not even the more pious and
decided Christians among us confess, upon reflection,
that they had probably been now more advanced, had
they in this point adhered to the Ancient Discipline of
our Church? Our Reformers kept and enjoined one
hundred and eight days in each year, either entirely or
in part, to be in this manner sanctified: two-sevenths of
each year they wished to be in some way separated by
acts of self-denial and humiliation. Let any one con-
sider what proportion of each year he has himself so
consecrated, and whether, had he followed the ordi-
nances of the Church, his spirit would not probably
have been more chastened and lowly, more single in
following even what he deems his duty, whether self
would not have been more restrained, whether he would
not have walked more humbly with his God.

Yet authority is a valuable support against the world,
even to minds which yet are not inclined to compromise
with the world unlawfully. There are many situations
in life in which it were almost impossible to continue,
without observation, a system of habitual and regular
Fasting, certainly not one, attended with those accom-
paniments, which the Feathers of our Church thought it
desirable to unite with it. It is true that every F'ast
may be made a F'east, and every Feast a Fast ; that as
far as self-denial is concerned, if there be a steadfast
purpose, the object may perhaps be as well accomplished
in the midst of plenty and luxury, as by the purposed
spareness of private board ; it is possible also, that the
acts might be in some measure concealed; still there are

88 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

very many minds, and those such as one would be the
most anxious to protect, to whom the very suspicion
that they might be observed, would be matter of pain
and a species of profanation ; they would shrink from
anything which might be construed into Pharisaic
abstinence, or which would seem to pretend to more
than ordinary measures of Christian prudence. To
such mild and unobtrusive spirits, the recommendation
or direction of the Church is an invaluable support;
they may now adopt the line of conduct which they
love, unimpeded by any scruple, lest their good should
be evil spoken of; they are acting under authority; they
pretend to do nothing more than the Founders of their
Church have deemed expedient for every one; their
conduct involves no lofty pretensions; they follow in
simplicity and faithfulness an old and trodden track,
which has been marked out for them as plain and
safe.

The first advantage then which may result from the
authoritative interposition of the Church in regulating
this duty, is the securing of greater regularity and more
uniform perseverance in its performance; not un-
doubtedly as in itself an end, but as leading to great
and important ends; for as those pious men, who laid
so much stress thereon, themselves say, "when it
respecteth a good end, it is a good work; but the end
being evil, the work is also evil."^ " Fasting is not to
be commended as a duty, but as an instrument; and, in
that sense, no man can reprove it, or undervalue it,
but he that knows neither spiritual acts nor spiritual
necessities. "-

But further, it is not even true that all the purposes
of Fasting can be attained by mere self-denial in the
midst of luxury. For this acquisition of the habit of
self-denial, although an important object, is by no

^ First Part of ihe Homily on Fasting.
2 Bishop T.iylor, IVorks, iv. 212.

THOUGHTS ON BENEFITS OF FASTING. 89

means the sole end of Fasting'.^ The great purpose, in
connection with which it is chiefly mentioned in Holy
Scripture, is prayer. The influences of Society, rightly
chosen, may dispose the mind to more fervent (possibly
only more excited) prayer; it is solitude generally, or
communion with a single friend, which brings us to a
humble, contrite, lowly intercourse with our God. In
the present day, the first paramount evil which destroys
its tens of thousands, is probably self-indulgence; the
second, which hinders thousands in their progress
heavenwards, is the being "busy and careful about
many things," whether temporal or spiritual. "We
have kept the vineyards of our mother's children, but
our own vineyards have we not kept." The tendency
of the age is to activity, and we have caught its spirit;
if we be but active about our Master's calling, we deem
ourselves secure; we think not, until we are precluded
from active exertion, "how much activity belongs to
some (ag-es and some) natures, and that this nature is
often mistaken for grace."- Meanwhile an activity

• "Much hurt hath grown to the Church of God through a false
imagination that Fasting standeth men in no stead for any spiritual
respect, but only to take down the frankness of nature, and to tame the
wildness of the flesh. Whereupon the world being too bold to surfeit,
doth now blush to fast, supposing that men, when they fast, do rather
bewray a disease, than exercise a virtue. I much wonder what they,
who are thus persuaded, do think, what conceit they have concerning
the Fasts of the Patriarchs, the Prophets, the Apostles, our Lord Jesus
Christ Himself." — Hooker's Eccl. Pol., b. v. § 72.

"If the Church intend many good ends in the Canon, anyone is
sufficient to tie the law upon the conscience, because, for that one good
end, it can be serviceable to the soul; and indeed Fasting is of that
nature, that it can be a ministry of repentance by the affliction, and it
can be a help to prayer, by taking off the loads of flesh and a full
stomach ; and it can be aptly ministerial to contemplation. Now,
because every one is concerned in some one or more of these ends of
Fasting, all people are included within the circles of the law, unless by
some other means they be exempted." — Bp. Taylor, Rule of (Conscience,
b. iii. c. 4, rule 19. See also Hammond's Practical Catechism, b. iii.

§3-

- A Fragment, written in illness by the Rev. Richard Cecil.

90 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

which leads us not inwards, has taken place of that
tranquil retiring meditation on the things of the unseen
world which formed the deep, absorbing, contemplative
piety of our forefathers: even the conception of the joys
of heaven, which very many of us form, is but a glorified
transcript of our life here; we look, when through God's
mercy in Christ we shall be delivered from the burden
of the flesh, to be like the "Ministers of His who do
His pleasure"; but we look not, comparatively at least,
to that which our Fathers longed for, to be with Christ,
and to see Him as He is. Our age is in general too
busy, too active, for deep and continued self-observa-
tion, or for thoughtful communion with our God. It
would not be too broad or invidious a statement to say,
that for real insight into the recesses of our nature, or
for deep aspirations after God, we must for the most
part turn to holy men of other days: our own furnish us
chiefly with that which they have mainly cherished, a
general abhorrence of sin ; they guide us not to trace it
out in the lurking corners of our own hearts ; they teach
us to acknowledge generally the corruption of our
nature, the necessity of a Redeemer, and the love we
should feel towards Him ; but they lead us not to that
individual and detailed knowledge of our own personal
sinfulness, whence the real love of our Redeemer can
alone flow. A religious repose and a thoughtful con-
templation would be a second advantage of complying
in this respect with the instructions of our Church.^

Braced and strung by retirement into ourselves, and
tranquil meditation upon God, we should return to our

^ "It is best to accompany our Fasting with the retirements of re-
ligion and the enlargements of charily; giving to others what we deny
to ourselves.'" — Bishop Taylor, Works, iii. I02.

"Fasting, saith Tertullian, is an act of reverence towards God. The
end thereof, sometimes elevation of mind ; sometimes the purpose
thereof clean contrary. The reason why Moses in the mount did so
long fast, was mere divine speculation; the reason why David, humilia-
tion."— Hooker, /. c.

Our Church recognises the union of these objects both in her homilies

THOUGHTS ON BENEFITS OF FASTING. 91

active duties with so much more efficiency, as we
iHirselves had become holier, humbler, calmer, more
abstracted from self, more habituated to refer all
ihinijs to God. Were human activity alone eng-aged
on both sides, then might we the rather justify the
prevailing- notions of the day, that energy is to be met
by counter-energy alone: but now, since " we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of
this world," it especially behoves us to look wherein
our great strength lies, and to take heed that "the
weapons of our warfare be not carnal." It is tempting
to adopt into the service of God the weapons or the
mode of warfare which in the hands of His enemies we
see to be efficacious ; but the faithful soldier of Christ
must not go forth with weapons which he has not
proved ; the Christian's armoury, as the Apostle goes
on to describe it, is mainly defensive ; and when he
has urged his brethren to assume it, he exhorts them
to add that whereby alone it becomes eflFectual — a
duty in which again we appear to ourselves to
be inactive — "praying always with all prayer and
supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto
with all perseverance and supplication for all saints."
Fasting, retirement, and prayer, as they severally
and unitedly tend to wean us from ourselves and
cast us upon God, will tend to promote singleness of
purpose, to refine our busy and over-heated restless-
ness into a calm and subdued confidence in Him, in
whose strength we go forth. Nor shall we, until the
day of Judgment, know how much of the victory was
granted to those who in man's sight took no share in
the conflict; how far the " unseen strength " of Fasting,
humiliation, prayer, put forth by those of whom the

and in the 72nd Canon, which forbids " Ministers of their own authority
alone, to appoint or keep any solemn Fasts, either publicly or t/i
private houses;" thereby implying that the acts of abstinence were
accompanied with devotional exercises.

92 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

world took no account, was allowed by God to prevail.
The world saw only that the Apostle whom they had
imprisoned, escaped their power; they knew not that
the prayer of the Church had baffled their design.^ In
the present conflict throughout the world, in which the
pride of human and Satanic strength seems put forth to
the utmost, humility and a chastened dependent spirit
would seem to have an especial efficacy. On these, as
the graces most opposed to the world's main sin, we
might look the more cheerfully for God's blessing; thus
shall we at least be saved from augmenting the evil we
would oppose. "Fasting directly advances towards
chastity, and by consequence and indirect powers to
patience, humility, and indifference. But then it is not
the fast of a day that can do this; it is not an act, but a
state of fasting, that operates to mortification."^

A third benefit, which might be hoped to result from
the more assiduous practice of this duty, would be a
more self-denying extensive charity. " Fasting without
mercy, is but an image of famine; Fasting without
works of piety, is only an occasion of covetousness: "'^
and an Apostolic Father'* gives us this excellent instruc-
tion, "A true Fast is not merely to keep under the
body, but to give to the widow, or the poor, the amount
of that which thou wouldest have expended upon thy-
self; that so he who receives it may pray to God for
thee."

It may perhaps seem strange to some that the present
age should be thought wanting in self-denying charity.
And yet let men but consider with themselves not what
they give only, but what they retain ; let them inquire
a little further, not only what wants are relieved, but
what remediable misery remains unabated ; or let them
but observe generally the glaring contrasts of extremest

^ Acts xii. 5. 2 Bishop Taylor, Works, iii. 97.

^ Chrysologus Serm. 8, de Jejun. ap. Bingham, b. xxi. c. I, § 18.
* Hermas Pastor, 1. iii. c. 3, p. 105, ed. Coteler. Fasting without
almsgiving, says Augustine, is a lamp without oil.

THOUGHTS ON BENEFITS OF FASTING. 93

luxury and softness, and pinching" want and penury ;
between their own ceiled houses, and the houses of God
which He waste ; or let them only trace out one sing^le
item in the mass of human wretchedness, disease,
insanity, relig^ious ignorance, and picture to themselves
what a Christian people might do, what the primitive
Christians would have done, to relieve it, — and then
turn to what is done, to what themselves do, and say
whether means to promote self-denying charity can well
be spared.

A further important object of the stated and frequent
recurrence of the prescribed Fasts of our Church, is the
public recognition of the reality of things spiritual.
Here also very many have felt (and it is a feeling whose
strength is daily increasing) that some public protest
is needed against the modes of acting tolerated (would
one must not say, reigning!) in our nominally Christian
land: that the Church, or the body of believers, ought
to have some recognised modes of distinguishing them-
selves from those who manifest by their deeds, that
although "amongst us, they are not of us"; and who,
on the principles of our Church, ought to have gone
out or to have been removed from us. It has been with
a right view of what the ideal of the Christian Church
should be, its holiness, and its purity, although not, I
must think, with a just conception of the nature of the
Church, that men, jealous for the honour of their God
and their Redeemer, have in some measure formed
Churches within the Church. The plan has, I think,
been defective, sacred and praiseworthy as was the
object contemplated. It is true that the mere union in
the celebration of the weekly festival of our Lord's
Resurrection does not, as things now are, furnish a
sufficient condemnation of the maxims and offences of
the World; that the Church and the world are too
much amalgamated; that while the light of the Church
has in part penetrated the gross darkness of the World,
there is yet danger, lest that light itself should be

94 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

obscured. Yet the remedy for this, under God's
blessing-, is not to be sought in rescuing or concentrat-
ing some scattered rays of that Church, while the
Church herself is abandoned to the World. Her own
Ordinances afford the means of her restoration. Not
to speak of those ulterior and fearful powers committed
to her (and which other Communions exercise) of
ejecting from her bosom "the wicked person," the
observance of her own other institutions would virtually
eject them. Not indeed at once (as indeed God Himself
has thought fit to allow even His own Blessed Spirit
but gradually to leaven our corrupted mass), not at
once (for at present, long continuance in opposed habits
would prevent many from receiving the Ordinances of
the Church), but yet, one should trust, steadily and
increasingly ; the mists which now encircle the Church
would disperse, and its glorious elevation on Zion's hill
would more effectually be seen. Those whom the easy
Service of the Lord's Day repels not, who would fain
serve God on the seventh day, and Mammon on the
remaining six, would by these severer or more con-
tinuous services be brought to some test of what spirit
they were; more frequent Communions, more constant
Worship, more regular Fasting, would show men
whether they belonged to the Church or to the World:
and if the Church, like Him who is its Head, and
because joined to that Head, becomes a stone of stum-
bling, if some shall more openly fall back unto perdition,
still it will have performed its office ; many, one may be
sure (for our assurance rests on God's word), would
also be awakened from their lethargy of death ; and if it
be to some a "savour of death," it will, by God's
mercy, be to many more a "savour of life, unto life."
Yet the result of any system, sanctioned by God's
Word, belong-s to us. Were the consequences of more
Apostolic practice a great apparent defection and desola-
tion, we dare not hesitate. " It must be made manifest
that they are not all of us." Meanwhile a beacon will

THOUGHTS ON BENEFITS OF FASTING. 95

be held out by those who would wish to see their path:
the Church would, in example, as well as in her theory
and directions, hold up a higher standard of perform-
ance: she, in theory the most perfect, would no longer
be in proportion the least influential;^ the plea, that
every show of religion, which the world tolerates not, is
the mere excess and badge of a party, could no longer
be held: those who shrink from what might seem a
voluntary or ostentatious forwardness, would no longer
be deterred from uniting in observances, which, if
authorised, they would love: and there might again be
no separation but between those who serve God and
those who serve Him not. The world has seen that its
own principles are leading to its own destruction: it
acknowledges that its increased laxity has fearfully
increased its corruption; offences, which even it abhors,
are multiplied; vices, which disturb even its peace, stalk
more openly; yet while it reaps the bitter fruits of its
own ways, it dares not strike the root.

The Fasts appointed by our Church appear eminently
calculated, not in truth as a panacea of all evil, but as
one decided protest against the " corruption which is in
the world by lust," as one testimony to the conviction of
men of the reality of things eternal.

Men may " fast for strife and to smite with the fist of
wickedness," as they may also " for pretence make long
prayers": yet men will not, in general, submit to in-
convenience and privation, — except for a real and
substantial object: the world has easier paths for its
followers ; he who suffers hardship for an unseen
reward, at least gives evidence to the world of the
sincerity and rootedness of his own conviction ; he
attests that he is a pilgrim journeying to a better
country, and however men may for a while neglect his
testimony, yet if it be consistent and persevering, it
cannot be silenced.

^ See Knox " On the Situation and Prospects of the Established
Church," Remains, vol. i. p. 51.

96 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

Such are some of the advantages which a recurrence
to the system of our Church in respect of Fasting-
might, in dependence upon God's blessing, tend to
realise: a more uniform, namely, and regular observ-
ance of an injunction of our Blessed Saviour; a deeper
humiliation, and a more chastened spirit in carrying on
His will; a more thorough insight into ourselves, and a
closer communion with our God; a more resolute and
consistent practice of self-denying charity ; a more lively
realising of things spiritual; a warning to the world of
God's truth and its own peril. I have spoken with
reference to prevailing habits and general character
only, partly because they are these habits which the
regulations of a Church must mainly contemplate ;^ in
part also, because, in whatever degree, they will
probably form a portion of our own. The evil or
defective character of any period is not formed by, nor
will it exist in those only who are evil; it encompasses
us, is within us: we also contribute in our degree to
foster and promote it; nay, it is from us probably that
it receives its main countenance and support. Our own
standard is insensibly lowered by the evil with which
we are environed. A self-indulgent age is not a
favourable atmosphere for the growth of self-denial;
nor an age of busy and self-dependent activity for that
of a calm and abiding practical recognition, that every-
thing is in God's hands; nor a period absorbed in the
things of sense for thoughtful meditation on things
eternal. The predominant evils will indeed appear in
the Christian in a subdued form ; yet whether the temp-
tation be to an unconscious compliance with them, or
unwittingly to oppose evil with evil, the danger lies
nearer here than in any other part of duty. And if the
salt in any wise lose its savour, wherewith shall the self-

1 "We must observe all that care in public Fasts which we do in

private; knowing that our private ends are included in the public, as
our persons are in the communion of saints, and our hopes in the
common inheritance of sons." — Bishop Taylor, Works, iv. 103.

THOUGHTS ON BENEFITS OF FASTING. 97

corrupting^ world be preserved ? wherewith the salt
itself be salted ?

The benefits above named are such as depend on the
increased degree of Fasting, exercised in compliance
with the directions of the Church, independently of the
consideration of the days or seasons selected for that
purpose. The results to be anticipated from a more
general adherence to these rules appear, however, to be
heightened by that selection. The general objects of
the Church were — i. To impress upon the mind and life
the memory of her Saviour's sufferings; 2. To prepare
the mind for different solemn occasions, which recur in
her yearly service. The first, or the Friday's Fast, as
above stated, was universally adopted in the early
Church, and in all probability was coeval with the
Apostles; it was continued uninterruptedly, alike in the
Eastern and the Western Church, and preserved in our
own, through the respect which she bore to primitive
antiquity, and the experience of the elder Church. It
was perhaps at the first adopted, as the natural expres-
sion of sorrow for the loss of their Lord and for His
bitter sufferings. With this would soon connect itself,
almost to the exclusion of the former, sorrow for the
sins which caused those sufferings. " We do not
fast,"^ says Chrysostom, " for the Passion or the Cross,
but for our sins; — the Passion is not the occasion of
fasting or mourning, but of joy and exultation. — We
mourn not for that, God forbid, but for our sins, and
therefore we fast." As then the Lord's day was the
weekly festival of their Saviour's resurrection, a weekly
memorial of our rising again, in Him and through
Him, to a new and real life; so was the Friday's Fast a
weekly memorial of the death to sin which all Christians
had in their Saviour died, and which, if they would live

' Ap. Bingham, b. xxi. c. I, § 14. Chrysostom is there speaking of
the Lent fast, but the application is the same.

98 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

with Him, they must continually die. Thus each re-
volving- week was a sort of representation of that great
week in which man's redemption was completed: the
Church never lost sight of her Saviour's sufferings;
each week was hallowed by a return of the "Good
Friday."^ One need scarcely insist upon the tendency
of such a system deeply to impress on men's hearts the
doctrine of the Atonement, by thus incorporating it into
their ordinary lives, and making them by their actions
confess this truth. In the early Church its efficacy was
without doubt increased by the accession of the Fast of
the Wednesday, or fourth day of the week ; so that no
portion of the week was without some memorial of the
Saviour of our Church. There is however another
object which, althoug-h not originally contemplated,
was in fact attained by this institution, the holier cele-
bration, namely, of our most solemn day, that of our
Saviour's death. Most Christians, probably, who have
endeavoured to realise to themselves the events of that
day have been painfully disappointed in so doing:
instead of

" Touching' the heart with softer power
For comfort than an angel's mirth,"

it has been to them an oppressive day: its tremendous

1 " Forasmuch as Christ hath foresignified that when Himself should
be taken from them, His absence would soon make them apt to fast, it
seemed that even as the first Festival Day appointed to be kept of the
Church was the day of our Lord's return from the dead, so the first
sorrowful and mournful day was that which we now observe, in
memory of His departure out of this world. It came afterwards to be
an order, that even as the day of Christ's resurrection, so the other two,
in memory of His death and burial, were weekly. The Churches
which did not observe the Saturday's fast, had another instead thereof,
for that when they judged it meet to have weekly a day of humiliation,
besides that whereon our Saviour suffered death, it seemed best to
make their choice of that day especially, whereon the Jews are thought
to have first contrived their treason, together with Judas, against
Christ."— Hooker, /. c.

THOUGHTS ON BENEFITS OF FASTINi;. 99

truths overwhelmed rather than consoled ; it was so
unlike all other days that the mind was confounded by
its very greatness: it seemed unnatural to do anything-
which one would do even on any other holy day, and
the heart was equally unsatisfied with what it did or did
not do. Something- of this kind has taken place in very
many minds; and the reason probably was, that the
solemnity of that day was too insulated; that (if one
may use the expression) it was out of keeping- with the
religious habits of the rest of the year. This then the
weekly Fast and solemn recollection recommended by
the Church are calculated to remedy ; as indeed, had
they been observed, these feelings would never have
found place. In whatever degree its advice is adhered
to, Good Friday becomes a day of more chastened, and
yet of intenser feeling; it is connected with a train of
the like emotions, affections, and resolves; insulated no
longer, but the holiest only among the holy. " Neither
in moral or religious, more than in physical and civil
matters," says a very acute observer of human nature,
"do people willingly do anything suddenly or upon the
instant; they need a succession of the like actions,
whereby a habit may be formed; the things which they
are to love, or to perform, they cannot conceiv^e as
insulated and detached; whatever we are to repeat with
satisfaction, must not have become foreign to us."^

■ Goethe atis meinem Lehen, lorn. iii. p. 179. The author is there
lamenting "the nakedness which, Jeremy Taylor says, the excellent
men of our sister Churches complained to be amongst themselves," and
which our own happily avoided. In the contrast there drawn, it is not
a little remarkable to see that the doctrine of Apostolical Succession,
which has of late been by some regarded as cold and unpractical, is put
forward as that which gives to the Romish Sacraments a warmth which
the Lutheran Church does not possess. He sums up thus: "All these
spiritual miracles spring not, like other fruits, from the natural soil ;
there can they neither be sown, nor planted, nor nurtured. One must
obtain them by prayer from another country; and this cannot every one
do, nor at all times. Here then we are met by the highest of these
symbols derived from an old venerable tradition. We hear that one
man can be favoured, blessed, consecrated from above, more than

II

loo THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

The principle is of important application in the whole
range of our duties; nor could it be too often repeated,
in warning, " That what is not practised frequently, can
never be performed with delight." We are sensible of
the value of habits in moral action, and are not sur-
prised that one who makes only desultory efforts should
never succeed in acquiring any habit; we feel it in some
degree in our public worship of God, and think it
natural that one who does not diligently avail himself
of all his opportunities of attending it should join in it
but coldly and lifelessly ; it is strange to him, and there-
fore at best a stiff and austere service ; and yet, in other
matters, we act in defiance of this maxim ; we have
allowed our Fasts to become rare, and therefore it has
come to pass that so many never fast at all : our holy
days have passed for the most part into neglect, and
therefore the few that remain excite but little com-
parative feeling; our daily service is well-nigh disused,
and therefore our weekly is so much neglected; we

others, ^'et, in order that this may appear no mere natural gift, this
high favour, united as it is with a weight of duty, must be transmitted
from one commissioned individual to another; and the greatest good
which man can attain, and yet cannot possess liimself of by any
exertions or power of his own, must be preserved and perpetuated upon
earth by a spiritual inheritance. Nay, in the consecration of the Piiest,
everything is united which is necessary for effectually joining in those
other holy ordinances, whereby the mass of Believers is benefited,
without their having any other active share therein, than that of faith
and unconditional confidence. And thus the Priest is enrolled in the
succession of those who Lave preceded or shall come after him, and in
the circle of those anointed to the same office, to represent Him from
whom all blessings flow; and that the more gloriously, because it is not
himself whom we respect, but his office; it is not before his bidding
that we bow the knee, but before the benediction which he imparts, and
which seems the more sacred, the more immediately derived from
Heaven, because the earthly instrument cannot, by any sinfulness or
viciousness of his own weaken it, or render it powerless." The author
manifestly speaks of the value of the Sacraments with the feelings with
which a spectator might be inspired, but still as one in whom great
power of observation could supply everything but the warmth of actual
experience.

THOUGHTS ON BENEFITS OF FASTING. loi

have diminished the frequency of our communions,
and therefore so many are strangers to the Lord's
Table, so many formal partakers. Not so the Apostles,
nor the Primitive Church, nor our own in its Principles,
or in its most Apostolic days: they knew human nature
better; or, rather, actinj^ from their own experience and
self-knowledge, they ordained what was healthful for
men of like nature with themselves; what was a duty
at any period of the year must needs be performed
throughout ; each portion had its Festivals and its
F'asts, and the varying circle formed one harmonious
whole of Christian humiliation and Christian joy. ^

The Church was in those days consistent ; its
ministers derived their commission not of man, but of
God, who called them inwardly by His Spirit, and
outwardly through those to whom, through His
Apostles, He had delegated this high office. The
admission into Holy Orders was no mere outward con-
secration or ceremony, but an imparting of God's Spirit
to those who were separated to this work, through the
prayers of the congregation, and the delegated authority
of the Bishop. Christian edification was not left to
each man's private judgment, but each was taught by
those who had authority and experience what was
good and expedient for his soul's health. We also
have been in these days becoming consistent; if we
fast, we fast for ourselves; if we keep a holy day, or
select a portion of the weekly service, it is because we
of our own minds deem it convenient; we have become
in all things the judges of the Church, instead of rever-
ently obeying what has been recommended to us ; we
judge beforehand what will be useful to us, instead of
ascertaining by experience whether the system recom-
mended by elder Christians be not so.

Yet I would fain hope that there will not long be this

' " We are more apt to Calendar Saints' than sinners' days, therefore
there is in the Church a care not to iterate the one alone, but to have
frequent repetition of the other." — Hooker, /. c.

102 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

variance between our principles and our practice ; but
that instead of examining^ what is the present practice
of any portion of our Church, and inquiring- how this
may be amended, men would first investigate, in the
Canons and the Rubrics,^ what the real mind of the
Church is, and see whether adherence to these would
not remove the reg'retted defect.

One only objection can, I think, be raised by any
earnest-minded Christian to this weekly Fast, namely,
that the means employed, mere self-denial in so slig-ht a
matter as one's food, is so petty and trifling a thing
that it were degrading the doctrine of the Cross to
make such an observance in any way bear upon it.
One respects the feeling of such a person and his love
for the Cross ; but the objection probably proceeds from
inexperience in the habit of fasting. For let any one
consider, from his childhood upwards, by what the
greater part of his habits have been formed, and by
what they are continued: not by any great acts or great
sacrifices (as far as anything might be relatively great),
but by a succession of petty actions whose effect he
could not at any time foresee, or thought too minute to
leave any trace behind them, and which have in fact,
whether for good or for evil, made him what he is.
Practice will universally show that the motive ennobles
the action, not that the action dishonours the motive.
"True it is," says Bishop Taylor,- "that religion
snatches even at little things; and as it teaches us to
observe all the great commandments and significations
of duty, so it is not willing to pretermit anything
which, although by its greatness it cannot of itself be

' In respect to the ordinance of Fasting, it might contribute to
regularity if Clergymen were to observe the direction of their Church
as contained in the Rubric after the Nicene Creed, "to declare unto
the people what holy-days or fasting days are in the week following to
be observed."

■^ " Life and Death of the Holy Jesus," M'^orks, t. iii. p. 96 of
Fasting.

THOUGHTS ON BENEFITS OF FASTING. 103

considerable, yet by its smallncss it may become a
testimony of the greatness of the affection, which would
not omit the least minutes of love and duty." He who
pronoimced a blessing- upon the g'ift of a cup of cold
water to a disciple in His name will also bless any act
of sincere self-denial practised in memory of Him. Only
let us not mock God, let us deny ourselves in somethings
which is to us really self-denial; let us, in whatever
deg'ree we may be able to bear it without diminishing-
our own usefulness, put ourselves to some incon-
venience, in sorrow and shame for those sins, "the
lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride
of life," which made our Saviour a man of sorrows, and
exposed Him to shame, and we shall not afterwards
think the practice degrading- to Him, or without mean-
ing". The fast of the early Christians during- Lent was
an entire abstinence until ev'ening-, on the Wednesday
and Friday, until three o'clock: unused as we for the
most part are to any such discipline, many of us would
at the first not be well able to endure it; the difference
also of climate mig-ht render that degree of abstinence
oppressive to us which in more southern latitudes
would recruit only and refresh the spirit:^ the weak and
sickly agfain have always been exempt from those more
rigid abstinences: they mig-ht not beneficially be able to
deprive themselves of an early or an entire meal: yet
doubtless many of them will have been enabled to trace
in themselves the evils of even a necessary softness and
indulg-ence of the body; and the mind which shall have

' Ye(, in what seems to have been standing "orders for the Fast" in
our Church in the seventeenth century (at least the orders during the
plague in 1636 and 1665 agree to the very letter) the most rigid of the
Fasts of the early Church was prescribed. The direction is — 2. "All
persons (children, old, weake, and sicke folkes, or the like excepted) are
required to eat upon that day but one competent Meal, and that
towards night, after Evening Prayer, observing sobrietie of diet,
without superfiuitie of riotous fare, respecting necessitie and not
voluptuousnesse." This additional Fast was ordered to "bee held
everie week upon the Wednesday."

I04 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

become alive to these will not be slow in discovering"
some mode of "keeping- under the body, and bring^ing-
it into subjection." The early Church, besides its more
rigid Fasts, admitted also of the substitution of less
palatable and of diminished nourishm.ent ; and our own
has, in insulated directions accompanying- her occasional
Fasts, recognised the same principle: in general, she
has left the mode of observing her Fasts free to the
conscience of each ; only let them consist in real self-
denial, and be accompanied by charity, retirement, and
prayer.

The early Church acted, as it supposed, upon our
Blessed Saviour's own authority in connecting these
acts of bodily abstinence with the memory of His death.
The Bridegroom was taken away! Yet if any one
should find in himself any abiding repugnance to
associate matters, necessarily humiliating, with the
doctrine of the Cross, let him not endeavour to force
his feelings: the Church wished to lay no yoke upon
her members; let him perform the acts in mere com-
pliance with the advice of the Church, and the
experience of elder Christians : when we shall have
attained the habit of self-denial and self-humiliation, the
doctrine of the Cross will, without effort, connect itself
with each such performance.

The other Fasts of the Church require the less to be
dwelt upon, either because, as, in Lent, her authority is
yet in some degree recognised, although it be very
imperfectly and capriciously obeyed ; or, as in the case
of the Ember Weeks, the practice has direct Scriptural
authority; or in that of the other Festivals, because
when we shall again value the privilege of having the
blessed examples of Martyrs and Saints set before us to

". . . Remind us, how our darksome clay
May keep the ethereal warmth our new Creator brought,'

we shall feel also the advantage of ushering in each

THOUGHTS ON IJENRFITS OF FASTING. 105

such day by actions which may impress upon us how
they entered into their i^'lory, by taking- up their
Saviour's cross and following- Him.'

Only with regard to the Fmber Weeks, it may be
permitted to observe how this institution yet more fully
embraces the objects which some good men are en-
deavouring, by voluntary association, to attain. For
the solemn period of the four Ember Weeks is obviously
calculated for prayer, not for those only who are to be
ordained to any holy function, but for all who shall have
been so called, that God "would so replenish them
with the truth of His doctrine, and endue them with
innocency of life, that they may faithfully serve Him;"
and thus, not only some few individuals, more nearly
known to each other, but all the Ministers and all the
people of Christ should, with one mind and one mouth,
implore a blessing upon the Ministry which He has
appointed.

And this also is an especial privilege of the whole
system of regular Fasting- prescribed by our Church,
beyond the voluntary discipline adopted by individuals,
that it presents the whole Church unitedly before God,
humbling themselves for their past sins, and imploring
Him not to give His heritage to reproach. The value
of this united humiliation and praj'er God only knoweth;
yet since He hath promised to be present where two or
three are gathered together in His name, how much
more when His Church shall again unite before Him "in
weeping, fasting, and praying"; how much more shall
He spare, though we deserve punishment, and in His
wrath think upon mercy! He who spared the Ninevites,
how much more may we trust that He will spare us, for
whom He has given His well-beloved Son!

" Let us, therefore, dearly beloved, seeing there are
many more causes of fasting- and mourning in these our

' The only case in which the preparatory Fast is omitted (besides
ihose already alluded to, p. 76) is the Festival of St. Michael and All
Angels, in which this ground for the Fast also ceases. See Wheatly.

io6 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

days than hath been of many years heretofore in any
one ag-e, endeavour ourselves both inwardly in our
hearts, and also outwardly with our bodies, diligently to
exercise this godly exercise of fasting, in such sort and
manner as the holy prophets, the apostles, and divers
other devout persons for their time used the same. God
is now the same God that He was then ; God that loveth
righteousness, and that hateth iniquity ; God which
willeth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he turn
from his wickedness and live; God that hath promised
to turn to us, if we refuse not to turn to Him: yea, if
we turn our evil works from before His eyes, cease to
do evil, learn to do well, seek to do right, relieve the
oppressed, be a right judge to the fatherless, defend the
widow, break our bread to the hungry, bring the poor
that wander into our house, clothe the naked, and
despise not our brother which is our own flesh : T/ien
shah thoii call, saith the prophet, and the Lord shall
ansiver; thou shall cry, and He shall say. Here am I:
yea, God, which heard Ahab, and the Ninevites, and
spared them, will also hear our prayers, and spare us,
so that we, after their example, will unfeignedly turn
unto Him: yea, He will bless us with His heavenly bene-
dictions, the time that we have to tarry in this world,
and, after the race of this mortal life, He will bring us
to His heavenly kingdom, where we shall reign in ever-
lasting blessedness with our Saviour Christ, to whom
with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour and
glory, for ever and ever. Amen." — Homily on Fasting,
part 2.

" Lord, have mercy upon us, and give us grace, that
while we live in this miserable world, we may through
Thy help bring forth this and such other fruits of the
Spirit, commended and commanded in Thy Holy Word,
to the glory of Thy name, and to our comforts, that
after the race of this wretched life, we may live ever-
lastingly with Thee in Thy heavenly kingdom, not for
the merits and worthiness of our works, but for Thy

THOUGHTS ON BENEFITS OF FASTING 107

mercies' sake and the merits of Tiiy dear Son Jesus
Christ, to whom, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, be all
laud, honour, and g^lory, for ever and ever. Amen." —
Homily on Fasting, part i.

POSTSCRIPT.

In the preceding remarks, the observance of the Fasts
enjoined by the Church has been recommended on the
ground of the practical wisdom and spiritual experience
of the Holy Men by whose advice they were adopted,
rather than on that of the direct authority of the Church.
And this has been done, not because the writer doubted
of the validity of that authority in this instance, but
because it involved a question which would to many
appear distant and abstract ; whether, namely, the
Church's Laws on this subject were by long disuse
virtually abrogated. For I am persuaded that many
excellent men, who would shrink from contravening a
distinct command of their Church, do in fact neglect
these, from some notion that the Church herself has
tacitly abandoned them. This notion does indeed
appear to me to rest on a wrong supposition.

For, first. Since the Church has not annexed any cen-
sures to the neglect of this Ordinance (which may
correspond to the penal provisions of a civil law),
the mere silence of the Church, or of her Spiritual
Authorities, is no proof of her acquiescence in the
breach of her directions.

2nd. It would be admitted in any other case that the
mere multitude of those who broke any law did not
alone abrogate that law; that the intrinsic sanctity of
the law cannot depend upon the obedience which men
may yield to it; that the laxity or remissness of men, at
one period, cannot annihilate the authority by which
that remissness was to be controlled. The disobedience
of others, be they many or few, nay, though they should

io8 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

be even the majority, can have no force hi absolvuig us
from the law by which we are in common bound. It is
true that observances, which the Church has at one
time on her own authority ordained, she may at another
abrogate ; yet, until she do this, it is to be presumed
that she wishes them to be retained in force. And it
has already happened that ordinances have for a time
fallen into disuse which yet were never allowed to be
abrogated, and which afterwards have been very
beneficially revived. It is within the memory of man
that the yearly Commemoration of our Blessed Saviour's
death was in country congregations very generally
omitted. This solemn day is now, I trust, almost uni-
versally observed ; nor is there any apparent reason why
this other ordinance of the Church, whereby we humble
ourselves for the sins which caused that Death, should
not, if men once came seriously to consider it, be
promptly, and with very wholesome results, restored.
I doubt not that if the question were formally proposed
to the Spiritual Authorities of our Church, whether they
would think it advisable that our stated Fasts should be
abolished, they would earnestly deprecate it. Their
silence therefore on this subject is rather to be ascribed
to the supposed hopelessness of attempting to bend our
modern manners to Ancient Discipline, than to any
disparagement of the institutions themselves. Our
institutions in many cases sleep, but are not dead; nay,
one has reason to hope that, although the many neglect
them, a faithful few have ever been found who have
experienced and could testify the value of those which
the world seems most entirely to neglect.

One might refer, in proof, to the practice of a
daughter Church — the Episcopal Church of the United
States. Sprung from our Church and supplied by her
with Ministers, until the State was separated from us,
they carried with them her principles, as they had been
modified by the habits and feelings and practice of the
period which had elapsed since her Reformation. She

THOUGHTS ON BENEFITS OF FASTING. 109

may be regarded then as representing the then state of
opinions amongst us. \'et formerly reconsidering the
subject of the Church's Fasts, they omitted only the
\'igils; while they retained the weekly Friday Fast,
those of Lent, the Ember and Rogation Days, as days
" on which the Church requires such a measure of
abstinence as is more especially suited to extraordinary
acts and exercises of Devotion."^

Yet, although these grounds of Church authority
appear to myself perfectly valid, and I doubt not that
many others will feel their weight as soon as they shall
reflect upon them, the other argument drawn from the
practical wisdom and experience oi the enactors of
these regulations seems to lie nearer to men's con-
sciences. The argument lies in a narrow compass.
Regular and stated Fasts formed a part of the Dis-
cipline by which, during almost the whole period since
the Christian Church has been founded, all her real
sons, in every climate, nation, and language, have
subdued the flesh to the spirit, and brought both body
and mind into a willing obedience to the Law of God.
They thought this Discipline necessary as an expression
and instrument of repentance, as a memorial of their
Saviour, to " refrain their souls and keep them low," to
teach them to "trust in the Lord," and seek communion
with Him. To this system our own Church during all
her happier times adhered. The value of this remedy
for sin has come to us attested by the experience, and
sealed by the blood, of Martyrs; who having learned
thus to endure hardships, like good soldiers of Christ,
at last resisted to the blood, striving against sin. Shall
we, untried, pronounce that to be needless for ourselves
which the Glorious Company of the Apostles, the Goodly
Fellowship of Prophets, the noble army of Martyrs, the
Holy Church throughout the world, found needful?
I can hardly anticipate other than one answer. Only

' Book of Common I'rayer, I'hiladelphia.

no THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

let not any one be deterred by the irksomeness, or
perplexities, or harassing doubts which every one
must find in resuming- a neglected portion of duty. It
were scarcely a discipline if its practice brought with it
an immediate reward ; and \\'e have besides to pay the
penalty of our sloth and diseased habits. " Patiently
to lack what flesh and blood doth desire, and by virtue
to forbear what by nature we covet, this no man
attaineth unto, but with labour and long practice."^
And if it be that blessed instrument of holiness which
they who have tried it assure us, it will not be w'ithout
some struggle with our spiritual enemy that we shall
recover the ground which we have lost. Only let us
persevere, not elated wdth the first petty victories over
ourselves, which may be perhaps conceded to us in
order to produce over-confidence and carelessness ; nor
dejected by the obstacles which a luxurious and scoffing
age may oppose ; not by the yet greater difficulties from
within, in acquiring any uniform or consistent habit.
Men, aided by God, have done the like; and for us also,
His grace will be sufficient.

Oxford,

The Feast of St. Thomas {^December 21 st, 1833].

[By Edward Bouverie Pusey.]
^ Hooker, /. c.

TRACT XIX.

ON ARGUING CONCERNING THE
APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION.

Men are sometimes disappointed with the proofs oflfered
in behalf of some important doctrines of our religion ;
such especially as the necessity of Episcopal Ordination,
in order to constitute a Minister of Christ. They con-
sider these proofs to be not so strong as they expected,
or as they think desirable. Now, such persons should
be asked whether these arguments they speak of are in
their estimation weak as a guide to their own practice,
or weak in controversy with hardheaded and subtle
disputants. Surely, as Bishop Butler has convincingly
shown, the faintest probabilities are strong enough to
determine our conduct in a matter of duty. If there be
but a reasonable likelihood of our pleasing Christ more
by keeping than by not keeping to the fellowship of
the Apostolic Ministry, this of course ought to be enough
to lead those who think themselves moved to undertake
the Sacred Office to seek for a licence to do so from it.
It is necessary to keep this truth distinctly in view,
because of the great temptation that exists among us
to put it out of sight. I do not mean the temptation
which results from pride — hardness of heart — a profane
disregard of the details and lesser commandments of
the Divine Law — and other such-like bad principles of
our nature which are in the way of our honestly con-
fessing it. Besides these, there is a still more subtle
temptation to slight it which will bear insisting on here,

112 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

arising- from an over-desire to convince others, or, in
other words, a desire to out-arg-ue others, a fear of
seeming- inconclusive and confused in our own notions
and arguments. Nothing-, certainly, is more natural,
when we hold a truth strong-ly, than to wish to persuade
others to embrace it also. Nay, without reference to
persuasion, nothing- is more natural than to be dis-
satisfied in all cases with our own convictions of a
principle or opinion, nay, suspicious of it, till we are
able to set it down clearly in words. We know that,
in all matters of thought, to write down our meaning is
one important means of clearing our minds. Till we
do so, we often do not know what we really hold, and
what we do not hold. And a cautious and accurate
reasoner, when he has succeeded in bringing the truth
of any subject home to his mind, next begins to look
round about the view he has adopted, to consider what
others will say to it, and try to make it unexceptionable.
At least we are led thus to fortify our opinion w'hen it
is actually attacked ; and if we find we cannot recom-
mend it to the judgment of the assailant, at any rate
we endeavour to make him feel that it is to be respected.
It is painful to be thought a weak reasoner, even
though we are sure in our minds that we are not such.

Now, observe how these feelings will affect us as
regards such arguments as were alluded to above —
viz., such as are open to exception, though they are
sufficiently strong to determine our conduct. A friend,
who diflfers from us, asks for our reasons for our own
view. We state them, and he sifts them. He observes
that our conclusions do not necessarily follow from our
premises. E.g. , to take the argument for the Apostolical
Succession derived from the ordination of St. Paul and
St. Barnabas (Acts xiii. 2, 3), he will argue that their
ordination might have been an accidental rite, intended
merely to commission them for their Missionary journey,
which followed it, in Asia Minor ; again, that St. Paul's
direction to Timothy (i Tim. v. 22) to "lay hands

THE ArOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 113

suddenly on no man," tnay refer to confirmation, not
ordination.

We should reply (and most reasonably too), that,
considering the undeniable fact that ordination has ever
been thought necessary in the Church for the Ministerial
Commission, our interpretation is the most probable
one, and therefore the safest to act upon ; on which
our friend will think a while, then shake his head, and
say that " at all events this is an unsatisfactory mode of
reasoning, that it does not convince /?/>«, that he is
desirous of clearer light," etc.

Now, what is the consequence of such a discussion
as this on ourselves ? Not to make us give up the
doctrine, but to make us afraid of urging it. We grow
lukewarm about it ; and, with an appearance of judg-
ment and caution (as the world will call it), confess that
"to rest the claims of our Clergy on an Apostolical
Descent is an unsafe and inexpedient line of argument ;
that it will not convince men, the evidence not being
sufficient ; that it is not a practical way of acting to
insist upon it," etc. — whereas the utmost that need be
admitted is, that it is out of place to make it the subject
of a speculative dispute, and to argue about it on that
abstract logical platform which virtually excludes a
reference to conduct and duty. And, indeed, it would
be no unwise caution to bear about us, wherever we
go, that our first business, as Christians, is to address
men as responsible servants of Christ, not as anta-
gonists ; and that it is but a secondary duty (though a
duty) to " refute the gainsayers."

And as, on the one hand, it continually happens that
those who are most skilled in debate are deficient in
sound practical piety, so on the other it may be profit-
able to us to reflect that doctrines which we believe to
be most true, and which are received as such by the
most profound and enlarged intellects, and which rest
upon the most irrefragable proofs, yet may be above
our disputative powers, and can be treated by us only

114 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

with reference to our conduct. And in this way, as in
others, is fulfilled the saying- of the Apostle that " the
preaching of the Cross is to them that perish foolish-
ness ; but unto us, who are saved, it is the power of
God. . . . Where is the wise ? where is the scribe ?
where is the disputer of this world ? hath not God made
foolish the wisdom of this world ? . . . The foolishness
of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is
strongfer than men."

ON RELUCTANXE TO CONFESS THE
APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION.

If a Clergyman is quite convinced that the Apostolical
Succession is lost, then of course he is at liberty to turn
his mind from the subject. But if he is not quite sure
of this, it surely is his duty seriously to examine the
question, and to make up his mind carefully and
deliberately. For if there be a chance of its being
preserved to us, there is a chance of his having had a
momentous talent committed to him, which he is burying
in the earth.

It cannot be supposed that any serious man would
treat the subject scoffingly. If any one is tempted to
do so, let him remember the fearful words of the
Apostle : " Esau, a profane person, who for one morsel
of meat, sold his birthright."

If any are afraid that to insist on their commission
will bring upon them ridicule, and diminish their use-
fulness, let them ask themselves whether it be not
cowardice to refuse to leave the event to God. It was
the reproach of the men of Ephraim that, though they
were "harnessed and carried bows," they "turned
themselves back in the day of battle."

And if any there be who take upon them to contrast

THE APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. 115

one doctrine of the Gospel with another, and preach
those only which they consider the more essential, let
them consider our Saviour's words, "These things
ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other
undone."

Oxford, December zyd, 1833.

[By J. II. Newman; published 1833.]

12

/tract XXIII.)

THE FAITH AND OBEDIENCE OF
CHURCHMEN THE STRENGTH OF
THE CHURCH.

"And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the Living- God. And Jesus an-
swered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon
Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto
thee, but My Father which is in heaven. And I say
also unto thee. That thou art Peter; and upon this rock
I will build My Church; and the. gates of hell shall
not prevail against it." — Matt. xvi. 16-18.

The rock, then, upon which the Church is built,
is the confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
the Living God ; a truth set forth and shadowed by the
Prophets, but openly and plainly taught by the Apostles.
St. Paul uses a similar expression when he speaks of
the body of Christians being *■'■ built upon the founda-
tion of the Apostles and Prophets" {i.e. resting in the
sound and true doctrine which they taught); "Jesus
Christ Himself being the chief coxn^x -stone'' (Ephes.
ii. 20) ; our very spiritual existence depending upon
our adherence to this great truth, that Jesus was the
anointed Son of God, God and Man, the promised
Saviour of the world; — He, who by taking man's
nature upon Him in the womb of the Blessed Virgin,
fulfilled the prophecy that the Saviour should be of
the seed of Abraham, in whom "all the nations of the
earth should be blessed" (Gen. xxii. 18), and the seed

FAITH AND OBEDIENCE. it;

of the woman, who should " bruise the serpent's head"
(Gen. iii. 15); and who, inasmuch as He was "the
Only-begotten Son of God "(John iii. 18), "God of
God," "Very God of very God" (Nicene Creed), ful-
filled the prophecy that the Saviour should be "the
mighty God" (Isaiah ix. 6); — He of whom it was said,
" Let all the Angels of God worship Him" (Heb. i. 6);
— and of whom it was likewise said, "Thy Throne,
O God, is for ever and ever " (Ps. xlv. 6).

I said that our very spiritual existence depends upon
our adhering- to this great and fundamental truth ; and
this I said not of us as individuals only, but as members
of the Church of Christ, and of that portion of Christ's
Church in this kingdom which is usually called the
Church of England. It is true of us individually, as
appears by the words of St. John: " He that hath the
Son, hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God,
hath not life" (r John v. 12); by which we learn that
as long as we slight or disbelieve or deny this sacred
truth, we have no spiritual life in us. It is also true
of us, as Members of the Church of Christ, and of that
portion of Christ's Church in this kingdom which is
usually called the Church of England, as appears from
the passage before us: "Upon this rock" (i.e., upon
this firm confession of faith in Jesus as the Christ, the
Son of the Living God) " I will build My Church; and
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." For
from this we learn that the Church, and any given
portion of that Church, is only then able to defy the
assaults of the Devil, that she can only then look
forward with confidence to get the victory, so long
as she adheres firmly to this faith and belief in Christ.
When she departs from that foundation, then she
ceases to have a claim for the continuance of the
promised aid. This is a matter which it behoves
Christians at all times to place before their eyes, and
to keep in remembrance; but especially, at the present
time, does it behove us, who are Members of the

iiS THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

Church of Christ in England, to do so; because of the
unceasing- endeavours which are being made by men
who are either careless of religion altogether, or who
have embraced false views of it, to overthrow our
Church : endeavours which we have reason to regard
either with fear, or not, according as we have reason, or
not, to suppose that the Members of the Church have de-
parted from the true faith and fear of God, and of the
Lord Jesus Christ. If there is reason to believe that
many or most of the Members of our Church are re-
gardless of that true faith, and of the honour of Him
in whom we believe, that by their lips, or by their lives,
they set at nought His Majesty, neglect His Sacra-
ments, despise His Word, forsake His Worship, obey
not His Voice, or look for redemption and salvation
by any other means than by His Cross and Blood, then
we have every reason to fear that these endeavours
of our enemies will be successful; that the light of
God's presence will be withheld from us; and that, as
He withdrew from the Jews when they neglected
Christ, the Lord of Glory, so He will withdraw from
our Nation also, and leave it to the wretchedness of
its own chosen ways ; to the enjoyment of those idols,
the world, the flesh, and the Devil, for which it will
have forsaken the Holy One of Israel, and refused to
hearken to the Voice of the Lamb of God, who died
to take away the sins of the world. But if not, if
we have reason to hope that there are many true
servants of God still to be found ; that there are man}-
who, not with their lips only, but in their hearts and
with their lives, acknowledge Him the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom He has sent; acknowledge
Him so as to obey His voice, and keep and do \vhat
He has commanded; then may we regard the attempts
of our enemies without dismay; then may we have firm
and steadfast hope that the gates of Hell shall not
prevail against us: that though it may please God that
we should suffer for a while; — as we suffered, together

FAITH AND OBEDIENCE. 119

with good King Charles, at the hands of the Dis-
senters; as we suffered in the days of bloody Queen
Mary, at the hands of the Roman Catholics; as we
suffered during the first three hundred years after
Christ, at the hands of the Heathens and the Jews; —
yet that eventually triumph will await us; that He will
bring our Church out of the trial, like gold out of the
fire, more pure and of greater worth ("I will purely
purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin" —
Isa. i. 25), that "all things will work together for good"
to us; and that the purpose aimed at by the affliction
is, that He "may present our Church to Himself as
a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any
such thing; but that it should be holy and without
blemish" (Ephes. v. 27).

It will hence appear that it is in the power of every
individual, by a holy and religious life in the true faith
and fear of God and our Lord Jesus Christ, to promote
not only his own salvation, but the welfare and stability
of the Church of Christ; or by an unholy, careless, and
irreligious life, not only to secure his own damnation,
but to assist the enemies of God and Man, who are
purposed to overthrow that Church.

If times of confusion and trouble shall come, where
can we seek for comfort but in the love of Christ, in the
love of God to man for Christ's sake? But how can we
then take comfort in that love, if ucnv we take no
account of it? Let me entreat you, then, Christian
Brethren, while the days of peace are vouchsafed to
you, to give more and more heed to religious duties.
The days may come when your Churches will be shut
up, or only filled by men who will not teach the whole
truth as it is in Jesus; when you will be deprived of
Ministers of Religion ; or have only such as are desti-
tute of God's Commission. Do not, I beseech you, by
your neglect now add to your misery then the bitter-
ness of self-reproach, when you will have to say, " I
had once the opportunity of worshipping God aright,

i2o THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

but I neglected it, and He now has withheld it from
me. I had once the means of receiving the Body and
Blood of my Saviour, at the hands of His own Minister;
but I refused it, and now He has placed it out of my
power."

Oxford,

The Fcasl of the Epiphany \Janitary 6th^ 1834].

[By A. r. Perceval.]

•^

TRACT XXIX

CHRISTIAN LIBERTY; OR, WHY SHOULD
WE BELONG TO THE CHURCH OF
ENGLAND?

BY A LAYMAN.
PART I.

"He that receivelh you, rcceiveth Mc; and he that rcceivelh Mc,
receiveth Him that sent Me.

" He that receiveth a prophet, in the name of a prophet, shall receive
a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man, in the
name of a righteous man, shall receive a righteous man's reward." —
Matt. x. 40, 41.

John Evans was walking along" the lane between his
own house and the common, when just at the place
where the lane makes a turning, he suddenly met Dr.
Spencer, the Rector of his parish. John was not
particularly pleased at thus meeting his Pastor, for
several reasons. He had formerly been a most regular
attendant at the parish church, from which he had
lately chosen to absent himself, with his family. Not
that he stayed away from idleness, or from any inten-
tional disregard of the commands of God; he felt, as he
imagined, the same reverence for the Divine Will as
ever; it was, indeed, rather a mistaken zeal than any-
thing else, which had led to his change of conduct.
He had been induced, one Sunday, by a friend who

122 THE OXFORD MOVEiMENT.

oelonged to a dissenting' congregation, to go with him
to the meeting-house; and when he was there, there
was something in the energy of the preacher's manner,
in the vehement action by which his teaching was
accompanied, and his seeming earnestness in the holy
cause of God, which, as it was quite new to John, was
particularly striking to him. Compared with the fervour
of this man, the quiet but sound discourses of his Rector
seemed spiritless and tame; and John came out of the
meeting under the influence of such enthusiastic feelings
as led him to resolve to visit it again the first oppor-
tunity. And thus he was led on to go again and again,
till at last he made up his mind to become a regular
attendant there. Thither he accordingly took his family,
Sunday after Sunday; and deserted, of course, the old
parish church, the venerable building in which he and
his had received the holy rite of Baptism; in which, as
each of them in turn outgrew their infancy, they had
heard for the first time the solemn sound of congrega-
tional prayer; and in which those who had arrived at a
proper age had frequently received from Christ's
authorised Ministers, the symbols of His sacred Body
and Blood.

It will be seen from what follows that in making this
change upon such grounds as have been described,
John Evans did not understand that he was disobeying
the God whom he was trying to serve, and putting a
slight upon that Saviour whose disciple he not only
professed himself, but in good earnest desired to be.
Yet though he did not enter into this view of the
matter; though he knew not that he had shown dis-
respect to Christ, in His Minister; still he felt as though
he had not been behaving with perfect respect to the
Doctor, whom he loved on his own account, as he had
indeed every reason to do. So what with his fear of a
rebuke on this ground; a rebuke which he dreaded the
more from the mildness of the language in which he
knew that it would be clothed; what with the irksome-

I

CHRISTIAN LIBERTY. 123

iiess of having to avow opinions which must be dis-
agreeable to one whom he so highly respected; and
moreover, the suspicion which he could not help feeling,
that in these new ways of his, so different from what he
had been used to revere, and so suddenly taken up, he
might possibly be wrong; for all these various reasons
he met his Pastor with a downcast and half-guilty
look, very different from the open, honest smile with
which he had till then ever greeted the good Clergy-
man.

Dr. Spencer, however, took no notice of the differ-
ence. "Well, John," said he, *' I am glad to see you.
I was on my way to have a little conversation with you,
and should have been sorry to have missed you."

John thought it best to be bold, and come out at
once with his defence of himself. " I believe, sir,"
said he, " that I can guess what it is you were wishing
to talk with me about. I have taken a step which I
fear ... I know . . . must be displeasing to you,
sir. I trust, however, that in exercising my Christian
Liberty in the choice of my spiritual teacher, and joining
the meeting instead of going to Church, I shall not
seem to have acted from disrespect to you, sir, who
have so long been a good friend to me and mine."

Dr. By no means, John; do not suppose either that I
feel personally offended at your conduct, or that I do
not regard you with feelings as friendly as ever. But,
as to the Christian Liberty you speak of, we perhaps
understand that matter rather differently ; and it w^as
because I thought you were in some mistake about it,
that I was coming to see you to-day. I have missed
yourself and family for some Sundays past in Church,
and understood you had joined the meeting. Is not
this the case?

John. It is, sir; and, as I have already said, without
the slightest notion of showing you disrespect.

Dr. Say no more about that, John; I know you too
well to suspect you for a moment of such a feeling as

124 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

that. Speak to me as to your sincere friend and well-
wisher, in perfect candour: and do not fear that I shall
be offended at anything" you say, while you tell me fairly
your reasons for this chang^e in your conduct.

J. I am sure, sir, that in the old Church I never
heard anything- from you but what was good; and I
never thought, till the other day, that I could pray
better in any other words than in those of the Church
Service. But there is something so fine in the prayers
without book, as they are offered at meeting, and

Dr. And something perhaps in the manner and lan-
guage of the preacher, who preaches there without a
book also. But let me ask, had you no other reasons
than these, and such as these, for leaving the Church ?

J. None, sir, but such as these; at least, none that I
am aware of.

Dr. You did not consider that either the Church
Prayer-Book, or my Sermons, taught doctrines contrary
to the great truths revealed in God's Word ?

J. God forbid, sir.

Dr. You had then, perhaps, some such notion as
this: you thou^^ht that in the Church you could pray
well, but at meeting you could pray rather better ?

J. Just so, sir.

Dr. And you thought that you were doing God
service, then, by joining that worship which touched
you most?

J. And surely, sir, 1 was right in that thought, at
least.

Dr. You would have been right, if God had not
chosen a Minister for you. In that case, perhaps, you
might have used your Christian Liberty, as you call it,
and joined any congregation and worship you pleased.
But His having given a clear command alters the
case, and makes that which would otherwise have
been a matter of indifference, an act of disobedience
and sin.

/. But if I may be so bold as to ask, sir, when did

CHRISTIAN LIBERTY. 125

God g'ive this command, and where is it to be found?
I am not so ready with the Bible as learned people, yet
I know it in my own way. That was the very thin^ I
heard Mr. Tims, who preaches at the meetings, ask last
Sunday. He said, "Where is the Church of England
spoken of in the Bible? name chapter and verse
where we are bid belong- to it." And then he went
on to say, that the new heart is everything, and that
we shall not be asked at the last day whether we
were Churchmen or Dissenters, but what the state of
our heart is.

Dr. We shall be asked at the last day whether we
have obeyed God's commandments; now, one of those
commandments is that we should belong to the Church,
as I will soon show you. But, first, you shall tell me
what has been your reason, till lately, for going to
Church.

J. I was born of Church-going parents, and that
made me a regular Church-goer in my youth. And
when I grew up I always, at least till the other day,
thought that I had the best of reasons for keeping
regular to Church. In the first place, the Church was
the Law Church; and that of itself would be a reason,
even if there were no other, for good subjects keeping
to it; and then, I knew it had been in the country
many, many years, whereas all the meetings about are
(so to say) of yesterday, and, in one sense, upstarts.
And then I had heard from you, sir, that in former
times it had Saints and Martyrs, such as were when our
Lord was on earth. And I thought it therefore far
more likely to be right, and had a stronger claim on me,
than any other religion ; and especially since I was a
pretty regular reader of my Bible, and never found the
teaching which I heard at Church different from that
which I thus picked up at home.

Dr. All good reasons as far as they went ; but I see
that I was right in supposing the chief claim the Church
has on all Christians is unknown to you. Our Church

126 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

is sprung' from that very Church which Christ set up at
Jerusalem when He came upon earth ; and none of the
Sects have this great gift. It is a branch of that Holy
Church which Christ promised to be with, " even to the
end of the world." You must surely often have met in
the Bible with mention of '* the Church "; what did you
suppose the word to mean ?

J. I do not know, sir, that I had any very clear idea
what it meant; but I rather thought it meant, all sincere
Christians in all parts of the world, to whatever Church
or sect they might belong-.

Dr. Then it seems you did not understand the word
" Church " to signify a body of men, bound by the same
laws, acting together, speaking the same thing, attend-
ing the same worship, reverencing the same Pastors and
Teachers, and receiving at their hands the Sacraments
which Christ has ordained. Yet it is quite certain that
this is what our Lord meant when He spoke of His
Church. He meant a Church such as the Church of
England. This will be clear to you from Matthew xviii.
15, 16, 17. In these verses Christ speaks of the Church ;
in the last of them He bids His disciples regard any one
who should in certain cases refuse to " hear the Church,"
as a heathen and a publican ; as an opposer of His
authority, and an outcast from His sacred fold. Thus
it appears the Church He speaks of is not a mere
number of good people scattered over the world, who
may or may not have communion with each other
(which was your notion of the word), but one public,
orderly, visible body, consisting of Ministers and people,
such as the Church of England. To be sure, the Church
of England happens to have wealth and honour, and
that first Church had not ; but this is but an accidental
difference between them. If the Church of England
were to lose its wealth and honour, it would not, could
not, thereby cease to be a branch of the true Church ;
and by comparing the text just given you with Matthew
xvi. 18, 19, you will see that it was to this visible Church

CHRISTIAN LinERTV. 127

that the promise was made, that the gates of hell should
not prevail against it.

J. If you would kindly write down these texts for me,
I will turn them out of my own Bible, and think over
them. There is one thing, however, sir, which comes
into my mind to ask you. Even supposing all Christians
ought to join together in one, yet they do not. There
are a good many religions among us, and how is a plain
unlearned man like me to know which is the real Church
spoken of in these passages?

Dr. The matter is not so difficult as you imagine,
even to the most unlearned. The true Church of Christ
ynust possess, as I will now show you, certain marks;
to which not even a pretence is made by the numerous
sects of Dissenters with which our country, from
different unfortunate circumstances, abounds. Let me
go back to the time when the Gospel was first preached,
and converts made by the Apostles. Many of these be-
lievers, we find, acknowledged in the Apostles the
authority which Christ had given them over the flock,
and were followers of them even as they were of Christ
(i Cor. xi. i), remembering them in all things, and
keeping the ordinances which they had delivered to
the congregation in each place ; and for this conduct
the Corinthians received the inspired praise of St.
Paul {ibid. 2). But there were others, who called
themselves Christians, who caused divisions among
the brethren (i Cor. ii. 18, 19), forming parties of their
own, and setting at nought the Apostolical Authority.
To these St. Paul spoke in vain when he said, " I
beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there
be no divisions among you ; but that ye be perfectly
joined together in the same mind, and in the same
judgment" (i Cor. i. 10). They slighted the Lord's
accredited Minister, and said that his bodily presence
was weak, and his speech contemptible (2 Cor. x. 10).
Many of the sects which these men formed, fell, as was

128 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

to be expected, into follies and heresies; but even with-
out reference to this fact, even if we suppose them to
have taught the great doctrines of Christianity with the
same purity as the Apostles did, could a reasonable
man entertain a moment's doubt, granting- Christ had
indeed founded a Church on earth, which that Church
was ; whether the name of Church belonged to the
company of Christians which obeyed His Apostles ; or,
on the other hand, to any one of the sects which vilified
and despised them ?

J. Certainly not; that is, there could be no doubt, as
long as the Apostles were alive, that the Christians
whom they governed must have made up the true visible
Church of Christ.

Dr. But, John, it is plain you see, that there were a
great number of sects then as there is now; so that a
man who wished to do his duty would have to look
about him carefully, and would be in danger of doing
wrong if he joined the first body of so-called Christians
which he met with! — a great number of sects, I
repeat, even though the Apostles were alive; so that
it is not the mere circumstance of the Apostles being
dead which makes a search necessary to find the true
Church.

J. I see what you would say, sir.

Dr. Now then to proceed. You are disposed to
doubt whether one Church was truer than another after
the Apostles' death. Surely is it not plain that the
Church would still be the true one, which they had
governed? Now you will find (Matt, xxviii. 19, 20)
that our Lord promised to be with His Apostles in their
character of teachers and baptisers of the nations^
alway, even iinto the end of the world. What did he
mean by that ?

J. He could not mean that Peter, James, or John, or
their brethren, were to live for ever on earth; for we
know that they are long since dead.

Dr. Certainly not ; and we must therefore ascribe to

CHRISTIAN LIBERTY. 129

His words the only other meaning- which they can
reasonably bear. As He could not have spoken of the
persons oi the .Apostles, He must have spoken of their
offices. He must have meant that thouij^li Peter, James,
and John should be taken from the world the true
Church should never be left without Apostles, but be
guided by their successor to the end of time.

John Evans had all this while been retracing with
Dr. Spencer the way he had lately come, and had now
arrived at the door of his own house. The good clergy-
man thinking he had given him matter enough to cast
in his mind, took this as a fit moment to break off the
conversation, determining to resume it some early day.
He therefore merely went into his parishioner's house,
to turn out for him the texts he had referred to, and
then wished him good evening.

The next Sunday John was at Church; and after the
service was over, he kept lingering in the path which
led to the Doctor's house, in hopes of being overtaken
by his Rector. He was not disappointed. Dr. Spencer
soon joined him, and the argument between them was
resumed.

J. If, sir, as you were saying, our Lord meant that
there should be teachers and rulers of the Church, to
stand in the place of the Apostles after their death, how
is it we hear nothing of these Successors, so to call
them, in Scripture?

Dr. On the other hand I affirm, we hear a great deal
about them in Scripture, as you will agree with me.
Surely you recollect the Apostles solemnly laying their
hands on others, or, as it is called, ordaining- them, to
act as their assistants and fellows; and this they did
when Christians became too numerous for them to
attend to them all by themselves. Such a person was
Timothy, whom St. Paul thus consecrated by the putting
on of his hands (i Tim. i. 6), to bear rule over that
branch of the Church which was established at Ephesus
in Asia; such Titus (Tit. i. 5), whom he left with

I30 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

authority over the Church in the island of Crete, "to
set in order the things that were wanting"; and such
Epaphroditus, whom he sent to the Philippians as his
"brother, and companion in labour, and fellow-soldier,
but their messenger," or Apostle (Phil. ii. 25). Now in
the absence of the Apostles, what do you suppose would
have been the conduct of all true Christians to these
whom the Apostles had appointed ?

J. Of course they would have shown them all honour
and obedience, in order to show their respect for the
Apostles themselves.

Dr. Certainly; as reverencing St. Paul, they would
have attended to his plain doctrine: " Whether any do
inquire of Titus, he is my partner and fellow-helper
concerning you; or our brethren [i.e. Luke and another
sent to act jointly with Titus) be inquired of, they are
the Apostles of the Churches,^ and the glory of Christ.
Wherefore show ye to them and before the Churches
the proof of your love, and of our boasting on your
behalf" (2 Cor. viii. 23, 24). On the other hand, how
do you think these new Apostles would have been
treated by those v/ho slighted the authority of St.
Peter and St. Paul ?

J. Those who set at nought the Apostles themselves,
would also set at nought those who stood in their
place.

Dr. You see, then, that had we lived in the days of
the Apostles, we should have had one plain test among
others, for discovering the true Church, in spite of all
counterfeits of it. The true Church was that Christian
body which was governed by men commissioned by the
Apostles; and those who were perverse towards St.
Peter and St. Paul, would have been disobedient towards
them. But let us now go a step further. Do you
suppose that Timothy, for instance, ceased to be an
Apostle, such as St. Paul had made him, on the death
of St. Paul?
* Apostles and Messengers are the same word in the original Greek.

CHRISTIAN LIBERTY. i;,t

/. I i.\o not sec why he should; but I should like to
know whetiicr there is proof from Scripture that he
did not ?

Dr. When St, Paul was just goiiii,'- to be put to
death for the sake of the Gospel, he writes thus to
Timothy: "Preach the Word! be instant in season,
out of season ; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long--
suffering- and doctrine. . . . Watch //loii in all thing's,
endure affliction, do the work of an evangelist, make
full proof of thy ministry. For /am now ready to be
offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I
have fought a good fight, I have finished my course"
(2 Tim. iv. 2-'j),

J. From these words it is certainly clear that St.
Paul intended Timothy, whom he had appointed to act
as his brother and fellow-labourer while he lived, to act
as his successor when he should be no more.

Dr. And all true Christians, who have reverenced
Timothy as if really St. Paul, when that Apostle was
removed from them for a time by distance^ would no
less reverence him as such, when the Apostle was
removed once for all by death.

J. They could do no less.

Dr. It follows, then, that even when the Apostles
had all entered into their rest — i.e. in the second age of
the Gospel, we might still have used the test I have
given, to distinguish the Church of Christ from sects
falsely claiming that name. We should have found the
one set of Christians reverently sitting at the feet of the
successors of Apostles; all the others, so called, openly
rejecting their rightful authority.

J. It is true; even while these successors of the
Apostles lived, all who professed to obey Christ were
bound to pay them, and would have paid them, a rever-
ence which the false sects would not have paid ; so that
in those times there would certainly have been no diffi-
culty in finding which was the Church which it was our
duty to join.

«3

132 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

Dr. And when Timothy, Titus, or Epaphroditus, as
exercising- the same full authority which had been exer-
cised by St. Paul, themselves appointed fellow-labourers
and successors, committing, as the Apostle had enjoined
one of them to do, the things which they had heard to
faithful men who might be able to teach others also
(2 Tim. ii. 2); would not these faithful men be rever-
enced by all true Christians, for the very same reasons
which led them to reverence those who appointed
them ?

J. They would so, no doubt. As long as a direct
line was continued from the Apostles themselves on-
wards, all consistent Christians must have paid them
reverence. And such a succession might hav'e gone on
for a long while, — a hundred years or more.

Dr. What if it have now gone on for eighteen
hundred years? What if, by the good providence of
God, the line which began with the Apostles Peter and
Paul should have continued even to this very day? so
that there are men who stand in the place of the Holy
Saints and Martyrs of Scripture up to this very hour,
under the great and eternal Head of the Church? You
look surprised, but such is the fact ; and if such persons do
really exist, and if we find one community of Christians
acknowledging and obeying, and ruled by them, while
every other body of professing- Christians in our island
disclaims and rejects them, you will see that this test
will enable the most simple-minded and unlearned per-
son to discriminate between the true Church of Christ
and the unauthorised sects which called themselves
Christ's followers now, almost as clearly as he could
had he lived in the days of the Apostles themselves.

J. Yes: the body of Christians, which reverences
and is guided by the successors of the Apostles, must
be the true Church of Christ. But who are these suc-
cessors of the Apostles in our country? though, to be
sure, I think I know what answer you will give me.

Dr. The Bishops of the Church of England are they.

CHRISTIAN LIBERTY. 133

There is not one of them who caiinol trace his rij^-ht to
^^•uide and ^'•overn Christ's Church, and to ordain its
Ministers, throug'h a long line of predecessors, up to the
favoured persons who were consecrated by the layinjj on
of the holy hands of St. Peter and of St. Paul. This is
a fact which dissenters from the Church of Eng^land do
not, and cannot deny ; nor do they profess that the
authority of those whom they call their ministers, to
teach and to administer the Sacraments, rests at all on
such grounds as these.

J. I understand you, sir; but I have one remark to
make, if you will please to hear it. Bishops do not work
miracles, as the Apostles did: nor can you mean that
we are to look upon their teaching" and writings now, as
dictated by immediate inspiration, and consequently in-
fallible, like the New Testament. How then are they
successors of the Apostles?

Dr. You are bringing me to a large subject, John ;
which we will discuss some other time, not on a Sunday
evening, when you have your young ones at home,
waiting to say their verses to you; and I had rather
rest than argue after the Services of the day. We will
have some further talk when occasion offers; mean-
while, in answer to your inquiry, I will but bid you
compare John xx. with Acts ii. The tniracnlous gifts
were sent down upon the Apostles on the day of Pente-
cost; but the commission to preach, teach, and ordain,
was given, quite independently of all such extraordinary
endowments, be/ore our Saviour ascended into heaven.
One word at parting — You have had a good education ;
your mind has been opened to enter into arguments, to
see objections, and answer questions: your understand-
ing has been sharpened. This is a talent which may be
used rightly, or abused; to the unwary all gifts are
temptations. As riches betray men into selfishness and
an evil security, so does a sharp wit tend to make them
self-confident, arrogant, and irreverent. Look at the
advantages which God has given you, not as a cause

134 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

of boasting" and selt-gratification, but seriously and
anxiously, as a treasure of which you are steward for
God, and concerning^ which you must one day give
account to Him.

Oxford,

The Feast of Chc Aniiuncialion \March 2^th, 1S34].

[By John W. Bowdkn.]

TRACT XXX.

CHRISTIAN LIRERTY; OR, WHY SHOULD
WE BELONG TO THE CHURCH OF
ENGLAND?

BV A LAYMAX.
PART II.

"lie thai receiveih you, receiveth Me; and he tliai receiveth Me,
receiveih Him thai sent Me.

"lie that receiveth a prophet, in the name of a prophet, shall receive
a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man, in the
name of a rij^hteous man, shall receive a righteous man's reward," —
Mail x. 40, 41.

John Evans did not fail to look out in his Bible the
texts to which Dr. Spencer had referred him ; and he
saw clearly that the miraculous powers with which it
pleased God to endue the Apostles, were by no means
necessarily connected with the commission which those
Apostles had previously received from our Lord ; the
commission, we mean, to teach and baptise all nations.
John was seen again on the next Sunday at his
accustomed place in church. The Doctor preached
from the text, Mark xvi. 17, 18: "And these signs
shall follow them that believe: in My name shall they
cast out devils ; they shall speak with new tongues ;
they shall take up serpents ; and if they drink any
deadly thing, it shall not hurt them ; they shall lay hands
on the sick, and thev shall recover,"

136 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

He pointed out to his congregation the beautiful
regularity which pervades the works of God ; the
settled laws, the established order with which our
Maker guides the course of things around us; the cer-
tainty with which the stars rise and set, the moon
waxes and wanes, the flower follows the bud, and the
seed the flower. He reminded his hearers how truly,
from the times of the Flood, God's promise has been
fulfilled: and seed time and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night have not ceased.
(Gen. viii. 8.) "And surely," said he, "we see in
these things the proofs that God is a God of order;
that He would not lightly or without important reasons
change the system which He has established, the laws
which He has framed. If then we were to hear that
the Almighty had on a certain occasion broken through
these laws, and violated by miracles the established
order of nature, we should have the strongest reason
to suppose, firstly, that He had only done so in order to
accomplish something which could not conceivably have
been accomplished without such interpositions ; and
secondly, that He would discontinue these interpositions
as soon as they became no longer necessary.

" Now both these conclusions," continued the Doctor,
"we find to agree alike with the Bible and with the
recorded history of mankind. It was necessary that
the doctrines of Christianity should be known to be
the infallible truth of God ; that what the Apostles said
or wrote on the subject should be received as the
words of God Himself speaking to mankind. Now
this authority, as far as we can see, can be given to
mortal man only by God's visibly interfering in his
support ; and such interferences are what we call
miracles. We see then, that for the establishment in
the world of Christianity, and of the authority of those
sacred books which form the New Testament, miracles
were necessary ; and we find from Scripture that
miracles were then vouchsafed. But when the inter-

CHRISTIAN LIBERTY. 137

ference had been fully proved, when evidence of it could
be handed down by ordinary means to following' genera-
tions ; and when no more divine truth was to be
revealed, miracles were needed no longer ; and the
history of the world informs us that they have ceased
for seventeen hundred years."

And while the Doctor, in conclusion, pointed out on
the one hand the folly of expecting a recurrence of such
marvels in our own days, an expectation which amounts
to an acknowledgment that Christianity is as yet im-
perfect, and that we are to look for a more complete
revelation ; he dwelt with much earnestness on the
danger of imagining that God's peculiar protection of
Christianity, God's peculiar inward gifts to believers,
ceased with the cessation of the outward signs and
wonders which at first accompanied the revelation of
His Word.

John listened with great attention ; and, when the
Service was over, he thought long and deeply upon
what had been said. He looked out also the different
texts which the Doctor had mentioned in his Sermon;
and in so doing he came to one which rather puzzled
him. It was John xiv. 16. " It is strange," said he to
himself: " our Lord promised that the Comforter, whom
He would send, should abide with his followers for
ever; I really do not see why this promise should be
given, if the greatest and most striking gifts which that
Comforter was to bestow were to cease at the end of
one, or at most of two generations."

That evening, as he was strolling in the fine summer
twilight along the banks of the river, he met the Doctor,
who had walked that way to enjoy the fineness of the
season, and to refresh himself after the holy labours of
the day. He told him his difficulty, nearly in the words
in which we have expressed it; and the Doctor, smiling
good-naturedly, thus replied.

Dr. Are you quite sure, John, that you have stated
your case aright ? Is it perfectly certain that miracu-

138 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

lous powers were the greatest gifts which the Eternal
Spirit was commissioned to bestow upon mankind?

J. It certainly appeared to me that they were; such
marked, such striking instances of God's favour were
surely greater boons than anything else which we can
conceive to be given to mortals in this present life. I
think, sir, that I have heard you yourself call these
gifts of the Spirit, as opposed to others. His extra-
ordinary gifts.

Dr. You may very probably have heard me so call
them; but "extraordinary" only means "unusual";
and it does not always follow that what is unusual is
more important than what is of frequent occurrence.
But tell me, John, in the case in which one thing is
done in order to prepare for the doing of some other
thing, which is the more important of the two ; the first
of these things or the last ; the means or the end ?

J. The end, of course, is more important than the
means ; no man would venture to call the scaffolding
which is raised that the house may be built more im-
portant than the house itself.

Dr. Now think a moment, John, before you answer
me; why were the miraculous powers bestowed on the
Apostles ?

J. To make men believers in Christ.

Dr. To prepare the way, that is, for their receiving
those inward gifts of the Spirit, in which true believers
now participate as fully as those who lived in the days
of the Apostles.

/. I see, sir; the extraordinary gifts might be com-
pared to the scaffolding, the ordinary ones to the
house.

Dr. Exactly so, John; marvellous and striking as
were the signs and wonders of the Apostolic age, we
should ever recollect that they were not greater gifts,
or even gifts so great, as those inward ones which are
our evangelical inheritance, as well as that of the
primitive Christians. When the doctrine of the Holy

CHRISTIAN LIBERTY. 139

Ghost, and of His inward influence, was new to the
world, it pleased God to confirm it, and to show that
the influence was real, by permitting^, in some cases,
those on whom it descended to perform works which
they could not have done had not God been with them.
Thus the real importance, even then, of these miracu-
lous g^ifts consisted in their bearing witness to the
inward and unseen ones which God still showers upon
His Church.

J. And which we dare not suppose to have ceased
merely because the outward signs of them did, when
God Himself had promised that they should last for
ever.

Dr. Well ; the promise of support to the Apostles,
in the performance of their ministerial duties, was
equally perpetual; Christ was to be with them, we have
seen, as the teachers and baptisers of all nations,
"alway, even unto the end of the world." The reality
of their powers, and, among- others, of their power of
conferring the Holy Ghost on others, was attested at
first by miracles. (Acts viii. 17, 18.) But we have no
more reason for supposing that the true powers of the
ministry ceased with the outward signs, in the case of
the Apostles, than we have for supposing, in the case
just mentioned of the gifts of common believers, that
from the moment miracles were no longer vouchsafed,
the Holy Spirit withdrew Himself from the guidance of
the Church for ever. That God has bestowed Apostolic
gifts upon Apostles, and the regenerating influences of
His Holy Ghost upon other believers, we know from
the recorded testimony of those who witnessed the
miracles by which the reality of those gifts and influ-
ences was at first established. That those gifts and
influences will be alike perpetual in the Church, we are
bound to believe upon the solemn word of Him who
gave them.

J. Miracles, then, performed in one age, and handed
down by history to others, form the standing proofs of

I40 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

the reality of those gifts which were given to the Church
for ever; and one of those gifts was undoubtedly the
Apostolic power ; which we must believe, upon this
evidence, to be still existing.

Dr. Exactly so; and infallibility of doctrine, itself a
miracle, ceased with miracles in general. We cannot
see any reason for the continuance of such a gift to the
successors of the Apostles, when the Apostles them-
selves have recorded all things necessary to salvation
in those sacred Scriptures which have come down to
our times, and to which we can all refer. Nor have we
the slightest ground for doubting the permanence of
those Apostolic privileges which were of perpetual
necessity, merely because a miraculous gift, evidently
no longer necessary, has been discontinued.

J. This, sir, I understand; but there is one difficulty
which occurs to me. As the rulers of the true Church
are no longer infallible, what is to prevent their all fall-
ing together into error, and thus leading astray the
whole Church committed to their care?

Dr. We may infer from Christ's promise already
mentioned that this will never happen to the whole
Church at once; that some true Apostles will be found
on earth in every age, until that last period of the
world's history which shall witness His coming. But
that with regard to particular branches of His Church
this may happen, and has happened, is a melancholy
truth. There is one simple test, however, by which
we may at once assure ourselves that the Church of
England has not so fallen away, or, as it is called,
apostatised, from the faith of her Lord and Master.

J. And what is that, sir?

Dr. As the eternal truth of God is contained in His
revealed word the Bible, no Church, whatever may be
the errors of her individual members, can be said, as a
Church, to have fallen away, and consequently to have
lost her claim to the obedience of Christ's true disciples,
while she still reverences that Bible; — while she puts it

CHRISTIAN LIBERTY. 141

into the hand of each of her followers, and bids him
read it, and seek there, and there only, the proofs of
the doctrine which she inculcates; and while she de-
clares, as the Church of England does in her sixth
Article, that " Holy Scripture containeth all thing-s
necessary to salvation ; so that whatsoever is not read
therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be re-
quired of any man that it should be believed as an article
of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to
salvation."

J. Then according to you, sir, the Church of England
is not only the true, but the original Church of Christ
established in this kingdom. — Now, Sam Jones, the
Catholic, who attends the Popish Chapel in the next
parish, tells me that his is the original Church, and that
the Church of England is a new one.

Dr. That which is truly the Catholic Church is
indeed the oldest; but though we in a common way
call the Papists, or followers of the Pope, Catholics, yet
it is we who are the true Catholics ; for the term only
means members of Christ's universal Church. The
history of the Papists is this. Many centuries ago,
strange and corrupt notions and practices prevailed in
many of the Churches in Europe. Among others,
people thought the Pope or Bishop of Rome was gifted
with authority from Heaven to control all the branches
of the Church on earth, and that his word was to be of
more weight than even the Holy Scriptures themselves.
But about three hundred years ago, the Bishops of the
Church of England saw these errors in their true light;
they saw that the Pope's authority was not founded on
Scripture, and they consequently refused to acknow-
ledge it, while they at the same time corrected, upon
Scriptural principles, the other errors and evil practices
which I have alluded to. These changes did not make
the Church of England a new Church, nor prevent that
body which was Christ's true and original Church before
from being Christ's true and orisrinal Church still.

142 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

Some Bishops of that day, it is true, disapproved of
these changes, and refused to accede to them ; but as,
when they died, they providentially appointed no suc-
cessors, there has never since been any real ground for
doubt which was the true Church of Christ in this
favoured land. The Bishops of the Church of England,
and they only, are the representatives by succession of
those who, more than a thousand years ago, planted the
Gospel on our shores.^

J, But there are persons whom the Papists call their
Bishops — whence do they come ?

Dr. They derive what they call their right from their
appointment by foreign Bishops in an unauthorised
manner. The Pope and his followers would by no
means acknowledge the changes which had taken place
in England; they declared that our Church had apos-
tatised from the faith, and refused to communicate with
us, till we should return to all our ancient errors. They
have since, upon the alleged ground that our line of
Bishops was extinct, given commission from time to
time to different persons to exercise episcopal authority
here ; but as the ground was false, the commission was
of course void. We acknowledge the Pope and his
Bishops in foreign countries to be, by station, ministers
of the Church, though we admit and lament the fact
that they have led the branches of it over which they
preside into apostasy and shame ; yet we feel that in
sending their representatives hither, to act in defiance
of the Church already established, they are exceeding
the limits of their authority. We feel that God, who is

^ In the same manner it may be shown that the established Church
of Ireland alone represents that Church which the labours of St.
Patrick, in the fifth century, planted in that island. Those who
preside over the Romanists have received consecration from Rome, at
a very recent period. And the corruptions which prevail in their
religion, and which distingui>h it from ours, became prevalent long
after that Saint's death. Our doctrines therefore approach more
nearly to his than theirs do; and our Church is the true and original
Church of Christ in Ireland, in every sense which the words will bear.

CHRISTIAN LIBKKTV. 143

not the autlior ul contusion, but of pc;ice, in all churches
of the saints (i Cor. xiv. 23)> cannot sanction the intru-
sion of one Bishop, however duly consecrated, into the
See of another, with a view to the usurpation of his
name and office, and to the orj^anising" a systematic
opposition to his authority. We are compelled there-
fore to reg-ard those who are ordained, as Popish Priests
are by these intruding- Bishops, as unauthorised and
schismatical ministers of religion, and as violators,
like the other dissenters around them, of the laws of
Christ's Church, and of the unity of His fold.

/. I thank you, sir, for g^iving- me so g^ood an answer
to Sam when next I meet him. And I thank you, too,
deeply and sincerely do I thank you, for teaching- me
the nature of one g-reat branch of Christian duty which
I never understood before. I seem now to see that
there is a sin of which a Christian may be guilty of
which I never before thought ; the sin, I mean, of
refusing obedience to the command of our Redeemer
to hear His Apostles; to demean ourselves as dutiful
members of the Church which those holy persons
founded, and over which He Himself, invisibly, pre-
sides ; a sin of which they are deeply guilty who
separate themselves from that Church altogether, and
join one or other of the many sects which reject her
authority. Pray, sir, by what name is such a sin
properly called ?

Dr. It is called "schism," from a Greek word sig-
nifying "division." A man may forfeit the privileges
enjoyed by him as a member of Christ's Church in two
ways: — either on account of "heresy," of his adopting
opinions opposed to the great truths of the Word of
God; or through schism, through a disregard of Church
authority, and a notion that so long as his doctrine is
pure, he may join what sect he pleases, or even set up
one for himself. The exercise of such a privilege I
have heard some people call "Christian Liberty."

/. {smiling). I understand you, sir; but you shall

144 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

hear me use the words in this improper sense no more.
The true Hberty wherewith Christ has made us free is
theirs alone who, in reverencing His ministers, walk in
the way of His commandments. Admitting, as I now
do, the force of what you have said ; convinced, as I
now am, that the Church of England is, to us, the
Apostolic Church of Christ, established by our Lord
Himself, I cannot but see that their sin is indeed great
who wilfully reject and despise it.

Dr. Such persons would do well to consider our
Saviour's words to those Ministers whose successors
they slight. *' He that despiseth you, despiseth Me;
and he that despiseth Me, despiseth Him that sent Me "
(Luke X. i6).

J. They would indeed, sir; and I thank God that
you have shown me the meaning of this text before I
had completely separated myself from the Church to
which my Saviour has commanded me to belong. God
knows, I meant to do no such thing when first my
curiosity led me to the meeting.

Dr. 1 know it, John ; but let this show you the
danger of making the first step, of yielding to the first
temptation. Curiosity led you to a place to which, if
you understood your duty, you had no business to go ;
you were pleased, and tempted to repeat your visit, and
might soon have been led to unite yourself entirely to
that unauthorised congregation; in defiance, as I have
now shown you, of the solemnly declared will of the
Almighty.

J. Well, sir, I will, by God's blessing, keep myself
from such temptations for the future. I trust that on
each succeeding Sunday, while life and health are
spared me, I shall be found in my old accustomed seat
at Church, and kneel in the sacred spot where my
forefathers knelt before me: and God grant that no
temptation may ever again lead me astray, or induce me
to separate from the holy Church of my Redeemer.

Dr. It gives me, John, the sincerest pleasure to hear

CHRISTIAN LIBERTY. MS

you express such sentiments as these. One i^ood effect
will, throug^h God's y^race, result even t'roin this your
temporary wanderint^ from the fold. You will now
know better than you did what we mean when in the
words of our Liturtfy we pray for "the good estate of
the Catholic Church"; and you will be enabled, I trust,
to join more fully than heretofore in the beautiful prayer,
"that it may be so g-uided and g-overned by God's
good Spirit, that all who profess and call themselves
Christians, may be led into the way of truth, and hold
the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in
righteousness of life."

y. 1 hope, sir, that I shall: I hope that I shall ever
feel duly thankful for the blessing of being called into
Christ's Church, thus happily established among us;
and I trust that when in the name of the congregation
you put up the prayer for protection "against false
doctrine, heresy, ant/ sc/n'sm,'' my heart and soul may
accompany my lips in the response — "Good Lord,
deliver us!"

Oxford,

T/ig Feast of the Anniiiuiation [Manh 2^//i, 1S34].

[By John W. Ugwdln.]

TRACT XXXIV.
RITES AND CUSTOMS OF THE CHURCH.

'O ix,€V ovv TTterros, a)s XP'?) ''''■' ippoinivos ovbt deirai \uyov /cat airias,
virep wv ac ETrtrax^j, dW apKeirai. rrj irapadbati /xovrj.

Chrysost. in I Cor. Hont. 26.

He who is duly strenglhened in faith, does not go so far as to
require argument and reason for what is enjoined, but is satisfied with
the tradition alone.

The reader of ecclesiastical history is sometimes sur-
prised at finding- observances and customs generally
received in the Church at an early date, which have not
express warrant in the Apostolic writings — e.g.^ the
use of the cross in baptisin. The following pages will
be directed to the consideration of this circumstance ;
with a view of suggesting from those writings them-
selves, that a minute ritual was contemporaneous with
them, that the Apostles recognise it as existing and
binding, that it was founded on religious principles,
and tended to the inculcation of religious truth. Not
that any formal proof is attainable or conceivable,
considering the brevity and subjects of the inspired
documents ; but such fair evidence of the fact, as may
recommend it to the belief of the earnest and single-
minded Christian. It is abundantly evident that the
Epistles were not written to prescribe and enforce the
Ritual of religion ; all then we can expect, if it existed
in the days of the Apostles, is an occasional allusion to
it in their Epistles as existing, and a plain acquiescence
in it : and thus much we find.

RITKS AND CUSTOMS. 147

Let us consider that remarkable passage (i Cor. xi.
2-16), wiiich, I am persuaded, most readers pass over
as if they could get little instruction from it. St. Paul
is therein blaming- the Corinthians for not adhering to
the ciisfoni oi the Church, which prescribed that men
should wear their hair short, and that women should
have their head covered during divine service ; a
custom apparently most unimportant, if any one ever
was, but in his view strictly binding on Christians.
He begins by implying that it is one out of many rules
or traditions (TTtt/ad^cKrci?) which he had given them, and
they were bound to keep. He ends by refusing to
argue with any one who obstinately cavils at it and
rejects it : "If any man seem to be contentious, we
have no such custom, neither the Churches of God."
Here then at once a view is opened to us which is quite
sufficient to remove the surprise we might otherwise
feel at the multitude of rites, which were in use in the
Primitive Church, but about which the New Testament
is silent ; and further, to command our obedience to
such as come down to us from the first ages, and are
agreeable to Scripture.

In accordance with this conclusion is the clear and
forcible command given by the Apostle {2 Thess. ii. 15),
" Brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which
ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle."

To return. St. Paul goes on to give the reason of
the usage, for the satisfaction of the weak brethren
at Corinth. It was, he implied, a symbol or develop-
ment (so to say) of the principle of the subordination of
the woman to the man, and a memorial of the history
of our creation ; nay, it was founded in ^^ nature''' — i.e.,
natural reason. And lastly, it had a practical object:
the woman ought to have her head covered " because of
the angels." We need not stop to inquire ivhat this
reason was ; but it was a reason of a practical nature
which the Corinthians understood, though we may not.
If it mean, as is probable, " becaus* she is in the sight

14

148 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

of the heavenly angels" (i Tim. v. 21), it gives a still
greater importance to the ceremonies of worship, as
connecting them with the unseen world.

It would seem indeed as if the very multiplicity of the
details of the Church ritual made it plainly impossible
for St. Paul to write them all down, or to do more than
re?>ii/id the Corinthians of his way of conducting religious
discipline when he was among them. " Be ye foUoivers
of me," he says ; " I praise you that ye remember vie in
all things." It is evident there are ten thousand little
points in the working of any large system which a
present instructor alone can settle. Hence it is cus-
tomary at present, when a school is set up, or when
any novel manufacture in trade, or extraordinary
machinery, is to be brought into use, to set it going by
sending a person fully skilled in its practical details.
Such was St. Paul as regards the system of Christian
discipline and worship ; and when he could not go
himself, he sent Timothy in his place. He says in the
fourth chapter : "I beseech you, be ye followers of me.
For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who
shall bring you into remembrance of my ivays which be
in Christ as I teach everyivhere in every Church."
Here there is a like reference to a uniform system of
discipline — whether as to Christian conduct, worship,
or Church government.

Another important allusion appears to be contained
in the 22nd verse of the chapter above commented on.
"What, have ye not houses to eat and drink in? or
despise ye the Church of God?" This is remarkable
as being a solitary allusion in Scripture to houses of
prayer under the Christian System, which nevertheless
we know from ecclesiastical history were used from the
very first. Here then is a most solemn ordinance of
primitive Christianity, which barely escapes, if it escapes,
omission in Scripture.

A passing allusion is made in another passage of the
same Epistle to the use of the word Amen at the con-

RITRS AND CUSTOMS. 149

elusion of the Eucharlstical prayer, as it is preserved
after it and all other prayers to this day. Thus the
ritual of the Apostles descended to minutia), and these
so invariable in their use, as to allow of an appeal to
them.

In the original institutioii of the Eucharist, as recorded
in the Gospels, there is no mention of consecrating the
cup; but in i Cor. x. 16, St. Paul calls it "the cup of
blessing which ive d/ess." This incidental information,
vouchsafed to us in Scripture, should lead us to be
very cautious how we put aside other usag-es of the
early Church concerning this Sacrament, which do not
happen to be clearly mentioned in Scripture — as e.g.
the solemn offering of the elements to God by way of
pleading His mercy through Christ, which seems to
have been universal in the early Church.

As regards the same Sacrament, let us consider the
use of the word \(.irovpyov\TMv, ministering i^^c\.\!> xiii. 2);
a word which, dropped (so to say) by accident, and
interpreted, as is reasonable, by its use in the services
of the Jewish Law (Luke i. 23 ; Heb. x. 11), remarkably
coincides with the Xnrovpyia of the Primitive Church,
according to which the offering of the Altar was inter-
cessory, as pleading Christ's merits before the throne of
grace.

Again, in i Cor. xv. 29, we incidentally discover the
existence of persons who are styled "the baptised for
the dead." Perhaps it is impossible to determine what
is meant by this phrase, on which little light is thrown
by early writers. However, anyhow it seems to refer
to a custom of the Church, which was so usual as to
admit of an appeal to it, which St. Paul approved, yet
which he did not in the Epistle directly enforce, and but
casually mentions.

In I Cor. i. 16, St. Paul happens to inform us that he
baptised the household of Stephanas. It has pleased
the Holy Spirit to preserve to us this fact; by which is
detected the existence of a rule of discipline for which

I50 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

the express doctrinal parts of Scripture afford but
indfreet warrant — viz., the custom of household baptism.
[Vid. also Acts xvi. 15, 33.) This accidental disclosure
accurately anticipates the after practice of the early
Church, according- to which families, infants included,
were baptised, and that on a weighty doctrinal reason —
viz., that all men were born in sin and in the wrath of
God, and needed to be individually translated into that
kingdom of grace, into which baptism is the initiation.

These instances, then, not to notice others of a like
or a different kind, are surely sufficient to reconcile us
to the complete ritual system which breaks upon us in
the writing's of the Fathers. If any parts of it indeed
are contrary to Scripture, that is of course a decisive
reason at once for believing them to be additions and
corruptions of the original ceremonial ; but till this is
shown, we are bound to venerate what is certainly
primitive, and probably is apostolic.

It will be remarked, moreover, that many of the
religious observances of the early Church are expressly
built upon words of Scripture, and intended to be a
visible memorial of them, after the manner of St. Paul's
directions about the respective habits of men and women,
which was just now noticed. Metaphorical or mystical
descriptions were represented by a corresponding literal
action. Our Lord Himself authorised this procedure
when He took up the metaphor of the prophets con-
cerning the fountain opened for our cleansing (Zech,
xiii. i) and represented it in the visible rite of baptism.
Accordingly, from the frequent mention of oil in Scrip-
ture as the emblem of spiritual gifts (Is, Ixi, 1-3, etc),
it was actually used in the Primitive Church in the
ceremony of admitting catechumens, and in baptising.
And here again they had the precedent of the Apostles,
who applied it in effecting their miraculous cures,
(Mark vi. 13, James v. 14.) And so from the figurative
mention in Scripture of salt, as the necessary prepara-
tion of everv religious sacrifice, it was in use in the

RITES AND CUSTOMS. 151

Western Cluirch, in the ceremony of admitting' converts
into the rank of catechumens. So again from Phil,
ii. 10, it was customary to bow the head at the name of
Jesus. It were endless to multiply instances of a similar
pious attention to the very words of Scripture, as their
custom of continual public prayer from such passages
as Luke xviii. 7 ; or of burying the bodies of martyrs
under the altar, from Rev. vi. 9 ; or of the white vest-
ments of the officiating ministers, from Rev. iv. 4.

Two passages on the subject from the Fathers shall
now be laid before the reader, by way of further illus-
tration, and first from TertuUian :

" Though this observance has not been determined by any
Scripture, yet it is established by custom, which doubtless is
derived from tradition. For how can a usage ever obtain,
which has not first been given by tradition ? But you say, even
though tradition can be produced, still a written (Scripture)
authority must be demanded. Let us examine, then, how far it
is true, that a tradition itself, unless written in Scripture, is
inadmissible. Now I will give up the point at once, if it is not
already determined by instances of other observances, which
are maintained without any Scripture proof, on the mere plea of
tradition, and the sanction of consequent custom. To begin
with baptism. Before we enter the water, we solemnly renounce
the devil, his pomp, and his angels, in church in the presence
of the Bishop. Then we are plunged in the water thrice, and
answer certain questions over and above what the Lord has
determined in the written gospel. After coming out of it, we
taste a mixture of milk and honey; and for a whole week from
that day we abstain from our daily bath. 'Ihe sacrament of the
Eucharist, though given by the Lord to all and at supper-time,
yet is celebrated in our meetings before daybreak, and only at
the hand of our presiding ministers. . . . We sign our forehead
with the cross whenever we set out and walk, go in or out,
dress, gird on our sandals, bathe, eat, light our lamps, sit or lie
down to rest, whatever we do. If you demand a Scripture rule
for these and such-like observances, we can give you none; all we
say to you is, that tradition directs, usage sanctions, faith obeys.
That reason justifies this tradition, usage, and faith, you will
soon yourself see, or will easily learn from others; meanwhile
you will do well to believe that there is a law to which obedience

152 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

is due. I add one instance from the old dispensation. It is so
usual among the Jewish females to veil their head, that they are
even known by it. I ask where the law is to iDe found; the
Apostle's decision of course is not to the point. Now if I
nowhere find a law, it follows that tradition introduced the
custom, which afterwards was confirmed by the Apostle when
he explained the reason of it. These instances are enough to
show that a tradition, even though not in Scripture, still binds
our conduct, if a continuous usage be preserved as the witness
of it." — TertuUian, de Coron.^ ^ 3-

Upon this passage it may be observed, that TertuUian,
flourishing" a,d. 200, is on the one hand a very early
witness for the existence of the general doctrine which
it contains, while on the other he gives no sanction to
those later customs which the Church of Rome upholds,
but which cannot be clearly traced to primitive times.

St. Basil, whose work on the Holy Spirit, § 66, shall
next be cited, flourished in the middle of the fourth
century, 150 years after TertuUian, and was of a very
different school ; yet he will be found to be in exact
agreement with him on the subject before us — viz., that
the ritual of the Church was derived from the Apostles,
and was based on religious principles and doctrines.
He adds a reason for its not being given us in Scripture,
which we may receive or reject as our judgment leads
us — viz., that the rites were memorials of doctrines
not intended for publication except among baptised
Christians, whereas the Scriptures were open to all
men. This at least is clear, that the ritual could
scarcely have been given in detail in Scripture, without
imparting to the Gospel the character of a burdensome
ceremonial, and withdrawing our attention from its
doctrines and precepts.

"Of those articles of doctrine and preaching which are in the
custody of the Church, some come to us in Scripture itself, some
are conveyed to us by a continuous tradition in mystical deposi-
tories. Both have equal claims on our devotion, and are
received by all, at least by all who are in any respect Church-

RITES AND CUSTOMS. 153

men. For, should we attempt to supersede the usages which
are not enjoined in Scripture as if unimportant, we should do
most serious injury to Evangelical truth: nay, reduce it to a
bare name. To take an obvious instance: which Apostle has
taught us in Scripture to sign believers with the cross? Where
does Scripture teach us to turn to the east in prayer.' Which
of the saints has left us recorded in Scripture the words of
invocation at the consecration of the bread of the Eucharist,
and of the cup of blessing.' Thus we are not content with
what Apostle or Evangelist has left on record, but we add other
rites before and after it, as important to the celebration of the
mystery, receiving them from a teaching distinct from Scripture.
Moreover, we bless the water of baptism, and the oil for
anointing, and also the candidate for baptism himself. . . .
After the example of Moses, the Apostles and Feathers who
modelled the Churches were accustomed to lodge their sacred
doctrine in mystic forms, as being secretly and silently con-
veyed. . . . This is the reason why there is a tradition of
observances independent of Scripture, lest doctrines, being
e.xposed to the world, should be so familiar as to be des-
pised. . . . We stand instead of kneeling at prayer on the
Sunday; but all of us do not know the reason of this. . . .
Again, every time we kneel down and rise up, we show by our
outward action that sin has levelled us with the ground, and the
loving mercy of our Creator has recalled us to heaven."

The conclusion to be drawn from all that has been
said in these pag^es is this : — That rites and ordinances,
far from being- unmeaning, are in their nature capable
of impressing our memories and imaginations with the
great revealed verities ; far from being superstitious,
are expressly sanctioned in Scripture as to their
principle, and delivered to the Church in their form
by tradition. Further, that they varied in different
countries, according to the respective founder of the
Church in each. Thus e.g., St. John and St. Philip
are known to have adopted the Jewish rule for observing
Easter-day; while other Apostles celebrated it always
on a Sunday. Lastly, that, although the details of the
early ritual varied in importance, and corrupt additions
were made in the middle ages, yet that, as a whole, the

154 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

Catholic ritual was a precious possession ; and if we,
who have rid ourselves of those corruptions, have lost
not only the possession, but the sense of its value, it is
a serious question whether we are not like men who
recover from some grievous illness with the loss or
injury of their sight or hearing" ; — whether we are not
like the Jews returned from captivity, who could never
find the rod of Aaron or the Ark of the Covenant,
which, indeed, had ever been hid from the world, but
then was removed from the Temple itself.

Oxford,

The Feast of St. Philip and St. James.

[By J. H. Newman; published 1834.]

TRACT XXXVIII.

VIA MEDIA.

No. I.

Laicus. Will you listen to a few free questions from
one who has not known you long enough to be familiar
with you without apology? I am struck by many
things I have heard you say, which show me that,
somehow or other, my religious system is incomplete :
yet at the same time the whole world accuses you of
Poper}-, and there are seasons when I have misgivings
whither you are carrying me.

Clcricus. I trust I am prepared, most willing I
certainly am, to meet any objections you have to bring
against doctrines which you have heard me maintain.
Say more definitely what the charge against me is.

L. That your religious system, which I have heard
some persons style the Apostolical, and which I so
name by way of designation, is like that against which
our forefathers protested at the Reformation.

C I will admit it, i.e. if I may reverse your state-
ment, and say, that the Popish system resembles it.
Indeed, how could it be otherwise, seeing that all
corruptions of the truth must be like the truth which
they corrupt, else they would not persuade mankind to
take them instead of it ?

L. A bold thing to say, surely; to make the earlier
system an imitation of the later?

C. A bolder, surely, to assume that mine is the later,

156 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

and the Popish the earUer. When think you that my
system (so to call it) arose? — not with myself?

L. Of course not ; but whatever individuals have held
it in our Church since the Reformation, it must be
acknowledged that they have been but few, though
some of them doubtless eminent men.

C. Perhaps you would say {i.e. the persons whose
views you are representing), that at the Reformation
the stain of the old theology was left among us, and
has shown itself in its measure ever since, as in the
poor, so again in the educated classes ; — that the
peasantry still use and transmit their Popish rhymes,
and the minds of students still linger among the early
Fathers ; but that the genius and principles of our
Church have ever been what is commonly called
Protestant.

L. This is a fair general account of what would be
maintained.

C. You would consider that the Protestant principles
and doctrines of this day were those of our Reformers
in the sixteenth century; and that what is called Popery
now, is what was called Popery then.

L. On the whole ; there are indeed extravagances
now, as is obvious. I would not defend extremes ; but
I suppose our Reformers would agree with moderate
Protestants of this day, in what they meant by Pro-
testantism and by Popery.

C. This is an important question, of course; much
depends on the correctness of the answer you have
made to it. Do you make it as a matter of history,
from knowing the opinions of our Reformers, or from
what you consider probable?

L. I am no divine. I judge from a general know-
ledge of history, and from the obvious probabilities of
the case, which no one can gainsay.

C. Let us then go by probabilities, since you lead the
way. Is it not according to probabilities that opinions
and principles should not be the same now as they were

VIA MEDIA. 157

300 years since? that though our professions are the
same, yet we should not mean by them what the
Reformers meant? Can you point to any period of
Church history in which doctrine remained for any
time uncorrupted? Three hundred years is a long'
time. Are you quite sure we do not need a second
reformation ?

L. Are you really serious? Have we not Articles
and a Liturgy, which keep us from deviating from the
standard of truth set up in the sixteenth century?

C. Nay, I am maintaining no paradox. Surely there
is a multitude of men all around us who say the great
body of the Clergy has departed from the doctrines of
our Martyrs at the Reformation? I do not say I agree
with the particular charges they prefer; but the very
circumstance that they are made is a proof there is
nothing extravagant in the notion of the Church having
departed from the doctrine of the sixteenth century.

Z. It is true; but the persons you refer to bring^
forward, at least, an intelligible charge; they appeal to
the Articles, and maintain that the Clergy have de-
parted from the doctrine therein contained. They may
be right or wrong; but at least they give us the means
of judging for ourselves.

(. \ This surely is beside the point. We were speak-
ing of probabilities. What change actually has been
made, if any, is a further question, a question oi fact.
But before going on to examine the particular case, I
observe that change of opinion was probable; probable
in itself you can hardly deny, considering^ the history of
the universal Church; not extravagantly improbable,
moreover, in spite of Articles, as the extensively pre-
vailing opinion to which I alluded, that the clergy have
departed from them, sufficiently proves. Now consider
the course of religion and politics, domestic and foreign,
during the last three centuries, and tell me whether
events have not occurred to increase this probability
almost to a certainty; the probability, I mean, that the

158 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

members of the Eng-lish Church of the present day
differ from the pruiciples of the Church of Rome more
than our forefathers differed. First, consider the his-
tory of the Puritans from first to last. Without pro-
nouncing any opinion on the truth or unsoundness of
their principles, were they not evidently farther re-
moved from Rome than were our Reformers? Was
not their influence all on the side of leading the English
Church farther from Rome than our Reformers placed
it? Think of the fall of the Scottish Episcopal Church.
Reflect upon the separation and extinction of the Non-
jurors, upon the rise of Methodism, upon our political
alliances with foreign Protestant communities. Con-
sider especially the history and the school of Hoadley.
That man, whom a high authority of the present day
does not hesitate to call a Socinian,^ was for near fifty
years a bishop in our Church.

L. You tell me to think on these facts. I wish I
were versed enough in our ecclesiastical history to
do so.

C. But you are as well versed in it as the generality
of educated men ; as those whose opinions you are now
maintaining. And they surely ought to be well ac-
quainted with our history, and the doctrines taught
in the different schools and eras, who scruple not to
charge such as me with a declension from the true
Anti-popish doctrine of our Church. For what the
doctrine of the Church is, what it has been for three
centuries, is a matter of fact which cannot be known
without reading.

L. Let us leave, if you please, this ground of prob-
ability, which, whatever you may say, cannot convince
me while I am able to urge that strong objection to
it which you would not let me mention just now. I
repeat, we have Articles; we have a Liturgy; the
dispute lies in a little compass, without need of his-

^ " It is true he was a Bishop, though a Socinian." — Bp. Blomfield's
Letter to C. Butler, Esq., 1825.

VIA MEDIA. 159

torical reading-: — do you mean to say we have departed
from them ?

(\ I am not willing- to follow you a second time,
and will be explicit. I reply, we have departed from
them. Did you ever study the Rubrics of the Prayer
Book ?

Z. But surely they have long been obsolete; — they
are impracticable!

(\ It is enough; you have answered your own ques-
tion without trouble of mine. Not only do we not
obey them, but it seems we style them impracticable.
I take your admission. Now, I ask you, are not these
Rubrics (I might also mention parts of the Services
themselves which have fallen into disuse) such as the
present day would call Popish? and, if so, is not this
a proof that the spirit of the present day has departed
(whether for good or evil) from the spirit of the Refor-
mation?— and is it wonderful that such as I should be
called Popish, if the Church Services themselves are
considered so?

L. Will you give me some instances?

C. Is it quite in accordance with our present Pro-
testant notions that unbaptised persons should not be
buried with the rites of the Church? — that every Clergy-
man should read the Daily Service morning" and
evening at home, if he cannot get a congregation? —
that in college chapels the Holy Communion should
be administered every week? — that Saints' Days should
be observed? — that stated days of fasting should be set
apart by the Church? Ask even a sober-minded really
serious man about the observance of these rules; will
he not look grave, and say that he is afraid of formality
and superstition if these rules were attended to?

Z. And is there not the danger?

C. The simple question is, whether there is more
danger now than three centuries since? was there not
far more superstition in the sixteenth than in the nine-
teenth century? and does the spirit of the nineteenth

i6o THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

move with the spirit of the sixteenth, if the sixteenth
commands and the nineteenth draws back?

Z. But you spoke of parts of the Services them-
selves as laid aside?

C. Alas! . . .

What is the prevailing opinion or usag"e respecting
the form of absolution in the office for Visiting" the
Sick? What is thought by a great body of men of the
works in which the Priesthood is conveyed? Are there
no objections to the Athanasian Creed? no murmurs
against the Commination Service? Does no one
stumble at the word "oblations," in the Prayer for
the Church Militant? Is there no clamour against
parts of the Burial Service? No secret or scarcely
secret complaints against the word regeneration in the
Baptismal? No bold protestations against reading the
Apocrypha? Now do not all these objections rest upon
one general ground — viz.. That these parts of our
Services savour of Popery? And again, are not these
the popular objections of the day?

L. I cannot deny it.

C. I consider then that already I have said enough to
show that Churchmen of this day have deviated from
the opinions of our Reformers, and become more
opposed than they were to the system they protested
against. And therefore, I would observe, it is not fair
to judge of me, or such as me, in the off-hand way
which many men take the liberty to adopt. Men seem
to think that we are plainly and indisputably proved
to be Popish if we are proved to differ from the
generality of Churchmen nowadays. But what if it
turn out that they are silently floating down the stream,
and we are upon the shore?

Z. All, however, will allow, I suppose, that our
Reformation was never completed in its details. The
final judgment was not passed upon parts of the Prayer
Book. There were, you know, alterations in the second
edition of it published in King Edward's time; and

VIA MEDIA. i6i

these tended to a more Protestant doctrine than that
which had first been adopted. F^or instance, in King
lid ward's first book the dead in Christ were prayed for;
in the second this commemoration was omitted. A<;;^ain,
in the first book the elements of the Lord's Supper
were more distinctly offered up to God, and more for-
mally consecrated than in the second edition, or at
present. Had Queen Mary not succeeded, perhaps
the men who effected this would have gone farther.

C. I believe they would ; nay indeed they did at a
subsequent period. They took away the Liturgy alto-
gether, arid substituted a Directory.

Z. They? the same men?

C. Ves, the foreign party : who afterwards went by
the name of Puritans. Bucer, who altered in King
Edward's time, and the Puritans, who destroyed in
King Charles's, both came from the same religious
quarter.

Z. Ought you so to speak of the foreign Reformers?
to them we owe the Protestant doctrine altogether.

C. I like foreign interference as little from Geneva
as from Rome. Geneva at least never converted a part
of England from heathenism, nor could lay claim to
patriarchal authority over it. Why could we not be let
alone, and suffered to reform ourselves?

Z. You separate then your creed and cause from that
of the Reformed Churches of the Continent?

C. Not altogether; but I protest against being
brought into that close alliance with them which the
world nowadays would force upon us. The glory of
the English Church is, that it has taken the via media,
as it has been called. It lies be/iveen the (so-called)
Reformers and the Romanists; whereas there are re-
ligious circles, and influential too, where it is thought
enough to prove an English Clergyman unfaithful to
his Church if he preaches anything at variance with
the opinions of the Diet of Augsburg, or the Confes-
sions of the Waldenses. However, since we have been

i62 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

led to speak of the foreign Reformers, I will, if you will
still listen to me, strengthen my argument by an appeal
to them.

L. That argument being, that what is now considered
Protestant doctrine is not what was considered such
by the Reformers.

C. Yes ; and I am going to offer reasons for thinking
that the present age has lapsed, not only from the
opinions of the English Reformers, but from those of
the foreign also. This is too extensive a subject to
do justice to, ev^en had I the learning for it; but I
may draw your attention to one or two obvious proofs
of the fact.

Z. You must mean from Calvin ; for Luther is, in
some points, reckoned nearer the Romish Church than
ourselves.

C. I mean Calvin, about whose extreme distance
from Rome there can be no doubt. What is the
popular opinion now concerning the necessity of an
Episcopal Regimen?

L. A late incident has shown what it is ; that it is
uncharitable to define the Catholic Church as the body
of Christians in every country as governed by Bishops,
Priests, and Deacons; such a definition excluding pious
Dissenters and others.

C. But what thought Calvin? "Calvin held those
men worthy of anathema who would not submit them-
selves to truly Christian Bishops, if such could be
had."^ What would he have said then to the Wes-
leyan Methodists, and that portion of the (so-called)
Orthodox Dissenters which co-operates, at present,
with the Church? These allow that we, or that
numbers among us, are truly Christian, yet make no
attempts to obtain Bishops from us. Thus the age is
more Protestant now than Calvin himself.

Z. Certainly in this respect ; unless Calvin spoke
rhetorically under circumstances.

^ Vide The Churchman^ s Mamtal, p. 13.

VIA MEDIA. 163

C. Now tor a second instance. The followiiii,^ is his
statement concerning the Lord's Supper: — " I under-
stand what is to be understood by the words of Christ;
that he doth not only offer us the benefits of His
death and Resurrection, but His very body, wherein
He died and rose again. I assert that the body of
Christ is really (as the usual expression is), that it is
truly given to us in the Sacrament, to be the saving-
food of our souls." . . . "The Son of God offers daily
to us in the Holy Sacrament the same body which He
once offered in sacrifice to His Father, that it may
be our spiritual food." . . , "If any one ask me con-
cerning the manner, I will not be ashamed to confess
that it is a secret too high for my reason to com-
prehend, or my tongue to express."^ Now, if I were
of myself to use these words (in spite of the qualifica-
tion at the end, concerning the manner of His presence
in the Sacrament), would they not be sufficient to con-
vict me of Popery in the judgment of this minute and
unlearned generation?

L. You speak plausibly, I will grant ; yet surely,
after all, it is not unnatural that the Reformers of the
sixteenth century should have fallen short of a full
Reformation in matters of doctrine and discipline.
Light breaks but gradually on the mind: one age
begins a work, another finishes.

C I am arguing about a matter of fact, not defend-
ing the opinions of the Reformers. As to this notion of
their but partial illumination, I am not concerned to
oppose it, being quite content if the persons whom you
are undertaking to represent are willing to admit it.
And then, in consistency, I shall beg them to reproach
me not with Popery but with Protestantism, and to be
impartial enough to assail not only me, but "the
Blessed Reformation," as they often call it, using words
they do not understand. It is hard, indeed, that when

' Vide Tracts for the Times, p. 27.

15

i64 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

I share in the opinions of the Reformers, 1 should have
no share of their praises of them.

L. You speak as if you really agreed with the Re-
formers. You may say so in an argument, but in sober
earnest )'ou cannot mean to say you really agree with
the great body of them. Neither you nor I should
hesitate to confess they were often inconsistent, saying
at one time what they disowned at another.

C. That they should have said different things at
different times is not wonderful, considering they were
searching into Scripture and Antiquity, and feeling their
way to the Truth. Since, however, they did vary in
their opinions, for this very reason it is obvious I
should be saying nothing at all in saying that I agreed
with them, unless I stated explicitly at what period
of their lives, or in which of their writings. This I do
state clearly: I say I agree with them as they speak
in the formularies of the Church ; more cannot be re-
quired of me, nor indeed is it possible to say more.

L. What persons complain of is, that you are not
satisfied with the formularies of the Church, but add
to them doctrines not contained in them. You must
allow there is little stress laid in the Articles on some
points, which are quite cardinal in your system, to
•udge by your way of enforcing them.

C This is not the first time you have spoken of this
supposed system of ours. I will not stop to quarrel
with you for calling it ours, as if it were not rather the
Church's; but explain to me what you consider it to
consist in.

Z. The following are some of its doctrines: that the
Church has an existence independent of the State ; that
the State may not religiously interfere with its internal
concerns ; that none may engage in ministerial works
except such as are episcopally ordained; that the
consecration of the Eucharist is especially entrusted
to Bishops and Priests. Where do you find these doc-
trines in the formularies of the Church; that is, so

VIA MEDIA. 165

prominently set forth as to sanction you in urg'ing'
them at all, or at least so strong-ly as you arc used to
urg'e them?

C. As to urging them at all, we might be free to
urge them even though not mentioned in the Articles;
unless indeed the Articles are our rule of faith. Were
the Church first set up at the Reformation, then indeed
it might be right so to exalt its Articles as to forbid
to teach "whatsoever is not read therein, nor may
be proved thereby." I cannot consent, I am sure the
Reformers did not wish me, to deprive myself of the
Church's dowry, the doctrines which the Apostles spoke
in Scripture and impressed upon the early Church. I
receive the Church as a messenger from Christ, rich in
treasures old and new, rich with the accumulated wealth
of ages.

L. Accumulated?

C. As you will yourself allow. Our Articles are one
portion of that accumulation. Age after age, fresh
battles have been fought with heresy, fresh monuments
of truth set up. As I will not consent to be deprived
of the records of the Reformation, so neither will I part
with those of former times. I look upon our Articles
as in one sense an addition to the Creeds; and at the
same time the Romanists added their Tridentine articles.
Theirs I consider unsound; ours as true.

L. The Articles have surely an especial claim upon
you; you have subscribed them, and are therefore
more bound to them than to other truths, whatever or
wherever they be.

C. There is a popular confusion on this subject. Our
Articles are not a body of divinity, but in great measure
only protest against certain errors of a certain period of
the Church. Now I will preach the whole counsel of
God, whether set down in the Articles or not. I am
bound to the Articles by subscription ; but I am bound,
more solemnly even than by subscription, by my bap-
tism and by my ordination, to believe and maintain the

i66 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

ivholc Gospel of Christ. The grace given at those
seasons comes through the Apostles, not through
Luther or Calvin, Bucer or Cartwright. You will
presently agree with me in this statement. Let me
ask, do you not hold the inspiration of Holy Scripture?

Z. Undoubtedly.

C. Is it not a clergyman's duty to maintain and con-
fess it?

Z. Certainly.

C. But the doctrine is nowhere found in the Articles;
and for this plain reason, that both Romanists and Re-
formers admitted it; and the difference between the two
parties was, not whether the Old and New Testament
were inspired, but whether the Apocrypha was of
canonical authority.

Z. I must grant it.

C. And in the same way, I would say, there are
many other doctrines unmentioned in the Articles, only
because they were not then disputed by either party ;
and others, for other reasons, short of disbelief in them.
I cannot indeed make my neighbour preach them, for
he will tell me he will believe only just so much as
he has been obliged to subscribe; but it is hard if I am
therefore to be defrauded of the full inheritance of faith
myself. Look at the subject from another point of
view, and see if we do not arrive at the same conclu-
sion. A statesman of the last century is said to have
remarked that we have Calvinistic Articles, and a
Popish Liturgy. This of course is an idle calumny.
But is there not certainly a distinction of doctrine and
manner between the Liturgy and the Articles? And
does not what I have just stated account for it — viz.,
that the Liturgy, as coming down from the Apostles, is
the depository of their complete teaching; while the
Articles are polemical, and except as they embody the
creeds, are only protests against certain definite errors?
Such are my views about the Articles; and if in my
teaching, I lay especially stress upon doctrines only

VIA MEDIA. 167

indirectly contained in them, and say loss about those
which are therein put forth most prominently, it is
because times are chang-ed. We are in danger of un-
belief more than of superstition. The Christian minister
should be a witness against the errors of his day.

L. I cannot tell whether on consideration I shall
agree with you or not. However, after all, you have
said not a word to explain what your real differences
from Popery are ; what those false doctrines were which
you conceive our Reformers withstood. You began by
confessing that your opinions and the Popish opinions
had a resemblance, and only disputed whether yours
should be called like the Popish, or the Popish like
yours. But in what are yours different from Rome?

C Be assured of this — no party will be more op-
posed to our doctrine, if it ever prospers and makes
noise, than the Roman party. This has been proved
before now. In the seventeenth century the theology
of the divines of the English Church was substantially
the same as ours is; and it experienced the full hostility
of the Papacy. It was the true Via Media; Rome
sought to block up that way as fiercely as the Puritans.
History tells us this. Did I not fear to incur the guilt
of railing against other branches of Christ's Church,
I would, before we separated, attempt a few words
in explanation of my irreconcilable differences with the
system of Rome, as it is; but, on the whole, I feel it
better to stop at the point to which we have come.

Z. Thank you for this conversation ; from which I
hope to draw matter for reflection, though the subject
seems to involve such deep historical research, I hardly
know how to find my way through it.

Oxford,
• The Feast of St. James [/uly 2StA, 1834].

[Hy J. H. Nkwman.]

TRACT XLI.
VIA MEDIA.

No. II.

Laiciis. I am come for some further conversation with
you ; or rather, for another exposition of your views on
Church matters. I am not well read enough to argue
with you; nor, on the other hand, do I profess to admit
all 30U say: but I want, if you will let me, to get at
your opinions. So will you lecture if I give the
subjects ?

Clericus. To lecture, as you call it, is quite beyond
me, since at best I have but a smattering of reading in
Church history. The more's the pity; though I have
as much as a great many others: for ignorance of our
historical position as Churchmen is one of the especial
evils of the day. Yet even with a little knowledge, I
am able to see certain facts which seem quite inconsis-
tent with notions at present received. For my practice,
I should be ashamed of myself if I guided it by any
theories. Here the letter and spirit of the Liturgy is
my direction, as it is of all classes of Churchmen, high
and low. Yet, though I do not lay a great stress on
such views as I gather from history, it is to my mind a
strong confirmation of them, that they just account for
and illustrate the conclusions to which I am led by plain
obedience to my ordination vows.

L. If you onl}' wish to keep to the Liturgy, not to
change, what did you mean the other day by those

VIA MEDIA. 169

ominous words, in which you sug-gested the need of a
second Reformation ?

C. Because I think the Church has in a measure
forgotten its own principles, as declared in the sixteenth
century; nay, under stranger circumstances, as far as
I know, than have attended any of the errors and
corruptions of the Papists. Grievous as are their
declensions from primitive usage, I never heard in any
case of their practice directly contradicting" their Services;
— whereas we go on lamenting once a year the absence
of discipline in our Church, yet do not even dream of
taking anyone step towards its restoration. Again, we
confess in the Articles that excommunication is a solemn
duty of the Church under certain circumstances, and
that the excommunicated person must be openly recon-
ciled by penance, before he is acknowledged by the
faithful as a brother; yet excommunication, I am told,
is now a civil process, which takes place as a matter of
course, at a certain stage of certain law proceedings.
Here a reformation is needed.

L. Only of discipline, not of doctrine.

C. Again, when the Church, with an unprecedented
confidence, bound herself hand and foot, and made
herself over to the civil power, in order to escape the
Pope, she did not expect that infidels (as it has lately
been hinted) would be suffered to have the absolute
disposal of the crown patronage.

L. This, again, might be considered matter of discip-
line. Our Reformation in the sixteenth century was
one in matters oi faith: and therefore we do not need
a second Reformation in the same sense in which we
needed it first.

C. In what points would you say the ChurcWs fiit/i
was reformed in the sixteenth century?

L. Take the then received belief in purgatory and
pardons, which alone was a sufficient corruption to call
for a reformation.

('. I conceive the presumption of the Popish doctrine

I70 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

on these points to lie in adding to the means of salvation
set forth in Scripture. Almighty God has said His
Son's merits shall wash away all sin, and that they shall
be conveyed to believers through the two Sacraments;
whereas, the Church of Rome has added other ways of
gaining heaven.

L. Granted. The belief in purgatory and pardons
disparages the sufficiency, first of Christ's merits, next
of His appointed sacraments.

C. And by "received" belief, I suppose you mean
that it was the popular belief, which clergy and laity
acted on, not that it was necessarily contained in any
particular doctrinal formulary.

L. Proceed.

C. Do you not suppose that there are multitudes both
among clergy and laity at the present day who dispar-
age, not indeed Christ's merits, but the Sacraments He
has appointed? and if so, is not their error so far the
same in kind as that of the Romish Church — the
preferring Abana and Pharpar to the waters of Jordan ?
Take the Sacrament of Baptism. Have not some
denominations of schismatics invented ?^ rite of dedication
instead of Baptism ? and do not Churchmen find them-
selves under the temptation of countenancing this
Papist-like presumption ? — Again, there is a well-known
sect which denies both Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
A Churchman must believe its members to be altogether
external to the fold of Christ. Whatever benevolent
works they maj- be able to show, still, if we receive the
Church's doctrine concerning the means "generally
necessary to salvation," we must consider such persons
to be mere heathens, except in knowledge. Now would
there not be an outcry raised, as if I were uncharitable,
did I refuse the rites of burial to such a one ?

Z. This censure would not proceed from the better
informed, or the rulers of our Church.

C. Happily, we are not as yet so corrupted as at the
era of the Reformation. Our Prelates are still sound,

VIA MEDIA. 171

and know the dift'erence between what is modern and
what is ancient. Yet is not the mode of viewing- the
subject I refer to, a i^nKvi)tg one ? and how does it differ
from the presumption of the Papists ? In both cases,
the power of Christ's Sacraments is denied ; in the one
case by the unbelief of restlessness and fear, in the other
by the unbelief of profaneness,

L. Well, supposing- I grant that the Church of this
day is in a measure faulty in faith and discipline; more
or less, of course, according to the diocese and neigh-
bourhood. Now, in the next place, what do you mean
by your Reformation ?

C. I would do what our reformers in the sixteenth
century did: they did not touch the existing documents
of doctrine — there was no occasion — they kept the
creeds as they were; but they added protests against
the corruptions of faith, worship, and discipline, which
had grown up round them. I would have the Church
do the same thing now, if I could: she should not
change the Articles, she should add to them: add
protests against the erastianism and latitudinarianism
which have incrusted them. I would have her append
to the Catechism a section on the power of the Church.

L. You have not mentioned any corruptions at
present in ivorship ; do you consider that there are such,
as well as errors of faith and discipline ?

C. Our Liturgy keeps us right in the main, yet there
are what may be considered such, though for the most
part occasional. To board over the altar of a Church,
place an orchestra there of playhouse singers, and take
money at the doors, seems to me as great an outrage
as to sprinkle the forehead with holy water, and to
carry lighted tapers in a procession.

L. Do not speak so harshly of what has often been
done piously. George the Third was a patron of
concerts in one of our Cathedrals.

i\ Far be it from my mind to dare to arraign the
actions of that reliijious kine: ! The same deed is of a

172 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

different nature at different times and under different
circumstances. Music in a Church may as reverentially
subserve the feelings of devotion as pictures of archi-
tecture ; but it may not.

L. You could not prevent such a desecration by
adding- a fortieth article to the thirty-nine.

C. Not directly: yet though there is no article
directly condemning religious processions, they have
nevertheless been discontinued. In like manner, were
an article framed (to speak by way of illustration)
declaratory of the sanctity of places set apart to the
worship of God and the reception of the saints that
sleep, doubtless Churchmen would be saved from many
profane feelings and practices of the day which they
give into unawares, such as the holding vestries in
Churches, the flocking to preachers rather than to
sacraments (as if the servant were above the Master,
who is Lord over His own house), the luxurious and
fashionable fitting up of town Churches, the proposal
to allow schismatics to hold their meetings in them, the
off-hand project of pulling them down for the conveni-
ence of streets and roads, and the wanton preference
(for it frequently is wanton) of unconsecrated places,
whether for preaching to the poor, or for administering
sacred rites to the rich.

Z. It is visionary to talk of such a reformation: the
people would not endure it.

(\ It is; but I am not advocating it, I am but raising
a protest. I say this ought to be, "because of the
angels,"^ but I do not hope to persuade others to think
as I do.

L. I think I quite understand the ground you take.
You consider that, as time goes on, fresh and fresh
articles of faith are necessary to secure the Church's
purit}', according to the rise of successive heresies and
errors. These articles are all hidden, as it were, in the
Church's bosom, from the first, and brought out into
1 I Cor. xi. lo.

VIA MKDIA. 173

form according- to the occasion. Such was the Nicene
explanation against Arius; the English Articles against
Popery: and such are those now called for in this Age
of schism, to meet the new heresy, which denies the
holy Catholic Church — the heresy of Hoadley, and
others like him.

C. Ves — and let it never be forgotten that, whatever
were the errors of the Convocation of our Church in the
beginning of the eighteenth century, it expired in an
attempt to brand the doctrines of Hoadley. May the
day be merely delayed !

Z. I understand you further to say, that you hold to
the Reformers as far as they have spoken out in our
formularies, which at the same time you consider as
incomplete; that the doctrines which may appear want-
ing in the Articles, such as the Apostolical Commission,
are the doctrines of the Church Catholic ; doctrines
which a member of that Church holds as such, prior to
subscription; that, moreover they are quite consistent
with our Articles, sometimes are even implied in them,
and sometimes clearly contained in the Liturgy, though
not in the Articles, as the Apostolical Commission in
the Ordination Service ; lastly, that we are clearly bound
to believe, and all of us do believe, as essential, doctrines
which nevertheless are not contained in the Articles, as
e.g., the inspiration of Holy Scripture.

C. Ves — and further I maintain that, while I fully
concur in the Articles, as far as they g^o, those who call
one Papist, do not acquiesce in the doctrine of the
Liturg)-.

Z. This is a subject I especially wish drawn out.
Vou threw out some hints about it the other day,
though I cannot say you convinced me. I have mis-
g-ivings, after all, that our Reformers only began their
own work. I do not say they saw the tendency and
issue of their opinions; but surely, had they lived, and
had the opportunity of doing more, they would have
given into much more liberal notions (as they are

/

174 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

called) than you are disposed to concede. It is not by
producing- a rubric, or an insulated passage from the
services, that you can destroy this impression. Such
instances only show they were inconsistent, which I will
grant. Still, is not the genius of our formularies to-
wards a more latitudinarian system than they reach ?

C. I will cheerfully meet you on the grounds you
propose. Let us carefully examine the Liturgy in its
separate parts. I think it will decide the point which
I contended for the other day — viz., that we are more
Protestant than our Reformers.

L. What do you mean by Protestant in your present
use of the word ?

C. A number of distinct doctrines are included in the
notion of Protestantism: and as to all these, our Church
has taken the Via Media between it and Popery. At
present I will use it in the sense most apposite to the
topics we have been discussing — viz., as the religion of so-
called freedom and independence, as hating superstition,
suspicious of forms, jealous of priestcraft, advocating
heart-worship; characteristics which admit- of a good
or a bad interpretation, but which, understood as they
are instanced in the majority of persons who are zealous
for what is called Protestant doctrine, are (I maintain)
very inconsistent with the Liturgy of our Church. Now
let us begin with the Confirmation Service.

L. Will not the Baptismal be more to your purpose ?
In it regeneration is connected with the formal act of
sprinkling a little water on the forehead of an infant.

C. It is true; but I would rather show the general
spirit of the Services, than take those obvious instances
which, it seems, you can find out for yourself. Is it not
certain that a modern Protestant, even though he
granted that children were regenerated in Baptism,
would, in the Confirmation Service, have inserted some
address to them about the necessity of spiritual renova-
tion, of becoming new creatures, etc.? I do not say
such warning has not its appropriateness; nor do I

VIA MEDIA. 175

propose to account for our Church's not t^ivin<^ it; but
is it not quite certain that the present prcvuifiiii^ temper
in the Church would have given it, judg-in*; from the
prayers and sermons of the day, and that the Liturgy
does not ? Were that day like this, would it not have
been deemed formal and cold, and to argue a want of
spiritual-mindedness, to have proposed a declaration,
such as has been actually adopted, that "to the end
that Confirmation may be ministered to the more
edifying of such as shall receive it . . . none hereafter
shall be confirmed but such as can say the Creed, the
Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments," etc.;
nothing being said of a change of heart, or spiritual
affections ? And yet, upon this mere external profession,
the children receive the imposition of the Bishop's
hands, "to certify th^m by this sign, of God's favour
and gracious goodness towards them."

L. From the line you are adopting, I see you will
find Services more Anti-Protestant (in the modern sense
of Protestant) than that for Confirmation.

C. Take, again, the Catechism. What can be more
technical and formal (as the persons I speak of would
say) than the division of our duties into our duty to-
wards God and our duty towards our neighbour? In-
deed, would not the very word duty be objected to
by them, as obscuring the evangelical character of
Christianity? Why is there no mention oi newness
of heart, of appropriating the mercies of redemption,
and such-like phrases, which are now common among
so-called Protestants ? Why no mention of justifying
faith ?

Z. F'aith is mentioned in an earlier part of the
Catechism.

C. Yes, and it affords a remarkable contrast to the
modern use of the word. Nowadays, the promineut
notion conveyed by it regards its properties, whether
spiritual or not, warm, heart-felt, vital. But in the
Catechism, the prominent notion is that of its object^

176 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

the believing- "«// the Articles of the Christian faith,"
according to the Apostle's declaration, that it is "the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen."

L. I understand ; and the Creed is also introduced
into the service for Baptism.

C. And still more remarkably into the Order for
Visiting the Sick: more remarkably, both because of
the season when it is introduced, when a Christian is
drawings near his end, and also as being a preparation
for the Absolution. Most comfortable, truly, in his last
hour, is such a distinct rehearsal of the great truths on
which the Christian has fed by faith, with thanksgiving
all his life long; yet it surely would not have suggested
itself to a modern Protestant. He would rather have
instituted J some more searching- examination (as he
would call it) of the state of the sick man's heart ;
whereas the whole of the minister's exhortation is what
the modern school calls cold and formal. It ends thus: —
"I require you to examine yourself and your estate,
both toward God and man ; so that, accusing and
condemning yourself for your own faults, you may find
mercy at our heavenly Father's hand for Christ's sake,
and not be accused and condemned in that fearful
judgment. Therefore, I shall rehearse to you the
Articles of our Faith, that you may kntna whether you
believe as a Christian man should^ or no.^^

L. You observe the R.ubric which follows : it speaks
of a further examination.

C. True ; still it is what would now be called formal
and external.

L. Yet it mentions a great number of topics for
examination: — "Whether he repent him truly of his
sins, and be in charity with all the world; exhorting
him to forgive, from the bottom of his heart, all persons
that have offended him; and, if he hath offended any
other, to ask them forgiveness; and where he hath
done injury or wrong to any man, that he make amends

VIA MEDIA. 177

to the uttermost of his power. And, if he hath not
before disposed of his ^oods, let him llieii be admonished
to make liis will, and to declare his debts, what he
oweth, and what is owing- to him; for the better dis-
charg-ing- of his conscience, and the quietness of his
executors. Here is an exhortation to repentance,
charity, forgiveness of injuries, humbleness of mind,
honesty, and justice. What could be added?

6'. Vou will be told that worldly and spiritual matters
are mixed together; and, besides, not a word said of
looking to Christ, resting on Him, and renovation of
heart. Such are the expressions which modern Pro-
testantism would have considered necessary, and w^ould
have inserted as such. They are good words; still they
are not those which our Church considers the words for
a sick-bed exiwiimition. She does not give them the
prominence which is now given them. She adopts a
manner of address which savours of what is now called
formality. That our Church was no stranger to the
more solemn kind of language which persons now use
on every occasion, is evident from the prayer "for a
sick person, when there appeareth small hope of
recovery," and "the commendatory prayer"; still she
adopts the other as her ordinary manner.

L. I can corroborate what you just now observed
about the Creed, by what I lately read in some book or
books, advocating a revision of the Liturgy. It was
vehemently objected to the Apostles' Creed, that it
contained no confession of the doctrine of the atone-
ment, nor (I think) of original sin !

C. It is well to see persons consistent. When they
go full lengths, they startle others, and, perhaps (please
God), themselves. Indeed, I wish men would stop a
while, and seriously reflect whether the mere verbal
opposition which exists between their own languag^e
and the language of the Services (to say nothing of the
difference of spirit), is not a sort of warning to them,
if they would take it, against inconsiderately proceeding

173 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

in their present course. But nothing" is more rare at
this day than quiet thought. Every one is in a bustle,
being bent to do a g-reat deal. We preach, and run
from house to house; we do not pray or meditate.
But to return. Next, consider the first exhortation to
the Communion: would it not be called, if I said it
in discourse of my own, "dark, cold, and formal"?
" The way and means thereto [to receive worthily] is, —
First, to examine your lives and conversations by the
rule of God's Cotnmandmejits, etc. . . . Therefore, if
any of you be a blasphemer of God, a hitiderer or
slanderer of His word, an adulterer, or be in malice, or
envy, or any other grievous crime, repent you of your
sins," etc. Now this is what is called, in some quarters,
by a great abuse of terms, " mere morality."

Z. If I understand you, the Liturg}^, all along, speaks
of the Gospel dispensation, under which it is our
blessedness to live, as being, at the same time, a moral
laiv; that this is its prominent view; and that external
observances and definite acts of duty are made the
means and the tests of faith.

C. Yes ; and that, in thus speaking, it runs quite
counter to the innovating spirit of this day, which
proceeds rashly forward on large and general views, —
sweeps along, with one or two prominent doctrines, to
the comparative neglect of the details of duty, and drops
articles of faith and positive and ceremonial observances,
as beneath the attention of a spiritual Christian, as
monastic and superstitious, as forms, as minor points,
as technical, lip-worship, narrow-minded, and big"oted.
— Next, consider the wording of one part of the
Commination Service: — "He was wounded for our
offences, and smitten for our wickedness. Let us,
therefore, return unto Him, who is the merciful receiver
of all true penitent sinners ; assuring ourselves that He
is ready to receive us, and most willing to pardon us,
if we come unto Him with faithful repentance; if we
will submit ourselves unto Him, and from Jienceforth

VIA MEDIA. 179

ivalk in His ways; If we will take Ilis easy yoke and
light burden upon us, to follow Him in /o7v/iness,
patienee, and charity, and be ordered by the gfovernance
of His Holy Spirit; seeking- always His glory, and
serving Him duly in our vocation with thanksgiving':
This {five do, Christ will deliver us from the curse of the
law," etc. Did another say this, he would be accused
by the Protestant of this day of interfering with the
doctrine of justification by faith.

L. You have not spoken of the daily service of the
Church or of the Litany.

C. I should have more remarks to make than I like
to trouble you with. First, I should observe on the
absence of what are now called, exclusively^ the great
Protestant doctrines, or, at least, of the modes of
expression in which it is at present the fashion to con-
vey them. For instance, the Collects are summaries of
doctrine, yet I believe they do not once mention what
has sometimes been called the articulus stantis vel
cadentis Ecclesiae. This proves to me that, true and
important as this doctrine is in a controversial state-
ment, its direct mention is not so apposite in devotional
and practical subjects as modern Protestants of our
Church would consider it. Next, consider the general
Confession, which prays simply that God would grant
us "hereafter to live a godly, righteous, and sober
life." Righteous and sober! alas! this is the very sort
of words which Protestants consider superficial; good,
as far as they go, but nothing more. In like manner,
the priest, in the Absolution, bids us pray God "that
the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy."
But I have given instances enough to explain my
meaning about the Services generally : you can con-
tinue the examination for yourself. I will direct your
notice to but one instance more, — the Introduction of
the Psalms into the Daily Service. Do you think a
modern Protestant would have introduced them into
it?

16

i8o THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

Z. They are inspired ?

C. Yes, but they are also what is called Jewish. I
do certainly think, I cannot doubt, that had the Liturgy
been compiled in a day like this, but a selection of them,
at most, would have been inserted in it, though they
were all used in the primitive worship from the very
first. Do we not hear objections to using them in
singing, and a wish to substitute hymns? Is not this
a proof what judgment would have been passed on
their introduction into the Service, by reformers of the
nineteenth century ? First, the imprecatory Psalms,
as they are called, would have been set aside, of
course.

L. Yes; I cannot doubt it; though some of them, at
least, are prophetic, and expressly ascribed in the New
Testament to the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.

C. And surely numerous other passages would have
been pronounced unsuitable to the spiritual faith of a
Christian. I mean all such as speak of our being
rewarded according to the cleanness of our hands, and
of our walking innocently, and of the Lord's doing well
to those that are good and true of heart. Indeed, this
doctrine is so much the characteristic of that heavenly
book, that I hardly see any part of it could have been
retained but what is clearly predictive of the Messiah.

L. I shall now take my leave, with many thanks, and
will think over what you have said. However, have
you not been labouring superfluously? We know all
along that the Piiritans of Hooker's time did object
to the Prayer Book: there was no need of proving
that.

C. I am not speaking of those who would admit they
were Puritans ; but of that arrogant Protestant spirit
(so called) of the day, in and out of the Church (if it is
possible to say what is in and what is out), which thinks
it takes bold and large views, and would fain ride over
the superstitions and formalities which it thinks it sees
in those who (I maintain) hold to the old Catholic faith;

VIA MEDIA. i8i

and, as seeing that tliis spirit is coming" on apace, I cry
out betimes, whatever comes of it, that corruptions are
pouring in, which, sooner or later, will need a second
Rcfonntition.

Oxford,

The Feast of St. Bartholomew \^Au^ut i^th, 1S34].
[By J. H. Newman.]

ADVERTISEMENT TO VOLUME II.

In completing the second volume of a publication, to
which the circumstances of the day have given rise, it
may be right to allude to a change which has taken
place in them since the date of its commencement. At
that time, in consequence of long security, the attention
of members of our Church had been but partially
engaged in ascertaining the grounds of their adherence
to it; but the imminent peril to which all that is dear to
them has since been exposed has naturally turned their
thoughts that way, and obliged them to defend it on one
or other of the principles which are usually put forward
on its behalf. Discussions have thus been renewed in
various quarters, on points which had long remained
undisturbed; and, though numbers continue undecided
in opinion, or take up a temporary position in some one
of the hundred middle points which may be assumed
between the two main theories in which the question
issues, and others, again, have deliberately entrenched
themselves in the modern or ultra-protestant alternative,
yet, on the whole, there has been much hearty and in-
telligent adoption, and much respectful study, of those
more primitive views maintained by our great Divines.
As the altered state of public information and opinion
has a necessary bearing on the efforts of those who
desire to excite attention to the subject (in which num-
ber the writers of these Tracts are to be included), it
will not be inappropriate briefly to state in this place
what it is conceived is the present position of the great
body of Churchmen with reference to it.

While we have cause to be thankful for the sounder

ADVERTISEMENT TO VOLUME II. 183

and more accurate language which is now very generally
adopted among well-judging men on ecclesiastical sub-
jects, we must beware of over-estimating what has been
done, and so becoming sanguine in our hopes of success,
or slackening our exertions to secure it. Many more
persons, doubtless, have taken up a profession of the
main doctrine in question, that, namely, of the One
Catholic and Apostolic Church, than fully enter into it.
This is to be expected, it being the peculiarity of all
religious teaching that words are imparted before ideas.
A child learns his Creed or Catechism before he under-
stands it ; and in beginning any deep subject we are all
but children to the end of our lives. The instinctive
perception of a rightly instructed mind, X.\\q prhiia facie
force of the argument, or the authority of our celebrated
writers, have all had their due and extensive influence
in furthering the reception of the doctrine, when once it
was openly maintained; to which must be added the
prospect of the loss of State protection, which made it
necessary to look out for other reasons for adherence
to the Church besides that of obedience to the civil
magistrate. Nothing, which has spread quickly, has
been received thoroughly. Doubtless there are a num-
ber of seriously-minded persons who think they admit
the doctrine in question much more fully than they do,
and who would be startled at seeing that realised in
particulars which they confess in an abstract form.
Many there are who do not at all feel that it is capable
of a practical application: and, while they bring it
forward on special occasions, in formal expositions of
faith, or in answer to a direct interrogatory, let it slip
from their minds almost entirely in their daily conduct
or their religious teaching, from the long and inveterate
habit of thinking and acting without it. We must not
then at all be surprised at finding that to modify the
principles and motives on which men act is not the work
of a day; nor at undergoing disappointments, at wit-
nessing relapses, misconceptions, sudden disgusts, and.

1 84 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

on the other hand, abuses and perversions of the true
doctrine, in the case of those who have taken it up with
greater warmth than discernment.

And in the next place, it will be found that much
more has been done in awakening Churchmen to the
truth of the Apostolical Commission as a fact, and to
the admission of it as a duty, than to the enjoyment of
it as a privilege. If asked what is the use of adhering
to the Church, they will commonly answer, that it is
commanded that all acts of obedience meet with their
reward from Almighty God, and this in the number; but
the notion of the Church as the storehouse and direct
channel of grace, as a Divine Ordinance, not merely to
be maintained for order's sake, or because schism is a
sin, but to be approached joyfully and expectantly as a
definite instrument, or rather the appointed means, of
spiritual blessings — as an Ordinance which conveys
secret strength and life to every one who shares it,
unless there be some actual moral impediment in his
own mind — this is a doctrine which as yet is but faintly
understood among us. Nay, our subtle Enemy has so
contrived, that by affixing to this blessed truth the
stigma of Popery, numbers among us are effectually
deterred from profiting by a gracious provision, in-
tended for the comfort of our faith, but in their case
wasted.

The particular deficiency here alluded to may also be
described by referring to another form under which it
shows itself — viz., the a priori reluctance in those who
believe the Apostolical Commission to appropriate to it
the power of consecrating the Lord's Supper; as if there
were some antecedent iinprobability in God's gifts being
lodged in particular observances, and distributed in a
particular way; and as if the strong wish, or moral
worth, of the individual could create in the outward
ceremony a virtue which it had not received from above.
Rationalistic, or (as they may be more properly called)
carnal notions concerning the Sacraments, and, on the

ADVERTISEMENT TO VOLUME II. 185

other hand, a superstitious apprehension of resting in
them, and a slowness to beheve the possibihty of God's
having" hterally blessed ordinances with invisible power,
have, alas ! infected a large mass of men in our com-
munion. There are those whose "word will eat as
doth a canker"; and it is to be feared that we have
been over-near certain celebrated Protestant teachers,
Puritan or Latitudinarian, and have suffered in conse-
quence. Hence we have almost embraced the doctrine
that God conveys grace only through the instrumentality
of the mental energies — that is, through faith, prayer,
active spiritual contemplations, or (what is commonly
called) communion with God, in contradiction to the
primitive view, according to which the Church and her
Sacraments are the ordained and direct visible means of
conveying to the soul what is in itself supernatural and
unseen. For example, would not most men maintain,
on the first view of the subject, that to administer the
Lord's Supper to infants, or to the dying and apparently
insensible, however consistently pious and believing in
their past lives, must be, under all circumstances, and
in every conceivable case, a superstition? and yet
neither practice is without the sanction of primitive
usage. And does not this account for the prevailing
indisposition to admit that Baptism conveys regenera-
tion ? Indeed, this may even be set down as the essence
of Sectarian Doctrine (however its mischief may be
restrained or compensated, in the case of individuals), to
consider faith, and not the Sacraments, as the proper
instrument of justification and other gospel gifts; instead
of holding that the grace of Christ comes to us alto-
gether from without (as from Him, so through externals
of His ordaining), faith being but the sine qua non, the
necessary condition on our parts for duly receiving it.

It has been with the view of meeting this cardinal
deficiency (as it may be termed) in the religion of the
day, that the Tract on Baptism, contained in the latter
part of this volume, has been inserted; which is to be

i86 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

reg-arded, not as an inquiry into one single or isolated
doctrine, but as a delineation, and serious examination
of a modern system of theology, of extensive popularity
and great speciousness, in its elementary and character-
istic principles.

Oxford,

The Feast of All Saints November \st\ 1835.

TRACT XC.

REMARKS ON CERTAIN PASSAGES IN
THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES.

[The alterations in Editions subsequent to the first are put in brackets.]

Introduction.

It is often urged, and sometimes felt and granted, that
there are in the Articles propositions or terms incon-
sistent with the CathoHc faith ; or, at least, when
persons do not go so far as to feel the objection as
of force, the}' are perplexed how best to reply to it, or
how most simply to explain the passages on which it is
made to rest. The following Tract is drawn up with
the view of showing how groundless the objection is,
and further of approximating towards the argumenta-
tive answer to it, of which most men have an implicit
apprehension, though they may have nothing more.
That there are real difficulties to a Catholic Christian in
the Ecclesiastical position of our Church at this day, no
one can deny ; but the statements of the Articles are
not in the number; and it m^^ be right at the present
moment to insist upon this. If in any quarter it is
supposed that persons who profess to be disciples of the
early Church will silently concur with those of very
opposite sentiments in furthering a relaxation of sub-
scriptions which, it is imagined, are galling to both
parties, though for different reasons, and that they will
do this against the wish of the great body of the

i88 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

Church, the writer of the following pages would raise
one voice, at least, in protest against any such anti-
cipation. Even in such points as he may think the
English Church deficient, never can he, without a great
alteration of sentiment, be party to forcing the opinion
or project of one school upon another. Religious
changes, to be beneficial, should be the act of the
whole body ; they are worth little if they are the mere
act of a majority.^ No good can come of any change
which is not heartfelt, a development of feelings spring-
ing up freely and calmly within the bosom of the whole
body itself. Moreover, a change in theological teach-
ing involves either the commission or the confession
of sin; it is either the profession or renunciation of
erroneous doctrine, and if it does not succeed in proving
the fact of past guilt, it, ipso facto ^ implies present. In
other words, every change in religion carries with it its
own condemnation, which is not attended by deep
repentance. Even supposing then that any changes in
contemplation, whatever they were, were good in them-
selves, they would cease to be good to a Church in
which they were the fruits not of the quiet conviction of
all, but of the agitation, or tyranny, or intrigue of a
few; nurtured not in mutual love, but in strife and
env3ing; perfected not in humiliation and grief, but in
pride, elation, and triumph. Moreover it is a very
serious truth, that persons and bodies who put them-
selves into a disadvantageous state, cannot at their
pleasure extricate themselves from it. They are un-
worthy of it; they are in prison, and Christ is the
keeper. There is but one way towards a real reforma-
tion,— a return to Him in heart and spirit, whose sacred
truth they have betrayed ; all other methods, however
fair they may promise, will prove to be but shadows and
failures.

' This is not meant to hinder acts of Catholic consent, such as
occurred anciently, when the Catholic body aids one portion of a
particular Church against another portion.

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 189

On these grounds, were there no others, the present
writer, for one, will be no party to the ordinary political
methods by which professed reforms are carried or com-
passed in this day. We can do nothing well till we act
"with one accord"; we can have no accord in action
till we agree together in heart; we cannot agree with-
out a supernatural influence ; we cannot have a super-
natural influence unless we pray for it; we cannot pray
acceptably without repentance and confession. Our
Church's strength would be irresistible, humanly speak-
ing, were it but at unitv with itself: if it remains
divided, part against part, we shall see the energy
which was meant to subdue the world preying upon
itself, according to our Saviour's express assurance,
that such a house "cannot stand." Till we feel this,
till we seek one another as brethren, not lightly throw-
ing aside our private opinions which we seem to feel we
have received from above, from an ill-regulated, untrue
desire of unity, but returning to each other in heart, and
coming together to God to do for us what we cannot do
for ourselves, no change can be for the better. Till [we
her children] are stirred up to this religious course, let
the Church^ [our Mother] sit still ; let [us] be content to
be in bondage : let [us] work in chains ; let [us] submit
to [our] imperfections as a punishment; let [us] go on
teaching [through the medium of indeterminate state-
ments]- and inconsistent precedents, and principles but
partially developed. We are not better than our fathers ;
let us bear to be what Hammond was, or Andrews, or
Hooker; let us not faint under that body of death,

^ "Let the Church sit still; let her he content to be in bondage,"
etc. — 1st edition. [The author has lately heard that these words have
been taken as spoken in an insulting and reproachful tone; he meant
them in the sense of the lines in the Lyra Apostolica —

" Bide thou thy time !
Watch with meek eyes the race of pride and crime ;
Sit in the gate and be the heathen's jest,
Smiling and self-possest," etc.]
- " With the stammering lips." — 1st edition.

I90 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

which they bore about in patience : nor shrink from the
penalty of sins, which they inherited from the age before
them.^

But these remarks are beyond our present scope,
which is merely to show that, while our Prayer Book is
acknowledged on all hands to be of Catholic origin, our
Articles also, the offspring of an uncatholic age, are,
through God's good providence, to say the least, not
uncatholic, and may be subscribed by those who aim at
being catholic in heart and doctrine. In entering upon
the proposed examination, it is only necessary to add,
that in several places the writer has found it convenient
to express himself in language recently used, which he
is willing altogether to make his own.- He has dis-
tinguished the passages introduced by quotation marks.

§ I. — Holy Scripture and the Authority of the Church.

Articles vi. and xx. — " Holy Scripture containeth all
things necessary to salvation ; so that whatsoever is not
read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be
required of any man, that it should be believed as an
article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary
to salvation. . , . The Church hath [power to decree
(statuendi) rites and ceremonies, and] authority in con-
troversies of faith ; and yet it is not lawful for the
Church to [ordain (instituere) anything that is contrary
to God's Word written, neither may it] so expound one
place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another.
Wherefore, although the Church be a witness and a
keeper of Holy Writ, yet [as it ought not to decree
(decernere) anything against the same, so] besides the

' " We, thy sinful creatures," says the Service for King Charles the
Martyr, " liere assembled before Thee, do, in behalf of all the people
of this land, humbly confess, that they were the crying sins of this
nation, which brought down this judgment upon us " — i.e. King
Charles's murder.

- [The passages quoted arc the author's own writing on other
occasions. ]

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 191

same, ought it not to enforce (obtrudere) anything- to be
beheved for necessity of salvation."^

Two instruments of Christian teaching are spoken of
in these Articles — Holy Scripture and the Church.

Here then we have to inquire, first, what is meant by
Holy Scripture; next, what is meant by the Church;
and then, what their respective offices are in teaching
revealed truth, and how these are adjusted with one
another in their actual exercise.

1. Now, what the Church is, will be considered below
in Section 4.

2. And the Books of Holy Scripture are enumerated
in the latter part of the Article, so as to preclude
question. Still two points deserve notice here.

First, the Scriptures or Canonical Books are said to
be those "of whose authority was never any doubt in
the Church." Here it is not meant that there never
was any doubt in portions of the Church or particular
Churches concerning certain books, which the Article
includes in the Canon; for some of them, — as, for
instance, the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Apocalypse
— have been the subject of much doubt in the West or
East, as the case may be. But the Article asserts that
there has been no doubt about them in the Church
Catholic; that is, at the very first time that the Catholic
or whole Church had the opportunity of forming a
judgment on the subject, it pronounced in favour of the
Canonical Books. The Epistle to the Hebrews was
doubted by the West, and the Apocalypse by the East,
only while those portions of the Church investigated
separately from each other, only till they compared
notes, interchanged sentiments, and formed a united
judgment. The phrase must mean this, because, from
the nature of the case, it can mean nothing else.

^ The passages in brackets relate to rites and ceremonies, which are
not here in question. [From brackets marking the Second Edition,
must be excepted those which occur in quotations.]

192 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

And next, be it observed that the books which are
commonly called Apocrypha, are not asserted in this
Article to be destitute of inspiration or to be simply
human, but to be not canonical ; in other words, to
differ from Canonical Scripture, specially in this respect
— viz., that they are not adducible in proof of doctrine.
"The other books (as Hierome saith) the Church doth
read for example of life and instruction of manners, but
yet doth not apply them to establish any doctrine."
That this is the limit to which our disparagement of
them extends is plain, not only because the Article
mentions nothing beyond it, but also from the rever-
ential manner in which the Homilies speak of them, as
shall be incidentally shown in Section ii. [The com-
patibility of such reverence with such disparagement is
also shown from the feeling towards them of St. Jerome,
who is quoted in the Article, who implies more or less
their inferiority to Canonical Scripture, yet uses them
freely and continually, as if Scripture. He distinctly
names many of the books which he considers not
canonical, and virtually names them all by naming what
are canonical. For instance, he says, speaking of
Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus, "As the Church reads
Judith, Tobi, and the Maccabees, without receiving
them among the Canonical Scriptures, so she reads
these two books for the edification of the people, not
for the confirmation of the authority of ecclesiastical
doctrines." {Prcef. in Libr. Satom.) Again, "The
Wisdom, as it is commonly st\-led, of Solomon, and the
book of Jesus son of Sirach, and Judith, and Tobias,
and the Shepherd, are not in the Canon." {Pra/. ad
Reges.) Such is the language of a writer who never-
theless is, to say the least, not wanting in reverence
towards the books he thus disparages.]

A further question may be asked concerning our
received version of the Scriptures, whether it is in any
sense imposed on us as a true comment on the original
text; as the Vulgate is upon the Roman Catholics. It

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 193

would appear not. It was made and authorised by
royal command, which cannot be supposed to have any
claim upon our interior consent. At the same time
every one who reads it in the Services of the Church,
does, of course, thereby imply that he considers that it
contains no deadly heresy or dangerous mistake. And
about its simplicity, majesty, gravity, harmony, and
venerableness there can be but one opinion.

3. Next we come to the main point, the adjustment
which this Article effects between the respective offices
of the Scripture and Church: which seems to be as
follows : —

It is laid down that, (i) Scripture contains all neces-
sary articles of the faith; (2) either in its text, or by
inference; (3) the Church is the keeper of Scripture; (4)
and a witness of it; (5) and has authority in contro-
versies of faith ; (6) but may not expound one passage of
Scripture to contradict another; (7) nor enforce as an
article of faith any point not contained in Scripture,

From this it appears, first, that the Church expounds
and enforces the faith; for it is forbidden to expound in
a particular way, or so to enforce as to obtrude ; next,
that it derives the faith wholly fro?n Scripture; thirdly,
that its office is to educe an harmonious interpretation of
Scripture. Thus much the Article settles.

Two important questions, however, it does not settle
— namely, whether the Church judges, first, at her sole
discretion^ next, on her sole responsibility ; — i.e. first,
what the media are by which the Church interprets
Scripture, whether by a direct divine gift, or catholic
tradition, or critical exegesis of the text, or in any
other way; and next, who is to decide whether it inter-
prets Scripture rightly or not; — what is her method, if
any? and who is her judge, if any? In other words,
not a word is said, on the one hand, \n favour of Scrip-
ture having no rule or method to fix interpretation by,
or, as it is commonly expressed, being the sole rule of
faith; nor on the other, of the private judgtnent of the

194 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

individual being the ultimate standard of interpretation.
So much has been said lately on both these points, and
indeed on the whole subject of these two Articles, that
it is unnecessary to enlarge upon them; but since it is
often supposed to be almost a first principle of our
Church that Scripture is " the rule of faith," it may be
well, before passing on, to make an extract from a
paper, published some years since, which shows, by
instances from our divines, that the application of the
phrase to Scripture is but of recent adoption. The
other question, about the ultimate judge of the inter-
pretation of Scripture, shall not be entered upon.

" We may dispense with the phrase ' Rule of Faith,'
as applied to Scripture, on the ground of its being
ambiguous; and, again, because it is then used in a
novel sense; for the ancient Church made the Apostolic
Tradition, as summed up in the Creed, and not the
Bible, the Regiila Fidei, or Rule. Moreover, its use as
a technical phrase seems to be of late introduction in
the Church — that is, since the days of King William
the Third. Our great divines use it without any fixed
sense, sometimes for Scripture, sometimes for the whole
and perfectly-adjusted Christian doctrine, sometimes for
the Creed; and, at the risk of being tedious, we will
prove this, by quotations, that the point may be put
beyond dispute.

" Ussher, after St. Austin, identifies it with the
Creed; — when speaking of the Article of our Lord's
Descent to Hell, he says —

" ' It having here likewise been further manifested, what
different opinions have been entertained by the ancient Doctors
of the Church, concerning the determinate place wherein our
Saviour's soul did remain during the time of the separation of it
from the body, I leave it to be considered by the learned,
whether any such controverted matter may fitly be brought in
to expound the Rule of Faith, which, being common both to
the great and small ones of the Church, must contain such
varieties only as are generally agreed upon by the common
consent of all true Christians.' — A?is-ci>ertoaJesuif,Tp. 362.

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 195

"Taylor speaks to the same purpose: 'Let us see
with what constancy that and the following ages of the
Church did adhere to the Apostles' Creed, as the suffi-
cient and perfect Rule of Faith.'' — Dissuasive, part 2, i.
4, p. 450. Elsewhere he calls Scripture the Rule: 'That
the Scripture is a full and sufficient Rule to Christians
in faith and manners, a full and perfect declaration of
the Will of God, is therefore certain, because we have
no other.' — Ibid., part 2, i. 2, p. 384. Elsewhere, Scrip-
ture and the Creed: ' He hath, by His wise Providence,
preserved the plain places of Scripture and the Apostles'
Creed, in all Churches, to be the Rule and Measure of
Faith, by which all Churches are saved.' — Ibid., part 2,
i. I, p. 346. Elsewhere he identifies it with Scripture,
the Creeds, and the first four Councils: ' We also [after
Scripture] do believe the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene,
with the additions of Constantinople, and that which is
commonly called the symbol of St. Athanasius; and the
first four General Councils are so entirely admitted by
us, that they, together with the plain words of Scrip-
ture, are made the Rule and Measure of judging heresies
among us.' — Ibid., part i, i. p. 131.

"Laud calls the Creed, or rather the Creed with
Scripture, the Rule: ' Since the Fathers made the Creed
the Rule of Faith; since the agreeing sense of Scripture
with those Articles are the Z'wo Regular Precepts, by
which a divine is governed about his faith,' etc. —
Conference imth Fisher, p. 42.

" Bramhall also: 'The Scripture and the Creed are
not two different Rules of Faith, but one and the same
Rule, dilated in Scripture, contracted in the Creed.' —
Works, p. 402. Stillingfleet says the same {Grounds, i.
4, 3); as does Thorndike {De Rat. fin. Controv., p. 144,
etc.). Elsewhere, Stillingfleet calls Scripture the Rule
{Ibid., \. 6, 2); as does Jackson (vol. i. p. 226). But the
most complete and decisive statement on the subject is
contained in Field's work on the Church, from which
shall follow a long extract: —

17

196 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

"'It remained to show,' he says, 'what is the rule of that
judgment whereby the Church discerneth between truth and
falsehood, the faith and heresy, and to whom it properly per-
taineth to interpret those things which, touching this Rule, are
doubtful. The Rule of our Faith in general, whereby we know
it to be true, is the infinite excellency of God. ... It being pre-
supposed in the generality that the doctrine of the Christian
Faith is of God, and containeth nothing but heavenly truth, in
the next place, we are to inquire by what Rule we are to judge
of particular things contained within the compass of it.

'"This Rule is, i. The summary comprehension of such prin-
cipal articles of this divine knowledge, as are the principles
whence all other things are concluded and inferred. These are
contained in the O'ccd of the Apostles.

" ' 2. All such things as every Christian is bound expressly to
believe, by the light and direction whereof he judgeth of other
things, which are not absolutely necessary so particularly to be
known. These are rightly said to be the Rule of our Faith,
because the principles of every science are the Rule whereby
we judge of the truth of all things, as being better and more
generally known than any other thing, and the cause of knowing
them.

"'3. The analogy, due proportion, and correspondence that
one thing in this divine knowledge hath with another, so that
men cannot err in one of them without erring in another; nor
rightly understand one, but they must likewise rightly conceive
the rest.

" ' 4. Whatsoever Books were delivered unto us, as written by
them, to whom the first and immediate revelation of the divine
truth was made.

" ' 5. Whatsoever hath been delivered by all the saints with
one consent, which have left their judgment and opinion in
writing.

"'6. Whatsoever the most famous have constantly and uni-
formly delivered as a matter of faith, no one contradicting,
though many other ecclesiastical writers be silent, and say
nothing of it.

"'7. That which the most, and most famous in every age
constantly delivered as a matter of faith, and as received of
hem that went before them, in such sort that the contradictors
and gainsayers were in their beginnings noted for singularity,
novelty, and division, and afterwards, in process of time, if they
persisted in such contradiction, charged with heresy.

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 197

" 'These three latter Rules of our Faith we admit, not because
they are equal with the former, and originally in themselves
contain the direction of our Faith, but because nothing can be
delivered, with such and so full consent of the people of God, as
in them is expressed; but it must need be from those first
authors and founders of our Christian profession. The Roman-
ists add unto these the decrees of Councils and determination
of Popes, making these also to be the Rules of Faith; but
because we have no proof of their infallibility, we number them
not with the rest.

" ' Thus we see how many things, in several degrees and sorts,
are said to be Rules of our Faith. The infinite excellency of
God, as that whereby the truth of the heavenly doctrine is
proved. The Articles of Faith, and other verities ever expressly
known in the Church as the first principles, are the Canon by
which we judge of conclusions from thence inferred. The
Scripture, as containing in it all that doctrine of Faith which
Christ the Son of God delivered. The uniform practice and
consenting judgment of them that went before us, as a certain
and undoubted explication of the things contained in the Scrip-
ture. ... So, then, we do not make Scripture the Rule of our
Faith, but thai other things in their kind are Rules likewise; in
such sort that // is not safe, without respect had unto them, to
judge things by the Scripture alone,' etc. — iv. 14, pp. 364, 365.

' ' These extracts show not only what the Anglican
doctrine is, but, in particular, that the phrase ' Rule of
Faith ' is no symbolical expression with us, appro-
priated to some one sense; certainly not as a definition
or attribute of Holy Scripture. And it is important to
insist upon this, from the very great misconceptions to
which the phrase gives rise. Perhaps its use had better
be avoided altogether. In the sense in which it is com-
monly understood at this day, Scripture, it is plain, is
not, on Anglican principles, the Rule of Faith."

§ 2. — -Justification by Faith only.

Article xi. — " That we are justified by Faith only, is a
most wholesome doctrine."

198 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

The Homilies add that Faith is the sole means, the
sole instrument of justification. Now, to show briefly
what such statements imply, and what they do not.

I. They do not imply a denial of Baptism as a means
and an instrument of justification ; which the Homilies
elsewhere affirm, as will be shown incidentally in a later
section.

"The instrumental power of Faith cannot interfere
with the instrumental power of Baptism; because Faith
is the sole justifier, not in contrast to all means and
agencies whatever (for it is not surely in contrast to our
Lord's merits, or God's mercy), but to all oXhQV graces.
Well, then, Faith is called the sole instrument, this
means the sole internal instrument, not the sole instru-
ment of any kind.

"There is nothing' inconsistent, then, in Faith being
the sole instrument of justification, and yet Baptism
also the sole instrument, and that at the same time,
because in distinct senses; an inward instrument in no
way interfering with an outward instrument, Baptism
may be the hand of the giver, and Faith the hand of the
receiver."

Nor does the sole instrumentality of Faith interfere
with the doctrine of Works being a mean also. And
that it is a mean, the Homily of Alms-deeds declares in
the strongest language, as will also be quoted in
Section 1 1.

"An assent to the doctrine that Faith alone justifies,
does not at all preclude the doctrine of Works justifying
also. If, indeed, it were said that Works justify in the
same sense as Faith only justifies, this would be a con-
tradiction in terms; but Faith only may justify in one
sense — Good Works in another: — and this is all that is
here maintained. After all, does not Christ only justify?
How is it that the doctrine of Faith justifying does not
interfere with our Lord's being the sole Justifier? It
will, of course, be replied, that our Lord is the meri-
torious cause, and Faith the means; that Faith justifies

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 199

in a different and subordinate sense. As, then, Christ
justifies in the sense in which He justifies alone, yet
Faith also justifies in its own sense; so Works, whether
moral or ritual, may justify us in their own respective
senses, though in the sense in which Faith justifies, it
only justifies. The only question is, What is that sense
in which Works justify, so as not to interfere with faith
only justifying- ? It may, indeed, turn out on inquiry
that the sense alleged will not hold, either as being
unscriptural, or for any other reason ; but, whether so
or not, at any rate the apparent inconsistency of lan-
g^uage should not startle persons ; nor should they so
promptly condemn those who, though they do not
use their language, use St. James's. Indeed, is not
this argument the very weapon of the Arians in their
warfare against the Son of God ? They said, Christ
is not God, because the Father is called the ' Onlv
God.'"

2. Next we have to inquire in ivhat sense Faith only
does justify. In a number of ways, of which here two
only shall be mentioned.

First, it is the pleading or impetrating principle, or
constitutes our title to justification ; being analogous
among the graces to Moses lifting up his hands on the
Mount, or the Israelites eyeing the Brazen Serpent —
actions which did not merit God's mercy, but asked for
it. A number of means go to effect our justification.
We are justified by Christ alone, in that He has pur-
chased the gift; by Faith alone, in that Faith asks for
it; by Baptism alone, for Baptism conveys it; and by
newness of heart alone, for newness of heart is the life
of it.

And secondly. Faith, as being the beginning of perfect
or justifying righteousness, is taken from what it tends
towards, or ultimately will be. It is said by anticipa-
tion to be that which it promises; just as one might
pay a labourer his hire before he began his work. Faith
working by love is the seed of divine graces, which in

200 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

due time will be brought forth and flourish — partly in
this world, fully in the next.

i; 3. — Works before and after Jtistificatiou.

Articles xii. and xiii. "Works done before the g"race
of Christ, and the inspiration of His Spirit [' before
justification,' title of the Arti'c/e], are not pleasant to
God (minime Deo g^rata sunt); forasmuch as they spring'
not of Faith in Jesus Christ, neither do they make man
meet to receive grace, or (as the school authors say)
deserve grace of congruity (merentur gratiam de con-
gruo) ; yea, rather for that they are not done as God
hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt
not but they have the nature of sin. Albeit good
works, which are the fruits of faith, and follow after
justification (justificatos sequuntur), cannot put away
(expiare) our sins, and endure the severity of God's
judgment, yet are they pleasing and f.cceptable (grata
et accepta) to God in Christ, and do spring out neces-
sarily of a true and lively Faith."

Two sorts of works are here mentioned — works before
justification, and works after; and they are most
strongly contrasted with each other.

1. Works before justification are done "before the
grace of Christ, and the inspiration of His Spirit."

2. Works before " do not spring of Faith in Jesus
Christ"; works after are " the fruits of Faith."

3. Works before "have the nature of sin"; works
after are "good works."

4. Works before "are not pleasant (grata) to God";
works after " are pleasing and acceptable (grata et
accepta) to God."

Two propositions, mentioned in these Articles, remain,
and deserve consideration. First, that works before
justification do not make or dispose men to receive
grace, or, as the school writers say, deserve grace of

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 201

congTuity; secondly, that works after "cannot put
away our sins, and endure the severity of God's
judg'ment."

I. As to the former statement— to deserve de congriw,
or of congruity, is to move the divine reg"ard, not from
any claim upon it, but from a certain fitness or suitable-
ness; as, for instance, it might be said that dry wood
had a certain disposition or fitness towards heat which
green wood had not. Now, the Article denies that
works done before the grace of Christ, or in a mere
state of nature, in this way dispose towards grace, or
move God to grant grace. And it asserts, with or
without reason (for it is a question of historical fact,
which need not specially concern us), that certain
schoolmen maintained the affirmative.

Now, that this is what it means is plain from the
following passages of the Homilies, which in no respect
have greater claims upon us than as comments upon
the Articles :-<-

" Therefore they that teach repentance luithout a lively faith
in our Saviour Jesus Christ, do teach none other but Judas's re-
pentance, as all the schoolmen do, which do only allow these
three parts of repentance — the contrition of the heart, the con-
fession of the mouth, and the satisfaction of the work. But all
these things we find in Judas's repentance, which, in outward
appearance, did far exceed and pass the lepentance of Peter
. . . This was commonly the penance which Christ enjoined
sinners, 'Go thy way, and sin no more'; which penance we
shall never be able to fulfil, without the special grace of Him
that doth say, 'Without Me, ye can do nothing.'" — On Re-
pentance, p. 460.

To take a passage which is still more clear: —

"As these examples are not brought in to the end that we
should thereby take a boldness to sin, presuming on the mercy
and goodness of God, but to the end that if, through the frail-
ness of our own flesh, and the temptation of the devil, we fall
into the like sins, we should in nowise despair of the mercy and

202 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

goodness of God: even so must we beware and take heed that
we do in nowise think in our hearts, imagine, or beheve iluit
ive are able to 7-epent aright or to turn effectually lot'.o the Lord
by our 07im might a?id strength." — Ibid., part i. fin.

The Article contemplates these two states — one of
justifying- grace, and one of the utter destitution of
grace ; and it saj-s that those who are in utter destitu-
tion cannot do anything to gain justification; and,
indeed, to assert the contrary would be Pelagianism.
However, there is an intermediate state, of which the
Article says nothing, but which must not be forgotten,
as being an actually existing one. Men are not always
either in light or in darkness, but are sometimes be-
tween the two; they are sometimes not in a state of
Christian justification, yet not utterly deserted by God,
but in a state something like that of Jews or of Heathen,
turning to the thought of religion. They are not gifted
with habitual grace, but they still are visited by divine
influences, or by actual grace, or rather aid; and these
influences are the first-fruits of the grace of justification
going before it, and are intended to lead on to it, and
to be perfected in it, as twilight leads to day. And
since it is a Scripture maxim that " he that is faithful in
that which is least, is faithful also in much"; and "to
whosoever hath, to him shall be given "; therefore it is
quite true that works done tvith divine aid, and in faith,
before justification, do dispose men to receive the grace
of justification; — such were Cornelius's alms, fastings,
and prayers, which led to his baptism. At the same
time it must be borne in mind that, even in such cases,
it is not the works themselves which make them meet,
as some schoolmen seem to have said, but the secret
aid of God, vouchsafed, equally with the "grace and
Spirit," which is the portion of the baptised, for the
merits of Christ's sacrifice.

[But it may be objected that the silence observed in
the Article about a state between that of justification

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 203

and grace, and that of neither, is a proof that there is
none such. This argument, however, would prove too
much; for in like manner there is a silence in the Sixth
Article about a judge of the scripturalness of doctrine,
yet a judge there must be. And, again, few, it is sup-
posed, would deny that Cornelius, before the angel
came to him, was in a more hopeful state than Simon
Magus or Felix. The difficulty then, if there be one, is
common to persons of whatever school of opinion.]

2. If works before justification, when done by the
influence of divine aid, gain grace, much more do works
after justification. They are, according to the Article,
"grata," "pleasing to God"; and they are accepted,
"accepta"; which means that God rewards them, and
that of course according to their degree of excellence.
At the same time, as works before justification may
nevertheless be done under a divine influence, so works
after justification are still liable to the infection of
original sin; and, as not being perfect, " cannot expiate
our sins," or " endure the severity of God's judgment."

§ 4. — The Visible Chiireh.

Article xix. — "The visible Church of Christ is a
congregation of faithful men (coetus fidelium), in the
which the pure Word of God is preached, and the
Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ's
ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are
requisite to the same."

This is not an abstract definition of a Church, but a
description of the actually existing One Holy Catholic
Church diffused throughout the world; as if it were
read, "The Church is a certain society of the faithful,"
etc. This is evident from the mode of describing the
Catholic Church, familiar to all writers from the first

204 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

ages down to the age of this Article. For instance, St.
Clement of Alexandria says, " I mean by the Church,
not a place, but the congregation of the elect." Origen:
"The Church, the assembly of all tJie faithful." St.
Ambrose: " One congregation, or\^Q\).wrz\\.'''' St. Isidore:
"The Church is a congregation of saitits, collected on
a certain faith, and the best conduct of life." St.
Augustin : " The Church is the people of God through all
ages." Again: "The Church is the vndtitude which is
spread over the whole earth." St. Cyril: "When we
speak of the Church, we denote the most holy mnltitndc
of the pious." Theodoret: "The Apostle calls the
Church the assembly of the faithful." Pope Gregory:
"The Church, a multitude of the faithful collected, of
both sexes." Bede: "The Church is the congregation
of all saints." Alcuin: "The Holy Catholic Church, —
in Latin the coJigregation of the faithful." Amalarius:
"The Church is tJie people called together by the
Church's ministers." Pope Nicolas I.: " The Church,
that is, the congregation of Catholics." St. Bernard:
" What is the Spouse but the congregation of the just?"
Peter the Venerable: "The Church is called a con-
gregation, but not of all things, not of cattle, but of
men, faithful, good, just. Though bad among these
good, and just among the unjust, are revealed or con-
cealed, yet it is called a Church." Hugo Victorinus:
"The Holy Church, that is, the university of the
faithful." Arnulphus: "The Church is called the
congregation of the faitJiful." Albertus Magnus: "The
Greek word church means in Latin convocation ; and
whereas works and callings belong to rational animals,
and reason in man is inward faith, therefore it is called
the congregation of the faithful." Durandus: "The
Church is in one sense material, in which divers offices
are celebrated; in another spiritual, which is the col-
lection of the faitJiful." Alvarus: "The Church is the
multitude of the faitJiful, or the university of Christians."
Pope Pius II.: "The Church is the multitude of tJie

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 205

faithful dispersed through all nations."^ [And so the
Reformers, in their own way; for instance, the Con-
fession of Augsburgh. "The one Holy Church will
remain for ever. Now the Church of Christ properly is
the congregation of the members of Christ, that is, of
saints who truly believe and obey Christ; though with
this congregation many bad and hypocrites are mixed in
this life, till the last judgment " (vii.) And the Saxon:
" We say then that the visible Church in this life is an
assembly of those who embrace the Gospel of Christ
and rightly use the Sacraments," etc. (xii.)]

These illustrations of the phraseology of the Article
may be multiplied in any number. And they plainly
show that it is not laying down any logical definition of
ivhai a Church is, but is describing, and as it were
pointing to the Catholic Church diffused throughout the
world ; which being but one, cannot possibly be mis-
taken, and requires no other account of it beyond this
single and majestic one. The ministration of the Word
and Sacraments is mentioned as a further note of it.
As to the question of its limits, whether Episcopal
Succession or whether intercommunion with the whole
be necessary to each part of it, — these are questions,
most important indeed, but of detail, and are not ex-
pressly treated of in the Articles.

This view is further illustrated by the following
passage from the Homily for Whitsunday: —

"Our Saviour Christ, departing out of the world unto His
Father, promised His Disciples to send down another Com-
forter, that should continue with them for ever, and direct them
into all truth. Which thing to be faithfully and truly performed,
the Scriptures do sufficiently bear witness. Neither must we
think that this Comforter was either promised, or else given,
only to the Apostles, but also to the universal Chinxh of Christ,
dispersed through the ^uhole 7vorld. For, unless the Holy
Ghost had been always present, governing and preserving the
Church from the beginning, it could never have suffered so

^ These instances are from Launoy.

2o6 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

many and great brunts of aftliction and persecution, with so
little damage and harm as it hath. And the words of Christ
are most plain in this behalf, saying, that 'the Spirit of Truth
should abide with them for ever'; that ' He would be with them
always (He meaneth by grace, virtue, and power), even to the
world's end.'

"Also in the prayer that He made to His Father a little
before His death. He maketh intercession, not only for Himself
and His Apostles, but indifterently for all them that should
bclic7)c in Him through their words, that is, to wit, for His
whole Church. Again, St. Paul saith, ' If any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, the same is not His.' Also, in the words
following: 'We have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby
we cry, Abba, Father.' Hereby, then, it is evident and plain to
all men that the Holy Ghost was given, not only to the
Apostles, but also to the whole body of Christ's conf^regatioji,
although not in like form and majesty as He came down at the
feast of Pentecost. But now herein standeth the controversy, —
whether all men do justly arrogate to themselves the Holy
( ihost, or no. The Bishops of Rome have for a long time made
a sore challenge thereto, reasoning with themselves after this
sort: 'The Holy Ghost,' say they, 'was promised to the Church,
and never forsaketh the Church. But we are the chief heads
and the principal part of the Church, therefore we have the
Holy Ghost for ever: and whatsoever things we decree are
undoubted verities and oracles of the Holy Ghost.' That ye
may perceive the weakness of this argument, it is needful to
teach you, first, what the true Church of Christ is, and then to
confer the Church of Rome therewith, to discern how well they
agree together. The true Church is a ii?nve?-sal congiegaiion
or fclloiL'sJnp of God's faithful and elect people, built upon the
foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself
being the head corner-stone. And it hath always three notes or
marks, whereby it is known : pure and sound doctrine, the
Sacraments ministered according to Christ's holy institution,
and the right use of ecclesiastical discipline. This description
of the Church is agreeable both to the Scriptures of God and
also to the doctrine of the ancient Fathers, so that none may
justly find fault therewith. Now, if you will compare this with the
Church of Rome, not as it was in the beginning, but as it is at '
present, and hath been for the space of nine hundred years and
odd ; you shall well perceive the state thereof to be so far wide
from the nature of the Church, that nothing can be more."

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 207

This passage is quoted, not for all it contains, but in
that respect in which it claims attention — -viz., as far as
it is an illustration of the Article. It is speaking of the
one Catholic Church, not of an abstract idea of a
Church, which may be multiplied indefinitely in fact;
and it uses the same terms of it which the Article does of
'* the visible Church." It says that " the true Church is
a tiniversal congregation or fellowship of God's faithful
and elect people," etc., which as closely corresponds to
the coetus fideliuni, or "congregation of faithful men"
of the Article, as the above descriptions from Fathers
or Divines do. Therefore, the ccetus fideliinn spoken of
in the Article is not a definition which kirk, or con-
nexion, or other communion may be made to fall
under, but the enunciation of a fact.

§ 5. — General Councils,

Article xxi. — ^" General councils may not be gathered
together without the commandment and will of princes.
And when they be gathered together, forasmuch as they
be an assembly of men, whereof all be not governed
with the Spirit and Word of God, they may err, and
sometimes have erred, in things pertaining to God."

That great bodies of men, of different countries, may
not meet together Avithout the sanction of their rulers
is plain from the principles of civil obedience and from
primitive practice. That, when met together, though
Christians, they will not be all ruled by the Spirit or
Word of God, is plain from our Lord's parable of the
net, and from melancholy experience. That bodies of
men, deficient in this respect, may err, is a self-evident
truth, — unless, indeed, they be favoured with some
divine superintendence, which has to be proved before
it can be admitted.

General councils then may err \as such; — may err],

2o8 THE OXFORD xMOVEMENT.

miless in any case it is promised, as a matter of express
supernatural privileg^e, that they shall ?ioi err; a case
which [as consisting in the fulfilment of additional or
subsequent conditions] lies beyond the scope of this
Article, or at any rate beside its determination.

Such a promise, however, does exist, in cases when
general councils are not only gathered together accord-
ing to "the commandment and will of princes," but in
the Navie of Christy according to our Lord's promise.
The Article merely contemplates the human prince, not
the King of Saints. While councils are a thing of
earth, their infallibility of course is not guaranteed;
when they are a thing of heaven, their deliberations are
overruled, and their decrees authoritative. In such
cases they are Catholic councils; and it would seem,
from passages which will be quoted in Section ii, that
the Homilies recognise four, or even six, as bearing this
character. Thus Catholic or CEcumenical Councils are
general councils, and something more. Some general
councils are Catholic, and others are not. Nay, as even
Romanists grant, the same councils may be partly
Catholic, partly not.

If Catholicity be thus a quality, found at times in
general councils, rather than the differentia belonging
to a certain class of them, it is still less surprising that
the Article should be silent about it.

What these conditions are, which fulfil the notion of a
gathering "in the Name of Christ," in the case of a
particular council, it is not necessary here to determine.
Some have included among these conditions the sub-
sequent reception of its decrees by the universal Church;
others a ratification by the pope.

Another of these conditions, however, the Article
goes on to mention — viz., that in points necessary to
salvation a council should prove its decrees by
Scripture,

St. Gregory Nazianzen well illustrates the con-

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 209

sistency of this Article with a belief in the infallibility
of CEcumenical Councils by his Ovvn language on the
subject on different occasions.

In the following- passage he anticipates the Article: —

" My mind is, if I must write the truth, to keep clear of every
conference of bishops, for of conference never saw I good
come, or a remedy so much as an increase of evils. For there
is strife and ambition, and these have the upper hand of
reason." — Ep. 55.

Yet, on the other hand, he speaks elsewhere of "the
Holy Council in Nicaea, and that band of chosen men
whom the Holy Ghost brought together." — Orat. 21.

§ 6. — Purgatory^ Pardons, Images, Relics, Invocation
of Saints.

Article xxii. — " The Romish doctrine concerning
purgatory, pardons (de indulgentiis), worshipping (de
veneratione) and adoration, as well of images as of
relics, and also invocation of saints, is a fond thing (res
est futilis) vainly (inaniter) invented, and grounded
upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant
(contradicit) to the Word of God."

Now the first remark that occurs on perusing this
Article is, that the doctrine objected to is " the Romish
doctrine." For instance, no one would suppose that
the Calvinistic doctrine concerning purgatory, pardons,
and image-worship is spoken against. Not every
doctrine on these matters is a fond thing, but the
Romish doctrine. Accordingly, the Primitive doctrine
is not condemned in it, unless, indeed, the Primitive
doctrine be the Romish, which must not be supposed.
Now there ivas a primitive doctrine on all these points,
— how far Catholic or universal is a further question,- —
but still so widely received and so respectably sup-
ported that it may well be entertained as a matter of

2IO THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

opinion by a theolog"ian now; this, then, whatever be
its merits, is not condemned by this Article.

This is clear without proof on the face of the matter,
at least as regards pardons. Of course the Article
never meant to make light of every doctrine about
pardons, but a certain doctrine, the Romish doctrine
[as indeed the plural form itself shows].

And [such an understanding of the Article is sup-
ported by] some sentences in the Homily on Peril of
Idolatry, in which, as far as regards relics, a certain
"veneration" is sanctioned by its tone in speaking of
them, though not of course the Romish veneration.

The sentences referred to run as follow: —

" In the Tripartite Ecclesiastical History, the Ninth Book,
and Forty-eighth Chapter, is testified, that 'Epiphanius, being
yet alive, did work miracles; and that after his death, devils
being expelled at his grave or to/nb, did roar.' Thus you see
what authority St. Jerome (who has just been mentioned), and
that most ancient history, give unto the holy and learned
Bishop Epiphanius."

Aofain: —

"St. Ambrose, in his Treatise of the Death of Theodosius the
Emperor, saith ' Helena found the Cross, and the Title on it.
.She worshipped the King, and not the wood, surely (for that is
an heathenish error and the vanity of the wickedj, but she
worshipped Him that hanged on the Cross, and whose Name
was written on the title,' and so forth. See both the godly
empress's fact, and St. Ambrose's judgment at once ; they
thought it had been an heathenish error and vanity of the
wicked to iiave 7uorshipped t/te Cross itself, ivhich ivas embriicd
with our Saviour Christ's own precious blood." — Peril of
Idolatry, part 2, circ. init.

In these passages the writer does not positively
commit himself to the miracles at Epiphanius's tomb,
or the discovery of the true Cross, but he evidently
wishes the hearer to think he believes in both. This he

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 211

would not do, if he thought all honour paid to relics
wrong.

If, then, in the judgment of the Homilies, not all
doctrine concerning veneration of relics is condemned
in the Article before us, but a certain toleration of
them is compatible with its wording; neither is all
doctrine concerning purgatory, pardons, images, and
saints condemned by the Article, but only "the
Romish."

And further, by " the Romish doctrine" is not meant
the Tridentine [statement], because this Article was
drawn up before the decree of the Council of Trent.
What is opposed is the received doctrine of the day, and
unhappily of this day too, or the doctrine of the Roman
schools; a conclusion which is still more clear, by con-
sidering that there are portions in the Tridentine
[statements] on these subjects which the Article, far
from condemning, by anticipation approves, as far as
they go. For instance, the Decree of Trent enjoins
concerning purgatory thus: — "Among the uneducated
vulgar let difficult and subtle questions, which make not
for edification, and seldom contribute aught toward
piety, be kept back from popular discourses. Neither
let them suffer the public mention and treatment of
uncertain points, or such as look like falsehood." (Session
25.) Again, about images: " Due honour and venera-
tion is to be paid unto them, not that we believe tJiat any
divinity or virtue is in them, for which they should be
worshipped (colendae), or that we should ask anything
of them, or that trust should be reposed in images, as
formerly was done by the Gentiles, which used to place
their hope on idols." [Ibid.)

If, then, the doctrine condemned in this Article
concerning purgatory, pardons, images, relics, and
saints be not the Primitive doctrine, nor the Catholic
doctrine, nor the Tridentine [statement], but the
Romish, doctrina Romanensium, let us next consider
•sohat in matter of fact it is. And,

18

212 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

I. As to the doctrine of the Romanists concerning
Purgatory. Now here there 7vas a primitive doctrine,
whatever its merits, concerning the fire of judgment,
which is a possible or a probable opinion, and is
7iol condemned. That doctrine is this: that the con-
flagration of the world, or the flames which attend
the Judge, will be an ordeal through which all men
will pass; that great saints such as St. Mary will
pass it unharmed ; that others will suff"er loss ; but
none will fail under it who are built upon the right
foundation. Here is one [purgatorian doctrine] not
" Romish."

Another doctrine, purgatorian, but not Romish, is
that said to be maintained by the Greeks at Florence, in
which the cleansing, though a punishment, was but a
poeria dmnni, not a poena sensus; not a positive sensible
infliction, much less the torment of fire, but the absence
of God's presence. And another purgatory is that in
which the cleansing is but a progressive sanctification,
and has no pain at all.

None of these doctrines does the Article condemn ;
any of them may be held by the Anglo-Catholic as a
matter of private belief ; not that they are here
advocated, one or other, but they are adduced as an
illustration of what the Article does not mean, and to
vindicate our Christian liberty in a matter where the
Church has not confined it.

[For what the doctrine which is reprobated is, we
might refer, in the first place, to the Council of
Florence, where a decree w^as passed on the subject,
were not that decree almost as vague as the Tridentine —
viz., that deficiency of penance is made up by pawnee
piirgatorice?\

" Now doth St. Augustine say, that those men which are cast
into prison after this life, on that condition, may in nowise be
holpen, though we would help them never so much. And why?
Because the sentence of God is unchangeable, and cannot be
revoked again. Therefore, let us not deceive ourselves, thinking

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. ' 213

that either we may help others, or others may help us, by their
good and charitable prayers in time to come. For, as the
preacher saith, ' Where the tree falleth, whether it be toward the
south, or toward the north, in what place soever the tree falleth,
there it lieth ' : meaning thereby, that every mortal man dieth
either in the state of salvation or damnation^ according as the
words of the Evangelist John do plainly import, saying, ' He
that believeth on the Son of God hath eternal life ; but he that
believeth not on the Son, shall never see life, but the wrath of
God abideth upon him,' — where is then the third place which
they call purgatory? Or where shall our prayers help and
profit the dead .-* St. Augustine doth only acknowledge two
places after this life, heaven and hell. As for the third place,
he doth plainly deny that there is any such to be found in all
Scripture. Chrysostom likewise is of this mind, that unless we
wash away our sins in this present world, we shall find no
comfort afterward. And St. Cyprian saith that, after death,
repentance and sorrow of pain shall be without fruit, weeping
also shall be in vain, and prayer shall be to no purpose. There-
fore he counselleth all men to make provision for themselves
while they may, because, when they are once departed out of
this life, there is no place for repentance^ nor yet for satisfaction."
— Homily concernitig Prayer, pp. 282, 283.

Now it [would seem] from this passage, that the
Purgatory contemplated by the Homily was one for
which no one will for an instant pretend to adduce even
those Fathers who most favour Rome — viz., one in
which our state would be changed, in which God's
sentence could be reversed. "The sentence of God,"
says the writer, "is tinchangeahle, and cannot be re-
voked again; there is no place for repentance." On the
other hand, the Council of Trent, and Augustin and
Cyprian, so far as they express or imply any opinion
approximating to that of the Council, held Purgatory to
be a place for believers, not unbelievers, not where men
who have lived and died in God's wrath may gain
pardon, but where those who have already been
pardoned in this life may be cleansed and purified for
beholding the face of God. The Homily, then, and
therefore the Article [as far as the Homily may be

214 ' THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

taken to explain it], does not speak of the Tridentine
purgatory.

The mention of Prayers for the dead in the above
passage affords an additional illustration of the limited
and [relative] sense of the terms of the Article now
under consideration. For such prayers are obviously
not condemned in it in the abstract, or in every shape,
but, as offered to resciie the lost from eternal fire.

[Hooker, in his Sermon on Pride, gives us a second
view of the " Romish doctrine of Purgatory," from the
schoolmen. After speaking of the po'na daynni, he
says — ■

"The other punishment, which hath in it not only loss of joy
but also sense of grief, vexation, and woe, is that whereunto
they give the name of purgatory pains, /;/ nothing different fr'oni
those very infernal torments which the souls of castaways^
together with damned spirits, do endure, save only in this, there
is an appointed term to the one, to the other none; but for the
time they last they are equals — Vol. iii. p. 798.]

Such doctrine, too, as the following may well be
included in that which the Article condemns under the
name of *' Romish."

The passage to be quoted has already appeared in
these Tracts.

"In the 'Speculum Exemplorum' it is said that a certain
priest, in an ecstasy, saw the soul of Constantius Turritanus in
the eaves of his house, tormented with frosts and cold rains,
and afterwards climbing up to heaven upon a shining pillar.
And a certain monk saw some souls roasted upon spits, like
pigs, and some devils basting them with scalding lard; but a
while after they were carried to a cool place, and so proved
purgatory. But Bishop Theobald, standing upon a piece of ice
to cool his feet, was nearer purgatory than he was aware, and
was convinced of it when he heard a poor soul telling him that
under that ice he was tormented : and that he should be
delivered, if for thirty days continual he would say for him
thirty masses. And some such thing was seen by Conrade and
Udalric in a pool of water; for the place of purgatory was not

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 215

yet resolved on, till St. Patrick had the key of it delivered to
him, which when one Nicholas borrowed of him, he saw as
strange and true things there as ever Virgil dreamed of in his
purgatory, or Cicero in his dreams of Scipio, or Plato in his
(Jorgias or Phaedo, who indeed are the surest authors to prove
])urgatory. But because to preach false stories was forbidden
by the Council of Trent, there are yet remaining more certain
arguments, even revelations made by angels, and the testimony
of St. Odilio himself, who heard the devil complain (and he
had great reason surely) that the souls of dead men were daily
snatched out of his hands, by the alms and prayers of the
living; and the sister of St. Damianus, being too much pleased
with hearing of a piper, told her brother that she was to be
tormented for fifteen days in purgatory.

'• We do not think that the wise men in the Church of Rome
believe these narratives; for if they did, they were not wise;
but this we know, that by such stories the people were brought
into a belief of it, and having served their turn of them, the
master builders used them as false arches and centres, taking
them away when the parts of the building were made firm and
stable by authority." — Jer. Taylor, IP^or^s, vol. x. pp. 151, 152.

Another specimen of doctrine, which no one will
attempt to prove from Scripture, is the following: —

" Eastwardly between two walls was a vast place of pur-
gatory fixed, and beyond it a pond to rinse souls in that had
waded through purgatory, the water being salt and cold beyond
comparison. Over this purgatory St. Nicholas was the owner.

"There was a mighty bridge, all beset with nails and spikes,
and leading to the mount of joy; on which mount was a stately
church, seemingly capable to contain all the inhabitants of the
world, and into which the souls were no sooner entered but that
they forgot all their former torments.

"Returning to the first church, there they found St. Michael
the Archangel and the Apostles Peter and Paul. St. Michael
caused all the white souls to pass through the flames, unharmed,
to the mount of joy; and those that had black and white spots,
St. Peter led into purgatory to be purified.

" In one part sate St. Paul, and the devil opposite to him
with his guards, with a pair of scales between them, weighing
all such souls as were all over black; when upon turning a soul,
the scale turned towards St. Paul, he sent it to purgatory, there

2i6 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

to expiate its sins; when towards the devil, his crew, with great
triumph, plunged it into the flaming pit. . . .

"The rustic Hkewise saw near the entrance of the town-hall,
as it were, four streets ; the first was full of innumerable
furnaces and cauldrons filled with flaming pitch and other
liquids, and boiling of souls whose heads were like those of
black fishes in the seething liquor. The second had its
cauldrons stored with snow and ice, to torment souls with
horrid cold. The third had thereof boiling sulphur and other
materials, affording the worst of stinks, for the vexing of souls
that had wallowed in the filth of lust. The fourth had cauldrons
of a most horrid salt and black water. Now sinners of all sorts
were alternately tormented in these cauldrons." — Purgatory
proved by Miracle by S. Joh)ison^ pp. 8-10.

[Let it be considered then, whether, on the whole,
the " Romish doctrine of Purgatory," which the Article
condemns, and which was generally believed in the
Roman Church three centuries since, as well as now,
viewed in its essence, be not the doctrine, that the
punishment of unrighteous Christians is temporary, not
eternal, and that the purification of the righteous is a
portion of the same punishment, together with the
superstitions, and impostures for the sake of gain,
consequent thereupon.]

2. Pardons, or Indulgences.

The history of the rise of the Reformation will
interpret "the Romish doctrine concerning pardons,"
without going further. Burnet thus speaks on the
subject: —

" In the primitive church there were very severe rules made,
obliging all that had sinned publicly (and they were afterwards
applied to such as had sinned secretly) to continue for many
years in a state of separation from the Sacrament, and of
penance and discipline. But because all such general rules
admit of a great variety of circumstances, taken from men's sins,
their persons, and their repentance, there was a power given to
all Bishops, by the Council of Nice, to shorten the time, and to
relax the severity of those Canons, and such favour as they saw
cause to grant, was called indulgence. This was just and

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 217

necessary, and was a provision without which no constitution or
society can be well governed. But after the tenth century, as
the Popes came to take this power in the whole extent of it
into their own hands, so they found it too feeble to carry on the
great designs that they grafted upon it.

"They gave it high names, and called it a plenary remission,
and the pardon of all sins; which the world was taught to look
on as a thing of a much higher nature, than the bare excusing
of men from discipline and penance. Purgatory was then got
to be firmly believed, and all men were strangely possessed
with the terror of it: so a deliverance from purgatory and by
consequence an immediate admission into heaven, was believed
to be the certain effect of it. Multitudes were, by these means,
engaged to go to the Holy Land, to recover it out of the hands
of the Saracens; afterwards they armed vast numbers against
the heretics, to extirpate them: they fought also all those
quarrels which their ambitious pretensions engaged them in,
with emperors and other princes, by the same pay; and at last
ihey set it to sale with the same impudence, and almost with
the same methods, that mountebanks use in venting of their
secrets.

" This was so gross, even in an ignorant age and among the
ruder sort, that it gave the first rise to the Reformation: and as
the progress of it was a very signal work of God, so it was in a
great measure owing to the scandals that //«j shameless practice
had given the world." — Burnet on Article XIV., p. 190.

"The virtue of indulgences is the applying the treasure of the
Church upon such terms as Popes shall think fit to prescribe, in
order to the redeeming souls from purgatory, and from all other
temporal punishments, and that for such a number of years as
shall be specified in the bulls; some of which have gone to
thousands of years; one I have seen to ten hundred thousand:
and as these indulgences are sometimes granted by special
tickets, like tallies struck on that treasure; so sometimes they
are affixed to particular churches and altars, to particular times,
or days, chiefly to the year of jubilee; they are also affixed
to such things as may be carried about, to Agnus Deis, to
medals, to rosaries, and scapularies; they are also affixed to
some prayers, the devout saying of them being a mean to
procure great indulgences. The granting these is left to the

21 8 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

Pope's discretion, who ought to distribute them as he thinks
may tend most to the honour of God and the good of the
Church; and he ought not to be too profuse, much less to be too
scanty in dispensing them.

"This has been the received doctrine and practice of the
Church of Rome since the twelfth century: and the Council of
Trent in a hurry, in its last session, did in very geticral words
approve of the practice of the Church in this matter, and
decreed that indulgences should be continued; only ihey re-
strained some abuses^ in particular that of selling them." —
Burnet on Article XX 11.^ p. 305.

Burnet gfoes on to maintain that the act of the
Council was incomplete, and evaded. If it be necessary
to say more on the subject, let us attend to the follow-
ing" passage from Jeremy Taylor: —

" 1 might have instanced in worse matters, made by the
Popes of Rome to be pious works, the condition of obtaining
indulgences. Such as was the bull of Pope Julius the Second,
giving indulgence to him that meeting a Frenchman should kill
him, and another for the killing of a Venetian. ... I desire
this only instance may be added to it, that Pope Paul the Third,
he that convened the Council of Trent, and Julius the Third,
for fear, as I may suppose, the Council should forbid any more
such follies, for a farewell to this game, gave an indulgence to
the fraternity of the Sacrament of the Altar, or of the Blessed
Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ, of such a vastness and un-
reasonable folly, that it puts us beyond the question of religion,
to an inquiry, whether it were not done either in perfect distrac-
tion, or with a worse design, to make religion to be ridiculous,
and to expose it to a contempt and scorn. The conditions of
the indulgence are, either to visit the Church of St. Hilary of
Chartres, to say a 'Pater Noster' and an 'Ave Mary' every
Friday, or, at most, to be present at processions and other
divine service upon ' Corpus Christi day.' The gift is — as many
privileges, indults, exemptions, liberties, immunities, plenary
pardons of sins and other spiritual graces, as were given to the
fraternity of the Image of our Saviour 'ad Sancta Sanctorum';
the fraternity of the charity and great hospital of St. James in
Augusta, of St. John Baptist, of St. Cosmas and Damianus; of
the Florentine nation; of the hospital of the Holy Ghost in
Saxia; of the order of St. Austin and St. Champ; of the

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 219

fraternities of the said city; of the churches of our Lady 'de
populo et verbo'; and all those that were ever given to them
that visited these churches, or those which should ever be given
hereafter; — a pretty large gift! in which there were so many
pardons, quarter-pardons, half-pardons, true pardons, plenary
pardons, quarantines, and years of quarantines; that it is a
harder thing to number them than to purchase them. I shall
remark in these some particulars to be considered.

" I. That a most scandalous and unchristian dissolution and
death of all ecclesiastical discipline, is consequent to the making
all sin so cheap and trivial a thing; that the horrible demerits
and exemplary punishment and remotion of scandal and satis-
factions to the Church, are indeed reduced to trifling and mock
penances. He that shall send a servant with a candle to attend
the Holy Sacrament when it shall be carried to sick people, or
shall go himself; or, if he can neither go nor send, if he say a
' Pater Noster' and an 'Ave,' he shall have a hundred years of
true pardon. This is fair and easy. But then,

"2. It would be considered what is meant by so many years
of pardon, and so many years of true pardon. I know but of
one natural interpretation of it; and that it can mean nothing,
but that some of the pardons are but fantastical, and not true;
and in this I find no fault, save only that it ought to have been
said that all of them are fantastical.

"3. It were fit we learned how to compute four thousand and
eight hundred years of quarantines, and a remission of a third
part of all their sins; for so much is given to every brother and
sister of this fraternity, upon Easter-day, and eight days after.
Now if a brother needs not thus many, it would be considered
whether it did not encourage a brother or a frail sister to use all
their medicine and sin more freely, lest so great a gift become
useless.

" 4. And this is so much the more considerable, because the
gift is vast beyond all imagination. The first four days in Lent
they may purchase thirty-three thousand years of pardon, be-
sides a plenary remission of all their sins over and above. The
first week of Lent a hundred and three-and-thirty thousand
years of pardon, besides five plenary remissions of all their sins,
and two third parts besides, and the delivery of one soul out of
purgatory. The second week in Lent a hundred and eight-and-
fifty thousand years of pardon, besides the remission of all their
sins, and a third part besides; and the delivery of one soul.
The third week in Lent, eighty thousand years, besides a

2 20 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

plenary remission, and the delivery of one soul out of purgatory.
The fourth week in Lent, threescore thousand years of pardon,
besides a remission of two-thirds of all their sins, and one
plenary remission, and one soul delivered. The fifth week,
seventy-nine thousand years of pardon, and the deliverance
of two souls: only the two thousand seven hundred years that
are given for the Sunday, may be had twice that day, if they
will visit the altar twice, and as many quarantines. The sixth
week, two hundred and five thousand years, besides quarantines,
and four plenary pardons. Only on Palm Sunday, whose por-
tion is twenty-five thousand years, it may be had twice that day.
And all this is the price of him that shall, upon these days, visit
the altar in the church of St. Hilary. And this runs on to the
Fridays, and many festivals and other solemn days in the other
parts of the y&ax"—Jer. Taylor, vol. xi. pp. 53-56.

[The doctrine then of pardons, spoken of in the
Article, is the doctrine maintained and acted on in the
Roman Church, that remission of the penalties of sin
in the next life may be obtained by the power of the
Pope, with such abuses as money payments consequent
thereupon.^]

3. Veneration and worshipping- of Images and Relics.

That the Homilies do not altogether discard reverence
towards relics, has already been shown. Now let us
see what they do discard.

" What meaneth it that Christian men, after the use of the
Gentiles idolaters, cap and kncci before images? which, if they
had any sense and gratitude, would kneel before men, car-
penters, masons, plasterers, founders, and goldsmiths, their
makers and framers, by whose means they have attained this
honour, which else should have been evil-favoured, and rude
lumps of clay or plaster, pieces of timber, stone, or metal,
without shape or fashion, and so without all estimation and
honour, as that idol in the Pagan poet confesseth, saying, ' I
was once a vile block, but now I am become a god,' etc. What
a fond thing is it for man, who hath life and reason, to bow him-

^ " The pardons, then, spoken of in the Article, are large and reckless
indulgences from the penalties of sin obtained on money payments." —
1st cd.

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 221

self to a dead and insensible image, the work of his own hand!
Is not this stooping and kneeling before them, which is for-
bidden so earnestly by God's v/ord ? Let such as so fall down
before images of saints know and confess that they exhibit that
honour to dead stocks and stones, which the saints themselves,
Peter, Paul, and Barnabas, would not to be given to them, being
alive; which the angel of God forbiddeth to be given to him.
And if they say they exhibit such honour not to the image, but
to the saint whom it representeth, they are convicted of folly, to
believe that they please saints with that honour, which they
abhor as a spoil of God's honour." — Homily on Peril of Idolatry^
p. 191.

Ag^ain : —

"Thus far Lactantius, and much more, too long here to write,
of candle lighting in temples before images and idols for religion;
whereby appeareth both the foolishness thereof, and also that in
opinion and act we do agree altogether in our candle religion
with the Gentiles idolaters. What meaneth it that they, after
the example of the Gentiles idolaters, burn incense^ offer up
gold to images, hang up crutches, chains, and ships, legs, arms,
and whole men and women of wax, before images, as though by
them, or saints (as they say) they were delivered from lameness,
sickness, captivity, or shipwreck? Is not this 'colere imagines,'
to worship images, so earnestly forbidden in God's word? If
they deny it, let them read the eleventh chapter of Daniel the
Prophet, who saith of Antichrist, 'He shall worship God, whom
his fathers knew not, with gold, silver, and with precious stones,
and other things of pleasure': in which place the Latin word is
coletP . . . " To increase this madness, wicked men, which have
the keeping of such images, for their great lucre and advantage,
after the example of the Gentiles idolaters, have reported and
spread abroad, as well by lying tales as written fables, divers
miracles of images: as that such an image miraculously was
sent from heaven, even like the Palladium, or Magna Diana
Ephesiorum. Such another was as miraculously found in ihe
earth, as the man's head was in the Capitol, or the horse's head
in Capua. Such an image was brought by angels. Such a
one came itself far from the East to the West, as Dame Fortune
fled to Rome. Such an image of our Lady was painted by
St. Luke, whom of a physician they have made a painter for
that purpose. Such a one a hundred yokes of oxen could
not move, like Bona Dea, whom the ship could not carry; or

222 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

Jupiter Olynipius, which laughed the artificers to scorn, that
went about to remove him to Rome. Some images, though
they were hard and stony, yet, for tender heart and pity,
wept. Some, Hke Castor and PoUux, helping their friends
in battle, sweat, as marble pillars do in dankish weather.
Some spake more monstrously than ever did Balaam's ass, who
had life and breath in him. Such a cripple came and saluted
this saint of oak, and by-and-by he was made whole ; and, lo !
here hangeth his crutch. Such a one in a tempest vowed to
St. Christopher, and 'scaped; and behold, here is a ship of wax.
Such a one, by St. Leonard's help, brake out of prison ; and
see where his fetters hang." . . . "The Relics we must kiss and
offer unio, specially on Relic Sunday. And while we offer (that
we should not be weary, or repent us of our cost) the mtisic and
minstrelsy goeth merrily all the offertory time, with praising and
calling upon those saints whose relics be then in presence.
Yea, and the water also wherein those relics have been dipped,
must with great reverence be reserved, as very holy and
effectuous." ..." Because Relics were so gainful, few places
were there but they had Relics provided for them. And for
more plenty of Relics, some one saint had many heads, one in
one place, and another in another place. Some had six arms,
and twenty-six fingers. And where our Lord bare His cross
alone, if all the pieces of the relics thereof were gathered
together, the greatest ship in England would scarcely bear
them; and yet the greatest part of it, they say, doth yet remain
in the hands of the Infidels; for the which they pray in their
beads-bidding, that they may get it also into their hands, for
such godly use and purpose. And not only the bones of the
saints, but everything appertaining to them, was a holy relic.
In some places they offer a sword, in some the scabbard, in
some a shoe, in some a saddle that had been set upon some holy
horse, in some the coals wherewith St. Laurence was roasted, in
some place the tail of the ass which our Lord Jesus Christ sat
on, to be kissed and offered unto for a relic. For rather than
they would lack a relic, they would offer you a horse bone
instead of a 7'irgin's arm, or the tail of the ass to be kissed and
offered unto for relics. O wicked, impudent, and most shame-
less men, the devisers of these things! O silly, foolish, and
dastardly daws, and more beastly than the ass whose tail they
kissed, that believe such things!' . . . "Of these things already
rehearsed, it is evident that our image maintainers have not
only made images, and set them up in temples, as did the

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 223

Gentiles idolaters their idols; but also that they have had the
same idolatrous opinions of the saints, to whom they have made
images, which the Gentiles idolaters had of their false gods ; and
have not only worshipped their images with the same rites,
ceremonies, superstition, and all circumstances, as did the
Gentiles idolaters their idols, but in many points have also far
exceeded them in all wickedness, foolishness, and madness." —
Homily on Peril 0/ Idolatry, pp. 193-197.

It will be observed that in this extract, as elsewhere
in the Homilies, it is implied that the Bishop or the
Church of Rome is Antichrist; but this is a statement
bearing on prophetical interpretation, not on doctrine;
and one besides which cannot be reasonably brought to
illustrate or explain any of the positions of the Articles:
and therefore it may be suitably passed over.

In another place the Homilies speak as follows:

" Our churches stand full of such great puppets, wondrously
decked and adorned; garlands and coronets be set on their
heads, precious pearls hanging about their necks; their fingers
shine with rings, set with precious stones; their dead and stiff
bodies are clothed with garments stiff with gold. You would
believe that the images of our men-saints were some princes of
Persia land with their proud apparel; and the idols of our women-
saints were nice and well-trimmed harlots, tempting their para-
mours to wantonness : whereby the saints of God are not
honoured, but most dishonoured, and their godliness, soberness,
chastity, contempt of riches, and of the vanity of the world, de-
faced and brought in doubt by such monstrous decking, most
differing from their sober and godly lives. And because the
whole pageant must thoroughly be played, it is not enough thus
to deck idols, but at last come in the priests themselves, like-
wise decked with gold and pearl, that they may be meet servants
for such lords and ladies, and fit worshippers of such gods and
goddesses. And with a solemn pace they pass forth before
these golden puppets, and fall down to the ground on their
marrow-bones before these honourable idols; and then rising up
again, offer up odours and incense unto them, to give the people
an example of double idolatry, by worshipping not only the idol,
but the gold also, and riches, wherewith it is garnished. Which
thing, the most part of our old Martyrs, rather than they would

224 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

do, or once kneel, or offer up one crumb of incense before an
image, suffered most cruel and terrible deaths, as the histories
of them at large do declare." . . . "O books and scriptures, in
the which the devilish schoolmaster, Satan, hath penned the
lewd lessons of wicked idolatry, for his dastardly disciples and
scholars to behold, read, and learn, to God's most high dis-
honour, and their most horrible damnation ! Have we not been
much bound, think you, to those which should have taught us
the truth out of God's Book and his Holy Scripture, that they
have shut up that Book and Scripture from us, and none of us
so bold as once to open it, or read in it ? And instead thereof,
to spread us abroad these goodly carved and gilded books and
painted scriptures, to teach us such good and godly lessons ?
Have not they done well, after they ceased to stand in pulpits
themselves, and to teach the people committed to their instruc-
tion, keeping silence of God's Word, and become dumb dogs (as
the prophet calleth them) to set up in their stead, on every
pillar and corner of the church, such goodly doctors, as dumb,
but more wicked than themselves be ? We need not to complain
of the lack of one dumb parson, having so many dumb devilish
vicars (I mean these idols and painted puppets) to teach in their
stead. Now in the mean season, whilst the dumb and dead
idols stand thus decked and clothed, contrary to God's law and
commandment, the poor Christian people, the lively images of
God, commended to us so tenderly by our Saviour Christ, as
most dear to Him, stand naked, shivering for cold, and their
teeth chattering in their heads, and no man covereth them, are
pined with hunger and thirst, and no man giveth them a penny
to refresh them; whereas pounds be ready at all times (con-
trary to God's word and will) to deck and trim dead stocks and
stones, which neither feel cold, hunger, nor thirst." — Homily on
Peril of Idolatry, pp. 219-222.

Again, with a covert allusion to the abuses of the
day, the Homilist says elsewhere, of Scripture —

"There shall you read of Baal, Moloch, Chamos, Melchom,
Baalpeor, Astaroth, Bel, the Dragon, Priapus, the brazen
Serpent, the twelve signs, and many others, unto whose images
the people, with great devotion, \r\\QX\\.^di pilgrimages, precious
decki?ig and censing them, kneeling down and offering to them,
thinking that an high merit before God, and to be esteemed
above the precepts and commandments of God." — Homily on
Good Works, p. 42.

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 225

Again, soon after—

"What man, having any judgment or learning, joined with a
true zeal unto God, doth not see and lament to have entered
into Christ's religion, such false doctrine, superstition, idolatry,
hypocrisy, and other enormities and abuses, so as by little and
little, through the sour leaven thereof, the sweet bread of God's
holy Word hath been much hindered and laid apart? Never
had the Jews, in their most blindness, so many pilgrimages
unto images, nor used so much kneeling^ kissing, and censijtg of
them, as hath been used in our time. Sects and feigned religions
were neither the fortieth part so many among the Jews, nor more
superstitiously and ungodly abused, than of late years they have
been among us: which sects and religions had so many hypo-
critical and feigned works in their state of religion, as they
arrogantly named it, that their lamps, as they said, ran always
over, able to satisfy not only for their own sins, but also for all
other their benefactors, brothers, and sisters of religion, as most
ungodly and craftily they had persuaded the multitude of
ignorant people; keeping in divers places, as it were, marts or
markets of merits, being full of their holy relics, images, shrines,
and works of overflowing abundance, ready to be sold; and all
things which they had were called holy^holy cowls, holy
girdles, holy pardons, holy beads, holy shoes, holy rules, and
all full of holiness. And what thing can be more foolish, more
superstitious, or ungodly, than that men, women, and children
should wear a friar's coat to deliver them from agues or pesti-
lence; or when they die, or when they be buried, cause it to be
cast upom them, itt hope thereby to be saved? Which supersti-
tion, although (thanks be to God) it hath been little used in this
realm, yet in divers other realms it hath been, and yet is, used
among many, both learned and unlearned." — Hontily on Good
Works, pp. 45, 46.

[Once more —

"True religion then, and pleasing of God, standeth not in
making, setting up, painting, gilding, clothing, and decking of
dumb and dead images (which be but great puppets and babies
for old fools in dotage, and wicked idolatry, to dally and play
with), nor in kissing of them, capping, kneeling, offering to them,
in censing of them, setting up of candles, hanging up of legs,
arms, or whole bodies of wax before them, or praying or asking

226 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

of them, or of saints, things belonging only to God to give.
But all these things be vain and abominable, and most dam-
nable before God." — Homily o?i Peril of Idolatry^ p. 223.]

Now the veneration and worship condemned in these
and other passages are such as these: kneeling- before
images, lighting candles to them, offering them incense,
going on pilgrimage to them, hanging up crutches, etc.,
before them, lying tales about them, belief in miracles
as if wrought by them through illusion of the devil,
decking them up immodestly, and providing incentives
by them to bad passions; and, in like manner, merry
music and minstrelsy, and licentious practices in honour
of relics, counterfeit relics, multiplication of them, absurd
pretences about them. This is what the Article means
by "the Romish doctrine," which, in agreement to one
of the above extracts, it calls '* a fond thing," resfiitilis;
for who can ever hope, except the grossest and most
blinded minds, to be gaining the favour of the blessed
saints, while they come with unchaste thoughts and
eyes, that cannot cease from sin ; and to be profited by
"pilgrimage-going," in which "Lady Venus and her
son Cupid were rather worshipped wantonly in the flesh,
than God the Father, and our Saviour Christ His Son,
truly worshipped in the Spirit?"

Here again it is remarkable that, urged by the truth
of the allegation, the Council of Trent is obliged, both
to confess the above-mentioned enormities in the venera-
tion of relics and images, and to forbid them.

" Into these holy and salutary observances should any abuses
creep, of these the Holy Council strongly [vehementer] desires
the utter extinction; so that no images of a false doctrine, and
supplying to the uninstructed opportunity of perilous error,
should be set up. ... All superstition also in invocation of
saints, veneration of relics, and sacred use of images, be put
away; all filthy lucre be cast out of doors; and all 'wa7itomiess
be avoided; so that images be not painted or adorned with an
immodest beauty ; or the celebration of Saints and attendance
on Relics be abused to revelries and drunkenness; as though

THE THlRTV-NlNli ARTICLES. 227

festival days were kept in honour of saints by luxury and
/iiscivioiisness." — Sess. 25.

[On the whole, then, by the Romish doctrine of the
^ eneration and worshipping of images and relics, the
article means all maintenance of those idolatrous
honours which have been and are paid them so com-
monly throughout the Church of Rome, with the
superstitions, profanities, and impurities consequent
thereupon.]

4. Invocation of Saints.

By "invocation" here is not meant the mere circum-
stance of addressing beings out of sight, because we
use the Psalms in our daily service, which are frequent
in invocations of Angels to praise and bless God. In
the Benedicite too we address " the spirits and souls of
the righteous."

Nor is it a "fond" invocation to pray that unseen
beings may bless us; for this [Bishop Ken does in his
Evening Hymn: —

" O may my Guardian, while I sleep,
Close to my bed his vigils keep.
His love angelical instil,
Stop all the avenues of ill," etc.]^

On the other hand, judging from the example set us
in the Homilies themselves, invocations are not cen-
surable, and certainly not " fond," if we mean nothing
definite by them, addressing them to beings which we
kii07V cannot hear, and using them as interjections.
The Homilist seems to avail himself of this proviso in
a passage which will serve to begin our extracts in
illustration of the superstitiotis use of invocations.

"We have left Him neither heaven, nor earth, nor water, nor
country, nor city, peace nor war to rule and govern, neither

^ [A passage here occurred in first edition upon Rev. i. 4, in which
the author still thinks that "the seven spirits" are seven created
angels.]

19

228 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

men, nor beasts, nor their diseases to cure; that a godly man
might justly, for zealous indignation, cry out, O heaven O earth,
and scas^ what madness and wickedness against God are men
fallen into! What dishonour do the creatures to their Creator
and Maker! And if we remember God sometimes, yet, because
we doubt of His ability or will to help, we join to Him another
helper, as if He were a noun adjective, using these sayings:
such as learn, God and St. Nicholas be my speed: such as
neese, God help and St. John: to the horse, God and St. Loy
save thee. Thus are we become like horses and mules, which
have no understanding. For is there not one God only, who by
His power and wisdom made all things, and by His providence
governeth the same, and by His goodness maintaineth and
saveth them? Be not all things of Him, by Him, and through
Him? Why dost thou turn Jroni the Creator to the creatures?
This is the manner of the Gentiles idolaters: but thou art a
Christian, and therefore by Christ alone hast access to God the
Father, and help of Him only." — Homily on Peril of Idolatry,
p. 189.

Again, just before —

"Terentius Varro sheweth that there were three hundred
Jupiters in his time: there were no fewer Veneres and Dianje:
we had no fewer Christophers, Ladies, and Mary Magdalens,
and other saints. Qinomaus and Hesiodus shew that in their
time there were thirty thousand gods. I think we had no fewer
saints, to whom we gave the honour due to God. And they
have not only spoiled the true living God of his due honour in
temples, cities, countries, and lands, by such devices and inven-
tions as the Gentiles idolaters have done before them: but the
sea and waters have as well special saints with them, as they
had gods with the Gentiles, Neptune, Triton, Nereus, Castor
and Pollux, Venus, and such other: in whose places be come
St. Christopher, St. Clement, and divers other, and specially
our Lady, to whom shipmen sing, 'Ave, maris stella.' Neither
hath the fire escaped their idolatrous inventions. For, instead
of Vulcan and \'esta, the Gentiles' gods of the fire, our men
have placed St. Agatha, and make litters on her day for to
quench fire with. Every artificer and profession hath his
special saint, as a peculiar god. As for example, scholars have

1 "O cuclum, O leria, O maria Nepluni." — Teicnt. Adclph. v. 3.

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 229

St. Nicholas and St. Gregory; painters, St. Luke; neither lack
soldiers their Mars, nor lovers their Venus, amongst Christians.
All diseases have their special saints, as gods the curers of
them; . . . the falling-evil St. Cornelio, the toothache St.
Apollin, etc. Neither do beast nor cattle lack their gods with
us; for St. Loy is the horse-leech, and St. Anthony the swine-
herd."—/^zVi'., p. 188.

The same subject is introduced in connection with a
lament over the falling off of attendance on religfious
worship consequent upon the Reformation :

" God's vengeance hath been and is daily provoked, because
much wicked people pass nothing to resort to the Church, either
for that they are so sore blinded that they understand nothing
of God and godliness, and care not with devilish example to
offend their neighbours; or else for that they see the Church
altogether scoured of such gay gozing sights as their gross
fantasy was greatly delighted with, because they see the false
religion abandoned, and the true restored, which seemeth an
unsavoury thing to their unsavoury taste; as may appear by
this, that a woman said to her neighbour, 'Alas, gossip, what
shall we now do at church, since all the saints are taken away,
since all the goodly sights we were wont to have are gone, since
we cannot hear the like piping, singing, chanting, and playing
upon the organs, that we could before ?' But, dearly beloved,
we ought greatly to rejoice, and give God thanks, that our
churches are delivered of all those things which displeased God
so sore, dixidjilthily deJUedWxs house and his place of prayer, for
the which He hath justly destroyed many nations, according to
the saying of St. Paul: ' If any man defile the temple of God, God
will him destroy.' And this ought we greatly to praise God for,
that superstitious and idolat7Vus manners as were utterly naught,
and defaced God's glory, are utterly abolished, as they most
justly deserved: and yet those things that either God was
honoured with, or his people edified, are decently retained, and
in our churches comely practised." — On the Place and Time of
Prayer, pp. 293, 294.

Again —

" There are certain conditions most requisite to be found in
every such a one that must be called upon, which if they be not

230 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

found in Him unto whom we pray, then doth our prayer avail us
nothing, but is altogether in vain.

"The first is this, that He, to whom we make our prayers, be
able to help us. The second is, that He will help us. The
third is, that He be such a one as may hear our prayers. The
fourth is, that He understand better than ourselves what we
lack, and how far we have need of help. If these things be to
be found in any other, saving only God, then may we lawfully
call upon some other besides God. But what man is so gross,
but he well understandeth that these things are only proper to
Him who is omnipotent, and knoweth all things, even the very
secrets of the heart; that is to say, only and to God alone?
Whereof it followeth that we must call neither upon angel nor
yet upon saint, but only and solely upon God, as St. Paul doth
write: 'How shall men call upon Him, in whom they have not
believed ?' So that invocatioji or p7ayer may not be made
without faith in Him on whom they call, but that we must first
believe in Him before we can make our prayer unto Him, where-
upon we must only and solely pray unto God. For to say that
we should believe in either angel or saint, or in any other living
creature, were most horrible blasphemy ^.g&\ns\ God and his holy
Word; neither ought this fancy to enter into the heart of any
Christian man, because we are expressly taught in the Word of
the Lord, only to repose our faith in the blessed Trinity, in
whose only name we are also baptised, according to the express
commandment of our Saviour Jesus Christ, in the last of St.
Matthew.

" But that the truth thereof may better appear, even to them
that be most simple and unlearned, let us consider what prayer
is. St. Augustine calleth it a lifting up of the mind to God;
that is to say, an humble and lowly pouring out of the heart to
God. Isidorus saith, that it is an affection of the heart, and not
a labour of the lips. So that, by these plans, true prayer doth
consist not so much in the outward sound and voice of words,
as in the inward groaning and crying of the heart to God.

"Now, then, is there any angel, any virgin, any patriarch, or
prophet, among the dead, that can understand or know the
meaning of the heart? The .Scripture saith, 'It is God that
searcheth the heart and reins, and that He only knoweth the
hearts of the children of men.' As for the saints, they have so
little knowledge of the secrets of the heart, that many of the
ancient fathers greatly doubt whether they know anything at all,
that is commonly done on earth. And albeit some think they

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 231

do, yet St. Augustine, a doctor of great authorit)-, and also anti-
quity, hath this opinion of them: that they know no more what
we do on earth than we know what they do in heaven. For
proof whereof, lie allegeth the words of Isaiah the prophet,
where it is said, 'Abraham is ignorant of us, and Israel knoweth
us not.' His mind therefore is this, not that we should put any
religion in ivorsliippiiig them, ox praying unto them; but that
we should honour them by following their virtuous and godly
life. For, as he witnesseth in another place, the martyrs, and
holy men in time past, were wont, after their death, to be
remenihereii^ and 7iavied of the priest at divine service; but
never to be invocaied ox called iipo}i. And why so ? Because
the priest, saith he, is God's priest, and not theirs: whereby he
is bound to call upon God, and not upon them. . . . O but I
dare not (will some men say) trouble God at all times with my
prayers; we see that in kings' houses, and courts of princes,
men cannot be admitted, unless they first use the help and
means of some special nobleman, to come to the speech of the
king, and to obtain the thing that they would have.

" Christ, sitting in heaven, hath an everlasting priesthood, and
always prayeth to His Father for them that be penitent, ob-
taining, by virtue of His wounds, which are evermore in the
sight of God, not only perfect remission of our sins, but also all
other necessaries that we lack in this world; so that this Holy
Mediator is sufficient in heaven, and needeth no others to help
Him.

" Invocation is a \\-\\x\% propet- imio God, which if we attribute
unto the saints, it soundeth unto their reproach, neither can
they well bear it at our hands. When Paul healed a certain
lame man, which was impotent in his feet, at Lystra, the people
would have do7ic sacrifice unto him and Barnabas; who, rending
their clothes, refused it, and exhorted them to iL'orship the true
God. Likewise in the Revelation, when St. ]ohr\ fell before the
angel's feet to worship hini^ the angel would not permit him to
do it, but commanded him that he should worship God. Which
examples declare unto us, that the saints and angels in heaven
will not have us to do any honour unto them, that is due and
proper unto God" — Homily on Prayer, pp. 272-277.

Whereas, then, it has already been shown that not
all invocation is wrongs, this last passage plainly tells
us what kind of invocation is not allowable, or what is
meant by invocation in its exceptionable sense — viz., " a

232 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

thlngf proper to God," as beings part of the "honour
that is due and proper unto God." And two instances
are specially g^iven of such callings and invocating — viz.,
sacrificing, and falling doiim in iwrship. Besides this,
the Homilist adds, that it is wrong- to pray to them
for "necessaries in this world," and to accompany
their services with "piping, singing", chanting, and
playing" on the organ, and of invoking saints as
patrons of particular elements, countries, arts, or
remedies.

Here again, as before, the Article gains a witness and
concurrence from the Council of Trent. " Though," say
the divines there assembled, "the Church has been
accustomed sometimes to celebrate a few masses to the
honour and remembrance of saints, yet she doth not
teach that sacrifice is offered to them, but to God alone,
who crowned them ; wherefore neither is the priest wont
to say, / offer sacrifice to thee, O Peter, or O Paul, but
to God." (Sess. 22.)

Or, to know what is meant by fond invocations, we
may refer to the following passage of Bishop Andrews'
Answer to Cardinal Perron : —

"This one point is needful to be observed throughout all the
Cardinal's answer, that he hath framed to himself five distinc-
tions:— (i.) Prayer rt'/Vvr/, and prayer i'i^//^//'^, or indirect. (2.)
Prayer absolute, and prayer relative. (3 ) Prayer so7<ereign,
and prayer subaltern. (4.) Viayer final, and prayer transitorf.
(5.) Vra.yer sacrfieial, and prayer out of, ox from the sacrifice.
Prayer direct, absolute, final, sovereign, sacrificial, that must not
be made to the saints, but to God only ; but as iox prayer oblique,
rclati^'c, transitory, siduiltern, front, or out of the sacrifice, that
(saith he) we may make to the saints.

" For all the world like the question in Scotland, which was
made some fifty years since, whether the Pater noster might not
be said to saints? For then they in like sort devised the dis-
tinction of — (i.) Ultimate, et non ultimate. (2.) Principaliier,
et fninus principaliter. (3.) Pri marie et secundarie: Capiendo
stride et capiendo large. And as for ultimate, principaliter,
pritnarie et capiendo stride, they conclude it must go to God ;

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 233

but von ttltimaie^ 7niniis p^ificipaliier, sccimdarie, et capiendo
large^ it might be allowed saints.

"Yet it is sure, that in these distinctions is the whole sub-
stance of his answer. And whensoever he is pressed, he flees
straight to h'\s pmyei' rciafi^'c ?iX\^ prayer iransitoiy j as \{ prier
pour prier were all the Church of Rome did hold : and that
they made no prayers to the saints, but only to pray for them.
The Bishop well remembers, that AI aster Casaubon more than
once told him, that reasoning with the Cardinal, touching the
invocation of saints, the Cardinal freely confessed to him that
he had never prayed to saint in all his life., save only when he
happened to follo7a the procession j and that then he sung Ora
pro tiobis with the clerks indeed, but else not.

"Which cometh much to this opinion he now seemeth to
defend : but wherein others of the Church of Rome will surely
give him over, so that it is to be feared that the Cardinal will
be shent for this, and some censure come out against him by the
Sorbonne. For the world cannot believe that oblique relative
prayer is all that is sought; seeing it is most evident, by their
breviaries, hours, and rosaries, that they pray directly, abso-
lutely, and finally to saints, and make no mention at all of
prier pour prier, to pray to God to forgive them ; but to the
saints, to give it themselves. So that all he saith comes to
nothing. They say to the blessed Virgin, ' Sancta Maria,' not
only 'Ora pro nobis': but ' Succurre miseris, juva pusillanimes,
resolve flebiles, accipe quod offerimus, dona quod rogamus,
excusa quod timemus,' etc., etc.

"All which, and many more, show plainly that t\\& practice of
the Church of Rome, in this point of invocation of saints, is far
otherwise than Cardinal Perron would bear the world in hand :
and thai prier pour prier is not all, but that 'Tu dona ccelum,
Tu laxa, Tu sana, Tu solve crimina, Tu due, conduc, indue,
perdue ad gloriam ; Tu serva, Tu fer opem, Tu aufer, Tu confer
vitam,' are said to them {totidcm verbis): more than wJiich can-
fiot be said to God himself. And again, ' Hie nos solvat a pec-
catis, Hie nostros tergat reatus. Hie arma conferat, Hie hostem
fuget, Ha;c gubernet. Hie aptet tuo conspectui;' which if they
be not direct and absolute, it would be asked of them what is
absolute or direct?''' — Bishop Andrews' Answer to Chapter XX.
of Cardinal Pei-ron's Reply, pp. 57-62.

Bellarmine's admissions quite bear out the principles
laid down by Bishop Andrews and the Homilist; — -

234 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

" It is not lawful," he says, "to ask of the saints to grant to
us, as if they were the autJiors of divine benefits, glory or grace,
or the other means of blessedness. . . . This is proved, first,
from Scripture, 'The Lord will give grace and glory' (Psalm
Ixxxiv.) Secondly, from the usage of the Church ; for in the
mass-prayers, and the saints' offices, we never ask anything
else, but that at their prayers benefits may be granted to us by
God. Thirdly, from reason ; for ivJiat ive need surpasses the
powers of the creature, and therefore even of saints ; therefore
we ought to ask nothing of saints beyond their impetrating
from God what is profitable for us. Fourthly, from Augustine
and Theodoret, who expressly teach that saints are not to be
invoked as gods, but as able to gain from God what they wish.
However, it must be observed, when we say, that nothing should
be asked of saints but their prayers for us, the question is not
about the words, but the sense of the words. For, as far as
words go, // is lawful to say: ' St. Peter, pity me, save me, open
for me the gate of heaven;' also, 'give me health of body,
patience, fortitude,' etc., provided that we mean ' save and pity
me by p7-ayi}ig for 7nef 'grant me this or that by thy prayers
and merits' For so speaks Gregory Nazianzen, and many
others of the ancients, etc." — De Sanct. Beat. i. 17.

[By the doctrine of the invocation of Saints then, the
article means all maintenance of addresses to them
which intrench upon the incommunicable honour due to
God alone, such as have been, and are in the church of
Rome, and such as, equally with the peculiar doctrine
of purg-atory, pardons, and worshipping- and adoration
of images and relics, as actually taug^ht in that church,
are unknown to the Catholic Church.]

§ 7. — The Sacraments.

Art. XXV.- — "Those five, commonly called Sacraments,
that is to say. Confirmation, Penance, Orders, Matri-
mony, and Extreme Unction, are not to be counted for
Sacraments of the Gospel, being- such as have grown,
partly of the corrupt following (pravA imitatione) of
the Apostles, partly from states of life allowed in the

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 235

Scriptures; but yet have not like nature of sacraments
(sacramentorum eandem rationem), with Baptism and
the Lord's Supper, for that they have not any visible
sign or ceremony ordained of God."

This Article does not deny the five rites in question
to be sacraments, but to be sacraments in the sense in
which Baptism and the Lord's Supper are sacraments;
"sacraments of the Gospel,^' sacraments ivith an out-
ward sig7i ordained of God.

They are not sacraments in aiiy sense, nn/ess the
Church has the power of dispensing- grace through rites
of its own appointing, or is endued with the gift of
blessing and hallowing the "rites or ceremonies,"
which, according to the twentieth article, it "hath
power to decree." But we may well believe that the
Church has this gift.

If, then, a sacrament be merely an outward sign of an
invisible grace given nnder it, the five rites may be
sacraments ; but if it must be an outward sign ordained
by God or Christ, then only Baptism and the Lord's
Supper are sacraments.

Our Church acknowledges both definitions ; in the
article before us, the stricter; and again in the Cate-
chism, where a sacrament is defined to be " an outward
visible sign of an inward spiritual grace, given unto us,
ordained by Christ himself." And this, it should be
remarked, is a characteristic of our formularies in
various places, not to deny the truth or obligation of
certain doctrines or ordinances, but simply to deny
(what no Roman opponent now can successfully main-
tain) that Christ for certain directly ordained them.
For instance, in regard to the visible Church, it is
sufficient that the ministration of the sacraments should
be "according to Christ's ordinance." Art, xix. — And
it is added, "in all those things that of necessity are
requisite to the same." The question entertained is,
what is the least that God requires of us. Again, " the

236 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

baptism of young children is to be retained, as most
agreeable to the institution of Christ." Art. xxvii. —
Again, "the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not by
Christ's ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, or
worshipped." Art. xxviii. — Who will maintain the
paradox that what the Apostles "set in order when
they came" had been already done by Christ? Again,
"both parts of the Lord's sacrament, hy Christ's ordi-
nance and commandment, ought to be administered to
all Christian men alike." Art. xxx. — Again, "bishops,
priests, and deacons are not commanded hy God's laiv
either to vow the estate of single life or to abstain from
marriage." Art. xxxii. — [In making this distinction,
however, it is not here insinuated, though the question
is not entered on in these particular articles, that ever\-
one of these points, of which it is only said that they
are not ordained by Christ, is justifiable on grounds
short of His appointment.]

On the other hand, our Church takes the wider sense
of the meaning of the word sacrament in the Homilies,
observing —

" In the second Book against the Adversary of the Law and
the Prophets, he [St. Augustine] calleth sacraments holy signs.
And writing to Ronifacius of the baptism of infants, he saith,
' If sacraments had not a certain similitude of those things
whereof they be sacraments, they should be no sacra-.nents
at all. And of this similitude they do for the most part receive
the names of the self-same things they signify.' By these words
of St. Augustine it appeareth that he alloweth the common
description of a sacrament, which is, that it is a 7'isible sign oj
an invisible grace J that is to say, that setteth out to the eyes
and other outward senses the inward working of God's free
mercy, and doth, as it were, seal in our hearts the promises of
God." — Homily on Covwion Prayer and Sacraments, pp. 296,
297.

Accordingly, starting with this definition of St.
Augustine's, the writer is necessarily carried on as
follows : —

TPIR THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 237

"You shall hear how many sacraments there be that were
instituted by our Saviour Christ, and are to be continued, and
received of every Christian, in due time and order, and for such
purpose as our Saviour Christ willed them to be received. And
as for the number of them, if they should be considered accord-
ing to the exacf signification of a sacrament, namely, for visible
signs expressly commanded in the New Testament, whereunto
is annexed the promise of free forgiveness of our sins, and of
our holiness and joining in Christ, there be but two — namely,
Baptism, and the Supper of the Lord. For although absolution
hath the promise of forgiveness of sin ; yet by the express word
of the New Testament, it hath not this promise annexed and
tied to the visible sign, which is imposition of hands. For this
visible sign (I mean laying on of hands) is not expressly com-
manded in the New Testament to be used in absolution, as the
visible signs in Baptism and the Lord's Supper are: and there-
fore absolution is no such sacrament as Baptism and the Com-
munion are. And though the ordering of ministers hath this
visible sign and promise ; yet it lacks the promise of remission
of sin, as all other sacraments besides the two above named do.
Therefore neither it, nor any of/ier sacrament else, be such
sacraments as Baptism and the Communion are. But in a
general acception, the name of a sacrament may be attributed
to anything, whereby a holy thing is signified. In which
understanding of the word, the ancient writers have given this
name, not only to the other five, commonly of late years taken
and used for supplying the number of the seven sacraments;
but also to divers and sundry other ceremonies, as to oil, wash-
ing of feet, and such-like ; not meaning thereby to repute them
as sacraments, in the same signification that the two forenamed
sacraments are. And therefore St. Augustine, weighing the
true signification and exact meaning of the word, writing to
Januarius, and also in the third Book of Christian Doctrine,
affirmeth that the sacraments of the Christians, as they are
most excellent in signification, so are they most few in number,
and in both places maketh mention expressly of two, the sacra-
ment of Baptism, and the Supper of the Lord. And although
there are retained by order of the Church of England, besides
these two, certain other rites and ceremonies, about the institu-
tion of ministers in the Church, Matrimony, Confirmation of
Children, by examining them of their knowledge in the Articles
of the Faith, and joining thereto the prayers of the Church for
them, and likewise for the Visitation of the Sick; yet no man

238 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

ought to take these for sacraments, in such signification and
meaning as the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper
are ; but either for godly states of life, necessary in Christ's
Church, and therefore worthy to be set forth by public action
and solemnity, by the ministry of the Church, or else judged to
be such ordinances as may make for the instruction, comfort,
and edification of Christ's Church." — Homily on Couiinon Player
and Sacramcjiis^ pp. 298-300.

Another definition of the word .sacrament, which
equally succeeds in limiting" it to the two principal rites
of the Christian Church, is also contained in the Cate-
chism, as well as alluded to in the above passage: —
" Two only, as generally necessary to salvation, Baptism
and the Supper of the Lord." On this subject the fol-
lowing- remark has been made: —

"The Roman Catholic considers that there are seven
[sacraments] ; we do not strictly determine the number.
We define the word g-enerally to be an ' outward sign
of an inward g^race,' without saying to how many
ordinances this applies. However, what we do determine
is, that Christ has ordained two special sacraments, as
generally necessary to salvation. This, then, is the char-
acteristic mark of those two, separating them from all
other whatever; and this is nothing else but saying in
other words, that they are the only justifying rites, or
instruments of communicating the Atonement, which
is the one thing- necessary to us. Ordination, for
instance, gives po^ver, yet without making- the soul
acceptable to God ; Confirmation gives light and
strength, yet is the mere completion of Baptism ; and
Absolution may be viewed as a negative ordinance
removing the harrier which sin has raised between us
and that grace, which by inheritance is ours. But the
two sacraments ' of the Gospel,' as they may be em-
phatically styled, are the instruments of inward life,
according to our Lord's declaration, that Baptism is a
new birth, and that in the Eucharist we eat the living
bread."

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 239

§ 8. — Transuhstantiation.

Article xxviii. — "Transuhstantiation, or the change
of the substance of bread and wine, in the supper of
the Lord, cannot be proved by Holy Writ ; but is re-
pugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth
the nature of a sacrament, and hath given occasion to
many superstitions."

What is here opposed as "Transuhstantiation" is
the shocking doctrine that "the body of Christ," as
the Article goes on to express it, is not "given, taken,
and eaten, after a heavenly and spiritual manner, but
is carnally pressed with the teeth;" that It is a body or
substance of a certain extension and bulk in space, and
a certain figure and due disposition of parts, whereas
we hold that the only substance such, is the bread which
we see.

This is plain from Article xxix., which quotes St.
Augustine as speaking of the wicked as "carnally and
visibly pressing with their teeth the sacrament of the
body and blood of Christ," not the real substance, a
statement which even the Breviary introduces into the
service for Corpus Christi day.

This is plain also from the words of the Homily: —
" Saith Cyprian, ' When we do these things, ive need
not whet our teeth, but with sincere faith we break and
divide that holy bread. It is well known that the meat
we seek in this supper is spiritual food, the nourishment
of the soul, a heavenly refection, and not earthly ; an
invisible meat and not a bodily: a ghostly substance,
and not carnal. ' "

Some extracts may be quoted to the same effect from
Bishop Taylor. Speaking of what has been believed in
the Church of Rome, he says: —

"Sometimes Christ hath appeared in His own shape, and
blood and flesh hath been pulled out of the mouths of the com-

240 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

municants ; and Plegilus, the priest, saw an angel, showing
Christ to him in form of a child upon the altar, whom first he
took in his arms and kissed, but did eat Him up presently in his
other shape, in the shape of a wafer. ' Speciosa certe pax nebu-
lonis, ut qui oris prtebuerat basium, dentium inferret exitium,'
said Berengarius: ' It was but a Judas' kiss to kiss with the lip,
and bite with the teeth.'" — Bp. Taylor^ vol. x. p. 12.

"Yet if this and the other miracles pretended, had not been
illusions or directly fabulous, it had made very much against
the present doctrine of the Roman Church : for they represent
the body in such measure, as by their explications it is not, and
it cannot be: they represent it broken, a finger, or a piece of
flesh, or bloody, or bleeding, or in the form of an infant ; and
then, when it is in the species of bread : for if, as they say,
Christ's body is present no longer than the form of bread re-
mained, how can it be Christ's body in the miracle, when the
species being gone, it is no longer a sacrament ? But the dull
inventors of miracles in those ages considered nothing of this ;
the article itself was then gross and rude, and so were the
instruments of probation. I noted this, not only to show at
what door so incredible a persuasion entered, but that the zeal
of prevailing in it hath so blinded the refiners of it in this age,
that they still urge those miracles for proof, when, if they do
anything at all, they reprove the present doctrine." — Bp.
Taylor's Works, \o\. ix. p. 411. ■•

Again: the change which is denied in the Article is
accurately specified in another passage of the same
author: —

" I will not insist upon the unworthy questions which this
carnal doctrine introduces . . . neither will I make scrutiny
concerning Christ's bones, hair, and nails; nor suppose the
Roman priests to be such Ko.px'^pboovTc^, and to have such ' saws
in their mouths': these are appendages of their persuasion, but
to be abominated by all Christian and modest persons, who use
to eat not the bodies but the flesh of beasts, and not to devour,
but to worship the body of Christ in the exaltation, and now in
union with His divinity."— 0« the Real Presence., 11.

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 241

And again: —

" They that deny the spiritual sense, and affirm the natural,
are to remember that Christ reproved all senses of these words
that were not spiritual. And by the way let me observe, that
the expressions of some chief men among the Romanists are so
rude and crass, that it luill be impossible to excuse them from
the understanding the words in the sense of the men of Caper-
nautn: for, as they understood Christ to mean His 'true flesh,
natural and proper," so do they : as they thought Christ intended
they should tear Him with their teeth and suck His blood, for
which they were offended ; so do these men not only think so,
but say so, and are not offended. So said Alanus, 'Assertissime
loquimur, corpus Christi vere a nobis contrectari, manducari,
circumgestari, dentibus teri [ground by the teeth\ sensibiliter
sacrificari [sensibly sacrificed^ non minus quam ante consecra-
tionem panis' [not less than the bread before consecration]
... I thought that the Romanists had been glad to separate
their own opinion from the carnal conceit of the men of Caper-
naum and the offended disciples . . . but I find that Bellar-
mine owns it, even in them, in their rude circumstances, for he
affirms that ' Christ corrected them not for supposing so, but
reproved ih&mfor not believi7ig it to be so.' And indeed him-
self says as much: 'The body of Christ is truly and properly
nuinducated or chewed \\\i\\ the bread in the Eucharist;' and to
take off the foulness of the expression, by avoiding a worse, he
is pleased to speak nonsense: 'A thing may be manducated or
chewed, though it be not attrite or broken.' . . . But Bellar-
mine adds, that if you will not allow him to say so, then he
grants it in plain terms, that Christ's body is chewed, is attrite
or broken with the teeth, and that not tropically, but properly.
. . . How? under the species of bread, and invisibly." — Ibid. 3.

Take again the statement of Ussher : —

" Paschasius Radbertus, who was one of the first setters
forward of this doctrine in the West, spendeth a large chapter
upon this point, wherein he telleth us that Christ in the Sacra-
ment did show himself 'oftentimes in a visible shape, either in
the form of a lamb, or in the colour of flesh and blood; so that
while the host was a breaking or an offering, a lamb in the
priest's hands, and blood in the chalice should be seen as it
were flowing from the sacrifice, that what lay hid in a mystery

242 'I'HE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

might to them that yet doubted be made manifest in a
miracle.' . . . The first [tale] was ... of a Roman matron,
who found a piece of the sacramental bread turned into the
fashion of a finger, all bloody; which afterwards, upon the
prayers of St. Gregory, was converted to its former shape again.
The other two were first coined by the Grecian liars. . . . The
former of these is not only related there, but also in the legend
of Simeon Metaphrastes (which is such another author among
the Grecians as Jacobus de Voragine was among the Latins)
in the life of Arsenius, . . . how that a little child was seen
upon the altar, and an angel cutting him into small pieces with
a knife, and receiving his blood into the chalice, as long as the
priest was breaking the bread into little parts. The latter is of
a certain Jew, receiving the sacrament at St. Basil's hands,
converted visibly into true flesh and blood." — Ussher's Answer
to a Jesuit, pp. 62-64.

Or the following' : —

" When St. Odo was celebrating the mass in the presence of
certain of the clergy of Canterbury (who maintained that the
bread and wine, after consecration, do remain in their former
substance, and are not Christ's true body and blood, but a
figure of it) : when he was come to confraction, presently the
fragments of the body of Christ which he held in his hands,
began to pour forth blood into the chalice. Whereupon he
shed tears of joy; and beckoning to them that wavered in their
faith, to come near and see the wonderful work of God : as
soon as they beheld it they cried out, ' O holy Prelate ! to
whom the Son of God has been pleased to reveal Himself
visibly in the flesh, pray for us, that the blood we see here
present to our eyes, may again be changed, lest for our unbelief
the Divine vengeance fall upon us.' He prayed accordingly;
after which, looking in the chalice, he saw the species of bread
and wine, where he had left blood. . . .

"St. Wittekundus, in the administration of the Eucharist,
saw a child enter into every one's mouth, playing and smiling
when some received him, and with an abhorring countenance
when he went into the mouths of others; Christ thus showing
this saint in His countenance, who were worthy, and who un-
worthy rQct\\Qts.''^/ohnsoii's Miracles of Saints^ pp. 27, 28.

The same doctrine was imposed by Nicholas the

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 243

Second on Berengarius, as the confession of the latter
shows, which runs thus : —

"I, Berengarius . . . anathematise every heresy, and more
particularly that of which I have hitherto been accused ... I
agree with the Roman Church . . . that the bread and wine
which are placed on the altar are, after consecration, not only a
sacrament, but even the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ; and that these are sensibly, and not merely sacramentally,
but in truth, handled and broken by the hands of the priest,
and ground by the teeiJi of the faithful.'' — Bozudcn^s Li^e of
Gregory VII., vol. ii. p. 243.

Another illustration of the sort of doctrine offered in
the Article may be g-iven from Bellarmine, whose con-
troversial statements have already been introduced in
the course of the above extracts. He thus opposes the
doctrine of introsusception, which the spiritual view of
the Real Presence naturally suggests : —

He observes, that there are "two particular opinions,
false and erroneous, excogitated in the schools: that of
Durandus, who thought it probable that the substance
of the body of Christ in the Eucharist was ivifhoiit
magnihide ; and that of certain ancients, which Occam
seems afterwards to have followed, that though it has
magnitude (which they think not really separable from
substance), yet every part is so penetrated by every
other, that the body of Christ is ivithoiit figure, without
distinction and order of parts." With this he contrasts
the doctrine which, he maintains, is that of the Church
of Rome as well as the general doctrine of the schools,
that "in the Eucharist whole Christ exists with
magnitude and all accidents, except that relation to
a heavenly location which He has as He is in heaven,
and those things which are concomitants on His
existence in that location ; and that the parts and
members of Christ's body do not penetrate each other,
but are so distinct and arranged one with another, as
to have ?l figure and order suitable to a human bod}'." —
Dc En char. iii. 5,

20

244 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

We see then, that by transubstantiation, our Article
does not confine itself to any abstract theory, nor aim
at any definition of the word substance, nor in rejecting-
it, rejects a word, nor in denying a " mutatio panis et
vini," is denying every kind of change, but opposes
itself to a certain plain and unambiguous statement,
not of this or that council, but one generally received
or taught both in the schools and in the multitude, that
the material elements are changed into an earthly,
fleshly, and organised body, extended in size, distinct
in its part, which is there where the outward appear-
ances of bread and wine are, and only does not meet
the senses, nor even that always.

Objections against "substance," "nature," "change,"
"accidents," and the like, seem more or less questions
of words, and inadequate expressions of the great
oflFence which we find in the received Roman view of
this sacred doctrine.

In this connection it may be suitable to proceed to
notice the Explanation appended to the Communion
Service, of our kneeling at the Lord's Supper, which
requires explanation itself, more perhaps than any part
of our formularies. It runs as follows : —

"Whereas it is ordained in this office for the
Administration of the Lord's Supper, that the com-
municants should receive the same kneeling (which
order is well meant, for a signification of our humble
and grateful acknowledgment of the benefits of Christ
therein given to all worthy receivers, and for the
avoiding of such profanation and disorder in the holy
communion, as might otherwise ensue) ; yet, lest the
same kneeling should by any persons, either out of
ig-norance and infirmity, or out of malice and obstinacy,
be misconstrued and depraved, — It is hereby declared,
that thereby no adoration is intended, or ought to be
done, either unto the sacramental bread or wine there
bodily received, or unto any corporal presence of

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 245

Christ's natural flesh and blood. For the sacramental
bread and wine remain still in their very natural
substances, and therefore may not be adored (for that
were idolatry, to be abhorred of all faithful Christians) ;
and the natural body and blood of our Saviour Christ
are in heaven, and not here ; it being against the truth
of Christ's natural body to be at one time in more places
than one."

Now it may be admitted without difficulty — i. That
" no adoration ought to be done unto the sacramental
bread and wine there bodily received." 2. Nor " unto
any corporal {i.e., carnal) presence of Christ's natural
flesh and blood," 3. That "the sacramental bread
and wine remain still in their very natural substances."
4. That to adore them "were idolatry to be abhorred
of all faithful Christians"; and 5. That "the natural
body and blood of our Saviour Christ are in heaven."

But "to heaven" is added, ^'' and not here." Now,
though it be allowed that there is no " corporal pres-
ence " \i.e., carnal] of "Christ's natural flesh and
blood " here, it is a further point to allow that " Christ's
natural body and blood" are '■'•not here." And the
question is, how can there be any presence at all of His
body and blood, yet a presence such as not to be here?
How can there be -a-ny presence, yet not local?

Yet that this is the meaning of the paragraph in
question is plain, from what it goes on to say in proof
of its position : "It being against the truth of Christ's
natural body to be at one time in more places than
one." It is here asserted then — i. Generally, "no
natural body can be in more places than one" ; therefore,
2, Christ's natural body cannot be in the bread and wine,
or there where the bread and wine are seen. In other
words, there is no local presence in the Sacrament. Yet,
that there is a presence is asserted in the Homilies, as
quoted above, and the question is, as just now stated,
" How can there be a presence, yet not a local one ? "

246 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

Now, first, let it be observed, that the question to be
solved is the truth of a certain philosophical deduction,
not of a certain doctrine of Scripture. That there is
a real presence, Scripture asserts, and the Homilies,
Catechism, and Communion Service confess ; but the
explanation before us adds, that it is philosophically
impossible that it should be a particular kind of
presence, a presence of which one can say *' it is here,"
or which is "local." It states then a philosophical
deduction ; but to such deduction none of us have
subscribed. We have professed, in the words of the
Canon, "That the Book of Prayer, etc., containeth in
it nothing contrary to the Word of God.'' Now, a position
like this may not be, and is not, " contrary to the Word
of God," and yet need not be true — e.g.^ we may accept
St. Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians, as containing-
nothing contrary to Scripture, nay, as altogether most
scriptural, and yet this would not hinder us from
rejecting the account of the Phoenix — as contrary, not
to God's Word, but to matter of fact. Even the in-
fallibility of the Roman See is not considered to extend
to matters of fact or points of philosophy. Nay, we
commonly do not consider that we need take the words
of Scripture itself literally about the sun's standing still,
or the earth being fixed, or the firmament being- above.
Those at least who distinguish between what is
theological in Scripture and what is scientific, and
yet admit that Scripture is true, have no ground for
wondering at such persons as subscribe to a paragraph,
of which at the same time they disallow the philosophy;
especially considering they expressly subscribe it only
as not "contrary to the Word of God." This then is
what must be said first of all.

Next, the philosophical position is itself capable of a
very specious defence. The truth is, we do not at all
know what is meant by distance or intervals absolutely,
any more than we know what is meant by absolute
time. Late discoveries in geology have tended to make

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 247

it probable that time may under circumstances go inde-
finitely faster or slower than it does at present ; or in
other words, that indefinitely more may be accomplished
in a given portion of it. What Moses calls a day,
geologists wish to prove to be thousands of years, if
we measure time by the operations at present effected
in it. It is equally difficult to determine what we mean
by distance, or why we should not be at this moment
close to the throne of God, though we seem far from it.
Our measure of distance is our hand or our foot ; but
as an object a foot off is not called distant, though the
interval is indefinitely divisible ; neither need it be
distant either, after it has been multiplied indefinitely.
Why should any conventual measure of ours — why
should the perceptions of our eyes or our ears, be the
standard of presence or distance ? Christ may really
be close to us, though in heaven, and His presence in
the Sacrament may but be a manifestation to the wor-
shipper of that nearness, not a change of place, which
may be unnecessary. But on this subject some extracts
may be suitably made from a pamphlet published several
years since, and admitting of one or two verbal correc-
tions, which, as in the case of other similar quotations
above, shall here be made without scruple : —

*' In the note at the end of the Communion Service,
it is argued, that a body cannot be in two places at
once ; and that therefore the Body of Christ is not
locally present, in the sense in which we speak of the
bread as being locally present. On the other hand,
in the Communion Service itself, Catechism, Articles,
and Homilies, it is plainly declared, that the Body of
Christ is in a mysterious way, if not locally, yet really
present, so that we are able after some ineffable manner
to receive it. Whereas, then, the objection stands,
' Christ is not really here, because He is not locally
here,' our formularies answer, ' He is really here, yet
not locally.'

" But it mav be asked, What is the meaning of

248 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

saying- that Christ is really present, yet not locally? I
will make a suggestion on the subject. What do we
mean by being present? How do we define and
measure it? To a blind and deaf man, that only is
present which he touches : give him hearing, and the
range of things present enlarg-es ; everything is present
to him which he hears. Give him at length sight, and
the sun may be said to be present to him in the day-
time, and myriads of stars by night. The presence,
then, of a thing is a relative word, depending-, in a
popular sense of it, upon the channels of communication
between it and him to whom it is present; and thus it
is a word of degree.

" Such is the meaning- of presence, when used of
material objects; — very different from this is the con-
ception we form of the presence of spirit with spirit.
The most intimate presence we can fancy is a spiritual
presence in the soul; it is nearer to us than any material
object can possibly be ; for our body, which is the organ
of conveying to us the presence of matter, sets bounds
to its approach towards us. If, then, spiritual beings
can be brought near to us (and that they can, we know,
from what is told us of the influences of Divine grace,
and again of evil angels upon our souls), their presence
is something sui generis, of a more perfect and simple
character than any presence we commonly call local.
And further, their presence has nothing to do with the
degrees of nearness; they are either present or not
present, or, in other words, their coming is not
measured by space, nor their absence ascertained by
distance. In the case of things material, a transit
through space is the necessary condition of approach
and presence; but in things spiritual (whatever be the
condition), such a transit seems not to be a condition.
The condition is unknown. Once more: while beings
simply spiritual seem not to exist in place, the Incarnate
Son does; according to our Church's statement already
alluded to, that ' the natural body and blood of our

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 249

Saviour Christ are in heaven and not here, it being
against the truth of Christ's natural body to be at one
time in more places than one.'

"Such seems to be the mystery attending our Lord
and Saviour; He has a body, and that spirittial. He
is in place; and yet, as being a spirit. His mode of
approach — the mode in which He makes Himself
present here or there — may be, for what we know,
as different from the mode in which material bodies
approach and come, as a spiritual presence is more
perfect. As material bodies approach by moving from
place to place, so the approach and presence of a
spiritual body may be in some other way, — ^probably
is in some other way, since in some other way (as it
would appear) not gradual, progressive, approximating,
that is, locomotive, but at once, spirits become present,
— may be such as to be consistent with His remaining
on God's right hand while He becomes present here, —
that is, it may be real yet not local, or, in a word,
is mysterious. The Body and Blood of Christ may
be really, literally present in the holy Eucharist, yet
not having become present by local passage, may still
literally and really be on God's right hand; so that,
though they be present in deed and truth, it may be
impossible, it may be untrue to say that they are
literally in the elements, or abont them, or in the soul
of the receiver. These may be useful modes of speech
according to the occasion; but the true determination
of all such questions may be this, that Christ's body
and Blood are locally at God's right hand, yet really
present here, — present here, but not here in place, —
because they are spirit.

"To assist our conceptions on this subject, I would
recur to what I said just now about the presence of
material objects, by way of putting my meaning in a
different point of view. The presence of a material
object, in the popular sense of the word, is a matter
of degree, and ascertained by the means of apprehend-

250 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

ing it which belong' to him to whom it is present. It is
in some sense a correlative of the senses. A fly may be
as near an edifice as a man ; yet we do not call it
present to the fly, because it cannot see it ; and we
call it present to the man because he can. This, how-
ever, is but a popular view of the matter: when we
consider it carefully, it certainly is difficult to say what
is meant by the presence of a material object relatively
to us. It is in some respects truer to say that a thing
is present, which is so circumstanced as to act upon us
and influence us, whether we are sensible of it or not.
Now this is what the Catholic Church seems to hold
concerning our Lord's Presence in the Sacrament, that
He then personally and bodily is with us in the way
an object is which we call present: how He is so, we
know not, but that He should be so, though He be
millions of miles away, is not more inconceivable than
the influence of eyesight upon us is to a blind man.
The stars are millions of miles off^, yet they impress
ideas upon our souls through our sight. We know
but of five senses: we know not whether or not human
nature be capable of more ; we know not whether or
not the soul possesses anything analogous to them.
We know nothing to negative the notion that the soul
may be capable of having Christ present to it by the
stimulating of dormant, or the development of possible
energies.

"As sight for certain purposes annihilates space, so
other unknown capacities, bodily or spiritual, may
annihilate it for other purposes. Such a practical
annihilation was involved in the appearance of Christ
to St. Paul on his conversion. Such a practical an-
nihilation is involved in the doctrine of Christ's ascen-
sion; to speak according to the ideas of space and time
commonly received, what must have been the rapidity
of that motion by which, within ten days. He placed
our human nature at the right hand of God? Is it
more mysterious that He should ' open the heavens,' to

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 251

use the Scripture phrase, in the sacramental rite; that
He should then dispense with time and space, in the
sense in which they are daily dispensed with, in the
sun's warming- us at the distance of 100,000,000 of
miles, than that He should have dispensed with them
on occasion of His ascending- on high? He who showed
what the passage of an incorruptible body was ere it
had reached God's throne, thereby suggests to us what
may be its coming back and presence with us now,
when at length glorified and become a spirit.

" In answer, then, to the problem, ho7o Christ comes
to us while remaining on high, I answer just as much
as this, — that He comes by the agency of the Holy
Ghost, m and by the Sacrament. Locomotion is the
means of a matefial Presence; the Sacrament is the
means of His spiritual Presence. As faith is the means
of our receiving It, so the Holy Ghost is the Agent and
the Sacrament the means of His imparting It; and
therefore we call It a Sacramental Presence. We kneel
before His heavenly Throne, and the distance is as
nothing: it is as if that Throne were the Altar close
to us.

" Let it be carefully observed that I am not proving
or determining anything ; I am only showing how it is
that certain propositions which at first sight seem
contradictions in terms, are not so, — I am but pointing
out one w'ay of reconciling them. If there is but one
way assignable, the force of all antecedent objection
against the possibility of any at all is removed, and
then of course there may be other ways supposable
though not assignable. It seems at first sight a mere
idle use of words to say that Christ is really and
literally, yet not locally, present in the Sacrament; that
He is there given to us, not in figure but in truth, and
yet is still only on the right hand of God. I have
wished to remove this seeming impossibility.

"If it be asked, why attempt to remove it, I answer
that I have no wish to do so, if persons will not urge it

252 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

ag'ainst the Catholic doctrine. Men maintain it as an
impossibiHty, a contradiction in terms, and force a
believer in it to say why it should not be so accounted.
And then when he g-ives a reason, they turn round and
accuse him of subtleties, and refinements, and scholastic
trifling^. Let them but believe and act on the truth that
the consecrated bread is Christ's body, as He says, and
no officious comment on His words will be attempted
by any well-judging mind. But when they say ' this
cannot be literally true, because it is impossible'; then
they force those who think it is literally true, to explain
how, according to their notions, it is not impossible.
And those who ask hard questions must put up with
hard answers."

There is nothing, then, in the Explanatory Para-
graph which has given rise to these remarks, to interfere
with the doctrine elsewhere taught in our formularies,
of a real super-local presence in the Holy Sacrament.

§ 9. — Masses.

Article xxxi. — " The sacrifice (sacrificia) of Masses,
in the which it was commonly said, that the priest did
offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remis-
sion of pain or guilt, were blasphemous fables and
dangerous deceits (perniciosse imposturae)."

Nothing can show more clearly than this passage
that the Articles are not written against the creed of
the Roman Church, but against actual existing errors
in it, whether taken into its system or not. Here the
sacrifice of the Mass is not spoken of, in which the
special question of doctrine would be introduced ; but
"the sacrifice of M^asscs,'' certain observances, for the
most part private and solitary, which the writers of the
Articles knew to have been in force in time past, and
saw before their eyes, and which involved certain
opinions and a certain teaching. Accordingly the

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 253

passage proceeds, "in which it ii'us co7fimofi/y said";
which surely is a strictly historical mode of speaking.

If any testimony is necessary in aid of what is so
plain from the wording of the Article itself, it is found
in the drift of the following passage from Burnet : —

" It were easy from all the rituals of the ancients to show,
that they had none of those ideas that are now in the Roman
Church. They had but one altar in a Church, and probably but
one in a city: they had but one communion in a day at that
altar: so far were they from the many altars in every church,
and //le many masses at every altar, that are now in the Roman
Church. They did not know what solitary 7)iasses were, without
a communion. All the liturgies and all the writings of ancients
are as express in this matter as is possible. The whole con-
stitution of their worship and discipline shows it. Their
worship always concluded with the Eucharist: such as were not
capable of it, as the catechumens, and those who were doing
public penance for their sins, assisted at the more general parts
of the worship ; and so much of it was called their mass,
because they were dismissed at the conclusion of it. When
that was done, then the faithful stayed, and did partake of the
Eucharist; and at the conclusion of it they were likewise dis-
missed, from whence it came to be called the mass of the
faithful."— ^^/;/-«^/ c>;/ tiie XXXIst Article, p. 482.

These sacrifices are said to be " blasphemous fables
and pernicious impostures." Now the "blasphemous
fable " is the teaching that there is a sacrifice for sin
other than Christ's death, and that masses are that
sacrifice. And the "pernicious imposture" is the
turning this belief into a means of filthy lucre.

I. That the "blasphemous fable" is the teaching
that masses are sacrifices for sin distinct from the
sacrifice of Christ's death, is plain from the first
sentence of the Article. "The offering of Christ oiicc
made, is that perfect redemption, propitiation, and
satisfaction for all the sins of the ivliole world, both
original and achial. And t/iere is none other satisfaction
for sin, but t/iat alone. Wherefore the sacrifice of

254 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

masses, etc." It is observable too that the heading' of
the Article runs, " Of the one oblation of Christ
finished upon the Cross," which interprets the drift of
the statement contained in it about masses.

Our Communion Service shows it also, in which the
prayer of consecration commences pointedly with a
declaration, which has the force of a protest, that
Christ made on the cross, "by His one oblation of
Himself once offered, a fnll, perfect^ and sufficient
sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the
whole world."

And again in the offering of the sacrifice: "We
entirely desire thy fatherly goodness mercifully to
accept our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, most
humbly beseeching Thee to grant that hy the vierits mid
death of Thy Son fesns Christ, and through faith in His
blood, we and all Thy whole Church may obtain remis-
sion of our sins and all other benefits of His passion."

[And in the notice of the celebration: " I purpose,
through God's assistance, to administer to all such as
shall be religiously and devoutly disposed, the most
comfortable Sacrament of the Body and Blood of
Christ ; to be by them received in remembrance of His
meritorious Cross and Passion ; ivhercby alone we
obtain remission of our sins, and are made partakers
of the kingdom of heaven."]

But the popular charge still urged against the Roman
system, as introducing in the Mass a second or rather
continually recurring atonement, is a sufficient illustra-
tion, without further quotations, of this part of the
Article.

2. That the "blasphemous and pernicious imposture"
is the turning the Mass into a gain, is plain from such
passages as the following : —

" With what earnestness, with what vehement zeal, did our
Saviour Christ drive the buyers and sellers out of the temple of
God, and hurled down the tables of the changers of money, and

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 255

the seats of the dove-sellers, and could not abide that a man
should carry a vessel through the temple. He told them, that
they had made His Father's house a den of thieves, partly
through their superstition, hypocrisy, false worship, false
doctrine, and insatiable covetousness, and partly through con-
tempt, abusing that place with walking and talking, with
worldly matters, without all fear of God, and due reverence to
that place. What dens of thieves the Churches of England
have been made by the blasphemous buying and selling the
most precious body and blood of Christ in the Mass, as the world
was made to believe, at dirges, at months minds, at trentalls, in
abbeys and chantries, besides other horrible abuses (God's holy
name be blessed for ever), which we now see and understand.
All these abominations they that supply the room of Christ
have cleansed and purged the Churches of England of, taking
away all such fulsomeness and filthiness, as through blind
devotion and ignorance hath crept into the Church these many
hundred years." — 0?t Repairing and Keeiing Clean of Churches,
pp. 229, 230.

Other passag-es are as follow : —

" Have not the Christians of late days, and even in our days
also, in like manner provoked the displeasure and indignation
of Almighty God ; partly because they have profaned and
defiled their Churches with heathenish and Jewish abuses, with
images and idols, with numbers of altars, too superstitiously
and intolerably abused, with gross abusing and filthy corrupting
of the Lord's holy Supper, the blessed sacrament of His body
and blood, with an infinite number of toys and trifles of their
own devices, to make a goodly outward show, and to deface the
homely, simple, and sincere religion of Christ Jesus; partly,
they resort to the Church like hypocrites, full of all iniquity and
sinful life, having a vain and dangerous fancy and persuasion,
that if they come to the Church, besprinkle them with holy
water, hear a mass, and be blessed with a chalice, though they
understand not one word of the whole service, nor feel one
motion of repentance in their heart, all is well, all is sure?" —
On the Place and Time of Prayer, p. 293.

Again —

"What hath been the cause of this gross idolatry, but the
ignorance hereof.'' What hath been the cause of this munimish

256 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

massing^ but the ignorance hereof? Yea, what hath been, and
what is at this day the cause of this want of love and charity,
but the ignorance hereof? Let us therefore so travel to under-
stand the Lord's Supper, that we be no cause of the decay of
God's worship, of no idolatry, of no dumb massing^ of no hate
and malice; so may we the bolder have access thither to our
comfort." — Honily coticerniiig the Sacrament^ pp. 377, 378.

To the same purpo.se is the following passage from
Bishop Bull's Sermons : —

"It were easy to show how the whole frame of religion and
doctrine of the Church of Rome, as it is distinguished from that
Christianity which we hold in common with them, is evidently
designed and contrived to serve the interest and p7-oJit of them
that rule the Church, by the disservices, yea, and ruin of those
souls that are under their government. . . . What can the
doctrine of men's playing an aftergame for their salvation in
purgatory be designed for, but to enhance the price of the pries fs
masses and dirges for the dead ? Why must a solitary mass,
bought for a piece of money ^ performed and participated by a
priest alone, in a private corner of a church, be, not only against
the sense of Scripture and the Primitive Church, but also against
common sense and grammar, called a Communion, and be
accounted useful to him that iDuys it, though he never himself
receive the sacrament, or but once a year; but for this reason,
that there is great gain ^ but no godliness at all, in this doctrine?"
— Bp. Bull's Sermons, p. 10.

And Burnet says—

"Without going far in tragical expressions, we cannot hold
saying what our Saviour said upon another occasion, ' My house
is a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.' A
trade was set up on this foundation. The world was made
believe, that by the virtue of so many masses, which 7uere to he
purchased by great endowments, souls were redeemed out of
purgatory, and scenes of visions and apparitions, sometimes of
the tormented, and sometimes of the delivered souls, were pub-
lished in all places: which had so wonderful an effect, that in
two or three centuries, e7idowments increased to so vast a
degree, that if the scandals of the clergy on the one hand, and
the statutes of mortmain on the other, had not restrained the

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 257

profuseness that the world was wrought up to on this account,
it is not easy to imagine how far this might have gone; perhaps
to an entire subjecting of the temporahty to the spirituaHty.
The practices by which this was managed, and the effects that
followed on it, we can call by no other name than downright
impostures; worse than the making or vending false coin :
when the world was drawn in by such arts to plain bargains, to
redeevi their own souls, and the souls of their ancestors and
posterity, so inatiy masses were to be said, and forfeitures were
to follow upon their not being said: thus the masses were really
the price of the lands." — On Article XXII., pp. 303, 304.

The truth of these representations cannot be better
shown than by extracting the following- passage from
the Session 22 of the Council of Trent : —

" Whereas many things appear to have crept in heretofore,
whether by the fault of the times or by the neglect and wicked-
ness of men, foreign to the dignity of so great a sacrifice, in
order that it may regain its due honour and observance, to the
glory of God and the edification of His faithful people, the Holy
Council decrees that the bishops, ordinaries of each place,
diligently take care and be bound to forbid and put an end to
all those things, which either avarice, which is idolatry, or
irreverence, which is scarcely separable from impiety, or super-
stition, the pretence of true piety, has introduced. And to say
much in a few words, first of all, as to avarice, let them alto-
gether forbid agreements, and bargains of payuient of whatever
kind, and whatever is given for celebrating new masses; more-
over importunate and mean extortion, rather than petition of
alms, and such-like practices, which border on simoniacal sin,
certainly on filthy lucre. . . . And let them banish from the
church those musical practices, when with the organ or with the
chant anything lascivious or impure is mingled; also all secular
practices, vain and therefore profane conversations, promenad-
ings, bustle, clamour; so that the house of God may truly seem
and be called the house of prayer. Lastly, lest any opening be
given to superstition, let them provide by edict and punishments
appointed, that the priests celebrate it at no other than the due
hours, nor use rites or ceremonies and prayers in the celebration
of masses, other than those which have been approved by the
Church, and received on frequent and laudable use. And let
them altogether remove from the Church a set number of certain

258 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

masses and candles, which has proceeded rather from super-
stitious observance than from true rehgion, and teach the people
in what consists, and from whom, above all, proceeds the so
precious and heavenly fruit of this most holy sacrifice. And let
them admonish the same people to come frequently to their
parish churches, at least on Sundays and the greater feasts,"
etc.

On the whole, then, it is conceived that the Article
before us neither speaks against the Mass in itself, nor
against its being [an offering, though commemorative]^
for the quick and the dead for the remission of sin
[(especially since the decree of Trent says that "the
fruits of the Bloody Oblation are through this most
abundantly obtained ; so far is the latter from detracting
in any way from the former)]; but against its being
viewed, on the one hand, as independent of or distinct
from the Sacrifice on the Cross, which is blasphemy;
and, on the other, its being directed to the emolument
of those to whom it pertains to celebrate it, which is
imposture in addition.

^ \o.— Marriage oj Clergy.

Article xxxii, " Bishops, Priests, and Deacons are
not commanded by God's law either to vow the estate
of single life, or to abstain from marriage,"

There is literally no subject for controversy in these
words, since even the most determined advocates of the
celibacy of the clergy admit their truth. [As far as
clerical celibacy is a duty, it] is grounded not on God's
law, but on the Church's rule, or on vow. No one, for
instance, can question the vehement zeal of St. Jerome
in behalf of this observance, yet he makes the following
admission in his attack upon Jovinian: —

^ " An offerins f<'r the quick," etc. — First edition.

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 259

"Jovinian says, ' You speak in vain, since the Apostle ap-
pointed Bishops and Presbyters, and Deacons, the husbands of
one wife, and having children.' But, as the Apostle says, that
he has not a precept concerning virgins, yet gives a counsel, as
having received mercy of the Lord, and urges throughout that
discourse a preference of virginity to marriage, and advises wliat
he does not command, lest he seem to cast a snare, and to impose
a burden too great for man's nature; so also, in ecclesiastical
order, seeing that an infant Church was then forming out of the
Gentiles, he gives the lighter precepts to recent converts, lest
they should fail under them through fear." — Adv. Jovinian^
i. 34.

And the Council of Trent merely lays down —

" If any shall say that clerks in holy orders, or regulars, who
have solemnly professed chastity, can contract matrimony, and
that the contract is valid in spite of ecclesiastical lazu or vow, let
him be anathema." — Sess. 24, Can. 9.

Here the observance is placed simply upon rule of the
Church or upon vow, neither of which exists in the
English Church; "therefore," as the Article logically
proceeds, " it is lawful for them, as for all other Chris-
tian men, to marry at their own discretion, as they shall
judge the same to serve better to godliness." Our
Church leaves the discretion with the clergy; and most
persons will allow that, under our circitnistances, she
acts wisely in doing so. That she has poiver, did she
so choose, to take from them this discretion, and to
oblige them either to marriage [(as is said to be the case
as regards the parish priests of the Greek Church)] or
to celibacy, would seem to be involved in the doctrine
of the following extract from the Homilies; though,
whether an enforcement either of the one or the other
rule would be expedient and pious, is another matter.
Speaking of fasting, the Homily says —

"God's Church ought not, neither may it, be so tied to that or
any other order now made, or hereafter to be made and devised

21

26o THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

by the authority of man, but that // may linvfuU}\ for just causes,
alter, change, or niilii^ate those ecclesiastical decrees and orders,
yea, recede wholly from them, and break them, when they tend
either to superstition or to impiety; when they draw the people
from God rather than work any edification in them. This
authority Christ Himself used, and left it to his Church. He
used it, I say, for the order or decree made by the elders for
washing ofttimes, which was diligently observed of the Jews;
yet tending to superstition, our Saviour Christ altered and
changed the same in His Church into a profitable sacrament,
the sacrament of our regeneration, or new birth. This authority
to mitigate laws and decrees ecclesiastical, the Apostles prac-
tised, when they, writing from Jerusalem unto the congregation
that was at Antioch, signified unto them that they would not
lay any further burden upon them but these necessaries :
that is, ' that they should abstain from things offered unto idols,
from blood, from that which is strangled, and from fornication';
notwithstanding that Moses's law required many other ob-
servances. This authority to change the orders, decrees, and
constitutions of the Church was, after the Apostles' time, used
of the fathers about the manner of fasting, as it appeareth in the
Tripartite History. . . . Thus ye have heard, good people, first,
that Christian subjects are bound even in conscience to obey
princes' laws, which are not repugnant to the laws of God. Ye
have also heard that Christ's Church is not so bound to observe
any order, law, or decree made by man, to prescribe a form in
religion, but that the Church hath full power and authority from
God to change and alter the same, when need shall require;
which hath been showed you by the e.xample of our Saviour
Christ, by the practice of the Apostles, and of the fathers since
that time." — Hoviily on Fasting, pp. 242-244.

To the same effect the 34th Article declares, that —

" It is not necessary that traditions and ceremonies be ui all
places one, and utterly like; for at all times they have been
divers, and may be cha7iged a.ccord\v\g io diversities of countries,
times, and men's manners, so that nothing be ordained against
God's Word. Whosoever, through his private Judgment, will-
ingly and purposely doth openly break the traditions and cere-
monies of the Church, which be not repugnant to the Word of
God, and be ordained and approved by common authority,
ought to be rebuked openly." — Article XXXIV.

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 261

§ II. — The Homilies.

Art. XXXV. — "The second Book of Homilies doth
contain a godly and wholesome doctrine, and necessary
for these times, as doth the former Book of Homilies."

This Article has been treated of in No. 82 of these
Tracts, in the course of an answer given to an op-
ponent, who accused its author of not fairly receiving
the Homilies, because he dissented from their doctrine,
that the Bishop of Rome is Antichrist, and that re-
generation was vouchsafed under the law. The
passage of the Tract shall here be inserted, with some
abridgment.

" I say plainly, then, I have not subscribed the Homi-
lies, nor was it ever intended that any member of the
English Church should be subjected to what, if con-
sidered as an extended confession, would indeed be a
yoke of bondage. Romanism surely is innocent, com-
pared with that system which should impose upon the
conscience a thick octavo volume, written flowingly and
freely by fallible men, to be received exactly, sentence
by sentence : 1 cannot conceive any grosser instance of
a Pharisaical tradition than this would be. No: such a
proceeding would render it impossible (I would say) for
any one member, lay or clerical, of the Church to remain
in it, who was subjected to such an ordeal. For in-
stance: I do not suppose that any reader would be
satisfied with the political reasons for fasting, though
indirectly introduced, yet fully admitted and dwelt upon
in the Homily on that subject. He would not like to
subscribe the declaration that eating fish was a duty,
not only as being a kind of fasting, but as making
provisions cheap, and encouraging the fisheries. He
would not like the association of religion with earthly
politics.

" How, then, are we bound to the Homilies? By the
Thirty-fifth Article, which speaks as follows: — 'The

262 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

second Book of Homilies . . . doth contain a godly and
wholesome doctrine, and necessary for these times, as
doth the former Book of Ho7nilies.^ Now, observe, this
Article does not speak of every statement made in them,
but of the 'doctrine.' It speaks of the view or cast or
body of doctrine contained in them. In spite of ten
thousand incidental propositions, as in any large book,
there is, it is obvious, a certain line of doctrine, which
may be contemplated continuously in its shape and
direction. For instance: if you say you disapprove the
doctrine contained in the Tracts for the Times, no one
supposes you to mean that every sentence and half-
sentence is a lie. I say then, that in like manner, when
the Article speaks of the doctrine of the Homilies, it
does not measure the letter of them by the inch, it does
not imply that they contain no propositions which admit
of two opinions; but it speaks of a certain determinate
line of doctrine, and moreover adds, it is ' necessary for
tJiese tivies.^ Does not this, too, show the same thing?
If a man said, the Tracts for the Times are seasonable at
this moment, as their title signifies, would he not speak
of them as taking a certain line, and bearing in a certain
way? Would he not be speaking, not of phrases or
sentences, but of a ' doctrine ' in them tending one way,
viewed as a whole? Would he be inconsistent, if after
praising them as seasonable, he continued, ' yet I do not
pledge myself to every view or sentiment ; there are
some things in them hard of digestion, or overstated,
or doubtful, or subtle?'

" If anything could add to the irrelevancy of the
charge in question, it is the particular point in which it
is urged that I dissent from the Homilies — a question
concerning the fulfilment of prophecy; viz., whether
Papal Rome is Antichrist! An iron yoke indeed you
would forge for the conscience, when you oblige us to
assent, not only to all matters of doctrine which the
Homilies contain, but even to their opinion concerning
the fulfilment of prophecy. Why, we do not ascribe

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 263

authority in such matters even to the unanimous con-
sent of all the fathers.

" I will put what I have been saying in a second point
of view. The Homilies are subsidiary to the Articles;
therefore they are of authority so far as they bring out
the sense of the Articles, and are not of authority where
they do not. For instance, they say that David, though
unbaptised, was regenerated, as you have quoted. This
statement cannot be of authority, because it not only
does not agree, but it even disagrees, with the ninth
Article, which translates the Latin word ' renatis ' by
the English 'baptised.' But, observe, if this mode of
viewing the Homilies be taken, as it fairly may, you
suffer from it; for the Apocrypha, being the subject of an
Article, the comment furnished in the Homily is binding
on you, whereas you reject it.

"A further remark will bring us to the same point.
Another test of acquiescence in the doctrine of the Homi-
lies is this: — Take their table of contents; examine the
headings; these surely, taken together, will give the
substance of their teaching. Now I hold fully and
heartily the doctrine of the Homilies, under every one
of these headings: the only points to which I should
not accede, nor think myself called upon to accede,
would be certain matters, subordinate to the doctrines
to which the headings refer — matters not of doctrine,
but of opinion, as, that Rome is the Antichrist; or of
historical fact, as, that there was a Pope Joan. But
now, on the other hand, can^'o/^ subscribe the doctrine
of the Homilies under every one of its formal headings ?
I believe you cannot. The Homily against Disobedience
and Wilful Rebellion is, in many of its elementary
principles, decidedly uncongenial with your sentiments."

This illustration of the subject may be thought
enough; yet it may be allowable to add from the Homi-
lies a number of propositions and statements of more or
less importance, which are too much forgotten at this
day, and are decidedly opposed to the views of certain

264 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

schools of religion, which at the present moment are so
eager in claiming the Homilies to themselves. This is
not done, as the extract already read will show, with the
intention of maintaining that they are one and all binding
on the conscience of those who subscribe the Thirty-fifth
Article; but since the strong language of the Homilies
against the Bishop of Rome is often quoted, as if it
were thus proved to be the doctrine of our Church, it
may be as well to show that, following the same rule,
we shall be also introducing Catholic doctrines, which
indeed it far more belongs to a Church to profess than a
certain view of prophecy, but which do not approve
themselves to those who hold it. For instance, we read
as follows: —

1. "The great clerk and godly preacher, St. John
Chrysostom." — i B. i. i. And, in like manner, mention
is made elsewhere of St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, St.
Hilary, St. Basil, St. Cyprian, St. Hierome, St. Martin,
Origen, Prosper, Ecumenius, Photius, Bernardus,
Anselm, Didymus, Theophylactus, Tertullian, Athana-
sius, Lactantius, Cyrillus, Epiphanius, Gregory,
Irenaeus, Clemens, Rabanus, Isidorus, Eusebius,
Justinus Martvr, Optatus, Eusebius Emissenus, and
Bede.

2. " Infants, being baptised, and dying in their in-
fancy, are by this Sacrifice washed from their sins . . .
and they, which in act or deed do sin after this
baptism, when they turn to God unfeignedly, they
are likewise washed by this Sacrifice," etc. — i B. iii. i.
init.

3. *' Our office is, not to pass the time of this present
life unfruitfully and idly, after that we are baptised or
justified," etc. — i B. iii. 3.

4. " By holy promises we be made lively members ot
Christ, receiving the sacrament of Baptism. By like
holy promises the sacrament of Matrimony knitteth man
and wife in perpetual love." — i B. vii. i.

5. " Let us learn also here [in the Book of Wisdom]

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 265

by the infallible and luideceivable Word of God, that,"
etc. — I B. X. I.

6. "The due receiving of His blessed Body and
Blood, under the forrn of bread and wine." — N'ote at end
ofB. i.

7. '* In the Primitive Church, which 7vas most holy and
godly . . . open offenders were not suffered once to
enter into the house of the Lord . . . until they had
done open penance . . . but this was practised, not
only upon mean persons, but also upon the rich, noble,
and mighty persons, yea, upon Theodosius, that pnissant
and mighty Emperor , whom . . . St. Ambrose . . . did
. . . excommunicate." — 2 B. i. 2.

8. " Open offenders were not . . . admitted to
common praver, and the use of the holv sacraynents." —
Ibid.

9. " Let us amend this our negligence and contempt
in coming to the house of the Lord; and resorting
thither diligently together, let us there . . . celebrating
also reverently the Lord's holy sacraments, serve the
Lord in His holy house." — Ibid. 5.

10. " Contrary to the . . . most manifest doctrine of
the Scriptures, and contrary to the usages of the Primi-
tive Church, ivhich ivas most pure and nncorrupt, and
contrary to the sentences and judgments of the most
ancient, learned, and godly doctors of the Church." — 2
B. ii. I. init.

11. " This truth . . . was believed and taught by the
old holy fathers, and most ancient learned doctors, and re-
ceived by the old Primitive Church, which was most un-
corrupt and pure.'' — 2 B. ii. 2. init.

12. " Athanasius, a very ancient, holy, and learned
bishop and doctor." — Ibid.

13. '* Cyrillus, an old and holy doctor." — Ibid.

14. Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamine, in Cyprus, a
very holy and learned man." — Ibid.

15. "To whose (Epiphanius's) judgment you have
... all the learned and godly bishops and clerks, yea.

266 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

and the whole Church of that age" [the Nicene], "and
so upward to our Saviour Christ's time, by the space of
about four hundred years, consenting and agreeing-." —
Ibid.

i6. " Epiphanius, a bishop and doctor of such
antiquity, holiness, and authority." — Ibid.

17. "St. Augustine, the best learned of all ancient
doctors."— /o'/V/.

18. "That ye may know why and when, and by
whom images were first used privately, and afterwards
not only received into Christian churches and temples,
but, in seclusion, worshipped also; and how the same
was gainsaid, resisted, and forbidden, as well by godly
bishops and learned doctors, as also by sundry Christian
princes, I will briefly collect," etc. [The bishops and
doctors which follow are]: "St. Jerome, Serenus,
Gregory, the Fathers of the Council of Eliberis."

19. " Constantine, Bishop of Rome, assembled a
Council of bishops of the West, and did condemn
Philippicus, the Emperor, and John, Bishop of Con-
stantinople, of the heresy of the Monothelites, not with-
out a cause indeed, but very justly.'' — Ibid.

20. "Those six Councils, which tvere allowed a7id re-
ceived of all men.'" — Ibid.

21. "There were no images publicly by the space of
almost seven hundred years. And there is no doubt but
the Primitive Church, next the Apostles' times, was
most pure.'' — Ibid.

22. " Let us beseech God that we, being warned by
His holy Word . . . and by the writings of old godly
doctors and ecclesiastical histories," etc. — Ibid.

23. " It shall be declared, both by God's Word, and
the sentences of the ancient doctors, and judgment of the
Primitive Church," etc. — 2 B. ii. 3.

24. "Saints, whose souls reign in joy with God." —
Ibid.

25. "That the law of God is likewise to be under-
stood against all our images . . . appeareth further by

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 267

the judgment of the old doctors and the Primitive
Church." — Ibid.

26. "The Primitive Church, which is specially to be
followed, as most incorrupt and pure."^ — Ibid.

27. "Thus it is declared by God's Word, the sen-
tences of the doctors, and \}c\q. judgment of the Primitive
Church."— /dz^.

28. " The rude people, who specially, as the Scripture
teacheth, are in danger of superstition and idolatry;
viz.. Wisdom xiii. xiv." — Ibid.

29. "They [the 'learned and holy bishops and
doctors of the Church ' of the eight first centuries] were
the preaching bishops. . . . And as they were most
zealous and diligent, so were they of excellent learning
and godliness of life, and by both of great authority and
credit with the people." — Ibid.

30. "The most virtuous and best learned, the most
diligent also, and in number almost infinite, ancient
fathers, bishops, and doctors . . . could do nothing
against images and idolatry." — Ibid.

31. " As the Word of God testifieth. Wisdom xiv." —
Ibid.

32. "The saints, wow reigning in heaven with God."
—Ibid.

33. "The fountain of our regeneration is there [in
God's house] presented unto us." — 2 B. iii.

36. " Somewhat shall now be spoken of one particu-
lar good work, whose commendation is both in the Law
and in the Gospel [fasting]," — 2 B. iv. i.

37. " If any man shall say . . . we are not now
under the yoke of the Law, we are set at liberty by the
freedom of the Gospel: therefore these rites and customs
of the old law bind not us, except it can be showed by
the Scriptures of the New Testament, or by examples
out of the same, that fasting, now under the Gospel,
is a restraint of meaty drink, and all bodily food and
pleasures from the body, as before : first, that we ought
to fast, is a trutli more manifest, then it should here need

268 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

to be proved. . . . Fasting, even by Christ's assent, is a
withholding- meat, drink, and all natural food from the
body," etc. — /bid.

38. "That it [fasting] was used in the Primitive
Church, appeareth most evidently by the Chalcedon
Council, one of the Jirst four general cou?ici/s. The
fathers assembled there . . . decreed in that council,
that every person, as well in his private as public fast,
should continue all the day without meat and drink, till
after the evening prayer, . . . This Canon teacheth
how fasting was used in the Primitive Church." — Ibid.
[The Council was a.d. 452.]

39. " Fasting, then, by the decree of those 630 fathers,
grounding their determinations in this matter upon the
sacred Scriptures . . . is a withholding of meat, drink,
and all natural food from the body, for the determined
time of fasting." — Ibid.

40. "The order or decree made by the elders for
washing ofttimes, tending to superstition, our Saviour
Christ altered and changed the same in His Church,
into a profitable sacrament, the sacrament of our re-
generation or ncii) birth.''' — 2 B. iv. 2.

41. "Fasting thus used with prayer is oi great efficacy ,
and weigheth much with God, so the angel Raphael told
Tobias. " — Ibid.

42. "As he" [St. Augustine] " witnesseth in another
place, the martyrs and holy men in times past, were
wont after their death to be remembered and named of
the priest at divine service ; but never to be invocated
or called upon." — 2 B. vii. 2.

43. " Thus you see that the authority both of Scripture
and also of Augustine, doth not admit that we should
pray to them." — Ibid.

44. " To temples have the Christians customably used
to resort from time to time as to most meet places,
where they might . . . receive His holy sacra-
ments ministered unto them dul}' and purely." — 2 B.
viii. I.

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 269

45. "The which thing both Christ and His apostles,
with all the rest of the holy fathers, do sufficiently declare
^o:'—Ibid.

46. "Our ^o6\y predecessors, and the ajicient fathers
of the Primitive Church, spared not their goods to build
churches." — Ibid.

47. " If we will show ourselves true Christians, if we
will be followers of Christ our Master, and of those
godly fathers that have lived before us, and now have
received the reward of true and faithful Christians," etc.
—Ibid.

48. " We must . . . come unto the material churches
and temples to pray . . . whereby we may reconcile
ourselves to God, be partakers of His holy sacraments,
and be devout hearers of His holy Word," etc. — Ibid.

49. " It [ordination] lacks the promise of remission of
sin, as all other sacraments besides the two above
named do. Therefore neither it, nor any other sacra-
ment else, be such sacraments as Baptism and the
Communion are." — 2 Honi. ix.

50. " Thus we are taught, both by the Scriptures and
ancient doctors, that," etc. — Ibid.

51. "The holy apostles and disciples of Christ, . . .
the godly fathers also, that were both before and since
Christ, endued ivithout doubt with the Holy GJiost, . . .
they both do most earnestly exhort us, etc. . , . that
we should remember the poor. ... St. Paul crieth unto
us after this sort. . . . Isaiah the Prophet teaches us on
this wise. . . . And the holy father Tobit giveth this
counsel. And the learned and godly doctor Chrysostom
giveth this admonition. . . , But what mean these often
admonitions and earnest exhortations of the prophets,
apostles, fathers, and holy doctors?" — 2 B. xi. i.

52. " The holy fathers. Job and Tobit." — Ibid.

53. "Christ, whose especial y«^w<r we may be assured
by this means to obtain" [viz., by almsgiving]. — 2 B.
xi. 2.

54. " Now will I . . . show unto you how profitable

2 70 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

it is for us to exercise them [alms-deeds] . . . [Christ's
saying] serveth to . . . prick us forwards ... to learn
• . . how we may recover our health, if it be lost or im-
paired, and how it may be defended and maintained if
we have it. Yea, He teacheth us also therefore to
esteem that as a precious medicine and an inestiviahle
jewel, that hath such strength and virtue in it, that can
either procure or preserve so incomparable a treasure."
—Ibid.

55. "Then He and His disciples were grievously
accused of the Pharisees, . . . because they went to
meat and washed not their hands before. . . . Christ,
answering their superstitious complaint, teacheth them
an especial reinedy how to keep clean their souls. . . .
Give alms," etc. — Ibid.

56. "Merciful alms-dealing is profitable to pui'gc ihQ
soul from the infection and filthy spots of sin.'' — Ibid.

57. " The same lesson doth the Holy Ghost teach in
sundry places of the Scripture, saying, ' Mercifulness
and alms-giving,' etc. [Tobit iv.]. . . . The wise
preacher, the son of Sirach, confirmeth the same, when
he savs, that ' as water quencheth burning fire,' " etc. —
Ibid. '

58. " A great confidence may they have before the high
God, that show mercy and compassion to them that are
afflicted." — Ibid.

59. "If ye have by any infirmity or weakness been
touched or annoyed with them . . . straightway shall
mercifulness wipe and wash them away, as salves and
remedies to heal their sores and grievous diseases." —
Ibid.

60. "And therefore that holy father Cyprian ad-
monisheth to consider "how wholesome And profitable it is
to relieve the needy, etc. ... by the which we may
purge our sins and heal our ^founded souls." — Ibid.

61. " We be therefore washed in our baptism from the
filthiness of sin, that we should live afterwards in the

pureness of life." — 2 B. xiii. i.

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 271

62. " By these means [by love, compassion, etc.]
shall we 7nove God to be viercifuL to our sins." — Ibid.

63. "'He was dead,' saith St. Paul, 'for our sins,
and rose ag"ain for our justification.' . . . He died to
destroy the rule of the devil in us, and He rose again to
send down His Holy Spirit to rule in our hearts^ to
[endow] us with perfect righteousness." — 2 B. xiv.

64. "The ancient CatJwUc Fathers" [in marg.]
Irenaeus, Ignatius, Dionysius, Origen, Optatus,
Cyprian, Athanasius, ..." were not afraid to call this
supper, some of them, the salve of iinnwrlality and
sovereign preservative against death; other, the sweet
dainties of our Saviour, the pledge of eternal health, the
defence of faith, the hope of the resurrection ; other, the

food of immortality, the healthful grace, and the con-
servatory to everlasting life." — 2 B. xv. i.

65. "The meat we seek in this supper is spiritual
food, the nourishment of our soul, a heavenly refection,
and not earthly; an invisible meat, and not bodily; a
ghostly substance, and not carnal."— /62V/.

66. "Take this lesson ... of Emissenus, a godly
father, that . . . thou look up with faith upon the holy
body, and blood of thy God, thou marvel with reverence,
thou toucli it with thy mind, thou receive it with the
hand of thy heart, and thou take it fully with thy inward
man." — Ibid.

67. "The saying of the holy martyr of God, St.
Cyprian." — 2 B. xx. 3.

Thus we see the authority of the fathers, of the first
six councils, and of the judgments of the Church
generally, the holiness of the Primitive Church, the
inspiration of the Apocrypha, the sacramental character
of Marriage, and other ordinances, the Real Presence in
the Eucharist, the Church's power of excommunicating
kings, the profitableness of fasting, the propitiatory
virtue of good works, the Eucharistic commemoration,
and justification by a righteousness [within us],^ are

' " Uy inhtrenl righteousness." — First edilioit.

272 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

taught in the HomiUes. Let it be said ag-ain, it is not
here asserted that a subscription to all and every of
these quotations is involved in the subscription of an
Article which does but g-enerally approve the Homilies:
but they who insist so strongly on our Church's holding
that the Bishop of Rome is Antichrist because the
Homilies declare it, should recollect that there are other
doctrines contained in them beside it, which they [them-
selves] should be understood to hold, before their argu-
ment has the force of consistency.

§ 12. — T}ie Bishop of Rome.

Article xxxviii. — "The Bishop of Rome hath no
jurisdiction in this realm of England."

By " hath " is meant " ought to have," as the Article
in the 36th Canon and the Oath of Supremacy show, in
which the same doctrine is drawn out more at length.
"No foreign prince, person, prelate, state, or poten-
tate hath, or ought to have, anj' jurisdiction, power,
superiority, pre-eminence, or authority, ecclesiastical or
spiritual, within this realm."

This is the profession which every one must in con-
sistency make, who does not join the Roman Church.
If the Bishop of Rome has jurisdiction and authority
here, why do we not acknowledge it, and submit to
him? To say then the above words, is nothing more
or less than to say "I am not a Roman Catholic";
and whatever reasons there are against saying them,
are so far reasons against remaining in the English
Church. They are a mere enunciation of the principle
of Anglicanism.

Anglicans maintain that the supremacy of the Pope is
not directly from revelation, but an event in Providence.
All things may be undone by the agents and causes by
which they are done. What revelation gives, revela-
tion takes away; what Providence gives. Providence

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 273

takes away. God ordained by miracle, He reversed by
miracle, the Jewish election; He promoted in the way
of Providence, and He cast down by the same way
the Roman Empire. "The powers that be, are or-
dained of God," -ivhilc they be, and have a claim on our
obedience. When they cease to be, they cease to have
a claim. They cease to be, when God removes them.
He may be considered to remove them when He undoes
what He had done. The Jewish election did not cease
to be, when the Jews went into captivity; this was an
event in Providence ; and what miracle had ordained, it
was miracle that annulled. But the Roman power
ceased to be when the barbarians overthrew it; for
it rose by the sword, and it therefore perished by the
sword. The Gospel Ministry began in Christ and His
Apostles; and what they began, they only can end.
The Papacy began in the exertions and passions of
man; and what man can make, man can destroy. Its
jurisdiction, while it lasted, was "ordained of God";
when it ceased to be, it ceased to claim our obedience;
and it ceased to be at the Reformation. The Reformers,
who could not destroy a Ministry which the Apostles
began, could destroy a Dominion which the Popes
founded.

Perhaps the following passage will throw additional
light upon this point: —

"The Anglican view of the Church has ever been
this: that its portions need not otherwise have been
united together for their essential completeness, than
as being descended from one original. They are like a
number of colonies sent out from a mother-country.
. . . Each Church is independent of all the rest, and
is to act on the principle of what may be called
Episcopal independence, except, indeed, so far as the
civil power unites any number of them together. . . .
Each diocese is a perfect independent Church, sufficient
for itself; and the communion of Christians one with
another, and the unity of them altogether, lie, not in a

274 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

mutual understanding-, intercourse, and combination,
not in what they do in common, but in what they
are and have in common, in their possession of the
Succession, their Episcopal form, their Apostolical
faith, and the use of the Sacraments. . . . Mutual
intercourse is but an accident of the Church, not of
its essence. . . . Intercommunion is a duty, as other
duties, but is not the tenure or instrument of the com-
munion between the unseen world and this; and much
more the confederacy of sees and churches, the metro-
politan, patriarchal, and papal systems, are matters of
expedience or of natural duty from long- custom, or
of propriety from gratitude and reverence, or of
necessity from voluntary oaths and eng-agements, or
of ecclesiastical force from the canons of Councils, but
not necessary in order to the conveyance of grace, or
for fulfilment of the ceremonial law, as it may be called,
of unity. Bishop is superior to bishop only in rank,
not in real power; and the Bishop of Rome, the head
of the Catholic world, is not the centre of unity, except
as having a primacy of order. Accordingly, even
granting for argument's sake that the English Church
violated a duty in the sixteenth century, in releasing
itself from the Roman supremacy, still it did not there-
by commit that special sin which cuts off from it the
fountains of grace, and is called schism. It was essen-
tially complete without Rome, and naturally independent
of it; it had, in the course of years, whether by usurpa-
tion or not, come under the supremacy of Rome ; and
now, whether by rebellion or not, it is free from it: and
as it did not enter into the Church invisible by joining
Rome, so it was not cast out of it by breaking from
Rome. These were accidents in its history, involving,
indeed, sin in individuals, but not affecting the Church
as a Church.

"Accordingly, the Oath of Supremacy declares 'that
no foreign prelate hath or ought to have any jurisdiction,
power, pre-eminence, or authority within this realm.'

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 275

In other words, there is nothing- in the ApostoHc system
which gives an authority to the Pope over the Cliurch,
such as it does not give to a Bishop. It is altogether
an ecclesiastical arrangement ; not a point de fide, but
of expedience, custom, or piety, which cannot be claimed
as if the Pope ought to have it, any more than, on the
other hand, the King could of Divine right claim the
supremacy; the claim of both one and the other resting,
not on duty or revelation, but on specific engagement.
We find ourselves, as a Church, under the King now,
and we obey him ; we were under the Pope formerly,
and we obeyed him. ' Ought' does not, in any degree,
come into the question."

Conclusion.

One remark may be made in conclusion. It may be
objected that the tenor of the above explanations is anti-
Protestant, whereas it is notorious that the Articles
were drawn up by Protestants, and intended for the
establishment of Protestantism; accordingly, that it is
an evasion of their meaning to give them any other than
a Protestant drift, possible as it may be to do so
grammatically, or in each separate part.

But the answer is simple:

1. In the first place, it is a dxity which we owe both
to the Catholic Church and to our own, to take our re-
formed confessions in the most Catholic sense they will
admit ; we have no duties towards their framers. [Nor
do we receive the Articles from their original framers,
but from several successive convocations after their
time; in the last instance, from that of 1662.]

2. In giving the Articles a Catholic interpretation, we
bring them into harmony with the Book of Common
Prayer, an object of the most serious moment to those
who have given their assent to both formularies.

3. Whatever be the authority of the [Declaration]

276 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

prefixed to the Articles, so far as it has any weight at
all, it sanctions the mode of interpreting them above
given. For its injoining the "literal and grammatical
sense," relieves us from the necessity of making the
known opinions of their framers a comment upon their
text; and its forbidding any person to " affix any ;/('«'
sense to any Article," was promulgated at a time when
the leading men of our Church were especially noted for
those Catholic views which have been here advocated.

4. It may be remarked, moreover, that such an in-
terpretation is in accordance with the well-known
general leaning of Melancthon, from whose writings
our Articles are principally drawn, and whose Catholic
tendencies gained for him that same reproach of popery
which has ever been so freely bestowed upon members
of our own reformed Church.

"Melancthon was of opinion," says Mosheim, "that, for the
sake of peace and concord, many things might be given up and
tolerated in the Church of Rome which Luther considered could
by no means be endured. . . . In the class of matters indifferent,
this great man and his associates placed many things which had
appeared of the highest importance to Luther, and could not of
consequence be considered as indifferent by his true disciples.
For he regarded as such the doctrine of justification by faith
alone; the necessity of good works to eternal salvation; the
number of the sacraments; the jurisdiction claimed by the Pope
and the Bishops; extreme unction; the observation of certain
religious festivals, and several superstitious rites and cere-
monies."—CV«/. XVI.^ § 3, part 2, 27, 28.

5. Further: the Articles are evidently framed on the
principle of leaving open large questions, on which the
controversy hinges. They state broadly extreme truths,
and are silent about their adjustment. For instance,
they say that all necessary faith must be proved from
Scripture, but do not say ivho is to prove it. They say
that the Church has authority in controversies, they do
not say ivhat authority. They say that it may enforce
nothing beyond Scripture, but do not say ivkere the

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 277

remedy lies when it does. They say that works be-
fore g^race a7id justification are worthless and worse,
and that works after grace a7id justification are accept-
able, but they do not speak at all of works zvith God's
aid, d^r^ justification. They say that men are lawfully
called and sent to minister and preach, who are chosen
and called by men who have public authority given
them in the cong-regation to call and send; but they do
not add by ivho?n the authority is to be given. They
say that councils called by princes may err; they do not
determine whether councils called in the name of Christ
will err,

[6. The variety of doctrinal views contained in the
Homilies, as above shown, views which cannot be
brought under Protestantism itself, in its widest com-
prehension of opinions, is an additional proof, consider-
ing the connection of the Articles with the Homilies,
that the Articles are not framed on the principle of
excluding those who prefer the theology of the early
ages to that of the Reformation; or rather since both
Homilies and Articles appeal to the Fathers and Catholic
antiquity, let it be considered whether, in interpreting
them by these, we are not going to the very authority
to which they profess to submit themselves.]

7. Lastly, their framers constructed them in such a
way as best to comprehend those u'ho did not go so far
in Protestantism as themselves. Anglo-Catholics then
are but the successors and representatives of those
moderate reformers; and their case has been directly
anticipated in the wording of the Articles. It follows
that they are not perverting, they are using them, for
an express purpose for which among others their
authors framed them. The interpretation they take
was intended to be admissible ; though not that which
their authors took themselves. Had it not been pro-
vided for, possibly the Articles never would have been
accepted by our Church at all. If, then, their framers
have gained their side of the compact in effecting the

278 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.

reception of the Articles, let Catholics have theirs too in
retaining- their own Catholic interpretation of them.

An illustration of this occurs in the history of the
28th Article. In the beginning of Elizabeth's reign a
paragraph formed part of it, much like that which is
now appended to the Communion Service, but in which
the Real Presence was denied in ivords. It was adopted
by the clergy at the first convocation, but not published.
Burnet observes on it thus: —

"When these Articles were first prepared by the convocation
in Queen Elizabeth's reign, this paragraph was made a part of
them; for the original subscription by both houses of convoca-
tion, yet extant, shows this. But the design of the goz'ernnieiif
was at that time much turned to the draiving over the body of the
natioti to the Reformat ioti, in whom the old leaven had gone
deep; and no part of it deeper than the belief of the corporeal
presence of Christ in the Sacrament; therefore it was thought
not expedient to offend them by so particular a definition in this
matter; in which the very word Real Presence was rejected. It
might, perhaps, be also suggested that here a definition was
made that went too much upon the principles of natural philo-
sophy; which, how true soever, they might not be the proper
subject of an article of religion. Therefore it was thought fit to
suppress this paragraph; though it was a part of the Article that
was subscribed, yet it was not published, but the paragraph that
follows, ' The Body of Christ,' etc., was put in its stead, and was
received and published by the next convocation; which upon
the matter was a full explanation of the way of Christ's presence
in this Sacrament; that 'He is present in a heavenly and
spiritual manner, and that faith is the mean by which He is
received.' This seemed to be more theological; and it does
indeed amount to the same thing. But howsoever we see what
was the sense of the first convocation in Queen Elizabeth's
reign, it differed in nothing from that in King Edward's time:
and therefore though this paragraph is now no part of our
Articles, yet we are certain that the clergy at that time did not
at all doubt of the truth of it; we are sure it was their opinion;
since they subscribed it, though tliey did not thin/c fit to publish
it at first; and though it was afterwards changed for another,
that was the same in sense." — Burnet on Article XXVJII.,
p. 416.

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 279

What has lately taken place in the political world will
aflFord an illustration in point. A French minister,
desirous of war, nevertheless, as a matter of policy,
draws up his state papers in such moderate lang-uage
that his successor, who is for peace, can act up to them
without compromising his own principles. The world,
observing this, has considered it a circumstance for
congratulation ; as if the former minister, who acted a
double part, had been caught in his own snare. It is
neither decorous, nor necessary, nor altogether fair, to
urge the parallel rigidly; but it will explain what it is
here meant to convey. The Protestant Confession was
drawn up with the purpose of including Catholics; and
Catholics now will not be excluded. What was an
economy in the reformers, is a protection to us. What
would have been a perplexity to us then is a perplexity
to Protestants now. We could not then have found
fault with their words; they cannot now repudiate our
meaning.

Oxford,

The Feast of the Conversion of St. Paid,
{January 25///], 184I.

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A RUSSIAN PROPRIETOR.

THE COSSACKS.

IVAN ILYITCH, AND OTHER

STORIES.
MY RELIGION.
LIFE.

MY CONFESSION.
CHILDHOOD, BOYHOO6,

YOUTH.
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PATRIOTISM AND CHRISTIANITY.

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WITHIN YOU.
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WHERE LOVE IS, THERE GOD

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IF YOU NEGLECT THE FIRE,

YOU DON'T PUT IT OUT.
WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT A MAN ?

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WHAT MEN LIVE BY.
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MASTER AND MAN.

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