The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-01-04 00:00:00

115 71

mori, OF THE MOItNIN

I 111118LD

Six,---I',lay I request that you will do me tha favour to
asert the following extract; from a French Romanist peri-
,dical in your columns ?—Your obedient servant,
Oxford, Dec. 30. C. P. GOUGE-YEN.

" An English newspaper has lately been asserting that it
was unjust to 'attribute conciliatory opinions to the Oxford
school, and that it was altogether a gratuitous assumption
that the learned divines of that so justly celebrated university
had any desire to see the Anglican church make any ap-
proaches to the Roman Catholic church.
" In reply to this rash declaration, 'we proceed to cite,
without any comment, a letter recently addressed to the Rev.
Norbert Woolfrey, whose solid discourses have, durinf, the
month of September last, been listened to with interest by a
great number of the English in the church of St. Peter de
Chaillot, at Paris. _ _

" • As you wish me to send you some information respect-
ing the Pusevites, and I have just now some particulars to
communicate, which will be highly gratifying to you, 1 have
made up my mind to send you the following lines :
" About ten days ago two Puseyite clergymen dined with
us in the refectory, in company with Dr. Pagani, Mr. Fur-
long, and Mr. Phillips. One of these was Mr. Bloxam,* of
Oxford ; the other, whose name' I have forgotten, is an offi-
ciating minister at Lichfield, a very amiable man, of great
piety, and profound learning. He is of a very good
Last Sunday he taught the Ave Maria to the school children
in his church. He said grace with us after dinner, made the
sign of the cross, took some holy water on entering the
church, prostrated himself to adore the holy sacrament in
the tabernacle, and did this again on approaching the high
altar. Mr. Bloxam was more reserved with respect to these
outward demonstrations, for several good reasons, which Mr.
P—: explained to me afterwards. To return to the clergy-
man from Lichfield. He spoke several times of his confes-
sor ; in short he is quite a Catholic. He told me that it was
a great pity that Mr. O'Connell had not used his influence,
bile the whigs were in power, to get some Puseyite made a
bishop ; and he added, ' We should then have deputed this
bishop to go to Rome, and arrange matters with the Pope.'
But,' replied 1, what would you do if the bishops were to
refuse their consent?' We would compel them by a pres-
sure from without.' (Nous les y conlraindrons par line
force exterieure.) Aud what do you consider would be the
main obstacle to this re-union ?" The state.' However he
seemed to think that the Queen would not make any great
difficulty about giving up her supremacy.
" With regard to the celibacy of the clergy, he told me
that they had all made up their minds ; only it was hoped
that the Pope would not compel those of the clergy who
were already married, to part with their wives, and that then
they must leave certain of the sacerdotal functions to the
priests who were not married. They were, also, he assured
me, well-disposed to submit to re-ordination sub conditione,
at the same time giving it as his own opinion that their or-
dination was valid.

" At his last visit, this clergyman from Lichfield brought
with him a young man, the son of a protestant clergyman,
who was on the point of setting out for Rome to study there
preparatory to taking holy orders. They both came to us
into the fields, where the harvest was going forward. They
told us that the Pope had w•ritien a very paternal letter, in
which he encouraged them to persevere ip theit endavours.
They assured us also that among the protestant clergy a
great number were complete jacobins, and heathens rather
than Christians.

" As for them,' this clergyman added, 'as soon as the
re-union has been effected, we will send them about their
business, as well as all those who refuse to join us.'
(Quand la reunion aura de'faite, nous les renverrons ainsi
que tons ceux qui refuseront de se joindre a nous..'

" In order to show our readeis how the catholic movement
in the Anglicin church is appreciated at Rome, we will here
transcribe some remarks of the learned Abbe de Luca, editor
of ' Annales des Sciences.'

" It is useless," remarks this writer, " again to go through
the doctrines maintained by the new school of theology in
the University of Oxford, named, after its leader, the school
of Pusey §. We have several times detailed the remarkable
concessions made to the catholics by this rising generation
of protestant theologians, who have either more candour or
more learning than their predecessors. We have mentioned
in particular the ' Tracts for the Times', published periodi-
cally by the partisans of those new doctrines. There is no
doubt that it is the intention of the celebrated Professor Pusey
to effect a re-union, if he and his party can muster strength
enough, of the two churches of Rome and England."--
L'Ami de la Religion, Oct. 5, 18-11.