The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-04-14

1 Otn61
| minds.
Robertson of Brighton, as an eloquent
preacher and spiritual reader, rather or
the nationalist side. Is not to be forgotten
In his sermons there is an evident ten.
dency to liberalize Christianity and tc
present it ethically as a religion of purity
and love rather than as a miraculous
revelation which did not escape the keen
scent of alarmed orthodoxy and exposed
the preacher to some social persecution.
BY this time strong current in an OPP
posite direction had begun to flow. The
religious movement was closely connected
with the political movement, especially
where there was n State Church. Alarmed
by the progress of liberalism, which had
carried the Parliamentary Reform bill
and threatened to withdraw from the
Church of England the support of the
State, some of the clergy began to look
about for a new foundation of their au-
thority, and thought that they found it in
apostolical succession and the sacerdotal
| theory of the sacraments. The leaders
of the movement were Pussy, professor
of Hebrew Mt oxford; Henry New man, a
Fellow OF Oriel College; and. in its open
Beckett its spirit and aims are plainly
revealed. 1t took practically the shape Of
an attempt to return to the priestly mid
die ages. Oxford, with its medieval col
! leges. the Fellows of which were then
clerical and celibate, formed the natural
scene of such an attempt. Pussy, who,
| by his academical rank, gave his name
to the movement, was a man of monas-
! tic character and mind, with n piety in
| tense but austere and gloomy enough al
most to rejoice in such a doctrine as the
| irremissibility of post baptsmal sin.
| Henry Newman was n man of genius, n
writer with n most charming and persua-
sfve style, great personal fascination and
extraordinary subtlety of mind. What he
lacked was the love of truth; system, not
truth was his aspiration. and as a rea-
soner he was extremely aophstical, how
ever honest he might be as a man. In
this respect he presented a singular con-
trast to his brother, Francis Newman, in
whom the love of truth was the ruling
passion. intense and incorporating.
while he was totally devoid of the gifts
of Imagination with which Henry was en-
dowed. Henry Newman's attempt to re-
vive medieval doctrines presently landed
him, with his immediate following. In the
medieval Church. Pusey was illogical
enough tc refuse the leap He was also
believed to be rather strongly attached
to the leadership and spiritual director
ship which as a magnate of the Church
of England he enjoyed. He went so near
TO the brink as in his 'Irenicon' to avow
that nothing separated him from Rome
but the unmeasured autoeracy of the
Pope and the excessive worship of the
Virgin, both of them mere questions Of
degree. Manning in time followed: an
ambitious hierarch who would probably
have stayed in the Church of England IL
they had made him a Bishop. Passing
into the Church of Rome, he became a
Cardinal. an active intrIguer of the Vati-
can and an extreme Ultramontaine, out
vying Newman, who, when the converts
first ecstasy was over, might be oaid to
be converted rather than changed
The medievalizing movement owed
much to the destinations of medieval art.
The Gothic churches and cathedrals and
the Gothic ruins of abbeys have been
very powerful conservators and propaga-
tors of the faith Of their builders. 1t Is
curious that this talisman should have
been renowned by the Church of Rome
in favor of the heather style, of which
st. Peters is the magnificent, but, in a
religious sense, unimpressive paragon.
BY the progress of Tractarianism Brit
ish Professionalism was alarmed and In
censed. The oxford Convocation was the
scene OF pitched battle brought on by
a bold deliverance of Ward, a disciple of
his master. who exoltingly. proclaimed !
that English clergymen were embracing |
''the whole cycle of Roman doctrine"
Ward, after a struggle which was sort |
of Armageddon of High and Low Church, |
was condemned and deprived of his de- |
gree. Newman's conversion speedily fol- |
lowed. The rationalists. such as Stanley |
and Jowett, voted against the condemna-
tion Of Ward on liberal grounds.
A storm from the other quarter was |
raised by Essays and Reviews" a collec- |
ton of seven essays written by clergymen |
of the railroads.&c. school, having for its |
object the liberalizng of enquiry in the |
Church. The manifesto at the time ere
ated an immense sensation, though in the
present advanced state of doctrinal disin-
it would almost pass unnoticed
One of the essays the most innocent it
is true. which nevertheless committed the
author to the general object of the COM
was written by the present
Archbishop of Canterbury, and caused the
High Church clergy to protest against his
appointment as a Bishop. The glove thus
thrown down was taken up by the High
churchmen- The writers were arraigned |
'or heresy before the Privy Council, and,
as Carlyle said, you had bench of grave
British Judges. like Roman augurs, de-
batting with iron gravity questions of |
nrevenient grace. supervenient moonshine,
md the color of the Bishops nightmare
( that happened to turn up" Before the
same tribunal was arraigned CoIenso a
Bishop OF South Africa and
In eminent mathematician, whose arith-
netical instincts had led him to examine
he numerical statements of the Penta-
euch with highly heretical results. Both
he essayists and Bishop Colenso escaped
conviction. The Committee of Privy Coun-
Ill, If it was judicial. was also political,
md it was resolved. If possible. to avert
rupture in the State Church Veteran
awyers had little difficulty in finding
grounds for acquittal when they did not
hose to convict: the language of the
writings was seldom so precise !
IS to defy the power of Interpretation.
Either the passage means what l say,
IT 1t has no meaning" Numbered the
ounsel for the prosecution. us it not {
ossible, Mr.. Blank. that the passage may l
ave no meaning?' was the reply of the
udge. The Rev. Mr.. Voysey, however. I