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

| men and can hardly be proof against that
| which is carrying conviction to other
| minds
| Robertson of Brighton as an eloquent
| preacher and spiritual reader rather on
the nationalist side. is not 10 be forgotten.
| In his sermons there is an evident ten
dency to liberalize Christianity and to
present it officially as a religion of purity
| and love rather than as miraculous
revelation which did not escape the keen
| scent of alarmed orthodoxy and exposed
| the preacher TO some social persecution.
BY this time a 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 a 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 Pusey, professor
4
Fellow of Oriel College; and, in its open
| ing Hurrel Froude in whose Life of
Beckett" its spirit and aims are plainly
revealed. II took practically the shape Of
an attempt to return to the priestly mid
die ages. Oxford, with it's 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 q man of monas-
tic character and mind, with a piety in
tense but austere and gloomy enough al
most to rejoice in such a doctrine as the
irremissibility of post-baptismal sin.
Henry Newman was man of genius,
writer with most charming and persua-
sive style, great personal fascination and
raordinary subtlety of mind. What he
lacked was the love of truth; system, not
truth, was his aspiration. and as rea-
soner he was extremely sophistical, 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 uncompromising.
while he was totally devoid of the gifts
of ina gination 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. Pussy was illogical
enough to refuse the leap. He was also
believed to be rather strongly attached
to the leadership and spiritual director
ship which as a agnate of the Church
of England he enjoyed. He went so near
TO the brink as in his '1renicon" 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 If
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 said to
be converted rather than changed
The medievaizing 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 renounced by the Church of Rome
in favor of the heather style, of which
St Peters is the magnificent, but, in q
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
Newman, more logical and daring than
his master, who exultingly. 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-
ton of Ward on liberal grounds.
a storm from the other quarter was
raised by Essays and Reviews collec- |
ton OF seven essays written by clergymen
of the rationalistic school. having for it's |
object the liberalizing of enquiry in the |
Church. The manifesto at the time ere
ated an immense sensation, though in the !
present advanced state of doctrinaI disin- |
tegration 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
bination, was written by the present |
Archbishop of Canterbury, and caused the |
High Church clergy to protest against his |
as a Bishop. The glove thus |
thrown down was taken up by the High |
Churchmen. The writer's were arraigned |
for 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 |
prevenient grace. supervenient moonshine |
and the color of the Bishops nightmare
If that happened to turn up" Before the |
same tribunal was arraigned Colenso, a |
missionary Bishop of South Africa and |
an eminent mathematician, whose arfth-
metical instincts had led him to examine |
the numerical statements of the Penta-
touch with highly hereticai results. Both
the essayists and Bishop Colenso escaped |
conviction. The Committee of Privy Coun-
ell, If 1t was judicial. was also political
and it was resolved, If possible, 10 avert
a rupture in the State Church Veteran
lawyers had little difficulty in finding
grounds for acquittal when they did not
chose to convict; the language of the
lmpugned writings was seldom so precise
as to defy the power of Interpretation.