New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-08-12
CRITICISM
AND BOOK NEWS
Trio of Reforming English Churchmen and Their lnfu
ence: A Welcome Book by the Rev.
John Cadman.

livercd." Vallency's Irish grammar,
Sheridan's lectures on elocution;
Shakespeare, Milton; Priestley's trea-
tise on electricity. This is the man
who could read n French play or
Greek tragedy as he rode, and could
dismount TO preach 10 company
thrilled to the soul with the sense OF
another world. In study of wesley
marked by critical sagacity and frank
but not obsequious esteem Or. Cad
man makes clear the fact that II the
oxford Anglican rcceded from his
High Church position TO the extent 81
not urging a preference for the mlxec
elements at Holy Communion, and OF
not continuing TO demand the INNER
sion of infants at baptism. he never
theless remained an Anglican to ms
lfe's end. Nothing is less debatapie
than the statement that for half
century Wesley kept his societies IN
subsection to the Church of England,
and that the authorities stood convict
ed, as Mr.. Seccombe has put it, Of com
plete indifference to the spiritual SIDE
Of religion and to the hidden spring
that moves man to be religious.
DR.. Cadman would, we imagine
agree with Baron Won HngePs descrip-
ton Of Wesley as "the man OF abso-
lutte judgments" He sees the almost
inhuman element in the evangelists
self-discipline; he deplores the auto
cratic and opinionated strain that un-
doubtedly was part of his makeup.
Even so, Wesley was the pioneer OF a
deeper and richer life in the England
Of his day. and his preaching brought
memorable social consequences. Some
thing Of that inspiration Is reflected IN
the thirty million cXtant adherents OF
Methodism; but IL is also to Wesleys
honor that he was the means OF mod
ifvino profoundly the life Of the ma
tionaI Church to which he belonged.
In the chapters dealing with Cardinal
Newman our authors diligent reading
results in such n setting forth Of the
issues involved in the metamorpnosls
of the evangelical, Calvinist Anglican
into a prince of the Roman Church as
fully iustifes this addition TO the
copious literature Of the theme. When
once YOU have learned. from DR.. Whate-
w. 10 think of the Church as "a sub
stantive body or corporation" the LOW
Church party could no longer hold
him. Curiously enough, Whatel y the
logician was later to attain eminence
as a Low Churchman; while his pupil,
with the same premises, but having
the courage of his logic, was to go
forth in search of that substantive
body or corporation TO which he felt
the term Church could be fifty applied
The classic self-revealings made by
Newman in the "Apologia pro Vita sun
have inevitably engaged the magma
ton Of many sorts Of churchmen, since
il is not often given us to follow such
an Odyssey of the soul. There is now
more accessible than formerly the
motive guiding the men in Oxford who
were about Newman. In that company
were sturdy minds neither blind to
nor blinded by the excellence of the
leader. If it was at high cost that
some became his comrades in the new
life. it was no more easy for those
who. like Pussy and Keblc and Isaac
Williams, were compelled in some
measure to forego a friendship in
which there had been temper almost
sscramental. AS for Newman's influence
in the Anglican Church, II is apparent
that many in that communion who hold
to the ideal of Via Media without
deeming it a Roman road arc inheritors
of a doctrine which the Tractarian
movement brought into prominence.
AS Tor the Cnurcn OF the western
Obedience, DR.. Cadman ventures the
belief that Newman was its greatest
apologist since Bossuet He adds
Neither of them would endure
the reconciliation of faith with
reason; the one appealed to force,
the other to Imagination, against
the process. But Newman sue
ceeded in mitigating the irrational
resentment which had prevailed
against the papacy in England. The
silent force of his example, even
more than the eloquence of his
writings, gave pause 70 those
ardent partisans who saw nothing
good in Rome.
Thanks to DR.. Cadmans practical
aims and catholic sympathies and in
cisive style, these sketches will do
more than beget revery upon Oxford as
the "home of lost causes, and forsaken
beliefs, and unpopular names and i'm
possible loyalties." They will refresh
the heart of those who would believe
in the possibility of human progress.
and they will preach patience to those
who wonder at the long delay OF tho
commonwealth Of the spirit