Analysis of Dr. Newman's Apologia Pro Vita Sua by J. N. Darby (1866) by Peebs Net

ANALYSIS OF

DR.

XEWMAX S APOLOGIA PRO VITA SUA

ANALYSIS OF

DR.

NEAVMAN S APOLOGIA PKO YITA SUA WITH

A GLANCE AT THE HISTORY OP

POPES, COUNCILS,

AND THE CHURCH.

LONDON&quot;

W. H. BROOM, PATEKNOSTER ROW. 1866.

ANALYSIS OF

DR.

NEWMAN S APOLOGIA PRO

HAD had no thought

of even reading Dr.

practice,

the popes

Newman s

know pretty well, in theory what Eomanism is and the history of

Apologia pro Vita sud.

and

VITA SUi.

;

But the book has open hands by others, and so far pressed my and I have read it I cannot say it has to every one.

been put into

upon me

;

won my respect.

It has certain

charms about

the present state of things clothes

think of

minds.

surface, &quot;

likely to attract

There

and men

are just

manhood

when

with

it;

and

interest.

and win no small number

a seeming candour on the

minds are prepared for it, and The circle of uni

quod volumus facile

versity affections is

credimu&amp;gt;s&quot;

most powerful

the heart

formed as they fresh and growing to

and amiable, and the reference

them

one of the attractive points of Dr. Newman s book, but cannot decide what salvation and the Church

God is. If we penetrate below the surface, I do not think the charm of the book remains. The

must judge when we

reader it

shall

have examined

together.

The

secret of the course of Dr.

is this

sensuous;* and

it is

so is

Newman s mind Eomanism. He

never possessed the truth, nor, in the process he de he had never found rest or peace scribes, sought it :

in his

own

soul, nor sought

where

it is

to be found,

according to the holiness of God. He sunk into that system where the mind often finds quiet from rest

when wearied in judging for but never peace with God. That is positively denied and denounced in the Eoman Catholic system. less search after repose,

itself,

In his search, he was never all -important --on

true faith at

From

all.

and

this difference is

the true ground or principles of

These things his book shows.

Oxford influences he came under, he had a horror of Protestantism. I understand that horror.

the

first

How

earnestly,

when

was in the

state I

have referred to elsewhere in these pages, I should have disowned, and did disown, that name. I looked Not having peace in my soul, nor for the Church.

knowing yet where peace is, I too, governed by a morbid imagination, thought much of Eome, and its professed sanctity, and Catholicity, and antiquity, not of the possession of divine truth and of Christ

Protestantism met none of these feelings, and I was rather a bore to my clergyman by acting

myself.

on the

rubrics.

looked out for something more

like reverend antiquity. *

was

really

much

reader must confound this with sensual.

in Dr.

Xewman s

state of

Protestantism I

But such a

mind.

shallow, and

little

feeling as to

founded on

fact.

do not think, now, that Protestantism has restored

the Church to purity.

It did not see, I judge, the true

more than Dr. Newman.

doctrine of the Church, any

Protestantism occupied itself with the positive evils and practice that pressed upon men s

in doctrine

knew how

consciences, and did the best

national churches, so-called.

Still, its

apprehended. As

to the

in raising

nature

word Protestantism,

is it

mis

came

from the act of several German princes at the second Diet of Spires. The previous Diet of Spires had left each prince free in his own dominions as to religious matters. At the second, the emperor, having settled matters with the pope, succeeded with the legate in

Nothing O was to be changed Q till the The principal general council was held. northern princes and many free cities protested, nor

this rescinded. getting O C*

held the recess for valid, as

was passed only by a Further, on the Con

majority when they had left. tinent, half those separated from Protestants, but Reformed.

Kome

are not called

The Lutherans

are Pro

testants.

But the matter

lies

deeper than all this. It is a well it should be known.

past history;

but

Protestantism

practically

gences.

The pope-

Newman- -the time,

when

broke out

-infallible

about indul

according

Dr.

centre of infidelity in fact, at that

infidelity

was the fashion

set the sale of indulgences

at Eome, had on foot to get money to

build

St.

Peter

The

was formed

sale

out,

through

the Archbishop of Mayence, to the Fuggers and the well known Tetzel, in Germany, and Samson, ;

But

in Switzerland, were the agents for the sale.

of this hereafter. I

do not enter on the sparring between Mr. Kings-

ley and Dr. Newman. poor and low on both

N. dishonest,

To say the

truth, I think it

If Mr. K. thinks Dr.

sides.

about gentle

all this shilly-shallying

men s points of honour is folly. The eternal truth If he thought in his of God is beyond this fencing. heart Dr. N. told the truth, he should not seek to

prove that he did not by subsequent writings. did not, there

honour.

All this

below the dignity and serious

ness of an enquiry into

hand, Dr.

IN&quot;,

If he

affectation in treating of points of

God

s truth.

vexed and undignified too

;

the other his blots,

one, two, &c., are poor, and, as I judge, a failure

undignified,

and often very poor in reasoning and

That he was vexed with being charged with dishonesty, one can conceive but vexation is a bad

tone.

;

counsellor.

example.

say,

poor in reasoning.

What

I take

there between accepting

analogy devoutly a false historical statement, and Sir D. Brewster s dreams of inhabitants in the stars ? This is

a very poor come-off.

The author

of St.

tine s life says, with the evident wish so,

Augus

should be

that a statement, historically false, but which has

serious effects

who

believes

on the whole it,

&quot;will

state of

mind

him

not be without effect on the

devout mind/ and that pious

opinion.&quot;

&quot;it

lias

been received as a

admitted, that

the alleged

visit of Peter,

which

tended

hut devout minds will be influenced

visit

;

have this

is to

by what has been received

a pre

effect, is

as a pious opinion.

It is

be kept quite distinct from documentary evi This Dr. tells us dence,&quot; but to have its effect. &quot;to

Is it sober to look for the effect of a

is sober.

con

fessed lying legend on the mind, as a pious opinion

Now

the legend has for

its

object to exalt St. Peter,

and Rome through him. For this purpose, false hoods have been told, and minds encouraged in receiving lieve

it,

them

and

;

and not without

tells us, is

a pious opinion to be This, Dr. Newman

effect.

a sober judgment, because

it is

said

it is

to be kept distinct

from documentary and historic That proof. people may have believed it piously, I may admit; but to justify the reception of a con fessedly false legend as a pious opinion, saying that will have its effect on devout minds, I cannot

call sober.

It is a

sider

devoutness

thing,

how

hoods

;

for

proof of what Eornanists con

and

It proves piety. the Church was deceived early

another

are here told, that Innocent

false (A.D.

416) lets us know, that it was then received as a pious opinion, that St. Peter was instrumental in &quot;

the West O enerallv.&quot; We do not but a of the kind of get, sobriety, specimen called devoutness and piety. I have men thing the

conversion of

tioned, however, this part of the

book only

to say,

that while I think

poor in reasoning, it character which in detail calls for no remark.

important

of a

AVhat

mainly elsewhere, and to that I turn.*

be a falling away, an apostacy; and, though faith may be answered in arresting judgment, when impending, no efforts of It is written, that there will

This evil ours will avert finally the predicted evil. a in the are have we double character will, told, course of

its

denial of

its

development

power

the form of godliness and

or religious evil, and open denial

of Christianity or infidelity

;

superstitious idolatrous

religiousness, devoid of spiritual truth,

and open in

fidelity.

It is a singular, but, providentially, a notable fact,

that two brothers should be eminently conspicuous in these two forms of

evil.

Mr. F.

Newman

has

given his personal history in his progress to infi delity

;

Dr.

popery.

Newman,

in his progress in falling into

There are some passages almost

identical in their form.

The

literally

fact, of course,

would

have been the same, whoever it might have been but, as striking in its effect on the mind, two brothers ;

being representatives of the double form of depar ture from the truth, is, I repeat, providentially re markable. The more so, as they have both come *

I find,

return to England, that Dr. Newman has sup He has judged, I suppose, as I

pressed all this in his second edition. do, or received counsel to that effect.

I have judged rightly in not But as many most probably will have the edition I had noticing it. in writing this, and the point itself has its importance, I leave the

paragraph as

it is.

not by any direct reason the truth or falsehood of what they

forward to account for to

ing

have the

fallen

which

way

that

left

it,

into

an account bv V

is,

known how

each

but,

;

minds were

their

with

it,

Both have

of themselves.

to render their

case,

filled

books attractive, and

by them. Both of them un questionably able men, but I do not, for my own part, think possessed of any depth of moral percep

themselves attractive

tion.

speak entirely from their respective works, I must say I do not put them on a par

of course.

I think the low,

and what

tions of Mr. F.

Newman,

in his

must

call filthy, insinua &quot;Phases

Faith,&quot;

ought, though but short and occasional, to have at once condemned the whole book, and the state of

mind

of the writer, in every

mind

that

of elevation, any sense of

what

From such

comely and pure.

entirely clear;

judgment contents.

One thing

his

to persuade us

had a spark

of good report, of

a reproach Dr.

I shall defer pronouncing

book

till

have examined

striking in both

;

any its

they seek

shewing, in their respective books,

that they were wrong, and

had each

them

to give

up everything he held on the points in question. This is singular. Each of these books shews us a mind step by step giving up what they held as true, and finding they were wrong an air of candour. But, did themselves

at each step.

This has

them

to distrust

lead

Quite the contrary. They would have us

embrace the conclusions they have come

to,

and in

which they profess to have the greatest confidence, though in every previous step they had found them Mr. F. N. has given up Christianity

selves wrong. altogether,

and gives us the phases of his discoveries

of mistake

mistake given up; Dr. N., the apology for his life, in which he has relinquished, not the general truths of Christianity, no doubt, but after

he once held on the particular points in question. seem to me that this shews, not confidence

all

It does

what they supposed such they gave but the attaching an immense importance to their

in the truth, (for up,)

own views I am afraid I must say, to themselves, mean by that, to the processes of their own minds. I

the

have no doubt that there

enemy

of souls in all this

a direct action of

of Satan.

this I

do not enlarge but I am bound to say so. But is it not singular that I should put forward the discovery ;

being wrong in everything I held, not as a lowly acknowledgment of error, but seeking thereby confidence in the conclusion I have arrived at as a of

motive to influence other minds, and that they should be influenced by it, and attracted to the persons who thus acquaint the public so very elaborately with

all

that has passed, as they tell us, in their minds

The

public,

no doubt, likes confidences, likes secret it has them, and has them very

histories,

and here

cleverly

written;

seemingly

very

naturally

and

It innocently, and on topics which are in vogue. is admitted behind the scenes in an interesting

epoch, and has the actors familiarly and confidingly

brought before O

it.

This, of

course, attracts.

like to be thus trusted with secrets, to

know what

has gone on.

But here

must go a

little

deeper into the nature

of this disposition to have secret histories, though I fear I

not please the public if they condescend I must tell the truth, and it bears

may

me; but

to read

Men like to

on the character of these books. secret history,

hear the

and learn the progress of what

is evil,

much more than of what is good. Take a young man, in the human sense innocent, gradually getting away from what

honourable and pure, making impulsive but still sinking, getting,

efforts to recover himself,

alas

gradually degraded,

and

terrible

end.

till

lie

Men

are

recovery cast a halo

efforts at

man.

fatal

some

interested.

The

arrives

round the sinking

His degradation is, comparatively speaking, of. Pity surrounds his end: we like to

lost sight

know

the details.

A young

female, shining in early

youth, wickedly and heartlessly seduced, struggling against the engulphing stream for a while, the moral

tone of her mind sinking, sorrow often (if innocence be met), with longings of heart that she were back to innocence, but her career till

still

onward

in evil,

she sinks in destitution, and shame, and sorrow

There cases),

not merely pity (for that

but

man

right in both

likes to read the process

;

and the

person whose secret history he follows becomes in teresting to him. Now let these persons be recovered from their evil, instead of sinking to ruin will the ;

10 steps of their recovery interest

Most surely

be traced with the same

not.

Put one and the other

in a newspaper, in a pamphlet, and try.

I do not say

our moral judgment approves this tendency of mind grace surely will correct

Such

public

Mr. F.

it.

speak of the fact.

human human

nature, such is the public for the nature locally modified. Suppose Newman or Dr. Newman were to return, ;

the one to Christianity, the other to scriptural truth,

would

their phases of return, or the history of their

religious recovery, be read with the

same

interest

fully persuaded they would not. Eight-minded people would be glad, individuals would trace it

with

interest.

Dr. N.

present publication might cause the sale of some of that; but no bookseller

would undertake an edition of the history of their Alas that it recovery as he would of their fall. !

should be so

;

truth and into is

what

but the history of their evil,

that

their history

it is

fall

away from But that

that interests.

a history

of.

one questions that at this moment the power of evil is rampant; its forms are the deceit of Koman-

ism and the insolence of open infidelity. Dr. New man avows in result that he knows only the one or the other

Catholicism (that is, Papal infallibility) Atheism; not the truth for himself. (Page 231 of What is fearful (though the Christian first edition.) or

has nothing to fear, far from it) is not that evil is there, but the perfect impotency of existing forms and corporations (I mean of such as ought, from

and profession, to stand against

their position

This

resist that evil.

the sign of of God.

judgment, of being given Satan

it),

approaching It was not

up power which drove the blessed Lord out of

it brought Him into it. not cast demons out, could disciples could not use the power which had come in, then He

the world: as

its

occasion,

But when His

and perverse generation, how long

says,

Faithless

shall I

be with you

&quot;

how

&quot;

long shall I suffer you ? in progress towards these two

The country is forms of evil. The National Schools in Ireland are founded on the avowed principle, that it was a vital defect to have the Scriptures read in them, and this professedly to please the priests.

A lay tribunal has

decided that clergymen are not bound to hold the Scriptures to be inspired, and that if they do not

contravene articles

made

for another state

the

teach anything they like that is, that the Church is no guardian of the truth at all.

Church, they

may

the other hand,

;

when men

stultified fatuity that a red

Ghost, there

are subjected to the

gown

is like

the

Holy

no way of meeting such imbecility

in public service,* because there is a rubric attached to the liturgy, the expression of patience, ill-advised

or not, at the time

when men were emerging from

these things, which permits

what was done

in the

second year of Edward VI. *

Since this was written, some little righteous energy (I would I could say, consistency) has been shown by Dr. Tait, for which I desire to be abundantly thankful.

Now,

not the evil I

it is

like red gowns, I

to worship

God

what

notice,

the word of

am judging

here.

sorry they do not instead love

and in truth

ii\ spirit

fatal in its character

God

cially authorized to

men

;

is,

but what I that while

surrendered, and men are judi give it up, there is no autonomy,

no power, avowedly no power, to stand against or remove evil. The authorities of the national body seek to tide is

over with the power of evil but there to God and we have Father Igna ;

no faithfulness

tius at the Episcopal gathering as a

deacon of the

Church of England, and having a right to be there and we have Colensos and Williamses openly setting ;

aside the word with impunity.

neither can be dealt with as

evil.

tatively or judicially accepted

power

at all to

meet

fulness of the Lord

;

evil.

Neither can be met,

;

They

there

are authori

intrinsic

do not doubt the faith

have no

fear

;

hold

to be

a time of great blessing for faith I believe the Lord is at hand. But it is sorrowful when what, in some ;

sense at least, was the professed seat of righteousness declares it

so,

tocratic

its

incapacity to remove or resist

evil.

we are on the way to judgment. The aris mind tends to popery; the popular to in

Ecclesiastical authorities are powerless the former; they are the chief abettors of against the latter. Truth remains, blessed be God, always fidelity.

and grace cannot fail. As I have spoken of these two forms of

itself,

me add

a few words on

them

evil, let

before I formally take

13 to these lines.

up the book which has given occasion It

is,

best

as regards the true object of these remarks, the

judgment on the book.

greatly confirmed

Eomanism

in the conviction, that at the root of

lies

in the gross form of denying infidelity, not of course Christianity, in its fundamental truths, or the his

but in the annulling those truths on which the blessing of the soul de

torical basis of Christianity;

It is a sensuous pends, or their application to it. fills the imagination with gorgeous cere religion,

monies, noble buildings, fine music, stately proces It feeds it with legends and the poetry of sions. gives no holy peace to the con

antiquity; but

science, ease it

may, but not peace,

and while ac

with asceticism,* accepts for the mass votaries full association with the world. It

crediting itself

of its

holds sin over the conscience as terror, and relieves

from that terror by human intervention, so as to put power into man s hand into the hands of the priest

Looked

hood.

imagination,

and

(in

its

at as a picture, it

in practice

fills

degrades.

largely the

Christianity

true sense, whatever its shortcomings

may have

I shall refer been) Protestantism elevate. to this last in a moment: it has largely failed in

but in

result, it

its

nature, as

compared with Romanism,

elevates.

Christianity brings us directly, immediately, to God.

Each individual *

&quot;I

looked at

precepts,

and

is directly,

her,&quot;

I said,

immediately, in relation-

her says Dr. N., is a religion.&quot;

This

rites,

her ceremonial, her

14 ship to God,

his conscience before God, his heart

confidingly in

His presence.

Judaism had a

hood, the people could not go into

They might

God s the

priest

presence.

receive blessings, offer offerings, celebrate

goodness, have a law to

way

God s

command them

was closed by a

into the holiest

veil

but

;

&quot;

the

Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the was not yet made manifest.&quot; When the Lord

holiest

Jesus died, this veil was rent from top to bottom, and we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the

&quot;

blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He has consecrated through the veil, that is to say, His &quot;He

flesh;&quot;

cross to

&quot;

;&quot;

God

has

made peace by

the blood of His

suffered, the just for the unjust, to bring &quot;

;&quot;

His blood cleanses from

all

sin.&quot;

Hence

the essence of Christianity, as applied to man, is, that the Christian goes himself, directly, personally to

God

;

in Christ

name, and through Christ, but and with boldness. He has

himself, into the holiest,

by Christ

access through the one Spirit to the Father,

the Spirit of adoption. This being brought nigh by the blood of Jesus, characterises Christianity in its

The holiness

nature.

brought &quot;

said, fear,

to bear

in the light, as

which

repels, for

God s own If we soul,

on the

presence

&quot;

in the

walk,&quot;

light,&quot;-

is is

-yet not as

we know

perfect love through have boldness to enter into the

the gift of Jesus; we holiest, that place where the presence of God him self assures that the confidence of love will be the adoration of reverence, while

we go

forth to the

15 world, that the

of Jesus

life

may

be made manifest

in our mortal body, the epistle (as Christ.

realizes

it,

not discussing

but that

how

far

said)

each Christian

what Christianity

practically

hath made us kings and priests to God and His Father. This elevates truly. Man is not elevated

is.

intellectual pretensions

by can

get,

beyond

intercourse with

vates

him

himself.

what

for

;

he never

What elevates him above him

;

gets, is

nor

heart-

what truly

ele

heart -intercourse with God, fellowship

(wondrous word !) with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. But, even where the heart has not found

its

blessed

home

there through grace, this

principle morally elevates

;

for it at least puts the

natural conscience directly before God, and refers the soul, in its estimate of

good and evil, personally and There may be self-will and

immediately to Him. but the standard of responsibility is preserved for the soul. I do but sketch the great principle on

failure,

which

I insist.

Komanism

has,

wherever

closed the veil again.

The

exercises its influence,

faithful are not reconciled

to God, they cannot go into the holiest, do not (as they quote from Ecclesiastes with so application) love and hatred by all that

know

false is

before

them, they have a priesthood between them and God,

and

saints,

divine

and the virgin Mary.

Christianity

work which, through the redemption and

life

a heavenly Mediator, has brought us to God; Eomanisin, a system of mediators on earth and in of

16 heaven, placed between us and God, to whom we are to go, and who go for us we are too unworthy to go :

sounds lowly, this voluntary humility, shuts out the conscience from the witness of

ourselves.

but

God s puts

presence,

casts us

back on our worthiness,

away and denies the

known

to us (shed

Ghost given

God

perfect love of

abroad in the heart by the Holy

to us)

through Christ.

It repudiates

the blessed tender grace of Jesus, that

High

Priest

who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; we must go to the heart of Jesus through the heart Surely I would rather trust His, blessed and honoured as she may have been and

of Mary, they tell us.

was

own

in her

place.

removes

me from

God, to

exalted, for

immediately with creatures, however my heart, and with sinful men, for my

conscience,

who

connect

All this

not in

its

are to judge of

degrading

it is

and absolve me.

the denial of Christianity,

power and applica few illustrations of what I mean.

original facts, but in its

tion to man.

They hold the great facts or truths of Christianity the Trinity, the divinity and humanity of Christ, the atonement, so far as

its sufficiency goes, not,

as effectual substitution, that

men

however,

are sinners (this

and the need of regenera scorn the true force of the word tion, though they they hold the inspiration of the Scriptures, though also very imperfectly);

they have falsified them, both in adding books which every honest man knows are not genuine Scriptures,

and giving a translation

as the authentic Scriptures.

They own

agency of the

Holy

the personality and My object is not here

way

general

Ghost.

to state exactly every point, but to say in general

that they

own

tianity.

It is

shows

the great fundamental facts of Chris not there that the spirit of infidelity

But the moment you come

itself.

men

application of these facts to value, all is lost.

The Scriptures

that they are addressed

the

are inspired, but

In vain

the faithful are incapable of using them. it

to their efficacious

by God himself through

the inspired writers to the body of believers they must not have them but by leave of others. In vain

a Holy Ghost ; He does not so lead and guide individuals as that they can walk in peace and grace, and understand withal His word. They is it

that there

mock

thought of His dwelling in believers. the divisions and faults of believers to They bring be there that is, they use man s sin cannot He prove at the

;

deny God

Even

goodness and truth, just as infidels do.

as to the Scriptures their universal question is

the same as the infidel to be the Scriptures

believe in

not

God s and

faith in

that

they do

is,

man

he reject them, just as the infidel says. word must be believed because God has spoken, at

no other reason, or it is not believing His all. Grace, no doubt, is needed for it, as for

everything; but

Lord

and by themselves, nor

for

word

Their doctrine

know them is, You must

do you

them through the Church

command

guilty

How

said,

&quot;If

man s

responsibility

ye believe not that I c

is there,

he,

as the

ye shall

18 die in

your

They were responsible

sins.&quot;

receiving Him, with

Him

jecting

;

so are

all Ecclesiastical

men

for not

authority re

as to the word.

Again, the sacrifice of Christ, they do not deny it. They repeat it in the mass in an unbloody sacrifice,

But Scripture says it was accomplished once for all, and contrasts it in its efficacy with the Jewish sacrifices, the repetition of which proved that they

sin

say.

was

offered once for

him who believer

Whereas the

still there. all,

sacrifice of Christ,

having perfectly put away sin

for

believes, there could be no repetition, the

perfected for ever, and

God remembers

his

Their repetition shows The believer is not unbelief in this blessed truth. sins

and

iniquities no more.

the sacrifice must be repeated.

perfected for ever is

not true that

soul,

;

its

efficacy,

is,

the sacrifice

not

once offered for the believer s

is.

Again, take Christ

dwells

all

intercessional mediatorship.

Christianity presents

whom

man tempted in all points one who also can be touched infirmities,

who has

able to succour

the Son of

sorrows and

God

that blessed

One, in

the fulness of the Godhead bodily,

not remember their sins and

That

any more.

iniquities

denied

God will

are,

without sin;

with the feeling of my and thus

suffered being tempted,

them

that are tempted. In a word, himself has descended into our

trials, arid

passed through them in tender

gracious love, that I might confide in His sympathy and love, and know He could feel for and with me.

they deny His priesthood and intercession? No. But in fact there are a crowd of mediators above all, ;

And why? He is too high and seek a friend at court glorious. Any poor man would it is the heart of Mary I am to have the king s ear Mary His mother.

;

to trust,

and get the

heart through of Christ

and get at His The whole truth and value

saints intercession,

Mary s.

intercessory love

destroyed and denied

in practice. The saints and Mary s intercession is trusted, their tenderness and nearness believed

not Christ

in,

God

Heathenism denied the one true

the Creator (though in a certain sense owning

Him as a dogma) by a multiplicity of gods

in practice.

God by a Mediator in the most perfect system of blessing, and Komanism, while admitting the mediatorship of Christ as a dogma, has denied intervenes

the one true mediatorship in practice by a multi It is the heathenism of Chris plicity of mediators. tianity, that

is,

of the blessed truth of a redeeming

Mediator.

more immediately to Dr. Newman s book. be forgiven speaking for a moment of myself, as what I say has a bearing on these points. I know I turn

Let

the system.

knew it and walked

years before

from his book, thought on Dr. Newman, the subject and when Dr. Pusey was not heard of. as I learn

;

Lent so as to be weak in body at the end meat on week days nothing till evening no of it ate on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, then a little I fasted in ;

;

bread, or nothing; observed strictly the weekly fasts, c 2

20 I went to my clergyman too. always if I wished to take the sacrament, that he might judge of the matter. I held apostolic succession fully, and the channels of

grace to be there only.

held thus Luther and

Calvin and their followers to be outside.

them

their judge, but I left

was not

the uncovenanted

mercies of God. I searched with earnest diligence into the evidences of apostolic succession in England, and just saved their validity for myself and

The union of Church and State I held to be Babylonish, that the Church ought to govern itself, and that she was in bondage, but was the conscience.

Church. I would guard this part of what I say. I still think fasting a useful thing in its place, if spirit I still think there were sacramental ually used.

ordinances instituted.

I still think the

State has

nothing to do with the Church. Only I add, that if be so, the Church must not be an imperium in

imperio, but a lowly heavenly body,

portion on earth at all; as suffering as its

Head

did,

was

which has no

at the beginning,

unknown and

well known,

an unearthly witness of heavenly things on earth. What saved me then, I think, from being a Eomanist

was the ninth and tenth of Hebrews. for priesthood,

up our

great

livered

The word over

which

High

I could not

I believed in, give practically

Priest

and His work.

What

from this whole system was the truth. of

soul,

God had

its

own,

and maintained

its it

divine authority

through grace.

was looking dark.

its reality

Him by

Church on

power

Church now, but

only as the living the

Holy Ghost.

body

know

of Christ united

I believe there is a

by the apostles, an external thing, and ruined,

earth, but, as is prophesied

utterly corrupted as &quot;having

Church honestly, but in the

for the true

I believe in the

the form of godliness, but denying the I see the causing perilous times. it,&quot;

Church, the body of Christ, composed of living members united to Him by the Holy Ghost. I see

an outward system, the habitation of God through the Spirit but there I see wood, and hay, and ;

may be

stubble,

God s

but that

and has been, and worse, faithfulness will continue His own built* in,

work.

Christ will build

power

shall prevail against

till all it,

be finished, and no

until the time

come

take those that are His to glory. I believe the appro priating the privileges of the members of Christ s

body, as a fact, to all that are built into the house, is the fundamental principle of popery, and all that I admit a sacramental system, but to clings to it. identify

and

false

;

with actual spiritual power is unscriptural one may be corrupted by man, the other

the work of God, and secured

and

What

by Him.

know

Christ builds will be infallibly maintained to the end;

to this Peter refers in

1 Peter ii. But, also, as in every divine dispensation from the beginning, what God had established in a right state has been trusted to man s responsibility, and man has uni

So of the external failed, and the system has been judged. the day will declare the work, for it will system of the Church, be revealed by lire. The corruption will be destroyed. formly

no salvation out of the true Church Catholic Church soul are,

;

but the

Roman

ridiculous as a security for the

they admit that men may be, and hundreds members of it, and lost after all. I would not for

;

thank you

for

such security as

that.

do not think

Protestantism was fully delivered from this identify ing the external sacramental system, and the divine

power of life- -these two distinct revealed aspects and hence its present difficulties. of the Church

Romanism

and

specifically

a system

identifies

them, denies the spiritual power, and regeneration by the Word, and the indwelling of the Holy Ghost; in practice, mocks at it, as an infidel might. It is essential falsehood in this respect.

Protestantism

does not. It owns the spiritual power and the Word, but I do not think there was deliverance from con fusion as to

We I

it.

It is bearing the

said, I believe

God has

this

now.

come a falling away. As The apostle has declared,

are told there shall

have

burden of

it.

thee [the engrafted Gentile] goodness, if thou continue in His goodness; otherwise, thou also shalt be cut Falling away,

that

is,

declared,

&quot;Upon

off.&quot;

the opposite of continuing in God s goodness, is pro phesied of; the lot of the Church, as an outward professing system,

present success for gination,

ment

is to

be cut

Romanism

and especially in

but to make a

way

off.

I look for partial

the unbelief of ima

its

influence over govern

for

open apostacy, or

infi

delity, the instrument of desolating judgments on it when Antichrist and judgment will close the scene.

23 Into that system of corruption which shall thus be destroyed, though for the moment successful, Dr.

Newman

has cast himself, as

of the uncertainty in

open for

infidelity.

him the Pope

others have, out

which he has found his mind.

His brother, as we have Dr.

many

seen, publicly represents the

Newman

is infallible.

on authority have found (through rests

;

pure grace, I fully own) the truth deliver

and the sure stay of

all difficulties,

word

God

abides for ever.

soul

;

out of for the

I rest, through grace,

on the truth; on divine authority; on apostles, not on the Pope. Dr. Newman cannot say, I know of

whom

have learned

it.

I can.

of Paul, John, Peter--! need not yea, of the blessed I will

;

myself;

name

the rest

Newman s

before us for the purpose.

Lord himself.

examine the process of Dr.

He has set Newman

have learned

I feel his difficulties

do not judge him.

;

But

mind.

I pity Dr.

have

felt

as his

them

book

calculated to interest and influence many, I do not

think he can complain if I dissect it freely. It is to do so without of Dr. Newman impossible speaking himself;

for the

comment on

whole part of his book which I I must neces

an account of himself.

sarily expose his state in

account of

commenting on

his

own

things I agree many of his I have in my own mind. Strange over thoughts gone it.

many

;

to say, I rind I admit constantly all that infidels

hold metaphysically. Only the truth remains, the truth of God untouched. I account for some of their

24 thoughts; cannot for others. liberalism

mind

man

is infidelity

Newman

calls

meddling, with his

own

&quot;What

Dr.

as competent, in divine things.

utterly as he does.

I reject this as

In the two points he professes

to name, I do in a measure, I suppose, pretty as he does; but

Tie

AVhat

is truth.

hates

much

need not be so afraid of liberalism. Its latitudinarianism will

favouring -Popery at present more than anything else does, and has been. I believe the time favour

will

come when

down Popery.

will pull

Newman

the time will come, as Dr.

I believe

says,

when

ria rued id will disappear as satisfying nobody,

iin -re

ami the struggle delity directly.

will be

between Popery and

I believe infidel

and Popery disappear

;

will triumph,

but triumph to

by the judgment

struction

power

its

the Lord.

Infi

own de l&amp;gt;ut

present the liberal principle, and the majority of Dissenters with it, are attacking the Establishment, the via

It stands in their

i/irdia.

boasted to

of their doing so, looking for the that is, putting himself anticipates the Establishment, and then having a final

result Dr.

down

1ST.

struggle with this in

;

Romanism.

any sense or way.

selves, too.

They

system among them, will active

religious or infidel

for a

have no sympathy with

They

are deceiving

What

what

religious, as

not, does not satisfy

mind now.

time by the ruin of others

letting loose

them

will find liberalism too strong for

themselves as a system.

grow

Some have

way.

;

any

They may but they are

will ruin themselves.

But there

25 is

another thing besides and behind what Dr.

man

That will subsist and have

God.

when

New

the truth of God, the people of

looking at

its

place in heaven

the fashion of this world has passed away.

There will be a people, not liberal so-called, not Romanists, but heavenly, Christian men, resting on the word of

God

Spirit, kept,

whatever the ruin, against

in true

and lowly

faith, led

by the

whom

gates of hell shall not and never can prevail.

the

They

be kept, I mean, in the world, where alone danger for them is. They will have the sacraments, will

for

such there are

;

but they will have what

ward and

essential true, divinely-wrought faith, and the Spirit of God kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed. May Dr. ;

Newman

be found among them, and

liberals too; yea, his

now poor

many

of the

infidel brother; for

I am perfectly grace can gather from every quarter. assured, that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church that Christ builds; and I mean

that

the

will

keep

moment known

own

as a public profession here until

God, when He will take His Himself in heaven. But that which man has to

and corrupted, the servant which has said, My Lord delays his coming, and has beaten the men servants and maid servants, and has eaten and drunk

built

with the drunken, will be judged, have his portion with the unbelievers, with the hypocrites, though called His servant to the end. It is well that men

who

tear

God should ponder

these things.

The Dr.

first

point which prominently strikes

Newman s book

is,

that, as far as I can find,

from diligently examining it, neither Christ, nor the truth, nor the word of God, nor any true solid foundation ever was in his mind at

say, I

not speaking of what

assuming

great

that, as

Christian

them now

he does.

foundations

sincerely, I

all.

I hasten to

called orthodoxy.

professed these

before;

professes

dogmas then But in his of James.

doubt

not, as

and now, the useless faith search on the point which occupied his mind, in what he discloses in this book, neither Christ, nor the truth, nor the word of God, nor any divine ground of faith, is found as an object of research, or

possessed as the foundation of his soul. As, to a divine foundation of divine faith, it is from beginning

end denied.

Romanism has

none. It has dogmas, fundamental immensely important, dogmas they are, but no divine ground of faith.* My business is here to

His enquiry was The sound between Anglicanism and Romanism. ness and fairness of that enquiry I will speak of;

show that

it is so,

as to Dr. N.

but there are deeper principles at the bottom of the I result he has arrived at, and to them I now turn. affirm that, as far as this

divine ground of faith at

converted at

fifteen.

book

all in

goes, there is

it.

Charity will

He says he was surely hope and

* I do not undervalue these They are essential to dogmas. Christianity, and we cannot estimate them too highly, or hold them too

fast.

27 trust

it is so.

hope

it is;

I do not pretend to judge, I earnestly

my heart

the thought of

gladly believes

There

it.

it,

and

rejoices in

One only who

judges.

and the principles laid down

I speak of his book,

Whether Christ ever appears

there.

must judge

who have

And

instance.

what

religion

read

it.

there, people cannot recall the

this is exceedingly important, as to

Possessing Christ, having the Son, it, gives a rest and peace to

is.

as Scripture expresses

the soul, which does not leave

beating about after

was, saying, Where is it? soul that has Christ knows it has got the truth

The

for

Newman s

Dr.

truth, as

is it

that

has found the Father.

does

not hunger, as not having what the soul needs and craves after. It is not looking O about for safetv, for i/

it is

safe in

Him

and through

Him

;

not in self-con

but trusting the good Shepherd, who knows His sheep, and keeps them. It does not slight

fidence,

the sacraments, but

ministry of

God

men whom

thankful for them, nor the the Lord has sent.

possesses the substance of

in Christ, shepherd -care in rest of heart in

connected with to

edly

where

heartily for all these things

them, but

satisfied

Him. this.

It blesses

Him.

And there What finally

all,

enjoys

eternal life

has peace and another point

led Dr.

Newman

with Ilomanism, which has confess

multitude

doctrines

unknown

the

primitive Church, was the principle of development. He was far down the hill, no doubt, long before,

but

tli at

plunged him into

its

waters.

Now

28 the person of Christ, and the value of His work

before God, there can be no development.

the same

and

so is the efficacy of

yesterday, to-day, and for ever. in the

I or Dr.

Newman

Christ.

Faithful

may grow zeal may resist and

knowledge of

which Satan seeks

to cloud the truth

faith

dispel errors

arise, and by and overthrow

which

but there cannot be a development of the

;

and completely revealed person of

infinitely perfect

whom

the Son of God, in the

His work

Godhead

dwelleth

Dr.

bodily.

spite of Bishop Bull,

and

all

the fulness of

Newman may

find,

as Pettau has admitted,

that the ante-Nicene fathers were worse than ob

scure as to the divinity of the blessed Lord;

Paul

not,

Godhead

who

declares that the fulness of the

(Qeorys not

OeLorys,

that

is,

divine character simply) dwells in is

not,

who

but

declares,

proper Deity, not

Him

bodily

;

John

the true God, was with

and the New Testament, so God, and was God plainly and blessedly making Christ known to us, is not. There He is Immanuel, Jesus, Jehovah the ;

Saviour.

He may

rejoice that the

But

affirmed this truth.

Mcene

to say that this

council re

was develop

ment, and that the Church of God for three centuries did not know the true divinity of Christ, is high It is the folly treason against Christ and the truth. of a mind who, to excuse itself, and make out a

point, gives

possess

does

;

it.

all

may sure

fundamental truth --does not

lead to it

does

Eomanism

I dare

not lead to God.

say

The

29 apostle tells us, on this very head, fore abide in

beginning.

&quot;

Let that there

you, which ye have heard from the that therefore which ye have heard

from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.&quot; There

might be the rejection of heresies, as Arianism, whose source was in Platonism and philosophy, or of other similar evil doctrines but it was not to ;

what was from the begin So the But continue thou in the apostle Paul, ning. which thou hast learned, things knowing of whom develope, but to maintain

&quot;

I admit no development admit of no private judgment, Popery. when God has revealed the truth. I will touch on

thou hast learned that

them.&quot;

this subject further

NVs views

whom

when

come

of Protestantism.

to speak of Dr.

I learn,

but I

know

what we have heard from the beginning. The Eomish Church does not so I learn; I continue in

continue

;

does not

know

the faith of any individual in

whom

it.

learns, as to

The indiscriminate

reading of Scripture by Christians it condemns, which the apostle gives as the resource and security of the believer in the last

and

evil days.

are

perfectly sure why.

Xext, it is striking how absolutely foreign the search for the truth, or the conscious possession of He was looking out for it, was from Dr. N. s mind.

some via

to preserve from what threatened. The Evangelical system only occupied a space be tween Catholic truth and rationalism, (pp. 144, 145.) nmU&amp;lt;i

30 1 do not

know what

But

to do.

search for

God s &quot;

expedient.

media of his own was

else a via

now

I refer to this

show there was no

truth in the matter

was necessary

Church theory erected on a

;

was some

have a definite

definite basis

;

this

took

me to the great Anglican divines.&quot; (146.) Then there were the parties in the controversy, the Anglican via media, and the popular religion of Eome. The Angli can disputant took his stand upon antiquity or AposIt is tolicity, the Koman on Catholicity. (148-153.) that at of the or end then, 1835, plain, beginning of &quot;

1836, I had the whole question before me on which, my mind, the decision between the churches de

There was a contrariety of claims between pended. the Anglican and Koman religions, and the history of

conversion

out to a

solution.&quot;

simply the process of working It

was

Catholicity, or antiquity.

add that the unity of the Church as one body was It was Catholicity, or inde not in his mind at all. I

pendent dioceses. (148.) On reading Leo he suddenly Be my soul with the he was all in the wrong. &quot;

felt

saints,&quot;

such as Athanasius (who died excommuni

cated and banished by the so-called universal Church for the truth s sake) and Leo. &quot;Anathema to a whole tribe of

Cranmers, Kidleys, Latimers, and Jewels

Perish the names of Bramhall, Ussher, lingfleet,

and Barrow from the face of the

should do aught but

fall

Taylor, Stilearth, ere I

at their feet in love

and

worship, whose image was continually before my eyes, and whose musical words were ever in my ears

and on

tongue.&quot;

Is there the

most distant idea

of an approach to the serious search of

God s

truth

on the subject from His teaching ? Dr. 1ST. moves in a circle of men s minds to decide a question of the merit of present rival schemes, never for the truth of God. Where he had learnt what he did hold we

Even here we

shall see in the next article.

shall see

he rests on no divine testimony. There is no serious ness. Dr. Wiseman s words from St. Augustine, Se&quot;

curus yudicat orbis

sounded in his ears in

tcrmrum,&quot;

&quot;

cessantly, like &quot;There

again Whittington (157-8.) was more evidence in antiquity for the neces !

unity, than for the Apostolical

sity of etc.

&quot;Turn

The truth of God,

succession,&quot;

as revealed, does not enter

He cannot say he possessed it, or thought he did; for he was uncertain and changing, and that even as to why he was to believe but in this

his mind.

;

state

never

enquired

for

God s

truth

on God s

authority.

Again, further on (231), he examines the concatena by which the mind ascends from its

tion .of arguments first to its final

religious idea

conclusion that there was no

ism and

&quot;

And

came

to the

medium between Athe

and that a perfectly consistent mind, under those circumstances in which it finds itself here below, must embrace either one or the Catholicity,

Now, such a sentence could not by any possibility have been penned by one who pos sessed the truth himself. One who possessed Christ, knew Him as the Son of God for himself, (knew the

other.&quot;

(231.)

known

Father and His love), must have

that there

was the possession of truth without being what Dr. N. (when he wrote this) means by Catholic. No one

who

possessed divine truth, as taught of God, what ever the external means truth as to God, the Trinity,

the Lord Jesus, the Church as one with Him,

sin, sal-

vat ion (I might enlarge the

could have declared

list)

was no medium between Atheism and Catho

there

And

note his grounds virtue of my believing in a God

licity.

why

&quot;

I believe in a

God,

and

;

a Catholic if I

asked

because I believe in

God s presence in his conscience makes him know God. Now, Dr. N. speaks of philosophical

myself.&quot;

It is

correctness.

not the question here.

Either

before joining Borne he possessed Christian truth, or

he did not,

not.

If he did, his position is false

any one can understand

He had

nothing.

truth.

stantiation

he did

why

did he arrive at

to authority, not faith in

did not believe, he till

Nor, indeed,

He came

anything.

;

he turned Catholic.

tells us, in

he was a Catholic.

Now

any

transub-

he receives

on authority. (265.) He believed that the Eornan TransubCatholic Church was the oracle of God.

stantiation passed muster with all the rest,

declared

but this

no true

all, it is

might add to

this list

fact.

;

faith in a truth, it is acquiescence

in authority, and, after

and he

to be a part of the original revelation

not possess the truth, nor seek as short expressions of

accrediting Borne for of proofs that he did it.

on his

I quote this only part,

and

so proofs.

The whole book shows of

runs through every part

it.

I shall

now show

had no divine ground

that he

His whole ground of believing was, not divine testimony, but probability, and no more; and such

faith.

the doctrine of the school, as I shall show from.

No wonder

Keble. It has

that

Komanism

no divine ground of

faith.

delights in this.

cannot give the

heathen and a Christian, same ground nor any sure one to either. It declares, I cannot believe in God s word but on the authority of the of faith to a

But how

Church.

The

first

I to believe in the

converts could not.

Church

Antiquity, catholicity,

They were called on to There was no Church, and believe in Christ alone. The all ecclesiastical authority was against Him. succession, did not exist.

foundation of the

first

disciples

faith is different

the Eomanist system from mine

;

and, even after

was

glorified, the faith of the converts could not be founded, and was not founded on the Church,

Christ

but on the testimony of the apostles. Nor could it be with heathens now; for they do not recognize the It is said that there is special grace for

Church.

them.

So heathens have special grace which Christians cannot have. And if, as believing in Christ, I seek, not Christianity, but honestly what church

the

must begin by owning the But this is absurd on the Church. that authority of face of it; for what I want to know is, has it au

best one, I

thority

told I

Is it the true

Church D

(

I return to the

34 ground Dr. Newman was on. Now, the truth rests on testimony. John the Baptist says, He that has received His testimony has set to his seal that God &quot;

So the apostle John He that is of So Paul God heareth Continue thou in the &quot;

true.&quot;

&quot;

us.&quot;

tilings that thou hast learned,

hast learned

Lord

them.&quot;

Now,

testimony, or Paul

if I

whom

knowing of

thou

believe the blessed

John

any of the

inspired witnesses, I do not, I cannot, dare not speak I set to my seal that God is true. of probability.

There

no divine

faith

but

That Dr. N. never

that.

had in prosecuting his inquiry. He tells us so. It was one of the great underlying principles of a great portion of his teaching life.&quot;

(61, 62.)

cism,

i. e.,

The

Probability

difficulty

probability

by the doctrine, which makes us

&quot;

intellectually.&quot;

&quot;that

the guide of :

scepti

Keble met it

this,

not merely &quot;

intellectually certain

He had

logical cogency of faith (62) is

was evident

certainty about nothing.

tells us,

mark,

&quot;

put to account by faith and

&quot;

spoken before of the but probability as it

love.

It is faith

and

love which give to probability a force which it has not in itself.&quot; (69.) Thus in itself it was only a pro

and something in myself gives it force. was reasoning plus right feeling but no divine

bability,

;

It tes

Dr. N. says that did not satisfy timony beautiful It was and religious, but it did not him. at

all.

Still

&quot;

even profess to be line as follows:

we were

My argument is in out That that absolute certitude which &quot;

logical.&quot;

able to possess, whether as to truths of

35 natural theology, or as to the fact of a revelation, was the result of an assemblage of concurring and con

verging probabilities, and that, both according to the constitution of the human mind and the will of its

Maker, that certitude was a habit of mind, that cer tainty was a quality of propositions,&quot; and so forth. There are degrees, consequently, creating cer

(70.)

titude, opinion, etc. is

God

quite certain that there

no testimony take these proba as that on which the reception of a testimony

no divine ground of

bilities is

Now it

faith at all here,

received as such

and

;

if I

based, the certainty of that testimony cannot be

beyond the certainty that

it is

a true one.

Nothing

can be clearer than that, whatever he might have had in his soul for the foundation of all his inquiry,

no ground of divine faith existed at all. He was of on the Komanism on this ground already point Such a process of reasoning that is, of infidelity.

may show

the folly of infidel reasoning, and so far

be useful as a means it is

never can give divine faith

not on the ground of

might multiply quotations

show he was always on

all.

;

I only

add a few, to

this ground.

Thus, page 202, he preached against the danger of being swayed by our feeling enO rather than our reason in religious O

wish to go by reason, not by feeling.&quot; This was in 1843-4, on the eve of his be

quiry. (223.) (232.)

&quot;I

coming a Romanist: on a probability, that probability,

and that

say that I believed in

God

I believed in Christianity

on a

I believed in Catholicism

on a

&quot;I

D 2

36 probability,

and that

all

three were about the

same

probabilities, a cumulative and a transcendant

kind of

still probability; inasmuch as He who made us has so willed, that in mathematics indeed we arrive at certitude by rigid demonstration, but in religious enquiry we arrive at certitude by accumu lated probabilities inasmuch as He who has willed that we should so act, co-operates with us in our

probability, but

;

acting,

and therefore bestows on us a certitude which

rises higher

(232.)

than the logical force of our

conclusions.&quot;

Thus we have God s grace helping us

taining probabilities; but, as Dr. N. says, bility.

Now

it is

in ascer

still

proba

perfectly certain that there

divine ground of faith here at

all.

No true believer, no

who has received God s testimony, and set seal that God is true, be he Koman Catholic

one

to his itself,

but knows this has nothing whatever to do with It would be a blasphemy to talk of divine faith.

God s testimony

being probably true, no matter

how

high the probability may go. Probability of conclu sions is not of the same nature as reception of a tes I

timony.

might here again add quotations, but

they are useless after these. The Komanism of Dr. Newman is not divine faith at all. I shall

led

him

now show further to the place

that the principles which

where he

were

all

derived

may be very clever with a view to involve Anglicanism in his present position, but is from man.

This

a distinct testimony that influences,

not on

God

all

was

built

on human

word or truth divinely

37 in

received

Sumner on

Hawkins gave him Thus he gave up preaching. Dr.

any way. apostolic

his remaining Calvinism,

baptismal

regeneration.

from Dr Hawkins

received tradition

&quot;

to learn doctrine

them the

and creeds

Another principle he was the doctrine of

we must have

recourse

after learning

from

doctrines of Christianity, the inquirer

must

to the Catechisms

verify

and received the doctrine

them from

scripture.&quot;

Let

(61.)

say here,

distinguish fully between learning truth and a standard of it but this is a poor teaching. The first

;

Christians certainlv did not learn

from words or

Catechism, for there were none to learn them from

;

and now a parent, as well as a catechism, a friend, a minister, may have taught us the truth, or Scripture

may have done The

so.

Scripture

the only standard.

fallacy of the statement is in this, that catechisms

and creeds are here introduced, not as teaching, but as authority that is, the Church is. We have re ;

ceived the truth from them, as truth, without saying so. Let it be true or false, it is a deceitful presenta

tion of the matter. are not an authority.

only means

to proceed

and creeds are

If catechisms

of learning, there are a

Their authority

But

parent, a friend, a minister,

hundred

&quot;

The Rev.

the doctrine of apostolic

Wm.

has been to so many, as opinions.&quot;

(61.)

was

James taught

succession.&quot;

this date I read Butler s Analogy, the

religious

others.

at the root of this tradition.

to me,

&quot;About

study of which an era in their

From him he

learned the

He had thus given up his early

doctrine of probability. religious convictions,

him

imbibed with what converted

and was prepared for his departure into Romanism. He had been taught by man, and was landed in the denial of divine faith, on the ground of to God,

probability as the basis of religious views.

Whately

then taught him to think and use his reason, with my own eyes, and to walk with my own

&quot;to

(62.)

learnt from

him

&quot;

see

feet.&quot;

the existence of the

Church as a substantive body or

corporation.

led, in its effects, to Tractarianism.&quot;

This

Keble

(63.)

is, the sacramental system, subsequently exercised a great influence over him, and what was

poetry, that

added

to the doctrine of probability, of

which we

have spoken. (68.) Froude, a hard rider, we are told, on horseback and in views, professed openly his admiration of the Church of Rome, and his hatred

His opinions arrested and in Dr. fluenced N.; he was his bosom friend. (73, 74.) Mr. Froude was evidently governed by the wild of

the reformers.

imagination of an unhealthy mind and a strong will. The theory of virginity, and the real presence, and

medieval antiquity, carried him away not the primi He went abroad ill, and was shocked tive Church.

by the degeneracy which,

says

Dr.

Newman,

lie

He died thought he saw in the Catholics of Italy. is one remaining source of my &quot;There young. opiniom&quot;

says Dr. N. (so

what that means, the (75.)

little

tale it tells),

conscious &quot;to

he of

mentioned.&quot;

This was the study of Fathers and Church

39 history,

which resulted in

his

of the fourth century.

work

as to the Arians

delighted in and received

Clement of Alexandria s wild views.

They came

music to his inward

ear, reviving the self -invented Berkley anism he was in when young, of which we

From this school he learnt angels. As wild as need be. He

will speak further on.

what he held about then went abroad

ill

with Mr. Froude, visited Italy

Sicily, and (with a strong impression he w as called to some work, of which anon,) he began the

and

Tracts for the Times.

have gone through the proofs that God s truth was not what Dr. Xewman sought, but to settle the I

question between the principles of Catholicity and that antiquity, or Romanism and Anglicanism ;

men s

God s

word, was what gradually led him on, and that he had no divine foundation for opinions, not

but avowedly only probability, which in nature excludes the idea of the reception of a

faith at all, its

divine testimony.

I will

now

his actual progress, in which,

ishing levity of self-confidence,

the enemy.

mind

enquire a

little into

seems to me, aston

exhibited, a large share of

be some more direct power of shall be forgiven (as instructively

may

tracing the elements of a history, given to us by himself, which has taken the course Dr. Newman s

how much he was occupied with 20 or 23 he records the phases of his p. he youthful feeling; kept even his Latin verses and copy books, made and used when a young boy.

has) in remarking himself.

40 Small things, but which show the tone and character of mind which were fully developed in after life, as here depicted,

&quot;\\lien

left his

tutorship for the

continent, he had a vision of some future before him, and on his return felt he had a work to do. I was &quot;

naturally led to think that some inward changes, as well as some larger course of action, was coming upon me.&quot;

His imagination was wild and unre too, and somehow or other formed in a

(81.)

strained,

popish school. He headed his first copy book as a child with a crucifix and rosary, and crossed himself before going into the dark, before he

longed

that

the

Arabian

tales

was

should

fifteen

;

true;

thought life might be a dream, or himself an angel; the world a deception, and his fellow-angels conceal ing o him with the o themselves from him, and deceiving semblance of a material world. (53-55.) Nor when

In a clergyman had this character disappeared. 183-i he said of the angels in a sermon, &quot;Every breath of

air,

and ray of light and heat, every it were the skirts of their

beautiful prospect is as

garments, the waving of the robes of those whose I ask, what would be the faces see God.&quot; &quot;Again

thoughts of a man who, examining a flower, or an herb, or a pebble, or a ray of light, which he treats as something so beneath

him

in the scale of existence,

suddenly discovered that he was in the presence of some powerful being, who was hidden behind the

he was inspecting, who, whose robe and ornament these objects

visible things

&c.,

were?&quot;

nay, (77.)

41 &quot;Also,

besides the hosts of evil spirits, I considered

there was a middle race,

nor

hell,

fallen,

partially

neither in heaven

Scu/xovia,

capricious,

wayward,

noble or crafty, benevolent or malicious, as the case might be. They gave a sort of inspiration or intelli

gence to races, nations, and classes of men, hence the actions of bodies politic,&quot; &c. (78.) This is connected

with his study of Clemens Alexandrinus and Alexandrianism, that

is,

the

which

JSTeoplatonism

corrupted the gospel, and was the true source of This Clemens himself being unsound, Arianism.

and Justin Martyr expressly declaring that it was impossible the supreme God could be made flesh. ,

However,

present object

show the kind

is to

preparation there was in the state of his his further progress.

good and jection to

evil, it,

Depth

mind

of for

of conscience, sense of

the soberness of

one finds no trace

God s Word, sub

of.

It is superficial

And he imagination, and on such subjects levity. I cannot but think that there pursued this out. &quot;

are beings with a great deal of

with great defects,

who

of certain institutions, &c. &c.

many This

high virtues in 1837.

good in them, yet

are the animating principles

and a low

Take England, with Catholicism.&quot;

of the question between Anglicanism

and Komanism

(152), so that these wild wanderings of

mind

and entered into his judgment of England s tical state.

(78.)

In 1835-6 he had the whole state

existed

ecclesias

Is there anything of earnestness or

exercised conscience here?

was self-confidence and

I have said there

dealing with solemn subjects.

the latter

what was the

believed, lead,

When

is this.

What

levity in

mean now by

he was uncertain what he

and where

truth,

would

Romanism, he on the minds of others.

though glowingly inclined

went on acting diligently He was not at rest himself (he tells us so), yet went on influencing others not always saying all he had ;

in his mind, but enough to prepare theirs for

it.

Now, on so solemn a subject as what is the true religion, to act w eek after week on others without r

knowing what

that true religion oneself, I call

moral levity of the worst kind. That he was not at rest, he tells us. (159.) &quot;And first I will say, whatever

comes of saying it

leave inferences to others), that

(for I

must have had something of an habitual though it was latent, and had never led me

for years I

notion,

my own

to distrust

not found or other I

its

was on

early as 1833,

show?

convictions, that

ultimate

my mind

had

and that in some sense

rest,

journey.&quot;

This was the case as

and even 1829.

NOW what T

does this

That with the consciousness of changing mind on a journey he knew not whither,

views, his

he went on leading and directing others, by sermons, Now, I do think an earnest, serious, con tracts, &c. scientious

man would

not have done this

he would have waited

not,

what the truth w as r

himself,

till

;

a modest

till

he saw

he was at the end of

did he go on when he knew he had not come to any settled conclusion ? Because his journey.

And why

had immense confidence in

lie

was led self,

own

to distrust his

himself.

convictions, that

never

is,

him

own mind, though they were changing every he was on journey.&quot; This is what I call moral

his &quot;

day levity

and

self-confidence.

But we may have some other elements of is, that at this moment all was over

The truth

this.

as to

Anglicanism in Dr. N. s mind. It was in a ruinous, evil state he could and was to reform it. But we ;

have the sources of

was

this

movement

in his

mind

pehbles.

;

and

in full connection with angelical flowers

was not an earnest inquiry into what

Paul taught, or John presses on us in the power of the eternal Spirit, not a heart bowed by Christ s words, and because the Church does not answer to

what she ought to be It was not the truth,

God planted

not what (to

for her

make

heavenly Bridegroom.

was not God s word,

was

at the first wholly a right seed

use of Jeremiah

expression as to Israel),

nothing of the moral depth of the exercised con science which such thoughts are connected with, of

which heart-connection with that the

Him,

source of in the heart.

tells.

Arians.

Christ,

He had been He had found

was Alexandria.

So Dr.

writing the history of the in the wild mysteries and

errors of Platonistic Christianity tery,&quot;*

and the desire

Church might be what it ought to be for the word of God will show it to us, are the

&quot;

the primeval

mys

that all nature was a parable, the world the

* I should have doubted what Dr. N. meant by the primeval

44 expression of the Aoyo?, or

Word

of God, the stars

For such was Alexandrian philosophy, and with which the Alexan

living beings.

as displayed in *Philo,f

drian fathers were more or less imbued.

&quot;

In her

zeal in behalf of that primeval mystery,

triumphant to which I had so great a devotion from

youth,

movement of my spiritual mother, Dea. The self- conquest of her asce

I recognised the ince-ssu

intuit

the patience of her martyrs, the irresistible de-

tics,

mystery, but for the words, &quot;to which I had so great a devotion in This was the Platonic system of ideas and demons, youth.&quot; material things being merely a representative to sense of Archetypal

truth.

This, though Neoplatonism properly speaking,

was a subse

quent system, a last effort of philosophy against Christianity, reigned among the Alexandrian fathers. Justin Martyr never gave up his

Clement had

cloak.

philosopher

his

common

teaching, and hia

esoteric for the initiated.

f That

this doctrine

all

about souls and angels, or demons,

half platonic, half philosopho- Mosaic,

unquestionable.

had a

semi-Jewish, semi-heathen origin, coming, I doubt not, as no one who has examined Manicheism, Gnosticism, and eastern or old Persian Philo represents the views, can, I think, question, from the East.

mixture in the Lord and the apostles time. He held that all was full of living beings the sun, moon, and stars were not only animals, :

but most pure minds that all the air, the space from the moon, the extreme of heaven proper, to the earth, was filled with souls as :

as the stars that the higher ones were very pure, and were demons, called angels by Moses, the lower ones loved getting down

numerous into

human

bodies

;

the root of

all

the doctrine being the evil of

matter. See Philo Trept Tev: (i. 263 Mangey) Trepi &VT: (i. 331) This Origen held to be ov: (i. 641), and elsewhere. Trtpi rs GIOTT No&amp;gt;

true.

into to

maintains

And

Rue.) it,

largely:

have denied

(i.

72, 73,

it.

first

I cannot find the passage.

to above, these demons, or angels,

Jews

Prin. lib.

had a body, and that then a soul entered Clement is said which desires to depart and be with Christ. that they

also taught.

were held

In the system referred to be intercessors, as the

45 termination of her bishops, the joyous swing of her advance, both exalted and abashed me. I said, Look

and on that (the Anglican Church).

this picture

my own

I felt affection for

ness

I felt

;

dismay

Church, but not tender

at her prospects, anger

...

at her do-nothing perplexity.

and scorn

saw that

refor

mation principles were powerless to rescue her. As never crossed mv ima&amp;lt;nthe thought to leaving v CD o ^j her, kept before me that there was than the Established Church, and something greater

nation

still,

;

I ever

that was the Church Catholic and apostolic set

from the becrinnin^, O O of which she was but the local

She was nothing unless she was She must be dealt with strongly, or she would

presence and organ. this.

There was need of a second

lost.

reformation.&quot;

Now, although Dr. N. speaks of the Primitive Church, he refers essentially to Alexandria. He says

(p. 80.)

&quot;

(p. 76),

What

principally attached

to the ante-

Nicene period was the great Church of Alexandria, the historical &quot;

centre of teaching of those

times.&quot;

The broad philosophy of Clement and Origen car

ried

away.&quot;

And

this is distinctly connected

with his rhapsodies about angels, &c. It is the whole subject from the beginning of 75 to the end of 80. This was what he admired

on his

;

this forced reformation

He owed

his doctrine about angels Alexandrian school. to the He was drifted (77.) notice.

&quot;

back

first

to the ante-Nicene

the Church of

Alexandria.&quot;

Church led him

history,

and then

was the Alexandrian

to his reforming undertakings.

46 Let us see a

little

what the

and seek is,

state of this

Church

made Dr. N. admire

was, and in matters which

to reform the Anglican.

to say the

for years,

Strange to say, it excessively doubtful whether

very yea centuries, there was any episcopal least,

ordination there at

all,

at least if

are to believe

doubt in his time, and before it, episcopacy was established, and this he recognizes. on the pretensions of the diaconate at Eome, he St.

Jerome.

]&amp;gt;ut

exalts presbyters, declaring that according to scripture

bishops and presbyters were identical he says the apostle perspicuously teaches that presbyters are the ;

same

as bishops; quotes Phil,

seq. 1 Tim. iv. 14, 1 Pet.

epistles of John.

remedy

should

make

v.,

Acts xx.

8, Tit.

set over the others,

for schism, lest

any drawing

w as T

to himself

a breach in the Church of Christ.

at Alexandria also,

and the 2nd and 3rd

adds, but that afterwards one

was chosen who should be as a

i.,

For

from the evangelist Mark up to

the bishops Heraclas and Dionysius, the presbyters always called bishop one chosen out of themselves,

placed in a higher grade; as if the army should make an Imperator (as they did in the empire), or the

deacons choose from themselves one

whom

they

may

have known to be industrious, and called him Arch Now it is true, he adds, that the bishop deacon. only in this, that he can ordain. Nor do I doubt for a moment, that was the universal order in

differs

Nay, the Alexandrian patriarch, whose jurisdiction then w as larger than that of Ptonie,

Jerome s

time.

47 claimed the right to ordain in

But

himself.

it is

historically that

Dionysius

and

;

all his

subject dioceses

Jerome

equally true that

had not been

this is confirmed

till

states

Heraclas and

by many

peculiari

Alexandrian presbyters, and, the abolition of their rights by Alexander

ties as to the rights of

as is said,

But

in the time of the Nicene council.

this

by the

That Alexandrian theology was philosophical,

by.

and corrupted by philosophy, is certain; Clement the he great Alexandrian teacher does not conceal it :

says in his Stromata (ed. Potter,

319, line 35),

speaking of the nourishment of souls, the peace in the word, and the life which is of God, he adds :

&quot;For

souls have their

knowledge and

own nourishment, some growing

intelligence,

some fed according

the Grecian philosophy, of which, as in the case of nuts, all

not

AYord teaches servants,

as servants

man

;

2 (831,

lib. vii.

as friends,

some

2),

the teacher

afterwards

&quot;

to the Greeks

and sensible

He, the Word,

(esthetic)

it is

powers.&quot;

who gives philosophy

but the doctrine of believers

(77:1)

on the divine care of

&quot;All

And

inferior angels; for the angels,

divine and ancient ordinance, are distributed

insisting

who

knowledge (the Gnostic) in the esoteric teaching for a few), the good hopes, and the hard hearted by cor

rective discipline

tions,

&quot;the

as faithful

(this is

mysteries faithful

some

all,

some

instructs the

edible.&quot;

things useful to

all.&quot;

life

the Lord

by a by na s part,

So in book are given

vi. 8.

by the

AVord, but philosophy more especially to the Greeks

was given

them

as a special covenant, to be as a

foundation of philosophy according to Christ.&quot; And in book i. G (p. 337) he makes the sower of the parable to

have come thus from above from the

foundation of

was he

tells

the world.

us (338)

&quot;

What

this

philosophy

Philosophy, I say not the

Stoic, not the Platonic,

nor the Epicurean and Aristobut whatever things are said rightly by eacli of these sects, teaching righteousness with pious intelli telic,

gence;

The

this, as a

whole, I call eclectic

law, he says elsewhere,

for the Greeks,

till

Christ

philosophy.&quot;

for the Jews,

came

philosophy

(vi. 17, p. 823)

;

the

whole chapter being a long discourse on this subject, each receiving it according to their deserts. I am fully satisfied that the east

of all this than

was the

are aware

in these Alexandrian fathers

origin of of,

much more

corrected partially Christianity,

and

Plato (and, I suppose, Pythagoras) by Grecian habits of thought. The root of it was, that

already in

there was a supreme

unknown God who dwelt

in the

depths of silence, and could have no connection with Hence emanations and the Demiurge, an

matter.

inferior creator, resulting in Gnosticism

of the early Church.

Platonism, with

the plague its

emanated

demons, and the Alexandrian philosophy, divides the Christian and heathen parties, Clement

into

giving his perfect Christian the name of Gnostic. Early there was a Jewish party, whom Philo re

Logos was an inferior being, though divine. It resulted, in another form, in Arianism, the

presents.

all,

49 doctrine

Alexandrian ante-

or less of these

Nicene Fathers (not of Irenseus), combated by Athanasius when it came formally to a head in Arius.

Thus

was that Dr.

Arian.

He had

Mcene

statements.

Newman came

to be called

imbibed a delight in these anteHence,

arose asceticism.

too,

Matter held, as Plato teaches, the soul nail to

earth

;

was

down

as a

Asceticism

be mortified.

began in the Alexandrian Church, partly indeed by Hence persons who fled in the Decian persecution. forbidding to marry, not that people might be

devoted, but as evil for the Gnostic.

a most attractive, interesting man,

Again, Origen

whose name became the

I fully admit, but

of passion in the

Church

what was he

applied to himself literally xix. 12.

football

First he

mutilation

Matthew

held that souls were born into different

conditions in this world, according to their conduct in a previously existing state a doctrine current

among

the heathen Egyptians, but a well

eastern idea of Buddhists and

dah

&quot;

Bana,&quot;

could

how

great doctrine was,

Brahmins

to escape

and absolute indifference

feel,

so as to obtain

Origen held

not

Bud-

by hearing

to everything sense

Xinvana

known

too.

(extinction).

part to

But

make him con

was Alexandrian and and Platonic) was the pure soul of man coming into a body. He was not sound, though he seems sometimes to be clear, on the divinity

sistent

Philo

that the fall (and this

doctrine already,

of Christ.

to the divinity of the

Holy Ghost, he

was wholly unsound.

of Heraclas, Patriarch,

whether he

and

Amnionius

(the master

others), it is

disputed

Christian or heathen.

Such was the school Dr. N. delighted in; philosophy, he tells us, not their theology; but impossible to separate them.

The

fall

man

their it is

being

a pure soul coining into a material body- -is that philosophy or theology ? Even as to Christ (Orujcn de Principiis, book

ii, e.

Incarnatione,

90,

he does expressly, that the divine nature cannot, without a mediator, be united to a body, and each soul receiving according ed.

la Rue), holding, as

to its deserts, he states that the

Word

Son took

one of these previously existing souls from the beginning of creation, and became and remained thoroughly one spirit with him; and then, by the mediation of that, took a body too, though he admits it is beyond even the apostle s thoughts.* I need not

go further.

Men s

to liberation

souls were to

work

their

way back

from matter, as also Philo and their and Gnostic contemporaries

Platonic predecessors held,

that

was the object of the mission of

To prove the

Christ.

of this heathenish

system in what I to add to have add, but may regret with modern pretensions in these things it is well it should be known that one form of asceticism was effect

morals, I

the clergy abstaining from marriage, under the plea of purity, taking to sleep with *

Word.

applies

John

them

females, with

x. 18 to the inseparability of the soul

and the

51 the same pretension to purity, alleging they were free

from

all evil

asceticism

the desert. Dr. N. it

This was one form of

of mind.

not the only one.

But

this

must know

know they went into

shows the nature of

This

it.

as well as possible.

will say

was often publicly condemned. It was often con in the East and in the West, but that shows

demned

was a custom

and they had a name, both in Greek and Latin --^weio-a/crai (subintroductce), and

aya.TTY)TaL

;

Irenaeus himself

(beloved).

Gnostics with the same practice. It the Shepherd of Hernias (III. sim.

was read in the churches seemly way.

Tertullian,

the Catholics with

it.

when

11),

which

a Montanist, charges

(De Jcjuniis,

Newman

recognised in

ix.

there, of course, in a

reader will easily understand that reference to Dr.

the

charges

554.)

not only in

I quote these things

what early infected the Church. But we do the wild system which attracted Dr. 1ST., and

learn see

sanctioned his early mental vagaries, his parishioners, be

After this Dr.

remembered,

K went abroad.

preached to

at St.

Here

Mary s. was he had

the strong impression that he was called to reform

Anglicanism. Let us retrace his history thus

was converted, he too, that

tells us, at fifteen.

far.

believed,

the inward conversion of which he was con

scious (and of

which he

still is

more certain than that

he has hands and

feet) would last into the next life, and that he was elected to eternal This glory. (58.)

was a beginning of divine E 2

faith,

a great change of

52 thoughts.

The influence and books, he

tells us,

were

of the Calvinistie school.

He, humanly speaking, al most owed his soul to one good man, whom he does

But

the special truth which wrought this in 1822, save the fact of heaven and hell, divine

not name.

all

and divine wrath, of the justified and un justified, which alone took root in his mind, did not i

iv our

remain with him

many

In 1832 he came

years.

under very different influences. On reading Sumner he gave up all his remaining Calvinism. He never

From Dr. Hawkins he re believed in reprobation. ceived the doctrine of tradition from the Rev. W. ;

James, apostolic succession from Butler s Analogy, learnt to rest his faith in probability,* not on divine ;

testimony; from Whately, to think and use his rea son, and see with his own eyes, and believe in the existence of the Church as a proper corporate body

Keble added give

it force,

him

in his feelings towards

reformers. (53-73.) * It

;

and love in man to probability, to leading him to authority; Froude led

faith

Eome, and hatred of the

This brought

him

to Alexandria,

a singular effect of tins reasoning on probability, and I

must add of the Aristotelian teaching of Oxford, that in this famous and able book to which Dr. N. refers (Butler s Analogy), it is stated, that the natural propensities of man must continue in heaven, as happiness cannot be without virtue, nor virtue without trial and exercise Such is

the fruit of ignorance of redemption. Bishop Butler s words are This way of putting the matter supposes particular affections&quot;

these

&quot;

as (or propensions, it is

calls

&quot;

them)

remain in a future

state,

which

scarce possible to avoid supposing.&quot; And he is speaking of &quot;the finite creatures are in from the very nature of propensions or

danger

particular

affections.&quot;

(Part

chap, v., on

&quot;

Moral

Discipline.&quot;)

53 or at least co-operated with

;

for the dates

mingle There we have

at the close of this history together.

now found

him, and going abroad to rest himself ante-Nicene study, his wild

after his labours in this

Platonism in

full

blow.

There was need of a second reformation.

was

Who

Here comes the turning point of Dr.

I do not doubt the direct agency of Satan

s life.

on a self-confident mind

;

but I must trace

in its

was exchanging my tutor human manifestation. ship for foreign countries and an unknown future. I naturally was led to think that some inward changes, &quot;

as well as

some

was coming moment, while waiting at he wrote the verses about

larger course of action,

upon (81.) Whitchurch for the me.&quot;

this

mail,

his guardian angel, Are these the tracks of some unearthly friend

&quot;

and goes on him.&quot;

(80.)

speak of the

&quot;vision

that haunted

Why, when jaded with

obliged to go abroad for his health,

was

study, it

and

natural to

look for some larger course of action ? There is a natural, though unconfessed, sentiment of force in

every active mind but in the Christian, suppressed by the sense of his own nothingness, that without ;

Christ he can do nothing, and the principle of obedi

which nothing is more humble, and of conscience, which makes our own path being right of the first importance. Dr. N. had this confidence he thought of acting on others a larger course of ence, than

;

action.

I quite believe

he was afterwards unaware

54 of the influence he exercised on

very often the

But the

young men

;

that is

case.

with his primeval mystery, and inclined towards Rome, having left all the forms sick

man,

filled

of truth that had been the

was looking &quot;

vision,&quot;

means

for a second reformation, and, through a

amongst Roman Catholics.

He was

many

great places,

&quot;The

sight

and

venerable shrines,

much impressed my

noble churches,

much

not

His imagination was at

work on new scenes naturally enough. of

His

a larger course of action for himself.

completes this picture.

journey

of his conversion,

imagination,&quot;

heard singing in a country church at six o clock, and his heart thus also was touched.

tells us.

(100.)

Now, a

religious congregation singing,

when

heard from without, has this

effect touches deeply It could the religious imagination where it exists. not have been anything really spiritual in his mind ;

for

he did not know what they were singing.

In his

I was not ungrateful for the comfort which I had received in frequenting the Then, again, her churches, nor did I ever forget

weary days

at Palermo,

&quot;

it.&quot;

zealous celibacy, faithful

maintenance of the doctrine and rule of

which

I recognized

as apostolic,

agreement with antiquity in so

and her

many

points

besides which were dear to me, was an argument, as well as a plea, in favour of the great Church of

Rome.

Thus

towards her, but all.&quot;

(p.

100.)

learned still

have tender feelings

reason was not affected at

Now

you

will remark, as I said at the beginning,

sensuous here, what acts on the imagination

all is

;

no question of truth and grace, no holiness, unless celibacy be taken for it, which he believed apostolic

when given of God, which is so false, but as a rule apostolic, shows Dr. X. was wholly governed by imagi

-not, observe, self-devoteclness,

which that

;

Not only does the apostle say, the elder is be the husband of one wife, having his children

nation. to

subject in all gravity,

and the Lord

and

let

know

that Peter

brethren were married, though he and Barnabas were not; but in the council of Mce,

which

Dr.

N. had

been just

made

formally refused to be

studying,

was

a rule, though

had

acquired great influence, and was resisted by Paphnutius, an unmarried bishop, as a snare.

What

its

enforcement in the eleventh century, by Hildebrand (though never carried through till the end of the thirteenth), produced, is well

further on,

when

of Protestantism.

come

known.

may

speak

to speak of the causes

man must have been wholly

blinded by imagination, or Satan, to say celibacy was, as a rule, apostolic. Even the Roman body holds it for a

mere matter of discipline; the Greek requires

that priests should be married

only bishops not,

I do not mistake.

His imagination was fully ripened towards Eome the primitive Church, that is, not the Scripture, or ;

first,

men

but the ante-Xicene Church* was certainly

have no accounts, I may say, of the Church from apostolic

to Justin Martyr. (140.)

Anglican useless if it was not the same; he was tenderly turned towards Rome, as to his heart, and, at any rate, Anglicanism needed a second right, the

reformation

Rome was

he had no tenderness, he

;

tells us, for

a great Church, his heart with her;

it.

his

no doubt, not overcome, he might hope to defend Anglicanism, but it was dreadfully bad. The

habits,

whole was a foregone conclusion. work he was going to do ? He had

&quot;NVliat

was the

entire,

thorough

confidence in himself- -confidence unrepressed grace.

by The motto chosen from Homer by Froude,

showing his own transparently,

that I

back

himself what I a

mission.&quot;

visited

should

he adds,

feeling,

&quot;You

shall

again.&quot;

am proving

(82.)

&quot;I

Rome

shows

this

Nor was

began to think I had an uncertainty. He

Monsignore Wiseman. visit

too,

know the difference now Nor does he conceal from

a second time.

wished

they

He saw

plain

enough his state, as he did afterwards what was Dr. N. replied to going on at Oxford, (p. 109.) him, with great gravity, England;&quot; pleased to

&quot;We

pander

in Monsignore s good graces.

was shown

;

when

sick,

have a work to do in

Romanism, and be The state of his mind

&quot;

cried,

I shall not die, I

have not sinned against peaceful conscience, no rest in Christ conviction he speaks of, of not being at shall not die

;

to be latent

when death seemed

light.&quot;

the latent rest,

to be there.

ceased

The

pressure of darkness on a troubled conscience, used, I doubt not,

by the enemy

;

but

still,

conscience,

57 which,

him and God, Satan He was his own way.

not settled between

would drive him

to quiet in

sobbing bitterly, while waiting to leave Palermo, and replied, to the inquiry of his servant, I have a &quot;

work

do in

England.&quot;

Now

this uneasiness, if

not a bad conscience in a general way, of which, of course, I can say nothing, and is not here so pre

was a bad conscience, which, not possessing its own rest in Him, looked to the Church, because it had not rest; and from his previous sented,

Christ for

studies, feeling

he did not possess that, and had re and feelings which led him to Ro

sisted impressions

manism, broke out in bitter uneasiness when thus ill. But remark, no destruction of self-confidence, no turn ing to Christ in lowliness of conscience and heart. He turned to self. I could only answer, I have a work to This work he was doing afterwards. The &quot;

do.&quot;

rest was merely a process, a question of time. He hated Protestantism, he loved Popery, though not

agreeing to it

it.

Anglicanism was

were on the foundation.

and correct

it.

wrong, even if pretended to set about all

Romanism was the only

certainly

The primitive Church had the only right thing now was

right thing in existence.

been right and lovely Romanism he hoped to get Anglicanism on right And now ground, but he had no tenderness for her. ;

it is

rnan

the excessive moral levity of Dr. Xewstate, of which I have spoken, come out in

I find s

was no search

full blaze.

for himself;

he had not accepted

for the truth, as such, all

Rome s

doctrines,

but neither had he when he joined her but she was the only right Church in his eyes: he was looking for ;

the church of his imagination, not for truth.* He did not believe transubstantiation the day he joined

He says Popery, more than twenty years before. so. Koine as he After joining infallible, accepted on authority.

See what a state this involves. real religions

mer he

hated.

was the

last

them

There were two

Protestantism and Popery. The for Seeking communion with Protestants

blow to Anglicanism. (182.) He counted Borne, when abroad, he held as un

heretics.

deniably the most exalted church in the whole world, manifesting, in all the truth and beauty of the Spirit,

high-mindedness, majesty, and the calm conscious ness of power. Anglicanism, bishops and all, was at best as a set of unruly boys

know

Trojans,

when he came when they trench on his

the difference

afterwards,

threatens

them

mained

back.

Hence,

via media, he

There was a limit to forbearance.

all.

180, 183,

(178,

who would

184,

to be tried.

Anglicanism still re looked to &quot;that future of

200.)

the Anglican Church which was to be a new birth a system would be rising of the ancient religion &quot;

;

up. (143.)

Thus inclined

Kome, hating Protes

tantism, Anglicanism being nothing really, he set about to work. Did he ascertain the truth before he *

say, the

religion

Church of

Protestantism

paper. (113.)

his imagination;

a religion

;

he says, Popery

the via media

only on

work

set to

In no wise.

I do not

did not like the ante-Nicene Church.

mean

that he

doubt he

But had he searched out the grounds of he acted? In no wise.

did.

or truth itself, before

truth,

was his only ground. &quot;Taking antiquity,&quot; he says, referring back to this early period (p. 194), tiquity

not the existing Church, as the oracle of truth. Never, mark, the Word. thought that the Church &quot;I

England was substantially founded upon them&quot; Had he searched them tho [the fathers]. (102.)

Not

roughly

fathers

had

tenets

said,

happened

all.

I did not

but I

felt

&quot;

to differ

had said

all

that the

when

their

from the Anglican; no harm

could come of reporting them.

was

know

that even

I said out

what

spoke vaguely and imper fectly of what I thought they had said, or what some of them had said. Anyhow, no harm could clear they

come

;

wav

was impossible

of bending the crooked stick the other

the process of straightening

break

it.&quot;

;

Thus Anglicanism was but a

straightened.

set

stick to be

about reforming, rebuilding the

Church, getting a Church de facto of flesh and bones, as he says, held the fathers to be the authority,

know all that they had said. Can there be conceived, on so solemn a subject, a man acting with more self-confidence and more levity? Nor yet did not

does he deny

it.

&quot;I

dignity necessary for a free

Now

never had the staidness or &quot;

leader.&quot;

had a lounging,

and easy way of carrying things (105.) this is true; but think of a man saying it of on.&quot;

Church of God, and in the things in which he was acting as one who had a mission to reform the Church, and rebuild it in its his whole status as to the

beauty as of

old.

admits (104) he was widely he

spreading his principles, not recognizing the hold

He laughed when a man he meant sacrament when he innocently thought had over young men.

said the sacrifice of the Eucharist,

himself the trouble of answering

tells us,

when

and did not give it.

Accordingly,

Dr. Pusey joined the movement,

saw that there ought to be more sobriety, more gravity, more careful pains, more sense of he (Dr.

P.)

and in the whole move

responsibility in the tracts

ment. tracts

was through him the character of the was changed. (208.) He, however grieved, and, It

not agree with all his views;* and Mr. Keble, in the sense of that as I judge, justly, though I

may

have as yet remained in Anglicanism. And that he acted in this lounging, easy way,

responsibility,

was in

truly

the

what he was

case,

that

seeking to

while quite establish,

settled visible

&quot;a

which are the

Church with sacraments and

rites

channels of invisible

that he tells us that

grace,&quot;

he did not know what he aimed this

was the doctrine of

&quot;

at.

thought

Scripture, of the

Church, and of the Anglican

Church.&quot;

early

this

* I think the whole Catholic system, Roman or Anglican, wrong of Ephesians i. with &quot;the house&quot; of &quot;the hody&quot;

in confounding

Ephesians body.

ii.,

and attributing

to the

house

now

the privileges of the

61 never ceased to be certain; but

1834 and the

&quot;in

following years I put this ecclesiastical doctrine on a broader basis after reading Laud, Bramhall, Stilling-

and other Anglican divines on the one hand, and after prosecuting the study of the fathers on the

fleet,

other/

that he held a doctrine immaturely

Now,

no one can blame

we have

done

all

But that

so.

he should set about to reform and rebuild the Church

with a special mission, though he founded it on the fathers, with his views unformed, seems to me, I confess, intolerable self-sufficiency

began the Tracts for

and

&quot;

levity.

When

the Times, I rested the

main

which I am speaking upon Scripture, on Ignatius epistles, and on the Anglican Prayer

doctrines of St.

Book.&quot;

The

(96.)

visible

ments and sacramental

Church on

rites

Scripture, sacra

on the Prayer Book, the

Episcopal system on St. Ignatius. Now the Scripture clearly teaches a visible Church, and thus is authority As to the fact, it is all that there ought to be one.

around it

us.

ought

But why not search Scripture be

I believe

it is

sadly fallen

as to ;

but

what

why

not go to Paul, and John, and Peter, to know what And note the it ought to be, instead of Ignatius ? excessive inconsistency after all

going to build

Anglicanism was not such and yet he takes the Prayer Book of Anglicans as the rule to prove his point on the matter he was a right Church, because

;

anxious about, although he admits &quot;that the An glican Church must have a ceremonial, a ritual, and a fulness of doctrine and devotion which this

had not

62 at

Was

(204.)

present.&quot;

this because it

was right?

were to compete with the Roman Church with any prospect of success.&quot; Why so ? Because lie liked that system, not because it could be any &quot;

if it

;

authority for truth to change.

;

for the

system he was seeking

And

It suited him, the Articles did not.

they were to be interpreted according to Catholic Catholi teaching, not the opinion of the framers. &quot;

(by which he then meant Romanism), he tells us plainly later &quot;was the real scope and issue of cism&quot;

the

movement.&quot;

And why

does he take Ignatius ? love the system Dr. N. has followed ?

Why do all, who Why did I myself

found

my thoughts Because he already liked and had adopted the system found in his published writings, not from delight in

it,

on him ?

any

real,

ascertained authority in Ignatius.

Dr. N. must have well known, that since Ussher and Daille they have been called in question that there are two recensions, besides confessedly spurious ;

one enormously interpolated, the other shorter; so that, though defended .by learned men, as a docu

letters,

ment they were of questionable then

has been, I think I

do not say

all

acquiesce in

may it

authority.

Since

say, ascertained

that five out of the

wholly spurious, and the three remaining ones, even in the short recension, inter polated, and the passages in favour of unity which letters

eight

Dr.

are

N delighted

in,

are

all,

save one, false and spu

you must know that these pious frauds were the custom of this vaunted primitive church.

rious

;

for

who had quite a know that it was he

There was one Leucas, or Lucius,

manufactory of them. I do not who tampered with Ignatius. There were numbers of false gospels*

and acts of the

apostles,

and that not

only by heretics, but by pious people, and this very early indeed.

Dr. if

Xewman

he does,

it is

scarcely even excuses himself here

;

onlv for O guilt in his vain confidence, /

he had strong persuasions in 1832, which I do not blame him for he has since given up. so far as

up what he thought wrong. I blame him pretending to reform and rebuild the An

giving

for lightly

glican body, that

is,

form a church as

should

when he had not searched the grounds on which he did it when he knew he was not at rest, but be,

;

on journey, as he has told us, and doing it in a free and easy way, and, I must say, with some effrontery, telling us that he &quot;had a lounging, free

and easy way&quot; in the matter. Was this God-fearing? The more his book is read through, the more it will

Yet he attaches immense importance

be seen.

movement. &quot;

Great acts take time.

own

case.&quot;

to go

(206.)

God

A pretty

nius,

;

302.

least I felt this in

here, that all the

would not have made him move

does not save people by logic.

copious

The

list

sought, he tells us elsewhere,

reason, not sentiment;

logic in the world faster

to his

says, with singular self-complacency,

of these pious frauds, so-called,

gospels have been collected

is in

This Baro-

by Fabricius and

when

people showed

consequences of his

him the evident and necessary More of this when principles. I do not

his pleas as to his honesty are considered.

suppose he was a concealed

he professed to be long before where

Eoman

so, in the least

all

;

Catholic before

but he did

know

was tending, and knew he was

leading others there, and continued to do so while unsettled, and, full of confidence in himself, charged

others as authors of

it for

Yet

resisting him.

did

him there. But what I insist on now is, the moral levity of teaching without his mind having arrived at any

lead

conclusions.

says

(p.

Ill),

&quot;Alas!

portion for wdiole years to remain, factory basis for

was

without any

satis

religious profession, in a state of

moral sickness, neither able to acquiesce in Angli canism, nor able to go to

very years in

Kome.&quot;

Now

which he was labouring

these are the as

having a

special mission, influencing diligently others, taking the future of Anglicanism and of souls on his own He had confidence in his cause, despised shoulders.

every rival system of doctrine, had a thorough con tempt for the evangelical system. Owing to this r a of mixture fierceness and confidence, there w as sport in his behaviour.

If he

had brought men on

to a certain point, if they stopped he did not care

;

make them preach the truth without know was not and encouraged them so to do.

liked to

ing

it,

&quot;I

unwilling to draw an opponent on step by step to the brink of some intellectual absurdity, and to

him

leave

to get

back

could.&quot;

speaks of

the imprudence and wantonness into which his abso lute confidence in his cause led him. (92-94.)

derstand this state of fident in his views,

But

admits.

to teach others ?

Can we

in a restless spirit con

but which has found no rest for

excited and uneasy,

itself

state

mind

sickness/ as he

&quot;moral

Is it God-fearing

God-fearing set the Church right in such a be surprised at the result ? And

and

what must we think of the

such a course in

result

such a state of mind led to

tells

us, that

through the storm on Tract 90, he had already be

He had

fore lost full confidence in himself.

dence in the apostolic movement

&quot;

;

but

confi

how was

any more to have absolute confidence in myself?&quot; Did he cease to go on? No; the movement (132.) was out of his hands. obstinate,

But on

his views

and bearded the bishops.

This

he had had absolute confidence in himself.

he was is

clear:

got in and Bellarmine the bewildered reading completely Anglican divines. This had no tendency whatever It was a matter of con to harass and perplex him.

But he had been not of proofs. (146.) teaching with absolute confidence in himself, without having ever really ascertained the difference, or found

victions,

solid

ground on

it.

In 1839, the fact that Leo

judgment had

settled the

council of Chalcedon and the monophysite question,

upset his via media, and showed that Koine was

on the ground of Leo in the F

fifth

now

century, the Protes-

66 tants on that of Eutychians

and Monophysites,

i.e.,

Here he owns he had the habitual notion had not found his ultimate that lie was on journey heretics.*

&quot;

Yet

rest.

had never led him

to distrust his con

Before and

victions.

after, he was restlessly teaching I need not go further. The time of

I feel

others.

his activity, the time of his influence,

own

of his

&quot;moral sickness&quot;

I turn for a

position,

was

this

moment

and unformed views. s

on his return from abroad with a mission, the Roman Church was the most exalted

Protestantism he hated:

England O

;

abjuration if

was

heretical,

save in

so that to receive a Protestant without

of error was subsequently sufficient not quite, to oblige a person to leave the

Establishment, and was what finally led to It shattered his faith in Anglicanism.

rested only on paper, to be formed

mission.

Mr. N.

to Protestantism.

in the whole world (161), certainly Catholic.

Church

almost,

was the time

stood,

it.

(182.)

Anglicanism

by himself by

his

was of questionable Catholicity

;

could be so only by interpreting her Articles as no one else in the world would. There was no motive for

keeping aloof from Rome, but the pope

Antichrist (101)

;

which

for

part,

however

being anti-

* Dr. N. very conveniently forgets that Pope Leo, a very able man, who really founded the power of the Papacy, forbad that doc trine to be put in the creed, though he admits it, which makes Dr. N. himself now hold the Greeks to be heretics for not holding. And I may add that a general council, admitted such, forbad positively any additional articles to be added to the creed. That is what Dr.

calls

development.

67 Christian

may

lie

be, I

do not believe.

It appears

Rome s being the great whore, drunk with the blood This he got over by its of the saints, was nothing. being the spirit of the city acting on the Church. (161.) He was determined to clear Eomanism. Transubstantiation he did not believe;

Catholic sense. I recall his

but Mr. Palmer

Trent might have a

held, that all the decrees of

own

But Home

excuses.

being the harlot drunk with blood, transubstantiation, purgatory, the worship of the virgin and the saints, indulgences, the repeated sacrifice of the mass as an

expiation for the sins of the living and the dead, the

supremacy and

infallibility

of the pope,

these or other principles and

any ground

how

little

for separation

dogmas

from

it.

It is astonishing

hold truth had on his mind, it

had with him

none of

Rome was how

little

a very peculiar

prominence phe nomenon. Being disposed towards Rome is nothing uncommon or surprising; but souls are kept, often :

almost unconsciously, by some truth which guards I was, especially by Hebrews ix. x. them. But truth,

mon

it is

evident (I do not say mere

to all),

he never cared about.

dogma com

says

the

English opposition to Romanism was caused by political motives in Henry the eighth s time, than

which nothing can be more unfounded.

burnt

people for giving up his Six Articles, which were essentially popish,

though he would not accept the

The reformation in England pope s supremacy. was set on foot by Edward VI., as to authority; F 2

but by

saints, of

whom Henry

burned many, as to

truth.

But

if it is to

were that

show what brought in Protestantism, be used as a name. I have no doubt there

I shall

many was

and could not but

defects,

set up.

The mere name

be, in the order

nothing.

came

from an act of German electors at the Diet of Spires protesting against the recess of

that Diet, passed a of votes when only by majority they had left, which they held to be illegal. The Reformed are not

called Protestants abroad.

as a popular name,

given energy to

But Protestantism, used

was the protest

faith, against

of the conscience,

the most horrible

system of iniquity that ever withered and over whelmed the human conscience. It was not merely negative; there was the positive assertion of

mon

fundamental dogmas

(this

com

was the very object

of the Confession of Augsburg, because this negative and articles were character was charged upon it) ;

added which are rejected by Dr. Newman and his such as justification by faith, the two sacra party, ments, and other anti-Romanist ones doctrine

was

;

as the counter

also maintained in the decrees of the

Council of Trent refuting formally this teaching ; and further, the authority of the word of God main tained, of the books of

which the Council of Trent

has given an undeniably

false

list.

was not

simply the right of private judgment in the modern The direct responsibility of each conscience

sense.

to God, as contrasted

with the domination of

priests,

was maintained, and

rightly, as

between

man and man

not the right simply, but the obligation to judge,

was maintained; but it was the public confession of positive truth which characterized Protestantism. local body framed its own profession of faith. The authority of the word of God was asserted. The right of every man to judge Scripture, or have

Each

his

own thoughts where God has

revealed His name,

The

never entered into the thoughts of the Eeformers. right of private judgment, as often

whether by

condemn patible

infidels,

it,

who

desire

essentially

What was

of,

who

and absolutely incom

principle.

have authority

The duty clergy and tradition ? ture was asserted, and rightly.*

away

talked

with the absolute authority of Scripture,

which was the Protestant was,

it,

now

or Komanists,

evil,

The question

Scripture, or the to It

judge by Scrip was the putting

and the teaching of positive

faith,

and the authority of the word of God, dogmatically and historically in this order. It broke out, under Luther,

resisting indulgences, the profligate

and

shameless sale of which was destroying all morality, and even the parochial care of the priests. I repeat,

while truth was promulgated, and Luther

action the fruit of his having learnt the truth, the first *

spring of action was the revolt of the Christian

object is not here controversy, but Dr. Newman s book, or easy to show that Romanism has no sure ground of authority, which the Protestant has. As to private j udgment, it is all

it is

clap-trap.

The Romanist calls on me to judge Protestantism him to judge Popery, and to judge that he is right.

much

as I do

70 conscience against the state of the professing Chris I shall give some account of the state

tian Church.

of that Church*, that revolt of conscience

may

be seen

how

was well grounded.

far this

And

here I

on painful, and, for any Christian, dangerous It is, and ought to be, painful to rake up ground. evil, especially in that which bears the name of feel I

There

danger of failing in that article of charity, &quot;rejoiceth not in iniquity.&quot; I admit, I trust I feel, both the painfulness and the danger. But Christ.

with the pretensions which are current, and the deceitful statements of morbid imaginations as to the holiness of the

Romish body,

becomes neces

sary that those likely to be deceived should know Not only is corrwptio optimi pcssima the truth. &quot;

corruptio^

but the

corruption

Rome was

worse than any corruption that ever existed. state from authentic sources, and Roman shall I itself

Catholic sources, what the state of things really was,

and show how early

began.

have

verified the

statements in the authorities quoted except two

being inaccessible to me, and I have Nic. Clemangis works not in my library. Councils,&quot; which does not repro only Hardouin s but there is no doubt it is duce the document

Mansi

&quot;

Councils&quot;

&quot;

;

authentic and correct.

I refer to the letter of

Pope

Alexander V., quoted further on.

Even in the apostles days Paul complains that all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ; Jude, that evil men had crept in unawares, turning the

God

orace of o

into lasciviousness.

was apostolic power

to repress

But then there

and correct

but Paul

;

knew that after his decease grievous wolves would enter in yea, that of themselves perverse men would ;

Peter assures us that the time was come for

arise.

judgment to begin at the house of God. We have seen that it had become, in the end of the second and in the third century, a for the clergy,

to live

common

habit

unmarried

under pretext of purity

and sleep with unmarried persons, consecrated

also to celibacy as

above

all

passion,

above that

matter into which pure souls were descended for such was the doctrine of these mighty Alexan evil

drians of

which Dr. N. was enamoured.

Hernias, to to

;

whom I referred amongst

others, alludes

commended him to the who were there): --&quot;I said, Where shall I They replied, Thou shalt sleep with us as a

thus (the shepherd had

virgins

tarry?

brother, not as a

and we

husband

;

for

them art our brother,

are ready henceforth to dwell with thee

;

for

thou art very dear to us. Howbeit, I was ashamed But she that seemed to be to continue with them. chiefest

kiss me,

came

amongst them embraced me, and began to and so did the rest. When the evening

would forthwith have gone home

on, I

they withheld me, and suffered

;

but

not to depart; therefore I continued with them that uko ht near the

same tower

so they spread their linen garments on the ground, and placed me in the middle nor did ;

;

they any tiling

else

only

prayed.&quot;

72 Origen complains bitterly of the great multitude who did not trouble themselves about

of Christians

divine things;

and

they attended divine service,

were entirely indifferent to it when there. I add Cyprian s account (A.D. 251). He is ac for the Decian and counting persecution, says it is only too light a chastisement, czploratio potii .x am vidcrctur&quot; All devoted to increasing persecutio q/ &quot;

their patrimony

;

no devoted

religion in the priests,

no upright faithfulness in ministers, no piety in works, no discipline in morals. Men s beards false, women s faces painted, eyes adulterated from

made

them, their hair

falsely

what God had

coloured- -cunning Artful

frauds to deceive the hearts of the simple.

deceit (subdolce voluntatis) in circumventing brethren,

marriages with unbelievers, prostituting to Gentiles the members of Christ ; not only rash swearing, but perjury too despising authority with haughty pre ;

tension

to speak evil with poisoned

;

lip

oneself

;

mutual discord with pertinacious hatred. Very many bishops, who should be an exhortation and example to others, despising their divinely-committed service

(divina procuratione),

make themselves

agents (pro-

curatores) of secular affairs, leave their see, desert the

people, wandering through after

markets for gainful

others

traffic,

provinces, hunt

&c. (De Lapsis, 124.

Fell s Ox. ed.)

Here It is

Jerome

account of the clergy

(A.D. 394).

shameful to have to say, the priests of

idols,

buffoons, charioteers, harlots receive inheritance; to

73 the clergy and

monks

alone

it is

forbidden by law,

and prohibited not by persecutors, but by Christian Nor do I complain of the law, but that we princes. should have deserved

now

the worst

it.

The cautery

good, but

that I should need the cautery.

The provisions of the law and yet thus avarice

are careful

not restrained.

and

severe,

mock

the

laws by trustees.* The glory of a bishop is to pro vide for the wants of the poor. The disgrace of all

Born in priests is the pursuit of their own wealth. a poor home, and in a rustic hut, who could scarcely

satisfy

clamorous stomach with millet and the

coarsest bread, I

and honey.

flour

fishes.

now turn up my nose at the finest I know the kinds and names of

shell fish are

thoroughly au fait as to what shore found on. I discern the provinces birds

come from by

their savour.

I hear, moreover, of the

base service of certain to old

without children.

men and

old

women

put the chamber pot beside

They away with their own hand the purulent matter from the stomach, and phlegm of the lungs. the bed, take

They

are full of fear at the arrival of the physician,

and with trembling lips enquire and if the old person is a

better;

the patient

little

more vigor

ous they are in danger, and pretending falsely joy, the mind, inwardly avaricious, is tortured; for

they

* Every one acquainted with English law thus the statutes of mortmain were evaded.

thought it

appears,

is aware that it was The English lawyers

was invented here for this purpose, but the clergy did want so long to find it out.

not,

74 fear lest they should lose their pains,

and compare

the living old body to the years of

Methuselah.

(Epist.

ad Nepotianum

Hi. Vallarsii.

Drunkenness, Augustine

tells

us,

the clergy had lent themselves, he evil habits of heathens continuing

in order to win and keep them.

Ed.

261.)

was universal; tells

us, to the

among

Christians

did not, he was

a godly faithful man, but put it down with danger to himself. (Epp. xxii. xxix. Ed. Ben.) It had reigned in other places (Ep. xxii).: he would have had the Africans set an example, but at any rate they should follow it. These are his words in letter xxix. But &quot;

lest

they

who preceded

us,

and permitted, or did not

dare prohibit the manifest crimes of the inexpe rienced multitude, should seem to have some oppro

brium cast on them by us, I explained to them by what necessity those things had arisen in the Church (getting drunk in church at the martyrs festivals), namely, that when, after so many persecutions and so vehement, it would be a hindrance, when peace took place, to the crowd of Gentiles desirous of coming to the Christian name, that they were accus tomed to pass festal days with their idols in abun

dance of feasts and drunkenness, nor could easily abstain from these very pernicious and yet very ancient pleasures

seemed

to those of old

that

they should spare for the time this part of infirmity,

and celebrate not with

like sacrilege, although

like luxury, other festal days after those

had relinquished

;

that now,

with

which they

bound together

as they

75 were by the name of Christ, and subjected to the

yoke of so great authority, salutary precepts of so briety would be delivered to them, which, on account

honour and

of the

fear of

would not be able to time that, as those

him who gave them, they

resist

who

;

as to

which

was now

did not dare deny their being

Christians, they should begin to live according to the will

Christ,

yielded to

and that those things which were

them that they might be Christians they

now they are so/ Many said their were good Christians, and did so. However,

should reject fathers

in that place Augustine succeeded.

But here

really holy man, the great light of the west, alleging that they had deliberately let the people be drunk in

honour of martyrs, that they might not in honour of idols.

Gregory Thaumaturgus instituted saints festivals same end, and Pope Gregory the first gave the

to the

same directions to doctrine

as to England.

and worship.

tempt, says M. Beugnot

was the same as

The Pagans did not at (Destruction du Paganisme,

271), to defend their altars against the progress of the worship of the mother of God. They opened to ii.

Mary

the temples which they had kept shut against

Jesus Christ, and avowed themselves conquered. He udds in a note, &quot;Out of a multitude of proofs I shall choose one to show with what facility the worship of Mary swept before it the remains of Paganism

which yet covered Europe.

Notwithstanding the had remained faith-

preaching of St. Hilarion, Sicily

76 ful

to the ancient worship.

After the council of

Ephesus (which decreed that Mary was the mother of God) we seeits eight finest temples become in a very short time churches under the invocation of the virgin. Their temples were,&quot; &c., &c. &quot;The annals of every country furnish like

he continues,

&quot;they

&quot;

testimonies.&quot;

mixed with the adoration

truth,&quot;

Mary

those Pagan ideas, those vain practices, those ridicu lous superstitions, from which they seemed unable to separate themselves

see

knew

would be easy

to purify itself.&quot;

rarilv v

from

but the Church rejoiced to bosom, because she well

;

them enter within

its

for her,

its alloy

with the help of time,

a worship which was purity

Thus some prudent concessions made tempoto Pa^an habits, and the influence exercised CJ

by the worship

such were the two

of the virgin

elements of force made use of by the Church to conquer the resistance of the last Pagans. It

was the system. The Romans were passionately

The Saturnalia fond of festivals and processions. of December. end at the and other feasts were Christmas* was fixed

end of January

;

there.

was a

purification of the virgin * The feast

The Lupercalia

in the

feast of purification.

Mary was

fixed there.

The St.

now

celebrated at Christmas (the very evergreens are the expression of one of the worst principles of heathen

Pagan) was ism the reproductive power of nature, celebrated at the return of The Hindoos celebrate their the sun from the winter solstice. Uttarayana at this time have their twelve days, sending of pre so the heathen Romans, so sents, and wishing many happy returns s Religious Festivals of &quot;Wilson the Teutonic nations. Compare :

Hindoos,&quot; ii.

173.

77 Peter de Yinculis replaced Augustus Caesar, and so of

See Beugnot,

others.

many

concessions to

Pagan

It is difficult to

justified.

263, &c., where the

ii.

usages are enlarged

do this when they sanc

drunkenness by dedicating

tified

on and

to martyrs in

M. Beugnot admits that their were a very large concession made

stead of demigods.

martyrs

festivals

manners, for

to ancient

lasted

was

little

lantius attacked

went

and many others of fell

edifying

that passed while they It was that system Vigi-

and Jerome defended.

heathen

to the

all

Christians

feasts, as Augustine, Chrysostom,

testify

;

they resisted, as in the case

Pope Gelasius and others, and when Paganism and the populations entered in crowds, they

gave them Christian festivals, so-called, to replace the heathen ones. It was a whole system. I

may

take the passage I have referred to in

Gregory Thaumaturgus describing

life

by Gregory Nyssen,

in the case of the former.

excused these long quotations.

ment first

of an

I shall be

It is the establish

immense system, paganising Christianity

in doctrines in Alexandria, then in ceremonies &quot;

everywhere.*

But when with the divine help that

tyranny had been overthrown, and peace had again accepted human life, service towards God, which lay before them, was free to every one according to his

and going round he made an appendage

ability ; descending again to the city,

the whole district in a

circle,

* The reader will find some other details on further on, connected with another subject.

its

establishment

78 for the

people everywhere to their divine service.

Having instituted the general assemblies for those who had been in the combat of faith, and, as they had taken away,

different persons to different places,

the bodies of the martyrs, going round in a proces sion,

they celebrated

festivities in a yearly

anniver

sary, holding a general assembly to the honour of

the martyrs.

For, indeed, this

was a demonstration

of his great wisdom, that, remodelling to a in a

mass the whole generation of

charioteer to nature, submitting reins of faith

life

his day, set as a

them securely

to the

and the knowledge of God, he allowed

what was subject little in

new

to the

enjoyment.

yoke of

faith to caper a

For perceiving that the child

and uninstructed mind of the many remained, through bodily hilarity and enjoyments, in the error ish

of idols, that the principal thing with

specially set right, their looking to

them should

God

instead of

vain objects for -worship, he allowed them to make merry at the memories (tombs or places consecrated to them) of the martyrs, and to enjoy themselves

and

their life

and

some time

to celebrate festivities, that

or other

might be changed to what was more seemly It is said he left only seventeen heathen

exact.&quot;

at his death.

But how opposite

to the blessed delivering

of the Spirit, as seen in Scripture. come under the apostle s word, But &quot;

How now

power

does

after that

ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly ele-

79 rnonts whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage.

Ye I

observe days, and months, and times, and years.

afraid of you, lest I

have bestowed upon you

This part of the history gives the decay in doctrine and spiritual state, till on the fall of Paganism its ceremonies and feasts were delibe labour in

vain.&quot;

rately transferred to the

nominal Church.

went on with their heathenism.

demned by the

hierarchical

Many

This was

con

authorities, but long

in. Gregory I. condemns it in England, but directs, as Gregory Thaumaturgus did, similar feasts among the professing mass that had been

persevered

brought in, to keep their fleshly minds contented. This was the Primitive Church, ante-Nicene and post

From

Nicene.

this

pass gradually into

the

was a space of nine hundred years, Its dark, confessedly dark, but we must leave it. result was what gave occasion to Protestantism. I mediaeval

shall

examine the Church, and afterward the history

of the popes.

shall see

how

far holiness, the

alleged note of the Church, can be found.

In 953, 931-974, Ratherius, bishop of Verona and Liege, charges the clergy with corrupt avarice and universal incontinency

;

the popes themselves,

many

times married, a warrior, perjurer, heretic, gambler, and drunkard such a shame to the whole Church could ;

not be a rebuker of others.

says in his Itinerary

(Fleury 193) he held a synod to correct this, but the clergy kept none of the canons the synods he held were to maintain the canons. There were xii.

;

80 bigamists, concubine keepers, conspirators, perjurers,

drunkards, usurers.

The cause

of the ruin of all the

The ignorance of the clergy was excessive; he says they must learn the three creeds, and be able to read the gospel and cer people, he

says&amp;gt;

tain services.

the clergy.

one, he says,

their incontinency,

The

was

fit

be made a

They would not give up

bishop, or to consecrate one.

and counted the

rest for nothing.

clergy despise the canons the most, because they are the most given to impudicity, and Italian

minister to this vice by ragouts and excess of wine.

(Dupin,

vol. viii. 19, &c.

Fleury 1. c., from Dachery have been said to be ruth

and Mabillon.) He may The Benedictines defend him. less and violent.

Damianus, a great friend of Hildebrand (Gregory VII.), the strictest of monks, re-establisher, if not inventor, of the Flagellators (self-scourgers), the able

champion of Eome against the Emperor, the reducer of Milan (till then independent) to subjection to the

up to devotion to Mary, who gave up his and cardinalate see, to the great pain and offence of Hildebrand, out of piety, in a book entitled &quot;Liber

pope, given

Gomorrliianus&quot;

the

name

port, addressed to the pope,

which betrays

its

complains of the way in to such crimes, it

which the clergy were given up

being alleged they could not depose them for it, as people must have the sacraments they committed :

them, we

read, with their own children

hend, those

who came

proved the book.

His

letter of

I appre

Pope Leo ap recommendation is

to confession.

81 prefixed to

it.

Damianus

refers to

canons which gave even with a nun,

for fornication; if

penances and habitually, five years penances. (These canons he alleged to be forged, or of uncertain authority, trilling

the canons.)/ though o o amongst

Damianus demanded

The the deposition of those guilty of these things. to be the canons deserved by pope answers, they would depose only On which Eleury remarks,

deposed, but out of clemency he

most

the

immoral.

suppose that the numbers of the guilty were too great to treat them with rigour.&quot; The next pope, Alexander II., got the book and hid &quot;

which leads us

which Damianus complains bitterly. In the liomish council of 1059, he wished them to take it

it,

up, but

(Fleury,

was

xii.

refused, as likely to produce scandal.

532, Dupin.)

Already, in

888,

two councils (Mogunt.

forbidden vi.), the clergy are to have a mother or sister in the house, though it Metens. Hardouin, vol.

Lad been allowed. vice

In the latter case examples of

had given occasion

it.

(Con. Mog., cap. x.) Renolf of Soissons gave like orders (889). In the council of ./Enamhense (1009), connection with

women

forbidden; but

it is

added

(ci.),

&quot;but

it is

worse that some should have two or more, and (nonnuUitx) such an one, although he had sent her off

whom

he lately had, during her

life

should marry

another.

In the time of Gregory VI. (1045), of assassins

Eome was

full

and robbers, says Fleury, quoting William G

82 of Malmsbury. They drew the sword even at the altar and the tombs of the apostles, to carry off the offerings as soon tis they were put there, and use

them

for feasts,

and

maintain corrupt women.

exhorted, excommunicated in vain, and at last seized St. Peter s to begin, and drove away or killed

those

who were

stealing the offerings.

In 910 and 927-941, Clugny (that tion of the

is,

the reforma

Before, in the confusion

monks) began. women, had the monasteries as Campo, as inheritances; abbots had their wives who had seven daughters and three sons, and his of the empire, laymen,

second, Hildebrand, and all their monks.

Yet, in

the well-known discourse of Bernard, abbot of Clair-

vaux, he says, the whole Christian people, from the had conspired against God. It

least to the greatest,

is not the time to say,

the people, so the priest

for the people are not even as the priest ,are

is.

ministers of Christ, but serve Antichrist.

that remains

is,

that this

Man

They All

of Sin should be re

vealed. (Sermon on conversion of Paul.)

Pope Benedict VIII. rages against the

licentious

ness of the clergy (forbidding marriage), but more because the clergy, who were serfs, had children

free

women, and the Church

lost her property in

Still, he declares, in language which I do not transfer to these pages, the universal and open profligacy of the clergy, more shameless than the

serfs.

laity. vi.)

.Between the years 1012 and 1014. (Hardouin,

83 It

was

clergy to

epoch that the prohibition to the

at tliis

marry was

rigidly

enforced,

and, as

The wives were

known, by Hildebrand.

treated as

but they were married, concubines by the popes with and openly, ordinary solemnities very often, In England, it appears, few were not, but the kings ;

made them pay

for

Lanfranc allowed It

shows the

state

(Hard. Con. Lon.

it.

vii.,

1147.)

Ansel in raged against

later,

;

of Christendom, that

many

it.

the synods forbid the children born of the priests

They gave them as portions even to their daughters. Paschal, pope, died 1118, ordered men on their death-beds to receive the inheriting their cures.

sacrament from them, rather than from none

and

;

that their sons should be admitted to the priesthood in England, as almost the major part of the clergy,

and the better

part,

were in this

case. (Pascal s letter

That the bishops took money for allowing the priests to live with women is recognized (Con. Lat. cxiv. Hard. viii. 31),* and in

Hard, vii, 1804-1807.)

in the constitutions of Canterbury, where V

it is

said, &quot;

judgments did not hinder the evil of con cubinage, they were to be mulcted in their benefices. Decrees as to this may be found in Hardouin,

as spiritual

from 1217 to 1302. 1215, enforced by

The canons

bury, 1236, Hard.

viii.

Distindio Ixxxi,

vi,

of Con. Lat.

Edmund, Archbishop 1236. it

iv.,

of Canter

In the canon law,

is said,

that a clergyman,

* Thomas Aquinas counsels them to have a wife, secretly, or with connivance.

G 2

84 convicted of having begotten children in the pres is to

bytery, it

The

be deposed.

gloss

on this

generally saM, that a clergyman

But

not to be

deposed for simple fornication, because few can be found without that sin.

The

literature of these ages

teems with the bitterest

reproaches against the clergy, as setting an example of simony, money-getting (one was alleged to have

hundred

five

and licentious morals, brawls

benefices),

in taverns, unnatural crimes, impossible to be quoted,

increased

by a prohibition

to marry, a

however, fully carried into effect for

and long

measure

two

not,

centuries,

resisted in the north, as in England,

Den

mark, Norway, Sweden, the people often insisting that the priest should have a wife. Pope Alexander IV. (as quoted,

it is

not in Hardouin, and I have not

Mansi) admits the evil state of things in So a drowsiness of deadly carelessness seems

access to

1258.

&quot;

in the greater part to have oppressed the vigilance of pastoral

life,

which we

say, groaning, as the too

great corruption of Christian people crying out from

many

regions testifies; which,

cured

by the remedies

when

ought to be

a sacerdotal

antidote,

alas grows greater by the contagion of evils, which proceeds from the clergy, so that it should be any !

where true what the witness

to,

saying,

prophetic

the people

complaint is

bears

become, so the

priest.

may now

go on to a later state of things.

bishops received

money

The

regularly to allow the priests

85 This was forbidden by the council

keep women.

of Paris, 1429

(Tortosa,) 1429,

xx.

c. i.)

But

xxiii.

(c.

Hard.

it is said, it

Derlusanum,

vol. ix.

The council

ii.

of Basle, session

was again authorized by a were to put them

local council of Breslau, that they

away under a penalty of ten florins. I have not the German local councils to verify the quotation in this case.

Later again, W. F. Picus, Lord of Mirandola, that the nephew of the famous Pic de Mirandola, as

quoted in a literal extract which I cannot verify, not possessing his works, says, that priests left the

women, and good boys were given up to them by their parents, and when grown older, then were made priests of. I give it literally, only natural use of

Latin:

illis

etiam

(proh pudor) fceminae abiguntur ad eorum libidines explendas, et meritorii pueri a parentibus commendantur et condonantur his, qui ab omni corporis &quot;Ab

(sacerdotibus)

etiam concessa voluptate sese immaculatos custodire deberent. Hi postea ad sacerdotiorum gradus pro

mo ventur

cetatis flore transacto

was an address

jam

exoleti.&quot;

This

pope Leo, in 1517, the year

Luther began the Reformation,

The

receiving of money by bishops for priests concubines was evidently general complained of in Constance, written against by authors. Theodorich, ;

Archbishop of Cologne, ordered them to be dis missed, and then took money from the priests for it. In the council of Paris, already quoted from Har-

86 douin, they complain, that because of the concu

binage of the clergy, with which

many

ecclesiastical

men

and

religious (secular clergy and monks) are of God and the whole clergy the Church infected,

are held in derision, abomination,

and reproach by

every body, and that most iniquitous crime has so prevailed in the Church of God, that Christians do not now believe simple fornication to be a sin. These

may be

testimonies

multiplied ad libitum.

go on now to what preceded the council of Pisa,

a council that

a great trouble to

may show

Koman

Catholics,

Clemangis was rector of the University of Paris, the most famous then in the world, the correspondent of popes and kings, as I

further on.

earnestly seeking the healing of the schism

were two popes then. possible

means

;

for there

This led to their using

make money,

all

provisions, annates,

every shape and every way, giving a right to thair favourites to a living, whoever had a right to present to it. He declares, that many tenths,

exacting

ABC.

He attacks of the clergy did not know their the cardinals for their pride and insolence though ;

drawn from the lowest ranks

hundred

to about five

the

(stuprct),

Koman

benefices.

&quot;

says,

had

enumerate their adulteries, fornications, by which they pollute

not willing (non rapts

of the clergy, they

court,

volo) to

nor relate the most obscene

life

their family, nothing inconsistent, however, with the

morals of their bishops was

masters.&quot;

intolerable

The oppression of the any ecclesiastic was put

87 in

any great crime, on payment sum lie came out as white as snow. for

prison

certain

complains of the bishops, as

we have

the clergy

for

making

&quot;

cubine.

work, he

compound

any now

flies

lazy, if

seen they did, keeping a con

any one hates

As soon

to the priesthood.

he has

they diligently frequent brothels and taverns, and spend their time drinking, eating, dining, attained to

it,

playing at dice and games, gorged and drunken, they fight, cry out, make riots, execrate the supping,

name

God and

his saints with their

most polluted

lips. Sicque tandem compositi, ex meretricum suarum This was complexibus ad divinum altare veniuntur&quot;

common

complaint.

&quot;The

bishops,&quot;

court; perhaps they were better away,

they profit by their presence,

who

he says, for

&quot;go

what could

at the

utmost

enter the Church two or three times a year; who pass whole days in falconry and the chase, who eat

most exquisite

shouting and dances, and pass girls and effeminate per sons. Who drag by a base example the flock, by crooked paths, on to the precipice,&quot; &c. Were the

monks and false

councils better

doctors,

Scripture

;

To make a

is,

the

They

are pharisees,

ravening wolves spoken of in nunneries brothels of Venus.

calls the

girl

prostitution. this last

feasts, in

nights with

their

take the veil

All that

to give her

Dupin ventures

that he describes

and apparently too violent

to say as to

in very strong terms,

(outres).

Clemangis admits that there are exceptions to this

88 state of the clergy,

but that the majority are such.

do not douht a moment that there were

Now,

godly

men who shrunk away from

all this iniquity,

and sought communion with God, some persecuted, some not; and communities of another character, not under vows, as the brethren of the

common

Thomas a Kempis, and many

doctrine, Groot,

others,

whose schools merged in the light of the Beformation. But this is the character of the so-called Holy Catholic

Apostolic

Church.

Christian conscience,

yea, natural conscience, was weary of the wicked I shall be told that the doctrine of the ness.

Church was England,

Dr. Milner, a standard book in

holy.

tells

us,

means

holiness, the

that

there

the doctrine of

of holiness, the fruits of holiness,

That the Church the divine testimony of holiness. itself was holy,* he does not attempt to show; he speaks of individuals, a number of persons, who have given their names to churches as saints, and besides that, less

number.

of the Trinity * Dr. Pusey that

it is

fession

was

have been a count

and the Incarnation,

tells us, in

faith the

And

certain, there

to sanctity of doctrine,

note,

&c.,

he speaks most holy

defending himself against Romanizers, is recognized as holy. What a con

Church

holiness is one

mark by which we

are to

recognize the true Church (a doctrine I do not except to) ; but when we come to seek it as a mark, then we must believe it to be holy, by

means of

faith.

What

a satire

What

are

to believe to

be holy

the unholy Church. And how is it then a proof? I am to know the true Church by its holiness, and when I find an awfully wicked body, believe ery,

it is

holy because

and a mockery

it is

the Church, I must say this is a mock a trifling with the claims of God.

in holy things

;

89 doctrines surely, but not doctrines about holiness.

identifies justification

efficient

cause

and

&quot;

sanctity, saying,

of justification

the

-the

sanctity,&quot;

means being the sacra ments, and then her public service. The attestation of sanctity is miracles. Now, there is not an attempt to say that the Church is holy in fact, I do principal and most efficient

;

not admit the doctrines of

Home

be holy.

It is

not holy to confound sanctity and justification it is not holy to make sacraments the principal means, ;

Word and

leaving out the

Spirit of

God, to which

Christ and his apostles directly ascribe sanctification. It is not holy, it is

Manicheism

make

holiness,

and a holiness necessary to the clergy, by a prohibi tion to marry. It was the most unholy and wicked doctrine against which the apostle warns us, as a doctrine of devils, the fruit of a conscience seared

with a hot duced.

The

iron.

They

fruits of

have been pro If a

characterized the Church.

man

can devote himself to the Lord, body, soul, and It is a spirit, without a snare to himself, be it so.

But the moment you on Manichean and Gnostic

grace and gift from God.

forbid to marry,

you

are

It is urged, in order to defend Rome, that ground. the passages in Paul s epistle to Timothy apply to I admit it. Gnostics. They held that matter was

a bad thing, hence that Christ had no material body, and other extravagancies of every kind but as a ;

way

means of

from women.

holiness, they taught abstinence

This was the doctrine of the Alex-

90 andrian school Dr. N. admires.

infected

with

fruit

it.

They were The Albigenses, the mediaeval

Gnosticism in Christendom, constantly practised it; their perfect, or bonhommcs, did not eat meat, nor

have

women.

to say to

The Bornan Catholic Church taught holiness in Their doctrine was way, and of this kind.

this

unholy, what the fruits of

were we have seen.

Further, the doctrine of indulgences was a horribly

unholy doctrine. of the temporal

are told

punishment

it is

only the remission

But

of sin.

man

died with the sacraments, he never could have any It was purgatory that was feared. other. good

Catholic has nothing else to fear; besides, the ignorant masses were not so nice as to this. The terror of sin \vas

Eoman Church

on their consciences, and the

helped them to get rid of this terror not by Christ s blood for the repentant, known by faith, and there ;

fore purifying not by having their soul restored by the operation of the Spirit of God, but by pardons It was used to build and bought with money. ;

adorn churches, farmed out to bankers. money was made for sins, or the commutations of

tariff

them, and years, thousands of years, of purgatory avoided by paying money. It was a traffic of sin security as to future sins, too.

had returned

Pagan

The nominal Church

vices, as

Paul foretold

would. (Compare Eom. i. and 2 Tim. iii.) The differ ence was this corruption had its way in Paganism :

was horrible

horrible could

be.

;

But Papal

Rome

systematized

in the

known

it,

and made a

world, that I

Not

tariff for sin.

aware

has there

of,

Can been iniquity like this a tariff made for sin arose a Dr. N. be surprised that there protest against !

that there were Protestants

The word of God

no one can deny it. Old truths were maintained, and justification by faith preached. Truth was preached. That man s will, long sup

was brought out

pressed, broke out

;

that the Church was not set

as at the beginning, I admit; that a vast

up mass of

I do Protestantism has fallen into infidelity, alas not deny, though in Germany there is a strong re !

and

action,

Roman

it is

far more

the case

among

cultivated

Catholics, only they do not publish

as in

it,

Germany. But a protest against Rome could not have been delayed. It had been going on at Pisa, at Basle, at Constance, by legal attempts, by the centum gravamina, by the complaints of Bernard and Wessalas, and holy men of times previous to the Refor All the difference was, that

mation.

up men

God then

of sufficient faith to brave the pope

;

raised

whereas

previously the reformation had been left to the popes,

and I

was worse than

all

admit and

all this

wickedness

rishes

and

things

;

filled

it is

;

we pursue

task.

ever.

feel that it is

sanctifies.

and

dismal work going over still to pursue the

have

the study of the truth,

nou

are occupied with unseen

but as the imagination of men is sought to with an idea of the Holy Catholic Church,

needful to turn to the facts, that one

may know

92 that

what

called the Catholic

Church was the un-

that it had extinguished the truth, put to death the saints, and corrupted morals till it became intolerable. Satan was not allowed to holiest thing in the world,

dogmatic foundation of the evidence of

set aside the

a divine Saviour, as in the mass of the population in the East by Mahommedanism so that still I do not ;

the least doubt

many unknown

pious souls were

found, and some known, however dark in knowledge, as Bernard

;

but these

felt

the

evil.

As Bernard

said,

only remained for Antichrist to come. My object here is not to go through the Eoman Catholic con

troversy

it false

apostate in

its

catholicity

absurd, as

Hebrews

central doctrine.

in all that distinguishes is

believed

The ninth and tenth

simple.

prove

when God s word

it.

very

suffice to

I believe

Its pretension to

probably the majority of

Christendom, and certainly the most ancient churches, Unity hence fails in its first

are outside its pale.

element.

There

there in the

no external unity now.

Roman body

modern doctrine

in former times.

Nor was The great

immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary was denied by the most powerful body The prince in the Roman system, the Dominicans. of the

Archbishop of Breslau left that system not long ago because of its being papally decreed.* Transubstanhad been rejected tiation was only decreed in 1215 :

* Dr. Pusey, in his Eirenicon,&quot; has fully shewn what Dr. New statement as to the unanimity of modern Romanists on this point is worth. &quot;

man s

by the best

and doctors

of the fathers

for centuries

the contrary doctrines were used earnestly

Whatever

against the Eutychians.

apostolic succes

more elsewhere than

sion

But

I cannot enter

accounting for the Protestantism

worth,

it is far

now

by them at

Eome.

into all these questions.

which Dr. N.

hated.

be alleged that there was individual sanc Now, that there were God s hidden ones in all

It will tity.

times I cannot doubt a moment. ter of their holiness it

was not necessarily the

beyond

all

And

shewed want of

the charac

scriptural light,

less sincere.

Still,

question, that the universal unholiness of

the professing world, and especially of the priests, and the idolatry prevalent in Christendom, exposed those whose consciences were oppressed

around them to

all

fall

into

by what was the snares laid for them

by Satan in the shape of false doctrine. The effect of this was, that Christendom was composed of, first, unholy, iniquitous, and persecuting orthodoxy (a few souls groaning under the state of things, such as Bernard,

who

christ to

come

Rome)

;

said, ;

All that remained was for Anti

and

others, that

secondly, of a vast

the country from Asia to Spain)

Manichean all

(for

who had

filled

they

fallen into

itself

and sought holiness by judging unholy, but whose devoted and

won

the conscience of the population,

notions,

matter as

he was born already

number

blameless walk

and they were put down by fire and sword of a number whose doctrines it is hard to thirdly,

till

;

94 discover whose constancy and blameless walk as tonished conscientious men and lastly, of others who were counted only schismatics, whose only fault was ;

own the corruption which reigned One class or another of these was

that they could not

around them. spread

were

over Europe. It is a sad history; for they hunted as wild beasts all over the country,

all

burned and tortured, and

what they

it is

really did hold.

often hard to ascertain

The

vented for putting them down. Albigenses and Waldenses

inquisition

Of one

whom

(of

was

large class,

the former, I

suppose, were, as to their leaders at any rate, more or less Manichean), the judgments at Toulouse

be found in the end of Limborch Inquisition,

other notices in

and a good deal of research note to Elliott

many

as to

may

History of the

popular books,

them

Horce Apocalypticce.

collected in a

Of the Mora

Bohemia and a German work

vians, before they were driven out of

Moravia,

the

best

the,

History of Prague, 1857.

But

account

Bohemian Brethren

must add a few words

by Gindely.*

as to the character of

the holiness that was introduced as the Church de clined,

and when

had

lost its first love

Christian holiness of walk.

and true

have seen, by con

temporary statements of Cyprian, Jerome, Augustine, I now that this was the case, and dreadfully so. * Geschichte der Bohmischem Briider.

Bohmen

Part of a larger work. Gindely is a

Mahren, im Zeitalter der Reformation.

Romanist; but

fair

enough

as a historian.

95 only notice the character of what was substituted. It was at a time (and it is not without importance to note it) when Jerome complains bitterly that there

was no need and

make laws

against heathen priests

deceivers, but that there

was against Christian

priests besetting the sick-beds of old persons in order

to get their inheritance.

was introduced habits of

life,

new kind

of sanctity

devotedness to the saints, monastic celibacy,

&c.

Jerome, Paulinus of

Nola, and Martin of Tours, were the great promoters of this. last,

Sulp. Severus gives us the history of the

Jerome and Paulinus furnish us with their own

history; but

was a spurious

holiness, false miracles

and wonders, accompanied with drunkenness and violent tempers. No one can deny that the men I have named were the types and promoters of this kind of devotion. Let us see some of the historical characteristics of

Martin of Tours, the apostle of Gaul. He lay on ashes, as he was, for his bed, and covered with a sack and the like and when he put his foot

it.

First as to

;

out of the

go a couple of miles to church, all the possessed in the church shewed he was coming, though in different ways, so that the clergy learnt cell to

thus he was coming. I saw (I quote from Sulp. Sev. Dialogues iii. 6) one caught up into the air as Martin was coming suspended on high, with his hands stretched out, his feet unable to touch the ground Martin prayed prostrate in sackcloth and ashes. :

Then you might

see the

unhappy men cleansed by

96 their going out in different

ways

these, their feet

;

up on high, hang as

being carried

from a cloud,

and yet

their gawnents not fall down over their face, naked part of their bodies should put people to shame. So in Egypt. Two friends went to see lest the

one of the Anchorites. An enormous lioness came and sought him, and they all followed her. She took them to a cave, and they saw what was the matter :

five

cubs were

The Anchorite stroked

all blind.

their

Soon after the lioness brought eyes, and they saw. a skin of some rare wild beast how acquired we do not learn and brought it to the Anchorite, and he took

Mount

said,

and wore

it.

Sinai,

He who was

(Dialogue

naked

;

and,

Another lived

9.)

when

at last seen,

by men, could not be by Martin met a furious cow that had gored

angels.

visited

She was rushing

several.

at him.

told her to

and then saw a devil on her stand, and she did back, and ordered him off; and he went, and the ;

cow was

Nor was

quiet.

that

The cow knew

all.

very well what had happened, and came and knelt down before Martin, then, on Martin s order, went

and found the familiar with

herd. (Dialogue

demons

ii.

He was most

9.)

knew when

;

was Jupiter,

when Mercury, who was the most troublesome of all, and specially when he had the saints with him.

When

Sulp. Sev.

and Martin was

went

to see

talking,

him

all

and women

was harmony, voices within,

two hours, while Sulpicius and Gallus were out side. This turned out, as he told them after he came

for

97 out covered with ashes and

filth,

be Agnes, and

often Martin said Peter and Thecla, and Mary Paul but then all of a sudden a whole lot of devils :

came, Martin

was

Jove, he said,

Alas

hebetum).

beast in

;

names. et

they beset his dying bed. (Letter

are

you standing there, bloody thou shalt find nothing, fatal one, the bosom of Abraham has received me and

he said

their

a brute, and stupid (brutum

Why

to Bassula.)

iii.

them by

denouncing

;

Yet he had promised pardon to the devil he repented. The devil was accusing some monks

so expired. if

who had sinned

after baptism.

Martin replied that

crimes were purged by the conversation of a better life,

and God would pardon; and then said to the judgment-day was near, even then

devil, if he, as left

following after men, and repented of his

off

deeds, he himself, trusting him. the

mercy

kinds of

stories,

but this

in 402, or thereabouts.

in the

Lord, promised

Christ.

might multiply all surely is enough he died When he dined with the ;

Emperor, he gave the cup to the Presbyter first, as such was the lowliness of the as superior to him ;

cetic

worker of miracles.

(Life, xxiii.)

This was the kind of sanctity now introduced. Paulinus s was specially shewn in honouring St, Felix.

He had

But, alas

saints instead of cally established,

deplores

festivals

we have

in honour of

seen, this

his saint.

change honouring heathen demigods, thus systemati did not change the habits.

the votaries

honouring the

saints

He with

Verum

drinking bouts.

gaudia

sua

nee

votis,

miscerent

So elsewhere.*

sanctis. (Natalis, 9.)

has covered

utiiiam sanis agerent hoc

liminibus

pocula

adds, that he

Felix s house with holy pictures; that drink in sobriety, and forget too much may He implores the aid of St. Felix directly, not St.

the gaper wine.

and a bad eye he -calls himself him that is thine; he seems to make the saints particularly efficacious wherever a part of &amp;lt;even

their

his intercession, for sickness

This

body was.

the holiness Baronius

pares with Protestantism. (394,

to St. Jerome,

it is

;

com

xciii.)

impossible to have a more

eloquent description of Eomish holiness than the *

However, he thinks such joys are

into rude minds

;

to be pardoned, as error creeps nor conscious of so great a fault, fails in piety in

fancying amiss the saints delight in

it.

Ignoscenda tamen puto talia parvis, Gaudia quae ducunt epulis, quia mentibus error Irrepit rudibus, nee tantae conscia culpae,

Simplicitas pietate cadit, male credula Sanctos

Perfusis halante Is this holiness

sepulcris.

was common

Paulinus does not

and the system which gave rise was approved by Rome, as a system. In the well-known letter

approve of to

mero gaudere

a system of holiness

is it

it.

But

;

Gregory I. desires Augustine not to pull down the temples, but to sprinkle them with holy water, put relics of saints in them, and as they were accustomed to slaughter many oxen in the sacrifice of demons, the solemnity was to be changed some to Mellitus,

if well built,

what.

were

the festival of the saint whose relics were there, they the cleansed temple, and celebrate the

make booths about

were solemnity with religious feasts that while some external joys reserved to them, they might be better able to consent to internal cut off all, at once, ones, as it was not doubtful it was impossible to ;

with hard minds.

cites

heathen habits in Egypt.

Jewish

sacrifices as a condescension to

(Lib. ix. 71, or xi. 76.)

99 the excellent Tillemont to keep poor Je name among the saints. He sought to over

efforts of

rome

come

his nature, I dare say.

fasted excessively,

lived in grime and filth, did everything possible to subdue flesh by flesh s efforts, but nature is not over

come little

Tillemont declares that he was very

thus.

exact in stating things as they were, following his own ideas than the truth. These, however,

he says, are the defects of a great genius. But he did not weigh what he said, and, which is more to be regretted, attacked St. Chrysostom indeed, ever he had as an adversary was the basest of ;

who men

he had too great an idea of his eloquence, shews it, was naturally jealous and envious, so as to wound his greatest friends

and alienate them.

It is

hard

not to recognize that he had in his natural character He a sourness and bitterness which pained many.

was soon on pardon.

when

fire

Are we

offended,

to say,

and did not easily

he asks,

who have admired him, and

if so

the Church

many saints who honours

him amongst its saints and doctors, have been de luded a humble son of the Church cannot say that Ambrose, St. Chrysostom, St. Augustine are excellent models of a perfect virtue to animate us to St.

But others have had great

imitate

them

David.

We may say, even,

sins, as

that the defects of Jerome

are useful) as teaching us

what the substance

(le

and Christian piety is. For if it an even and uniform life, in which few

fond) of virtue consisted in faults

are

committed, one would

H 2

have to prefer

100 Piiifinus to

But the Church leaves him

him.

God s

judgment, and has always had the greatest respect for Jerome. Not the services he has rendered the

Church by his labours lemont can see that in

these are not virtues.

his case his austerities

Til-

would

Doubtless, he says, they were very useful to (which his own account by the by does not

not do.

him

shew, though I do not question their sincerity in seeking to maintain incorruptness in celibacy, which he held the highest of virtues), yet, if we had no thing else to praise in him, we should have reason to fear they had rendered him proud, and had been the

cause of that severe and critical spirit which some have blamed in him. He then shews what he thinks

proof of what constitutes a saint his solitary life

first,

his love of

and poverty, though he could have

enjoyed the favour of Pope Damasus and the wealth of Saint Marcella and Saint Paula, two rich women

who admired him greatly; and his fleeing those who honoured him humility which was shewn in not exercising the functions of priest, for which he had

been brought up

;

and

his eleemosynary charity

when he might have been he hopes his anger against his heretical adversaries, and certainly his conduct in borious service for others,

glad to be writing

;

exalting St. Augustine, when he might have seemed a competitor, the more so as he had quarrelled with

Such is Tillemont s kindly and gracious excuse what he was obliged to tell in his history for, in

him. for

;

corrected the translation of the Scriptures.

101 language, particularly against those

fact,

Jerome

who

deprecated monkish sanctity, saint and image

worship, was regular Billingsgate the only word to describe

;

by.

for that is really

Tillemont then

him in these words. The Scripture does not call him alone happy who is without spot and does not sin but, moreover, him to whom God makes a

saint of

;

does not impute

sin,

because he hates

by a pure

and sincere love of righteousness, and that he covers by the nuptial robe of charity, which covers a

multitude of sins, a deep and deadly error arising from a confusion of Proverbs x. 12, quoted by Peter,

God s govern ment in the Church, fervent charity may keep many sins out of sight by Christian forgiveness --was not to come before God for present judgment but to confound it with Psalm xxxii., quoted in Eomans and Psalm

xxxii.

I believe, as to

;

a denial of the gospel and the truth, but the foundation of Komish righteousness and sanctity, even in the hands of the very respectable Tillemont. iv., is

Another painful question bring

all this failure

there such vice in the enquiry, holiness?&quot;

be asked,

up, if things are changed

Why ?

now ? In the first place I reply Has the Eomish body the &quot;note of

The

But

has not.

may

facts are everything.

It certainly

must answer.

There

no doubt

that the light and spiritual energy of the Reformation caused a certain amelioration in Rome but I still ;

must felt,

say, that where the action of this it

not changed.

not directly

Mr. Froude, whose hard-

102

had made a picture of mediaeval learn, was checked by the degeneracy

riding imagination holiness, as

he found in

Italy.

nerated from. I have

have seen what they dege

known

a good deal by personal

experience in several countries, and a good deal

by that of others; and I believe that in principle and practice there is no change, though there may be more concealment.

It is thought infidelity is found among Protestants especially. It is a mistake :

more, I believe, in the bosom of what

called

Catholicism; but not published, as among those Go to France and Italy, and see called Protestants. the state of men, in towns especially. I turn to the popes, to see what their history affords as a stay to the soul, or if it were a cause of righteous revolt.

Eome, and

The absence of the emperors from

their presence at Constantinople,

the Episcopate of

Eome

made

a post of great importance

and

political power.

was

really comparatively small.

Its ecclesiastical It

jurisdiction

was respected

the See of the capital, and had a primary rank if worldly rank is to be looked for in Christ which

Constantinople contested with it as the new capital. But Augustine, the great Western doctor, and the

African council, forbad appeals to Borne as intol But I confine myself here to their history, erable. that

we may have what we are commanding our

as infallible, as

called to look

upon

respect and submis

sion as holy, as of God.

Already, in the fourth century, intrigues for the

103 possession of Papal power became a source of public trouble. In 3G6 Pope Liberius died, and contests for

the See began.

Ursicinus

Damasus was

elected

by a majority,

both were consecrated

a large party

bishops of Home. The emperor banished Ursicinus but his partisans met in the churches they possessed, and refused communion with Darnasus. The emperor ;

took away the churches. They met outside Rome, and were banished the country. In the dispute, the parties fought

for victory,

and a vast number of

Christians were killed, even in the churches.

But

more important than the feud itself. The emperor Constans was an Arian Liberius had condemned Athanasius, persecutor.

the origin of the violent feud

and communicated with the Arians. on

subscribe an Arian creed,

AYhen

called

appears he re pented, and recalled his condemnation. The emperor summoned a council at Aries, where the legates of to

Liberius signed a semi -Arian creed.

Afterwards, at

the council of Milan, hesitating, he was banished, and Felix consecrated pope by an Arian minority. Rome murmured, and Liberius was restored, after three years exile; but signed an Arian creed; and there were two popes,

one said to be really Arian,

and in communion with Arians who had made him pope; the other, who had signed an Arian creed against his conscience. people,

who favoured

mainly submitted Eastern bishops,

Felix was driven out

Liberius,

to Felix.

by the though the clergy had

Liberius wrote to the

who had condemned

Athanasius,

104 them, and that he

to declare his agreement with

never agreed with Athanasius. Osius, of Cordova, the president of the council of Nice which con

demned

Arius,

had given way

to the emperor before counted among the popes as

Liberius.

Felix

Damasus was

II.

hence the

riots.

of the

Felix party, and

It is stated, that in the riots about

Felix, which were very great, many were there were real massacres in baths,

churches, of laity and clergy

but there

Anno

some obscurity

who

killed

;

streets,

that

and

favoured Felix

as to the history.

;

Bar.,

Hilarii P. Fragmenta vi. he (p. 1335), where interrupts his history, or rather Liberius letter to the Eastern bishops, and turns to

357, Tillemont, vol.

anathematize Liberius. screen Liberius,

he adopted.

;

Efforts

have been made to

by questioning what Sirmian creed

So Baronius.

But, if

are to trust

Hilary, there can be no mistake as to his Arianism

;

nor does Tillemont nor Dupin defend him from this accusation, nor Jerome either.

Zosimus became pope. (417.) proved Pelagianism. The synod

He at

formally ap

Lydda accepted

Augustine and the Zosimus re African bishops had condemned him. The African churches met proves them sharply. Pelagius

(418)

;

confession of faith.

Pelagius was condemned and anathematized

;

and they add, if any one presume to appeal beyond sea, no one was to receive him into communion. There

as to

what follows some

conflict of dates

;

but a decree of the Emperor Honorius was obtained,

105 Pelugius and Coelestius banished from Eome, and

Zosimus now condemned what he had approved, and On the death cut them both off from communion. of Zosimus (418), two popes, Boniface

were

elected. force.

place by

and Eulalius,

Boniface attempted to maintain his The prefect kept the peace, and

reported in favour of Eulalius to the

Emperor Hoand banished

Honorius confirmed Eulalius, Boniface maintained his city.

norius.

Boniface from the

ground outside, and his partisans appealed to Ho norius. The emperor cited both before him. The prefect told

him

statements.

Difficulties arose in the decision.

neither could be trusted in their

norius forbade both to go into the city, and sent a

bishop for the Easter ceremonies. However, Eulalius went in. His adherents were unarmed. Boniface s,

who were

of the populace,

made

a violent attack,

and the prefect hardly escaped. But Honorius, glad to terminate the matter, condemned Eulalius for and appointed Boniface. Eulalius was out of the force. driven city by (Baronius Annals,

going

in,

419.)

was about

this time that the popes alleged of canons the council of Nice to maintain forged their authority in Africa. The African bishops had It

the records of Constantinople, Antioch, and Alexan dria, besides their

and refused

own, searched; found they were

to submit, reproving Pope Celesand denying his right to send his legate a latere. These appeals of evil persons the popes were con-

forged, tine,

106

means of

stantly receiving as a

(Hardouin

authority.

Councils,

to Appeal, Can. *125, Letter to

and

The

Celestine, 947.)

establishing their i.

934, Prohibition

Pope Boniface, 939,

letter to Celestine is

Faustinus the legate

very strong indeed.

mission

being wholly rejected.

The

fifth

condemned three chapters

general council

Pope Vigilius, who was at Constan had demanded the council called the fifth

of the fourth. tinople,

then objected to

it,

and would not

by the emperor, published a

assist

constitution

;

was exiled

condemning

the chapters, saving that he did not condemn the council of Chalcedon (the fourth), on whose authority

The Komans wished him back.

they rested.

The

emperor agreed, and said they might have him or Archdeacon Pelagius for pope, or the latter after Vigilius. They wished Vigilius, and said they would take Pelagius afterwards, as he prescribed to them, and the emperor let him go, on his confirming the council which

condemned the three

died in Sicily on the way.

pected of poisoning him,

having,

Pelagius, who was sus succeeded him publicly ;

declaring, however, his innocence.

had climbed over the wall

chapters.

Vigilius himself

into the Papacy, Belisarius

the empress orders, sent off Pope Silverius,

who would

not submit to the emperor s theology,

and put in

Vigilius.

Belisarius gave

him up

Silverius, however, returned.

to Vigilius,

who

sent

him

the island Palmaria, in guard, where he died. (Fleury,

537-558;

vol. vii. 356,

482; Baronius, sub.

an. 538.)

107

counts Silverius pope

his death. Vigilius

till

had

promised two hundred pounds of gold to Belisarius, and would not pay it. Pelagius own election was very uncertain.

Vigilius

three chapters

had

at first

condemned the

Thereupon the from him. The Africans clergy separated excommunicated him. He, seeing he had condemned in

his judicatum.

Eoman

thus a general council to please the emperor, and that the clergy turned against him, retracted; but

meanwhile, note),

seems (Conf. Pagi

Eoman

the

clergy elected

ad.

Bar. 555,

Pelagius.

viii.

Then

and got into favour again, and the emperor told the Romans they might have which they liked, and Pelagius, who came back with

Vigilius yielded,

from Constantinople, certainly joined in Baronius says, no day or month is ill-treating him.

Vigilius

named when he all

this.

succeeded, and complains bitterly of

had condemned the council of

Vigilius

Chalcedon, and written to the three other patriarchs (who were heretics according to it), anathematized the doctrines of the council of Chalcedon, and Pope

Leo in his famous

letter

adopted by

it,

and

nounced communion with those who defended

re it.

Baronius denies the authenticity of these letters; but Pagi and Fleury both admit they are genuine. Silverius tion.

deed

was

&quot;He

really

died of

all historians

pope when Baronius

murdered by want and starva and in hunger,&quot; says Fleury;

remark that Vigilius was chosen was alive, and never afterwards.

Silverius

tries to get

out of

by supposing Vigilius

108

was

re-elected after Silverius death; but

because

ought to

be.

Silverius

it is

was son

merely

Pope

Hormisdas. (FleuTy and Baronius, 53, cxx.) Vigilius ordained eighty-one bishops.

Pope Honorius was condemned

as a heretic

by the

sixth oecumenical council. Baronius laboriously seeks to prove that Theodoret did

it,

and

left his

own name

out, and put Honorius in; but Pagi, his annotator, has, in very few words, and by facts, shown the absurdity of his attempt. Pope Adrian II. refers to

and says heresy was the only ground for resisting He was anathema thus such a superior authority.

it,

tized also

by Pope Leo

II.

(See Fleury,

For

xl. 28.

the acts of the council, see Hardouin; quoted in Baronius, Fleury.)

Symmachus and Laurentius contended

the

for

was a violently contested matter. Papacy. (498.) Both were ordained pope the same day, and they It

appealed to Theodoric at Eavenna, Gothic king, an Arian, to decide. As most were for Symmachus, he

was

to be pope.

He was

crimes, and never was

accused of

cleared.

in the streets for a length of time, and

and wounded. on the other

all

sorts

There was fighting

many

killed

The only godly man we hear of was

side.

Symmachus made

hinder these contests.

regulations to

In vain, however;

for

men

The clergy had in other cases the churches goods, and even the vessels of

will be ambitious.

sold all service,

that

by auctions, for pushing their candidates had been forbidden by rescripts and laws ;

so of

109 the senate; and after Vigilius

3000

solidi

were not to be

election,

more than

paid at court after

election for the royal confirmation, &c., for a

2000

for a metropolitan.

wrote to John, the

new

pope

;

This was in 532. The king pope, recalling a decree of

the senate in the previous pope s time, and allows

much. (Fleury, book vii. 625.) The history of the Papal influence was this, when there were emperors, they ruled; but the pope s

his officers to take so

was growing

though often When the empire fell they were the chief resisted. influence (except the Arian Goths in Italy), and did influence

pretty freely

ecclesiastically,

what they

pleased, increasing in

power

However, the Gothic and confirmed them, interfered, and were ap kings pealed to, as we have seen. When for a time the eastern

in respect of Constantinople.

empire reconquered Italy, the popes were servile and submissive to the emperors could not help it. When :

these were driven out again, they were oppressed

Lombards, but established in

Home by

the Franks

;

Charlemagne, however, fully holding his own, and ruling at Kome.

When

the succeeding Carlovingian

emperors were weak and divided, their power grew. Powerful emperors contended for the right of con firmation of popes and local investiture of prelates

;

and the history of the middle ages is the history of this conflict. The popes raising Italy against them (Guelphs and Ghibelines), and the emperors some times doing as they pleased; but the German em perors having to contend with subject princes as

110 powerful as themselves, and jealous of them, the

pope and they coalesced against the emperors the popes even supported the rebellion of a son against :

his father the emperor.

In Boniface the eighth s but this was

time they laid their hand on France

;

The united, and there was a signal failure. pope had to give way. The next pope had his seat the Avignon at Avignon, under French influence

popes and the court being degraded to the last At the end they had one pope at Eome and degree. another at Avignon, this giving rise to the question

whether the authority of a council were not superior to that of a pope, and the three councils of Pisa, Basle (Florence, Lausanne), and Constance, which There was a so puzzle Eoman Catholic theorists. universal cry for reformation in head and members,

always avoided. At last came the reformation, which threw the whole power into the pope s hand, the bishops holding only under him. And though Louis XIV. maintained Gallican liberties, as they are called, yet the clergy are simply slaves to the pope.

The Jesuit society sprung up

at that

time more

powerful than the pope himself, and recovered southern Germany to Popery. I have now to see in what way the state of the

Papacy gave occasion to Protestantism. From 887, then, the popes were engaged in the strifes of the

when the power of the Empire fell. Another circumstance has to be introduced here. Italian nobles,

number

of forged decretals were produced at this

Ill

which formed the foundation of the pope s

time,

the Isidorean collection.

pretensions subsequently

doubt political circumstances were a means of the popes power, but their canonical pretensions leaned

on these forged

decretals.

They

declare the notable

falsehood that all churches had their origin from

qua omnes ecclesias principium sumsissc&quot; and then go on to state its consequent rights. is said they were written between 829 and 845

Korne

&quot;A

;

appear at carius

Mentz

in the time of Archbishop Aut-

alleged to be brought from Spain at

;

the

end of the eighth century, or thereabouts. Some think they were forged by Autcarius himself, at

Mentz

and that there w ere some old decretals r

;

which gave rise to them, or as some allege, intro duced to accredit the forgeries. At any rate, what gave legal (not political) force to Papal authority from this date, was the forged Isidorean collection. It

admitted,

all

they are forgeries. the Eeformation. Calvin

hands,

They were not detected

till

states it (Inst. iv. 7, 20,

and the Cent.

ii.

and

fully

Bellarmine says they are (iii. 7) ancient, but does not dare defend them as genuine and Baronius gives them up. (vi. 865, and follow

demonstrated

it.

;

ing,

Hincmar combatted, in 870, the decrees, but used them too.

with Pagi. Ann.)

the authority of

However, no one denies their spuriousness, but they served their purpose when wanted. They were used

by Nicolas

in 864.

I turn to the history of the popes

from this time.

112 After the death of Formosus (897), Boniface took possession of the See, and held it for fifteen days.

Stephen VI. (VII.) drove him out and took posses Baronius here remarks sion. Boniface is not to :

be counted, Stephen is future popes having owned one, not the other, the clergy thought it better, ;

though tion

was taken by

all

it, *rather

fear

and violence,

to sanc

than by electing a legitimate Pope have

a schism. (Bar.

Stephen dragged Formosus

897.)

out of his tomb, clothed

him

in pontifical robes,

and

put him on the throne charged him with intrusion into the See (he had been made pope in a tumult, Sergius having been chosen by a party), stripped ;

him then fingers

of his pontifical robes, cut off the three

which were used

to bless with,

and had his

body thrown into the Tiber, and re-ordained all the Baronius says he should clergy he had ordained. not dare to count

him among the

popes, if he

had

done by those of old. (vi. 897.) Stephen Baronius owns was put in prison and strangled. he had only the fact of subsequent recognition by not found

the Church to accept such or such a pope.

(i.

897.)

mentioned the history of an woman, Englishwoman, who had

I should have, perhaps,

Pope Joan.

received a learned education at Athens, became, said, pope in 855.

She

it is

said to have died in child

having been taken with pains of labour in so that the street, going to the Lateran Church birth,

;

That seems un the popes never pass that way. of the questionable, and it is certain that the sex

113

believed

till

many

for

long years, and the story the time of the Reformation --that is,

was examined

Pontiffs

for

She

centuries.

put by Platina,

who

speaks of the story as of uncertain authority, be

Leo IV. and

tween

controversy

Benedict

The

III.

fully gone into in Basnage,

whole vii.

12,

and Schrock, xxii. 75-110. Baronius and Fleury in a suspicious pass the Joan of Platina over and make Benedict elected on the death of

silence,

Leo IV.

Here there was a contested

election, too

Anastasius was chosen by the people, and installed pope, Benedict by the clergy, and Anastasius was driven away.

After Stephen was gone, the Roman faction having the upper hand at the time, Romanus I was Pope somewhat more than four months.

continue.

Thus, indeed, all things, quote Baronius s account as well sacred as profane, were mixed up with &quot;

factions, so that

promotion

Roman

was

the

Pontiff

which seemed the the

Roman

strongest.

by the contrary faction. for

power

See of

of the party

So that at one time

nobles, at another the Prince of Etruria,

intruded by secular power down, when he could, the

to the Apostolic

in the

almost

whom

he would, and put

Roman

Which

Pontiff promoted

things were carried

whole century, until the Othos

(German Emperors) came in between, in opposition to

both parties, but arrogating to themselves in the

same way the

when

elected.&quot;

election of a pope,

Romauus

and

his deposition

disappeared.

Theodoras

114

was pope twenty of

whom

days. is

nothing

known

Benedict IV. succeeded, he seems to have been ;

Leo V. succeeded. After forty a respectable man. driven was he out, and put in prison by days

Christopher.

was, after seven months, driven

and obliged to retire to a mon astery by Sergius, who was all-powerful through It is to be added, Adelbert, Marquis of Tuscany. put in prison,

out,

that these popes undid the ordinations of their pre decessors, as having

no legitimate

title.

One Auxilius

wrote a dialogue, to guard, by decrees and canonical examples, against the intestine discord of the

Eoman

namely, on ordinations, exordinations, and That repro superordinations. (Baronius, 907, iii.)

Church

;

&quot;

says Baronius (908, ii.), &quot;the slave of most the what did vices, iniquitous of all men

bate all

Sergius,&quot;

he leave unattempted

\&quot;

&quot;One

pope

he says,

undid,&quot;

the acts of another; what, then (912, vii.), was the face of the holy Eoman Church ? how filthy, &quot;all

when at

the most powerful and basest harlots ruled

Koine

whose

mven, and, what o of,

their

lovers

who Koman

will sees were changed, bishops

horrible

and unutterable

to hear

were introduced into the See of

Peter,

are only to be written in the catalogue

Pontiffs to

mark such

times.

For who

can say that persons, intruded without law in this way by harlots, can be said to be legitimate Koman Pontiffs

The clergy never

afterwards any consenting cession depends

upon

this,

elected,

mention,&quot;

nor &c.

are told.

there

Yet suc Baronius

115 indeed, seemed to sleep, but he

&quot;Christ,

says,

in the ship

and that

;

security of the

Of the Church,

but not by, but in spite

proves the unfailing

this

Church.&quot;

of,

Marozia was

of Tuscany,

concubine

I believe

;

the popes.

the death of Lando, Theodora,

Adelbert, Marquis

was

who

lived with

and whose daughter

Pope

Sergius,

makes

John, son of Sergius and Marozia, pope. (John X.) Marozia became wife of Guido, Marquis of Tuscany.

She being angry with his brother Peter, had Peter killed, and John seized and put in a dungeon, where they say, suffocated. The emperor at this epoch got a lance, made out of the nails of Christ s Cross, from Paidolf, King of Burgundy, after threaten

he died

ing

fire

and sword

he did not give

to him.

Afterwards gave a large part of Swabia to him, because he gave it up and always beat his enemies ;

with

it.

After Pope Stephen, the Marquis of Tuscany and

Maro/ia make another son of hers, by Pope Sergius, pope, by the name of John XL; but Alberic (son of Adelbert, Marquis of Tuscany, his wife),

who

by Theodora, not John in prison.

ruled at Home, put

There he remained three years, and there was no In 93G Leo VII. became pope. other pope made. I pass fiver a number which need no mention. Octavianus, son of Alberic, AVUS a clergyman; and he governed at Koine, made himself pope (John), ing at

tin-

outside not eighteen years old.

nius again remarks here

iv.), I

Baro-

that though not

116 of an age to be

made

bishop, or even deacon, he

wns owned afterwards in the

succession, the clergy

being supposed to consent, not to have a schism.

The truth ever, the

he ruled

plain enough

Emperor Otho comes

Home.

Rome

How

(963),

and

holds a council, which deposes John, and elects Leo VIII., whom Baronius will not own, because nobody

could depose a pope yet he was ordained pope, and ordained priests and deacons, and held the See a ;

year and four months (Fleury, book Ivi. sec. 7), and they swore fidelity to them. But Otho having sent

away some of him and tried the advantage to fly,

his troops, the to kill ;

him

Romans

rose against

but he knew

;

but when the emperor

it,

and had

left,

Leo had

and John was pope

one night out of

Rome

However, being again. with a married woman, he

was caught in the act of adultery, and had his head The smashed, and died without the sacraments.

Romans chose Benedict V. pope. Otho came and besieged them, and they w ere forced to give up r

Benedict to

Mm, and Leo

committed Benedict

re-enters.

The emperor

the keeping of the Arch

The emperor held a council bishop of Hamburg. at Rome. Benedict appeared owned he had sinned ;

;

was stripped of his robes and his pastoral staff broken he had joined in deposing John, and swore ;

fidelity to Leo.

No wonder

Baronius does not

own

Leo, as he recognized the right of Otho to establish the pope, of investitures, &c., under pain of excom munication, exile, and death. However, the next

117 Leo was Leo the Ninth, so that on Baronius s prin Baronius has no ciple he must be reckoned such.

Leo VIII.

After Leo

all.

death, they sent

know whom he would

have, and he sent ambassadors to Koine, and John XIII. was chosen. He was followed by Benedict VI. He became odious

Otho

to the

Crescentius, son of Theodora

Komans.

Pope John

X., took him, shut

wards strangled him

became Pope.

him

and

up, and after

while yet alive, Boniface VII. After the death of Benedict they ;

drove out Boniface, and Bonus became pope some do not count him among the popes. relation of Alberic.

But Baronius

;

inserts

though

Then

Bonus,

but does not count Boniface. I pass over the

fluence prevailed.

able

;

1003,

popes named while temporal in The Germans were more respect

but Baronius does not like them.

we have John XVI.,

called

In 1002 or

also

and com

monly XVIII. for a few months, and then John XVII. (usually XIX.) Baronius will not own him but as XVII., because it would be recognizing schis matic popes. Bar. (x. 1003) puts two popes John; he says, to make the numbers run right. Crescens

had expelled Gregory V. from Koine, and made a reek pope. The Emperor and Gregory V. marched on Kome. But some servants of the Em together (

peror, fearing his

clemency (John was a favourite and caught the pope, and put

at court), followed, his eyes out, 50.)

and put him in

Benedict VIII.

now took

prison.

(Fleury,

Ivii.

the See after Sersjius

118 but another party chose Gregory VI. But Benedict, being son of the Count of Tusculum, carried the day; but the party of Gregory VI. IV.,

and Benedict fled to the emperor. Benedict was restored in less than two However, roused

years. at

all,

itself,

After Benedict, John, a layman not in orders He was Benedict s bro

had the Papacy.

ther, another son of the

Count of Tusculum.

got the Papacy, says Fleury, partly by money,

He (lix.

Evidently family influence too. The patriarch of Constantinople very nearly succeeded in buying 3.)

the universal Papacy of the East. The Romans drove John XIX. out but Conrad, the emperor, came ;

with an army and set him up again he died that His nephew, son of Alberic, Count of year, 1033. :

Tusculum, was made pope, a boy of about 12 years old, says

Fleury; not scarce 10, says Glabeus, in Bar.

By money

and intrigue

also,

Bar. 1033, v.)

and through

too.

lix.

(Fleury,

;

was infamous, plunderings and murders became so

Benedict IX.: his

his

odious, that the people drove

became pope, but only held

him

life

out.

three

Sylvester III.

months

;

he was

But another powerful family, says Baronius. Benedict, with the Tusculum family, attacked Rome,

and was

reinstated.

But

his conduct

became insup

portable, and he agreed to leave for a sum of money, and the Papal revenue of England, to follow his

and they made John Gratian pope, Gregory VI. But all three called themselves popes.

pleasures freely as

;

Gregory VI. gave up the Papacy, in a council called

119 having entered on

to settle matters, as

as Benedict

was paid

unlawfully;

But Baronius, who

to go out.

speaks of it as a beast with three heads (v. 1044) coming out of the gates of hell, insists Gregory VI.

was a

owned so by Gregory VII., Peter The number designating the pope is

real pope,

Damienus, &c.

constantly uncertain, because whether such or such an one was really pope is uncertain. He who is called is

John XIX., Baronius

VIII. or IX.

so Stephen.

calls

XVII.

Benedict

But when things

are at

The emperor came, gathered

the worst they mend.

Rome

done decently, and

they agreed to have the emperor took up

Suidger, bishop of Bamberg,

and he became Clement

the clergy and nobles of things

II.

fit

person,

said,

;

was found in Eome.

However, Clement II. died in nine months, and Benedict came back and held the Papacy for nine months.

Then, as

Sylvester

went back

gory I

know

of Brixia, to

months

pope.

seems, repented and gave it up. What came of Gre

to his See.

The emperor sent Poppo, bishop be pope. He lived as Damasus II.

not.

twenty-three days six

;

But Baronius

pieces and

and Bruno, Worms, was chosen

said to be poisoned

after, in a diet held at

says, Benedict

was tearing

So Dupin (xi. century, chap, defiling refers to he Clement s being poisoned. A cir iv.) cumstance is to be noted here. Hildebrand, after it.

;

wards Gregory VII., came with Bruno. The Romans had sent to the emperor, and asked him to give

them a pope, through

dread,

appears, of Benedict

;

120

and

Worms, Bruno (Leo IX.) came robes. Hildebrand got him to take

after his choice at

in his pontifical

them

who

off,

and be again chosen

established the

Rome.

modern Papacy.

was

(Bar., Fleury,

Dupin.) Everyone who searches for himself must look to the facts, not the title of the pope, as the succession

so uncertain, that VIII. in one is IX.

in the other, and sometimes, as in the Johns, there are three enumerations.

AYe have seen already the state of the clergy the buying and sale of benefices was universal even of ;

the all

popedom

and immorality, the most degraded, The chase and clergy.

;

but universal among the

pleasure was their occupation.

Eomans

the death of Leo,

Hildebrand to the emperor, to choose a pope in Germany they had no one fit in The emperor assembled a council at MayBorne.

the

sent

;

ence,

and Hildebrand got them

to choose Gibbard,

bishop of Eichstadt, a near relative to the emperor,

who

did not wish to lose him.

However, he went, and became pope. He was

kept his bishopric too, very near being poisoned by a subdeacon in the sacrament, but could not lift the cup. They say another devil openly seized the poisoner. Hildebrand was now the soul of the Papacy at Rome. great change took place under Nicolas II.

the death of Stephen, the emperor, who kept things in order, the Eoman nobles, the Alberic

family,

and

others, chose the bishop of Veletri as

Pope Benedict.

The

cardinals opposed

;

but Eleury

121 held the Papacy nearly ten months

lie

says

but

;

Hildebrand got the bishop of Florence chosen at When he had arrived, the Koiuans sent Florence.

who

to the emperor,

rence

;

the pope

sanctioned the choice of Flo

was Nicolas

II.

recognized

publicly the emperor s rights, but decreed, when pope, that the cardinals should choose the pope,

thus excluding the emperor and the Roman people. This laid the foundation of the modern Papacy, which

was born is

in Hildebrand, Gregory VII.

Therefore

have noticed

abdicated.

this part of the history. Benedict This was the era of Damianus, whom we

have previously cited. Alexander II. was the first chosen by the cardinals. (1061.) Another was chosen

and consecrated through Lombard influence. Pope Honorius he came to Rome in arms, was at first victorious, but was afterwards beaten the Ger at Basle,

;

man

him

weaken an infant

princes deserting He was deserted by his soldiers, got into emperor. the castle of St. Angelo, was besieged two years by

Alexander, and then

his claim.

But Honorius never gave One great means of the depression of fled.

imperial power was, that the archbishop of Cologne stole away the young emperor from his mother, who

had maintained Alexander s

his authority,

side,

that

and went over

Pope

the emperor was null, There was a council at

though nominally saved. .Mantua, where the archbishop

appeared,

as did

Alexander,

who was charged

Honorius.

Alexander was recognized pope, Honorius

also with simony,

and

122 pardoned, the emperor s rights nominally saved, and some of the German party promoted. The archhop charged Alexander with having despised the

emperor s rights. P. Damianus wrote on this. That Honorius contrived to claim and exercise Papal authority as far as he could see (Bar. 1064, xl.), and After Archbishop of Eavenna favoured him. was Hildebrand as Alexander, pope, Gregory VII.

decreed absolutely the celibacy of the clergy; was

resisted everywhere in the north of Europe,

there was

some more respect

secuted

earnestly.

for morality;

where

but pro

The Papal system was now established. I have only to notice, till I come to those near the Eeformadying struggles of

the imperial power which had given popes for near a century, as Rtronius admits, and the Avignon popes, and the schism and briefly. Before I turn to this, I give

tion,

the

;

Gregory VII. s account of the state of the Church. I have not preserved any reference here, but have no doubt of the correctness of the extract. &quot;Alone with

my mind s

eye, I look at the west, south,

I scarcely find bishops, legally such

and

life,

who

and north.

their entrance

rule the Christian people for the love

and among all know none who put God s honour As to own, and justice before gain.

of Christ, and not secular ambition

;

secular princes, I

before their

those amongst

whom

I dwell, as I often tell

Eonians, Lombards, and Normans,

them,

denounce them

123 as, in

a certain way, worse than Jews and

Pagans.&quot;*

Gregory having excommunicated the emperor, the latter and his bishops chose Guibert (Clement III.) Gregory would have attacked him at Ravenna with an army. (Fleury, 1080, iv.) He sought the help

pope.

the

Normans.

Germany

The

(Lombardy) and

Italians

being for the emperor.

The

latter (1084)

entered Rome, set Clement III. on the Papal throne.

Gregory retired to St. Angelo. The emperor besieged there. Robert Guiscard, the Norman, freed

him

him, and after staying awhile in Rome, he retired under the protection of the Normans.

to Salerno,

Gregory VII. died at Salerno. The small Papal party Clement re secretly elected Desiderius, Victor III. turned to Rome; he had been expelled in 1089, and came back in 1091. (Fleury, Bar.) Didier refused to be pope,

and when chosen went back

Mont

ami would not be ordained, but at last The Normans and others came to Rome, yielded. and turned out Clement III. from St. Peter s by force. Casino,

Still, it

appears, he held the upper

hand there

after the death of Victor III. (Didiev),

;

for

Urban, named

by him, was chosen at Terracina, under the influence of Mathilde, the great protectress of the popedom then,

by a small assembly,

forty persons, clergy

and

* An Abbot Transmundus having put out the eyes of some monks accused of rebellion, and torn out the tongue of one of them, Desiderius, abbot of Casino, put him to penance. Gregory, then cardinal, approved the act, got him out of the abbot s hands, gave

him an abbacy, and afterwards made for

a bishop of him.

Anything

124 laity partly,

by proxy, John, Bishop

their authority. (Flemy,

chap,

vi.;

Bar. 1T)88,

Ixiii.

Dupin,

;

et seq.)

of Porto, having

It is

notice at this part of the history, that

xi.

cent,

important to

what destroyed

the power of Clement and the emperor in Italy was, that Urban got up the crusades through Peter the hermit, and

when

He was

jected.

crusaders.

that took effect, Clement was re

driven,

appears, from Koine

by the

Pope Urban, the second (Grat. Deer. Part

Cans, xxiii. Quses.

ii.

&quot;

5, c.

47) says,

of suitable satisfaction to those

excommunicated.

Enjoin a measure

who have

killed the

For we do not consider those as

guilty of homicide who, burning with the zeal of

mother against the excommunicated, have happened to have slain some of them.&quot;

their Catholic shall

time this was the greater part of Europe. The remaining facts may be briefly recounted. this

Pascal

raised

II.

the emperor

son against him.

That son banished him from Eome, and Gregory VIII. was set up as pope.

The Roman pope died

in exile, or two days after his return

was elected soon

after.

with the emperor.

Calistus

but Gelasius

pope, but died in exile also

Calistus II. followed as

treats of peace

prisoner.

Roman

;

was not

elected,

Roman pope

;

Gregory was his Baronius admits

;

he was chosen by a few cardinals and clergy at Cluny,

when and

Gelasius died, as trusted by him. (Bar. 1119, i. v.) After Honorius, there was a contested election

between cardinals and people, but the circumstances are of no moment. After him, the cardinals who

125

had been beaten in Honorius

case chose Gregory,

Other cardinals and the people chose Peter, Anacletus II., favoured by the laity. Innocent Innocent

II.

Eome, went to France, owned by Ber in and nard, general in Europe; but Anacletus was Pope at Eome. On Anacletus s death, the schism

had

to leave

moment is ended by St. Bernard s influence. The Emperor Lothaire brought back Innocent; but as soon as he was gone, Innocent had to go back

for the

Gregory was elected in Anacletus s stead as Victor, and submitted to Innocent, but the

to Pisa.

Eomans renounced obedience followed

tine

to the latter.

Celes-

Baronius says Anacletus

quietly.

presence at Home was the triumph of Antichrist, and that it was easy to see who was the successor of

St.

Peter.

(1130,

iii.)

The

killed in a rebellion of the

a stone, as

some

how he

when say.

next,

Lucius,

was

Eomans, by a blow of

assaulting the Capitol

;

or of chagrin,

Baronius, Dupin, Fleury, do not say

died.

His

successor,

Eugene,

fled

from

Then came Anastasius IV. Then a disputed election-

Eome, but returned. Adrian IV. followed.

Alexander and Victor

the latter given up by the when beaten emperor by the Lombards. Lucius III. and Urban III. sat at Verona, not at Eome. Lucius ;

being hated and despised by the Eomans, who attacked his territories, and he finally settled at

fled,

Verona, where Urban was chosen.

From Urban

III.

Boniface VIII., that

is,

taking in Lucius, from 1181 to 1294, the history of

126 the Papacy

that of a worldly power, yet using

excommunication

as its

weapon, contending against

the emperors, using Sicily and

Lombardy as their main arms against him with various success, but in But it wearied the world, and result successful.

when Boniface attempted

to use the acquired

against Philip of France, he

signally failed.

successor repeated his acts.

And

the

power His

next pope,

chosen by French influence, removed to Avignon, in France.

This, as being practically secular history, I

leave untouched.

&quot;My kingdom,&quot;

not of this world, else would

says the Lord,

servants

&quot;is

fight.&quot;

The pope s was. The most remarkable pope of the period was In nocent

when

III.,

who

held the fourth council of Lateran,

transubstantiation was for the

first

time decreed.

established the inquisition in the crusades against

the Albigenses. We may notice that, the See having been vacant three years through election intrigues, there was a compromise, and Gregory X. made a decree for what

now

practised, that the cardinals

should be shut up till they chose a pope. Celestine V. reserved it, and then resigned, as the cardinals

were two years and a half before electing him. The person who got Celestine to resign got himself chosen in his place

was Boniface VIII.

Celestine gives

a curious reason to justify his abdication.

says

who was named by Peter, resigned, that no pope might be named by his predecessor. And then Clement,

came third

after

Linus and Anacletus.

So Peter

127

made

a blunder in beginning the matter. It

the succession of the is

first

hopelessly embroiled.

manners of the

to the

clergy and the court of Eome in Innocent IV. is

of Cardinal

Hugo,

at Lyons, (p. 819.

verify the

time,

quoted as giving the parting address

Matt. Paris

book

known

three possessors of the See

have not the

magnam

&quot;Amici

quotation.)

fecimus postquam in hanc urbem venimus utilitatem et

Quando enim primo hue venimus

eleemosynam.

tria vel

quatuor prostibula invenimus (here in the

sense of Iv+ianar), sed

nunc recedentes unum solum

reliuquimus verum ipsum durat orientale porto civitatis

From 1309 French

usque ad

rights over others,

at Avignon, under and protection, proclaimed his and submitted to France. The

struggles with the emperor

pven up Minorites

Rome

went

Italian

on.

Mcolas V.

to his competitor at

and

the pope lived

influence

an anti-pope

continuation

occidentalem.&quot;

;

Lewis

The

friar

sided with

the

Avignon.

cardinals

set

but he was soon

emperor, who was preparing a general council against the pope, who meanwhile died. Benedict XII. suc

ceeded at Avignon. France would not allow him to make- peace witli the emperor; the emperor was but the deprived of the sacraments by the pope ;

clergy

who would

not administer

them were ban

But Lewis took ecclesiastical powers in hand, ami lost influence, t lement VI. succeeded Benedict,

ished.

and anathematized the emperor, and set up an antiBut the conduct of emperor, who was forced to ily.

128 Clement,

who had deposed an

ecclesiastical elector

to gain voices for his anti-emperor,

of the popes.

had wearied men

.Clement got the upper hand, but

Papacy. The electors of the empire meet, and declare the King of Rome receives his injured the

power from electors only. From 1313 to 1316 the See was vacant dinals

would not

Clement

elect.

Avignon, lived in adultery, sold

had

to dispose

92, xi.)

Yet

of,

and

this

left

all

the car

pope at the benefices he

V.,

first

immense wealth.

(Fleury,

same Clement, in opening the

council of Vienne, describes the state of the whole

Church

and

as corruption itself, clergy

con. of Bar. 1311, Iv.)

This

the court of Avignon.

(Raynald account of

laity

Petrarch

died in the Papacy of

Gregory XI., and had lived at Avignon. third Babylon, the fifth labyrinth. prisons, nor the tortuous

way

It is the

Here, dreadful

of a dark house, nor

the fatal mixing of the fate of the human urn lastly, not imperious Minos, nor a voracious mino;

taur,

nor the

monument

condemned

are wanting; but remedies,

lusts (yeneris),

love, charity, faith to

promises, friendly counsels, or thread by silent help, marking the perplexed way Ariadne and Daedalus.

The only hope

of safety

appeased by gold, nay more, Christ is

gold

and heaven sold for gold

fierce

king

opened by gold;

During this time, from the universal corruption and squeezing for money, the consciences of godly men were rising up against the state of things

129

Yon Jannow,

Matthias

Milicz,

before

Huss.

both

Bohemians,

Wickliff.

England, (1360, &c.) Gregory XL died at Eome, and a pope was elected then in a riot. Eaynald says the uproar was after

However

wards.

that

may

be, for all

was violence

and confusion, the cardinals elected another, Clement VII., who went to Avignon; and there were two

who

divided Europe between them.

Benedict XIII.

succeeded at Avignon, Boniface IX. at Eome, and then Gregory XII. This brought on the council of Pisa,

which put down both.

Alexander V.

The council chose and does

dissolves the council,

not reform.

now

There were

three

The exaction of

popes.

money became intolerable, selling of benefices public. It was said it was allowable, as the pope could not sin in it. This brought on the council of Pisa, &quot;a

council,&quot;

says

Bellarmine,

&quot;neither

manifestly

approved nor manifestly condemned.&quot; (De Cone, lib. i., c. viii.) That it is approved, the succeeding Alexander being called VI. shews for Alexander V. ;

was made pope by that cumstance John XXIII.

to be confessedly

pope, though moderns say no.

obliged to

fly,

which met

by sort

Eome

and the same

council,

John XXIII. being

consented to a

Constance.

cir

a true

Here

first

new

council,

they voted

John was deposed, accused of every horrible crime. He had first fled the

nations.

council.

remained

Gregory XII. resigned. determined,

was

Benedict XIII.

deposed,

and

finally

130 deserted

all

but the Spanish town he lived

Martin V. was elected by

all.

The council had

formally decree^, a council superior to the pope,

had acted on popes, and council.

it.

in.

and

Martin condemned

after a little

all appeals from reformation dissolved the

was here John Huss was burnt, and it faith was not to be kept with a

was declared that heretic.

He had had

letters of safe conduct.

Martin

confirmed the articles of faith of the council of Con stance. (Raynald, 1418,

ii.)

Martin V. quarrelled with

He appointed a council first at Pavia, cardinals. then at Siena; but which met afterwards at Basle, under Eugenius. the really, and

But there was no reformation universal

complaint

continued.

France made regulations for herself. Eugene IV. succeeded Martin V. The iniquities with which

John XXIII. was charged were

when

presented to the chief

men

dreadful, that

of the council of

Constance they thought it better not to have him the Apostolic See would be dis called to account credited altogether, siastics

and

all his

promotions of eccle

held void.

I should add, that the council of Constance

had

ordered that a council should be held within a limited time, and a second within seven years, and

these were held in consequence.

reformation from the council.

The

council,

first,

Eugenius, fearing sought to dissolve the

under his own

legate, resisted,

confirmed the decrees of Constance that a council

was above the pope, and could decide

so as

131 subject

the pope included, in articles of faith,

all,

The cry was

schism, and reformation.

universal,

echoed in these councils, for reformation in head and

The French held a national council

members.

back up the council of Basle against the pope s effort, and even the emperor, though yielding to the

pope

for a

time to get crowned, returned to the

But

council.

pope tried

this

it out.

condemned

the pope, and deposed him, and elected Felix V.

Meanwhile, the council having cited the pope (1437) to appear before it, he appointed a council at Ferrara,

and the two

sat together.

condemns that of in 1442.

From

Basle.

ferred to Florence.

The council Ferrara

The council

Basle, in 1444, appointing Felix V. had one at Lausanne.

was trans

of Florence ended

The pope appointing one

of Ferrara

Eome

;

that

one

in Germany. But subsequently

resigned the Papacy, on condition of having all his cardinals and promotions to benefices owned, and certain personal privileges.

withdrew

all

Nicolas, the other pope,

his acts against

him and the

council

of Basle.

The pope

Kome had

thus seemingly gained uncontested supremacy; but the fact that all the respect able clergy

named

had met, condemned deposed popes, and whose successors all subsequent popes

others

have been, made their position very

different.

All

their theologians avoid, if possible,

pronouncing a on these even when councils, judgment they hold the

supremacy of the pope in the highest way.

K 2

Bellar-

132

mine admits, that Pisa can neither be approved nor condemned. If it be condemned, the pope is not pope, for the popeb are the successors of the council s

nominee;

be approved, then a council can Neither proposition would do. The

depose a pope.

That council deposed

like is the case of Constance.

three popes, and chose another.

declared

that

pope was

But, then,

subject

openly general

and that a council represented the universal Church, and could act in its name, and was infal lible; and it acted on it; and again, the succession council,

depends on their

act.

.Moreover, Martin V. sanc

tioned the doctrine that a general council represents

the whole Church.

Bellarmine

(Fleury, 106, xiv.)

recognizes the power of a council to settle schism.

He II.,

Popes Cornelius, Symmachus, Innocent Alexander III., and the Pisa and Constance

refers to

councils.

than a council.

remedy, he says, is more powerful So for false doctrines in Popes, as

Murcellinus, Damasus, Sixtus III., Leo III. and IV.

Marcellinus, he says, had to confess

;

the rest

Now, though the popes had hand, the universal conscience of the

purged themselves. the upper

Church was roused

;

the weightiest, godliest doctors

declared there must be reform in the head and in the

members.

This became the universal cry all over whenever the pope went too far, there was

Europe an appeal to a general council. ;

in of

what

France maintained,

are called the Gallican liberties, the doctrine

Constance.

The popes themselves, instead of

133 governing an ignorant and prostrate Europe, whose princes being divided and jealous of one another,

were glad of the pope s help, while he was always himself and one in his purpose, and scrupled at no weapons, were now judged by laity and clergy, who were subject to them, and gave themselves up to

mere petty

local ambition.

France and Germany

were considerably emancipated in the spirit of men s minds; deliverance was looked for anxiously, and though disappointed in their hopes of redress from the councils, were groaning so much the more, Spain and though hopelessly, under the burden. Portugal were more content, because they liked that

pope which divided the new world between them. But men s spirits craved deliver of

title

ance

;

the

threatened councils, appealed to them, were

ripe for

some

deliverance.

The unheard

of infamies

of Alexander VI., and even the crimes and conduct

of Sixtus and Julius, only sunk the Papacy lower,

and the shameless sale of indulgences, practically an allowance to sin, gave the last blow to man s conscience, and opened the

though none opposed

it;

door to the testimony of an offended God. I shall briefly trace this, which will lead us to the Eeformation.

Nicolas V. arranged matters peaceably with Felix V., the Lausanne pope, who was during his life to be Calixtus respected as such, though without power. IV. followed him. succeeded in They gaining in fluence in Germany but the attempt to rouse the ;

134 people to a crusade against the Turks utterly failed. Pius II. failed in like attempts he condemned ;

appeals to a general council (Eaynald, 1460, x. xi.),

where we see

was

&quot;become

This

a general thing.

same pope, as Eneas Sylvius, had been a great adherent of the council of Basle. Paul II. was arbi

The cardinals

trary.

at this

time bound themselves

when in conclave, as in the case of Eugenius, to reform the Papal court in head and members, hold a council, and to many other points. Eugene con all

firmed this by a bull. Paul bound himself in the same way, but by a decree rejected it all, and by

and violence forced

cajoling

to join him,

1431,

1458,

v.,

1464,

the cardinals but one

all

though some very

reluctantly, (liaynald,

Ixi. Ixii.)

Platina complains

bitterly of his undoing iniquitously all Pius

II.

had

done, threatened to complain to kings and princes

everybody did and have a general council, and got put in Sixtus IV. prison and in the stocks for his pains. succeeded. He occupied himself with low Italian (for parliaments, universities, kings,

so now),

intrigues

and conspiracy

advance

Innocent VIII. came after him.

his

family.

He was famous

for

promoting and enriching his illegitimate children, though one of the conditions (in conclave) of election

was not

to do

it.

on this account.

him

father.

pope. xxiii.)

He was

Rome, they said, might well call he had seven children while

It appears

The general

the subject of pasquinades

fact is stated

by Raynald. (1492,

received pay from the sultan for keeping

135

when

a rival brother safe

Europe. to refer.

the Turks were invading

To Alexander VI. one hardly knows how He is recognized to have been except it

own second illegitimate son the most horrible who has come under public notice. A thorough

be his fiend

debauchee at

all times, so as to attract

reproof even at the Papal court. bribery and promises, he got

and

Elected -pope by one way or

rid in

who promoted him.

another of those

notice

His second

son killed his eldest brother, and the pope s other favourite, Peroto, who had hidden himself in the

pope

mantle, so that the blood spurted up in the

pope

face.

(Casillo,

Appendix

to Eancke,)

ander had made a cardinal of him

but he

left

France made him

Alex

quite young,

the clerical order to be a prince in Italy.

Duke

of Valentinois, to reward

the pope for his divorce.

band

when

marry her

better.

killed his sister s

This same

sister,

hus

when

the pope was away, kept the Papal court, and opened the dispatches, consulting the cardinals. She was

one of the pope

five

illegitimate children.

Her

marriage was celebrated with pomp in the pope s Infessina s language is bitter to a degree on palace. the occasion, and he declares that the universal corrup tion of the clergy through Innocent

and Alexander s

made men fear it might reach monks and people of religion. &quot;Although,&quot; he

care of their children

the

monasteries of the city were all but all (quasi omnia) turned into brothels, no one gainsaying it. The current lines on him were, Alexander sells

adds,

&quot;the

136

kings, altars, Christ.

good right to sell

them/

bought them, he has Engaged with his second

first

son Borgia in poisoning (as he had poisoned others already) some rich cardinals, to get their money, at a

he took, being very hot, the wine and I cannot be expected to go died. poisoned into the details of such a life as this. Kaynald tries feast prepared for

cover the

believes him.

way he met The very

needs no notice.

The

it,

cardinals

death, but

no one

II. was engaged in wars. sworn to reform, and have a was occupied fighting against

Julius

had

general council.

his

brief pontificate of Pius III.

all

the Venetians, and afterwards the French, &c.

XII. had a council at Tours.

Louis

Germany prepared her

griefs, and sought a pragmatic sanction like France. The French council held that the king could renounce

allegiance to the pope.

should keep the decrees If Julius

of Basle, and appeal to a future council.

armed, pronounced sentence upon him or his allies, would be of no force whatever. The king and emperor summoned a general council at Pisa, but it

was mainly composed of French bishops. The pope convoked another at the Lateran. The Pisan came to nothing, though

number

deposed the pope by a decree. it, founded

of cardinals were engaged in

on Julius promise to have a general council within two years. I only refer to it to shew the confusion all

was

in.

The emperor and king

afterwards to the Lateran.

made a

treaty.

of France adhered

Francis

and Leo X.

The pope by that had again quietly

137 upper hand. The councils of Constance and Basle, on the first of which the succession of the

the

Papacy depends, maintained the authority of councils The and bishops. France held strongly to this. councils of Florence and Lateran V. set

up the pope.

Europe broke off, and the pope by the council of Trent remained absolute in the rest, if we In

result half

except the Gallican liberties. This brings us to the last act which brought about the Reformation. Not the wisdom of princes, nor the

power of councils

;

but

God

rousing conscience and

Conscience long wearied, and faith which He roused gave, by the excessive wickedness which the faith.

popes,

mere Peter

grown secure

in wickedness, countenanced for

Julius

esthetical purposes.

Leo wanted

finish

it.

had begun St. Italy had been

II.

flooded with fresh light

from Constantinople, and

the educated clergy were

infidels.

Greek alone was sought pursuits.

It is said that

after,

pleasure and literary

Leo himself was an

At any

no proof of it. was to be finished, and for

but there

Elegant Latin or

infidel

;

Peter

rate, St.

this purpose money was For this purpose an old expedient, by which the piety of the ignorant had been before that

to be raised.

imposed on, was resorted which passed all bounds. as to

which there

but with a recklessness

Indulgences were issued,

are very pretty theories, but

are but allowances to

well

to,

said to be

which

sin for money. I know commutation of penance, and

commit

shortening consequently the duration of purgatorial

138 pains; but penance had taken place of the need of holiness,

and as a man with the sacraments would

not go to

hell,

purgatory had taken the place of

and when a man wanted

to sin,

hell,

he got rid of the

purgatory he was afraid of by paying a sum of money he wanted to sin, and paid so much money to do it with impunity. Guilt (culpa) was settled :

by sacraments,

so that he did

not

much

trouble

the pains which remained, about by money. Now, too, it was not

himself about

it;

which he did

care,

provided for troubled sinners, but offered everywhere to bold ones who wanted to sin. Each sin had its

The

price.

object

was

get

money.

Grace, or

no matter which, was

riot

Albert, brother of Joachim, of Brandenburg

holiness, or

thought

any

doctrine,

of.

young, elegant, sumptuous

and

Elector, spent, like

afford,

and applied

indulgences

;

Archbishop of Mayence,

Leo,

Leo

more than he could

for the

farming of the

but he had not paid

for his pallium,

or archepiscopal robe,

some 30,000

florins,

and could

pope wanted money, and Cardinal Pucci had suggested this means of

not have

without

;

for the

The Fuggers were bankers of Augsbourg, and Albert owed them money already; however, the

getting

it.

seemed a good one, and they advanced the money for the pallium, and became bankers for the

affair

certain Tetzel, whose life, it indulgence -money. is said, the Elector of Saxony had already saved, when Maximilian was going to put him in a sack

139

and throw him into the Inn, and who had before preached indulgences with success, undertook the matter for Albert.

stated that he declared,

if a person had violated the Virgin Mary, he could give him pardon that as soon as the money was in the box, the souls were out of purgatory.

that

from his own statement, that he urged when a man had pardon (plenary remission,

It is certain,

that

says the instruction) for his sins on confession and

which he got on confessing them, or undertaking to do it, still for mortal sin there was contrition,

seven years penance on earth

;

and men committed

countless ones, and

God knew how long they would

and

purgatory

;

that,

save

four

for

cases,

pope, he could give pardon for everything now, at any time on confession,* and plenary at the hour of death, so that they would

reserved to the

purgatory altogether for a small sum. As to condemnation, the confession, contrition, and abso slip

lution

had put

all

that out of the question.

The Jesuit Maimbourg does not attempt to con ceal the iniquity of what was and had been going on.

Before

this,

indulgences had been largely used

make money farmed out all the money of them they

the charges against

to questors,

could.

who made

was one of

John XXIII., giving power

* The instructions themselves to Tetzel are in Gerdes Hist., Ev. vol. i., document ix. These say once in life, and in the hour

Ren.

of death, even, for reserved cases Sec. 30.

;

for others as often as

need was.

140 his legate to appoint confessors,

from

sins,

and

all

and

free

the penalty besides,

every one

they paid

what they were rated at. Still, Maimbourg admits, it went on with Leo all the same, that Tetzel was em ployed because he had got in great sums for the Teu tonic knights, that the agents

made people

believe

they were sure of their salvation, and souls were delivered out of pulsatory as soon as the

paid

;

uts

and

money was

they saw the clerks of these same carousing in taverns on their profits, much as

indignation was created.

(Maimbourg a History of Lut leninism, 3rd edition, 12mo, Paris, p. 9 et seq.) This, he admits, was the origin of Protestantism. 1

doubt popes had made money of indulgences It was now an habitual resource; that is, before. religious iniquity of the profoundest sale

of liberty to sin

the

Bom an Church

doctrine of

out to

was

its

;

was the the

profit.

corruption, ever

practice of

popes and leaders. It was farmed I repeat, no heathenism, horrible as

its

the principle

settled

The

authorised practice and

was guilty of such deep and

dark iniquity. It will be said that Tetzel abuse.

kind was.

so. is

conduct was a gross

To a rightly constituted mind, The worse than the abuse.

far

ornament a grand church, by a universal commutation of godly dis cipline (if we go no farther) for money, really for pope, getting

money

to build or

all sorts of sin for money, is worse than the abuses that a reckless agent may be guilty

an allowance of

141 of.

Dr. N.

ignorant of

knew this.

an ignorant man might be Dr. N. was not; he knew this

this

;

gave birth to Protestantism.

Has he not learned

hate such things as this ? In Leo s time light had come in of popes

the condemning had weakened confidence the

councils

;

people were weary of the iniquity long ago, but the authority that sanctioned it had now lost a great deal of

its influence,

science,

shewn

and the excessive

insult to con

in the present sale of indulgences, filled

The princes were angry at their oppression by the pope they had long complained, though they had not dared to stir. But when God raised

the cup.

;

up Luther to apply the Word of God to the con science, and shew the iniquity of all this, and after some time the want

of foundation for the pope s was power, providentially prepared. People came to confess to him, guilty of all sorts of crimes and all

;

when he

on putting practical penance on them, they produced their letters of indulgence, and were easy in their sin. My business here is not to insisted

pursue the history of the Reformation. For my own part, I do not for a moment think it established the

Church on see that

its

original basis

any more than Dr.

;

nor did

Newman

leaders

its

does

;

but

was the righteous rising up of faith, with the power of the truth and Word of God, as far as it was possessed, against the most iniquitous system that ever the sun looked on, which nations and conscience

were alike weary

of.

I challenge Dr.

Newman,

142

any one

else, to

That gave

in the world.

natural finally

Dr.

system of iniquity

rise to Protestantism.

conscience, even, was not destroyed by the heads and

Christendom, first

shew me a

must have

made by Luther s

authorities of

That protest

protested.

was Protestantism.

faith

have followed out the

have been

historical state of

what

looks at as the holy Catholic Church, and that of the popes its leaders, according to him, the If details alleged vicegerents of Christ on earth. 1ST.

were gone torians,

made

it.

into,

and the statements of private

his

would appear far darker than I have But it is needless. A righteous soul will

all

judge whether

&quot;

the note

&quot;

of holiness

be found

That upright souls there were who groaned under it, I admit. But what did they groan under ? AVho made them groan ? in this history.

But Dr. N. resides in a

tells

us that normally infallibility council. It is to the

pope and general

&quot;

pope in oecumenical council that we look as to the normal seat of infallibility.&quot; (280.) I will therefore run through the oecumenical councils, and see what we can trust to in them. Constantine, the

Christian emperor, meddled, as did his successors, largely in ecclesiastical matters.

first

a political man, he felt his government hindered

by the dissensions of the bishops, which roused the whole Christian world.

took up the Donatist

question; he directed certain bishops to hear the same a second time, others to rehear it, and at last

143 heard

himself,

and put the Donatists down.

Mean

It while, the Arian controversy raged in the East. had spread from Alexandria over the whole eastern

and divided the people into two factions. ii. 61 to the end.) There (Eus. Life of Const., book upon the emperor writes a letter, saying the East had world,

been the source of light to the world how grieved he was, and so on, that, as they were one in faith (Alexander and Arms), they ought to hold their ;

tongues on nice points, and not let such delicate questions before the ignorant, and make confusion.

But

in vain

so he

;

the hope of settling

summoned The

it.

a council at Nice in

invitations

and he provided horses for the bishops to them to use the public posts had

himself,

come, or allowed

them

;

meet in the palace, and presided himself.

glowing description

coming head of

came from

given by Eusebius of his

and taking his seat at the the bishops had bowed, and said

into the assembly, it.

When

a few complimentary words, he sat down, and the bishops too. Then he made a long harangue to them,

and gave

liberty of speech afterwards to the bishops, soothed them, answered objections, reasoned with

them, and brought them, though with difficulty, to some kind of quietness, and got all but five to sign,

who were

banished.

council, little

his if

own

The emperor held thus a strong

having once made a decision in a or big, he enforced it for peace sake by

hand over them

;

authority.

The orthodox

they were not quiet

suffered as others,

Athanasius himself among

144 That Constantino convoked and managed

the rest.

the council

beyond

all

question

;

Eusebius, Kuf-

that he presided is Epiphanius all agree in he sat a certain little equally golden seat at the

finus,

;

head, the bishops

down

the sides of the apartment.

Alexander of Alexandria, Epiphanius him to convoke it. Hosius subscribed

tells first,

us, got

then the

two presbyters sent by Silvester of Eome, then the rest.

may

note here, that in the early councils scarce

any Western bishops were ever present. The West had not the mental activity of the East, and they did not raise useless questions as the Easterns did. In no one of the first six general councils were there a

dozen Western bishops, in many not half that num Three are found in this first one. A note, said ber. to be of Dionysius Exiguus, says, they did not sign

were not suspect of heresy. If this were so, it gives a curious

at Nice, because they

(Hard. i. 311.) character to the decrees and signatures. the

force

suspected bishops to

themselves.

The number of

declare

prelates

was

and bind uncertain

;

In Hardouin you have 318 after was held to be a mystical

Eusebius says 250. names, which

number.

The

late councils were,

on the contrary, wholly There were no

Western, and of the Latin Church. Easterns.

but

At Florence Pope Eugenius attempted

was a complete

failure

;

it,

the assent a few

Greek prelates did give was utterly repudiated by

145

Church when they went home.

their

All these late

western councils, save Pisa, Constance, and Basle,

were assemblies called and managed by the popes for their own purposes, with in general a vast majority of Italian bishops.

Pisa, Constance,

and Basle, were

the fruit of the struggles of the conscience of Chris~

tendom against the hopeless wickedness and oppres There has been sion of the Papacy and the popes. no council since which represented East and West. It was attempted at Sardica, and failed they split, and held two the most complete one was Arimi;

;

nium, under Constantius, where 400 bishops undid one the work of Nice by dropping the words&quot;of

substance with the

many

though they rejected but it did not succeed

Father,&quot;

statements of Arius

;

the Westerns had been dragged protested. Catholicity ness, to seek

in,

a fable as to

and afterwards fact.

to holi

leads into a tissue of horrible facts.

body there has been none, since the pretensions of the popes and Constantinople Unity in the outward

began.

The second so-called

general

council consisted

of 150 Eastern bishops, called together

by Theodoand the bishops so declare in their letter which precedes the decrees, and ask expressly the confir sius

;

mation by the emperor of what they had decreed. They communicate their decrees and canons to the

Western bishops in common, then assembled Rome, giving Constantinople the second rank liome, but on grounds which refer merely to L

after civil

146 rank in each.

They confirm the

sixth canon of the

council of Nice as to the independence of the larger divisions of the

&quot;hierarchical

system.

Their creed

now

accepted Nicene one, an article forbidden by Pope Leo being added. But the pope had nothing is

the

to say to the council; the popes did not accept its

canons

but they are received in the universal Baronius seeks to invalidate one, but is

;

Church. corrected

Pagi,

who shews

have been uni

versally received. It is

worthy of note

here, that the article

to their creed is still rejected

added

by the Greeks, who

hold the creed as settled by the council of Constan And it is further to be remarked, that the tinople. general council of Ephesus forbade any other creed to be proposed to any one, and the great Pope Leo,

the means of Dr. N.

very article in particular.

becoming a Romanist, this This added article, which

came from Spain and France,

the great subject of

division with the Greeks, though they do not believe

in purgatory either, nor, of

course,

recognize

the

Not only did Pope Leo formally forbid its popes. being inserted, but had the Constantinopolitan creed engraved in Greek and Latin on silver plates on this account in the Church. (Comp. Pearson on the Creed, on the eighth article, where the authorities are cited.)

We have nor

not

much

security from councils as yet,

the pope found in

hitherto, save

an oecumenical council

his presbyters at Nice,

who

sub-

147 scribed in their place after Hosius, the

emperor s

The council of Ephesus it appears. which the pope acted very ably by his but in which no other Western prelates were

confidant, as

followed, in legates,

present.

and

his

The emperor had convoked the council, commissioner forbade them to meet till all

the Eastern prelates were there

bishops of his party, drove of all the churches,

and

him

but Cyril, and the took possession

;

out,

settled the matter

by con

demning Nestorius before the Easterns came, Nestorius and his party protesting, but not daring to go. The Easterns, however, did not yield Cyril was excom ;

municated and deposed by them and it was only on Cyril s giving up some points, that John of ;

Antioch was reconciled some years the

means.

later

The

with Cyril, result

was, emperor through Nestorianism spread through the East even to China. The emperor gave up Nestorius to have peace, and

he was banished.

But Leo,

in his letter subsequently

to Flavian of Constantinople, adopted at the council

of Chalcedon, does not use the

jected to

word Nestorius ob

The whole course

DciiKtra.

of Cyril

was

a disgrace to any sober Christian man; he was the true source of Eutychianism, and I judge his sound ness very questionable on the atonement.

The next council

Ephesus was convoked, as the

previous one the pope s representatives were in it. Hut Cyril s violence against Nestorius had left Euty;

chian sects at Alexandria, and bore

The Archbishop

its

fruits here.

of Alexandria presided as before.

L 2

148

Why

was not the Holy Ghost here

Yet they beat

the poor old Archbishop of Constantinople in such a way, that he died oX it in a few days, and others were sorely maltreated.

Pope Leo condemned Eutyches

in the famous epistle to Flavian, too rhetorical for

such a subject, and questionable, I judge, in some but doubtless a remarkable document, expressions ;

and substantially sound, and asked or near Italy. The emperor refused first

convened

at Nice,

was held which

don.

for a council in ;

but the council

and then removed to Chalcealso

condemned

Eutvches, I

adopting Leo s statement and Cyril s two letters to Nestorius, on the ground of their intrinsic merits.

The

and the other councils agree The bishops answered, Leo agrees with

legates ask if this

with Leo.

There was a great struggle for jurisdiction and rank between Leo and Anatolius. The legates

them.

having orders to stantinople. Leo it

resist all s

advance in rank of Con

predecessor denied any to

was maintained and increased

and second rank jurisdiction given

in precedence, it,

it.

But

equal dignity

and the contested

the legates staying

away

that

day, then complaining of its being done but it was confirmed. Anatolius gave way afterwards in form, but kept his ground in fact. The canon remains in ;

the universal canons

own

it.

;

but the popes would never

Pretty work for the lowly servants of Christ.

The Romans were charged with forging part of a canon here to give supremacy to Eome, as they were convicted of it just at this time in Africa, which

149 peremptorily rejected the pretensions of Kome, and sent off

its

But what

legate.

refer to in

mainly

the council was this, that Theodore and Ibas were

declared sound in the faith.

And Leo

confirmed

twice over the doctrinal decisions of the council.

But in the following oecumenical

council,

Pope

gave a judgment in favour of the three it was called as but he had to do with a chapters,

Vigilius

first

;

powerful emperor who had now re-conquered Italy, and he made the pope come to the council, and

him*

finally forced

to sign

and confirm

its

decrees,

which condemned the three chapters which Chalcedon had pronounced sound, by which confirmation, moreover, Baronius says

But

if it did,

we have

became a general

council.

alleged infallibility authority,

a pope in an oecumenical council, condemning what the same infallibility approves. AYhat kind of infal libility or security is this

The truth

is,

the best of

these councils were disgraceful scenes of turbulent violence, even Chalcedon.

God has taken that

is true,

care of His Church,

blessed be His

means He pleases shows, that

a broken reed.

name

;

and

and the

faith

uses any

but the history of the means are rested in, it is worse than they ;

It is

an utterly

false

principle to

means God has employed, because He has employed them. The wickedness of the Jews sanction the

was the means God employed * I don

for

our salvation, with

enter into the details; they were wretched enough.

150 the utter want of conscience of Pilate.

them

fies

perfectly shameful,

Church

really produced lasting disasters to the

at large.

justi

The third general council was and

Who

was

one acquainted with history can deny

really the fruit of the

pope s jealousy of Constan Constantinople, and consequent intrigues. had not been what was an called tinople apostolic it.

See

;

was raised

eminence by the importance of Old Borne could not bear

the city as the capital. this.

At any

rate,

these councils, which

are told

are to secure us, rested the pre-eminence of

and Constantinople on their being

new

Rome

capitals, old

and

The Christian has nothing to do with these worldly intrigues. They enable him to judge Koine.

the whole system by the faith of Him whose king dom was not of this world. At any rate, general councils confirmed by popes have directly contra

In very deed, if we examine their history, we find no trace of the Spirit s pre sence, but every proof of His absence, though the dicted one another.

faith

may have been am not writing

meeting what

substantially preserved.

a history of the Councils, but referred to in Dr. N. s self-defence.

I pass to three others, to show how groundless, how wild these foundations of faith are how unsimple, compared with the precious Word of God, the ;

statements of the Lord and His inspired apostles, or other servants. First, Pisa.

Here

a council on which the whole

151 succession of the pope and

Eoman

Yet Bellarmine declares that

clergy depends. a council which

can neither be approved nor condemned. is

very simple

;

The reason

there were two popes, Benedict and

The council was formed by a number of Gregory. the cardinals of each, and the prelates and others they brought together. They

summoned

formally the

two popes, and deposed them chose a third, who confirmed all their acts, and is recognized pope. If ;

they do accept the council, then it is above the pope, and can act without him; for this is what amongst other things is confirmed. If they do not accept it, then the succession of popes is a false one. Benedict and Gregory held their ground, but in vain. The council had decreed a

new

elected pope,

new

council,

had John

and Alexander, the

The

for his successor.

emperor was able to get him to hold a council, to which he went. Here was normal infallibility but ;

him

the council deposed

two

as schismatics, &c.,

whose authority, of council.

normal council,

and chose a

and the other fourth, Martin,

depended on that of the destroy it by an evasive confir

course,

tried to

mation, and closed

for crimes,

without any reforms. Now, if pope in oecumenical

infallibility rests in a it

not to be found at

all

;

for

in the

early councils they contradicted one another, to say and nothing of their being horrible bear gardens ;

in the later ones, the existence of popes depends their action without a Is

pope amongst them.

to this the Christian is reduced

he who

152 seeks the truth, or even the true Church receive a priest, nay, not a sacrament,

till

cannot

he knows

on their own ground, and we are supposing a person inquiring. He cannot take it for granted, or he is decided already he looks to the he

I say this

is one.

;

who

person ultimate

Rome

established the priest, and finally to the

source

certainty

cannot be found.

and

authority.

It is not a question of

by a recognized ministry, but finding the and a true one. But this normal seat of

profiting truth,

not to be found by a person competent and what a thing to search for, when their own authorities cannot tell me which council,

infallibility is

to inquire;

what part

it,

has authority, if I

a person

not

receive the Scriptures as

competent. AVhereas, the wr ord of God, and if not, I

am an

infidel, I

have

the teaching of Paul, and Peter, and John, and of the blessed Lord Himself. Surely I have need of holiness and grace to learn but I have infallible ;

It is in vain to say

authority to learn from. rule of faith, not a proper truth.

may

minister, or others.

have learnt from I

versal

the question

Church

The majority

is right.

may have done

Bible; but I have a certain rule there.

has none,

is raised.

But where

it is

of communicating

urgently on the difference.

I insist

learn there.

means

may

mother, a

so from the

The Romanist

They say the uni is it

to be found

Christians, and the most ancient One will tell me the Churches, are outside Rome.

seat of this authority is in the pope; another, the pope

153 with a council

another, a council as independent of

;

and above a pope. And if this last be not held, there is no true pope to be had, no true succession.

And

this not as

an individual argument.

has

been decreed twice, by assembled Christendom, held by universities the most famous in the world, de nounced, no doubt, the other side of the Alps, at Eome but when I enquire of their greatest autho ;

rity

about that council, on which their cause de

pends, which was confirmed absolutely by a pope, I am told it is uncertain cannot be condemned or

As another is is no known

approved.

There

of.

a secret not to be spoken seat of infallibility for a

person capable of enquiring. foreign from God

s dealings,

us in the truth, as

much I

upon

enlarge

have said

it,

possible to be.

this point, but I refrain.

might &quot;What

show what the Roman

enough Church system produced, record

The whole thing

and His way of securing

as its

own

best authors

individual authors teem with reproaches

popes were, what refuge its I close this councils were to the inquiring mind.

and

scorn,

part of

what

its

enquiry. of Dr.

The question raised.

must least

It is

say, I

mean

think him honest.

don

But, I t

in the

that gross dishonesty which sets about to is

begets false

ways.

which Scripture

says,

always

honesty has been

a painful kind of subject.

don

deceive and say what

Newman s

false.

&quot;

But a

false

way

That kind of dishonesty deceiving and being de-

154 ceived&quot;

saw, as

Every one saw, and Monsignore Wiseman he tells us, and Dr. Newman knew that his

Rom

path led to

counted

exalted Church in the world

;

Rome

the most

hated Protestantism

;

thought he had a special mission to reform Angli canism had a presentiment that he himself should ;

land in Popery; admits now the scope and issue knew his leading was of the movement was such ;

hence, was willing to bend stick beyond what was straight, in order to

leading others into it;

the

straighten

that

is,

beyond the truth to gain He was not, as many thought

to go

the result he wished.

that he was, a concealed Romanist, seeking to gain others;

but

know

he did

feel

where

led,

though there were difficulties from habits of thought in his

own mind,

yet continued without his consci

ence being stirred as to the path he was pursuing, and bending every thing, as, I must say, no honest

mind could

I do, to the purpose he had in view. of visions and from what he secret says suppose, feelings as to a mission, that there

action of Satan, else

was some

direct

was connected with the most

absolute confidence in himself, and the most total

When absence of the truth, or any concern in it. he joined Romanism, he did not yet believe its he submitted to authority- -that principal tenets ;

authority, I have teristic

Rome

no doubt, Satan s. It is charac to be regardless of the truth, of

Christ to be the truth.

It is the

his case, because he declares he

more solemn in

now

certain that

155 he was converted to God by that which he gave up. Till the end of 1842 he was in doubt, not certain that

Rome was

right.

But long before

(246.)

this,

had a strong presenti ment that his existing opinions would ultimately give way, and that the grounds of them were un for

he disclosed

in 1839, he

Only before 1839 he felt such a strong presentiment was not a sufficient ground for dis sound.

closing the state of his mind.

Perhaps not,

had not been active in a work and mission confided to him.

posing

knew (174) he was towards Rome. s minds men young At

that time he

in 1839, and he

had mentioned his general

to A. B. a year before.

dis

This

difficulty

stayed then, because he

how much

the English Church he would bear. says, viz., whether this process will not approximate the whole English

had not made

trial

to the result,

Church, as a body, to Rome, that is nothing to us. I am more certain that the Protestant spirit (176.)

which I

oppose leads to

recommend

read,

&quot;I

leads to

have

felt all

infidelity,

Rome.

than that which

(177.)

along Bishop Bull

p. s

195 we

theology

was the only theology on which the English Church that opposition to the Church of Rome was part of that theology, and that he who could not protest against the Church of

could stand.

Rome was no I

have never

have

felt

true divine in the said,

Church

of England.

nor attempted to say, that any

the English Church, whether bishop or incumbent, could be otherwise than in hostility

one in

office in

156 to the says,

Church of

&quot;You

Yet in the next page he

Rome.&quot;

cannot

how

tell

sad your account of

Moberly has made me. His view of the sinfulness of the Tridentine decrees is as much against union of churches as against individual

116 he

conversions.&quot;

had a real wish to co-operate lawful things, if she would let us, and the rules of our Church let us and we thought

tells us,

with Koine in

&quot;We

all

;

there was no better

way towards the restoration of doctrinal purity and unity.&quot; Yet opposition to the Church

Rome was

part of the theology of the

Church of England divines, and none in office in the Church of England could be otherwise than in hostility to the

Church

Rome, yet he

talks of

saving his protest.

So as regards the

Articles.

&quot;

wished

to institute

an enquiry how far in critical fairness the text could be opened. I was aiming far more at ascertaining what a man who subscribed it might hold, than what

he must, so that my conclusions were negative rather than positive.&quot; (124.) &quot;In addition, I was embar rassed in consequence of

wish to go as

far as

possible in interpreting the Articles in the direction

Roman dogma,

without disclosing what I was whose doubts I was meeting,

doing to the parties

who might

be thereby encouraged to go still farther than at present they found in themselves any call to do.&quot;

This, he tells us,

was from being enjoined, he

by his bishop to keep the men straight who were going into Popery through his means.

thinks,

157

What a labyrinth of disingenuousness I ask any man if this be plain uprightness. I do not mean he !

but a false way, I repeat, leads His pretension to reform the Anglican which he had had a vision and a charge,

intended to deceive

;

to false ways.

system, for led

him

into this tortuous course, through absolute

confidence in himself. that self.&quot;

it is

a hard word,

It is his

own.

Tract 90, he says,

&quot;

reader will perhaps say absolute confidence in him

In the storm that arose on

But how was

absolute confidence in myself

confidence in I

I to

how

have any more was I to have

confidence?&quot;

present

(132.)

in saying, a vision, a mission, a charge

wrong

Going abroad he wrote the verses about his (81.) guardian angel, which begin with these words, &quot;Are

some unearthly

these the tracks of

friend?&quot;

and goes on to speak of the vision which haunted While abroad he repeated to himself the words, me.&quot; &quot;

even of old dear

to him,

I began to think I It

to his friends.

not die

;

had a

was

&quot;

Exoriari aliquis

mission&quot;

at this

(82),

time he

have a work to do in

did this ever leave him.

When

and so wrote &quot;

said,

I shall

England.&quot;

Nor

Tract 90 came out,

in writing to Dr. Bagot, of the See of Oxford, &quot;

says (134),

think I can bear, or at least will try

any personal humiliation, so that I am pre served from betraying sacred interests which the Lord of grace and power has given into my charge.&quot;

to bear,

The words

of St. Augustine, Securus judicat

orbis

158 the whole world judges in security came into his mind as a light from heaven, in connection

tcrrarum

with Leo and the monophysites, and Cardinal Wise I had seen man s lecturing on the Anglican claim. &quot;

the shadow of a hand upon the wall.

The heavens At this time

had opened and closed again.&quot; (158.) he wrote the sermon in which it is said,

&quot;

Compared

with this one aim, of not being disobedient to a heavenly vision.&quot; Now, what was this mission ? At this time the effect of the vision was,

of Koine will be found right after

all.&quot;

we have

Rome

when

abroad,

most exalted of

all

seen he held

Church

&quot;the

Already, be the

In 1839 he held the

Churches.

Churches of Koine and England were both one. (163.) His via m.nUa was then gone. (161.) His mission

was

to reform the

Anglican Church.

But in the beginning of 1839, in an article in the British Critic, he says (143), Lastly, I proceeded to the question of that future of the Anglican Church &quot;

which was

be a

new

birth of the ancient

religion.&quot;

Yet he had no prospect as to it the age was moving towards Kome, he knew. (204) But, in defending ;

he did not at all mind framing Anglicanism, o a sort o Church of defence which they (the High clergy) I it a a while restoracall misht revolution, thought O O *

Thus, for illustration, I might discourse upon the communion of saints in such a manner (though

tion.

don t

might lead the way the blessed Virgin and the saints

recollect doing so) as

towards devotion to

on the one hand, and towards prayers

for the

dead

159

on the

other.

&quot;If

the Church be not defended on

establishment grounds,

which go times I

must be upon principles

their

far

immediate

beyond saw these further

object.

Some

sometimes

results;

not.

Though I saw them, I sometimes did not say that I saw them it was indeed one of my great difficulties ;

and causes

went

of reserve, as time

length recognized, in principles

which

on, that I at I

had honestly

preached as if Anglican, conclusions favourable to the

Roman

confess this If

plexity.

(antiquity

Church. ;

and,

course, I did not like to

when

interrogated,

Leo had overset, in force in the special

was in per

my own

argument

mind, for

its

Angli

canism, yet I was committed to antiquity, together with the whole Anglican school. What, then, was I to say

when

tion of

acute minds urged this or that applica It was impossible against the via media ?

that any answer could be given that

was not unsatis

any behaviour adopted that was not factory, Now this was already the case in 1839. mysterious.&quot; or

He was preaching Roman Church at that

(155, 156.) to the

to be such, did not confess

it,

principles favourable

date knowing them and was mysterious in ;

his conduct. (204, 205.) Is it possible that Dr.

now

does not see the

want of simplicity and uprightness in this. AVlien he found out he was preaching principles favourable Rome, when he declares a true Anglican divine must be hostile; if he could not bring himself to

confess

it,

could he not have stopped, instead of

160 adopting a mysterious behaviour

an honest man would have done

so.

&quot;

I simply

page,

deny that

secretly bore against the

ing

I certainly

I ever said

judge

says in this

anything which

Church of England, know

myself, in order that others might unwarily

it.&quot;

But

for

him, as

we have

seen, the

whole

question was between the Churches of England and Rome. He recognized, by 1839 at any rate, that he

preaching in favour of the latter. When he continued to do so, was it that others might accept it or not He was all this time remaining without was, in

effect,

any

satisfactory basis for a religious profession, in a

moral sickness, neither able to acquiesce in But I bore Anglicanism, nor able to go to Eome. state of

&quot;

it, till me.&quot;

in course of time (112.)

going there,

knew

my way

was made

clear to

But he had the presentiment he was was teaching conclusions favourable to

and preached on, and was mysterious in behaviour, with the conviction that he had a mission from some heavenly vision, to which he would not it,

it,

be disobedient

Rome was Rome (202),

that vision being that

He had

a secret longing love of favourable to Rome, knew it, conclusions preached but never said anything which secretly bore against right.

the Church of England. Dr. N. may think this honest; I avow I cannot.

His friends

may

confidence in in

it.

But

attribute

to his

&quot;absolute

This, doubtless, had a share myself.&quot; He had a does not make it honest.

great sense of his

own

importance.

His secession

161 a great act. (206.)

was seeking 90

is,

till

disciples (247)

he gave up his place

hut this last was only after Tract Yet he knew in 1839 he was in 1841.

movement

that

;

not solve this question of honesty.

this does

in the

But

It is a great event. (245.)

;

preaching principles favourable to Kome, yet tells us (247) he was fighting for the Anglican Church in I may admit the being deceived, but I Oxford.

cannot admit

was not

others as being as bad

;

but this

think the only possible excuse

charges (131)

a poor defence.

a confusion and

which comes from the enemy.

self-deception

deceiving.

says in 1845,

when

more than

a Komanist,

&quot;I

do not

did that the Anglican I at the date you men which advocated principles If I must tion lead men to the Church of Eome.

think at

specify say,

all

what

e.g.,

mean by Anglican

says,

&quot;I

truth.&quot;

would

Yet in page 205 which I had

(194.)

recognized, in principles

favourable

conclusions

preached,

Church.

principles, I

taking antiquity, not the existing Church,

as the oracle of

The prime instance of

this

the

Eoman

was the appeal

antiquity.&quot;

This confession was the effect of habitual mental dishonesty.

N. has

still

I do not

now

enlarge on Tract 90.

no consciousness of

it.

Thus (129)

Dr. his

attempt to shew the articles purposely left questions open, and those on which the controversy hinged. Article XII. positively states that good works, are the fruits of faith,

and follow

which

after justification,

162 are pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ; and the XIII., which is Of Works before Justification, says,

&quot;Works

donelbefore the grace of Christ and the

inspiration of His Spirit are not agreeable to

Dr. N.

comment

&quot;

They say

is,

God.&quot;

that works before

grace and justification are worthless and worse, and that works after grace and justification are acceptable ;

but they do not speak at before

justification.&quot;

all

works with God

They do

not, because

is,

faith,

and follow

all,

after justification

they say there are not any such.

aid

they say

that good works, without any distinction at

the fruits of

;

are

that

Nor can the

which miserable plea, that distinguishes some, namely, those that spring from faith, and follow, be &quot;

&quot;

any

avail.

Not only

is it

evident to every upright

person that it is not the meaning of the sentences, but the title disproves it, and the next article sets it at rest, because it says of works done before justifi &quot;

cation,

Forasmuch

as they spring not from faith in

Christ, they are not pleasant to

God.&quot;

&quot;

says,

They

say that councils called by princes may err they do not determine whether councils called in the name ;

of Christ

may

err.&quot;

To be

general councils (none, that

out the

commandment and

is)

But they say, sure. cannot be called with

will of princes

;

and that

in any other general councils, which cannot be called

way, may and have erred. That is, it applies to all general councils. all this is offensive dishonesty.

says,

how much

He was

No;

trying, as

the Church of England could

163 lie

bear;

did not expect people to look at the articles

sermon on

as to the

answer to Mr. Kingsley, and Innocence&quot; being

I think his

for themselves.

&quot;Wisdom

a Protestant sermon, dishonest

on that part of the book. already in 1833,

when

which tended

ries

And

note, this

tells

all

was

Persia,

had

the stain upon as regards

left

Rome.

one

deliberate

were

began in 1833 to form

reason, I

;

was

but that

was the genius

neither good &quot;

&quot;

to obliterate

;

ish his theories

now.

was forming theo

was not merely his feelings, which he through the book led him Eomewards

but as regards theories.

be noted, that

It is to

abroad, he

his youth

imagination&quot;

but I will not enter

;

loci

nor bad

not

Alexandrian

his

Fool

his reason.

the

middle

subject

Prince of

demons,

which infected

absolutely,

the undeniably most exalted Church in the whole

world.&quot;

cannot but think, Dr. N.

book

honest, proves distinctly he was

to prove himself

not.

to a

Pro

testant theology in the interpretation of the articles, &quot;

on edge even to hear the sound&quot; of many on so far towards Popery, that

sets his teeth

it.

He had

led

he was forced, when ordered by Dr. Bagot to try and

keep them, to stretch the articles as far as possible, without their bein,u aware why; as we have seen r

him

mean

say. ?

Was

not

lie

;

honestly asking what they did tells us so but what they

could bear by perversion. Men had done their worst to disfigure, to mutilate, the old Catholic &quot;

1G4 truth

but there

;

articles

still.&quot;

there.

It will

(171.)

was, in spite of them, in the

said,

have seen how he found

But

his protest against

Eome

saved his consistency. His consistency in what ? in theories favour of it, tenderly loving it* forming it the most exalted Church in the world? counting I

Jut there

was no conviction

in his protest either.

In excusing himself, when he retracted his words against Eome, he tells us, at the time he protested,

not speaking my own I am but following almost a consensus of the divines of my own Church. They have ever used

&quot;I

w&amp;lt;

said

&amp;gt;rds

myself,

;

the strongest language against Eome, even the most I wish to throw myself able and learned of them. into their system. safe.

Such views,

\Yhile I say too, are

what they

necessary to our

say, I

position.&quot;

Yes, they spoke against Eome, but they (233.) believed what they said. They were opposed to Eome. Dr. N, favoured it. He has explained their

words when urged against him but there is no them to an honest mind. I admit he did explaining ;

not believe in transubstantiation

adored the Virgin slight things

;

Mary

;

he thought they

But these were*

too much.

he joined the Church of

he did not believe them a

bit more.

them because Rome was now an she taught must be right.

oracle,

I do not think I ever met, in all .

mind

so effceta veri as Dr.

incapable of valuing truth

;

Eome when He believed

Newman s,

and what

experience, so perfectly

and truth of doctrine

165 has more to say to truthfulness than we are sanctified by the truth.

for

viction

which wholly overthrew

of the via media,

are aware,

In that con

whole scheme

his

never occurred to him to think,

even, whether in one case error

was opposed, in the

other, truth.

In studying the monophysite history that is, the controversy whether Christ had one nature or two, or rather, whether the divinity did not take

human

he found Eutyches on one side, and Leo, a most able pope, on the other, who wrote a famous letter, accepted by the Council the place of a

soul,

of Chalcedon as rightly denning the doctrine

;

and

the doctrine so denned has been ever since accepted. Eutyches sought imperial protection well, here was :

a pope instructing a council, and a heretic con

demned the universal Church accepting the council s At Trent a pope confirms a council s decisions, act. ;

which the Protestant world does not accept con sequently the Protestant world must be as wrong ;

What

as Eutyches.

of Trent

demned

was

;

the composition of the Council

what the doctrine was that was con

whether Eutyches held what was contrary to the faith of the apostles or not; whether Trent ;

condemned the

faith of the apostles or not, is

never

a subject of his enquiry even. There was a pope, and a council, and Eutyches and a council and a ;

The pope, and half the European world against it. Greek Church absent. But as in the two cases there was

a pope and a council (whether general

166 or not, even,

a question), half Europe must be

Eutyches and many Orientals were. The only question for Dr. N. was analogy of position. What was condemned was a matter of total in wrong, as

difference to him.

Newman knows

Dr.

very well

that another pope and another general council con demned a part of this same Council of Chalcedon for all

that

what was

called the three chapters.

But that was no matter; he was on journey to Rome.* But, as we have seen, when he joined Eome he did not believe in transubstantiation more than before.

&quot;

says,

transubstantiation

People say that the doctrine of I did not to believe.

is difficult

believe the doctrine

till

difficulty in believing

the Catholic

was a

it,

Catholic.

Eoman Church was

and that she had declared of the original

had no

as soon as I believed that

revelation.&quot;

the oracle of God,

this doctrine to be part Is it possible for truth

more absolutely null in a human mind, or true faith to be more absent from it ? to be

Another principle which really led Dr. Newman Popery was the doctrine of development. I will say a word on this. I deny it absolutely in divine

things.

In the human mind there

development.

In the present truth there cannot, for God has been There is no revelation more, nor meant to revealed. be any. it is

Individuals

may

there to be learned.

more and more, but The Scriptures give two

learn

* His protest was really to avoid getting the credit of being on his

way

there.

167

what

that I

positive grounds for this

to continue in

have learned as the only true ground of know of whom I have learned them*

safety, that I

There

a negative ground of proof

when they should be

committing which would be a security us,

the apostles gone, to that

If the person of

for us.

Christ be the foundation truth of Christianity, as Scripture declares Father,

is,

as the

person cannot be developed. it will be said, Of course not it

Son revealing the

no development. His But I quite understand

clear there can be

it is

;

but the revelation of

Equally impossible. He Himself is wholly, and reveals the Father. The Holy

can.

fully revealed,

Ghost has revealed, and

who

which they had learned, and they and in the Son. They

(abide in them)

so abide in the Father

could not have more. or

&quot;what

Hence John, was to continue

the truth.

treats this subject, declares that

would

this,

beyond

&quot;Trapa,&quot;

says

preached,&quot;

any doctrine other than on one side, besides

Paul,

&quot;was

preached,&quot;

doctrine nor the preacher were to be

neither the

Church did not possess fully the revelation of the Father in the glorified Son by the received.

If the

Holy Ghost, revealed.

developed.

did not possess Christ at

did, it

did add to

That men speculated about irreverent speculations had corrected, that is true

;

all,

as there

could not be added to nor

it,

falsified

and their

Christ.

foolish

and

to be rebuked, repressed,

but whatever was more than

returning to the simplicity of the first revelations, or

168

went beyond its fulness, was pure mischief. Either the apostles and first Church had a full revelation of Christ, or the

Church never was founded on

they had, there was no development of it. His work. It is complete, or the Church saved not

;

its

was completely

revealed, or

ground of justification

it.

So of is

not

the Church had

and peace.

had,

was no development. That much was lost I believe. The greatest stickler for Church authoritv O there

&quot;

does not pretend the Church receives a fresh reve lation. He merely says that the Church pronounces

on truth

as having been revealed.

But then there

can be no development. Till revelation was com plete there were further truths unfolded, but it was

Once that complete, all is closed and Christianity completes it. The Word of God is revelation.

fulfilled,

We It

;

completed,

says

walk in the

are to

Paul

light, as

God

the is

Colossians. in the light.

was an unction of the Holy One, by which we

know

&quot;The all things. says the apostle, Spirit,&quot; searcheth all things, even the deep things of God.&quot; And then the apostle tells us he spoke by the Holy

&quot;

Spirit, in

words which

taught.

The

true light

have the glory of God in the face The Holy Ghost may guard the of Jesus Christ. saints against error, and shew it is error; but the

now

shines.

Thus John, in apostles were guided into all truth. a passage quoted, &quot;Let that therefore abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning abide in

169 you, ye also shall continue in the Father and in the

We have

Son.

the glory of

So Paul

Christ.&quot;

&quot;

God

in the face of Jesus

Continue them in the things knowing of whom them hast

that thou hast learned,

learned

Word

God, and the

commends them

Paul, in going,

them.&quot;

of His grace, as sufficient.

Peter

writes that they should have, after his decease, these

things always in remembrance.

What

&quot;

says,

duces

is first is

the

Tertullian justly

Eutyches intro he condemned, and truth Eutyches may but that is not development, but maintenance truth.&quot;

error,

stated

;

of the truth as

does not teach

;

had been revealed.

The Church

the teacher teaches.

The Church

abides in and professes the truth she has learned.

She

is,

truth

;

or ought to be, the pillar and ground of the but she does not teach it. The mystery of

iniquity began in the apostles

days the last days were already come. The Truth was there; but men, like Satan, abode not in it. But abiding in it, walk

ing in

it,

in the truth perfectly revealed in Christ,

that was the duty of the saint, even

the professing

Church would

not, and the time should come when they would turn away from the truth. Paul declared

they would.

book presents us with this a man who declares that he was converted

result,

history

Dr. N.

and by truth which he afterwards gave value the doctrine of the Church of God

in a system

up.

deeply, as the

body of Christ

(Epli.

i.),

the dwelling-place of the Spirit. (Eph.

and on earth ii.)

I believe

170 the

confounding

men s

Popery, and

two

these

Church

own

will begat

However,

He was

source

But

&quot;

says James,

us,&quot;

converted, he

do not

the ground of

then there could have been none.

and Jews did not receive the Church

truth.&quot;

the

present confusions.

believe that trustmg the faith, for

Heathens &quot;

all.

his

by the word

analyzing Dr. N.

account.

perfectly sure, at fifteen,

is still

the power of certain truths, and

by the

instru

mentality of a clergyman he calls Calvinistic.

got then and there (29) in the system he left, con still more certain than that version, of which he is &quot;

he has hands and

feet&quot;

divine faith, so he calls his salvation to

but admits

(56) it

;

now.

what he got

and the beginning of In a word, he owes

then.

He, indeed,

all

Next we

as entirely obtained there.

him gradually giving up the truth which was the means of it, by intercourse with Dr. Hawkins, see

The Froude, Whately, James, and Bishop Butler. result has been, that he has wholly apostatized from all true

what

&quot;

ground of faith.

I held in

Speaking historically of

1833-4, I say, that I believed in a

God on

a ground of probability, that I believed in Christianity on a probability, and that I believed in

Catholicism on a probability,

and that

all

these

were about the same kind of probability, accumula but still proba tive, a transcendant probability ;

bility,

inasmuch as

He who made

that, in a religious enquiry,

accumulated

probabilities.&quot;

has willed,

arrive at certitude It

by was thus he was

171 &quot;led

on into the Church of

by giving up

That

Kome.&quot;

is, it

was

Faith is the reception the operation of the Spirit

true faith.

all

of a divine testimony

of God, and can have no possible connection with

To say it is probable that God speaks the truth, would be a blasphemy. He who receives a thing as probable, does not believe that God has probability.

said or taught

was giving up

all.

faith.

What led Dr. N. to Popery In this way he was in a sick

state of soul, neither able to acquiesce in Anglicanism,

nor to go to Kome and then a special sure,

but that

;

but thought, by some vision first, call, as to which he was not quite

came from Satan

mission, a charge,

he says, he had a

;

and was diligently making con

verts (247), until, after Tract 90, he gave

in the

towards

up the lead All the while his heart was

movement.

Kome

she was certainly Catholic, he was

not quite sure that England was

any rate, she needed a complete revolution in her state. As to the true unity of the body, he never had an idea of it.

;

threatened his Romanist friends, and threat

ened the bishops. Knew, as we have seen, at the bottom of his heart, that he was going to Kome had a secret longing love of it, and knew he was ;

disposing others to

it,

yet worked on.

his account is this,- -The truth his

conversion to

God

;

departure from

ground of faith that of his going to

London

II.

The

result of

was the means of Kome.

Broom, Paternoster Row.

all

true