INSCRIPTION ON THE MARTYRS' MEMORIAL

113

tyrdom." 1 On the north side of the Memorial is the inscription, which well merits a place in these pages. It is as follows:

"To the Glory of God, and in grateful commemoration of His servants, Thomas Cranmer, Nicholas Ridley, Hugh Latimer, Prelates of the Church of England, who, near this spot, yielded their bodies to be burned; bearing witness to the sacred truths which they had affirmed and maintained against the errors of the Church of Rome; and rejoicing that to them it was given not only to believe on Christ, but also to suffer for His sake. This Monument was erected by public subscription in the year of our Lord God, 1841.”

1 Recollections of Oxford. By G. V. Cox, M.A., 2nd edition, p. 305.

H

CHAPTER V

Newman in 1839-Influenced by an article in the Dublin ReviewRemarkable acknowledgments-Corporate Reunion with Rome— Preparing the way for Rome-The Pastor of Antwerp-Breakfasts with Newman and his friends-Startling and treasonable advice given him-Pusey writes on Tendencies to Romanism-He pleads for peace in the Church-Dr. M'Crie on the cry for peace-Prayers for the Dead-Breeks v. Woolfrey-West v. Shuttleworth-Egerton v. All of Rode-Moresby Faculty Case-Dr. Pusey begins to hear Confessions in 1838-In 1846 he goes to Confession for the first time His Protestant notes in the Works of Tertullian-Wiseman hopes the Tractarians will "succeed in their work"-He realises the Roman tendency of their teaching-Extracts from the Tracts for the Times-Margaret Chapel as a centre of Tractarianism—Mr. Serjeant Bellasis-Oakeley claims the right to "hold all Roman doctrine"-He is prosecuted by the Bishop of London-His licence revoked-Pusey defends Oakeley-Says the judgment against him has no moral force-Pusey says he believes in Purgatory and Invocation of Saints-Thinks England and Rome "not irreconcilably at variance"-Oakeley secedes to Rome.

THE year 1839 was a memorable one in the life of Newman. It was during the summer of that year that (as he informed the Rev. J. B. Mozley four years later): "It came strongly upon me, from first reading the Monophysite controversy, and then turning to the Donatist, that we were external to the Catholic Church. I have never

got over this." Writing to Pusey, on August 28, 1844, he declared:-"I am one who, even five years ago [i.e. 1839], had a strong conviction, from reading the history of the early ages, that we are not part of the Church." 2 Writing again to Pusey, on March 14, 1845, Newman tells him "My doubts [of the Catholicity of the Church of England] were occasioned by studying the Monophysite controversy-which, when mastered, threw light upon all those which preceded it, not the least on the Arian. I Life of Pusey, vol. ii. p. 406.

1 Newman's Letters, vol. ii. p. 430.

114

NEWMAN'S REMARKABLE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

115 saw as clear as day (though I was well aware clear impressions need not at once be truths) that our Church was in the position towards Rome of the heretical and schismatical bodies towards the Primitive Church. This was in the early summer of 1839; in the autumn, Dr. Wiseman's article on the Donatists completed my unsettlement. Since that time I have tried, first by one means, then by another, to overcome my own convictions." Newman's first impressions on reading Wiseman's article (which appeared in the Dublin Review, August 1839) were conveyed by him to his friend, Mr. F. Rogers, afterwards Lord Blachford :-"Since I wrote to you," he tells him, "I have had the first real hit from Romanism which has happened to me. R. W., who has been passing through, directed my attention to Dr. Wiseman's article in the new Dublin. I must confess it has given me a stomach-ache." 2

Now, to any ordinary mind it must seem strange that Newman, who confesses that he felt "strongly," in 1839, that the Church of England was "external to the Catholic Church," and who, at that time, had "clear impressions" that the position of the Church of England towards the Catholic Church was identical with that of the ancient "heretical and schismatical bodies," could possibly, with a comfortable conscience, remain "external to the Catholic Church" for another six years! But Newman's mind being of a naturally Jesuitical kind, he seems to have set himself right with himself, by the following ingenious illustration (written within a fortnight from the time that he got the "stomach-ache") to his friend Mr. F. Rogers, and evidently intended to elicit his opinion of it :

"Well, then,” wrote Newman, "once more; as those who sin after Baptism cannot at once return to their full privileges, yet are not without hope, so a Church which has broken away from the centre of unity is not at liberty at once to return, yet is not nothing. May she not put herself into a state of penance? Are not her children best fulfilling their duty to her-not by leaving her, but by

1 Life of Fusey, vol. ii. p. 450.

2 Newman's Letters, vol. ii. p. 286.

promoting her return, and not thinking that they have a right to rush into such higher state as communion with the centre of unity might give them. If the Church Catholic, indeed, has actually commanded their return to her at once, that is another matter; but this she cannot have done without pronouncing their present Church good for nothing, which I do not suppose Rome has done of us. In all this, which I did not mean to have inflicted on you, I assume, on the one hand, that Rome is right; on the other, that we are not bound by uncatholic subscriptions." 1

There is all the wisdom of the serpent in this scheme, though none of the innocence of the dove; and after reading Newman's statements in subsequent years, I have no doubt that it served to quieten, if not altogether to silence, his own conscience for the next six years. The scheme was a subtle one, known in later years by the designation, "Corporate Reunion with Rome," as distinct from individual secession. Members of the Church of England were to "fulfil their duty to her, not by leaving her, but by promoting her return" to "the centre of unity"—the Church of Rome. From this year the idea of Corporate Reunion with Rome seems to have been ever present to Newman, until he seceded to her in 1845. Of the year 1840 he writes:-"I wished for union between the Anglican Church and Rome, if, and when it was possible; and I did what I could to gain weekly prayers for that object." In October of this year he frankly admitted to a friend :-"I fear I must allow that, whether I will or no, I am disposing them [those he influenced by his teaching] towards Rome. First, because Rome is the only representative of the Primitive Church besides ourselves; in proportion then as they are loosened from the one, they will go to the other. Next, because many doctrines which I have held have far greater, or their only scope, in the Roman system." And, therefore, he began to think of giving up St. Mary's Vicarage, Oxford, which he then held, and migrating to the Vicarage of Littlemore, where he might continue to teach, by pen and mouth, those

3

1 Newman's Letters, vol. ii. p. 288.

2 Newman's Apologia Pro Vita Sua, p. 222,

3 Ibid. p. 236.

NEWMAN AND THE PROTESTANT PASTOR

117 doctrines which, even at that time, he believed had "a far greater, or their only scope, in the Roman system." Was this honest? After making such an important discovery, ought he not at once to have given up all Ministerial duty in the Church of England, and seceded to a Church where his peculiar doctrines have their only honest "scope"? But, if he had at that time done this, what would have become of his schemes for Corporate Reunion with Rome? To a Roman Catholic layman Newman wrote, on September 12, 1841-"We are keeping people from you [Church of Rome], by supplying their wants in our own Church. We are keeping persons from you: do you wish us to keep them from you for a time or for ever? It rests with you to determine. I do not fear that you will succeed among us; you will not supplant our Church in the affections of the English nation; ONLY THROUGH THE ENGLISH CHURCH CAN YOU ACT UPON THE ENGLISH NATION. I wish, of course, our Church should be consolidated, with and through and in your communion, for its sake, and your sake, and for the sake of unity."1

Only six days before Newman wrote the letter from which my last extract is given, Baron Bunsen described to a friend an incident in which Newman had recently taken part, and in which the Romish sympathies of Newman and his friends came out in a somewhat startling manner :

"The other day," wrote Baron Bunsen, on Sept. 6, 1841, "Spörlein, the good Pastor of Antwerp, my fellow-traveller, arrived on his pilgrimage to seek comfort in the Church and faith of this country. At Oxford he went to Newman, who invited him to breakfast for a conference on religious opinions. Spörlein 2 stated his difficulties, as resulting from the consistorial government being in the hands of unbelievers, which in the Evangelical Society which he had been tempted to join, the leading members protested against every idea of Church membership. The breakfast party consisted of fifteen young men, whom Newman invited to an expression of opinion and advice; and the award (uncontradicted) was that 'Pastor

1 Newman's Apologia Pro Vita Sua, pp. 312, 313.

Spörlein had come over to England with a view to joining the Ministry of the Church of England.