RETREATS AND THE CONFESSIONAL 283 be away from every one; I don't know why I should hesitate to mention it to you; to make a general Confession to him. Of course my thoughts were on this one subject, and though I said something to him some days before in London about the Retreat, yet we did not recur to it. I can only say that I feel more than ever anxious to see something of the kind established. . . . As far as I know, though many are desirous to make a Confession, and to continue it as a habit through life, the thing is all but impossible. Those few who are in the habit of taking general Confessions are fully occupied without the addition of having to act as constant spiritual guides. But men might go to a Retreat periodically, and there receive the advantage of regular Confession, and the continual preparation for it."1 1 Life and Letters of Dean Butler, p. 35. CHAPTER XI Trouble at St. Saviour's, Leeds-Secessions to Rome-Hook's vigorous attack on Pusey-"It is mere Jesuitism"-" A semi-Papal colony" -Hook hopes all the Romanisers will go to Rome-Bishop Phillpotts prosecutes a Puseyite clergyman-The Cross on a Communion Table-The present state of the law on this point-Reducing the distance to Rome-Sackville College, East Grinstead-The Rev. J. M. Neale inhibited-Freeland v. Neale-The Gorham CaseJudgment of the Court of Arches-Judgment of the Judicial Committee of Privy Council-Puseyite Protest against the JudgmentDr. Pusey and Keble wish to prosecute Gorham for heresy-Bishop Phillpotts threatens to excommunicate the Archbishop of Canterbury-The Exeter Synod-The case of the Rev. T. W. Allies-His extraordinary and disloyal conduct-His visit to Rome-The Pope tells him that Pusey has "prepared the way for Catholicism"What Mr. Allies told the Pope-Allies secedes to Rome-Correspondence with Pusey on Auricular Confession--Startling charges against Pusey-"In fear and trembling on their knees before you" "The rules of the Church of Rome are your rules"-How the Oxford Movement helped Rome-Wilberforce calls Pusey "a decoy bird" for the Papal net-He says that he is "doing the work of a Roman Confessor"-The Papal Aggression-Lord John Russell's Durham Letter-Bishop Blomfield on the Romeward Movement— St. Paul's, Knightsbridge-St. Barnabas, Pimlico-Riots in St. Barnabas' Church-Resignation of the Rev. W. J. E. Bennett-St. Saviour's, Leeds-Traitorous resolutions of twelve clergymen-A Confessional inquiry by the Bishop-The Clergy defend questioning women on the Seventh Commandment. THE opening of the year 1847 brought with it worry and trouble for Dr. Pusey, and for his friend, Dr. Hook, Vicar of Leeds. On New Year's Day, one of the Curates of St. Saviour's, Leeds, the Rev. R. G. Macmullen, with two laymen from the same parish, seceded to the Church of Rome. It was the same Mr. Macmullen, whose Jesuitical conduct with regard to his Degree at Oxford, has already been described. Pusey had sent him to St. Saviour's, and this was the result. Hook was indignant. He wrote to Pusey two days before the actual reception of Macmullen into "MERE JESUITISM" 285 the Roman Communion :- "You are aware by this time that Macmullen and his dupes have gone over to the Mother of Abominations, guilty of the deadly sins of heresy and schism. Ward [Vicar of St. Saviour's] and Case remain, I suppose to make more dupes; though strong measures must be taken on my part. I cannot permit a Church and establishment to remain in Leeds for the destruction of souls without seeking to abate the nuisance." Things must have gone very far wrong indeed before such a pronounced High Churchman as Hook could seek to put down as a "nuisance" the first attempt to illustrate Tractarian principles in practice. The Rev. Richard Ward, mentioned by Hook, was the first Vicar of St. Saviour's, and was appointed by Dr. Pusey. He had not been long at Leeds before trouble arose. As late as November 14, 1846, Pusey sent word to Hook :-"I have entire confidence in Ward, as a loyal son of the Church of England; " to which assertion Hook replied most emphatically:-"Ward is not loyal to the Church of England. He has himself told me and written to me that to the Church of England he could not defer." In this letter Hook complained bitterly of Pusey's conduct : "And what do I complain of?" he asks. "I complain of your building a Church and getting a foot in my parish to propagate principles which I detest-having come under the plea of assisting me to propagate the principles I uphold. I complain of your having selected one to oppose me and my principles who approached me as a friend, and who now admits that in so doing he did wrong, and that before he undertook to oppose me by causing a division in Leeds, he ought to have reflected that he was not the proper person to be your agent. I have said to him, and he has wept-Et tu, Brute! It is really cruel, mere Jesuitism, thus to misrepresent the injured party-the party injured through an excess of charity, as the persecuting party. It is wicked." 4 Pusey answered by telling Hook :-"You are no more responsible for St. Saviour's than for London"; which was almost equivalent to telling him to mind his own business. But Hook was not the sort of man to be sat upon, or to be 1 Life of Dr. Pusey, vol. iii. p. 128. 2 Ibid. p. 119. 8 Ibid. p. 120. • Ibid. p. 120. moved from his purpose by the sickening appeals for peace from the chief cause of the disturbance :-"You tell me," he rejoined, "I have no more to do with St. Saviour's than with London. Be it so. But if my neighbour has a hornet's nest close to my garden gates, and my children are likely to be stung by them, I must ask him to remove the nest, or I send to the constable. And if there be Romanising at St. Saviour's, I shall send to the Right Reverend Constable, come what will.” 1 After some further correspondence, in the course of which Hook termed St. Saviour's Church "a semi-Papal colony," whose clergy "proclaim that it is sinful to speak against the Church of Rome"; the Vicar of Leeds again demanded, on December 30, 1846, that Pusey should induce Ward to resign the Vicarage of St. Saviour's: "I called upon you most solemnly in the name of the Great God," wrote Hook, "to persuade Ward to resign, and to withdraw your other people. It is now too late to do this entirely, but if you have any sense of honour or of justice, you should withdraw Ward and give the presentation to the Bishop. I must take steps to denounce you and your followers as being in my opinion heretics. I regard you as such from your last letter. If your view of the Eucharist be not that taken by the Church of England, instead of bending your own spirit to the Church, you must, as you say, leave the Church." 2 The result was that Ward resigned. Pusey asked Archdeacon Manning to suggest a new Incumbent in his room. He does not seem to have nominated anybody, but he expressed in very plain language (on January 23, 1847) to Pusey what was the real tendency of Puseyism. "You know," he said, "how long I have to you openly expressed my conviction that a false position has been taken up in the Church of England. The direct and certain tendency, I believe, of what remains of the original Movement is to the Roman Church. You know the minds of men about us better than I do, and will therefore know both how strong an impression the claims of Rome have made upon them, and how feeble and fragmentary are the reasons on 2 Ibid. p. 128. 1 Life of Dr. Pusey, vol. iii. p. 122. PUSEY REFUSES TO DENOUNCE ROME 287 which they have made a sudden stand or halt in the line on which they have been, perhaps insensibly, moving for years."1 There were those who thought the secession of the Rev: R. G. Macmullen a thing to be deplored by members of the Church of England. Dr. Hook was not one of this class. "To true-hearted members of the Church of England," said Hook, "the departure of Mr. Macmullen and his disciples is a satisfaction and relief; we may hope that all Romanisers will follow his example. I have no sympathy with the cant of those who urge us to retain such persons in the Church, by permitting them to revile at will the principles of the English Reformation. I am told that Mr. Macmullen would have laboured in the Church if he had been permitted to act thus. I rejoice to think that he is gone." 2 Mr. Gladstone urged Pusey, in view of the secessions to Rome from St. Saviour's, Leeds, to set himself right with public opinion by some explicit and public statement against the Church of Rome. But he refused to do so. On February 8, 1847, he wrote to Mr. Gladstone :—“If I did say anything publicly about the Church of Rome, it would be that no good can come of this general declamation against it, without owning what is good and great in it. Many feel this, who love the Church of England deeply." Pusey's kindly feeling towards Roman Catholics was shown the previous year, in the statement he made to his brother on the question of the endowment of Roman Catholicism :-"For myself, I hope that everything done for the Roman Catholics will work to good, both in doing away irritation at present, and tending ultimately to bring us together. I do not see anything to object to in giving seats to Irish Roman Catholic Bishops, or endowing Colleges for them, or paying their clergy if they would receive it. I do not see anything amiss, or any principle violated, in doing anything positively for the Roman Catholics." In this respect Pusey was, beyond doubt, a very true friend to the Church of Rome. 1 Life of Dr. Pusey, vol. iii. p. 135. 2 Life and Letters of Dean Hook, vol. ii. p. 200. 4 Ibid. p. 171. |