Result of the Charges.

241 retirement and obscurity; we wished, as I said, to rouse, at a critical moment, the sense of our Church to the value of a part of her deposit which she was neglecting; our first Tracts were the short abrupt addresses of persons who, when the enemy was upon them, seize the first weapon which comes to hand and discharge it; our more elaborate ones grew under our hands and became such almost without our own will; we formed no system; we did nothing to gather people round ourselves; we besought others (though in vain) to preach in this place on the same doctrines, that those doctrines might not be identified with us; we wished to guide people away from ourselves, and pointed them on, and have been essaying to lead them, to the Ancient Church, in connexion with our own; our publications of the Fathers which had the sanction of your Grace and other of your Brethren, had this as its main object, to present the fullness of the Ancient system, in faith and life, apart from modern statements and modern controversies; we forewent much which any of us might have desired to do, in order that the Church might be listened to, not ourselves; in whatever degree we have been made a party, it has been the act of others, not our own; we are held together not by party ties but by our common faith, and our common object of restoring our Church.

'We wish to be merged in our Church, to be nothing but what is of all the highest, ministers and servants of our God in her, "repairers of the breach, restorers of paths to dwell in." But if we are thus singled out from the rest of our Lord's flock, as diseased and tainted sheep, who must be kept separate from the rest, lest we corrupt them; if a mark is thus set upon us and we are disowned, things cannot abide thus. For us, who are elder, it might be easy to retire from the weary strife, if it should be ever necessary, into lay communion, or seek some other branch of our Church, which would receive us; but for the young, whose feelings are not bound up with their Church by the habits and mercies of many years, and to whom labouring in her service is not become a second nature, an element in our existence, their sympathies will have vent, and, if they find themselves regarded as outcasts from their Churchto a Church they must belong, and they will seek Rome.

'Among those, in whose minds serious misgivings have been raised, are not merely what would be ordinarily called "young men"; these are, one may say, some of the flower of the English Church; persons whose sense of dutifulness binds them to her, who would, to use the language of one of them, "feel it to be of course their duty to abide in her as long as they could." What we fear is not generally a momentary ebullition, but rather lest the thought of seceding from our Church should gradually become familiar to people's minds, and a series of shocks loosen their hold

until at last they drop off, almost of themselves, from some cause which in itself seems wholly inadequate, because their grasp had gradually been relaxed before. What we fear is lest a deep despondency about ourselves and our Church come over people's minds, and they abandon her, as thinking her case hopeless; or lest individuals who are removed from the sobering influence of this ancient home of the Church, should become fretted and impatient at these unsympathizing condemnations, and the continued harassing of the unseemly strife now carried on under the shelter of your Lordships' names, and losing patience should lose also the guidance vouchsafed-to the patient'.'

1 'Letter to Archbishop of Canterbury,' pp. 71-75, ed. 3.

CHAPTER XXVII.

VISIT TO IRELAND-THE JERUSALEM BISHOPRIC-THE POETRY PROFESSORSHIP-FRIENDLY REMONSTRANCES.

1841-1842.

IN the eventful summer of 1841, Pusey spent July and August in Ireland. He had intended to make this visit in the previous year, partly as change of air for his children, but chiefly to see the working of the Roman Catholic sisterhoods there, with a view to establishing 'an order of deaconesses' in the English Church.

Circumstances compelled him to postpone this plan in 1840 in consequence of his son's state of health; meanwhile they gave him additional reasons for making it. He was particularly anxious to meet Dr. Todd, of Trinity College, Dublin, one of the leading Churchmen in Ireland. He also desired an opportunity of observing the working of the Roman Catholic Church in a country where it could control the majority of the population. It does not seem to have occurred to him that the troubles consequent upon Tract 90 might not be diminished by his visit at such a moment. Pusey wrote in May 1841 to Dr. Todd to apprise him of his intention, and received a warm welcome in reply.

REV. DR. TODD TO E. B. P.

Trin. Coll. (Dublin), May 10, 1841. I am rejoiced to find that there is a chance of seeing you here this summer. I hope we shall be able to get you to preach once or twice in Dublin, were it only to convince people that you do not wear a Pope's tiara or a Cardinal's hat. . . .

I am very glad that you are writing on Tract 90. That the view it gives of our Articles is substantially true I have not the least doubt,

and I think it most important that it should be calmly put forward for the sake of those who will candidly consider the question.

Would it be at all important for your views to examine the popular books of instruction which the Romanists put into the hands of the people here? If so, I will be thankful to be employed in procuring these tracts and popular books for you. It may be well for you to know that many Churchmen here object to Tract 90, supposing it to be a dishonest attempt to strain the Articles; and it is the more important to keep this in view, because the objection is urged by those who on other very important points are with you. Do you know Barnes' 'Catholico-Romano-Pacificus'? It was reprinted in Brown's 'Fasciculus,' and a curious account of the author will be found in Wood's 'Athenae.' It is curious as showing how the Church of Rome treats those who endeavour to promote peace between us, and the work itself is full of learning.

.

In view of their old relations to each other, and from respect for his office, Pusey wrote to Archbishop Whately to ascertain whether he had any objection to Dr. Todd's proposal that he should preach in Dublin. Whately's reply is a singular illustration of the intolerance of professed Liberalism. The 'dear Pusey' of three years before has now been exchanged for the stiff My dear Sir,' as marking the distance at which recent controversy had placed Pusey in the eyes of his correspondent 1:—

THE ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN TO E. B. P.

MY DEAR SIR,

Brighton, June 26, 1841.

If you should be called on, upon any sudden emergency, to preach during your residence in Ireland, you have my full permission to do so. I feel sure you have too much good taste and discretion to introduce controversial matter into sermons, in a country already but too much distracted with controversies of its own, in addition to those that are common to it with England.

But unless any such extraordinary occasion should arise, I think it better that you should not preach, notwithstanding the caution with which no doubt your sermons would be framed.

Just now there is, as you are well aware, a most vehement excitement going on, in reference to a certain set of opinions with which

1 Whately used to tell a humorous story of an interview of his with Pusey at Brighton in 1841. According to this, his reason for not allowing Pusey to preach in his diocese was a fear

that he would introduce novelties.' The patron of Blanco White was naturally sensitive. Life of Archbishop Whately,' p. 215.

First Impressions of Ireland.

245

your name is mixed up; opinions which many persons regard as so 'contrary to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England,' that the maintainers of them ought not to be allowed to remain in the Church.

Now on this question I have not as yet been called on to give any public decision, but if you were understood to be preaching in my diocese with my sanction, many would understand that I had thus given a decision, even though you should not touch on the question; and at any rate, you would probably be made more a lion, and give rise to more rumours, than would be counterbalanced by any advantage on the other side.

You will not, I trust, consider me as pronouncing a censure in saying this, for it is quite contrary to my practice to condemn any one unheard, and I have not as yet had time to look into the pamphlet you were so good as to send me t'other day.

Believe me to be,

Yours very truly,

RD. DUBLIN.

After this letter Pusey of course decided not to preach in any circumstances. He went by sea from Bristol on July 2, and soon settled in lodgings at Sandy Cove, Kingstown. His early impressions of Romanism in Ireland were not very encouraging.

E. B. P. TO REV. J. H. NEWMAN.

Kingstown, July 15, 1841.

I am not in the way to gain much information about Ireland. Todd is gone; Crosthwaite, for a time; and though I go to and fro to Dublin, the railroad is so noisy, and I so little understand drawing-out, that I can get little or nothing. There is also nothing in Romanism to strike the eyes, except its miserable slavery to politics and sad degradation, which you know more vividly than I. Right-minded people here are desponding about our own Church's taking the position she should; and what one sees of Romanism dispirits one about it; it seems as though devotion to the Blessed Virgin were to become the characteristic of Romanism, and the more Catholic truth is distinctly recognized among us, the more obstinately do they hold to what is distinctive. One cannot but fear that they hold to it, not for its own sake, but as a means of keeping the poor people and as enlisting human affections. However, God, Who is having mercy on us, may burst their bonds too.

Pusey soon became painfully aware that he was the subject of much silly gossip during his stay in Ireland, and that there were difficulties in his case from which an