The respective numbers now are ninety-two
and seventy-eight 170 in all. The way in
which our sister Church has multiplied her
bishoprics, and has followed the Indians and
the settlers in the Western States of America,
has commanded the admiration of the whole
Church.
" In our own development similar extension
can be shown. In older Canada, where in
1837 there were the two bishoprics of Nova
THE STORY OF
Scotia and Quebec, there are now ten dioceses ;
and westward, where sixty years ago the
buffalo and moose roamed at large, disturbed
only by wandering tribes of Indians, over the
prairies of the North-West, there are now
seven bishops, of whom some, far removed
from contact with the outer world, devote
their lives to the conversion of the Indians
in their sub-Arctic homes, and others care for
the spiritual welfare of the vast immigrant
population which have fled from the shores
of the Old World and established themselves
on the virgin soil of the New. On the
Pacific coast yet three other bishops hold the
land in trust for the Gospel.
"In India, in 1837, two bishops bore the
spiritual burden of our great dependency, and
now ten bishops serve to bring before the
Church the vastness of the field and the
need of a large extension of their order. At
that time not more than four natives of
Hindostan appeared on the roll of the clergy
THE OXFORD MOVEMENT. 171
I
and now nearly 300 minister in sacred things
to their own people in the Indian dioceses,
and forty-seven in other lands of the farther
East. Where the South African Province
now covers the land with its ten dioceses,
two or three chaplains were the sole representa-
tives of the ministry of our Church in 1837.
On the West Coast the missionaries of the
Church Missionary Society were laying the
foundation of the Church at the cost of a
death-roll unprecedented in any part of the
world ; to-day the Native Church possesses
its own territory and has four bishops, two
of whom are of African race. On the East
Coast not a single English Missionary was
to be found in 1837, and where now the
Church Missionary Society and Universities'
Mission hold up the banner of the Cross,
the whole land was the unchallenged strong-
hold of darkness and cruel habitations. In
1837 no native of Africa had been ordained;
now nearly 150 are to be found in the
172 THE STORY OF
ranks of the native clergy. In Australia the
famous Bishop Broughton, charged with the
care of that broad continent where now
fourteen bishops meet in provincial synod,
was ministering to small bodies of settlers
gathered in little hamlets which have now
grown into mighty cities. In New Zealand,
Samuel Marsden and his few companions
were converting the Maoris to the faith ;
but four years elapsed before Bishop Selwyn
arrived to plant the six dioceses, and to
originate the glories of the Melanesian Mission.
" In the West Indies, the two Bishops of
Jamaica and Barbados were grappling with
the problem of the spiritual elevation of a
slave population who had recently obtained
from the Christian conscience of England
their freedom, and now eight bishops have
succeeded to and have extended their labours."
Surely the old writer who framed this passage
knew what he was writing about:
THE OXFORD MOVEMENT. 173
" There^never j - was $ anything by the wit of
man so well devised, or so sure established,
which in continuance of time hath not been
corrupted." *
No one, we imagine, pretends to suggest
that the Oxford Movement was absolutely
perfect, or without fault. No human institution
can, or ever will be, perfect, so the Oxford
Movement had in it bad, and good, elements.
But possibly the faults were magnified by
reason of the excitement of the times, when,
because of the faults, the whole Movement
itself was condemned.
Both the men who were the pioneers of
the Movement, and their work, have been
shamefully reviled, abused, and misunderstood.
They have been called " Papists," " Romanizers,"
" Traitors " ; and every insult has been heaped
upon their heads, and upon the heads of their
followers ; but surely there is much truth in
what Dean Church tells us when writing in
* Preface to "The Book of Common Prayer."
174 THE STORY OF
his calm, unimpassioned way, he thus sums
up the work and the workers : " Anglicanism,
in itself, was not Roman. It was not Roman
in Dr. Pusey, though he was not afraid to
acknowledge what was good in Rome. It
was not Roman in Mr. Keble and his friends,
in Dr. Moberly of Winchester. It was not
Roman in Mr. Isaac Williams, Mr. Copeland,
and Mr. Woodgate, each of them a centre of
influence in Oxford and the country. It was
not Roman in the devoted Charles Marriott.
. . . These men were, in any fair judgment,
as free from Romanism as any of their
accusers."
And yet, notwithstanding all that has been
written and spoken to the contrary, there are still
some who believe, and others who wish it to be
believed, that the Oxford Movement was simply
a Romanising Movement and nothing else.
Such men forget, or do not choose to
remember, the great gulf, as we have said,
that separates " Romanism," and " Ritualism "
THE OXFORD MOVEMENT. 175
(tilings frequently as confounded as the words
"Catholic," and "Roman Catholic ") between
" Papalism," and primitive Church doctrine.
Many Roman Catholic doctrines taught
to-day are wholly different from those taught
in the infant Church of Rome. That early
teaching was the same, broadly speaking at
any rate, as may be found in the doctrines held
by the Church of England to-day, and herein
lies the whole difficulty to those who have
never studied the subject at all. The Church
of England teaches substantially the same doc-
trine as that taught by Pope Gregory the
Great, and the Church in Rome of thirteen
centuries ago. As it has been well expressed,
" The Church of England has neither added to
the Faith of Ancient Christendom, nor has she
taken away from it, and therefore the National
Church may be said to represent more truly
the Church of St. Augustine even, than does
the Roman Catholic Church to-day." *
* See Note A, Appendix.
CHAPTER IX.
AS TOUCHING SO-CALLED " SECRET "
SOCIETIES.
"\T 7"E hear much in these days about the
" secrecy " with which the Oxford
leaders are said to have gone about their work ;
but as a matter of fact the only "secrecy"
about anything connected with that Movement
itself was that which is natural to all shy, sen-
sitive, and retiring natures. Those who have
taken the trouble to read the foregoing pages
will remember that the pioneers of the Move-
ment expressly desired to have no form of
" Society " or " Institution " whatever, nor did
any of the leaders for a moment seek to gain
THE OXFORD MOVEMENT. 177
the applause of the multitude, or to do any-
thing which by any twist of the imagination
could be called "secret" in connection with
their great work. Certainly advertisements,
and " puffs," such as we are all familiar with
to-day, had no existence then ; there was no
"booming" of new systems in the days when
the Oxford Movement began. Had there been
any such questionable aids, and methods,
whereby their labours might possibly have
been more widely known, depend upon it, John
Keble and his little band would have been
the last men in the world to permit of, or
sanction their use. Because the founders of
the Movement were not the kind of men to
make a fuss over their work, because they
possessed a far higher sense of their duty than
most of us who do make a fuss about our
work to-day, they are even yet stigmatised as
conspirators, and branded as traitors, by those
who do not know or remember of whom they
speak.
14
1 78 THE STORY OF
As a matter of fact and of history the
Tractarian leaders were entirely opposed to
anything like " secrecy " at all. They were
perfectly open and fearless in what they did
and in what they wrote or said, and it is
only misguided, ignorant, and intentionally
wilful persons who think or wish others to
think differently. It is impossible to read
the lives of the Oxford reformers, and to
have knowledge of some persons yet alive
who were personally and intimately connected
with them, to believe for an instant such
men were capable of deceit or of entering
into anything like underhanded proceedings
with the intention of misleading others. It
was indeed to the open fearlessness of these
men, their utter disregard for public opinion,
the knowledge that they were teachers of
what they knew to be right, which gave
such strength to the Movement itself, and
provoked at the same time the hostility of
their adversaries.
THE OXFORD MOVEMENT. 179
Another matter which can hardly be passed
over in this connection at the present moment
is the existence of, or alleged existence of,
certain so-called " Secret " Societies said to be
connected with the Church of England and
with the Oxford Movement. As these form
no part of our present enquiry, which is con-
fined to ascertaining something of the true
origin and growth of the Oxford Movement
itself, we have nothing to say for or against
the existence of such alleged societies, except
this : that the two or three societies named
appear to have come into existence long after
the Oxford Movement was firmly planted,
and never at any time of their existence as
far as the writer can ascertain did these so-
called " Secret " Societies exert much influence
upon Church people. Whether such associa-
tions be "secret" or "open," they cannot,
and ought not, to be put down as creations of
John Keble and his co-workers, nor were
these men responsible for any society, secret
i8o THE STORY OF
or otherwise, professedly antagonistic to the
principles and doctrines of the Church of
England. In corroboration of this, the writer
has taken pains to ascertain from one who was
a close cpnnection of John Keble, whether
or not there is the slightest foundation for
connecting the founders of the Oxford Move-
ment with such societies, and he replies, " I do
not think that the ' Secret ' Societies, of which
so much is written and talked about to-day,
had come into existence at the time of my
relative's death. I do not remember that I
have ever met with any letter of his which
alluded to anything of the kind." And this
writer must have met with such letters had
there been any in existence, for most of Mr.
Keble's correspondence, if not indeed all, has
passed through his hands.
One word in conclusion.
What, perhaps, is most needed in these busy,
THE OXFORD MOVEMENT. 181
bustling days in which we live, is more patience
and more knowledge.
The first is a difficult virtue to practise at
the best of times, as most of us will admit ; it
becomes next to impossible in times of unusual,
but generally temporary, popular excitement
To those who have read this little work, the
writer would humbly suggest the exercise of
much patience and forbearance, before com-
mitting themselves to any particular policy or
scheme, which may ultimately hinder the due
progress of the Church, always remembering
what important issues are at stake.
What are these important issues?
" What is at stake," said the Bishop of
Derry, * " is nothing less than the destinies of
the Church of England, of the greatest and
most august witness in Christendom at once
for the truth and the grandeur of the faith of
Jesus, with her ancient and stately structure,
* The Bishop of Derry, Church Congress Sermon, 1898.
1 82 THE STORY OF
her frankness of recognition for all new truth
that is truly ascertained, her works and labour
and patience, her fidelity, her plasticity, her
learned and time-tested championship of the
faith. She holds, from her sons of other ages,
a magnificent patrimony, around which, while
we dispute, the wolves are howling ; but there
is a patrimony far more precious, which none
can rend from her, the illustrious inheritance
of great names, great examples, apologists,
missionaries, martyrs, saints. And in her
hand (may I not still say, also in her heart ?)
she holds what is of all manuals of devotion
the most reasonable yet most fervid, the most
Scriptural, the most pathetic and sublime her
Book of Common Prayer. Woe to us, if any
failure of this generation, whether of exertion,
or faith, or faithfulness, or prayer, should cause
this stately and golden candlestick to be
removed out of its place."
After all, what is it that loyal sons of the
Church would wish to have? Do not the
THE OXFORD MOVEMENT. 183
words of the great orator, Edmund Burke,
find an echo in many hearts :
" I wish to see the Established Church of
England great and powerful ; I wish to see
her foundations laid low and deep, that she
may crush the giant powers of rebellious
darkness ; I would have her head raised up
to that heaven to which she conducts us ;
I would have her open wide her hospitable
gate by a noble and liberal comprehension,
but I would have no breaches in her wall ;
I would have her cherish all those who are
within, and pity all those who are without ;
I would have her a common blessing to the
world, an example if not an instructor to
those who have not the happiness to belong
to her ; I would have her give a lesson of
peace to mankind, that a vexed and wandering
generation might be taught to seek for repose
and toleration in the maternal bosom of
Christian charity, and not in the harlot lap of
infidelity and indifference. Nothing has driven
1 84 THE STORY OF
people more into that house of seduction than
the mutual hatred of Christian congregations." ::
Next, every Churchman should remember
that Clergy and Laity alike are trustees for
this great National heritage, the Church, which
is not ours to do with as the passing fancy
of the hour may happen to suggest. The Church
of England is a great, a sacred, and a solemn
trust, and upon the shoulders of her members
there lies a heavy responsibility. It is the duty
of the strong to help the weak to have faith
in the Church herself, and to see that no harm
shall come to the Church, nor anything suffered
to be done which may interfere with her great
and growing influence for good.
Everyone should try to obtain an accurate
knowledge of the birth and work and position
of the Church of England, and the differences
between " Romanism " and " Ritualism." t This
Burke, "Works," Vol. VI., p. 112. (Rivingtons.)
t See Appendix, Notes C and D, "The Forged Decretals "
and the "Continuity of the Church of England."
THE OXFORD MOVEMENT. 185
can be easily done now, for there are books in
abundance which treat on the subject.
Finally, we must have courage courage to
defend the Church with our lives if necessary,
courage to maintain, at all hazards, the Truth
as it is in Christ Jesus. Then, in the noble
words of the Archbishop of Armagh, we may
exclaim, " I do not believe that the great
English Church will go to pieces over igno-
minious squabbles, over curiously tesselated
opinions, and patchwork and piebald rites.
When I look round Christendom, England is
about the only country where faith is not afraid
to reason, and reason ashamed to adore."*
Thus possessed of more knowledge about
the Church, exercising more forbearance and
patience towards those who differ from us, and
working shoulder to shoulder endowed with
courage to do what is right, not counting the
cost, we shall, as true sons and daughters of
the great Catholic and Apostolic Church of
* Address to his Synod, Oct., 1898.
1 86 THE STORY OF
our Fathers, in defending her best interests,
which are far dearer than life, learn to realise
with John Keble the true value of his motto
which never changes : " In quietness and in
confidence shall be your strength."
This brief and imperfect sketch, which the
writer believes to be a true, unvarnished story of
a great Religious Revival, may well close with
Mr. Rudyard Kipling's magnificent " Recessional,"
which first appeared in the columns of The Times,
during the sixtieth commemoration of the
Queen's Accession, and has the true poetic ring
about it which animated the writings of John
Keble, the founder of the GREAT OXFORD
MOVEMENT.
" God of our fathers, known of old
Lord of our far-flung battle-line
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget lest we forget !
THE OXFORD MOVEMENT. 187
" The tumult and the shouting dies
The captains and the kings depart
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget lest we forget.
" Far-called our navies melt away
On dune and headland sinks the fire
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre !
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget lest we forget !
" If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in
awe
Such boasting as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget lest we forget !
1 88 THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.
" For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding calls not Thee to guard
For frantic boast and foolish word,
Thy mercy on Thy People, Lord ! "
APPENDIX.
As TO THE NUMBERS OF CHURCH PEOPLE
IN ENGLAND AND WALES.
Note A.
T T is true that concerning the actual
number of Church members we have no
reliable statistics. Official returns, so far as
they exist, tend to show that, at the present
time, some 72 per cent, of the population
are professed members of the Church of
England." That no reliable figures are forth-
Churchmen. Dissenters. \
Various Returns
75 against 25
Burial ,
70
30
Out of
School
9
72
28
- every
Army
1
... 63
37
IOO.
Navy
1
75
25 J
Workhouse
I
79
21 '
Taken from the various Government Returns.
IQO APPENDIX.
coming on the subject, however, must not
be put down to the fault of Churchmen, for,
as in former years, so again in 1891, Church-
men petitioned the Government of that day
for a " Religious Column " in the Official
Census papers, the only possible way of
arriving at a satisfactory conclusion of the
matter, only to find that once again, as on
former occasions, the suggestion was hotly
opposed by representative Nonconformists,
who, no doubt, had good reasons for their
action, and in deference to whose wishes the
Government refused to grant the request.
ANCIENT AND MODERN ROMANISM.
Note B.
" THE Church of Rome," writes the late
Lord Selborne, " underwent important changes
during the many centuries which elapsed
between the mission of Augustine and the
reign of King Henry VIII. The whole
mediaeval system grew up during that interval.
APPENDIX. 191
. . . If the authorised doctrine and practice
of the Church of England at the present day
should be compared with that of the Christian
Church generally, including the Church of
Rome in the days of Augustine, it would
require a strong application of the theological
microscope to discover any really substantial
differences between them. Almost, if not
absolutely, everything which the Church of
England has since rejected as usurpation or
corruption was then unknown.""
The Church of England, then, has neither
added to the faith of Christendom, nor taken
away from it ; and, accordingly, while she is
Catholic, she is not Roman Catholic, with mere
local and modern variations for the worse from
the old teaching of the Church Uni/ersal.
Further, the Church of Rome, by claiming,
as for some centuries past, to be the whole
Church ; excommunicating and anathematising
those who do not submit to that claim ; denying
* " Defence of the Cluirch," pp. 7, 8.
1 92 APPENDIX.
the orders and sacraments of other Churches,
and re-baptizing their members ; refusing them
even the name of Church as when styling the
Eastern Church by the title of "the Photian
Schism " has not only departed from the
Catholic spirit, but has minutely copied the
precedent and followed the example of the
Donatist sectaries of ancient times.
Contrariwise, the Church of England makes
no such claim of monopoly, has no excom-
munications or anathemas for other Churches,
acknowledges the validity of their orders and
sacraments, and interposes no barrier to com-
munion with them, thus keeping to the original
Catholic method."'
As a fact, the old religion of Rome during
its early life had no formal Invocation of
Saints or Angels, no Purgatory, nor prayers
to be delivered from thence. It possessed no
image worship, no transubstantiation, no half-
communion, it neither issued indulgences nor
* Dr. Littledale's " Words for Truth."
APPENDIX. 193
practised auricular confession. The doctrine of
Purgatory was unknown previous to the seventh
century. The worship of Images was unheard
of before the eighth century. Transubstantia-
tion was first decreed as a matter of Faith
at the Lateran Council in 1215, and the denial
of the cup to the Laity dates from 1415.
The infallibility of the Pope was denied by
Roman Catholics in England up to the year
1870.
The present Church of Rome, therefore,
represents neither the old religion of the
Scriptures, nor that of the primitive Church,
nor that of the early Church of Rome itself.
Some things are omitted, others added, and
more so much altered that the present Roman
system is only old in name ; it keeps the old
name, whilst it rejects the old faith.
"They that have not Peter's faith," saith
St. Ambrose, "cannot succeed to Peter's inheri-
tance."*
* St. Ambrose, " De Poenitent," lib. L, cap. 6.
15
194 APPENDIX.
Note C.
THE "FORGED DECRETALS."
IT is a fact open to no contradiction that
modern Roman Catholic assumptions and
assertions of absolute ecclesiastical supremacy
are largely built upon forged documents.
These modern Roman Catholic claims are
mainly the outcome of a series of documents)
utterly false and untrue, and which are known
as the FORGED DECRETALS. A "Decretal"*
is the name given to a letter from the Pope,
in reply to questions put to him by his
bishops. In the ninth century nearly a hun-
dred such forged Papal letters appeared, the
forger of which documents was known as
" Isidore Mercator," but which were alleged to
be the genuine productions of some thirty
Popes who followed each other in the first
three centuries. They were fathered upon
Isidore, Bishop of Seville, a writer who lived
*The first genuine "Decretal" is believed to bear date
February II, A.D. 385, and is attributed to Pope Siricius.
APPENDIX. 195
in the seventh century. Their purpose was to
exalt the power of Rome. They introduced
novel maxims in regard to the authority and
the power of the Popes. They asserted for
the first time in history that the Pope had
supreme authority over all bishops, and they
claimed for the Pope the right to hear appeals
from all parts of the world.
The great Father and writer, Augustin,
Bishop of Hippo, and 216 bishops of Africa,
as well as the Churches of Asia, did not
acknowledge the authority or supremacy of
the bishops of Rome. The first of the four
General Councils, called by the Emperor Con-
stantine at Nicaea, in 325, was presided over by
Hosius, Bishop of Cordova. For six hundred
years the bishops of Rome themselves were so
far from knowing anything of such supremacy, in
themselves or in any others, that Pope Gregory
the First denounced John of Constantinople
for his assumption, and wrote : " Quis-quis se
universalem sacerdotem vocat, Anti-Christum
196 APPENDIX.
praecurrit" "Whosoever calls himself uni-
versal priest is the forerunner of Antichrist."
The forged decretals, writes the Rev. Canon
Charles Gore,* "represent a step of immense
importance in the aggrandisement of the
Papal claim. It is not that they contain a
wholly new claim, but they converted what
was a claim, a pretension, an aspiration, into
an accepted principle, firmly rooted in the
precedents of the whole Christian past reaching
back to the Apostles. For what were these
decretals? They were a forgery of the
middle of the ninth century, and the first part
consisted of a number of forged letters
supposed to be by the early Popes from A.D.
90 to 314. These forged letters represented
these bishops of Rome as claiming and
exercising the rights of the mediaeval Papacy.
The fraud consisted in assigning the language
of a later period to the writers of an earlier
one." Thus, their recognition gave to the