、

the Bible were not infallible in matters of science and history, they simply followed the ideas of the times. There is no Bible chronology. The disposition of the Jews to magnify numbers makes all calculations uncertain. The History of the Jews' raised such a storm that the publisher had to stop the series of which it formed a part.' Dean Stanley says that this was the first decisive inroad of German theology into England, the first palpable indication that the Bible could be studied like any other book, that the characters and events of the sacred history could be treated at once both critically and reverently.'

Milman's next work, The History of Christianity' gave offence chiefly to one Church party. A reviewer2 in the British Critic said 'there was so much to shock people in the book, that there was comparatively little to injure.' It would help those who wished the destruction of Catholic views, that is the Evangelical party, who, at the same time, would not see that the same principles applied to New Testament history and teaching. It was 'a most dangerous and insidious work.' All were to abstain from it 'who carp at the Fathers, and deny tradition, who argue against sacramental influence, who refer celibacy to Gnosticism, or Episcopal power to Judaism, who declaim against mysticism, and scoff at the miracles of the Church, while at the same time they uphold what is called Orthodox Protestantism.' The reason why they are to abstain is, because 'on their controversial principles, the reasonings and conclusions are irresistible."

Milman distinguished between what was essential in religion and what was merely extraneous and accidental. At the end of his greatest work, the 'History of Latin Christianity,' he spoke of dogmatic systems falling into disuse, certain portions of Scripture submitting to a wider interpretation, and being harmonised with the conclusions of science. That which would continue was the unshadowed essence of divine Truth, as enshrined in the words of Christ. The primal indefeasible truths of Christianity would never pass away.' 4 2 Newman.

'The Family Library.

CHAPTER X

THE TRACTS FOR THE TIMES

THE origin of the Tractarian movement is ascribed by Newman, in a classical passage in the Apologia, to Keble's sermon on National Apostasy.1 The text was I Samuel, xii, 23, As for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you.' The Apostasy was what was called the reformed Parliament, into which were admitted Roman Catholics, 'Jews, Turks, Infidels, Heretics,' and other Dissenters. As the Israelites in the time of Samuel, wishing to have a king to be like the heathen nations, rejected God and His prophet, so the English people had got a Parliament which cast off the profession of Christianity. This Parliament was to govern the Church, usurping that commission which had been given to the clergy. We have nothing left but a Parliamentary Church, an Erastian Establishment. The reformed Parliament was reforming the Church in a way that to Churchmen like Keble, seemed sacrilege. Irish bishoprics that were no longer needed, were to be suppressed, and though the revenues were to be used in strengthening the Church, yet a bishopric was a thing too sacred to be abolished by a secular government.

The Church was not only in danger of being reformed by Parliament, but it was in itself weak. It was not making progress, while Dissent of all kinds was rapidly increasing. One party proposed extensive reforms, others regarded the proposed reforms as in themselves injurious. Since the time

of Laud there had always been a party who maintained that the Episcopal constitution of the Church was divine. With the extinction of the Nonjurors that party was apparently extinct. Evangelicalism was the only really great religious power, but its principles were not essentially different from those of Nonconformists. A distinct ground was wanted for the defence of the Church as a divine Institution. This circumstance will explain why many who were educated among the Evangelicals readily fell in with the Tractarian movement. Another cause assigned was the progress of Rationalism as imported from Germany. It came from a Non-Episcopal Church, a Church without a divine commission, and it was subversive of the doctrine of the infallible inspiration of the Bible. The precursor of Tractarianism in this relation was Hugh James Rose, Incumbent of Hadleigh in Essex, once the benefice of the famous reformer and martyr, Rowland Taylor.

Rose published a book on 'The State of Protestantism in Germany.' Some of the German theologians had altogether discarded miracles; others had sought to establish the truth of Christianity entirely on internal evidence to the exclusion of the external. They had accepted the principle that though there might be much in the Bible above reason, there was nothing contrary to reason. Under the shelter of this they accepted what doctrines they liked, and rejected what they did not like, and so got rid of the chief doctrines of Christianity. This Rationalism was the result of the want of efficient discipline. The Church of England held fast by the truths taught in the first ages, when what is truth must have been known. Other Protestant Churches held that perhaps in no age had truth been really recognised, that her genuine forms may yet remain to be discovered. This is not to believe in the divine guidance. God has given the Church the power to understand the truth contained in the Bible. It is absurd to suppose that Revelation was so obscure as not to be understood by its first propagators. We go to Scripture as the fountain, but for explanation of difficulties, to those who lived at the beginning of Christianity. The very idea of Revelation is that something was clearly revealed at the outset. With

revelation, and not mere elements or germs, to be brought to maturity by the exercise of reason. This is what the Germans have believed, while the Church of England has taken the safe ground of the Bible as interpreted by the Fathers. Dr Pusey was as yet so far in the way of reason that he defended the German theologians.

All who have written on the Tractarian movement are agreed as to its origin. Dean Church speaks of dangers from the crude revolutionary projects of the Reform epoch, and the necessity there was for something bolder and more effective than the ordinary apologies for the Church. This meant that the apologists must dwell more on the divine right of Episcopacy and the efficacy of sacraments. They were not to be afraid of enthusiasm, as the churchmen of the eighteenth century had been. Bishop Lavington thought enthusiasm was only fit for 'Papists and Methodists,' but it was found in Cranmer, Hooker, Andrews and Ken, and was not extinguished till the age of Tillotson, Secker, and even Porteus. The clergy of that time were good sort of men, influential in many ways, but the idea of the priest if not quite forgotten, was obscured. They slumbered and slept. Whately and Arnold dissatisfied with the stagnation of religious opinion on many subjects, 'agreed in seizing the spiritual aspect of the Church." The inspiration came from Keble and the impulse from Froude, then the work was taken up by Newman who found that he must force on the public mind that great article of the creed, 'I believe in one Catholic and Apostolic Church.' After the publication of Froude's 'Remains,' many who had gone with the movement drew back. They still believed that the Reformers were Catholic, but all parties are now agreed that they were Calvinists, and that they paid extravagant deference to the oracles of Geneva and Zurich. Already there were fears that the movement was in the direction of Rome. Isaac Williams said that the new

1 Letters by an Episcopalian in some sense the work of Whately. So Dean Church believed, but it is now doubtful. See Supra, p. 57. As for Arnold, his idea of the Church was just what the Tractarians said a Church ought not to be.

2 If this which Dean Church acknowledges had been recognised by the Tractarians, much discourse might have been saved

of Laud there had always been a party who maintained that the Episcopal constitution of the Church was divine. With the extinction of the Nonjurors that party was apparently extinct. Evangelicalism was the only really great religious power, but its principles were not essentially different from those of Nonconformists. A distinct ground was wanted for the defence of the Church as a divine Institution. This circumstance will explain why many who were educated among the Evangelicals readily fell in with the Tractarian movement. Another cause assigned was the progress of Rationalism as imported from Germany. It came from a Non-Episcopal Church, a Church without a divine commission, and it was subversive of the doctrine of the infallible inspiration of the Bible. The precursor of Tractarianism in this relation was Hugh James Rose, Incumbent of Hadleigh in Essex, once the benefice of the famous reformer and martyr, Rowland Taylor.

Rose published a book on 'The State of Protestantism in Germany.' Some of the German theologians had altogether discarded miracles; others had sought to establish the truth. of Christianity entirely on internal evidence to the exclusion of the external. They had accepted the principle that though there might be much in the Bible above reason, there was nothing contrary to reason. Under the shelter of this they accepted what doctrines they liked, and rejected what they did not like, and so got rid of the chief doctrines of Christianity. This Rationalism was the result of the want of efficient discipline. The Church of England held fast by the truths taught in the first ages, when what is truth must have been known. Other Protestant Churches held that perhaps in no age had truth been really recognised, that her genuine forms may yet remain to be discovered. This is not to believe in the divine guidance. God has given the Church the power to understand the truth contained in the Bible. It is absurd to suppose that Revelation was so obscure as not to be understood by its first propagators. We go to Scripture as the fountain, but for explanation of difficulties, to those who lived at the beginning of Christianity. The very idea of Revelation is that something was clearly revealed at the outset. With