Apologia pro vita sua being a history of his religious opinions
desire to build up a system of theology out of the Anglican divines, and
imply that my dissertation was a tentative Inquiry. I speak in the
Preface of "offering suggestions towards a work, which must be uppermost
in the mind of every true son of the English Church at this day,--the
consolidation of a theological system, which, built upon those
formularies, to which all clergymen are bound, may tend to inform,
persuade, and absorb into itself religious minds, which hitherto have
fancied, that, on the peculiar Protestant questions, they were seriously
opposed to each other."--P. vii.
In my University Sermons there is a series of discussions upon the
subject of Faith and Reason; these again were the tentative commencement
of a grave and necessary work, viz. an inquiry into the ultimate basis
of religious faith, prior to the distinction into Creeds.
In like manner in a Pamphlet, which I published in the summer of 1838,
is an attempt at placing the doctrine of the Real Presence on an
intellectual basis. The fundamental idea is consonant to that to which I
had been so long attached: it is the denial of the existence of space
except as a subjective idea of our minds.
The Church of the Fathers is one of the earliest productions of the
Movement, and appeared in numbers in the British Magazine, being written
with the aim of introducing the religious sentiments, views, and customs
of the first ages into the modern Church of England.
The Translation of Fleury's Church History was commenced under these
circumstances:--I was fond of Fleury for a reason which I express in the
Advertisement; because it presented a sort of photograph of
ecclesiastical history without any comment upon it. In the event, that
simple representation of the early centuries had a good deal to do with
unsettling me in my Anglicanism; but how little I could anticipate this,
will be seen in the fact that the publication of Fleury was a favourite
scheme with Mr. Rose. He proposed it to me twice, between the years 1834
and 1837; and I mention it as one out of many particulars curiously
illustrating how truly my change of opinion arose, not from foreign
influences, but from the working of my own mind, and the accidents
around me. The date, from which the portion actually translated began,
was determined by the Publisher on reasons with which we were not
concerned.
Another historical work, but drawn from original sources, was given to
the world by my old friend Mr. Bowden, being a Life of Pope Gregory VII.
I need scarcely recall to those who have read it, the power and the
liveliness of the narrative. This composition was the author's
relaxation, on evenings and in his summer vacations, from his ordinary
engagements in London. It had been suggested to him originally by me, at
the instance of Hurrell Froude.
The Series of the Lives of the English Saints was projected at a later
period, under circumstances which I shall have in the sequel to
describe. Those beautiful compositions have nothing in them, as far as I
recollect, simply inconsistent with the general objects which I have
been assigning to my labours in these years, though the immediate
occasion which led to them, and the tone in which they were written, had
little that was congenial with Anglicanism.
At a comparatively early date I drew up the Tract on the Roman Breviary.
It frightened my own friends on its first appearance; and several years
afterwards, when younger men began to translate for publication the four
volumes _in extenso_, they were dissuaded from doing so by advice to
which from a sense of duty they listened. It was an apparent accident,
which introduced me to the knowledge of that most wonderful and most
attractive monument of the devotion of saints. On Hurrell Froude's
death, in 1836, I was asked to select one of his books as a keepsake. I
selected Butler's Analogy; finding that it had been already chosen, I
looked with some perplexity along the shelves as they stood before me,
when an intimate friend at my elbow said, "Take that." It was the
Breviary which Hurrell had had with him at Barbadoes. Accordingly I took
it, studied it, wrote my Tract from it, and have it on my table in
constant use till this day.
That dear and familiar companion, who thus put the Breviary into my
hands, is still in the Anglican Church. So, too, is that early venerated
long-loved friend, together with whom I edited a work which, more
perhaps than any other, caused disturbance and annoyance in the Anglican
world,--Froude's Remains; yet, however judgments might run as to the
prudence of publishing it, I never heard any one impute to Mr. Keble the
very shadow of dishonesty or treachery towards his Church in so acting.
The annotated Translation of the Treatises of St. Athanasius was of
course in no sense of a tentative character; it belongs to another order
of thought. This historico-dogmatic work employed me for years. I had
made preparations for following it up with a doctrinal history of the
heresies which succeeded to the Arian.
I should make mention also of the British Critic. I was Editor of it for
three years, from July 1838 to July 1841. My writers belonged to various
schools, some to none at all. The subjects are various,--classical,
academical, political, critical, and artistic, as well as theological,
and upon the Movement none are to be found which do not keep quite clear
of advocating the cause of Rome.
* * * * *
So I went on for years up to 1841. It was, in a human point of view, the
happiest time of my life. I was truly at home. I had in one of my
volumes appropriated to myself the words of Bramhall, "Bees, by the
instinct of nature, do love their hives, and birds their nests." I did
not suppose that such sunshine would last, though I knew not what would
be its termination. It was the time of plenty, and, during its seven
years, I tried to lay up as much as I could for the dearth which was to
follow it. We prospered and spread. I have spoken of the doings of these
years, since I was a Catholic, in a passage, part of which I will here
quote:
"From beginnings so small," I said, "from elements of thought so
fortuitous, with prospects so unpromising, the Anglo-Catholic party
suddenly became a power in the National Church, and an object of alarm
to her rulers and friends. Its originators would have found it difficult
to say what they aimed at of a practical kind: rather, they put forth
views and principles for their own sake, because they were true, as if
they were obliged to say them; and, as they might be themselves
surprised at their earnestness in uttering them, they had as great cause
to be surprised at the success which attended their propagation. And, in
fact, they could only say that those doctrines were in the air; that to
assert was to prove, and that to explain was to persuade; and that the
Movement in which they were taking part was the birth of a crisis rather
than of a place. In a very few years a school of opinion was formed,
fixed in its principles, indefinite and progressive in their range; and
it extended itself into every part of the country. If we inquire what
the world thought of it, we have still more to raise our wonder; for,
not to mention the excitement it caused in England, the Movement and its
party-names were known to the police of Italy and to the back-woodmen of
America. And so it proceeded, getting stronger and stronger every year,
till it came into collision with the Nation, and that Church of the
Nation, which it began by professing especially to serve."
The greater its success, the nearer was that collision at hand. The
first threatenings of what was coming were heard in 1838. At that time,
my Bishop in a Charge made some light animadversions, but they _were_
animadversions, on the Tracts for the Times. At once I offered to stop
them. What took place on the occasion I prefer to state in the words, in
which I related it in a Pamphlet addressed to him in a later year, when
the blow actually came down upon me.
"In your Lordship's Charge for 1838," I said, "an allusion was made to
the Tracts for the Times. Some opponents of the Tracts said that you
treated them with undue indulgence.... I wrote to the Archdeacon on the
subject, submitting the Tracts entirely to your Lordship's disposal.
What I thought about your Charge will appear from the words I then used
to him. I said, 'A Bishop's lightest word _ex cathedrâ_ is heavy. His
judgment on a book cannot be light. It is a rare occurrence.' And I
offered to withdraw any of the Tracts over which I had control, if I
were informed which were those to which your Lordship had objections. I
afterwards wrote to your Lordship to this effect, that 'I trusted I
might say sincerely, that I should feel a more lively pleasure in
knowing that I was submitting myself to your Lordship's expressed
judgment in a matter of that kind, than I could have even in the widest
circulation of the volumes in question.' Your Lordship did not think it
necessary to proceed to such a measure, but I felt, and always have
felt, that, if ever you determined on it, I was bound to obey."
That day at length came, and I conclude this portion of my narrative,
with relating the circumstances of it.
* * * * *
From the time that I had entered upon the duties of Public Tutor at my
College, when my doctrinal views were very different from what they were
in 1841, I had meditated a comment upon the Articles. Then, when the
Movement was in its swing, friends had said to me, "What will you make
of the Articles?" but I did not share the apprehension which their
question implied. Whether, as time went on, I should have been forced,
by the necessities of the original theory of the Movement, to put on
paper the speculations which I had about them, I am not able to
conjecture. The actual cause of my doing so, in the beginning of 1841,
was the restlessness, actual and prospective, of those who neither liked
the _Via Media_, nor my strong judgment against Rome. I had been
enjoined, I think by my Bishop, to keep these men straight, and I wished
so to do: but their tangible difficulty was subscription to the
Articles; and thus the question of the Articles came before me. It was
thrown in our teeth; "How can you manage to sign the Articles? they are
directly against Rome." "Against Rome?" I made answer, "What do you mean
by 'Rome?'" and then I proceeded to make distinctions, of which I shall
now give an account.
By "Roman doctrine" might be meant one of three things: 1, the _Catholic
teaching_ of the early centuries; or 2, the _formal dogmas of Rome_ as
contained in the later Councils, especially the Council of Trent, and as
condensed in the Creed of Pope Pius IV.; 3, the _actual popular beliefs
and usages_ sanctioned by Rome in the countries in communion with it,
over and above the dogmas; and these I called "dominant errors." Now
Protestants commonly thought that in all three senses, "Roman doctrine"
was condemned in the Articles: I thought that the _Catholic teaching_
was not condemned; that the _dominant errors_ were; and as to the
_formal dogmas_, that some were, some were not, and that the line had to
be drawn between them. Thus, 1. The use of Prayers for the dead was a
Catholic doctrine,--not condemned in the Articles; 2. The prison of
Purgatory was a Roman dogma,--which was condemned in them; but the
infallibility of Ecumenical Councils was a Roman dogma,--not condemned;
and 3. The fire of Purgatory was an authorized and popular error, not a
dogma,--which was condemned.
Further, I considered that the difficulties, felt by the persons whom I
have mentioned, mainly lay in their mistaking, 1, Catholic teaching,