Apologia pro vita sua being a history of his religious opinions
leave the Church of England as much as ten years sooner than I did. He
said this in print between the years 1847 and 1849. His nephew, an
Anglican clergyman, kindly wished to undeceive him on this point. So, in
the latter year, after some correspondence, I wrote the following
letter, which will be of service to this narrative, from its
chronological notes:--
"Dec. 6, 1849. Your uncle says, 'If he (Mr. N.) will declare, _sans
phrase_, as the French say, that I have laboured under an entire
mistake, and that he was not a concealed Romanist during the ten years
in question,' (I suppose, the last ten years of my membership with the
Anglican Church,) 'or during any part of the time, my controversial
antipathy will be at an end, and I will readily express to him that I am
truly sorry that I have made such a mistake.'
"So candid an avowal is what I should have expected from a mind like
your uncle's. I am extremely glad he has brought it to this issue.
"By a 'concealed Romanist' I understand him to mean one, who, professing
to belong to the Church of England, in his heart and will intends to
benefit the Church of Rome, at the expense of the Church of England. He
cannot mean by the expression merely a person who in fact is benefiting
the Church of Rome, while he is intending to benefit the Church of
England, for that is no discredit to him morally, and he (your uncle)
evidently means to impute blame.
"In the sense in which I have explained the words, I can simply and
honestly say that I was not a concealed Romanist during the whole, or
any part of, the years in question.
"For the first four years of the ten, (up to Michaelmas, 1839,) I
honestly wished to benefit the Church of England, at the expense of the
Church of Rome:
"For the second four years I wished to benefit the Church of England
without prejudice to the Church of Rome:
"At the beginning of the ninth year (Michaelmas, 1843) I began to
despair of the Church of England, and gave up all clerical duty; and
then, what I wrote and did was influenced by a mere wish not to injure
it, and not by the wish to benefit it:
"At the beginning of the tenth year I distinctly contemplated leaving
it, but I also distinctly told my friends that it was in my
contemplation.
"Lastly, during the last half of that tenth year I was engaged in
writing a book (Essay on Development) in favour of the Roman Church, and
indirectly against the English; but even then, till it was finished, I
had not absolutely intended to publish it, wishing to reserve to myself
the chance of changing my mind when the argumentative views which were
actuating me had been distinctly brought out before me in writing.
"I wish this statement, which I make from memory, and without consulting
any document, severely tested by my writings and doings, as I am
confident it will, on the whole, be borne out, whatever real or apparent
exceptions (I suspect none) have to be allowed by me in detail.
"Your uncle is at liberty to make what use he pleases of this
explanation."
* * * * *
I have now reached an important date in my narrative, the year 1843; but
before proceeding to the matters which it contains, I will insert
portions of my letters from 1841 to 1843, addressed to Catholic
acquaintances.
1. "April 8, 1841 ... The unity of the Church Catholic is very near my
heart, only I do not see any prospect of it in our time; and I despair
of its being effected without great sacrifices on all hands. As to
resisting the Bishop's will, I observe that no point of doctrine or
principle was in dispute, but a course of action, the publication of
certain works. I do not think you sufficiently understood our position.
I suppose you would obey the Holy See in such a case; now, when we were
separated from the Pope, his authority reverted to our Diocesans. Our
Bishop is our Pope. It is our theory, that each diocese is an integral
Church, intercommunion being a duty, (and the breach of it a sin,) but
not essential to Catholicity. To have resisted my Bishop, would have
been to place myself in an utterly false position, which I never could
have recovered. Depend upon it, the strength of any party lies in its
being _true to its theory_. Consistency is the life of a movement.
"I have no misgivings whatever that the line I have taken can be other
than a prosperous one: that is, in itself, for of course Providence may
refuse to us its legitimate issues for our sins.
"I am afraid, that in one respect you may be disappointed. It is my
trust, though I must not be too sanguine, that we shall not have
individual members of our communion going over to yours. What one's duty
would be under other circumstances, what our duty would have been ten or
twenty years ago, I cannot say; but I do think that there is less of
private judgment in going with one's Church, than in leaving it. I can
earnestly desire a union between my Church and yours. I cannot listen to
the thought of your being joined by individuals among us."
2. "April 26, 1841. My only anxiety is lest your branch of the Church
should not meet us by those reforms which surely are _necessary_. It
never could be, that so large a portion of Christendom should have split
off from the communion of Rome, and kept up a protest for 300 years for
nothing. I think I never shall believe that so much piety and
earnestness would be found among Protestants, if there were not some
very grave errors on the side of Rome. To suppose the contrary is most
unreal, and violates all one's notions of moral probabilities. All
aberrations are founded on, and have their life in, some truth or
other--and Protestantism, so widely spread and so long enduring, must
have in it, and must be witness for, a great truth or much truth. That I
am an advocate for Protestantism, you cannot suppose;--but I am forced
into a _Via Media_, short of Rome, as it is at present."
3. "May 5, 1841. While I most sincerely hold that there is in the Roman
Church a traditionary system which is not necessarily connected with her
essential formularies, yet, were I ever so much to change my mind on
this point, this would not tend to bring me from my present position,
providentially appointed in the English Church. That your communion was
unassailable, would not prove that mine was indefensible. Nor would it
at all affect the sense in which I receive our Articles; they would
still speak against certain definite errors, though you had reformed
them.
"I say this lest any lurking suspicion should be left in the mind of
your friends that persons who think with me are likely, by the growth of
their present views, to find it imperative on them to pass over to your
communion. Allow me to state strongly, that if you have any such
thoughts, and proceed to act upon them, your friends will be committing
a fatal mistake. We have (I trust) the principle and temper of obedience
too intimately wrought into us to allow of our separating ourselves from
our ecclesiastical superiors because in many points we may sympathize
with others. We have too great a horror of the principle of private
judgment to trust it in so immense a matter as that of changing from one
communion to another. We may be cast out of our communion, or it may
decree heresy to be truth,--you shall say whether such contingencies are
likely; but I do not see other conceivable causes of our leaving the
Church in which we were baptized.
"For myself, persons must be well acquainted with what I have written
before they venture to say whether I have much changed my main opinions
and cardinal views in the course of the last eight years. That my
_sympathies_ have grown towards the religion of Rome I do not deny; that
my _reasons_ for _shunning_ her communion have lessened or altered it
would be difficult perhaps to prove. And I wish to go by reason, not by
feeling."
4. "June 18, 1841. You urge persons whose views agree with mine to
commence a movement in behalf of a union between the Churches. Now in
the letters I have written, I have uniformly said that I did not expect
that union in our time, and have discouraged the notion of all sudden
proceedings with a view to it. I must ask your leave to repeat on this
occasion most distinctly, that I cannot be party to any agitation, but
mean to remain quiet in my own place, and to do all I can to make others
take the same course. This I conceive to be my simple duty; but, over
and above this, I will not set my teeth on edge with sour grapes. I know
it is quite within the range of possibilities that one or another of our
people should go over to your communion; however, it would be a greater
misfortune to you than grief to us. If your friends wish to put a gulf
between themselves and us, let them make converts, but not else. Some
months ago, I ventured to say that I felt it a painful duty to keep
aloof from all Roman Catholics who came with the intention of opening
negotiations for the union of the Churches: when you now urge us to
petition our Bishops for a union, this, I conceive, is very like an act
of negotiation."
5. I have the first sketch or draft of a letter, which I wrote to a
zealous Catholic layman: it runs as follows, as far as I have preserved
it, but I think there were various changes and additions:--"September
12, 1841. It would rejoice all Catholic minds among us, more than words
can say, if you could persuade members of the Church of Rome to take the
line in politics which you so earnestly advocate. Suspicion and distrust
are the main causes at present of the separation between us, and the
nearest approaches in doctrine will but increase the hostility, which,
alas, our people feel towards yours, while these causes continue. Depend
upon it, you must not rely upon our Catholic tendencies till they are
removed. I am not speaking of myself, or of any friends of mine; but of
our Church generally. Whatever _our_ personal feelings may be, we shall
but tend to raise and spread a _rival_ Church to yours in the four
quarters of the world, unless _you_ do what none but you _can_ do.
Sympathies, which would flow over to the Church of Rome, as a matter of
course, did she admit them, will but be developed in the consolidation
of our own system, if she continues to be the object of our suspicions
and fears. I wish, of course I do, that our own Church may be built up
and extended, but still, not at the cost of the Church of Rome, not in
opposition to it. I am sure, that, while you suffer, we suffer too from
the separation; _but we cannot remove the obstacles_; it is with you to
do so. You do not fear us; we fear you. Till we cease to fear you, we
cannot love you.
"While you are in your present position, the friends of Catholic unity
in our Church are but fulfilling the prediction of those of your body
who are averse to them, viz. that they will be merely strengthening a
rival communion to yours. Many of you say that _we_ are your greatest
enemies; we have said so ourselves: so we are, so we shall be, as things
stand at present. We are keeping people from you, by supplying their
wants in our own Church. We _are_ keeping persons from you: do you wish
us to keep them from you for a time or for ever? It rests with you to
determine. I do not fear that you will succeed among us; you will not
supplant our Church in the affections of the English nation; only
through the English Church can you act upon the English nation. I wish
of course our Church should be consolidated, with and through and in
your communion, for its sake, and your sake, and for the sake of unity.
"Are you aware that the more serious thinkers among us are used, as far
as they dare form an opinion, to regard the spirit of Liberalism as the
characteristic of the destined Antichrist? In vain does any one clear