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the impalpable rainbow of the immaterial world。 In other times;

under other skies; his days would have been more fortunate。 He

might have helped to weave the garland of Meleager; or to mix the

lapis lazuli of Fra Angelico; or to chase the delicate truth in

the shade of an Athenian palaestra; or his hands might have

fashioned those ethereal faces that smile in the niches of

Chartres。 Even in his own age he might; at Cambridge; whose

cloisters have ever been consecrated to poetry and common sense;

have followed quietly in Gray's footsteps and brought into flower

those seeds of inspiration which now lie embedded amid the faded

devotion of the Lyra Apostolica。



At Oxford; he was doomed。 He could not withstand the last

enchantment of the Middle Age。 It was in vain that he plunged

into the pages of Gibbon or communed for long hours with

Beethoven over his beloved violin。 The air was thick with

clerical sanctity; heavy with the odours of tradition and the

soft warmth of spiritual authority; his friendship with Hurrell

Froude did the rest。 All that was weakest in him hurried him

onward; and all that was strongest in him too。 His curious and

vaulting imagination began to construct vast philosophical

fabrics out of the writings of ancient monks; and to dally with

visions of angelic visitations and the efficacy of the oil of St

Walburga; his emotional nature became absorbed in the partisan

passions of a University clique; and his subtle intellect

concerned itself more and more exclusively with the dialectical

splitting of dogmatical hairs。 His future course was marked out

for him all too clearly; and yet by a singular chance the true

nature of the man was to emerge triumphant in the end。 If Newman

had died at the age of sixty; today he would have been already

forgotten; save by a few ecclesiastical historians; but he lived

to write his Apologia; and to reach immortality; neither as a

thinker nor as a theologian; but as an artist who has embalmed

the poignant history of an intensely human spirit in the magical

spices of words。



When Froude succeeded in impregnating Newman with the ideas of

Keble; the Oxford Movement began。 The original and remarkable

characteristic of these three men was that they took the

Christian Religion au pied de la lettre。 This had not been done

in England for centuries。 When they declared every Sunday that

they believed in the Holy Catholic Church; they meant it。 When

they repeated the Athanasian Creed; they meant it。 Even; when

they subscribed to the Thirty…nine Articles; they meant it…or at

least they thought they did。 Now such a state of mind was

dangerousmore dangerous indeed than they at first realised。

They had started with the innocent assumption that the Christian

Religion was contained in the doctrines of the Church of England;

but; the more they examined this matter; the more difficult and

dubious it became。 The Church of England bore everywhere upon it

the signs of human imperfection; it was the outcome of revolution

and of compromise; of the exigencies of politicians and the

caprices of princes; of the prejudices of theologians and the

necessities of the State。 How had it happened that this piece of

patchwork had become the receptacle for the august and infinite

mysteries of the Christian Faith? This was the problem with which

Newman and his friends found themselves confronted。 Other men

might; and apparently did; see nothing very strange in such a

situation; but other men saw in Christianity itself scarcely more

than a convenient and respectable appendage to existence; by

which a sound system of morals was inculcated; and through which

one might hope to attain to everlasting bliss。



To Newman and Keble it was otherwise。 They saw a transcendent

manifestation of Divine power flowing down elaborate and immense

through the ages; a consecrated priesthood; stretching back;

through the mystic symbol of the laying on of hands; to the very

Godhead; a whole universe of spiritual beings brought into

communion with the Eternal by means of wafers; a great mass of

metaphysical doctrines; at once incomprehensible and of

incalculable import; laid down with infinite certitude; they saw

the supernatural everywhere and at all times; a living force;

floating invisible in angels; inspiring saints; and investing

with miraculous properties the commonest material things。 No

wonder that they found such a spectacle hard to bring into line

with the institution which had been evolved from the divorce of

Henry VIII; the intrigues of Elizabethan parliaments; and the

Revolution of 1688。 They did; no doubt; soon satisfy themselves

that they had succeeded in this apparently hopeless task; but;

the conclusions which they came to in order to do so were

decidedly startling。



The Church of England; they declared; was indeed the one true

Church; but she had been under an eclipse since the Reformation;

in fact; since she had begun to exist。 She had; it is true;

escaped the corruptions of Rome; but she had become enslaved by

the secular power; and degraded by the false doctrines of

Protestantism。 The Christian Religion was still preserved intact

by the English priesthood; but it was preserved; as it were;

unconsciouslya priceless deposit; handed down blindly from

generation to generation; and subsisting less by the will of man

than through the ordinance of God as expressed in the mysterious

virtue of the Sacraments。 Christianity; in short; had become

entangled in a series of unfortunate circumstances from which it

was the plain duty of Newman and his friends to rescue it

forthwith。 What was curious was that this task had been reserved;

in so marked a manner; for them。 Some of the divines of the

seventeenth century had; perhaps; been vouchsafed glimpses of the

truth; but they were glimpses and nothing more。 No; the waters of

the true Faith had dived underground at the Reformation; and they

were waiting for the wand of Newman to strike the rock before

they should burst forth once more into the light of day。 The

whole matter; no doubt; was Providentialwhat other explanation

could there be?



The first step; it was clear; was to purge the Church of her

shames and her errors。 The Reformers must be exposed; the yoke of

the secular power must be thrown off; dogma must be reinstated in

its old pre…eminence; and Christians must be reminded of what

they had apparently forgottenthe presence of the supernatural

in daily life。 'It would be a gain to this country;' Keble

observed; 'were it vastly more superstitious; more bigoted; more

gloomy; more fierce in its religion; than at present it shows

itself to be。' 'The only good I know of Cranmer;' said Hurrell

Froude; 'was that he burned well。' Newman preached; and soon the

new views began to spread。 Among the earliest of the converts was

Dr Pusey; a man of wealth and learning; a professor; a canon of

Christ Church; who had; it was rumoured; been to Germany。 Then

the Tracts for the Times were started under Newman's editorship;

and the Movement was launched upon the world。



The Tracts were written 'with the hope of rousing members of our

Church to comprehend her alarming position 。。。 as a man might

give notice of a fire or inundation; to startle all who heard

him'。 They may be said to have succeeded in their objective; for

the sensation which they caused among clergymen throughout the

country was extreme。 They dealt with a great variety of

questions; but the underlying intention of all of them was to

attack the accepted doctrines and practices of the Church of

England。 Dr。 Pusey wrote learnedly on Baptismal Regeneration; he

also wrote on Fasting。 His treatment of the latter subject met

with considerable disapproval; which surprised the Doctor。 'I was

not prepared;' he said; 'for people questioning; even in the

abstract; the duty of fasting; I thought serious…minded persons

at least supposed they practised fasting in some way or other。 I

assumed the duty to be acknowledged and thought it only

undervalued。' We live and learn; even though we have been to

Germany。



Other tracts discussed the Holy Catholic Church; the Clergy; and

the Liturgy。 One treated of the question 'whether a clergyman of

the Church of England be now bound to have morning and evening

prayers daily in his parish church?' Another pointed out the

'Indications of a superintending Providence in the preservation

of the Prayer…book and in the changes which it has undergone'。

Another consisted of a collection of 'Advent Sermons on

Antichrist'。 Keble wrote a long and elaborate tract 'On the

Mysticism attributed to the Early Fathers of the Church'; in

which he expressed his opinions upon a large number of curious

matters。 'According to men's usual way of talking;' he wrote; 'it

would be called an accidental circumstance that there were five

loaves; not more nor less; in the store of Our Lord and His

disciples where

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