Church and state in England & Wales, 1829-1906

Front matter

m

URCH AND bFTATE

IN

Introduction

General feeling of despair about the Established Church — Extraordinary oases of Proselytism to Romanism via Anglicanism — Broad Church and High Church in rural districts — An Archbishop of Canterbury's son — Rome among the Bishops — English religious customs — Commission on ritual disorders— The Christian's duty — The Rationalist's weakness — Priestcraft in Greece, Rome, and Venice — Priestcraft in England — The new Spanish marriage — The ex-Lord Lieutenant of Ireland .

Chapter I

Catholic Emancipation — New spirit of inquiry — Education of the poor — Struggle for a free University in London — Theology unmasked — Milton and Johnson — George IV. and Bishop Howley — J. F. D. Maurice — Durham University — King's College — Commutation of Tithe — Ecclesiastical Commission — National reforms — Four spheres of Ecclesiastical activity 23

Chapter II

Jewish and Roman tithe — Tithes at the Reformation — England still under Papal law — Tithes of fishing and of labour— An anti-Christian system — Tithe commutation explained — Extraordinary tithes — Value of tithe rent-charge — Decadence of agriculture explained — Fiscal reform and tithe — London tithes — Glebe lands — Church rates . . . . 40

Chapter III

Composition and powers of the Ecclesiastical Commission — Re-arrangement of Bishops' incomes — Suppression of Canonries — Ecclesiastical Patronage — Simony — Work of the Commission— Clerical riches and poverty — Cause of the poverty — National growth — Ecclesiastical decay — Anglican Church a medieval institution — Bishops' Courts — Cathedral establishments— Dioceses of Canterbury, York, London, Winchester, Durham, Carlisle, Chester, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Ripon, Wakefield, and Man . , .61

CONTENTS vii

Chapter IV Faob

Westminster Abbey — Windsor Free Chapel— The dioceses of St. Albans, St. Asaph, Bangor, Bath and Wells, Bristol, Chichester, St. David's, Ely, Exeter, Gloucester, Hereford, and Lichfield 91

Chapter V

Lincoln — Tennyson on Church and Nonconformity — Llandaff — Norwich — Oxford — Christ Church College anomaly — Peterborough— Rochester — Southwark — Salisbury — The Sarum Kitual — Southwell — Truro — Worcester — Birmingham — Ecclesiastical Commission — Summary — Ecclesiastical Wealth — Buildings wrsits Men 113

Chapter VI

Clericalism at Oxford and Cambridge — Foundation and early history of the Colleges — The Universities at and after the Eeformation — Oxford in the eighteenth century — Wesley and Whitefield — Morals and drinking customs . . . 144

Chapter VII

The Oxford sacerdotal movement — Keble on national apostacy — The Anglican bishoprics in Ireland — Newman's antecedents— His first visit to Rome — The philosophy of lying — Pusey's character — Anti- Hampden cabal — Manning and Gladstone — Archbishop Howley — Newman's coenobitium — The Tracts — Manning as archdeacon — Pusey founds nunneries — The Martyrs' Memorial i66

Chapter VIII

The Littlemore monastery — Bishop Bagot and Newman — Gladstone " trims " — Frederick Faber founds a monastery — Pusey and " the discipline " — Degradation of W. G. Ward — Secessions to Rome — Newman and Achilli — Newman in Ireland — Newman is made a cardinal — Manning in Rome — Hampden gets a bishopric — Gladstone as member for Oxford — Manning's career as a Roman Catholic — End of Keble and Pusey — The sacerdotal movement considered — The evangelicals and the sacerdotalists — The society Puseyite — Problems for Puseyites — Archbishop Davidson and Bishop Gore . -193

Chapter IX

The University Commission of 1850 — Oxford censured — Decadence of the colleges — Bishop Samuel Wilberforce — The abolition of religious tests — 'The Universities Act, 1877 — Reform of the professoriate — The fellows and professors — Benjamin Jowett — History in Oxford — Bishop Stubbs, Professor Gardiner, and Professor Freeman . ... 226- viii CONTENTS

Chapter X Pass

Oxford — "Religion, Learning, and Education" — Penalties on Marriage— Priest-Fellows— Wealth of the Colleges— Costly establishments — Salaries of Heads and Fellows — Enormous outlay on religious worship — Review of the Colleges— Christ Church— Secret Trusts in Hertford CoUege— Non-collegiate Students — Keble College and Ritualism— Clerical influence — Extravagance and frivolity — Poverty of the Universities — Discreditable Reports from the institutions — Loans— Total revenues ..... . 249

Chapter XI

Cambridge Colleges and University — Their history — The new Statutes — Collegiate finances — Clerical influence — University finances — Summary and total Endowments of Oxford and Cambridge — The Public Schools Monopoly — Lampeter College— University of Wales — Owens College — Victoria University— Liverpool, Leeds, and Birmingham Universities 281

Chapter XII

Compact between Church and State after the Reformation — The clerical caste more powerful in England than on the Continent— Its influence over literature — Tennyson, Browning, Thackeray, Dickens — The Church and Science — Huxley and Archbishop Thomson — Cobden and the Church — Elementary Education — Sir John Gorst and the aristocracy — Bishop Creighton's presumption — The so-called " National " schools — Proselytism in school — Growth of Ritualism — The Board Schools of 1870— W. E. Forster 313

Chapter XIII

The fight against the Board Schools — The Conservatives and Compulsory Education — Home Rule checks educational reform — Lord Salisbury's advice to the Church — Ecclesiastical strategy — Training and pay of Church teachers — Anti-Christian religion in Church schools — Masses and Missions — Proselytism 335

Chapter XIV

Financial distress of the Church schools — The Education Acts, 1902 and 1903 — Alliance between Anglicans and Romans — Ritualism persisted in — Protests by County Councils — Endorsement by Archbishop Davidson — Church school teaching in St. Albans — The Training Colleges — Education BUI, 1906 — The Bishops' agitation — Mr. Lloyd George denounces clericalism — The "ecclesiastical laymen" — Bishop Talbot's metaphor — Bishop Ingram's threat — The Church and the unemployed — Mysterious demonstrations — The Church pecuniarily interested in reviving Protection— Extraordinary scene at St. Paul's^Resurrection of the unemployed . . 357

CONTENTS ix

Chapter XV Page

How the Laity are ohuroh-outed by the Clergy — Growth of Nonconformity at home and in the colonies — The Church Patronage system — The Benefices Act, i8g8 — The case of St. Greorge's, Botolph Lane — Preferments given for political services — Archbishop Davidson on workhouse chaplains — The Bishop of Kensington — Queen Anne's Bounty — Active trafSo in Church patronage still prevalent . . . 405

CHAPTER XYI

The Churchwardens — The Convocations — Their ancient powers — Their suspension and revival — The Houses of Laymen — The Diocesan Conferences — A travesty of representative government— The Liverpool Diocesan Conference, 1903 — Messrs. Black & Green, Limited — St. Paul versus Bishop Chavasse . 441

e

Chapter XVII

The Bepresentative Church Council — Preliminary meetings — Excessive power of the archbishops — Helplessness of the laity — First regular session — Undistinguished attendance — Debates on the council's constitution — Revolutionary outbursts of Church dignitaries not followed by action — InefEectual protests by laymen — Triumph of saoerdotalists — The lay franchise fixed on religious basis — Bishops differ, but prelacy always wins — Revolt of the church-outed in Cheshire — Bishop Jayne mobbed at Birkenhead . . . 472

Chapter XVIII

History and analysis of Anglican ritualism — Society of the Holy Cross — St. George's "riots" — " The Priest in Absolution" — Pusey triumphant — Pusey and Gaume — Other ritualist societies — Sacerdotalism in the Schools, the Army, and the Navy — Anglican religious orders, male and female — Trade in ritualistic appliances — Legal decisions against ritualism — The Mackonochie, Purchas, and other cases — The Ecclesiastical Courts Commission, 1882-3 • • S03

Chapter XIX

Ritualism under Salisbury and Gladstone — ^ Queen Victoria's position — Deception of the evangelical party by the bishops — Continued practice of ritualism — The campaign of Bishop King of Lincoln — His trial by Archbishop Benson — ^Appeal to the Privy Council — Lord Halsbury's judgment — Bills for Disestablishment in Wales, 1893 and 1894 — Sacerdotal party appeal to Rome — Parliamentary motion for disestablishment in England, 1897 — The Pan-Anglican bishops— Condemnation of ritualism by Parliament, 1899 — Continued growth of ritualism — Archbishop Maclagan involved — Church Discipline Bill, 1903 — The Royal Declaration assailed by Archbishop Davidson 539

b

CONTENTS

Chapter XX Page

Ecclesiastical Discipline Commission, 1904 — The sacerdotal party's first move — Evidence of illegalities restricted — Testimony of medievalists admitted without limit — Doings of sacerdotal party, 1904-6 — Father Adderley — Bishop Gore — Bishop Ingram — Clerical criminality — Parish of Wimbledon . 589

Chapter XXI

Beport of Ecclesiastical Discipline Commission, 1906 — Evidence of Rev. W. E. Bowen, Sir J. Lawson Walton, Mr. J. Athelstan Eiley, Rev. W. H. Frere, Lady Wimborne, Mr. Henry Miller, and others — Episcopal Church of America — Refusal of evangelical evidence — Unjustifiable recommendations — Sacerdotalist clajms more audacious than ever — The nation's duty — Conclusion . . 632

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

(FIFTT-FOUE IN NUMBER)

Queen Victoria, Archbishop Tait, Bishop S. \

WiLBEEPOECB, W. E. GLADSTONE, AND THE \ Frontispiece

Mabquis op Salisbubt )

The Fobthbsses of the Chubch of England To face page 23

LOBD John Russell .... . .

Salisbubt and Lincoln Cathbdbals

Abchbishops Davidson and Maclagan

Pbteeboeough and Durham Cathbdbals

The Bishop of Lincoln in Episcopal Vestments

Bishops Talbot and Gore

Canon Pusey and Rev. John Kbble

Nicholas Wiseman, Cabdinal

H. E. Manning and J. H. Newman, Cabdinals,

Results op Pusbtism — An Anglican Monastic Obdeb op the Present Day

Results of Puseyism— An Anglican Ritualistic

Church at the Present Day . . ,, 233

All Souls and Keblb College Chapels, Oxford „ 255

King's College and St. John's College Chapels,

Cambridge . . . . ,,281

Anglican Priests of the Present Day . ,, 307 xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The Eitualism which Bishop Oeeighton fostered To face page 325

An Anglican High Chuech of To-Day . . ,, 34^

William Edwaed Foester and Augustine

Altae in ELr Theological College ... „ 368

Bishop Ingram and Rev. W. Caelile . . . ,, 388

The Idolatrous Eeeedos in St. Paul's . . „ 403

Bishops Chavassb and Jaynb . . . ,, 441

School op an Anglican Religious Oedee . „ 462

Bishop Peecbval and Me. J. C. Colquhoun . ., 485

John Kbnsit „ 494.

The Maohineey op Ritualism 1

> 509-

What England owes to Oxford )

Captain Cobham and Loed Halifax ,, 524

Bishop Kino . . . . . „ 539-

JBSUITS' Church, Wimbledon, and Anglican

Church, Robhampton „ 553-

The Gloucester Rbrbdos . . ,, 573.

The Mass or Choeal Communion Service . . ,, 593

INTEODUCTION

General feeling of despair about the Established Church — Extraordinary cases of Proselytism to Romanism via Anglicanism — Broad Church and High Church in rural districts — An Archbishop of Canterbury's son — Rome among the Bishops — English religious customs — Commission on ritual disorders — The Christian's duty^ — The Rationalist's weakness — Priestcraft in Greece, Rome, and Venice — Priestcraft in England — The new Spanish marriage — The ex-Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

The widespread circulation of " Priests and People in Ireland" brought its author into contact with Christians of every denomination, not only in the United Kingdom but in the most distant colonies. The correspondence which he received comprised thousands of letters from people of all conditions — day-labourers, artisans, shopkeepers, professional men, clergymen of all creeds, pohticians, Church dignitaries, and members of the nobility. The burden of all the letters was the same, namely, that the spread of priestcraft is undermining the national character, not only in Ireland but in England, where its influence is not more perceptible in the churches than in the public schools and universities.

Taken as a whole, the letters directly expressed, or insinuated, a feeling of despair in reference to the

A

Churcli of England. The holder of one of the richest dignities in the Established Church, for instance, wrote a long letter of inquiry, the following extracts from which are remarkable for their candour : — " Let me thank you for your very interesting and crushing book. It is of great value at a moment when our Anglicans are playing the same game. . . . The fierce feelings excited by the Education debates " (in 1 90 2) " show that this country is in no hurry to hand over the command to the black-coats, whether Romans or Anglicans. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to any one who will face clerical wrath as you have done. . . . The condition of religious matters in England is far from satisfactory. We have lost — if we ever had it^ — the affection and confidence of the town masses. Religion is too often mere dependence, and that no less in Protestant than in Catholic circles." The writer then went on to describe " the later breed " of ritualism as "little more than a grotesque copy of certain ' Catholic ' usages, and a secret belief in the sacramental and priestly system." And he concluded thus : " I imagine that the honest Romanists are smitten with contempt for such poor reflections of what is to them the most serious element of the Christian system of faith and practice. But Church matters are now very distasteful to me, and all points towards a disestablishment, and to an outburst of fanatical zeal in consequence."

Hundreds of others declared that the Roman priestcraft which the author denounced in Ireland only differed in degree from the Anglican priestcraft which prevailed in England. Nay, they said that, of the two evils, the Roman priestcraft in Ireland was less dangerous to the State; because it affected a smaller number of people, and was an open fire which, however brightly it might seem to blaze at

A SAD LETTEE 3

present, was being watched, and might be, extinguished more quickly than is now thought possible. Whereas, the ravages of Anglican priestcraft were like those of a hidden fire Consuming the vitals of the nation while the surface of things as yet continues fair to the eye.

But of all the letters which the author received, there was one which imperatively aroused him to action. It came in 1902, soon after the appearance of " Priests and People," and was as follows : —

" Deae Sib, — I have just finished your book, ' Priests and People,' and I feel that every true follower of Christ owes you a debt of thanks. But I especially do so, for it may, please God, prove a most valuable weapon in my hands to bring back and save from the priests of Kome my dear young son, whom they have entrapped and carried off to the English

College at , without allowing him to come home

to take leave of his mother. This was done just a year ago, and he is coming home for a holiday at my urgent request (and of course at my expense), in July or August next, for two months.

" He was on the point of going to Oxford, and I had hoped he would have been eventually ordained ia the

English Church. He is young (now years),

impressionable, enthusiastic ; and, being a gentleman and well educated, will no doubt be a valuable prize for the priesthood, unless I can save him from that fate.

" His brother, who is years older, and feels with

me entirely in this matter, is also deeply interested in your book ; and we have thought whether a trip to Ireland might not help to open my younger son's eyes. Especially valuable would it be if you would be so kind as to see him or allow his brother and him to call on you then ; as I feel sure that your words, as belonging to the Roman Church, would have a far deeper value than any we could say. Would you do this to help me ? I shall be more grateful than I can say if you will talk to him a little. — Yours truly.

A photograph, which was enclosed, showed me that the writer's son was one of those handsome English youths, who are turned out of the public schools year after year, and with the subject of whose education and character we shall deal in the proper place.

It was only a few months after the receipt of this letter that I was astonished at reading in the leading Irish clerical newspaper, that " an attempt to put down ' Romish practices ' in one of the Anglican churches in London, St. Michael's, Shoreditch, had had a sensational result."^ " First of all," it was stated, " the vicar, the Rev. H. M. Evans, resigned his living " ; and the report went on to say, " The development entered on another stage on Sunday, when about half the congregation, with a portion of the choir, attended the new Catholic church of St. Mary's, Moorfields, the church being hastily got ready for their reception, and Cardinal Vaughan issuing a special faculty to permit English hymns to be sung. In addition to the attendance at mass, a large number of St. Michael's Sunday school children, led by their teachers, attended Sunday school at St. Mary's. In the evening the worshippers and children from St. Michael's had the prior right of entrance to St. Mary's, and the new building was crowded. Meanwhile the services at St. Michael's were carried on with a diminished choir and congregation half the usual size ! "

^ Freemcm's Journal, February ii, 1903.

"THE PANTING HEART OP ROME" s

A few days afterwards the same newspaper proclaimed : '■ Despite every effort to induce the intending converts to return to the Anglican Church, they seem determined to embrace the Catholic faith, and at eleven o'clock mass, which was celebrated by the Rev. Father Threed, M.A., Archbishop's House, between 150 and 200 of the ex- Anglicans were present, and showed the utmost devotion throughout the service, especially during the Elevation. After the first Gospel, the Rev. Father Chase, himself a convert, having been formerly Protestant vicar at Plymouth, preached a sermon plainly intended for the new-comers, in which he pointed out the unity which exists and has always existed in the Church, as compared with the many doctrines enunciated in the various branches of the Church of England. At the conclusion of mass, the entire congregation sang ' Faith of Our Fathers.' In the evening the church was crowded in every part, and, when the rosary was recited, the former attendants of St. Michael's were plainly heard giving the responses, while they joined in the English hymns sung during benediction. Father Chase again preached, and at the close of the ceremonies, 'Full in the Panting Heart of Rome ' was sung. Special instructions have been arranged for the new-comers prior to their being formally received into the Church."^

These occurrences threw a new light upon the wrong endured by my correspondent ; and hearing from her some weeks later that her son was not to come home, as she had wished and expected, I paid a visit to her home in one of the most beautiful districts of rural England, met herself and her eldest son, and stayed some days in the locaHty. The circumstances which I discovered there, and which had led to the young man's change of religion, revealed to me the existence

' Freeman's JournaZ, February 16, 1903.

of a disintegrating process at work within tte Church of England, as to whose extent I had until then no definite conception. The rector of the parish was a country gentleman, a magistrate, a man of private means, and patron of his own living, who took his place in county society, and did his duty according to his lights. The comfort and lethargy of an animal existence betrayed themselves in the Uves of the people and the appearance of the country. The parish church had doubtless often witnessed the celebration of mass, according to the Sarum use, in days before the Reformation. There was no active vice, neither was there any active virtue. The peasants did not know the difference between Richard Cobden and John Calvin, did not know the inter-relation between "district councils," " county councils," and " parliament." They lived from hour to hour, their mental vision as limited as their physical horizon, which was never distant more than a mile ; steadily engrossed with their sleep, their food, their work, and their animal joys.

But in the neighbouring parish, over the crest of the nearest hill, the vicar was, and is, a Puseyite, a ritualist, and an active member of the sacerdotal party, a man who considered himself a super-human priest, and only incidentally an Englishman; quite a different person from the rector I have described. But rector and vicar, different as were their liturgical practices, were both equally Roman on one point, and that was in their firm behef that the people for whom they ministered had no right to have their wishes consulted as to the conduct of the services in the parish church ; and each alike, in his own way, regarded himself as the spiritual master of his parishioners, and not their minister.

The vicar, acting under the loftiest oflBcial patronage in the Established Church, practised aU the ritual.

AN ANGLO-EOMAN VICAR 7

sacraments, sacrifices, and ceremonies by which the Roman priests maintain their baneful supremacy over the imaginative and credulous Celts of- the south of Ireland. In his church were statues, stations of the cross, altars, candles, coloured lamps, and confessionals. I learned that auricular confession was practised, absolutions pronounced, and penances imposed. An excellent equivalent for the Latin mass was found in choral communion services without communicants, with liberal interpolations from the ancient liturgies mumbled as if in a foreign tongue, with melodramatic gestures, genuflections, and prostrations; the vicar wearing Roman vestments and being served by cassocked and surpliced altar-boys. Processions were arranged, holy feasts were kept several times a week, and fasting communion was distributed every morning.

I heard that this cult of priestcraft had flourished in the parish for some years, but was not of native growth, having been imported by the ritualist vicar. I found that the respectable churchgoers eschewed the ritualist's church, and worshipped at the church of another vicar close at hand. Who, then, kept up the cult of ritualism ? It was maintained by a small number of wealthy people, some of them strangers, who had come to reside in the locality. A number of credulous poor were induced to attend the church and send their children to the schools by the prospect of reward — they were " rice Christians," or people of the class known as " soupers " in Ireland. Others came to the church, because they "liked the show," and did not feel that any serious principle was affected by it. But the respectability and worth of the parish were assuredly not involved in the proceedings, and had no partnership in the vicar's guilt, beyond that which the priest and the Levite incurred when they

"passed by on the other side," and did nothing to help the man who had fallen among thieves.

The youth, in whose fortune I was interested, had been tempted to give up attendance at his own parish church and join the ritualists in the neighbouring parish. He there met a well-to-do lady, one of the worshippers, in whose society he spent much of his time. On all sides he heard nothing but praise of Eomanism. Like Pusey, the misguided young Englishman might truly say : " From much reading of Roman books, I am so much impressed with the superiority of their teaching that I dare not speak against things." ^ Every one with whom he came into contact seemed, as Pusey said of himself, only to " desiderate more love for Rome." His rich patroness actually joined the Church of Rome, though she still continued her associations with the Anglo-Roman establishment, and she offered, if he consented to become a Roman priest, to pay all the expenses of his education. The vicar not only did nothing to prevent him, I was informed, but gave him every facility for leaving the Church of England, appearing to regard it as the legitimate end of his own " Romeward " practices.

The young man was quickly put into communication with some English Jesuits, by whom he was " received into the Catholic Church," taken away from his mother in the fashion which she described in her letter to me, and placed in an ecclesiastical college on the continent to be educated for the priesthood. The young man was not allowed home to see his parents at the expected date, nor since; he therefore did not come to Ireland, nor did I ever see him. But I had an opportunity of seeing more than one of his letters, which gave me an indication of the innocent amiability ' " Life of Dr. Pusey," ii. 456.

PUSEYITE DISLOYALTY g

of his character. He delighted in the feast-days, fasts, and sacramental observances of the Roman Church, beHeved in the supernatural power exercised by the priests in the confessional and in the act of transubstantiation, and looked forward to his ordination as an ancient Roman might have looked forward to being admitted into the ranks of the gods.

All fair-minded people will agree (i) that a loyal minister of the Church of England could not have acted as this vicar did, and (2) that if the vicar were a Roman Catholic priest masquerading as an English clergyman, for the twofold purpose of drawing " the produce of his living" and entrapping Anglicans into the Roman Church, he could not have shown greater zeal in the interests of his master, the Pope of Rome.

Furthermore, even if the Church of England were one of those Churches which subsist entirely on the contributions of their adherents, the case of this young man could not fail to excite the deepest sympathy and regret. But, when we consider that the Church in which this underhand proselytispi was practised is a State institution, with the '^sovereign of the realm as its official head, and that it draws millions of money every year in land-tax and house-tax levied upon Enghsh and Welsh citizens of all denominations, under the name of commuted tithe, it must be admitted that the issues at stake are of national importance and all citizens of England, of every creed and of no creed, are concerned in the ignominy of those proceedings.

After this object lesson in the nature and results of what is called Ritualism, I saw fresh force in the request made by so many of my correspondents that I should investigate the behaviour of the Anglican lo CHURCH AND STATE IN ENGLAND

sacerdotalists. I accordingly determined to study the constitution and conduct of the Church of England, ■with a view to publishing a book on the subject, for which I had already collected a considerable amount of material; and I had scarcely decided on my method of procedure when the following announcement appeared in the newspapers to strengthen my resolution : " The Press Association is informed by the Tablet that the Rev. Robert Hugh Benson, M.A., son of the late Dr. Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury, has been received into the Catholic Church at the Dominican Priory, Woodchester, by the Rev. Father H. Reginald Buckler. Mr. Benson was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was ordained in 1894."^

Commenting triumphantly upon the conversion of the Archbishop's son, the Tablet, which is the official organ of the Roman Church in England, said : " He is only one of several converts who have come to the fold from the homes of Anglican bishops and their families. For instance, Mr. Algar Thorold, during his father's tenure of the see of Winchester, became a Catholic ; and another Bishop of Winchester, Samuel Wilberforce, encountered the same kind of unintended but inevitable opposition when his daughter, Mrs. J. H. Pye, took the journey to Rome, which three of her uncles likewise made. A grandson of Bishop Wilberforce is counted amongst the English Jesuits ; and at Woodchester, where he was received, Mr. Benson, son of an Archbishop, is likely enough to have some very interesting exchanges of thought with Father Bertrand Wilberforce, O.P., the nephew of another Anglican prelate. Again, Archbishop Tait of Canterbury (of whom his wife jokingly said he beUeved all Catholic doctrines but the celibacy of

^ Freeman's Journal, September 16, 1903.

ANGLICAN BISHOPS AND ROME ii

tjhe clergy) had a brother-in-law among the converts to the Roman Church, the Rev. E. B. K. Fortescue, himself Provost of St. Ninian's, Perth. Another convert, Father Harper, S.J., had a brother among Anglican colonial bishops. Bishop Ryder, who entered the Catholic Church, had a daughter who became a nun. In Father Ryder, of the Birmingham Oratory, that bishop has a grandson. Miss Mary Stanley, a fervent convert to the Church, which she served diligently by her labour and her fortune, was a daughter of Bishop Stanley of Norwich, and a sister of the Dean of Westminster. Archbishop Whately, Newman's old antagonist, supplied a nephew to the Catholic Church, afterwards known as Father Pope. Lady Charles Thynne was a daughter of Bishop Bagot of Bath and Wells. Father Coleridge, S.J., had a brother-in-law in Bishop MacKarness of Oxford; and Dr. Pusey gave a great-nephew to the Society of Jesus, and two great-nieces to be enrolled among nuns."

I knew that many of the leading characters in this chant of triumph — Whately, Pusey, Newman, Wilberforce, Bagot, and Tait — must figure largely in any contemporary history of the Anglican Church, and they will all be found in their proper places in the following pages. I had not proceeded far with my work/ when I found it would be desirable to reside constantly in England ; and circumstances happily enabled me to do so. For twenty years I had been visiting England, and had taken a perennial interest in comparing the social and religious habits of the English with those of the Roman Catholic Irish. There was scarcely a variety of religious worship which I had not attended, beginning with Welsh chapels at Holyhead, Bangor, Colwyn Bay, and Rhyl. More than once on a Sunday, while waiting for the London train at Chester, I had attended afternoon serrice at the cathedral, and afterwards joined the audience at the Salvation Army celebration in the hall close to the railway station.