THE LIFE OF DR. PUSEY.*
LSECOND NOTICE.]
DEAN CHURCH, with the true insight which seldom failed him, wrote as follows of the principle which sustained the High-Church party under the crushing blow of Newman's secession, and 'which, in the long-run, restored life and energy to a cause which was supposed to be lost":—" It was not the revival of the old via media ; it was not the assertion of the superiority of the English Church; it was not a return to the old-fashioned and ungenerous modes of controversy with Rome,—one-sided in all cases, ignorant, coarse, un- Christian in many. It was not the proposal of a new theory of the Church,—its functions, authority, and teaching, a counter-ideal to Mr. Ward's imposing Ideal. It was the resolute and serious appeal from brilliant logic, keen sarcasm, and pathetic and impressive eloquence, to reality and experi- ence, as well as to history, as to the position and substantial characteristics of the traditional and actually existing English Church, shown not on paper but in work, and in spite of con- tradictory appearances and inconsistent elements The English Church was, after all, as well worth living in and fighting for as any other."
Dr. Pusey's life gives ample evidence of the truth of this account. Newman's secession was the defeat of the old theory of the Movement ; and those who had rested for support on that theory went with him. If it failed to support the man whose credit and interest before the world were so far committed to it, and whose heart was bound so closely to the Church of England, much more did it fail to keep others. But the event showed that there were numbers who had adopted Mr. Newman's theory without resting on it. What to Newman was a pillar essential to the support of the structure was to others an ornament, readily inserted, readily removed. The stress lay elsewhere. The elements represented by Dr. Pusey remained untouched by the destruction of the via media, and the crisis brought this fact into prominence. If the via media was gone, the love of Catholic doctrine and devotion remained ; the correlative habits of piety and self-discipline were there; and attachment to the Church of England was untouched. It is true that the fire of zeal kindled by the sermons at St. Mary's was not Dr. Pasey's work. Without Newman's genius the modern High-Church movement could not be what it is. But the staying power which ultimately led to that second revival was typified by Pusey. The matters dealt with in Newman's lectures on Romanism, and most of Newman's Tracts, became external to the spirit of the Movement. The genius of its later developments spent its force in other directions. Of that later genius Pusey was as little typical as of the earlier. But of the steadfast piety which stood the brunt of the battle, and would not own itself defeated— which let immovable faithfulness to a cause do duty for logic— which gave him in the eyes of his friends some of the peculiar glory of the English squares at Waterloo, whose staying power made Blucher's victory possible, Pusey was far the most influential representative.
Since the Movement has rallied and gathered force again, it has taken a direction in which failure cannot overtake it from the same sources as the catastrophe of 1845. There have, no doubt, been new theories to justify High-Church Anglicanism against Rome; but the practical activity of the party has not depended on the answer to the question whether these are logically complete or no ; nor have the theorists themselves appealed to the action of Church authorities as a decisive test of their validity. The Roman question is now a side-issue of the Movement ; and the absorption of its apostles in successful work for the country, in the contest against growing infidelity, in efforts to deal with the social question, in the analysis for thoughtful men of the relations between science and religion, has been their justification for the continuance in working through the Church of their birth and the Church of the majority of the people. Few persons will consider Mr. Gore's treatment of the Roman question as exhaustive as Newman's lectures of 1837 and of 1838. The distinctive genius of Mr. Gore's school is far more truly represented in Lux Mundi by the essays which relate to Biblical Inspiration, Theism, Faith, and the Preparation for Christ in History, than by those which deal more expressly with the theory of a Church.
* Life of Edward Rourcrio Puaqi, B.D. By Henry Parry Liddon. Edited by Rev..T. 0. Johnston, Vicar of All Saint?, Oxford, and Rev, R. J. Wilson, Warden of Keble College. London: Longmans. It would carry us beyond our limits to pursue this con- sideration further. Of the nature of that steadfast piety and patient devotion to his spiritual children to which Pusey owed so great an influence—which enabled him to transfer the informing spirit from one great movement to another—the reader will find great wealth of detail in these volumes. We will cite, in conclusion, a contemporary picture, which will be welcome te• the many who long to make alive to themselves the men and the Oxford of that time. We give it almost in full, in spite of its length, as the vividness of the picture would suffer from the omission of details.
The Rev. J. Fuller Russell, then an undergraduate at Cambridge, paid a visit to Oxford in 1837 in company with another disciple of the Movement, the Rev. W. J. Irons, of Walworth. Mr. Russell writes an account of the visit, from which we make the following extract, in a letter to a friend dated November 18th:— " Irons and I left London at ten o'clock on Monday, and reached the University about five. On Tuesday morning I was dressed by eight, and hastened down to Oriel, which stands in a narrow street, facing great St. Mary's. Having surveyed the great court, I retraced my steps, and finding that great St. Mary's Church was open. I entered. An open screen, surmounted by the organ, separated the nave from the chancel. I looked through the glass doors, and beheld Newman kneeling before the altar, with his face towards it. A few people were kneeling with him : this was his regular morning service. I returned to Queen's, where one Pocock (a man of note and worth in the University) met us at breakfast, We soon completed our repast, and Irons and I hastened to Christ Church. I left my card at Linwood's. and Irons was soon closeted with Dr. Pusey. Irons rejoined me about two, and said that Pusey had enquired about me, and would see me at three. At three, accordingly, we found ourselves in the innermost cell, the central chamber of the 'Popery of the kingdom.' I should say, first, that we passed through a ball, and a large room well furnished with books, before we entere,d the sanctuary. This was a largo chamber of some height, and nearly square. There were two lofty Gothic windows, at one of which was placed a standing-desk. There were also two or three tables, a sofa, and sundry chairs in the room, all more or less laden with books. The Doctor was seated in an armed and cushioned chair, and received us with much kindness, He is a young-looking man, about my height, very pale and careworn, with a slight impediment in his speech. Irons put some erudite questions to him about the Canons of Nice and the celibacy of the clergy, and the Doctor laughed at Irons' plausible argument that, under existing circumstances, it was better for the clergy to marry as fast as possible Pusey soon alluded to my brother. He said he had received two letters from him, but he thought it useless to argue with him on paper. The question at issue between them was a simple matter of fact. I might tell my brother that Mr. Newman never intended to deny that the Atonement satisfied God's justice ; and that the very words of the tract [No. 73] could not be wrenched so as to warrant so grave an accusation as my brother's. I said that he had made up his mind that the words of the heading of the passage= the Atonement not an exhibition of God's Justice' [p. 29]—must be taken as an epitome of the contents of the page. Pusey said that the emphasis ought to be laid on the word exhibition,' and that he was sorry that more care had not been taken with the heading, so as to avoid its being misunderstood. The bell of Christ Church now struck four, and Pusey put on his surplice, and we followed him into the cathedral. Before we parted he invited us both to dine with him on the following day. Service ended, we returned to Queen's, and presently dined at the Fellows' table. Dinner over, we adjourned to the Common-room,' and sat there until nine. The talk naturally fell upon Pusey, &c. It was allowed that the Doctor and Newman governed the University, and that nothing could withstand the influence of themselves and their friends. Every man of talent who during the last six years has come to Oxford has joined Newman, and when he preaches at St Mary's (on every Sunday afternoon) all the men of talent in the University come to hear him, although at the loss of their dinner. His triumph over the mental empire of Oxford was said to be complete ! Pusey is considered the great benefactor of Oxford; he supports five divinity students in his own house, and his benefactions to the poor arc very great. He had preached a sermon (to a crowded congregation) in St. Mary's Church, on the 5th November, which had occasioned immense excitement, and he was engaged to preach on the two following Sundays. It was said that be possessed an indirect but great influence over the whole clergy of Oxford, and that even those who did not openly profess themselves on his side'
were imperceptibly adopting his sentiments On Wednesday, after breakfast, Irons and I called on Newman. He was seated at a small desk in a comfortable room, stored with books. He is a dark, middle-aged, middle-sized man, with lanky black hair and large spectacles,—thin, gentlemanly, and very insinuating. He received us with the greatest kindness, and said he bad been invited to meet us at Pusey's, but had 'so grievous a cold' that he feared he could not come. Irons, however, over- ruled all objections, and when we left him he gave us to under- stand that we should meet him. The hour of five found us at Christ Church. When we entered Pusey's sanctum we found him and Harrison I now Archdeacon of Maidstone], Student of Christ Church, by the feeble light of bedcliamber-candleitick candle
brooding over the last sheet of Pusey's fifth of November sermon. Presently an argand lamp threw its mild lustre over the room, and Newman was announced. Pusey seemed delighted to see him. He asked me how I liked Oxford. I discoursed on its superiority over Cambridge, and added that it reminded me of a city of the middle ages. We then had a little talk about sundry old customs which were still observed in the city. Harrison departed with the sermon, and we went into the dining-room. There were two other guests besides ourselves, and we were soon seated at table. Newman was opposite me. Irons at my right, and Pusey at the head of the board. The conversation was chiefly between Irons and Newman (Pusey is a man of few words). It referred to the heresy of Irving and his followers, and Dr. Pusey observed that miracles had [might have] been performed by that party, if always considered as the rewards of personal faith and not as wrought in confirmation of any particular and uncatholie
views of doctrine Presently, after dinner, Dr. Pusey's children ran into the room. One climbed Newman's knee and hugged him. Newman put his spectacles on him, and next on his sister, and great was the merriment of the Puseyan progeny. Newman, it is said, hates ecclesiastical conversation. He writes so much that when in society he seems always inclined to talk on light, amusing subjects. He told them a story of an old woman who had a broomstick which would go to the well, draw water, and do many other things for her ; how the old woman got tired of the broomstick, and wishing to destroy it, broke it in twain, and how, to the old woman's great chagrin and disappointment, two live broomsticks grew from the broken parts of the old one! We quitted Christ Church about nine, highly delighted with our visit. It was esteemed the highest honour which could have been paid us."
With this citation we reluctantly take leave of a. deeply interesting book,—a book which gives a fuller account than any other of the Oxford of the Movement, its daily thoughts, its excitements, its hopes, its fears ; and which traces faith. fully the career of a man whose singularly simple, beautiful, and winning character should ever stand forth as a model for the imitation of English churchmen.
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