THE OXFORD MOVEMENT AND ROME [To the Editor of THE
SPECTATOR] SIR,—Canon Lyttelton's speculations on what might have happened in the Church of England, brit for the stand against defections to Rome made by l'usey and Keble are not very convincing. Historical speculations on " What might have been " seldom are. It would be easy to say what the Evangelical Revival might have done for the Church of England but for the divisions introduced by the Tractarian Movement ; easy, but not convincing.
I submit that it would be more true to history to say that the Tractarian Movement shaped itself in at least three currents : (1) It led to a very large number of individual secessions to the Church of Rome, depriving us of intellectual
giants of the stature of J. II. Newman and W. G. Ward ; (2) It led to the formation of a party within the Church of England, who remain with us with the avowed object of restoring us to the Roman obedience. If my memory is not at fault, it is but a short time since a document to that effect appeared, signed by well on for 1,000 Priests ; (8) The True- tarian Movement under the influence of Charles Gore and his friends took the form of Anglo-Catholicism, which com- bines Pre-Reformation ritual with diluted Modernism. This last current having no use for the authority of Rome, and seriously impugning the authority of Scripture, rests itself on experience, the proved experience of " so-called Catholic" doctrine and worship to produce a particular type of piety. This type is bound to come into conflict with the claims of Socialism to be able to produce a higher and more satisfactory type of morality. The danger of jettisoning authority will then make itself felt. Thi,4 statement is not mere prophecy. The conflict has already begun, and with it a reaction against the mediaeval resusci- tation of last century. When the corporate life of the Church comes into grips with the corporate life of the State. it is likely that the despised individualism of the Evangelical movement may prove to be the stronghold of sound religion.
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