Chapter II: Part 2

Meanwhile we were studying and reading regularly. Bishop Whittingham had a very fine and extensive library, and was constantly supplied with the choicest books and periodicals of the Anglo-Catholic party. The remarkable movement led by Dr. Pusey and Mr. Newman was at its height. In this country we were somewhat behindhand, and were following at some distance in the wake of the most advanced English leaders, so that the later developments rather took us by surprise. We were reading Mr. Newman's earlier works, and only partly aware of the great change taking place in himself and others. The accusation of Romanizing was treated as a calumny, and we had no thought of any thing except bringing our own Church up to what we thought to be the Catholic level, and endeavoring to establish an intercommunion between it and the Roman and Greek Churches through mutual consultation and concession, and a return to the supposed state of things "before the separation of East and West." At least this is true of us in Maryland, whatever might have been the case with a small number elsewhere. Probably the effort to make the Protestant Episcopal Church take the attitude of being Catholic was never made more earnestly and with better hope of success than in Maryland. {33} The bishop headed the movement, and, besides the clergymen already in his diocese who were ready to second him, he attracted thither a number of young men who were devoted to his person and who sympathized in his views. I have no wish to speak disrespectfully or unkindly of Dr. Whittingham. He has always been a most violent opponent of the Catholic Church, and he has seen fit, like some others of the clergy of his peculiar stripe, to break off all intercourse with those who have left his communion to join it. I do not, however, attribute to him any personal animosity as the motive for this, but merely a mistaken religions zeal. He was always very kind and generous to his young clergymen, strict and self-denying in his life, and laborious in the fulfilment of his official duties. His vigorous administration infused a new energy and activity into the Episcopal Church in his diocese, and gave a powerful impetus to what was called the "Catholic" movement. A periodical entitled _The True Catholic, Reformed, Protestant, and Free_, was established, under the care of Hugh Davey Evans, a learned lawyer and very able theological disputant. A college, conducted by young men trained at the celebrated St. Paul's College, Flushing, by Dr. Muhlenberg, was founded at a beautiful and extensive old country-seat, known as "Fountain Rock," near Hagerstown, and a school, called "St. Timothy's Hall," near Baltimore. The bishop and a large number of his clergy went about dressed in long cassocks; altars, crosses, frequent services, ecclesiastical forms and observances, and other outward signs and accompaniments of an approximation to Catholic doctrines and rites, were to be seen everywhere. The Protestant Episcopal Church was loudly proclaimed to be the Catholic Church of the country, and, in a word, the theory taught in the Oxford Tracts and in the earlier writings of Mr. Newman was sought to be put in actual practice. An unusual number of the clergy were unmarried men, and the project of founding a monastic order was entertained by several. {34} Those were stirring times. Of course opposition was excited in the bosom of the Episcopal Church. The Low Churchmen formed a strong and active minority in the Convention, and did their utmost to thwart the projects of the bishop. Very spicy debates took place in consequence, and as there were very able and distinguished men among the lay delegates, who brought all their legal skill and forensic eloquence into play, the sessions of the Convention were often intensely interesting and exciting. The pulpit, the newspapers, and controversial pamphlets were employed in the warfare by both sides, and the community generally, outside of the Episcopal Church, were quite alive with interest in the questions discussed.

We had a little society called the "Church Reading Society," of which Mr. Evans was president, and Mr. Baker and myself were members, where certain prayers for Catholic unity were offered, and papers bearing on the topics which interested us were read by the members in turn. The different seasons of the ecclesiastical year were very strictly observed, especially Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Holy Week. The English press was at that time pouring forth a stream of books of devotion and sacred poetry, sermons and spiritual instructions, borrowed or imitated from the treasures of Catholic sacred literature. There was a tide setting strongly backward toward the faith and practice of ancient times, and we surrendered ourselves to its influence, without thinking where it would eventually land us. We had no thought of ever leaving the communion to which we belonged. Never, in any of our conversations, did we even speak of such a thing as possible, or call in question the legitimate claim of the authority, under which we were living, to our obedience. We did not sympathize with the bishop and the larger number of the clergymen of our theological party in their sentiment of hostility and antipathy to the Roman communion. {35} The common ground taken was that the Roman Catholic bishops in England and the United States are schismatical intruders upon the lawful jurisdiction of the English and Anglo-American bishops of the Protestant succession. Bishop Whittingham maintained the stronger ground that the Roman Church throughout the world is schismatical and all but formally heretical. He retained the old spirit of vehement dislike and opposition to the See of Rome and every thing in the doctrine and policy of the church connected with the Papal supremacy, which characterized the old divines of the Church of England. He had in his mind an ideal of the primitive Church, according to which he wished and hoped that a Reformed Catholic Church should be reconstructed by the common consent of all the bishops of the world, and which should absorb into itself all the Christian sects. This idea is necessarily common to all who profess to hold Catholic principles in the Anglican communion. The profession of the doctrine of unity in one, visible, Catholic Church, of itself qualifies the isolation of any body of Christians from the great Christian family, as an anomalous and irregular condition. A return to unity or union of some kind must necessarily become an object of desire and effort. So long as one maintains that the Anglican Church is essentially Catholic, he must maintain also that the Roman Church is in some way wrong in refusing to recognize it, and that the Greek Church is likewise wrong in refusing to do so. Hence he must look on some concessions to be made by both Churches as the necessary condition of the reunion of Christendom. So far, all who profess to be "Anglo-Catholics" must agree. But when the question becomes, how much concession must be made to the Anglican communion, or how much concession must be made by her, how far the Greek Church, the Roman Church, or the Anglican Church have erred; and upon what basis of doctrine and ecclesiastical polity they are to be reformed or restored to union, the agreement is ended. {36} Each individual attributes as much or as little error and corruption to other Churches, or his own Church, as suits his own notions. Each one, or each separate clique, has a peculiar ideal of the true Catholic Church. One may regard the Anglican Church as almost perfect, and wish to bring all Christendom to imitate it. Another finds his beau ideal in the Greek Church. Another regards his own Church as very defective, and the Roman Church as the most perfect, desiring that the Holy See should only abate just enough of its claims to let in Greeks without any acknowledgment of their schismatic contumacy, and Anglicans without giving up that they are in heresy and destitute of any legitimate episcopacy.

It is impossible to draw any exact line of demarcation between the adherents of these different views. At the same time, we may say that, in a general sense, one class held the Anglican Church as paramount in its claim of allegiance, and the Church Catholic as subordinate; while the other held the Church Catholic to be paramount, and the Anglican Church subordinate. With the first class, Catholic principles and doctrines were taken hold of as a means of strengthening and exalting the Protestant Episcopal Church as such, and giving her a victory over the rest of Christendom; with the other class, they were embraced in a spirit of deep sympathy with universal Christendom, and with the view of bringing back the Protestant world to the great Christian family.

The first class alone can be relied on as devoted adherents of Anglicanism, and they only hold a strong polemical position against the claim of the Roman See to unconditional submission. The other class have their minds and their hearts open to all Catholic influences. They advance continually nearer and nearer in belief and sympathy to the great Catholic body, and great numbers of them pass over to the Catholic communion. Hence we find that almost all the bishops and dignitaries who have joined in the Oxford Movement have belonged decidedly to the first class, and have always tried to hold the second class in check. {37} The few who have belonged to the second class, such as Bishop Ives and the Archdeacons Manning and Wilberforce, have eventually found allegiance to the Anglican Church incompatible with the paramount claims of the Church Catholic, and have openly renounced it.

But while it is evident that the position of decided and determined hostility to Rome is absolutely necessary, as Mr. Newman long ago remarked, to High Church Anglicanism, it is equally evident that it is the most narrow, inconsistent, and inconsequent position taken by any class of Protestants. It cuts them off from all real sympathy and community of feeling with the great Catholic body; and although there may be a pretence of sympathy with the Oriental Church, it is a mere pretence, and a most illogical and baseless one. It cuts them off equally from all the rest of Protestant Christendom. Yet, it is only the Catholic and Greek Churches which offer a solid and substantial basis for those doctrinal and hierarchical principles which make their only distinctive character; and it is only the Protestant portion of their Church, and its close intellectual, social, political, moral, and religious alliance with the other Protestant Churches, which gives them any standing, influence, or power in the world. A man of liberal, enlarged, and Christian temper of mind, cannot live in such narrow limits or breathe such a confined air. He must have communion with something greater than the Protestant Episcopal Church. If he regards the great Catholic Church as essentially corrupt, he must sympathize with the Protestant Reformation. If the ground which, as I shall presently show, the High Church bishops maintain, is correct, then the continental Protestants were bound to come out when they did and form new churches. Where were they to get bishops? How were they to preserve the continuity of organization and the apostolic succession? The Church of England did not admonish them of the necessity of doing so. She did not proffer them episcopal ordination. {38} But she made common cause with them, and supported them in their revolt, invited them over to England, and gave them places in the English Church, sent delegates to their great Calvinistic Synod of Dort, and in other ways lent them sanction and countenance, without breathing a hint that she was a whit better than they. Arguments from Scripture and ancient authors in favor of three orders and a liturgy may be very solid and conclusive, but they are also very petty and miserable when they are made the basis of arrogant claims by those whose very existence sprang from the assumption that the universal episcopate had betrayed its trust and apostatized from the true doctrine of Christ. The learned William Palmer has seen the necessity of justifying the attitude of the continental Protestant Churches, and therefore concedes to them, on the plea of necessity, valid ordination and a legitimate constitution. An Anglican, who is a thorough and consistent opponent of Rome, ought to take common ground with Protestants. One who turns his back on Protestantism, and abjures the Reformation, ought to make common cause with Rome and the Catholic Church, even though he as yet holds the opinion that his communion is a true and living branch of the Church of Christ.

It may seem strange to those who have never studied or sympathized in the Oxford movement, that men who adopted certain fundamental Catholic principles did not at once embrace the faith and submit to the authority of the Catholic Church, but remained a long time in the Episcopal communion, or even deliberately chose it, after having passed their early life in some other Protestant sect. This seems strange to those who have always been Catholics, and equally strange to the majority of Protestants. So much so, that we have been suspected, and by many fully believed to have been all along concealed Roman Catholics, working in the Episcopal Church for the purpose of "Romanizing" it. {39} A few days before I was received into the Catholic Church, a near and venerable relative of mine said to me: "I am very glad you have become a Catholic, for I can respect a sincere Roman Catholic, but I cannot respect a Puseyite; you will now sail under your true colors. When will H. B. (a cousin of mine, who is an Episcopalian clergyman) do the same thing?"

The truth of the matter is, that we all had imbibed such an intense prejudice from our early education against the Roman Church, that we were appalled at the thought of joining her communion. When certain Catholic truths began to dawn upon our minds, it was indistinctly. To those who were bred in the Anglican Church, it was the natural and obvious course to remain there as long as their consciences would permit. To others, it was natural to look for a resting-place in that communion of which our own particular sects were only offshoots, with which educated people of English descent are so familiar through the history and literature of our native language, whose services many of us had frequently attended from childhood, and where many of us likewise had relatives and friends. It is a small matter to go from one Protestant sect to another, in itself considered, and it is no wonder that any orthodox Protestant should prefer the Episcopal Church to any of the religious bodies which have seceded from it. Besides this, there was a _via media_ offered to us by a great body of divines in the Episcopal Church, between Rome on the one hand and Protestantism on the other, which appeared to be exactly the thing we wanted. I acknowledge that I was too easily allured by this specious pretence, and failed to examine with due care the claims of the Church in communion with the See of Rome to be the true and only Church of Christ. I do not think Mr. Baker, notwithstanding that his prejudices were far less than mine, ever gave the subject serious and careful consideration, until long after he had become an Episcopalian minister. {40} We knew too little, however, of the subject, to feel any conscientious obligations in that direction. I can truly say that I never for one moment deliberated on the question of becoming a Catholic, even when I had the fear of death before my eyes, until after I left Baltimore in the autumn of 1845. I never heard from Mr. Baker, up to that time, a word which betrayed the existence in his mind of any practical doubt about his duty in this respect. The growth of Catholic principles in our minds was gradual. By degrees, the mists of misrepresentation, prejudice, and ignorance which obscured the Catholic Church and her doctrines were dissipated and vanished. Our feelings of veneration and love for the great Church of Christendom increased. Still, as long as we were not convinced that actual communion with the Church of Rome and submission to her supremacy was necessary, _jure divino_, to the catholicity of any local Church, we remained firm in our allegiance to the ecclesiastical authority of our bishop. This is only an instance of what was going on in the case of many both in England and the United States. And it appears from this statement, that whereas all the disciples of the Oxford movement began on essentially the same ground, and that, one which implied strong and decisive opposition to Rome, one portion of them progressed continually, and another remained stationary or retrograded, thus producing separation and division in the ranks. What I wish to show now is, that those who progressed were logically compelled to do so by the principles of the movement itself, and that those who remained stationary, although they held a position which was necessary to the maintenance of Anglicanism, were illogical and inconsequent.

The advocates of the claim of the Church of England to be the only legitimate and Catholic Church in England, and of the same claim for the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, were obliged to make out some case against the bishops of these two countries who were under the jurisdiction of the Roman See and who proclaimed themselves to be the only lawful and Catholic bishops, sustained as they were in this claim by all the other bishops of Western Christendom. {41} The possession of the titles and temporalities of the ancient sees in England by the Established Church naturally suggested the plausible pretext that the Church of England of to-day is the legitimate successor of the Church of England before the separation under Henry VIII. Hence, other bishops, exercising episcopal functions within the dioceses of the bishops of the Church of England, are schismatical intruders, and their congregations are schismatical. The same principle was extended to the United States, on the plea that the Bishop of London had episcopal jurisdiction over the English colonies, and moreover that the Protestant Episcopal bishops were first on the ground, and had acquired possession before the "Romish" bishops, as they chose to call them, came. Now this theory is forced to answer one question: Are the bishops of France, Spain, &c., the legitimate Catholic bishops of those countries, and is their communion the true and only Catholic Church there, or not? Is this question answered in the affirmative? Then, who are the Catholic bishops in Canada, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Texas, and California? Who went first to China and India? Are the Anglican bishops in these places schismatical intruders or not? If not, why not? And if not, why are Roman Catholic bishops schismatical intruders in London and New-York? The Protestant Episcopal Churches of England and the United States pay no attention whatever to any claim of jurisdiction by the Catholic Church in any part of the world, but seek to thrust themselves in and make converts wherever they can. In order to justify this attitude, and at the same time to profess Catholic principles, it is necessary to maintain that the entire Roman communion is schismatical and heretical, and the Protestant Episcopal Church is the true and only Catholic Church, at least in Western Christendom. {42} This idea is the real _animus_ of the Protestant Episcopate, and its highest expression is found in the opinion so common among Protestants, and held even by Mr. Newman some years after he commenced the Oxford Tracts, that the Pope is Antichrist. The charges of the English bishops, especially those delivered after the publication of the Oxford Tract No. 90, all breathe this spirit. Bishop Elliott, of Georgia, in a sermon preached at the consecration of the missionary bishops, Boone and Southgate, in St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia, in 1843 or '44, spoke of the Catholic missionaries as "dealing out death instead of life" to the heathen. Bishop Whittingham held this view, and "Tridentine Schismatic" was one of the appellations he gave to the Rev. Dr. White, of Baltimore, in a pamphlet which he published against that gentleman. In his Annual Address for 1846 he speaks of me and other converts in the following language: "The lapse of several prominent members of our English sister, and of one even in our own little band, _into the defilements of the Romish communion_, has but too far justified others in sounding the note of alarm," &c.[Footnote 2] The language he made use of in one of his addresses was such, that Mr. Baker, then one of his presbyters, positively declined to read it for him in the Convention, his own voice being too weak to do so. The Rev. A. C. Coxe, now a bishop, published a poem on the occasion of the ordination of the present Bishop of Newark to the diaconate, in Rome, entitled "Hymn of the Priests, to lament one of their number who has been sacrilegiously reordained a deacon, _after abjuring the Catholic communion_, at Rome." In contrast with this is the following, which was copied into the _True Catholic_ for December, 1843. [Footnote 3]

[Footnote 2: Journal of Convention of Maryland, 1846, p. 25.]

[Footnote 3: Journal of Convention of Maryland, 1846, p. 383.]

{43}

Conversion Of A Popish Priest To The Catholic Church At
Chicester.

The Cathedral, _Sunday, October_ 15.

In residence, the Lord Bishop, the very Rev. the Dean, the Ven.
Arch-deacon Webber, and the Rev. Charles Webber, can. res. We
have to record this week one of the most interesting ceremonies
ever performed within the walls of this sacred edifice, namely,
the public admission of a clerical convert from the Church of
Rome, into the bosom of the Holy Catholic Church in this
country. The morning prayers were chanted by the Rev. J. P.
Roberts, Sub-dean. The _Te Deum_ and _Jubilate_ was
Boyce in A. At the ending of the Litany, the Bishop and the
Dean proceeded to the altar, while the choir performed Weldon's
_Sanctus_; after which (the penitent, Mr. Vignati, an
Italian gentleman, who had been for two years a priest in the
Romish Communion, standing without the rails) the bishop
addressed the congregation in the following words:--

"Dearly beloved, we are here met together for the reconciling
of a penitent (lately of the Church of Rome) to the Established
Church of England, as to a true and sound part of Christ's Holy
Catholic Church. Now, that this weighty affair may have its due
effect, let us, in the first place, humbly and devoutly pray to
Almighty God for his blessing upon us in that pious and
charitable office we are going about.

"Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings with Thy most gracious
favor, and further us with Thy continual help, that in this,
and all other our works begun, continued, and ended in Thee, we
may glorify Thy holy name, and finally by Thy mercy obtain
everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"Almighty God, who showest to them that be in error the light
of Thy truth, to the intent that they may return into the way
of righteousness, grant unto all them that are or shall be
admitted into the fellowship of Christ's religion, that they
may eschew those things that are contrary to their profession,
and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same,
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."

Then was read a part of the 119th Psalm, from verses 161 to
168, with the _Gloria Patri_.

After which the dean read the following lesson from Luke
xv.:--"Then drew near unto him the publicans and sinners for to
hear Him; and the Pharisees and Scribes murmured, saying, this
man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. And he spake this
parable unto them, saying, What man of you having an hundred
sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and
nine in the wilderness, and go after that which was lost, until
he find it? And when he hath found it he layeth it on his
shoulders rejoicing; and when he cometh home he calleth
together his friends and his neighbors, saying unto them,
rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I
say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one
sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just
persons who need no repentance."

{44}

After this the nine first verses of the 115th Psalm was sung by
the choir. Then the bishop, sitting in his chair, spake to the
penitent (who was kneeling) as follows:--

Dear brother, I have good hope that you have well weighed and
considered with yourself the great work you are come about
before this time: but inasmuch as with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation; that you may give the more honor to God, and that
this present congregation of Christ here assembled may also
understand your mind and will in these things, and that this
your declaration may the more confirm you in your good
resolutions, you shall answer plainly to those questions, which
we, in the name of God, and of His Church, shall propose to you
touching the same.

Art thou thoroughly persuaded that those books of the Old and
New Testament, which are received as Canonical Scriptures by
this Church, contain sufficiently all doctrine requisite and
necessary to eternal salvation through faith in Jesus
Christ?--I am so persuaded.

Dost thou believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven
and earth &c.--All this I steadfastly believe.

Art thou truly sorrowful that thou hast not followed the way
prescribed in these Scriptures for the direction of the faith
and practice of a true disciple of Christ Jesus?--I am heartily
sorry, and I hope for mercy through Christ Jesus.

Dost thou embrace the truth of the Gospel in the love of it,
and steadfastly resolve to live godly, righteously, and soberly
in this present world, all the days of thy life?--I do so
embrace it, and do so resolve, God being my helper.

Dost thou earnestly desire to be received into the communion of
this Church, as into a sound part of Christ's Holy Catholic
Church?--This I earnestly desire.

Dost thou renounce all the errors and superstitions of the
present Romish Church, so far as they are come to thy
knowledge?--I do, from my heart, renounce them all.

Dost thou, in particular, renounce the twelve last Articles
added in the Confession, commonly called "The Creed of Pope
Pius IV.," after having read them, and duly considered
them?_-_I do, upon mature deliberation, reject them all,
as grounded upon no warrant of Scripture, but rather repugnant
to the Word of God.

Wilt thou conform thyself to the Liturgy of the Church of
England, as by law established, and be diligent in attending
the prayers and other offices of the Church?--I will do so by
the help of God.

{45}

Then the bishop standing, said: "Almighty God, who hath given
you a sense of your errors, and a will to do these things,
grant also unto you the strength and power to perform the same,
that He may accomplish His work, which He hath begun in you,
through Jesus Christ. Amen."

The Absolution.--Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, who, of his
great mercy, hath promised forgiveness of sins to all them that
with hearty repentance and true faith turn unto Him, have mercy
upon you, pardon and deliver you from all your sins, confirm
and strengthen you in all goodness, and bring you to
everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Then the bishop, taking him by the hand, said: "I, Ashurst
Turner, Bishop of Chichester, do, upon this thy solemn
profession and earnest request, receive thee into the Holy
Communion of the Church of England, in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen."

Then was said the Lord's Prayer, all kneeling, after which as
follows:--O God of truth and love, we bless and magnify Thy
holy name for Thy great mercy and goodness in bringing this Thy
servant into the communion of this Church; give him, we beseech
Thee, stability and perseverance in that faith, of which he
hath, in the presence of God and of this congregation,
witnessed a good confession. Suffer him not to be moved from it
by any temptations of Satan, enticements of the world, scoffs
of irreligious men, or the revilings of those still in error;
but guard him by Thy grace against all these snares, and make
him instrumental in turning others from the errors of their
ways, to the saving of their souls from death, and the covering
a multitude of sins. And in Thy good time, O Lord, bring, we
pray Thee, into the way of truth all such as have erred and are
deceived; and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to Thy flock,
that there may be one flock under one Shepherd, the Lord Jesus
Christ, to Whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be all
honor and glory, world without end. Amen.

Then the bishop addressed the person admitted, saying: "Dear
brother, seeing that you have, by the goodness of God,
proceeded thus far, I must put you in mind that you take care
to go on in that good way into which you are entered; and for
your establishment and furtherance therein, that if you have
not been confirmed, you endeavor to be so the next opportunity,
and receive the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. And may
God's Holy Spirit ever be with you. Amen. The peace of God,
which passeth all understanding, keep your heart and mind by
Christ Jesus. Amen."

{46}

Thus ended this most interesting ceremony; after which the
communion service went on, at which the bishop and dean
officiated. Weldon's _Sanctus_, B. Brown's _Kyrie_,
and Child's _Creed_ in G. The sermon was preached by the
dean, from Luke 15th, ch. 4th, 5th, and 6th verses, of which we
need not say much here, as we hope it will shortly be published
by Mr. W. H. Mason, by permission of the dean, he having been
requested so to do. Anthem, "O Lord, our
Governor."--Kent.--_Church Intelligencer_.

The Roman Church is throughout the pages of the _True Catholic_charged with idolatry, and in one passage which I had marked, but cannot now find one reason given why Episcopalians cannot attend Catholic services is, because by so doing they participate in idolatry. On the other hand, Protestant ministers are never required to make any such abjuration as the one above cited, on being received into the English Church. The Church of England formerly gave Archbishop Leighton episcopal ordination, he being a Scottish Presbyterian minister, and the Crown gave him jurisdiction in Scotland over the Presbyterian clergy and congregations, without requiring any reordination or any new profession of faith. So now, a German Lutheran minister alternately with an English Episcopalian, is ordained for the Jerusalem bishopric, with authority to receive under his care both English and German ministers and congregations.

Now for the inconsistency. The same reasons which prove the Church of Rome to be a schismatical, heretical, and apostate Church, prove that the English Church was the same before the Reformation, and that the Church of Christ had perished in Western Christendom, except as represented by the Lollards, Albigenses, Waldenses, and other precursors of the Protestants. There was really no true, visible Catholic Church existing, from which schismatics and heretics had separated, and to which they could return. Hence, the modern Episcopal Church derived its authority from no legitimate source in the past, and has really started _de novo_, like the Protestant Churches of Europe. This throws us back upon the theory of an invisible Church at once, and breaks up the idea of Catholicity.

{47}

For the same reason, the Oriental Churches must be regarded as schismatical and heretical. The Nestorians and Eutychians are condemned by the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, accepted by our Anglicans. The Greek Church is identical in doctrine with the Roman, except so far as the Papal supremacy is rejected by them. It disowns and condemns the Anglican Church as emphatically as does the Roman. Nevertheless, we find a number of the Protestant bishops subscribing the following letter to the Patriarch of Constantinople:--

Letter To The Greek Patriarch.

Binghamton N. Y., 1_st April_, 1844.

_To the Editor of the True Catholic:_

Dear Sir:_-_Having seen in print a copy, surreptitiously
obtained, of the letter of our bishops, addressed to some of
the Patriarchs in the East, I have thought it might be well to
furnish an authentic copy, for permanent preservation in your
valuable periodical, especially as it is a document of much
importance. It is precisely as I myself, together with Mr.
Southgate, presented it, _accompanied by a Greek
translation_, to the Patriarch of Constantinople, who
received it very graciously.
Yours, very truly,
J. J. Robertson.

_To the Venerable and Right Reverend Father in_ GOD,
_the Patriarch, of the Greek Church,
resident at Constantinople_.

January 2, 1841.

The Episcopal Church of the United States of America, deriving
its Episcopal power in regular succession from the holy
Apostles, through the venerable Church of England, has long
contemplated, with great spiritual sorrow, the divided and
distracted condition of the Catholic Church of Christ
throughout the world. This sad condition of things not only
aids the cause of infidelity and irreligion, by furnishing
evil-minded men with plausible arguments, not only encourages
heresies and schisms in national branches of the Catholic
Church, but is also a very serious impediment to the diffusion
of Gospel truth among those who are still in the darkness of
heathenism, or are subject to other false religions, or
continue vainly to look for the coming of that Messiah, whose
advent has already blessed the world.

{48}

The arrogant assumptions of universal supremacy and
infallibility, of the Papal head of the Latin Church, render
the prospect of speedy friendly intercourse with him dark and
discouraging. The Church in the United States of America,
therefore, looking to the Triune GOD for His blessings upon its
efforts for unity in the Body of Christ, turns with hope to the
Patriarch of Constantinople, the spiritual head of the ancient
and venerable Oriental Church.

In this Church we have long felt a sincere interest. We have
sympathized with her in the trials and persecution to which she
has been subjected; we have prayed for her deliverance from all
evils and mischiefs; and we have thanked her Divine HEAD that
He has been pleased, amid all her sufferings, to maintain her
allegiance to Him.

In order to attempt the commencement of a friendly and
Christian intercourse with the Oriental Church, the Church in
the United States resolved to send two of its Presbyters, the
Rev. J. J. Robertson, and the Rev. Horatio Southgate, to reside
at Constantinople. These clergymen are directed to make
inquiries regarding the existing state of the Church under the
jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople, and of the
other Eastern Churches; to ascertain the relations they bear to
each other, and the views they maintain in regard to the
Apostolic Churches of Europe and America; to answer such
inquiries as may be made of them in regard to the origin,
constitution, and condition of the Church in the United States;
and to do all in their power to conciliate the Christian love
and regard of the Oriental Church toward its younger sister in
the Western world.

After some preliminary inquiries and study of the language,
they will present themselves, with this epistle of introduction
(by which they are cordially recommended to the Christian
courtesies and kind offices of the bishops and clergy of the
Oriental Church), to the Patriarch of Constantinople, inviting
him to a friendly correspondence with the heads of the Church
in the United States, explaining more fully the views and
objects of the Church, and inquiring whether a mutual
recognition of each other can be effected, as members of the
Catholic Church of Christ, on the basis of the Holy Scriptures
and the first Councils, including the Apostles' and Nicene
Creeds, in order to a future efficient co-operation against
Paganism, false religion, and Judaism.

They will make it clearly understood that their Church has no
ecclesiastical connection with the followers of Luther and
Calvin, and takes no part in their plans or operations to
diffuse the principles of their sects. They will propose to the
Patriarch such aid as the Church in the United States can
supply, in the advancement of Christian education, and in the
promulgation of religious truth, always avoiding the points in
which the two Churches still differ, and leaving the producing
of a closer mutual conformity to the blessing of God, on the
friendly correspondence of the respective heads of the
Churches, or to a future General Council.

{49}

Leaving a further development of these points to the oral
communications of its delegates, and again recommending them to
the Christian candor and affection of the Patriarch and clergy
of the Oriental Church, and repeating the hearty desire and
prayer of the bishops and clergy of the United States for their
prosperity, we remain your brethren in Christ.

Alexander Viets Griswold,
of the Eastern Diocese, and senior of the American Church.

Benjamin Tredwell Onderdonk, of New York.

George Washington Doane, of New Jersey.

Thomas Church Brownell, of Connecticut.

Jackson Kemper, of Missouri, &c.

William Rollinson Whittingham, of Maryland.

Henry Ustick Onderdonk, of Pennsylvania.

At the recent visit of a Russian squadron to New York, the Protestant Bishop of New York invited the chaplains of the squadron to make use of one of his churches for the service of the Greek Church, although the offer was declined. Subsequently, Cossack priest, called Father Agapius, said to have letters from the Archbishop of Athens, came to New York as a missionary to the Greeks and Russians, and was accommodated with the use of two Episcopal churches. It came out subsequently that he was in bad standing in the Russian Church, and the members of the Greek Church in New York disowned him, when he threw off the mask, and published a letter where he avowed doctrines far from orthodox according to the standards of the Greek Church. Nevertheless, it was ostensibly as a regular priest of that Church that he was invited to make use of the Episcopal churches; as such the members of that church received him, and whatever changes or omissions he may have made in his public services, they were understood to be celebrated according to the Sclavonic and Greek Liturgies. Thus, there is no escaping from the fact, that High Mass according to the same rite used by Oriental Catholics as well as schismatics, was authorized in the Episcopal Church in New York, a great number of the clergy assisting.

{50}

The English Church bishops, beginning with the old English Nonjurors, have been always anxious for the recognition of the Greek prelates, and have made several attempts to gain it.

Soon after my ordination as deacon in the Episcopal Church, I was invited by Bishop Southgate to accompany him to Constantinople on a mission of this kind. The plan was to have a little ecclesiastical establishment in Constantinople, consisting of a bishop and a few priests and deacons. Although the bishop, who had been for some years a travelling missionary in the East, was married, he wished his clergy to be unmarried men, and selected only such as his associates. There was to be a chapel, where all the rites and ceremonies permitted by Anglican law were to be celebrated with as much pomp as possible. Sermons in the Oriental languages designed to attract the clergy and make a good impression of our orthodoxy, were to be preached regularly. A college and seminary for the instruction of young Oriental ecclesiastics were to be opened, with a strict understanding that they were not to be induced to leave their own communion. Extracts from the works of the Greek Fathers, and translations from Anglican divines, were to be published, with a view to bring about mutual understanding and agreement between the different Churches. Every thing was to be done to propitiate the Oriental prelates and clergy, and to bring about their recognition of our ecclesiastical legitimacy, and intercommunion between themselves and us. The Missionary Committee, who were hostile to this plan, would not confirm my appointment, regarding me as having too strong a Catholic bias to be trusted. Another young deacon was selected in my place, who had been known as a strong Puseyite, but who publicly renounced his opinions before he left the country, in a sermon, in which he came out as a strong Evangelical. {51} The mission was never well supported, but after a few years, fell through entirely, and the bishop is now a parish rector in New York. During a visit to New York, which I made in company with Bishops Whittingham and Southgate, at the time I was expecting to accompany the latter on his mission, I called on a very distinguished and learned presbyter, who was one of the ablest and most influential leaders of the Oxford movement. He asked me if we proposed to endeavor to change the doctrines of the Greek Church. I replied, that certainly we did propose to discuss several of these doctrines with the Greek prelates, and show them that they were not doctrines appertaining to the Catholic faith, but errors and additions made without authority. He inquired what these doctrines were. I cannot recollect how many I specified, but I am sure that the doctrine respecting the cultus of the Blessed Virgin and saints was the principal one. He replied that the doctrines I specified were established by just as good authority as any others, and that it would be impossible for us to convict the Greek Church of holding any erroneous doctrine. His arguments made a great impression on my mind at the time, and helped me forward toward the Catholic Church, although this gentleman himself remained always a Protestant.

The efforts made to cultivate the friendship of the Greek Church are very significant. Let it be observed, that the bishops who signed the letter to the Patriarch of Constantinople, both distinctly repudiate the Reformation of Luther and Calvin, and consent to waive all questions of difference between the Greek and the Protestant Episcopal Churches, until they can be decided by a _General Council_. This reduces the _gravamen_ of the charges against Rome to the only point of difference which exists between herself and the Greek Church; that is, to the claim of supremacy of the Roman Pontiff. {52} This is, then, the sum and substance of the "_defilements of the Romish Communion_." Here lies the whole _casus belli_ between the champions of Anglicanism and the Catholic Church. There is no hope of reconciliation on equal terms with the See of Rome and her vast communion. Therefore, a rival claim of Catholicity must be set up, and supported by every possible charge that can be made to tell against the mighty Church whose Bishop claims the dignity and authority of successor to the Prince of the Apostles. Hence the odious names of "Roman Schism," "Romanist," "Romish," "Tridentine Schism," "Popery," "Popish," and all the other party catch-words of corruption in doctrine, bondage, tyranny, idolatry, etc., which are studiously employed, in order to throw dust in the eyes of the simple and unwary. Hence the effort to appropriate the name of Catholic, and to use all the phraseology associated with it, in connection with the Protestant Episcopal communion. Rome will not abate one jot or tittle of her divine rights, or of the Catholic doctrine of which she is the principal bulwark; and she will not treat the Church of England as a branch of the Christian Church. Therefore a rival must be set up against her, backed by the power and the prestige of the English name, and, if possible, also by those of the mighty Russian Empire and the ancient Eastern Church. The Nonjurors proposed to the Eastern prelates sitting in the Synod of Bethlehem, a plan for combining against Rome under an ecclesiastical organization whose head should be the Patriarch of Jerusalem. It was scornfully rejected, together with all their other overtures. No doubt, if the Church of England and the Episcopal Church of the United States could make a combination with the Greek Church, on the basis of the Oriental standards of doctrine, it would be the most formidable rival possible to the Catholic Church. But such a union is impossible. The Providence of God does not permit heresy and schism to assume the attitude of Catholicity, but compels them to manifest their true character by disintegration. {53} And here lies another mark of the inconsistency of the theory of those who set up this claim of rival Catholicity against Rome. The Protestant Episcopal Churches, as such, do not sanction and assert in their public and official action the claim made for them by a certain portion of their members. The utmost that can be said of them is, that they affirm and exact episcopal ordination as requisite to a complete conformity to the polity established by the Apostles. They do not, however, assert, or require their clergy to believe, the necessity of apostolic succession to the being of a Church. Their standards are so constructed as to afford a shelter and a warrant to those who hold this and several other Catholic doctrines and principles. These doctrines are not, however, officially put forward as a term of communion, or a condition for ordination. The official doctrine of a Church is limited to that which it exacts by authority and under penalty of its teachers to hold and profess. It comes down to the lowest level of doctrine, which its teachers can hold, and still be reputed sound and orthodox clergymen. Now a very low Protestantism is all that even High Church bishops can exact from candidates for the priesthood or the episcopacy. "Anglo-Catholic" doctrine is nothing but the tolerated opinion of a certain party. Therefore, on these "Anglo-Catholic" principles, and according to the doctrine and decisions of the Greek Church, the Protestant Episcopal Church is schismatical and heretical, because she enforces nothing by her authority beyond Protestantism, which is heresy according to that standard of doctrine which was universally acknowledged before the "separation of the East and West," and accepted both by Greeks and "Anglo-Catholics." According to those principles, then, which would condemn the Roman Church of heresy and schism, all Episcopal Churches in the world have fallen away from the unity of faith established by our Lord, and the Catholic Church exists no more. {54} Hence, even an "Anglo-Catholic," if he would not be driven into the arms of pure Protestantism, and consort with those followers of Luther and Calvin who are disowned by Bishop Griswold and his associates, are forced to make common cause with Rome and her Catholic communion.

The progressive portion of those who were engaged in the Oxford movement saw and felt all this, and, therefore, in a strict consistency with their Catholic principles, and by a logical necessity, they advanced in a Romeward direction. It has been necessary to make this long explanation in order to show how matters stood at the time when Mr. Baker and myself were connected with the ecclesiastical movement in Baltimore, under Bishop Whittingham. The Oxford movement was then ten years old. The celebrated Ninetieth Tract, in which Mr. Newman took the ground that several Roman dogmas were permitted by the Thirty-nine Articles, and that the Articles were to be explained according to the Catholic sense of the general body of the Universal Church, had been some time published, and the controversy excited by it was nearly completed. Mr. Newman was about resigning St. Mary's, and soon after went into retirement at Littlemore. A great number of the ablest writers of his party had advanced very far beyond the position taken by the earlier Oxford Tracts, and by Palmer, Percival, Keble, and others, at the outset. In the United States, the ordination of the Rev. Arthur Carey had taken place, under circumstances of the most peculiar character, which deserve a passing notice.

Arthur Carey was a young student of the New York Theological Seminary, barely twenty years of age, of an English family, and descended from several bishops of the English Church. He was a youth of rare intellectual gifts and acquirements, as well as of the most gentle and lovely character. Bishop Whittingham, who had been his preceptor, said that he possessed the wisdom of a man of fifty. {55} In some way, the suspicions of a number of the principal Low Church rectors had been excited in regard to him, and he was subjected to a most rigorous examination for orders, in which he manifested his profound theological science and his brilliant parts, together with a magnanimity of spirit which won for him a wide-spread admiration, especially among all High Church Episcopalians. In the course of his examination, he avowed the most advanced opinions of the Oxford party, and expressed his belief in the sound orthodoxy of the decrees of the Council of Trent. He was violently attacked by some members of the examining committee, and defended by others, the majority finally recommending him for ordination. Bishop Onderdonk determined to ordain him, and was proceeding in the ceremony of ordination, when he was interrupted by two doctors of divinity in gowns, who publicly protested against the ordination, and then left the church. Bishop Whittingham urged him very strongly, after his ordination, to come to his diocese, which he declined doing. About this time, I read, in manuscript, a beautiful philosophical essay on Transubstantiation, which he wrote, according to the system of Leibniz, proving the futility of all the rational arguments urged against it. The circumstances of his ordination made him suddenly famous. He was assistant minister to Dr. Seabury, at the Church of the Annunciation, and every Sunday his sermons were reported for the secular papers, with minute accounts of his appearance, and all his sayings and doings. This publicity was insufferable to him; and in a letter of his, which I saw, he said that it made life a burden to him. His constitution was extremely delicate, and weakened by close application to study. He was a boy in years, and unable to breast the moral shock which he had received. He speedily sank into a decline, and died at sea, off the Moro of Havana, whither he had been sent for the benefit of his health, his body being committed to the deep by his fellow-passengers, who were all strangers to him, and one of whom read the Burial Service over his remains. {56} For a long time afterward, his poor father might be seen every day standing on the Battery, and gazing wistfully out to sea, with mournful thoughts, longing after the son whom he had lost. There is something in the history of Arthur Carey assimilating it to that of Richard Hurrell Froude. Each of them, in his sphere, did more than any other to arrest the anti-Roman tendency of the Oxford movement, and give it a Romeward direction. In Mr. Carey's instance, it was not the mere effect of his own personal avowal of holding Roman doctrine, but the protection given him in doing so by the bishop of the principal diocese, the directors of the General Seminary, and a large number of other bishops and clergymen, which was significant. It was this which led to the persecution of Bishop Onderdonk; and it was believed that a plan was on foot for similar attacks on the other bishops who were regarded as Puseyites.