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contention" which produced these appeals to Rome. Wilfrid, he would tell us, was become a great pluralist, and had engrossed into his hands too many ecclesiastical dignities. The king and the church of England thought fit to deprive him of some of them, and to confer them upon others."* Hence the appeals to Rome. Hence the desire of Wilfrid to rivet more and more tightly the happy chains which held his country to St. Peter's chair. He was become a great pluralist," and he hoped to find Rome willing to abet him in his resistance to the laws and the sovereign of his native country. Nor was he disappointed. Rome had learned from her heathen predecessor the art of enlarging her dominions, by receiving appeals and meddling in the domestic feuds of independent states and churches. And if we believe this biographer, Wilfrid found the Roman bishop no ineffective ally. Having stated that Alfrid died, (his death, as this author would persuade us, being a judgment for his disregard of the papal authority,) he says,

So Alfrid died. Had he thrown his wisdom upon the side of God's church, what might not this royal scholar have done for the north; as it was, his reign left no trace behind. He squandered his talents in persecuting a bishop, in order to free the state from the salutary restraints of the church, [a pleasing version of an attempt to correct a pluralist,] and the bishop outwitted the scholar in his craft,

* Bramhall's Works in the Anglo-Catholic Library, vol. i. p. 134.

called in Rome, and Rome beat the king to the ground. The same edifying drama has been enacted over and over again for the instruction of the world: yet states are slow learners; they die before their nonage is past; while the Church remains old in years and wisdom, young in power and freshness. pp. 177, 178.

The Jesuitical hatred of "crowned cowards" is but thinly concealed in this strange piece of misrepresentation and it is this Jesuitism, and the servile flattery of Rome, which so naturally accompanies it, that alone makes the passage worth the trouble of transcription.

For, really, it seems a useless waste of time to expose such miserable falsifications of history, as few readers can fail to detect for themselves. It is more to the purpose to quote another passage, which, while it has a more distinct reference to the present condition of our church, is altogether extremely characteristic of Mr. Newman's catholicism. But this I must keep for the following chapter.

CHAPTER XII.

ST. WILFRID EXPERIMENTALIZING-MODERATE MEN.

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THE writer of Wilfrid's life, speaking of his restoration to the throne of York, states (whether truly or not is immaterial at present) that although "saints, canonized saints, filled the sees," yet while Wilfrid, the Romanizer, was kept out of his diocese, we cannot find that the church in the north was making way." Of course this is said merely to introduce another hint of the necessity of our "happy chains" being rivetted more tightly. However, having (by way of illustration) named St. Cuthbert, as one of those who, without Rome, was insufficient to do much for the church, he says,—

Doubtless his merits were amassing treasures for the northern Church in years to come. Blessed ascetic that he was! who shall count the debt the men of Durham owe to him? Forgotten, as many catholic things are, the poor of that seven-hilled city in the north have yet an affectionate remembrance of the wonder-working Cuthbert, and his strange wandering relics. Still the church. does not seem just then to have made any real advances; the monastic system does not seem to have spread or gained strength or fresh spirituality; and, after all, the flourishing state of monkery is the safest test of real church reform. Was it that the blessing was suspended, and that even the saintly intruders into St. Wilfrid's see worked at a disadvantage, as working against Rome, and without the Apo

stolic benediction?* The later history of this insular church would seem to show that the absence of that benediction is almost a blight: it stunts all growths, though it may not cause absolute sterility; it is thus that catholic churches decay and are transformed into pusillanimous communities. If it were that the loss of Rome's blessing was really keeping back the northern Church, then we may understand how it was that the church did make way in one place, and in one place only,-at the abbeys of Wearmouth and of Jarrow: for there was the presence of St. Benedict Biscop, who so honoured Rome, and with such tender devotion loved that sacred place, that in spite of all the perils both by land and sea, five weary pilgrimages hardly satisfied his ardent feelings towards the Holy City. pp. 151, 152.

So, notwithstanding the treasures amassed for us by the merits of St. Cuthbert, and the blessings he bequeathed us in his "strange wandering relics," still monkery is not in so flourishing a state as Mr. Newman could desire. And why so? Why, truly we are working "at a disadvantage, as working against Rome, and without the Apostolic benediction," and so, we must be content to remain but "pusillanimous communities;" whatever that may mean. Nay, even the presence of our modern Wilfrid, with all his ardent longings towards the Holy City, are insufficient to infuse vigour into

* The reader will hardly fail to observe the similarity of this language with that of Mr. Newman,-if, indeed, this author be not Mr. Newman himself:

"We cannot hope for the success among the heathen of St. Augustine or St. Boniface, unless, like them, we go forth with the apostolical benediction."- Sermons on Subjects of the Day, P. 150.

our blighted and stunted growth. "The loss of Rome's blessing" is "keeping back" our church; and Mr. Newman's efforts to restore us to the arms of his mother are appreciated with every feeling but that of gratitude. Indeed, in the following passage a very graphic description of him and his position is given under the name of Wilfrid, in what might fairly be called a fancy sketch: for, really, as far as history is concerned, it is just about as correct a . portrait of Sir Roger de Coverley as of Wilfrid.

In men's eyes he was experimentalizing; he was breaking down that which had obviously much good about it. Moderate men would not know what to think, what to make, of his work: they could not tell where it would end; so their impulse would be to hold back, and in holding back they would get frightened. Wilfrid made no secret at all of what his work was; it was the thorough romanizing of the Northumbrian Church; and there is really something so very awful about Rome, either for good or ill, that we cannot wonder at men becoming timorous, when the hardier zeal of others drags them reluctantly into the presence of such an exciting change.—p. 203.

Why "moderate men" should find any difficulty in telling where such a work will end, does not appear. Their moderation, surely, can have nothing to do with either creating or increasing any difficulty of the sort. Mr. Newman makes " no secret of what his work is." It is plainly and undisguisedly the "thorough Romanizing," of the Church of England. He is "experimentalizing." He is "breaking down that which has obviously much good