Memoirs of James Robert Hope-Scott Part 2

My dear Sir,--I ought before this to have thanked you for your kindness in sending me your most able letter, but I did not like to do so until I had read it with that attention which it deserves.

It is difficult to understand how your arguments can possibly be shaken.

The statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 21 evidently relates only to such dispensations upon the suit or for the benefit of individuals as had been theretofore usually issued by the Roman Chancery, and to wrest it into the power of establis.h.i.+ng an _uncanonical_ see appears a most bold attempt.

Nothing would more clearly show the true relation of the Church of England to 'other Protestant churches' than a reprint of the _whole_ proceedings of the Convocations from William and Mary to their extinction-- adding proper notes.

Yours ever truly,

Francis Palgrave.

_The Right Rev. Dr. Philpotts, Bishop of Exeter, to J. R. Hope, Esq._

Bishopstowe, Torquay: November 10, 1842.

My dear Sir,--Permit me to ask you whether you can receive and answer a case of ecclesiastical law? That you can answer it better than any other man I have no doubt; but can you receive the case _professionally_, so as to enable a Bishop to show your opinion as his authority for action?

I have never thanked you for your kindness in sending me a copy of the second edition of 'The Bishopric of the U. C., &c., at Jerusalem,' for I am ashamed to own I have never, till this day, read the new matter which it gives to us. Accept now my hearty thanks for your kindness to me in sending to me a copy, and my still heartier acknowledgments of your invaluable service to the Church in furnis.h.i.+ng it with such a lesson.

You have, of course, seen the 'Alterius...o...b..s Papa's' letter of June 18 to the King of Prussia, and have, with me, wondered at the mixture of temerity and cowardice (which latter quality, by the way, is the rashest of all feelings) indicated in such a mode of escaping from the difficulties by which he was pressed.

I grieve for this marvellous indiscretion. But I am amused by the bolder defiance of all consistency which is exhibited by his prime Adviser, who, while he prompts his Chief to trample Rubrics, Canons, Statutes, under his feet, commands His own Clergy to observe them 'with Chinese exactness.'

I went to your second edition, in order that I might find your promised remarks on the need in which the Church stands of a Church Legislature. I have read them with great gratification, and implore your close attention to the subject. My Clergy are, I believe, about to meet and to address me to urge on the Archbishop their earnest desire of leave from the Crown for Convocation to consider the best means of altering its own const.i.tution, or otherwise devising a new Body empowered and fitted to act synodically.

This is, at present, somewhat of a secret, but it will in a few days, I believe, transpire.

From other quarters, I hear, similar proceedings may be expected. The Bishop of Llandaff tells me that he makes the necessity of a Church Legislature one topic in his Charge.

Yours, my dear Sir,

Most faithfully,

H. EXETER.

[P.S.] Pray tell me whether you think the argument in my Charge on Escott _v_. Mastin is now tolerably effective?

What 'oath of obedience' is the ordained German to take to the Bishop? Not Canonical--that is plain. What oath can it be? Of course, it will hardly be an absolute promise on oath to obey all commands. All _lawful_ commands would involve a question--what are lawful commands? Who is to judge? What law is to be the rule?

Somebody named by the King is to attest for the Candidates their qualification for the _Pastoral Office_; but the Bishop is 'to convince himself of their qualifications for the _especial_ duties of their office, of the purity of their faith, and of their _desire to receive ordination_ at his hands!'

What is meant by the Clergyman's preparing Candidates for Confirmation in the _usual_ manner? Usual _where_? in Prussia or in England?

Have they baptised G.o.dfathers in Prussia? If they have not, how can they be confirmed according to the Liturgy of the U. C. of E. and I.?

To these letters from such distinguished co-religionists of Mr. Hope's, all belonging, with various shades of difference, to his own religious party, I add a portion of one, bearing on the same subject, from a Catholic and foreign friend of his who has been mentioned in a previous chapter,[Footnote: Vol. i. chap. xiii. p. 246.] Count Senfft-Pilsach. The contrast will be interesting; and it is also interesting to record a specimen of an influence, no doubt beginning to be more and more felt, though years had to pa.s.s before the result was visible in action. Count Senfft, though an active diplomatist, a friend of Metternich's, and quite in the great European world, was an example of the union, so often found in the lives of the saints, of deep retirement and devotion in the very thick of affairs; and we may be sure that his prayers for Mr. Hope were faithfully applied to a.s.sist his arguments.

_Count Senfft-Pilsach to J. R. Hope, Esq_.

La Haye: 21 Janvier, 1842

Mon cher Hope,-- ... J'ai lu avec un vif interet vos reflexions sur ce nouvel Eveche de Jerusalem, dont on parait vouloir faire un lien entre l'eglise anglicane et le Protestantisme Evangelique de Prusse, en cherchant a vivifier les oss.e.m.e.ns arides de celui-ci par une sorte de greffe de votre Episcopat auquel nous contestons encore, comme question, la continuite de la succession Apostolique. Si on reussiroit dans ce projet, une partie de vos objections pourroient se resoudre. Mais M. Bunsen, l'artisan de la complication de Cologne, n'a pas la main heureuse, et la fecondite de son genie, secondant son ardeur de courtisan, pourroit bien, en pretendant servir les tendances vagues de piete de son maitre, embarquer celui-ci dans les plus graves difficultes en provoquant l'opposition des vieux protestans reunis aux rationalistes allemands. 'Quid foditis vobis cisternas dissipatas?' O mon ami! Comment s'arreter a quelques abus plus apparens peut-etre que reels, que l'eglise supporte ca et la sans les autoriser, et ne pas reconnoitre cette admirable unite de doctrine, cette continuite de la Tradition, qui caracterise la cite batie sure la montagne, figure de la veritable eglise selon l'evangile. Certes ce n'est pas sous la domination de Cesar qu'on pourroit aller chercher l'epouse legitime de J. C. Mais doit-on esperer la trouver dans la creation combinee de la volonte tyrannique de Henri VIII. et de la politique d'Elisabeth, tandis que la Doctrine comme la Discipline du Concile de Trente ne vous laisse rien a desirer, et conquiert deja vos suffrages?...

J'ose compter partant sur votre interet amical, et vous connoissez les sentimens sinceres d'attachement et de respect avec lesquels je suis a jamais

Tout a vous, SENFFT.

CHAPTER XIX.

1842-3.

Oxford Commotions of 1842-3--Mr. Newman's Retractation--Correspondence of Mr. Newman and J. R. Hope on the Subject--Mr. Hope pleads for Mr.

Macmullen--Dr. Pusey suspended for his Sermon on the Holy Eucharist--Seeks Advice from Mr. Hope--Mr. Newman resigns St. Mary's--Correspondence of Mr.

Newman and Mr. Hope on the 'Lives of the English Saints'--Mr. Ward's Condemnation--Mr. Hope sees the 'Shadow of the Cross' through the Press-- Engaged with 'Scripture Prints,' 'Pupilla Oculi,' &c.--Lady G. Fullerton's Recollections of J. R. Hope--He proposes to make a Retreat at Littlemore.

It results in general from the doc.u.ments furnished in the preceding chapter, that Mr. Hope's confidence in the Anglican Church had sustained a severe shock by the Jerusalem Bishopric movement; and from about the year 1842 he seems to have thrown himself with increasing energy into his professional occupations, not certainly as becoming less religious (for his was a mind never tempted to the loss of faith), but as being deprived of that scope which his convictions had formerly presented to him in the pursuit of ecclesiastical objects. It seems probable, also, that the same cause was not unconnected with his entering, some years later, into the married life; the news of which step is known to have fallen like a knell on the minds of those who looked up to him and shared his religious feelings, as it appeared a sign that he no longer thought the ideal perfection presented by the celibate life--which he certainly contemplated in 1840-1--was congenial with the spirit of the Church of England. That communion was now losing her hold upon him, though he still could not make up his mind to leave her, and might conceivably never have done so but for events which forced the change upon him at last. His professional career and his habits in domestic life will require to be separately described; for, though of course they proceeded simultaneously with a large part of that phase of his existence which is now before us, it would only confuse the reader to pa.s.s continually from one to the other. I propose, therefore, without any interruption that can be avoided, to go on with the history of his religious development up to the period of his conversion.

The year 1842, commencing, as we have seen, with the storms of the Jerusalem Bishopric movement and the Poetry Professors.h.i.+p contest, agitated also, towards the end of May, by a movement for the repeal of the Statute of Censure against Dr. Hampden, pa.s.sed off, for the rest, quietly enough-- at least, Mr. Hope's correspondence shows little to the contrary; but 1843 was marked by much disturbance, commencing early with Mr. Newman's 'Retractation,' which the great leader announced to Mr. Hope in the following letter a few days before that doc.u.ment appeared in the 'Conservative Journal:'--

_The Rev. J. H. Newman to J. R. Hope, Esq._

Littlemore: In fest. Conv. S. Pauli, 1843.

My dear Hope,--In return for your announcement of some change of purpose, I must tell you of one of my own, in a matter where I told you I was going to be very quiet.

My conscience goaded me some two months since to an act which comes into effect, I believe, in the _Conservative Journal_ next Sat.u.r.day, viz.

to eat a few dirty words of mine. I had intended it for a time of peace, the beginning of December, but against my will and power the operation has been delayed, and now, unluckily, falls upon the state of irritation and suspicion in good Anglicans, which Bernard Smith's step [Footnote: The conversion of the Rev. Bernard Smith, Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.]

has occasioned. I had committed myself when all was quiet. The meeting of Parliament will, I hope, divert attention.

Ever yrs,

JOHN H. NEWMAN.

P.S.--I am publis.h.i.+ng my Univ. Sermons. You got a headache for _one_-- it would be an act of grat.i.tude to send you _all_. Shall I do so?

_J. R. Hope, Esq. to the Rev. J. H. Newman._

6 Stone Buildings, Linc. Inn: Feast of Purification [Feb. 2], '43.

Dear Newman,--You will think me ungracious for having so long delayed my answer to your last, but I did not get hold of the _Conservative Journal_ till Monday, and have been very busy since.