APPENDIX. A. I. Letter of the Four Tutors to the Editor of the "Tracts for the Times." I. Mr. Newmans Retractation. B. II. Letter to Mr. Newman, from A Member of Convocation. III. Letter to Dr. Pusey, from Another Member of Convocation. IV. Second Letter to Mr. Newman from A Member of Convocation. V. The Method of Economy; Extract from a Charge by the Bishop of Ohio. C. I. Letter of John Dobree Dalgairns, Esq., M.A. of Exeter College, Oxford, to the Univers. II. Letter of the Rev. G. Spencer to the Univers. D. Tractarianism in the Seventeenth Century. I. Extract from the Works of Thomas Goodwin, D.D., sometime President of Magdalen College, Oxford. II. Extract from Hallam's Constitutional History. E. Calumnious Misrepresentations of "Ultra-Protestant" Teaching. F. Illustrations of the Meekness, Charity, and Forbearance, displayed by the DOCUMENTS RELATING TO TRACT 90. 667 APPENDIX A. I. LETTER OF THE FOUR TUTORS TO THE EDITOR OF THE TRACTS FOR THE TIMES. 66 TO THE EDITOR OF THE TRACTS FOR THE TIMES." SIR, Our attention having been called to No. 90 in the series of "Tracts for the Times, by Members of the University of Oxford," of which you are the Editor, the impression produced in our mind by its contents is of so painful a character, that we feel it our duty to intrude ourselves briefly on your notice. This publication is entitled "Remarks on certain passages in the Thirty-nine Articles;" and, as these Articles are appointed by the statutes of the University to be the text-book for tutors in their theological teaching, we hope that the situations we hold in our respective colleges will secure us from the charge of presumption in thus coming forward to address you. The Tract has, in our apprehension, a highly dangerous tendency, from its suggesting that certain very important errors of the Church of Rome are not condemned by the Articles of the Church of England: for instance, that those Articles do not contain any condemnation of the doctrines 1. Of Purgatory, 2. Of Pardons, 3. Of the Worshipping and Adoration of Images and Relics, 4. Of the Invocation of Saints, 5. Of the Mass, as they are taught authoritatively by the Church of Rome; but only of certain absurd practices and opinions, which intelligent Romanists repudiate as much as we do. It is intimated, moreover, that the declaration prefixed to the Articles, so far as it has any weight at all, sanctions this mode of interpreting them, as it is one which takes them in their "literal and grammatical sense," and does not "affix any new sense" to them. The Tract would thus appear to us to have a tendency to mitigate, beyond what charity requires, and to the prejudice of the pure truth of the Gospel, the very serious differences which separate the Church of Rome from our own, and to shake the confidence of the less learned members of the Church of England in the Scriptural character of her formularies and teaching. We readily admit the necessity of allowing that liberty, in interpreting the formularies of our Church, which has been advocated by many of its most learned bishops and other eminent divines; but this Tract puts forward new and startling views as to the extent to which that liberty may be carried. For if we are right in our apprehension of the author's meaning, we are at a loss to see what security would remain, were his principles generally recognised, that the most plainly erroneous Doctrines and practices of the Church of Rome might not be inculcated in the lecture-rooms of the University, and from the pulpits of our churches. In conclusion, we venture to call your attention to the impropriety of such questions being treated in an anonymous publication, and to express an earnest hope that you may be authorized to make known the writer's name. Considering how very grave and solemn the whole subject is, we cannot help thinking that both the Church and the University are entitled to ask that some person, besides the printer and publisher of the Tract, should acknowledge himself responsible for its contents. We are, Sir, your obedient humble Servants, T. T. CHURTON, M.A. Vice-Principal and Tutor of Brasenose College. March 8, 1841. II. RESOLUTION OF THE HEBDOMADAL BOARD WITH REFERENCE TO TRACT 90. At a Meeting of the Vice-Chancellor, Heads of Houses, and Proctors, in the Delegates' Room, March 15th, 1841. Considering that it is enjoined in the Statutes of this University, (Tit. III. Sect. i. Tit. IX. Sect. ii. §. 3. Sect. v. §. 3.) that every Student shall be instructed and examined in the Thirty-nine Articles, and shall subscribe to them; considering also that a Tract has recently appeared, dated from Oxford, and entitled "Remarks on certais passages in the Thirty-nine Articles," being No. 90 of the Tracts for the Times, a series of anonymous publications, purporting to be written by Members of the University, but which are in no way sanctioned by the University itself; RESOLVED, That the modes of interpretation, such as are suggested in the said Tract, evading rather than explaining the sense of the Thirty-nine Articles, and reconciling subscription to them, with the adoption of errors which they were designed to counteract, defeat the object, and are inconsistent with the due observance of the above-mentioned STATUTES. P. WYNTER, Vice-Chancellor. III. MR. NEWMAN'S LETTER TO THE VICE-CHANCELLOR, MR. VICE-CHANCELLOR,-I write this respectfully to inform you, that I am the author, and have the sole responsibility, of the Tract on which the Hebdomadal Board has just now expressed an opinion, and that I have not given my name hitherto, under the belief that it was desired that I should not. I hope it will not surprise you if I say, that my opinion remains unchanged of the truth and honesty of the principle maintained in the Tract, and of the necessity of putting it forth. At the same time I am prompted by my feelings to add my deep consciousness that every thing I attempt might be done in a better spirit, and in a better way; and, while I am sincerely sorry for the trouble and anxiety I have given to the members of the Board, I beg to return my thanks to them for an act, which, even though founded on misapprehension, may be made as profitable to myself as it is religiously and charitably intended.1 I say all this with great sincerity, and am, Mr. Vice-Chancellor, Your obedient Servant, 1 Referring to the conduct of the Four Tutors, MR. NEWMAN observes, in his Letter to Dr. Jelf, (p. 5,) "Such acts as theirs, when done honestly, as they have done them, must benefit all parties;"-and again-"this persuasion, (that I am right and they are wrong) is quite consistent both with my honouring their zeal for Christian truth and their anxiety for the welfare of our younger members :"-and again, (p. 30,) “Whatever has been said, or is to be done in consequence, is, I am sure, to be ascribed to the most conscientious feelings." And yet, MR. PALMER, in his Narrative of Events, speaks of a "furious agitation,” and “untiring persecution," and ascribes the condemnation of Tract 90 to" merely personal hostility." p. 32. DR. Hook, too, in avowing his agreement "in the very principle advocated in Tract 90," -"determined to take his stand with Mr. Newman," on the ground of his being "silenced not by_argument but by usurped authority." See his Letter to the Bishop of Ripon. pp. 4—6. -ED. |