IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) A, & / I.Vj |50 '■■ 1 I.I 2.5 £ Itf i2.0 Lil IIII.4. 11.6 J> ■% 7 Photographic Sciences Corporation ^s iV .^■' lace, It may be very safely said, that of the under- graduates who signed the petition, the majority had .ot stndicd the formularies in question : some pr„- i'My had not even read them through with attention, they had read them through at all. Yet they were Ml ready to sign a petition praying that these formu- janes might continue to be imno.od, not only on their bwn conscienees, but on the reluctant consciences of ^. Suppose this had taken place among the stu- )«( t ■ i ft,. i8 A PLEA FOR THE dents of some dissenting University, or in any com- munity reputed heterodox, should we not have been called upon to mark the effects of a bad system in begetting want of reverence for conscience, and levity in matters of religious truth*? A clerical member of the University suspected of heterodoxy may be called upon by the Vice-Chancellor to repeat his subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles f : and this instrument of moral torture has of late been brought into play. Nobody supposes that any object worthy the name of religious is gained by the pro- ceeding. Nobody supposes that the suspected person is I at all better affected to the doctrines of the Articles! after repeating his subscription than he was before. Nobody feels that any further assurance of his ortho- doxy has really been given to any human being. Per- secution, and attempts to drive the supposed heretic! from the University by insult and injustice, go on after the pretended act of satisfaction, just as they did before. One object only has been attained, the openj degradation of an opponent. This interpretation, andl this interpretation alone, is put upon the proceedingl on all hands : and whether the feeling produced iii| the minds of the beholders be that of malignant exul- tation, or of generous disgust, the effect on the int€-| rests of religion is the same. • For an account of this Petition and for the argument based on it see the Bishop of Oxford's speech in the House of Lords, in the debatt t Whether it could be done in the case of a layman seems doubtful] The wonls of a penal Statute would of course be constnicd strictly. ABOLITION OP TESTS. 19 These testa are the vestiges, the last lingering ves- tiges, of an age of religions tyranny and oppression of conscience— an age when the best of Christians and of citizens, guilty of no offence but that of loving the truth, and desiring to impart it to their brethren, were treated as felons, harassed, fined, thrust into noisome dungeons and kept there till they died, at the instigation of ecclesiastics who dishonoured the Christian name, and by the hands of politicians, who equally dishonoured it, and who in many cases had no convictions whatever of their own— when the eucharist itself, the bond of Christian love, was prostituted to the purposes of political hatred with the appro- bation of a so-called Christian clergy, though with a I profanity worse, because deeper in its nature, and I polluting holier things, than the impieties of the ignorant heathen— when, in Scotland, many a peasant, j merely for worshipping God in the way he thought the best, was shot down by a godless soldiery hounded on by bishops styling themselves the successors of the Apostles— when Ireland was oppressed by a penal code which bribed the child to apostasy by enabhng him, as a reward, to strip his father of his property, and not only of his inherited property, but of that which he might himself acquire— when immorality and infidelity went hand in hand with spiritual slavery, and, while Baxter and Calamy lay in prison for their convictions, obscene plays were being acted in the [harem of a Defender of the Faith, who lived a careless iufidei, mocking at morality and God, and who died a jcraven infidel, calling in his panic for the viaticiun of c i i hi 20 A PLEA FOR THE superstition. Is not that age, with all that belonged to it, numbered with the past ? Are not its practices disclaimed even by those who have not yet eradicated its sentiments from their hearts? Have not all men capable of profiting by any experience whatever, pro- fited by the experience which, recorded in characters more terrible than those of blood, tells us that con- science cannot be forced, that God will accept none but a free allegiance; and that reason, and reason alone, is our appointed instrument for bringing each other to the truth? Can any one imagine that the suppression of differences of opinion, which the great powers of the earth, seated on its most ancient and awful thrones, failed to effect with their united force, will be effected by a party born but yesterday, and still unsettled in its own opinions, with so miserable a fragment of that force as an academical test? Why should we, the great body of the English people, who have no interests to serve but those of truth and sincere religion, any longer oppress, vex, and harass the consciences of each other? Why should we thus aggravate the religious perplexities and distresses which are gathering fast enough around us all ? If it is for a political object that we do this, how can true policy be divorced from justice? If it is for a religious object, how can religion consist with depravation of conscience? If it is for the sake of the clergy, will not a desire to see them really influential and truly useful as spiritual guides, lead us at once to take out of their hands these instruments of self-degradation, by the use of which they are alienating from them- ABOLITION OP TESTS. _^ 31 selves the moral sense as weir^^TftThidk^f men? One remark more mnst be made before we leave this part of the subjeet. Political and aeademieal tests such as we seek to abolish, are totally different things' from terms of spiritual communion or qualifications for sp,„tua^ office. This is the answer to those who are disposed to confront the advocates of political or academical emancipation with charges of laxity in doctrine or indifference to religious truth. It is not proposed to alter the Articles, or to relax in any way the canon of orthodox doctrine required by the Church as a Church, cither on the part of her eommunicants or on the part of her clergy. All that is proposed .s to remove tests imposed by political power on canddates for literary and scientific degrees. It is the more necessary to insist on this, because the confusion of ideas against which the remark is in- tended to guard, seems to have found its way into the mind, or at least into the language, of a very eminent man. Mr. Gladstone is reported to have said in the debate on the petition, that "he could not conceive how, with a system of religious truth purportmg to be revealed and essentially definite, you could separate the propagation of tests from the prin ciple and maintenance of that religion." " It seemed to him like dividing the bone from the flesh, so that vitality Itself must escape in the severance." And he went on to artrne that o= ♦!.„ a.-^^i , „ wh-h was a primitive document, was in the nature test, tents must have been sanctioned by the tiibiii 1 f r M of 22 A PLEA FOR THE usage of the Primitive Church. Whether dogmatism and exclusiveness have their source in the writings of the Apostles, or whether they are not traceable rather to the Byzantine and Roman than to the Apostolic mind, is a question which we need not here discuss. Nor need we inquire whether there is anything on the face of the Apostles' Creed to show that it was intended to be used otherwise than as a summary of faith. If there were theological formularies equivalent to the Thirty-nine Articles and the Athanasian Creed in the days of the Apostles, it is certain that there were no political tests. Or rather there were poli- tical tests, which some of the Apostles and many of their followers were put to death for refusing to take. The spiritual strictness of a Church indeed is likely to be rather in inverse than in dii-ect proportion to the stringency of its political tests, and to the degree of support which it receives generally from political power. For such support is, and must be, pur- chased by corresponding concessions to the powers of the worid : not only by making the Church a political tool in their hands, but by allowing them to use it as a cloak for their own moral and spiritual licence so long as they promote its apparent interests by oppressing and persecuting its opponents. It may safely be said that no Christian Church, we might almost say no heathen association which made any pretension to a bond of religious union, has ever been „.j !«juov >Txuii ifcj^aiv* w oj.;iiituiii requirements and lerniis B of communion as the Church of England was in the ABOLITION OF TESTS. 33 reign of Charles II, when, supported by the full power of a tyrannical government, she was aUowed to mul- tiply political tests in supreme scorn of conscience, and held Nonconformist ministers imprisoned in every gaol. To the period of intolerance and persecution naturaUy succeeded a period of general scepticism. During this period, was the eucharist, as a qualifi- cation for office, refused to scoffers at Christianity? And can we imagine a more deplorable or a more instructive union of political tyranny with spiritual laxity, than the administration of the eucharist to an unbeliever as a qualification for office would afford? Bolingbroke, at once an infidel and a persecutor of Nonconformists, was in fact the lay head of the Church m his day, and might have communicated, if he deigned to communicate, on any terms he pleased: and generally speaking, any one who mil look over the history of an established Church will see that she has seldom been independent enough to ask what were the religious convictions or what was the character of her political chief The same thing may be said, with at least equal force, of the Churches established by the State in Roman Catholic countries. The Church of the Dragonades was the Church of Dubois ; and it formed at once the terror of sincere Noncon- formity, and the decent veil of royal and aristocratic lust. Men of the world, in fact, have found by experience that a Church supported by political power, and dependent on that support, is the best antidote - — ,, .xiix.tciii;c VL ictigioii, wnieri liiey eiioose to regard as a dangerous and disturbing element in h '1 ■-"rTTO'l^^'^k1i..^^i.: 24 A PLEA FOR THE ,,M ,M society; and in paying their homage and lending their protection to a state religion, whether it be that of Jupiter or that of the Anglican Church, they are axjtuated partly by this view, and partly by the belief that the clergy are useful as a police. The kingdom of the Author of Christianity, after all, is not a king- dom of this world; nor can the kingdoms of this world be made those of the Author of Christianity by the process of political legislation, though they may, and as we believe, will be in the end, by a process of reh- gious conversion. And so, on the other hand, it must not be supposed that those who most desire the removal of these tests, and of all interference of political power with con-' science, seek to impugn, in any way, the spiritual integrity of the Anglican Church, or to force her to abandon anything which she holds to be an essential part of her proper duty as the guardian of religious truth. They may hope— some of them certainly do hope-that when, the hand of political power being withdrawn, the Churches of Christendom cease to be divided by political and social barriers from each other, and to be shut up each in the legal creeds and for- mularies imposed on it by the State, charity and the sense of a common life derived from the same sources and producing essentially the same fruits, will work their way through the hard integument of exclusive dogma in which each State Church is cased : and that a reconciliation, if not a reunion, of Christendom, will ultimately take place. But they expect this result from —"-J xe«oOix aim Liiristian sympathy, not from action- bt! a, 1 1 " T^ '"•"^'' ^ legislative has lost the It e^*'; "^^ f ^ ^-'■--t which o; .h,io._o. toTc:^a:;t;:eS:ti:jrr We now come to the distinct question as to tl,„ opemng of the Universities to Dissenters n; * or Nonconformists they shall he ITll 7. "'^''™*«'* »"• Wng issues. Bu" , ^ ! „' "' '" """• the principle of English soZ ^, """""" ""^ "f these communities is It n' '""^''" """' Churches. Dissenters but Free .«ean CI j:r:r:?:^::;: s-7^- ^ .listinctl/befoj'treitinT Ttl't"^ ^™'''"' ^vere settled, and in the time of Charles H A ^ settlement was restored if , ' "'""' *'"'' and Stof„ >estored, it was assumed that Church and State were one, and that conformity and Mi Z were coextensive • nor did fl. . citizenship which is associated «1 1^ ""''""'''^ '■^^»'"«»» the pHncip,e:i:; ^^;r^tl^'T ?• "'*-• of intolerance; and rithou^h fe s at Tdl rf " inv!riab;y\: m'^ ir: :-t' ''''""'' ^™^^^'- the absurd and 7 '""™ ""'* ^'^"tland, absurd and fundamentally sceptical position o^ m: f '•t!'! ^•i^:" r 26 A PLEA FOE THE it 'i ■i-iui lliilii establishing one religion on the North, and another on the South of the Tweed. The Nonconformists were persecuted under the Tudors and the Stuarts: under William and his successors they were tolerated; and the measure of toleration was enlarged as they grew in numbers and in influence, and as, by the softening influence of time on religious antipathies, and by the gradual difi'usion of free thought in Europe, their enemies, the fanatical clergy, lost hold on the power of the State. But under neither dynasty were they re- garded as entitled to the rights of citizens, or as placed in any other than a penal condition, the penalties of which the State, out of mercy or policy, was pleased to mitigate or suspend. At the same time it must be remembered, that no statesman of the Tudor age, or even of that which succeeded the Tudors, looked upon this state of things as perpetual, or supposed that a large part of the nation would always remain politi- cally and socially cut off", as Nonconformists, from the rest, deprived wholly or in part of the privileges of citizens, and therefore malcontent and disaffected. These politicians were in fact misled, in a great mea- sure, by their passionate desire to produce perfect national unity, and their inability to understand that perfect national unity might exist notwithstanding diversities in religion. The complete identity of Church and State, of churchman and citizen, which they re- garded and propounded as the ideal polity, they also fully expected to realise in fact. They more or less definitely looked upon Nonconformity as a transient malady, which would disappear in the end, provided ABOLITION OF TESTS. a; the rulers of the State persevered in the Lystem of encouraging the Established Church and discouraging aU others. Such was their expectation even with regard to Ireland, where their theory and the ecclesiastical law m which it was embodied were most signally and most obstinately confronted by adverse facts. What were their ideas as to the relations of the State Church of England to the other Churches of Christendom; whether they expected that the whole Christian world would m the end be converted to the doctrines of the Ihirty.nme Articles, the last revision of the Prayer Book, and the Homilies, or whether they were content that each Christian nation should continue to have its own national religion, and consequently its own na- tional God, after the fashion of polytheistic antiquity. It would probably be difficult to determine. They were not men of high spiritual aspirations or of very ample vision m the spiritual sphere : and their chief aim was the complete subordination of the people to the pur- poses of the government, and the consolidation of a great and compact power. When a philosophical mind undertook to supply a religious basis to their political theories, the result was such as the concluding books ot Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity display. It is now for statesmen to determine whether the experience of three centuries is not conclusive as to the vanity of these expectations: whether there remains any ground whatever for hoping that Nonconformity vvill cease, and that national unity will be brought -fff^fffft tit.' If" -■-- I . - - _._ the adherence of all citizens to the Anglican religion. In forming their opinion they will consider *ft^i i a8 A PLEA FOR THE not only the relative numLers of Churchmen and Non- conformists, Protestant or Catholic, at the present day, but the relative increase of their numbers respectively since the foundation of the Established Church. They will balance not only the numbers or the numerical increase, but the amount of religious energy displayed by those who found and maintain free Churches by their own efforts and at their own cost, notwithstanding political penalties or disadvantages, compared with the amount displayed by adherence to a Church endowed and encouraged by the State. They will be careful, especially with regard to the people of the rural dis- tricts, to distinguish between mere negative acqui- escence, the result of ignorance or custom, and positive conviction. They will also distinguish the results of the social and educational efforts which the clergy have made of late years, and in which they have been supported by the wealth and influence of the Anglican upper classes, from a renewed growth of Anglican doc- trines in the minds of the people. They will examine the internal condition of the Anglican Church itself, and mark what is the degree of unity which it enjoys, or is likely, to all appearances, to enjoy ; and whether its distinctive tenets really command the allegiance of its most powerful and influential minds. Finally, they will look abroad over Christendom, with the des- tinies of which it can scarcely be supposed that the destinies of any Christian nation are wholly uncon- nected, and see whether men are generally more in- i..j,i^a x^. „,„n.^; ^.^,j,g^.j^.jj^,y ^^^, ijuiure established formularies, to sacrifice truth to political convenience, ABOLITION OF TESTS. yoiking^. They will remember tlmt in everv na^.„ of Europe where the powers of governmentt^^ such as to lead rulers into arbitrary courses th^ same attempt has bc.n made to produce pe " t unit m rel,g,on b, the enforcement of conformity : nd thS own observation will tell them whether in every countrv of Europe the attempt has not decisively failed ' it they are brought to the conclusion that to pro duee nafona unity according to the Tudor plan'bt S r r'"" "" "'^ '"'"'"<' '" P-^- *^« Stat rehgion has been proved to be hopeless, it only re ma-B for them to seek the same end i another Z, Z ecogmzmg perfect liberty of conscience, by granting to all c,t.ens the full privilege of eiti.Jnp! by 1 1 W renouncing on the part of the government' .retensS which have led to nothing but disaster, aL plac,:; I- State m what experience has shewn to be its true position as the equal guardian of the secular ■f ; .r"^ -f -'» "f all. If the old prineipl be f "T' ^' f ''" ™'^' "^ -• ««'tesma„sh to be frankly abandoned, and the new and sounde principle on which society is henceforth to stand ough to be cordially embraced. The advantages which prte t.«.l wisdom, so called, sc^s in g.a.lual, niggardly and extorted concession, are surely more than c,!;.,.ter;« tnfe the long legacy of faction, the loss of the gm- ftude and harmony which attend a freelv b,.«t„L. ■»on, the waste, in a barren and useless struggl7„f power which might bo expended in promoihig hj f 1 % A PLEA FOE THE H ! f..;:i 30 general good. Toleration, which treated the Noncon- formist half as a criminal, half as a citizen, was mani- festly a transition state. The day of toleration is now past, the day of equality is come. Its coming will make us, -its approach has already begun to make us,— a more united, a more loyal, a more pros- perous, and a more religious nation. If the pnnciple of religious equality is to be embraced, and all loyal citizens, whatever their rehgious creed, are to be accepted as in the full sense members of the nation, it would seem to follow as a matter of right and of course that they must all be admitted on equal terms to every national institution, and among others, to the national Universities. You may try to temper the Nonconformist's exercise of his right, in the first instance at least, so as not to give an un- necessary shock to interests or sentiments which have grown up under the Tudor system. But you cannot deprive him of his right, without doing that which is the most un statesmanlike of all things, an act of pal- pable injustice. The only answer, apparently, that can be made to this claim of right is, that the Universities belong, not to the nation, but to the Anglican Church. And this, tl)ough it is not expressly stated, is constantly suggested or implied in the reasonings of the clerical party. It is plainly suggested in the Petition before mentioned as having been presented by the clerical party in the University against Mr. Bouverie's Bilh^ Legally, the Universities are lay corporations. Tiiey are represented by Burgesses in the National Legis- ' < A OLITION OF TESTS. 3i lature. They are visited by the Crown in the Court of Queen's Bench. Their Chancellors may be and in modern times always have been laymen. Holy Orders are not required as a qualification for admission to their governing bodies or for any office in them, excepting those the holders of which must have taken Theological degrees. The same is in truth the case in a historical point of view. No doubt the Universities in the middle ages had something of an ecclesiastical character. They were founded, or their foundation was con- firmed, under Papal bulls, and the visitatorial power over them was the subject of contention between diocesans, metropolitans, and popes. In the pro- clamations of medisBval kings, regulating the relations between the students and the citizens of Oxford, the citizens as a body are sometimes called Laid, in contradistinction to the Scholares, who are assumed to be clerks. But all intellectual institutions in the middle ages were ecclesiastical. Society was in those times divided into the military class, the peasantry, the burghers, and the clergy: and the clergy com- prehended not only those who were devoted to the cure of souls, but all who professed learning of any kind and wrought with the brain not with the hand, —the lawyer and the physician, the man of letters and the man of science, even the architect and the engineer. Wykeham the founder of New College was a bishop, and held a mass of clerical preferment : but he passed the early part of his life as an architect, and the latter pai-t as a diplomatist and SI I- M>i r r * 1 1 ^■•1 3» A PLEA FOR THE statesman. A clergyman in the modern sense of the term, as one devoted to pastoral duties or to theological study, he never was. And if we go deeper, and in- quire to which of the two antagonistic elements of mediaeval intellect the Universities belonged, to that which was sacerdotal and reactionary or to that which was scientific and progressive, we shall find the an- swer embodied in some of the most interesting facts of mediaeval history. The Universities were the very centres of science and of progress : to the sacer- dotal and reactionary party they were the objects of deserved suspicion. In them, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, commenced the movement which issued at last in the great intellectual revo- lution of the sixteenth, called by the name, which, considering the variety of its effects, is inadequate, of the Protestant Reformation. To gain control over the seats of mental independence, the Dominicans and Franciscans threw themselves into the Univer- sities in the thirteenth century, as the Jesuits threw themselves into the intellectual world in the sixteenth *. The most characteristic, as well as the most illustrious figures in the history of Oxford before the sixteenth century are Roger Bacon and Wycliffe : both of whom under the strictly clerical dominion to which we have since become subject, have been regarded, we may say, with something of Dominican aversion f. The \v * They foil themselves, in some cases, notably in the case of Roger X>aCUII, UliUCr UlC miiuciiuc rfuivu n- rran t-ii'c'fi ..,.~s-.!. s. t Bacon perhaps rather in the person of his more illustrious name- sake than his own. ABOLITION OP TESTS. ;nou8 name- founder of our most <^nck^^^^il^g^;~^;;^^^~^^ ancient of aU colleges, Walter de Merton, was the friend of Eobert Grosteste, the liberal Bishop of Lincoln, whose antagonism to the Roman and sacer- dotal party gave rise to the statement, whether literally true or not, that he died under excommu- meation,_to Rome an ecclesiastical castaway, to English liberals a saint. And to the reforming party of the reign of Henry III, to which both belonged we owe not only the first loosening of the Roman yoke, but, m no small degree, our Parliamentary in- stitutions, the offspring of a spirit of political inquiry which was fostered, together with the spirit of philo- sophic and scientific inquiry, in the Universities, and lound Its expression in the Latin songs of the student as well as in the deeds of De Montfori) and his companions in arms. Merton excluded monks from his college: and the monks of those days were, in point of reactionary spirit, the High Church elorgv of these. His Fellows were clerks, no doubt, but seculars, not regulars : and the tendency of his re-u lations was to create a literary not a sacerdotal institution. This object was fulfilled ; for his college produced Wycliffe, at once one of the most eminent ot the school philosophers and the first great adver- sary of the sacerdotal power. The present ascendancy of the clergy, from which the notion that the Universities arc ecclesiastical insti- = *'™"' ''"'^' ■« ''"« t" " combination of historical ■ uc-cidents. The I'ellows of colleges being clerks, ' tla^ llramcrs of the collem. statutes in the middle ages. 5 ■ Kid Str- i. » I I r 34 A PLEA FOR THE enjoined their Fellows, generally speaking, to take Holy Orders by a certain time; and as the statutes were never revised, these ordinances remained in force after the Reformation, when the real signification of taking orders had been greatly altered, and every ordained person was in fact expressly consecrated to the pas- toral cure of souls*. At the same time, the colleges having grown in number and wealth, while the inde- pendent halls for students fell into decay, they absorbed the University; and thus rules and restrictions in- tended only for private foundations were imposed, with the clerical character which the observance of them produced, on the public institution. As a natural con- sequence, lay studies and professions gradually took their departure from the University ; and left clerical studies, of which that of the learned languages was the chief, exclusively in possession. This result, no doubt, was fully justified in the special case of Medicine and Surgery, by the necessity of resorting to the great London hospitals ; and in the special case of Pleading and Conveyancing, by the necessitv of being initiated into the technical mysteries of pleaders' and convey- ancers' chambers, which were to be found only in the * Perflons ordained as priests are speciaUy exhorted in the Ordi- nation Service to give themselves to reading and learning the Scnp- tureB, and "to forsake and put aside (as much as they may) all worldly cares and studies." And they pledge themselves in the same service, " to be diligent in prayers, and in reading of the holy Scriptures, and in such studies as help to the knowledge of the same ; laying aside the study of the world and the flesh.'"- Uow can ffion under this pledge claim the direction of secular studies, or the government of a University j whore such studies are pursued ? ake Holy ites were )rce after 3f taking ordained the pas- B colleges the inde- '■ absorbed stions in- osed, with of them itural con- lally took 3ft clerical uages was result, no f Medicine the great >f Pleading ig initiated id convey- m\y in the 1 in the Ordi- ling the Scrip- lay) all worldly 3 same service, Scriptures, and aying aside the CI' tins pitirupv of a University j ABOLITION OF TESTS. 35 neighbourhood of the courts of law; but in the ca^ of aU the other studies, including the studies pre- hmmary to medicine, and the principles of jurispru- dence, it was a banishment of learning and science from their natural home. Law Degrees were still requn-ed for Doctors Commons, and a premium on graduation at the University, in the shape of a remis- sion of the number of law terms to be kept by the student, was formerly given at the Inns of Court; but these privileges have been recently lost, and it is to be feared that lawyers will be more than ever drawn away from the University, and that we shall become more clerical than ever; unless the increase of the number of lay fellowships, under the ordinances of the University Commission, should supply a com- pensating attraction. University degrees being gene- raUy, and till of late years almost universally, required by bishops as a qualification for Holy Orders, the clergy continued to graduate at Oxford and Cam- bridge; and by a calamitous relaxation of the Uni- versity statutes respecting residence, introduced at a period of general looseness, through an indiscriminate exercise of the Chancellor's dispensing power, they were enabled to proceed to the Master's degree without residing, and thus to form a Convocation of country clergymen, to whose dominion the University has long been absolutely subject. Nor was it only under the intellectual dominion of the clergy that Oxford fell : it^ fell also under their political dominion, and that of political party with which they were allied. In time of James I. a national University became the Da 'rahifl ^\ of Ml f r •^ the li 3« A PLEA FOR THE I centre of a great conspiracy against the civil as well as the religious liberties of the nation of which Charles and Laud stand in history as the joint chiefs; and this conspiracy was perpetuated, in a less noble form, after the Revolution of 1688, by the Jacobite parsons of Oxford common rooms, who by their intrigues, and still more by the doctrines which they infused into their pupils, kept alive during a century the evils of a disputed succession, and helped to produce, though they refrained from personally sharing, two insurrec- tions in favour of the house of Stuart, which cost blood more generous than their own. Under this twofold tyranny political as well as religious tests were formerly imposed by the reactionary party, on candidates for degrees. About 162a, a preacher named Knight having thrown out some intimation that subjects oppressed by their prince on account of religion might defend themselves by arms, the University not only censured him, but pronounced a solemn decree that it is in no case lawful for subjects to make use of force against their princes, nor to appear offensively or defensively in the field against them. All persons promoted to degrees were required to subscribe to this, and to take an oath that they not only at present detested the opposite opinion, but would at no future time entertain it. "A ludicrous display," remarks Hallam, " of the folly and despotic spirit of learned academies." A ludicrous and melancholy display, he should rather have said, of the degraded state into^ which learned academies tall, when, by a series of unfortunate accidents, they are diverted from the as well L Charles )fs ; and ►le form, parsons ntrigues, infused the evils !, though insurrec- 3st blood twofold formerly iates for Knighl subjects religion srsity not m decree make use iffensively il persons e to this, t present no future ' remarks )f learned isplay, he state into series of from the ABOLITION OF TESTS. Z1 purposes of learning, and made slaves to the clerical r ofession and its political allies. Even supposing that the Universities were legally and historically the property of the national Church, the property of the national Church, as distinguished from its spiritual organisation and attributes, is the property of the nation; and the Legislature is not only entitled, but bound to deal with it, and every part of it, for the good of the whole community. But, if the foregoing view of the facts is correct, no real change of destination is required; no appropriation having taken place but by accident, and accident that carries with it nothing legally, historically or morally entitled to any respect whatever. A claim of right, once admitted, absolutely rules this and all political questions, leaving nothing open to debate but the mode in which the right may be best conceded and enjoyed with least detriment to the rights of others. Justice is expediency in short hand. The advantages however which would accrue to the State by i\iQ admission of all its members, without distinction of religious opinions, to the national Universities are manifest, and may be summed up in a few words; it being premised that we are speaking at present of the University, not of the Colleges, which stand on a somewhat different footing, so that their case will require some separate remarks. This measure would bring a body of Englishmen I who have now beeomo nnworPul qnd i«fl"/^»^i.'-i .— j— the higher culture, which has its seat in the Univer- sities, and from which they have been hitherto excluded, '*»r: p" «l 'n W- i^fi^$i-iimms0SimM)rinmimfmiim»: •kum. 38 A PLEA FOR THE to thfe detriment of their own interests and no less to the detriment of the State in which they exercise social and political power. It would restore the unity of the nation in the matter of high education, by bringing the youth of the upper classes, whether belonging to the landed gentry, who are^mostly Anglicans, or to the ftlpart of the community. Cef»'*»'*i''<-ir-*--«-' manufacturing and who are less within the Anglican pale, to a common place of training, where they would imbibe common ideas, be socially as well as intellectually fused, and learn to understand each other : an advantage the magni- tude of which any one may measure by considering how sharp has hitherto been the social and political division between those bred at Oxford and Cambridge, and those bred elsewhere. And further, it would enable the Universities to become the centres of the educa- tional system in a country where large masses of the people, it may almost be said whole districts, are con- scientious and for the most part hereditary Dissenters from the Anglican Church, and will not give their confidence to any institution which is administered ex- clusively in her interest. The expense of a University education, both in money and time, is probably too great to admit of our reckoning on so large an addition as many expect to the number of the resident stu- dents, though their number will no doubt be increased both by the removal of religious disabilities, and by the admission of more useful and popular subjects into the course of academical education. But there is no reason why Oxford and Cambridge should not by their action in the way of examining and visiting, as well as by ABOLITION OF TESTS. 39 furnishing masters, books and other instruments of education, exercise a most beneficial influence over the other places of education, especially those of the dif- ferent social strata, ranging from the solicitor or en- gineer to the small tradesman, which are embraced in the wide term middle class. This has indeed already been perceived by the Universities themselves, and the idea has been acted on, though, as some think, rather crudely and hastily, by the institution of the Middle- Class Examinations; but religious difficulties have already been encountered, though, the examinations being per- fectly voluntary, no candidates were likely to offer themselves whose parents or schoolmasters were very strict Dissenters, and decidedly objected to placing edu- cation under the influence of an Anglican institution. The late Education Commissioners, again, suggested in their report, that the Universities should grant certifi- cates to schoolmasters, and that they should undertake the inspection and examination of the classical endowed schools : and possibly it may hereafter be thought, that if some of our sinecure Fellowships were charged with some duties of this kind they would be not less valuable to the holders, and more useful to the State. Sup- posing any central system of inspection to be desirable, a far better, more acceptable, and more trusted centre may be found in Universities independent of political party than in an office connected with the executive power. But to exercise these national functions, and still more to be trusted with national authority to exercise them, Oxford and Cambridge must become the Universities of the whole nation, and it must be clearly ■C k s r '»m tsi0S%i'AM'iki!aijmiiuM^m&imtMmMii.i.Mi^^ 40 A PLEA FOR THE I;' :lli| I ,i ! :'■ ■ III established, in a way in which nothing but their com- plete emancipation from Anglican tests will establish it, that their proper duty is the promotion of national learning and education, not the propagation of Anglican opinions. Whatever may be thought by the High Church clergy, to whom the extirpation of Dissent always seems not only desirable but near, a statesman, looking to the fact that the teachers and guides of large masses of the people are, and to all appearances must long continue to be. Nonconformists, will think it an object that those who exercise such an influence in the community should be trained, by a superior education and an enlarged intel- lectual intercourse, to exercise it, as far as possible, in an enlightened and liberal way. A high Anglican journal, and one not only very able, but very moderate and charitable in its general tone, reviewing the other day a book by an eminent Nonconformist, acknow- ledged the substantial merits of the work, but con- cluded by remarking, as a curious fact, that ' no Dis- senter could write like a gentleman.' Few things are more irritating than to hear those who maintain an oppressive system in their own interest taunting the oppressed with defects which are the consequences of the oppression. The Irish peasant, to complete the wretchedness of his lot, is complacently pronounced a being of degraded nature, by those whose ruthless mis- government and wicked laws have been almost the sole cause of his degradation. The Dissenter is held up to derision for his want of cultivation by those who are all the time engaging the holders of political power ABOLITION OP TESTS. heir com- tablish it, r national ' Anglican 1 Church ays seems ng to the 3es of the ; continue that those ity should ^gecl intel- ossible, in Anglican ' moderate the other aeknow- but con- 'no Dis- things are intain an nting the [uences of iplete the aounced a liless mis- Imost the ir is held bhose who cal power 41 bjthe bribe of church^;;;^;;:;;;^^ social Panah, from the institutions where alone the highest cultivation can be obtained. The remark, how- ever, though made by those who ought to be somewhat ashamed to make it, is not without foundation. The writings and preachings of the Nonconformists have been the channels of spiritual life to great masses of the English people: they have even been almost the sole support of religion in England at times when as during a g^-eat part of the last century, the' Estabhshment, lethargic from overendowment, filled with unworthy ministers by family patronage, and enslaved to the purposes of worldly politicians, lay inert and helpless in face of spreading scepticism and dominant vice^. But, generally speaking, they unquestionably show, by defects of style which their Anghcan critic rather severely describes as an in- ability to write like a gentleman, and perhaps by JJn'' *^' ""'^ "^ ^'""^" *^" ^'''''" «*y« '^ WgWy conservative thTi"nV"I '"''""* '"*^"'^"' "*^^ -«-*-^ fewLld reeve that the Church of England, though pure as ever in doctrine Tas We ?. V T ^"' '"^ ' ^""* '"^^^"^^ ^^^^^ by the Methodists. . . Church of modem times could equal ours. Nor let any false shami hmder us from owning, that though other causes also were at to^k t :b to the Methodists that great part of the merit is due. ^^ th refore we trace their early enthusiasm and perverted views and the mischief which these have undoubtedly caused, as welas ^e evds of the present separation, let us never forget or deny the countt vadmg advantage." (Lord Mahon's Hist, of England. voU p " )' Zl ;;! :^'^^^3^;-« "" high grounds of religious superiority? Is the Xu': r" "'^^' " ^""' ''' ''''■' ^* -^^^^ ^* was'rekindled r 1^1 ••^l *^j^; '•'*;' *i *Kli|^' 42 A PLEA. FOR THE ! I III «1 ,!.&. some defects deeper than those of style, that the system of academical exclusion has not failed to pro- duce its natural effects; and that emancipation would be a great and certain benefit to the State, inasmuch as it would be productive of intellectual improvement among a body of men who, as was before said, must be expected long to remain the guides and teachers of a great part of the people. The removal of sectarian antipathy will seem an advantage only to those to whom sectarian antipathy seems an evil, who recognize the essential unity of the Christian character in different sects and under different dogmatic systems, and who think it a ca- lamity that men whose virtues are the same should be prevented by their dogmatic differences, or rather by the dogmatic differences of their clergy, from heartily working together in all things for the common good. This view of the matter, it may be said with- out offence, is more likely to be taken by a Christian statesman, on whose mind the identity of the religious character in all good men is constantly impressed by his daily experience of dealings with men of different creeds, than by the ecclesiastic, bound almost in honour to maintain the close connection of practical excellence with an exclusive system of speculative dogma, and little disturbed probably in his theoretical allegiance to this conviction hy actual contact with the virtues oi' Dissent. But to those who do take it, nothing can appear more desirable than the mixtun; of members of dif- ferent sects in youth, when the heart is open, when conscientious difference of opinion is still an object ! \ ABOLITION OF TESTS. 43 seem an of generous respect rather than of bigoted or poUtic aversion, and when personal sympathy and daily companionship are likely to make short work with any formularies, however consecrated, which stand in the way of friendship. And if under these harmonizing influences not only sectarian antipathy should in some measure disappear— not only men now fellow-citizens in name, should, from having been members of the same University, become fellow-citizens indeed— but the value attached to dogma itself should decline, compared with the value attached to a Christian character and a Christian life, some might bewail the falling bul- warks of the faith, but others, as we before intimated, would hail an approach, however slight, towards the reconciliation of the English Churches, and, more remotely, towards the reconciliation of Christendom. It is suggested, and even Mr. Gladstone seemed inclined to countenance the belief, that if the Uni- versities were thrown open to Dissenters, Churchmen would no longer resort to them; and that, consequently, by such a measure, the interests of the many would be sacrificed to those of the few. The interests of the many ought to be sacrificed to those of the few, if the few have a riglit to come and the many have no right to shut them out. No such effect, however, has been produced by the admission of Dissenters as undergraduates, even into the colleges. It has not been produced even by the admission of Roman Catholics, whose errors urn rt^cxavAtu} ^^xr i^u.. K.tli' -f the community as the most pernicious, and whose powers of prosclytism are always supposed to be such t I 44 A PLEA FOR THE m it! h •! as no truth, when brought into contact with them, can withstand. It has not been produced by the removal of religious restrictions in the case of the Universities of Scotland, though the Presbyterians of the Scotch Establishment are as rigorously attached to orthodoxy as the Anglicans, whether they are equally fortunate in possessing it or not. While people are taught by their spiritual instructors that exclusiveness is characteristic of a Christian, and while their exclusiveness is to be displayed only at the cost of others, it is very likely that they will be, or at least affect to be, exclusive : but if the question were whether they should exclude their own children from the benefit of a University education rather than allow them to come into contact with fellow students and teachers of a different communion from themselves, it may be doubted whether a single parent would con- sent to keep his son away. Traditional bugbears which pass for excellent arguments while the interests of the Nonconformists only are affected, would then hv su])jected to the keen scrutiny of self-interest, or the still keener scrutiny of parental ambition. It would soon be discovered that there was no more danger in listening to Faraday at Oxford, than in listening to him in London ; and that if the sons who are in the civil service, or in the army, who are walking the hospital, or articled to a solicitor, may be allowed to take their chance in a world full of heretics, without any dereliction of religious principle on the part of txieir pnrentg, or serious danger to their own faith, the son who is at the University might be allowed to ABOUTION OP TESTS. _^ 45 do the same. Even the"^^„ Catholic cler^ Ireland whose influence over the people is far greater than that of the clergy „f the Church of England, find It impossible to restrain their flock from acceptin,. the education oflered them in Government schools, or even the advantages doled out to them with a sparino- and^^somewhat humiliating hand in the University of There is probably no Dissenter, perhaps no Papist whose name has of late scattered such terror throu<-h the religious world as those of the Authors of Essays and Reviews. Yet Rugby is overflowing, and Balliol IS overflowing. You cannot find admission to either without giving several years' notice; at Balliol not without passing a severe and virtually competitive examination. People are willing enough to denounce perhaps even to persecute : but they are not willing' nor will they ever be willing, to forego the benefit of the best education for their children. We may be allowed, without imputing any im- piv,per motives, to think that social contempt for the Dissenters mingles in some degree with the fear of religious contagion. How many fathers would with draw their sons from the society of men of rank of a diflerent persuasion from their own? How manv fathers would think that the presence of such persons impaired the purity of the atmosphere in a place of education, or in any other place? It IS an easy thing to stigmatize, and exclude .rom the path of iutclleetual ambition, a methodist preacher's son. But it is not so easy f„ carry the I f 4« A PLEA FOE THE I > n principle which alone will justify you in doing this consistently through all your relations with a world in which the great and powerful are not all upon your side*. The greatest caution and tenderness should obvi- ously be used in breaking up, even for the ultimate advantage of religion itself, an existing system of religious education: and if such would be the eflPect of admitting Dissenters to the Universities, we should be entitled, not indeed to repudiate their just claim, but to ask for the utmost patience and forbearance at their hands. But the truth is that, so far as the University, as distinguished from the Colleges, is concerned, no religious system really exists. The tests, which are now abolished in the case of students, were the only religious system. The discipline of the Uni- versity is merely a matter of police, or at most of ordinary morality. As a consequence of the abolition of tests, the theological part of the University Exami- nations is dispensed with in the case of Dissenters. Even when it was exacted of all, to call it part of a religious system would have been to identify theology mth. religion, whereas any crammer, or any one who had been crammed, could have borne witness that they * The argument that the admission of Dissenters to a place of education would render it unfit for the use of the orthodox, when employed against Mr. Bouverie's Bill, received the sanction of the First Minister, who was rewarded for this liberal sentiment with a chorus of liberal applause. The same statesman went rather out of his way to snow ni5 syrripatny with priae-fighliug ; and no one will say that his conduct in the two cases was otherwise than consistent. ABOLITION OP TESTS. 47 were easily separated from each other; whfle at Cam- bndge the theological clement, so much pri^ed at Oxford was actually left out of the Examinations without producing any perceptible inferiority in the religious character of Cambridge men. Attendance at the Umversity sermons is perhaps supposed in theoiy to be universal. In practice it would probably be just the same after the admission of Dissenters to degrees as it is at present. Some persons are, it is believed, inclined to attach value to the testimony which under the system of exclusion the Univei«ity is supposed to render to religious truth. Religious truth mil not accept the testimony of injustice; and this testimony, if we look to acts instead of fiction, ,vill prove te be, at bottom, that of Queen Elizabeth and her favourite the Eari of Leicester, or at best that of Archbishop Laud,-a testimony with which religion need not fear to part so long a« she retains that of one simple mind or one pure heart. But the truth is, this testimony, and the 'principle' which is supposed to be involved in admittea Dissenters to the Bachelor's degree at Oxford, and to the Master's de^ee at Cambridge, without its being perceived by anybody that religion rested on a lees secure foundation than before. Upon every concession which the Legislature has made during the last hundred years, by the removal of religious disabdities, to the claims of conscience and of justice ...e humcliate ruiu of religion has been foretold, and the wrath of Heaven has been denounced against the *i Jrf'l *Ni 48 A PLEA FOR THE I i''.' mi in nation if it ceased to confine all rights, honours, and emoluments to the members of a privileged Church. Those wh6 utter these predictions must be content, like other people, to have their speculations controlled by experience. And experience, now twenty times repeated, proves that there is no truth in what they say, and that God is not a God of injustice but of justice. It is alleged that the Dissenters themselves do not wish to come to the University, and that, if its doors were thrown open to them, they would refuse to enter; so that we are officiously pleading the cause of clients who do not desire our advocacy. Granting this to be the fact, the answer would be something like that which is given to those who contend that slaves ouffht not to be emancipated, because they are contented with their degraded lot. If the system of exclusion has rendered a number of people, and people of wealth and influence, indifferent to high culture and intel- lectual privileges, its operation must have been mis- chievous indeed. However, it remains to be seen whether it is the fact that Dissenters do not wish to come to the Universities. Are they indifferent to social position as well as to intellectual cultivation? At all events let the door be opened to them. If they come, the argument is answered. If they do not come, a grievance is removed, and no harm is done. It is true, but few Dissenters have as yet taken advantage of the Acts of Parliament which permit them to come to the Universities as students, while ABOLITION OF TESTS. they are still ^eh^^^T^^^^T^;^^;-;^^—^ nonty and treated as objeet. of legUIative^siicTor t by no means follows that they will „ot come i^ they are placed on a footing of equality, and frankl adm,t,«l to the full privileges of thi place Ue aw wh.ch excludes them from the go Jming bo^y of the University is an indication, or rather an open declaiution that the institution is to be administered not impartially, but in the interests of their rSou! opponents. The governing bodies of the Col. ^^a Anghcan . and, as the Masters of Private Hallfmu We must not be too cvtreme to mark the incon. sistencies of those who are defending a state of th nt which ,s dear to them, but which is not easily d!^ fended and who take up i„ haste whatever arguments come first to hand. We are told that it is of nTu e to advocate the admission of Dissenters, since thev would not come to the Universities if th y we^ peT- ■nit ted; and, in the same breath, we are told tha Z of the University, and commence a course of legis- afon hostile to the interests of the Church of Z. tod. Here, again, experience allays our fears. The House of Commons has been thrown open to " person., It 7''^T r'"'^'^' "'"• P""""^ »'• "" »"victio,; all. As It represents Scotland and Ireland, as well *f ,1 50 A PLEA FOR THE I?! ins as England, a much larger proportion of members not belonging to the Church of England has been intro- duced into it than would within any calculable period be introduced into the Convocation of an English University. Yet it is so far from being * unchris- tianized/ or rendered hostile to Anglican interests, that a motion for inquiry into the case of the Irish Establishment, the most portentous monument of in- tolerance in Christendom, can scarcely obtain a re- spectful hearing. A legislative body, whether political or academical, drawn from the upper classes of Eng- land, will represent, probably it will only too faithfiiUy represent, the sentiments, tone, and interests, of its class. That there may be a small minority of the other way of thinking, makes no difference in the practical result. In the case of an academical Convo- cation, it is peculiarly absurd to suppose that the majority would pass measures calculated not only to undermine and discredit their own religion, but to drive away from their precincts the class to their con- nection with which the Universities owe their posi- tion, or rather their existence. What measures of the kind can any one seriously apprehend, or even picture to himself in imagination ? Convocation, when thrown open, will simply be a section of English society; and will exhibit the prevailing sentiments of that society in its character and acts. If English society ever undergoes a great change, and becomes either more mediaeval and sacerdotal, or more modern and liberal, ita -cTsiLiiiiciii^D, Liiaxi xu id at uicnclit, v^uii v v>v;a,tiUii will undergo a corresponding change. Of this each lembers not been intro- lable period an English * ' unchris- n interests, )f the Irish nent of in- btain a re- lier political ses of Eng- )0 faithftilly 'ests, of its rity of the tnce in the lieal Convo- e that the lot only to ion, but to ) their con- their posi- mres of the sven picture hen thrown oeiety; and that society society ever nther more and liberal, oonvocation f this each ABOLITION OP TESrra. either party thinks itself entitled and em^;ZZ rule the whole course of the world entirely at it« own d.soret.„n. l^ere are things of more importlnee to «! V* ^''"'"■•^" "''"'"• *"- '•'^ ^-™ Zt 1 ft T'^'^' '''^'''' "^vertheless aje. and must be. left wth resignation to the natund c4rent of events. We are frequently told, when a question anses eoncermng the Crown Professorships, that if a f""""'^*'* leader, hostile to Anglicanism! hould le power, and become First Minister, he ^l, havl Z appomtment of the Crown Professors. No doubt he iops '^ '^'^ '''" '^^^ '''' ''PP-*-* of the toresee, be a very small element in the Univemtv a.d common sense tells us that the smaller Znt he lair i T """""'^ *'"' '''■•^-'- ^Veei^^y - the arger wall have the influence of wealth and Li the Anghcan Church is little to be desired by 1 who have not been able to convince themselves 17 entire with any one of the divided Churches • and who consequently, look less for the triumph of nToZli Je parts than for the reconciliation of thl vholf to b zirTr '^'^ ■""-' ^•'^^ - -- like.;- to be those of Cssenters to Anglicanism. tb»„ /. ^T7 *" °''T- '"'" '""" '^' ''— ' that «; all the dangers wh.ch beset society, this of c;nversiou E 1 J*' m, t' Si' I 52 A PLEA FOR THE I Hi < nil ' laii •Ml is probably the least to be dreaded : for the number of men in any position, who take a suflScient interest in religion, to attempt to make proselytes among those with whom they associate, is not large : and the number of students who take a sufficient interest in religion to attempt to make proselytes among their fellow students, may safely be said to be- very small. How many instances have occurred of fellow students at the Inns of Court, fellow clerks in public offices, officers in the same regiment, or men brought together in any other way at the age of undergraduates, who have converted each other ? An Anglican parent might deem himself fortunate if he could be half as sure that his sons would not be inoculated at college wjth the vice of gambling, as he might be that they would not be inoculated with what all but the most rigid dogmatists must allow to be the less pernicious errors of Dissent, If religious scepticism is abroad in English society, it will find its way into Oxford and Cambridge, as well as into other places. There is no help for this, unless we think that we can suspend the Universities in a vacuum, or carry them back by enchantment into the middle ages : and even if we were in the middle ages, we should find that irrational dogmatism would always cast its shadow of doubt. The truth is, that scepticism is already here, and in an aggravated form. It is here because it is everywhere, both in England and in other countries, owing to the decay of State upheld by sufficient power, are falling into ruin and ABOLITIOJJ OF TESTS. nous errors ruin and 53 leavmg nations, whose religious thought they have ong paralyzed, weltering in perplexity and Lress. It IS here m an aggravated form, both in the way of positive antagonism to religion and mere disbelief I T r '=<"'^^^"«°«« of *« reaetion following on Itf tt r"'* ^"^'"" p""*'^ p--' -x and not very coherent proposition has been, in effect, answered before. It is not true, h';;ally or historically, that Oxford and Cambridge are "seminaries of the Church of England." They are legally lay corporations : historically they are national Universities, which in ihv'w most memorable ABOLITION OF TESTS. 73 lestioned lade an mething ety. In already yet the become assume another ever/ in example but these nder the harisaical lie ladder places of is public, Bd every- ities are ►we their Church ; :rubt her security t part of reposition not true, /amhrid^'-e [." They they arc nenioruble era were rather antagonists than servants of the clergy; but in which clerical influence has since, through a combination of accidents, become supreme. That the University owes its greatness to its connection with the Church is, in one sense, most true. These, like all the other institutions of Christendom, owe, and will continue to owe, their greatness to the spirit of Christianity, which, regardless of the barriers erected between one Christian community and another by cleri- cal schisms and state creeds, still pervades and secretly unites the divided frame, everywhere sustaining self- devotion, the source of greatness ; and which perhaps has often been present, though uninvoked, at the benefi- cent labours of the study and the laboratory, while it has been absent, though invoked, from the formal rites of an intolerant and cruel state religion. The presence among us of a large proportion of students and men of learning devoted to a spiritual calling is also of inesti- mable value, provided that they will be content to use the University and exert their due influence in it with- out making it their slave. But no one, without setting at defiance the plainest facts of academical history, can pretend that this University, as a seat of learning jind science, has been greatest when it has been most under the dominion of the clergy. It was greatest, as has ])een said already, in the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- turies, when it was the centre of mental activity in all departments, and really led the intellect of the nation. It was least great, or rather it was most dc/^raded, in the eighteenth century, when it was abso- lutely in the hands of the clergy and of the High ^^\ ' I ■■ij i 74 A PLEA FOR THE IIS I I ! r AM Church party among the clergy, and when learning and science were almost exiles from its walls, educa- tion sank into a farce, the professorial chairs were silent, and so much of the time of the Heads and Fellows as was not consumed in ' deep but dull pota- tions,' was spent in fomenting High Church conspiracies against the peace and liberty of the nation. Even Theology has failed to profit in any way by the efforts of a clerical legislature to put every other subject of study under her feet : and monopoly in this case, as in others, has proved most injurious to the monopolists themselves. If the University h . . recently revived, and become more useful and an object of greater respect to the nation ; if great reforms have been made, our revenues more fairly distributed, and our fellowships and scholar- ships opened to merit ; if physical science, jurisprudence and political economy have been recalled, or are being recalled, from their long banishment, and the chairs of their teachers are being properly endowed; all this has been done notoriously under the pressure of public opinion, notwithstanding the opposition of the clerical party, as represented by its most influential leaders, though, it must be gratefully acknowledged, with the aid and 'inder the guidance of some members of the order, among the highest in intellect, and, if to engage the confidence of cidtivated and independent minds is a service, not among the lowest in their services to relio'ion. As a seat of science especially the University seem^ as far as possible from owing any greatness she may ABOLITION OF TESTS. IS learning , educa- irs were sads and uU pota- ispiracies . Even le efforts ubject of case, as )nopolists 1 become ct to the revenues d scholar- sprudence are being I chairs of II this has of public lie clerical il leaders, , with the ers of the to engage b minds is services to I'sity seemf^ is she may possess to clerical dominion, particularly at the present crisis. An antagonism has evidently arisen between science and theology, the source of which lies not in the nature of the subjects themselves (for it would be absurd to suppose that truth could be the antagonist of truth) but in the difference of the modes in which they have respectively been studied. Science has been studied at once freely and with humility, by that method of patient and conscientious investigation which, for purposes ob- viously connected with our moral training, the Creator has prescribed a^ the sure and the only road to truth. Theology has been studied neither freely nor with hu- mility, but dogmatically, that is at once slavishly and arrogantly, in a way that never has led, nor, till the ordinances of the Author of Truth are changed, ever will lead to the attainment of the truth. The natural con- sequence is, that while science has rapidly advanced and obtained a great and too engrossing dominion over the mind of man, theology has fallen into decay: it has fallen into decay so completely, that philosophers of a cei-tain school are beginning, not without plausi- bility or without success, to represent it as merely a transitory and now extinct mode of explaining pheno- mena, of which science offers the true and final expla- nation. This state of things will doubtless be reversed so soon as theology begins to be studied by as sound a method as science ; and science will then lower its pre- tensions to their proper level and recede into its own domain. Bui vf- the meantime it is not to be expected that the two eti idles should be very good friends to each other, or that their votaries should be free from mutual •I I ■^1 7« A PLEA FOR THE t Mil W mm- m c IttL t I c c;, suspicion. Not that men of science are, as a class, irre- ligious. As a class they are probably far less irreligious than ordinary men of the world, even those men of the world in whom clerical confidence is most reposed; nor do they, generally speaking, show any tendency to renounce Christianity, or to separate themselves in life or death from the communion of Christendom. They are in fact still held in allegiance by those substantial and rational truths of Christianity which barren and irrational dogm.a only overlays. But they would be sinners against the light that is in them if they did not recoil from more absurdities, particularly when tendered in a damnatory form and stamped as falsehoods to all uncorrupted minds by their connection with a spirit of persecution. Hence the existence of science in the University of Oxford is a hard struggle against theo- logical jealousy, which sometimes breaks forth in rather animated expressions. The motives of the theological party are such as ought not for a moment to be im- pugned. They are contending for what they rightly think a higher object against an object which they rightly think lower, though it is to be hoped that they are wrong in thinking the two incompatible. But there can be little doubt that if their wishes had prevailed science would scarcely have been re-admitted into the Univer- sity : and there can be as little doubt that if their wishes could now prevail, it would either be banished once more, or studied and taught under such conditions ae would rciuler it the scorn of the intellectual world. Such a result would be peculiarly adverse to the great- ness of the ITniversity at a moment when science, owing ABOLITION OF TESTS. n ass, irre- •religious in of the sed; nor iency to es in life I. They ibstantial rren and would be Y did not tendered )ds to all b spirit of !e in the inst theo- . in rather heological to be im- jy rightly hich they it they are there can ed science le Univer- t if their e banished conditions ual world, the great- nce, owing to its recent achievements, and still more to the ground of certainty which its conclusions afford amidst the apparent uncertainty and inconclusiveness of theology and philosophy, enjoj's an exceptional degree of reve- rence, so that, without it, no intellectual institution can command the confidence of men. The latter part of the clause last quoted asserts, " That the Church could not safel}^ entrust her future clergy to persons who had given no security for their soundness in the faith." We will not here discuss the assumption that tests, so often taken with a smile by open unbelievers, are securities for soundness in the faith. But v>^e must ask what assurance the Oxford Council who framed this document, or even the Prelates and others who afterwards signed it, can have of their own competency thus to speak for the national Church. The national Church legally speak- ing is the English nation : while the practical arbiters of clerical education are the holders of Church patron- age, who form the "congregation" by which "minis- ters" are "lawfully called" to their office in an establishment. And it may be pretty confidently predicted that the nation at large, and the holders of patronage if they shared ihe general sentiments of their countrymen, would continue to prefer clergy- men trained in a place of free education, even though it might contain some Dissenters, to clergymen trained in an exclusive "seminary" under teachers of their own order. Reaction has not gone z'o far as to make the English people forget their dislike of priests and Jesuits, or of spiritual guides trained '^1 1^ I. 78 A PLEA FOR THE c I- in a priestly and Jesuitical school. Nor does there seem any reason to believe that the mass of men intending to become clergymen would differ in their feelings on this point from their countrymen generally; or that they would be wanting in the contemptuous repugnance felt by almost all Englishmen to things which seek seclusion from light and air. If the University continued to give the best education and to bestow on those trained in her schools the means of intellectual influence over the people, she would, in all probability, continue to attract students destined for the clerical calling: and neither she nor they would suffer a deprivation which to her, as has been admitted, would be very great, and which would be at least equally great to them. Something they might lose perhaps in corporate zeal ; but they would gain more in individual power. Something they might lose as champions of orthodoxy ; but they would gain more as teachers of the truth. And when we consider to what moral liabilities men destined for the cure of souls are already exposed in the course of their undergraduate life, and the complacency with which the beneficial effects of free- dom are accepted as a full compensation for a mass of moral evils, it is difficult to forbear smiling at the fears of those who regard with so much horror the additional danger of a somewhat earlier contact with differences of religion, of the existence of which the student is of course perfectly aware. Why is the daily and hourly sight of Nonconformity at home and in the worid harmlcs.s, but at the University ruinous to faith ? ABOLITION OF TESTS. 79 )es there of men in their generally ; emptuous bo things If the ition and he means would, in destined nor they has been would be ing they ley would ing they but they ith. And ties men Y exposed , and the ts of free- or a mass ing at the lorror the it act with which the 5 the daily and in the to faith ? The third objection is, " That the relations between fellows of colleges are very intimate, and that the harmony and confidence now subsisting must be de- stroyed by differences on the most important of all subjects/' When we consider that these words are penned by men who have the facts before their eyes, and countersigned by men ir high and responsible stations, who had the facts before their eyes but yesterday, and when we also consider that the state- ment is made for a purpose affecting the rights of others, some thoughts arise in the mind to which on the whole it is better not to give expression. If the harmony and confidence subsisting between fellows of colleges have not been disturbed by the violent controversies and mutual persecutions of the last thirty years, they must be tolerably proof against disturbing influences of that kind ; and we may justly as well as charitably infer that the fellows are not so wanting in Christian courtesy, or so despicably incapable of living on good terms with those who conscientiously differ from them in matters of religion, as the authors of this manifesto would make them out to be. We have spoken of religious education in the colleges, and admitted that on that special point there might be fair ground for apprehending a difficulty, which, however, would in practice probably soon melt away. There is no other relation between fello\vs of colleges, nor is anything else transacted between them, as the framers and supporters of the University Petition are very well aware, with which, if the fellows are men of common sense and common good breeding, a dif- :^| 8o A PLEA FOR THE tm am € ME m:: •■■ r C r a* '»>>. ference of religious opinion need in any way interfere. Many of the fellows, a large majority of them indeed, are habitually non-resident, and merely draw their income. And no man, if his own rights and interests were in question, not those of others, would pretend that he could not dine in the hall, drink his wine and read the newspaper in the common room, or take part in college meetings for the management of the estates with men of a different way of thinking from himself about the order of Bishops or the Athanasian Creed. We all do this every day of our lives. The fourth and last objection, which is rather in- congruously blended into one clause with the third is, '' That open antagonism in the religious belief of their teachers and governors must have a tendency to lead students to regard religious truth as a matter of in- difference." One should have supposed that anta- gonism (if it must be so called) in the religious ])elief of conscientious men would rather have a tendency to lead students (if students have any sense) to regard religious truth as a matter of great im- portance to both the contending parties. Suppose the framers of this document had been present when St. Paul withstood St. Peter to the face, would they have inferred that neither of the two Apostles cared anything for Christianity? What they probably mean is that we should no longer be able to point to the exclusive enjoyment of academical emolu- ments by the professors of the true religion, as an evidence of its truth : but probably this evidence is less cogent, and the withdrawal of it would be less ABOLITION OP TESTS. 8i nterfere* indeed, ,w their interests pretend vine and or take b of the ing from :hanasian ither in- third is, f of their T to lead er of in- at anta- religious have a ,ny sense) ^reat ini- Suppose eiit when ould they ties cared probably to point d emola- an, as an vidence is d be less fatal, in the eyes of the students, still in the season of enthusiasm and disinterestedness, than in the eyea of older and shrewder men. It will be observed, too, that it is open antagonism alone which the petitioners deprecate. Real antagonism, and that on the most vital questions, they know already exists among us; but they think that a nominal unity is still valuable, though sincere unity is notoriously gone. In whose eyes is a nominal unity valuable ? In those of sensible men, or in those of the allseeing God? A collection of hymns, made by a very eminent member of this University, and one whose name is greatly respected by the High Church party, is now in every one's hands. These hymns, like all good hymns, express the very deepest feelings of religion; feelings, to be united in which, is to be united in the very essence of spiritual life. Many of those in the collection are the work of professed Nonconform- ists. Others are the work of men of the extreme Evangelical party, who were regarded as virtual Non- conformists, though they were nominally within the pale of the Established Church. And we are told that the men whose most fervent outpourings of devotion are here mingled together could not, with- out scandal and disparagement to Christianity, have performed the common offices of life together. We are told that Heber and Charles Wesley could not have lived peaceably within the same college walls; nr +lin.f. if fllPV" had tlif» fifnflppfa wnnlrl Vimrp l^anri led to regard religious truth as a matter of indifference ! i M ^T. €> ^>^> % IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 l.i 1.25 M 2.2 2.0 JJ. U ill 1.6 o: W 'V/ '/ Photographic Sciences Corpordtion 33 WIST MAIN STRUT WIBSTIR.N Y 1 4510 (71«)S7a-4S03 8« A PLEA FOR THE t Who would write such things anywhere hut in a University petition ? Sectarianism in the eyes of sectarians is fidelity to principle : in the eyes of statesmen it is an evil. Every statesman, looking to the calamities of all kinds which have flowed directly or indirectly from the religious divisions of England and of Christendom, must desire that these divisions shall, if possible, be brought to an end. It is vain to hope that the reunion will be effected by controversies on questions of dogma which have been carried on without an approach to agreement for three centuries, and may be carried on with the same absence of result for ever; the questions being, in fact, such as reason can never determine, and at the same time perfectly unpractical, so that neither party can have any prac- tical motive for giving up that which each has been trained, as a point of ecclesiastical honour, and as an article of salvation, obstinately and even blindly to maintain*. It will be effected, if at all, and has to some extent already been effected, by measures of political and social emancipation, which throw men of * Who, for example, can hope that the clergy of the Western Churches will convert those of the Eastern, or that those of the Eastern will convert those of the West-m, by controversial reasoning on the question respectinK the " Trocession" of the Third Person from the Second Person of the Trinity ; a doctrine to which no human under- standing can attacli any meaning whatever, and which, therefore, no argument can touch, while the opposite dogmas are rooted in the minds of the combatants, by pride, habit, and the traditional conv5' tion that the repetition of the affirmative, or of the negative form of words, is essential to salvation? )ut in a idelity to an evil, all kinds from the istendom, (ssible, be that the questions ithout an and may r^ult for •eason can perfectly any prac- has been ir, and as en blindly 1, and has leasures of )\v men of the Western of the Eastern zoning on the reon from the human uuder- , therefore, no d in the minds convMtion that m of wordB, is different sects together in the offices of political and social life, and make chem sensible of each other's virtues, whereby Christian morality, the uniting element, is brought by degrees into the foreground, and dogma, the dividing element, is by degrees thrown into the background, and may^ in the end pass practically out of view. This consideration, as well as those of mere political justice and tranquillity, will, in the eyes of statesmen, be an inducement to embrace a policy of emancipation. But it will be the reverse of an inducement in the eyes of those to whom theoretically, if not practically, dogma is the essence of religion^ The only further observation to be made on the University petition, against the emancipation of the Colleges, is that it evidently emanates from persons who regard the preservation of " the last test" as a matter on which the life of the Church depends; whereas many public men must by this time have made up their minds, that the last test is the last leaf upon the bough, which will hang only till the winds awake, and that the religion of the nation must henceforth be founded, and is capable of being founded, on the broader and most enduring basis of social equality and justice. One more point remains, which shall be mentioned separately, as it lies beyond the scope both of the Petition [igainst Religious Tests and of Mr. Bou- verie's Bill. It is commonly proposed by the advo- cates of University Emancipation, as a reasonable ccm- promise with the other party, to open the Faculties of ml m m I I 84 A PLEA FOB. THE Arts, Law and Medicine, but to leave the Theological Faculty confined to the Established Church ; and the principle of this proposal was followed in the Cambridge University Act, which excepted the Theological Degrees from the general measure of relaxation. The friends of liberal measures are perhaps rather too ready to sacn- fice anything connected with the department of theo- logy, which they have had too much reason to think utterly hopeless, as a propitiation to their opponents. Looking at the question however as we are here endea- vouring to look at it, in the interest of the whole community, there seems some reason to believe that an open Faculty of Theology might at the present moment be the most important of all. \ It must be evident to every man, and almost to every child, that religious doubt has overspread the face of Christendom, This is not the place to inquire what limits would be assigned to the extent of the calamity by an observer capable of taking a calm and compre- hensive view of the religious worid in all its parts, and of distinguishing the mere disintegration of Byzantine ard Roman dogma, or the final decay of the mediaeval Theocra^jy, from the actual growth of convictions op- posed to the fundamental and vital truths of Chris- tianity as set forth in the New Testament, which really sustain Christian society and life. No new religion, or substitute for a new religion, has yet appeared, except the bastard Christianity of Rousseau and the crazy wor- ship of humanity which emanated from the decaying rcalon of Comte : nor do men who have evidently re- jected the dogmatic creeds of Christianity and a great ABOLITION OF TESTS. 85 leological and the ambridge I Degrees Friends of to sacri- of theo- to think pponents. jre endea- ;he whole ire that an t moment t to every le face of uire what e calamity d compre- parts, and Byzantine mediseval Lctions op- of Chris- hieh really religion, or red, except crazy wor- e decaying idently re- nd a great part of its historical evidences cease to bring up their children as Christians, or visibly to draw their own spiritual life from Christian influences acting on them through the community in which they live. Here, however, it is enough to say, what we al|^ perceive and must lament, that doubt now fills the hearts, and is on the lips of men ; that it not only finds vent in a great body of sceptical writings on theology, which are the more eagerly read the more anxiously they are discoun- tenanced by the clergy, but pervades, in a more subtle but not less seductive shape, the works of the popular philosophers, historians, poets and novelists, by whom the sentiments of the age are at once expressed and framed; that it begins to exercise a disturbing influ- ence even on the moral convictions of society ; that it paralyzes or perplexes social as well as individual action, aad enfeebles the characters of i .^ing men, to whom society looks in vain for the cure of its maladies when they are unable to heal their own; and that it fills all men and nations with perplexity and with deep mistrust of the future. It may probably be said that at the present time, as in the sixteenth century, the restless heavings and tossings of society, which on a superficial view appear to be merely political revolutions, are in part at least the outward symptoms of the deeper disturbance which fills the soul of the world, and of which every educated man, if he will speak the truth to himself, will acknowledge the presence in his own heart. This state of things must be a matter of anxiety to the statesman as well as to the theologian. For that religion is the basis of civilization, the only I"-' at' Hu. I* '\ IE 1* 85 A PLEA POB, THE sufficient sanction of the moral principles on which society depends, and the only lasting spring of the unselfish affections and actions which bind men into a community, and save that community from disso- lution, is admitted by all philosophic observers of real eminence, even by those who adore God under the disguise of Nature, or who pay religious worship to scientific facts, dignified, by a transparent misnomer, with the title of laws. A prolonged period of scep- ticism therefore cannot fail to produce social and poli- tical disaster, the evils of which the continued existence of a state religion, when once generally felt to be untrue, will aggravate, both by inflaming the destructive violence of scepticism, and by preventing the free action of the reconstructive power. The French Revolution, though it has been graphi- cally described by more than one great historian, has never hem thoroughly analyzed as a political phe- nomenon for the purposes of political science. But we can have little hesitation in pronouncing which of its complex causes was the deepest and most powerful. De Tocqueville's work on the Ancien Regime, among others, has shown that the misgovernment, though great, was not great enough to produce so terrible a convulsion. The economical distress prevailed most in the rural districts, which were not the chief seat of the revolution. And the subsequent history of France, indeed that of the revolutionary government itself, proves that there was not in the French people a deeply seated hatred of monarchy, or a strong desire for a republic. Rousseauism, embodied in the Jacob- •n which ^ of the men into m disso- rs of real nder the orship to nisnomer, of scep- and poli- existence elt to be estructive ree action n graphi- orian, has )ical phe- ice. But which of powerful. *ie, among t, though terrible a d most in lef seat of of France, ent itself, people a ■ong desire the Jacob- ABOLITION OF TESTS. 87 ins, proved itself the strongest element in the strug- gle, as extreme Puritanism, embodied in Cromwell and the Independents, proved itself the strongest element in the EngHsh Revolution: and the deepest cause of the catastrophe was the religious disturbance, of which Voltaire represented the more critical, Rousseau the more emotional, and therefore the more energetic part. A State religion had been maintained by a despotic government in a very hateful and oppressive form, long after it had ceased to command the intellectual allegiance of the more educated and active-minded part of the people : a prolonged period of covert scepticism masked by an outward conformity ensued; the Court itself ceasing to feel, or even to pretend, respect for the State Church which it supported; until, the pressure of economical distress and a crisis of political difficulty coinciding with a convulsive effort to attain to a new religious, or a least a new social, faith, the whole of the undermined surface gave way, and brought temple and tower together in ruin to the ground. The State religion has not been so exclusively enforced, nor has the yoke of the State clergy been so heavy in this country as in France before the revolution : the mischief done to the faith of the nation has therefore not been so great : but nevertheless great mischief has been done, and statesmen will soon be called upon to deal with the results. To put the same thing in another way, the account of the present distress is to be sought in the long cumulation of religious difficulties pressing for solution* 1*1 1/ i 88 A PLEA FOR THE ^^■r ' r''"' pi II H " 1 Hiif It is no disparagement to Christianity, as the sole and sufficient source of spiritual life, to say that its advent did not consign the religious intellect of man to perpetual torpor, or condemn it for ever to the scarcely intellectual function of handing down and repeating certain theological formularies, drawn up in the primitive or early ages of the Church. The general plan of the Creator's dealings with us would lead us, on the contrary, to expect that active service would be required of the intellect in matters of religion as well as in other matters : and that difficulties and problems would be, from time to time, presented to us in religion, in the effort to solve which man would deepen his religious character, and see further into the things of God. Not but that there was a faith which was committed to the Church by its Founder, to be simply held for ever, and which those who sold the spiritual independence of the Church for State endow- ments, and the support of political power, most miserably, and almost to the ruin of Christendom, betrayed. If however such is the arrangement of Providence, it is plain that the religious intellect of man cannot with impunity be kept in forced inaction, while all other kinds of speculation and knowledge continue to ad- vance. Yet it is this that the old governments of Europe, moved partly by bigotry, partly by fear, and prompted by the holders of Church endowments, have done by means of tb^^ir State Churches; which have suspended religious thought, so far as it could be sus- peuded, by perpetuating, iu Iloman Catholic countries, the superstition of the middle agesj and in Protestant ABOLITION OF TESTS. 89 r )wn the sole that its of man to the and vn up in e general lead us, ee would ligion as [ties and ted to us an would into the ith which er, to be sold the ;e endow- aiserably, betrayed, idence, it anot with all other le to ad- ments of fear, and mts, have lich have d be sus- countries, Protestant countries, by arresting the movement of the Reforma- tion at different points, all equally arbitrary, and deter- mined not by reason or conscience, but by political power. That which they have so long been sowing, we have now reaped. And if the cause of the malady be here rightly assigned, the cure is to set the reli- gious intellect free, and allow it to grapple, though late, with the difficulties which, through its previous inaction, coupled with the activity of science, have gathered round the faith of Christendom. The priest party on the Continent, of course, sum- marily explain the spread of religious doubt as a gra- tuitous outbreak of human wickedness; and proceed to allay it by darkening, as far as they can, the pec- cant reason of all under their influence, by bringing into play the machinery of religious terror, and by tendering the alliance of the Church to political rulers, even the most notorious debauchees and atheists, as the price of measures of ecclesiastical reaction. A similar view of the case is taken, and an analogous course is pursued, by the corresponding party in this country, who, in the time of need, are almost as little fastidious as their brethren on the Continent in scru- tinizing the religious character of those whom they deem useful as political allies. Those who think more charitably of human nature, and who believe that human reason is the work of God, will remark that though prolonged scepticism unquestionably has a ten- dency to shake the foundations of morality, many of 4.1 — 1 1 i._ — xm~j 12.1. i-'—' -i.__ii- Liiusu wiiusu iiciiiLs iiiv iiiicu vviiii rcii|^iuus uouuL are among the best of men, the purest in life, the most m\ f ml •90 A PLEA FOR THE t m I PI W' |li| ^H' 'tK^*" ^^^^|j£ disinterested in their objects, the most ready to sacri- fice everything to truth and right ; and, generally, that this age, though perplexed in religious belief, is on the whole not much inferior to any of those that have gone before in heroism and self-devotion, however readily priests may account for these qualities, when displayed on the wrong side, as cunning delusions of devils counterfeiting the appearance of angels of light. They will further observe, that scepticism is most prevalent in those countries where the previous re- pression of religious inquiry has been most severe: and notably, that under the immediate pressure of the Papacy and of the great Catholic despotisms which were its instruments of coercion, the extinction of faith has been almost entire. And thus they will rather be led to conclude, both on grounds of moral justice and of policy, that the right mode of dealing with the malady is, not to adopt measures of repression /(which in truth it might on many grounds be diffi- cult to carry into effect with sufficient force), but to give men, if possible, new assurance of their faith. And how is this new assurance of faith to be given ? Every man knows in his heart that it can be given only by free, patient, and careful inquiry, carried on with the requisite knowledge, and with a single-hearted love of truth. If there is a God, and if His voice speaking in our nature does not mock us, we shall be led to the truth in this and in no other way. But who is to carry on the free inquiry ? Not the theologians of the Established Church, for they are precluded by law from seeking tmth on the questions as to which doubt has ABOLITION OF TESTS. 9r to sacri- illy, that ef, is on hat have however es, when usions of of light, is most vious re- b severe : ire of the ns which a of faith ill rather •al justice ling with repression } he diffi- i), but to faith. be given? ^iven only I on with jarted love ) speaking be led to who is to ans of the Y law from doubt has arisen, and bound under the severest penalties to maintain the very doctrines which are called in question, notwithstanding any new arguments which may be brought forward, and any new facts which the progress of learning and science may disclose. • That the function of an Established Clergy is to teach, not truth, but the doctrines prescribed by the State; and that, in fact, the business of such a clergy is not with truth, is laid down by Sir Stephen Lushington, in his memorable judgment, with an unflinching breadth of statement which reminds us of the terrible decision of Judge RuflSn on the condition of the Slave. " It is said this authoritative imposition of doctrine would deny to clergymen participation in modern discoveries of science or history. A difficulty thus arises. On the one hand it seems not reasonable to suppose that it was intended to shut out all inquiry and abnegate all future discoveries, however important. On the other, the Act of the Legislature proceeded on this basis, that for the purposes intended, the Church was in possession of all the truth, and that nothing in that respect remained to be discovered. Accordingly the Articles were framed, and all clergymen forbidden under severe penalties to impugn them. But, to remove all doubt, I will put the case in a strong point of view. I will presume a discovery to be made of great importance, and proved to the satisfaction of very many scholars and divines, and that such discovery militates against some of the Articles. What is the duty of a clergy- man ? what of the Court? Is the clergyman at liberty to use such discoveries so as advisedly to maintain what !'!!: I m \ I m It' 9^ A PLEA FOK THE is repugnant to the Articles? I apprehend, certainly not. Is the Court to discuss whether the discovery he a real or true discovery, to define its effect and operation ? The Court can do no such thing; it has only to administer the law. The duty of the Court is to shut its ears to all such discoveries. It is hound hy law so to do. The law must he oheyed even in what may he termed most extrava^ gant circumstances. The Court of Queen's Bench pro- claimed and adhered to that principle in the case of Ashford v. Thornton (i. B, and Aid. 460), where Wager of Battel was demanded. Assuming the possibility of such discoveries as I have supposed, the consequence may arise that discussions hy the clergy, leading to truth, may he excluded: but if such indeed be the case, and if it should be deemed to need redress, recourse must be had to the highest authorities, viz. the Legislature, which established the Articles and Book of Common Prayer.'' Even the Bible is a sealed book to the theologian of the Established Church, except for the purpose of discovering arguments in support of the doctrines prescribed by law; nor will he be allowed to allege Scripture in defence of his published opinions before an Ecclesiastical Court any more than he will be allowed to allege reason and truth. " In investi- gating the justice of such a charge," said the Privy Council, in Bardon v. Heath, " we are bound to look solely to the Statute and to the Articles. It would be a departure from our duty if we were to admit any discussion as to the conformity or nonconformity of the Articles of Religion, or any of them, with the Holy Scriptures." Who would be so infatuated as to take of ili ABOLITION OF TESTS. 93 certainly )ery he a mration ? dminister irs to all The law 5 extrava- inch pro- 3 case of re Wager sibility of msequence to truth, c^e, and irse must gislature. Common : to the t for the :t of the 3 allowed i opinions n he will a investi- the Privy d to look It would admit any lity of the the Holy IS to take the pretended conclusions of theologians placed under such conditions as these for a new assurance of his faith? And the case is the same with regard to the former as it is with I'egard to the existing writers of the Established Church : no assurance or comfort can be derived in our present perplexities from any of them, however great their learning, acuteness, and eloquence, for the plain reason that on every doubtful question of real moment their lips were sealed by law. Nor, it is to be feared, will a clergyman do anj'-thing but mischief, either to himself or to the community, by desperately fencing with legal obligations, and attempt- ing to exercise a right of inquiry, which the pretended inquirer has renounced, and which the law denies. The reasonings of writers so fettered must, from the nature of the case, be hesitating and their language dark; they must deal more in suggestion than in plain statement; yet, from their position, they will always be taken to mean much more than they say; and their works consequently are sure to scatter sus- picion and distress without settling any question of which they treat, and to produce at cuce the greatest possible amount of irritation and the smallest pos- sible amount of conviction. Even if a few real loopholes are discovered in the law as the result of the suits to which such attempts give rise, these loopholes, being merely accidental, and the result cf ignorance or oversight on the part of the legislator, are of little value for the broad purposes of inquiry ; while the struggle to make them ayaiiauie is a wsstS of generous effort, which should be directed not to M U fc;. 94 A PLEA FOR THE obtaining loopholes for a few, but to obtaining an open door for all. It may at least be said, however, of these persons that their conduct, which inevitably exposes them to obloquy and exclusion from preferment, is not only disinterested but self-sacrificing in the highest degree. The same can hardly be said of those who take advantage of the state of the market afforded by these disturbances to vend theological drugs com- pounded of immoral ingredients, as antidotes to the spirit of truth working in the hearts of men, through doubt, to a better and more enduring faith. But even these drugs, the object of which is to deaden particular misgivings, are by one degree less noxious in their practical effects than the attempt, for which the Oxford school of theology is peculiarly responsible, to crush all conscientious inquiry by arguments tending to universal scepticism, and to prevent the promulgation of inconvenient truths by teaching the world to despair of truth. Yet works affecting to prove that men cannot know God, and, by necessary implication, that God cannot make Himself known to man, have been applauded by the enemies of religious inquiry as memorable apologies for the Christian revelation. Nor does it seem possible to confer the power of free inquiry which the age requires on the theologians of the Established Church. Sir Stephen Lushington says, that if further liberty is needed recourse must be had to the Legislature, which established the » i« 1 __.1 xl_ _ T»„_l_ -X* r^ T>_JL - H.^A i-U., AniCieB anu ine JDOUK Ul •^miniivu xiajcr. xjul lxxc Legislature which established the Articles and the Book of Common Prayer no longer exists. That ining an wever, of y exposes ment, is } highest ose who afforded igs com- 8 to the through But even particular in their le Oxford to crush iding to nulgation bo despair :hat men Aoiif that lave been quiry as ion. power of leologians iishington irse must shed the and the is. That ABOLITION OP TESTS. 95 Legislature was an exclusively Anglican legislature, which might, without flagrant incongruity, make laws for the Anglican communion. It has passed away : and in its place there now sits a mixed assembly of Anglicans, Nonconformists, Roman Catholics and Jews. A reformation of the Anglican code of doctrine ])y such a Legislature as this is more than minds the most tolerant of logical inconsistencies could be brought to endure; not to mention that any recourse to the Legislature would at once Iny bare to the eyes of all men the real foundation of the Anglican faith, now hidden from the mass by the incrustations of a respectable antiquity. The Established Church has in fact drifted from her moorings in history to an alien shore. The general system of which she was a part has broken up, and she remains, the creature of the Tudor Kings and Parliaments, surviving the authors of her being, and with her only power of legislation and self-adaptation buried in their grave. So insuperable does this obstacle seem that it is superfluous to discuss other difficulties. We need not inquire whether it would be possible to bring the different parties in the Church to an agreement as to the degree of liberty to be conceded ; whether, in fact, after abandoning the present limit it would be possible, in the face of the flood of pent-up desire for lil)erty which would break forth the moment the gates began to open, to fix a limit anywhere else; or whether an Established Church without a fixed limit of doctrine would be anything but an established chaos. . Under these circumstances it would seem that the it) 96 A PLEA FOR THE IR t ^ free study of Theology in the Universities might possibly supply, in some measure at least, a pressing need which it is scarcely possible to supply in any other way. There, if anywhere, we might expect the study to be pursued with competent learning and with a due feeling of responsibility : and it would be pur- sued in immediate conjunction with Physical Science and Philosophy, with the conclusions of which it is the most pressing duty of the real theologian at the present juncture to reconcile religion. In order to set the study of Theology in the University free, it would be requisite, of course, to abolish the University Statute which confines the theological faculty to clergy- men of the Established Church, but still more requisite to take from the authorities their legal power of punishing or harassing any member of the University on account of his religious opinions. To pretend that this measure would be a panacea for the religious malady of the age would be ridiculous : but it would at least tend to substitute the serious study of our theological difficulties by learned and religious men for the reck- less diffusion of scepticism by the unlearned and irreligious. It must be admitted that it would cause at first something of a shock : but that shock would certainly not be greater than those which are caused by manifestations of doubt and disquietude of con- science, some of them emanating from clergymen, of the cessation of which there is no prospect whatever ; while the knowledge that inquiry couuucted twrougii trustworthy organs was on foot, would in itself calm men's minds and dispose them to wait patiently for the result. ABOLITION OP TESTS. 97 s might pressing ' in any tpect the and with L be pur- l Science lieh it is in at the order to Y free, it Jniversity uO clergy- I requisite power of Jniversity tend that us malady d at least heological the reck- rned and )uld cause )ck would ire caused i of con- »ymen, of whatever ; •aim men's uhe lesult. The study of theology in Oxford would then regain a real importance. At present, though sumptuously endowed, it confessedly languishes, not through the fault of the teachers, on whom the blame is commonly laid, but because nothing can be taught but Anglican or Patristic divinity and Ecclesiastical History; the great and vital questions of the day and the most influential works on the subject being necessarily excluded from view. No study pursued under such conditions could fail to sink into impotence and contempt. The pro- fessors of theology at the Universities have been called professors of an extinct science. It might be said, with more truth, that they are at this moment pro- fessors debarred from treating of their science; the scholastic science of theology having passed away, while the theology which investigates instead of dog- matising, (the foundations of which are beginning to be laid, though at present under rather sinister auspices,) is interdicted to the teachers of the Established Church. We shall be told at once that if free inquiry were permitted, our professors and students would all be- come sceptics. Of course, if you think fit to institute a free inquiry, you must resign yourself to the result. But to say that free inquiry, carried on by learned and conscientious men, must necessarily lead to scep- tical conclusions, would be rash, since it would be equivalent to saying that sceptical conclusions must be true. an The Univoreitv of Oxford has do^o much. boi!> n if more repression, and as an organ Hi M of organ c Romanizing spoculatioii, (o destroy the faith of th< 98 A PLEA FOR THE nation : let her now, as an organ of rational and con- scientious inquiry, do something to restore it. The theological lectures of the college tutors would of course not be affected by the removal of the restrictions on the free study of the subject in the University; they, and everything that depends on . them, would remain as before. Nor does there seem any reason to apprehend that their character would be injuriously influenced by the presence of free in- quiry in the University, any more than it is by the presence of books containing the results of free in- quiry in the University and College libraries, in the booksellers' shops, and on the shelves of the tutors. As to the theological professorships, the five of most importance are attached to canonries of Christ Church, which constitute their endowment, and are therefore necessarily held by ecclesiastics: while the professor of Exegesis is elected by the Heads of colleges, all of whom but one must be in Holy Orders. The emanci- pation of the study from restrictions prohibiting inquiries which might lead to truth is the only alteration in the existing state of things which it is proposed to make; and if truth is the first object, it is difficult to see on what ground such a prayer could be refused. Let it be once more observed, in conclusion, that the point of view from which we have here endeavoured to regard the subject is that of the statesman, bound, ::_ _i.„A^„«« i>« Ar,.aa fn Innk to thfl interest of the whole community, not of one party or Church alone. Arguments, therefore, based on the exclusive interest •1 ABOLITION OF TESTS. 99 and con- t. ors would d of the ct in the spends on here seem ter would if free in- is by the >f free in- ies, in the bhe tutors. re of most Lst Church, B therefore e professor eges, all of 'he emanci- prohibiting I the only which it is it object, it >rayer could lusion, that endeavoured nan, bound, arest of the lurch alone, give interest of an ecclesiastical party, or even of a particular Church, would not be relevant in reply. Perhaps a word may be added by way of appeal to those whose sympathies are on the side of eman- cii^ation, but who sit silent when the question is before the House of Commons, thinking it hopeless to move because we are in the midst of a con- servative reaction. That we are in the midst of a conservative reaction is unquestionable. Its signs, grotesque as well as grave, are visible on all sides, in the comic as well as in the serious press, in the passion of literary men for prize-fighting, as well as in the defeats of the liberal party at the elections, and in the passing of new game-laws by the House of Com- mons. And this reaction has produced a government having a not very remote analogy in its character to the governments of the great reaction in the time of Charles II, and sustaining itself to a great extent by a-nalogous means. But surely not much reflection is required to distinguish this back-stream of opinion, however rapid for the moment, and wliatever strange relics of the past it may bear upon its surface, from the main current; or to assign its temporary causes, and, with them, the proximate limits of its existence. The ku^situde and satiety which ensue after great political efforts, such as those which carried the Reform Bill and the Repeal of the Corn Laws, and the sudden influx of wealth among the governing classes, arising from railwavs, free-trade, and prosperous speculation, which for the moment gives a complete ascendancy to material interests, will, when taken together, go H 2 lOO A PLEA FOR THE \%'; very far to account for all that we see; and neither of these causes is of a permanent kind. Scepticism has of course found its way into political as well as into religious life, enfeebling the character of political chiefs, and making political parties mistrustful of their principles and of the future. It happens, moreover, that the popular party in this country is at the present moment under the guidance of an isolated group of aristocratic leaders, whose original connection with it was merely accidental, whose objects and con- victions were, in most cases, exhausted when they had carried the Reform Bill, and put an end to their own exclusion from power; and who, if they have brought .forward popular measures since that time, have brought them forward less from a sincere desire of carrying them, than to oust the Conservatives from office. An analogous but incomparably more violent reaction has taken place, mainly as a consequence of overstrained political effort, in France; its symptoms, even down to the revival of barbarous amusements, being nearly the same, while it has produced a government highly congenial in its character, as we have abundant reason to know, to the reactionary government of this country. In both countries alike the chief of the political reaction, though notoriously indifferent himself to religious questions, has found and sought allies and supporters of his power among the reactionary clergy; and each country has seen the unnatural, or perhaps the natural, union of the least austere men of the world with the most Pharisaical leaders of religious party and .1 ) ?J'4 ABOLITION OF TESTS. lOI I neither eepticism ; well as ' political I of their noreover, } at the isolated jnnection and con- ben they . to their hey have lat time, ire desire ives from •e violent [uence of ymptoms, iisements, oduced a er, as we jactionary iries alike otoriously las found er among has seen ,1, union rid with )aity and their organs. But no one, looking over the history of Europe during the last half century, or even to the general state of things at the present moment, can doubt in which direction the main stream of opinion flows. Even in France the reactionary force begins to give signs of exhaustion; while in England the great organs of public opinion, even though the sympathies of their managers may be on the side of reaction, still do an umvilling homage to principles which are rooted in the deep convictions of the nation, and which will not fail, as soon as a real appeal is made to them, to respond to that appeal, and bring the reaction to an end. If the terrible strain laid on free institutions in America by the revolt of the Slaveowners has contributed to the prevailing mistrust of freedom, it now appears that free institutions will probably stand the strain, and that this cause of reaction also will cease to operate. We are told by politicians that when the present Government expires, a Conservative Government will certainly succeed to power. Be it so. A Government acting upon principle of any kind is more congenial and more advantageous to LiberaUsm, if Liberalism be sound, than cynical in- difference. The tone of politics will be restored ; and we can no more apprehend a repeal of any of the great liberal measures which have already been passed than we can apprehend that prize-fights will actually be legalized by Parliament, and celebrated under the patronage of the Queen. Whatever ministers come into office will find themselves placed, as before, at a X02 A PLEA FOR THE ■im:» I c point, not alterable at their will, in the great 'movement of transition through which society is passing from its mediaeval to its modern state. They will find themselves, the moment the public mind has recovered its tone, compelled to deal with the great problems which that transition involves— the problem of ele- vating the labouring class from their mediaeval position of serfdom to that of fiill and enfranchised members of a real community, and the still more momentous problem of transferring the basis of religion, on which all society rests, from mediaeval authority to conviction, the result of free inquiry and of liberty of conscience. Already a great economical question, closely connected with the first of these problems — ^the question of the land-laws as affecting the distribution of land — has begun to assume a practical aspect, and to gain a hold, which it will never loose, upon the public mind. Other symptoms of a change present themselves. The head of the reactionary Government lives almost avowedly from hand to mouth, sustaining himself by any sup- port he can obtain for the moment, no matter from what quarter ; and anxious only to stifle all great questions, the agitation of which, however essential to the ultimate welfare and to the ultimate peace of the country, might possibly interfere with his undis- tm'bed possession of power for the remainder of his term. But the debate on the petition for the Aboli- tion of Tests in the House of Commo^s showed that there were some among the younger puuiic men disposed to look forward, and conscious that, though the Government and its views might be ephemeral, ABOLITION OP TESTS. 103 ovement ag from m\\ find •ecovered problems of ele- position members amentous on which mviction, mseience. 30iinected m of the and — has n a hold, d. Other The head avowedly any sup- tter from all great essential 3 peace of his undis- ler of his the Aboli- owed that JLUUV UiClL it, though ephemeral, for them and their country there was still a political future. If these men will embark in the cause of Eeligious Emancipation, they may be assured, at least, that it is no languid or fitful wave upon which their political fortunes will be borne. It is the mighty and irresistible tide of the Reformation, which, after being arrested for three centuries by the great combined powers of political and ecclesiastical reaction, has once more begun to flow, and which will not cease flowing tiQ it has buried beneath its waves the last of the restraints which a false authority has imposed on the Christian conscience, — ^the last of the barriers which political Churches have reared in the way of the recon- ciliation of Christendom. ids tii^e same ^utj^or. 8vo., price $b. 6d. Bational Religion, and the Bationalistic Objections of the Bampton Leotures for 1868. Oxford; Wkkklbr and Day, London: Whittakkr and Co. Second Edition, Post 8vo., cloth lettered, price ss. Irish History and Irish Character. Uniform with the above, price 68. j i The Empire. A Series of Letters published in "The Daily News," 1862, 1863. Also uniform with the above, price 7b. 6d. Does the Bible sanction American Slavery? 8vo., price IS. 6d. On some Supposed Consequences of the Doctrine of Historical Progress. A Lecture delivered before the University of Oxford in 1861. i The Foundation of the American Colonies. A Lecture delivered before the University of Oxford in i860 Oxford and London : John Henry and James Parker. sotionff :o. !, 1863. iry? Btrine of 1 1861. ies. 1 1S60. iR.