"A PROTESTANT MARE'S NEST"
— Spectator.

AN EXAMINATION

, >

OF MR. WALSH'S BOOK

"THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE OXFORD MOVEMENT."

Reprinted from "The Church Times"

©ffi'ce of " Cf)8 otJjurcfj Ctmeis "
i, little Queen street, London, w.c.
1898
PRICE FOT7RPENOE.
Per dozen copies, 3$. 6d. post free.

"A PROTESTANT MARE'S NEST"
— Spectator,

AN EXAMINATION

OF MR. WALSH'S BOOK

THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE OXFORD MOVEMENT."

Reprinted from "The Church Times

¦£wm>ML.

©fficf of "$$e CtfcurcJ) Cuius"
32, LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LONDON, W.C.
1898

NOTE.
The following articles on Mr. Walsh's book appeared in the
Chwrck Times of September 9th, 16th, and 23rd, 1898. It has been
thought well to reprint them, in order that they may remain in the
hands of the public equally with the book which they expose. The
book has proved effective in creating a certain murky atmosphere,
which, it is hoped, some rays of plain wholesome truth may dispel.

A PROTESTANT MARE'S NEST, Etc.

MR. WALSH'S INVESTIGATIONS.
We did not notice this absurd book at any length when it
first appeared. To tell the plain truth, we did not think it
worth powder and shot. But the book has been hawked about
as an authority ; it has been solemnly quoted in the House of
Commons by the leader of the Opposition ; it has apparently
found a sale, and has reached a third edition. It is never safe
to under-rate the force of stupidity, and the silliest of arguments,
if ignored, may loudly proclaim itself unanswered.
If any great movement known to history has ever been carried
out in the broad light of day, it is the movement "which has trans
formed the face of the Church of England during the last sixty
years. Assailed and defended in the press from the very first,,
stormed at by foes, criticized by the most exasperating of candid
friends, laid open to ridicule by the antics of the most volatile
of enfants terribles, bitterly flouted and gibed at by deserters,
hindered by patent blunders which have been frankly acknow
ledged and withdrawn, urged on again by eager spirits to a
breakneck pace, it has gone steadily forward, aided by almost
every human virtue save that of diplomatic cautiousness. Of
this movement Mr. Walsh professes to write the " Secret His
tory." The phrase is familiar to literature. It is redolent of
intrigue, of backstairs influence, of cipher letters and disguised
emissaries. " Secret History " is a capital title, and does credit
to Mr. Walsh's scent for popularity. But after all he pre
pares his readers for a grave disappointment. A large part of
his book consists of extracts from newspapers and published
letters. These, when genuine, are excellent material for history,
but it is too late to print them under the piquant title of
"Secret History."

Stolen Papers.
Mr. Walsh has, however, obtained, in a manner which he
himself describes as '' honourable and straightforward," but
which he' does not further specify, several private papers of
the Society of the Holy Cross ; and from these he has printed
considerable extracts. The Society, as our readers well know,
is a private society of English clerygmen, who meet together
for the conduct of their own private affairs. We cannot imagine
anything more detestable, more utterly opposed to all gentle
manly feeling, than to pry into the doings of such a society.
It is like eaves-dropping to catch a man at his prayers, or in
conversation with his wife. From time to time certain news
papers have published stolen papers concerned with the most
intimate private affairs of this Society. An occasion of this
kind lately obtained some notoriety. We understand that a
meeting of the Society was held to consider the advisability of
prosecuting a young man who had stolen a document belonging
to the Society ; the usual Paul Pry was at work, and within a
few hours the decision of the meeting was known to the person
most concerned. It soon afterwards became matter of common
notoriety that the Secretary of the Church Association offered
this unhappy young man a sum of money for the stolen docu
ments.* There would seem to be scope for some genuine
"Secret History" here. We do not know how far Mr. Walsh
may be committed to the Church Association. He has lately
written to the Times nervously denying that he bears office in
that body, but he will hardly,, we think, repudiate friendship
with it ; in fact, his book is published at the, charges of the
Association ; and the incident provokes more than one question
about the " honourable and straightforward " mode in which Mr.
Walsh obtained the private papers of gentlemen who intended
them to remain private. We think, indeed, that he is himself
* See The Church Times, January 21st, 1898. At the subsequent trial of this
young man at the Lewes Assizes for a theft of books at Brighton, Mr. Richards,
the prosecuting counsel, proposed to call the, Secretary of the Society of the Holy
Cross, who was in attendance under instructions from the Society, to prove that the
Society had nothing to do with the prosecution, and was not a secret society, as the
defence had suggested in the Police Court. Mr. Marshall Hall, however, who de
fended the prisoner on behalf of the Church Association, objected to his being called.

not quite easy on this score, for he makes a defence which
touches a fine vein of. comedy. "I have no more hesitation,''
he says, " in making use of these documents than Her Majesty's
Government would have in using the secret documents connected
with a conspiracy against the State should they come into their
possession." The comparison is exquisite. We are familiar with
the aspect of Mr. Kensit posing as the mentor of Bishops; but
his modesty forbids him to go further. Mr. Walsh, with a larger
ambition, appropriates the functions and prerogatives of the
supreme government. What is Secrecy ?
Mr. Walsh's notions of " secrecy " and " conspiracy " are
indeed complicated in the extreme. It would be difficult for
anyone with a grain of modesty, still more for any English
gentleman, with his hatred of self advertisement, to satisfy his
requirements of publicity. He tells us with a solemn air of
revelation that he has been "looking through the privately
printed annual report of the 'Merton College (Oxford) Church
Society for 1892," and here he was surprised to read, in the list
of members, " the names of several clergymen who at the present
time hold Evangelical incumbencies or curacies.'' By the way,
what is an "Evangelical incumbency"? Has Mr. Walsh here
incautiously let drop a hint of some secret organization ? We
vow that the study of his book is infecting us with suspicion.
" These gentlemen," he continues, " would, no doubt, be con
siderably annoyed, were their connexion with this private society
made known to their present congregations. It may, however,
be fairly asked, why should they in secret be members of a High
Church society, while in public they profess to be Evangelicals?"
Could absurdity go further ? We confess that we never before
heard of the Merton College Church Society, not being given
to prying into our neighbour's affairs, but the character of these
college associations is well known, and the man who dubs them
secret societies of dark underground plotters is either a fool,
writing of things which he does not understand, or a knave,
trying to gull a still more ignorant public.

Mr. Walsh is great on the subject of " Reserve " and
" Economy," as taught And practised by the early Tractarians.
Those great men, as it seems to us, were unfortunate in many
of their expressions, and not least in this. They were intensely
academical; they were out of touch with ordinary English
thought ; they breathed, as was said, a patristic atmosphere, and
were singularly incapable of judging the effect upon their con
temporaries of what they might say. The prevailing tone of
religious writing and preaching was shallow in the extreme, and
men were restive and suspicious at the suggestion of profundities
in thought and belief which their poor little bobbing-lines could
not fathom. The rage of the Low Church Party against the
tract on Reserve, says Isaac Williams in his autobiography, " was
to be expected — it was against their hollow mode of proceeding."
But it passes the wit of man to understand how anyone could
find here any evidence of " conspiracy." The Tractarians freely
published their theory of " Reserve " ; they taught it openly as
the solemn duty of all who were engaged in communicating
religious knowledge. It was the method of St. Paul, who fed
his neophytes with milk until they were able to bear strong
meat. Do " conspirators " thus publish abroad their mode of
action ? Yet it is not too much to say that on this original
foundation Mr. Walsh bases his whole theory of " Secret
Societies." He might as well accuse the trumpeting Pharisee
of dealing his alms in a dark and underhand fashion.
Open Secrets.
To one chapter of Mr. Walsh's book we turned with eager
ness. We should indeed like to know something of the " Order
of Corporate Reunion." Here, indeed, is an opening for " secret
history." And what do we find ? Extracts from the ineffably
silly papers actually published by the " Order " ; more extracts
from the Whitehall Review, from the English Churchman, from
the Civiltd Cattolica, and lastly the well worn statement of the
Catholic Standard and Ransomer, of November 22nd, 1894,
" We have heard just lately that there are now eight hundred

clergymen of the Church of England who have been validly
ordained by Dr. Lee and his co-Bishop of the Order of Corporate
Reunion." It is not necessary to assume that the penman of
this illustrious paragraph was lying. It is possible that he had
¦" heard just lately " what he repeated ; and we can guess the
source of his information. Mr. Walsh swallows it whole, a
veritable gobe-rnouches. But what has all this to do with " secret
history " ? Mr. Walsh gives us what is already known of the
history of a silly and wicked fraud, but he has nothing new to
tell. We beg his pardon, he has something out of the purloined
papers of the Society of the Holy Cross. And what is this ? He
shows that the Society worked hard to unmask the " Order of
Corporate Reunion," which " was again and again discussed by
the brethren in their secret gatherings/' that " the Society dis
tinctly repudiates the opinions expressed " in a report favourable
to the Order. It is perfectly well known in ecclesiastical quarters
that any power for mischief which this farcical "Order" may have
had in the beginning was quenched by the resolute action of the
Society of the Holy Cross., some twenty years ago. It is extremely
doubtful whether it still exists at all. Yet Mr. Walsh has the face
to say, "The Order of Corporate Reunion is at present the pioneer
•of the Ritualistic movement." Well, we are not quite sure what
the "Ritualistic movement" is, but we are quite certain that if
anything, whether moving or not, has this " Order " for its
pioneer, the work of the pioneer will be confined to grave-
digging. If Mr. Walsh cannot unearth any of these really underground
proceedings, he delights in publishing a secret de Polichinelle.
"Probably the majority of my readers," he says, "will be surprised
to learn  " what ? — the existence of the Guild of All Souls;
¦" Yet strange and incredible as this may seem, it is a fact." He
calls it a "Purgatorial Society," and perhaps the majority of
bis readers, for whose intelligence and knowledge of current
affairs he has so great a contempt, will imagine a Chamber of1
Horrors. Our own readers are not of this extremely ill-informed
class ; and, therefore, we need hardly remind them that the
Guild of All Souls' is given — as our own columns, not exactly a

recondite source of information, bear witness — to assiduous self-
advertisement, and labours after an extreme publicity. " But,"
says our author, " the semi-secrecy of the Guild is shown by the
fact that the public are never permitted to know who these
clergymen [its members] are, with the exception of those who
form, its council. The Guild issues a quarterly Intercession
Paper, which is a strictly secret document." It is certainly
iniquitous of the Guild not to go to the expense of publishing
a list of its members for Mr. Walsh's convenience; it is even
worse for the members to enter into their closets, and shut their
doors and pray in secret, instead of praying aloud standing at
the corners of the street, — though, after all, we seem to remember
a certain high authority for this practice.
The Amateur Detective.
There is a marvellous section of the book about a certain
" Order of the Holy Redeemer," another of Mr. Walsh's secret
societies which are honeycombing the Church of England. We
strongly object to the bandying about of holy names and
designations in such a connexion, but for that we are not
respausible. Our readers may remember certain dark and
mysterious hints about this body which were current some few
years ago. It appears to have consisted of a small number of
Tappertits, living in the North-Eastern suburbs of London, who
amused themselves with playing at religion and mystery, and
probably met in a cellar with a trap-door. Mr. Walsh quotes
a "very noteworthy letter" from "John, 0. H. R," which ap
peared in the Barnet Times. This was known to be a youth
of tbe conspiring apprentice or boy-brigand order, who had just
enough wits to make himself a nuisance to the clergy of his
neighbourhood. He blossoms out under Mr. Walsh's treatment
in,1;q a sort of leader of the " Oxford Movement." The reason is
not fpx to seek. There is a comical side to Mr. Walsh's story
here, which explains all. Mr. Walsh seems to have been him
self qn. intimate terms with these particular dark and bloody
conspirators ; he thought he held the threads of a mighty web

9
of intrigue. " I once had a letter/' he says, " from the ' Brother
John ' who wrote the letter to the Barnet Times, quoted above,
in which occurs the following paragraph: 'Shall I have the
pleasure of seeing you personally at All Saints', Lambeth, next-
Wednesday night, or shall I send tickets ? I can get you a seat
in the choir of Lady Chapel with the Order.' " Now why
does not Mr. Walsh give us the whole of his thrilling story ?
What were his true relations with this arch-plotter? "I did
not accept the invitation," he says, "for I did not wish anyone
to suppose that I had anything to do with such a society."
Gh ! Mr. Walsh ! is not this Jesuitical ?- Bat, of course, he was
acting as detective, or, shall we say, On the strength of his own
comparison, as an Elizabethan Secretary of State, condescending
in the higher interests of the commonwealth to do his own dirt v
work. Slippery Suggestions.
We have dealt so far with the more ridiculous side of Mr.
Walsh's book ; we shall proceed to deal with some of its more
serious aspects. But before we pass oh to these, we must give
him credit for considerable skill' in handling the materials of
suggestion. Remarks are scattered broadcast in his book which '
are utterly absurd when looked into, but which are cleverly
designed to mislead the unwary. We will cull one example.
He is speaking of a certain " special chapter " of the Society of
the Holy Cross, held on a critical occasion. He tells us that
the chapter met at 5, Greville Street, Brooke Street, Holborn.
"Fortunately," he says, ''I have come into possession of the
official and secret report of this very secret meeting, held in a
private house." Now what was there " very secret " about this
meeting more than the ordinary meetings of the Society?
Nothing whatever.* A false suggestion is cleverly made in
passing. It was held, we are told, "in a private house." A
private house, save the mark ! And where would the man
expect private gentlemen to meet. for their own private affairs?
In the nave of St. Paul's ? or in Trafalgar Square ? But
* See below, p. 21-.

10
further, everyone who was about St. Alban's, Holborn twenty
years ago, at the date of this meeting, knew perfectly well that
this " private house," which was used for sundry parochial
purposes, was used also as the ordinary and regular place of
meeting for the chapters of the Society of the Holy Cross.
There was no secrecy about the matter at all. Moreover, Mr.
Walsh must know this, for he says that he holds nearly all the
private papers of the Society dating from that time. Yet^
knowing this, he builds up a sentence calculated to suggest
that on this occasion there was some special secrecy, some dark
and subtle plotting. We shall not mince matters with Mr.
Walsh. We shall say that in this, and in other like passages,
he labours to convey a definitely false impression.

II
THE PLACE OF PRIVACY IN RELIGION.
A secret history is the history of secret proceedings. It
need not be concerned with proceedings entirely secret, which
would have little interest for any but the actors; it usually
means a record of the underhand intrigues which have con
tributed to events famous in history and of universal interest.
So Mr. Walsh, no doubt, would have his book understood.
The Oxford Movement undoubtedly has its secret history.
There is nothing inconsistent with this in that fierce light of
publicity through which, as we have said, the advance has been
made. There have undoubtedly been personal influences,
private consultations, infinite correspondence, of which nothing
was publicly known. This secret history is being gradually
written, It comes out in biographies and published correspon
dence. It is interesting to calculate how much of it is locked
up in the muniment room at Ha warden. A great part of this
secret history will, by degrees, be revealed. It will be a very
different thing from the farrago of plot and conspiracy with
which Mr. Walsh tickles the fancy of his readers.

11
We have shown how skilful Mr. Walsh can be in creating a
false atmosphere. He does it chiefly by innuendo and sugges
tion, by question-begging epithets colouring what genuine facts
and circumstances he relates. We propose to examine these,
and to see what is the material of which he makes so unscru
pulous a use. Tractarian Reserve.
Those who know anything of the Tractarians will remember
how great was their abhorrence of anything like display or
self-advertisement in religion. One of their standing complaints
against the Evangelicals— an exaggerated complaint, we think —
was that, instead of working quietly in their parishes, they
were for ever rushing about, speaking on platforms, preaching
here there and everywhere, organizing demonstrations. There
was some truth in the charge; it was aimed at what Lord
Macaulay afterwards derided as " the bray of Exeter Hall." In
their recoil from this system the Tractarians perhaps ran to the
opposite extreme. It is well known how quietly the Tracts
were originally circulated. " We do not like our names known,"
wrote Newman to at least two friends in 1833. Mr. Walsh
quotes this in italics, and finds therein, of course, evidence of
some direful plot. Is it possible that he has never heard of the
virtue of modesty, and a shrinking from notoriety ? The ideal
of the Tractarians was a life hidden with Christ in God. We
confess with some shame that we have departed very far from
their ideal ; never, perhaps, was there more advertising of
religion than now. A little more of the old secrecy of the
Tractarians would not harm us, a little more resolve to keep
back from the left hand what the right hand does. We could
do with more work and fewer statistics; more quiet teaching
and less organization. »
This kind of secrecy, a leading mark of the religion of the
Gospel, Mr. Walsh fastens upon as a proof of evil conscience.
He rightly says that it was characteristic of the Movement from
the first; he adds that it remains characteristic still. Let us
look at some of his evidence.

12

The Privacy of Convents.

Setting aside the nonsensical " Orders," and such-like trump-
cry fungoid growths, of which he seems to know more than
anyone else — if indeed his information be not largely bogus —
he relies chiefly on the ways of convents, and on the doings of
two great societies, the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament,
and the Society of the Holy Cross. And what is a convent ?
It is essentially a private house, a private family pf men or
women, whose first object is to live a life of retirement from
the world. What sort of life would Mr. Walsh expect them
to live ? Would he expect them to live behind plate-glass
windows, like the ladies who dress their hair in Regent Street
shops ? It would seem so. He demands, " Is there ever any
auditing of accounts by a public auditor ? There ought to be,
and Parliament should insist upon it." Parliament might as
reasonably insist on inspecting Mr. Walsh's account with his
publisher. He would pry into their most intimate affairs. He
complains that " the authorities of the Convents founded by
Dr. Pusey have never given to the public any idea of the
actual terms of the vows taken by their Sisters." English
ladies, thank Heaven, do not usually advertize their devotional
practices. "It so happens," says Mr. Walsh complacently, "that
I possess a secret book written for the use of this Sisterhood,
entitled The Spirit of the Founder. It consists of extracts
from addresses privately delivered to the Sisters by the Founder
of the Sisterhood, the late Rev. Dr. Neale." And he prints
several extracts. We can hardly control our indignation as the
man thus reveals himself. Does he listen at the keyhole to
hear his maid-servant's prayers ? Does he retail them in the
smoking-room of his club ?
But hew far does this conventual secrecy extend ? Mr.
Walsh himself shall tell us. " A considerable amount of useful
information about Ritualistic Sisterhoods may be read in a
Government Blue Book, published in 1870, and containing the
Report from the Select Committee on Conventual and Monas
tic Institutions. As an appendix to this Report, there are

13
printed the, till then, strictly secret statutes of two Sisterhoods,
viz., that of All Saints', Margaret Street, and the Clewer Sister
hood." He cannot make a plain statement of fact without
inserting a false innuendo, " Till then, strictly secret." He
suggests a jealously-guarded secret wrung from its reluctant
custodians. As a matter of fact, no pressure was used. All,
and more than all, that the Committee wished in the public
interest to know, was freely told them, and was published in
a Blue Book. And then, twenty-eight years afterwards, Mr.
Walsh rails at the " secrecy " of these institutions.
The Confraternity of. the Blessed Sacrament.
We turn to the societies. The Confraternity of the Blessed
Sacrament, like the Guild of All Souls, offends Mr. Walsh by
praying in secret. The monthly intercession paper is kept
private. " There are," says Mr/ Walsh, " about 15,000 printed
every month, yet, large as the number is, it is but rarely that
anyone sees a copy who is not a member of the Confraternity."
As to that, we can testify to having frequently seen these papers
lying about in houses where all the inmates certainly were not
members of the Confraternity. Mr. Walsh's statement, therefore,
is not true in fact: The spirit prompting it he betrays a few
-lines lower down. " So far as I have been able to ascertain," he
says, " no copy of the Intercession Paper of the C. B. S. came
into the possession of an Editor of either of our daily' papers
until thirteen years after the founding of the Society." We
are puzzled by the word " either" in this sentence ; but passing
that by, let us try to get at the mind of the man who thus writes.
Does he impute this privacy — this secrecy, if you will — in prayer,
as a fault to the Confraternity ? What are these Intercession
Papers ? Certain persons desire the prayers of certain other
persons who are associated with them, and these printed papers
are the means of communicating such desires. That is all.
Does Mr. Walsh mean that we ought not to do this kind of
thing in secret, that prayers of this kind ought to be published
in the daily papers ? Then all we need sayis that he is plainly
contradicting the plain teaching of the Gospel. If he does not

14
mean this, what does he mean ? Is it merely the grumble of a
pressman who resents anything of which he cannot make copy ?
He says that " the honour of being actually the first of all the
papers to expose its Intercession Paper is claimed by the Rock."
Mr. Walsh has queer notions of honour ; nor do we think that
any newspaper, unless it be the lowest of " society journals," will
mourn the loss of this distinction.
What else has he to say in this connexion ? "I look upon
this Confraternity as a semi-secret Society, which shrinks as
much as possible from the light of publicity." A more ludi
crous statement could hardly be made of a society whose annual
meeting and services are advertised in the public press. Mr.
Walsh speaks of a " Secret Annual Conference." Has he any
other purpose in this, than to deceive his more ignorant readers
with a show of exclusive information ? " At the annual meetings
of the C.B.S.," he says, " none are admitted unless they can pro
duce the medal which proves that they are members, so that
these gatherings are of a private character." Is this again
imputed as a fault? Have Englishmen no right to meet, if
they choose, in private ? Or is this again — Mr. Walsh is a
familiar figure at the reporters' table in the Church Congress
and at kindred gatherings— is this again only a wail of the
excluded reporter ? But, after all, the Confraternity is not
always exclusive! At the solemn Requiem for the Society in
1890 the preacher, Mr. Walsh tells us, " used the word Purga
tory without a blush of shame." Did this portentous event
occur in the safety of some secret conclave ? No ; Mr. Walsh
quotes from a report in The Church Times. What, then, does
the " secrecy " of the Confraternity amount to ? It amounts to
this, that the associates meet for their private affairs in private ;
that they do not pray ostentatiously in public, nor yet expose
their prayers to the derision of buffoons. There is, however,
another aspect of this privacy to which we shall return.
The Society of the Holy Cross.
There remains the Society of the Holy Cross. About this
we have little information beyond what is contained in Mr.

15
Walsh's own revelations. We hardly know whether we ought
to use them at all. We cannot verify them, for he quotes from,
purely private papers; and even the perusal of his book is
rather like peering over the shoulder of a man who is reading
a stolen letter. But the matter is published, and we hope the
members of the Society will pardon us for using, and even
criticizing in a friendly spirit, what an enemy has disclosed.
What kind of " secrecy " does he reveal ? He reveals a private
society ; and as we have said, and must repeat — strange it is
that anyone should need the reminder — Englishmen have a
right to meet and to associate themselves in private, and to
resent any intrusion on their privacy. But why. is privacy
insisted on ? Mr. Walsh himself shall tell us. The Society
was founded, as we know from the Life of Charles Lou'der,
in 1855. In 1870 the Master is said by Mr. Walsh to have
given an address to the Society, from which he quotes as
follows : — " The policy of the Society, up to the September
Synod of 1867, was that of privacy. Caution was enjoined
upon the Brethren in the matter of mentioning it. It was
thought, and no doubt wisely, that the first thing to be done
was to deepen the inner life of the Brethren before launching
out. into greater publicity. In view, however, of the Church
Congress at Wolverhampton, in the above year, it was deter
mined to reverse this policy, and to distribute broadcast a new
paper of the Nature and Objects of the Society, specially drawn
up for the ¦ occasion. Together with this was issued a short
Address to Catholics, and both obtained great publicity."
Here is the clearest evidence, produced by Mr. Walsh him
self, as to the nature and objects of the secrecy in which the
Society was nourished. It was a religious secrecy, born of a
dread lest outward activity should outstrip the development of
the inner life; it was the secrecy of those who seek to walk
with God. It was a secrecy described — we quote from another
of Mr. Walsh's revelations — as being in "the shadow of the
Cross."* So far was it from being a secrecy of plot and strata-
• See his letter in the Times oi September 2nd, 1898.

Ifi
gem, that as soon as the members felt their inner life strong
enough for the strain, they launched forth into publicity ; they
took the most public occasion possible to make themselves
known. The Privacy of Timidity.
We have shown what is the inner character of the secrecy
upon which Mr. Walsh enlarges., But, as we have said, there
is another aspect of it. We go back to the beginning, and we
find in the Tractarians a curious alternation of boldness and
timidity; now an almost reckless- disregard of public opinion,
now a nervous shrinking from criticism. It was partly due to
differences of personal' character; Ward and Oakeley were
defiant and aggressive, Newman was morbidly shy and retiring.
It was partly due to a varying sense of responsibility, and of
the injury that might be doneto.a great cause by inconsiderate
haste. But all such delicacy is. lost upon Mr. Walsh. He can
see here nothing but the working of an evil conscience in one
who is trying to deceive an innocent public. Newman, we are
told, ''meant his denunciation of Popery to be dust with which
to blind the eyes of his opponents, and prevent them discovering
his real aims." It was useless for him afterwards in the Apologia,
when he had not the slightest motive for anything of the kind,
to avow that he had fully believed all his accusations against
Rome at the time he made them. Mr. Walsh will have none
of j this. He relies on the doubts and fears of a singularly
scrupulous conscience, uttered in .a time of growing self-distrust.
But in his blind bitterness he fairly overreaches himself. He
quotes from a letter of Newman's to Hope-Scott, written in a
perfect agony of fear lest he should be misunderstood : " I felt
that I was taking people in ; that they thought me what I was
not,. and were trusting me when they should not, and this has
been at times a very painful feeling indeed." The italics are
Mr. Walsh's. He adduces this among his proofs that Newman
was consciously and intentionally throwing dust in people's
eyes. Could the virulence of party spirit go further in mis
representation ? ., ,

. 17
This timidity was for a long time characteristic of the Move
ment. It was partly praiseworthy.' When unfamiliar truths
were to be taught, misunderstanding and' misrepresentation
were easy, and men were rightly cautious how they exposed
themselves to ignorant criticism. It was. for the rest pardon
able. At this day we can hardly recall the furious obloquy
to which the leaders and followers of the Movement were
exposed. Those who were at all sensitive could not bear to
lay themselves open to the scurrility which marked the Record
of former days, and which is still kept up: by other and lower
class papers. We can afford to smile at it now ; it was a real
power for evil then. These two reasons for privacy fully account
for the expressions found in some of Mr. Walsh's extracts,
deprecating publicity. "*It is a matter of importance," said the
Superior-General of C.B.S. in 1878, "to be careful not to leave
about the Intercession Papers, to be misused by ill-disposed
persons, and that they should be destroyed when no longer in
use. We are taught to be ' wise as serpents/ as well as 'harm
less as doves ' ; and we shall do well not to encourage the
modern tendency to attack all that savours of Catholic truth or
Catholic use." Misused by ill-disposed persons — that is the
point. " As I am using them in this chapter ? " sneers Mr.
Walsh. Yes; used in the cause of envy, hatred,, and malice,
and all uncharitableness.
For Mr. Walsh, all this is evidence of an evil conscience ; he
depicts men deeply engaged in a foul plot and shunning the
light of day. This is the whole purport of his book ; he forces
the inference on well nigh every page. And we admit that he
does his work cleverly. His cleverness, however, is dashed with
the blindness which always waits on malignity, and a careful
reader need not go beyond his own pages to look for a confuta
tion. But careful readers of a book like' this* are few; critical
readers are fewer still. It is glanced over by a busy man, it is
eagerly devoured by a party man; the one is impressed only
by the general argument, the other picks out only what suits
his purpose. Let us help any reader who cares to know the
truth to draw from Mr. Walsh an answer to himself.

18

The Publicity of the Movement.
If there was this elaborate secret plot, how is it that we
find, side by side with much privacy and shrinking from the
public gaze, a reckless avowal of " extreme " practices and
opinions ? It was so from the first. What could be more
outspoken than the tract on Reserve already noticed ? What
more clear and open than the famous Tract 90 ? What helter-
skelter curate of our day will compare with Faber in his parish
of Elton ? He circulated among his parishioners, Mr. Walsh
reminds us, the History of the Sacred Heart. In 18*4 he
wrote to a friend, "I feel impatient, thinking I could do all
things in" my parish as if I were a Roman." He started a
Religious Community. With more fhan his usual ineptitude
Mr. Walsh writes of "the mystery and secrecy with which
Faber shrouded this Community " ; and in proof of this he
quotes from Bowden's Life of Faber with the emphasis of
italics : " They were accustomed to meet in the Rectory every
night at twelve o'clock, and to spend about an hour in prayer,
chiefly in reciting portions of the Psalter." And this in a
small country parish, where everyone, the rector above all, lives
and works like bees in a glass hive. Here is secrecy '
In an appendix of thirty-eight pages, Mr. Walsh prints an
immense number of extracts from published writings to show
"what the Ritualists teach." They range over the period frOm
1843 to 1897. Mr. Walsh quotes them as horrors. Most of
them are plain statements of Christian doctrine; some of them
are in very bad taste ; some we dislike intensely ; some would
be almost universally repudiated by our friends. But of all
alike we ask — Where is the secrecy? Where is the plot?
Where the conspiracy ? Wise or foolish, they are all published
utterances. Some wild and whirling words were spoken and
written by our friends, more especially in the "Sixties." Mr.
Walsh carefully collects them. He quotes the young lions who
used to roar so lustily in the Union Review. He quotes the
speeches and lectures of the exuberant youth of Dr. Littledale.
But these things were not done in a corner. They were done

19
with ferocious publicity. We are grateful to Mr. Walsh for
collecting the evidence; he saves us much trouble; his own
pages pulverize his theory of secrecy and conspiracy.
He himself shows, as we have seen, that his arch-plotters,
the brethren of the Holy Cross, revealed themselves to the
world more than thirty years ago. The Society — he quotes
again from the Master's Address — had by 1867 "developed
from secrecy to the most open publicity, so far as its existence
and objects are concerned." He comments, as usual, with
clever ineptitude : — " It is well for his veracity that the Master
added the saving clause, ' so far as its existence and objects are
concerned ' ; because its essential secrecy has continued ever
since." -What is "essential secrecy" ? Mr. Walsh's complaint
throughout is that our friends disguise their real objects, and,
while pretending one aim, work for another. But the Society
of the Holy Cross has published a statement of its objects ; and
Mr. Walsh himself does not suggest that this statement is a
blind, or represents anything but the truth. In 1873 the
Society prepared a petition to Convocation praying, among
other things, for the restoration of unction, for the public re
servation of the Blessed Sacrament, and for the licensing of
special confessors. It was signed by 483 priests, and made no
small stir. The Society did not appear by name in the petition,
but its part in the matter was widely known. According to
Mr. Walsh, the members of the Society were anxious to screen
their true aims and opinions, and to promote them only by dark,
underhand means. Yet they put their names to this petition,
presented in the most public manner possible. Where is, their
wonderful secrecy ? They meet, of course, in private, for their
own private affairs, and their proceedings are then confidential.
There are no men in the world, except lunatics, who do not thus
combine. They have a right to their privacy ; no honourable
man would intrude upon it ; they retain it, save when spies or
thieves are about. But of their objects and aims they make no
secret. They labour, alike in public and in private, to spread
throughout England the knowledge of the whole faith and
practice of the Catholic Church of Christ.

s

20

The "Priest in Absolution." .,
Nowhere- is this more manifest than in the story, of the
sordid agitation raised in 1877 about the Priest -in Absolution.
We shall not go back upon the question; so much discussed
by faithful Churchmen, whether this book were or were not
actually useful, suited to the special needs of English priests.
Mr. Walsh reveals the interesting fact that even within the
Society of the Holy Cross this question was seriously debated.
We are concerned only, and even that but little, with the
general character of the book. It was a book of moral and
practical theology. Now moral theology treats of sin ; and
many sins are of a hideous and disgusting character; A book
of moral theology must, therefore, deal with certain disgu'sting
subjects. It exactly resembles a medical work on pathology.
We know how important it is to keep such books out of the
hands of schoolboys and others who would misuse them;
especially must they be kept out of the way of dirty-minded
people. This is precisely what the Society of the Holy Cross
laboured to do in the case of the Priest in Absolution. They
bought up the copyright and the whole impression, so as to
confine it, if possible, to the hands of those who would make a
proper use of it. They were not wholly successful. Even yet
we occasionally -see it offered by second-hand ' booksellers at an
enormous price. We know well what that means. None but
a dirty-minded man, bent on misusing the book, would buy it
at such a price.
The Society, as we know, was furiously assailed for its eou-
nexion with this book. It is -needless to recall the shameful
story; Mr. Walsh gloats over it, and We may leave the details
to him and to his kind, with only one remark. He always
speaks of this " filthy book." The book deals, of course!, with
filth, just as a medical book does, arid it may very well become
filth to a dirty-minded man, reading it for an improper purpose.
How : did the members of the Society behave under their
trial ? Mr. Walsh describes them as men skulking in' darkness,
conscious of their own nefarious deeds; But when we come to

21
details, even On his own showing, what was their behaviour ? The
Master and other representatives of the Society met the Bishops
at Lambeth with a full, statement of their own relations, to the
book, and further, laid before the Archbishop of Canterbury the
Statutes and Office Book of the Society. This was on the 28th
of June. Moreover the Archbishop was made aware that a
special chapter of -the Society was to discuss the matter on the
5th of July; and he wrote to the Master on the 30th of June
about the procedure to be then followed. This chapter, thus
known to the Archbishop, was the one that Mr. Walsh describes
as a " very seeret meeting, held in a private house." On the
following day an elaborate statement was presented to Convoca
tion together with the resolutions adopted by this "very secret
meeting."* Did they shirk the issue here ? The Times of July
7th, in the course of a truculent article, allowed that " these
gentlemen must be allowed the credit of standing to their
colours." The attack on the Society continued for a year, and then
died away, as such attacks invariably do. And what was the
conduct of the Society under the strain ? We have nothing to
go upon but Mr. Walsh's own account. If this is to be trusted,
the brethren of the Society behaved as we should expect
Englishmen to behave under the circumstances — with grit and
determination. They stood to their colours. Mr. Walsh has
much to say of the " Jesuitical " character of a certain proposal
for the temporary dissolution of the Society. Without accepting
his strictures, we may note that, as he himself shows, the
proposal found only nine supporters, and was lost by an immense
majority. He comments also on a proposed alteration of the
statutes, which involved, he says, merely a change of names,
not of things, and " was primarily intended for the purpose of
throwing more dust in the eyes of the Bishops." Let Us suppose
Mr. Walsh's imputation of motive to be true — a very large
supposition — but here again the proposal was rejected. On his
own showing the Society refused to "throw more dust, in the
* This statement, having a renewed interest in view of the charge of secret
conspiracy, is given below in the Appendix.

22
eyes of the Bishops." In the whole story, if Mr. Walsh's account
be true, we find evidence of a certain reckless daring in the
Society, — of chicanery and secret plotting not a trace.
We have dealt with Mr. Walsh's tirade about Conspiracy at
great length. This, we are convinced, is the element in his
book which is mischievous. In the mind of an ill-informed
reader he creates an impression that something is going on
below the surface; that men professing one thing practise
another. His object is to sow the seeds of a general distrust,
than which nothing can more effectually hamper the work of
the Church. It is useless to reply to this sort of thing by
protestations. If we were all that he would make us out to be,
we should of course redouble our protestations ; and, however
honest, we might easily seem to protest too much. We have
answered Mr. Walsh mainly from his own pages. We have
shown what is the " secrecy " on which he enlarges. We have
shown it to be partly a timid retirement, partly that kind of
privacy which is inculcated alike by the teaching of the Gospel
and by the decent reserve of the English character. The time
for timidity, we are thankful to believe, is past; the other
ground for secrecy abides, and will abide while the religion of
Christ endures. Ill
THE VALUE OF MR. WALSH'S ASSERTIONS.
We have, so far, assumed that Mr. Walsh's information is
accurate. That he should produce it fairly and simply, without
prejudice or colour, is more than anyone would expect who
has even casually glanced at his pages. He does not even
affect impartiality. But the most partial, the most prejudiced
of historians may be trustworthy in his actual narration ; he
may distinguish between records and conjectures, between facts
and inferences; he may recognise his duty to tell the whole
truth as he knows it. His statements, however, will always
need verification. That is true, indeed, of all historians ; much
more of one who writes history in support of an opinion.

23
It is, perhaps, a stretch of compliment to speak of Mr. Walsh
as an historian at all ; but when we test a man, we test him for
what he claims to be, and Mr. Walsh claims for his book the
title of history. We must test it, therefore, by verification.
But we are met at once by a serious difficulty. Many of his
statements are by their very nature unverifiable. " I have
given," he says, " full references and proofs for everything."
But references to inaccessible documents are useless. Mr.
Walsh refers, indeed, to many published works. "But my
principal authorities," he says, " have been the secret and pri
vately printed documents of the Ritualists themselves. From
these I have been able to give reports of speeches delivered
in the secret meetings of Secret Societies and of Semi-Secret
Societies." Who is to verify these ? The documents are
inaccessible. Even if Mr. Walsh should produce them, who
is to say whether they really are what they purport to be ?
They are not merely out of reach ; they are private and con
fidential papers of such a kind that, if they came into the
hands of any honourable man, he would destroy them unread,
as soon as their character was apparent. Who then is to verify
these things ? Nor is that all. In various parts of the book
Mr. Walsh reports private conversations that he has had with
nameless persons, private letters that he has received from
nameless correspondents. How are these to be verified ?
The greater part of Mr. Walsh's history is, therefore, un
verifiable. What are we to do ? We can only verify samples.
We can take certain of his statements which concern matters
of public knowledge, and see how they will stand the test of
inquiry. If we find him false or inaccurate or misleading here,
we shall know how to value his more obscure revelations. We
shall not have to pursue our investigation very far. Life is too
short for wading through all his mass of quotations. We shall
take a few samples which lie on the surface, a few cases in
which we can see his inaccuracy at a glance ; we shall not
trouble ourselves to dig laboriously for the rich stores that we
know must lie beneath.

M-

An Imputation on the Tractarians.
As before, we go back to the beginning. Mr. Walsh quotes
from Oakeley an amusing passage about the enthusiasm of the
Tractarians for all that they found in the churches when travel
ling abroad. Then follows his comment: "Of course, when
these young gentlemen came back to England from their con
tinental trips, they were careful, not to let the English public
know where they had been, what they had said, and what they
had done when abroad. At home they passed as faithful sons
of the Reformed Church of England; on the continent they
were seen in their true colours." Now this is not only a com
ment, it is also an assertion. Is that assertion true ? Were
these men " careful not to let the English public know where
they had been " ? Has Mr. Walsh ever heard of Faber' s Sights
and Thoughts in Foreign Churches ? Has he ever seen Ward's
Ideal of a Christian Church ? Has he ever read the curious
little book, A Peep Behind the Grilles, in which one of these
travellers recounts his experiences, and laments what he had
returned to in England ? As a matter of fact, the Tractarians
were for ever taking the public into their confidence in this
matter, for ever lauding foreign Catholicism, for ever bemoaning
the sad plight of the English Church.
We have grown wiser of late years, and perhaps sadder.
We know that ideals are not so extensively realized ; we have
made acquaintance with the seamy side of things abroad as
well as of things at home. But fifty years ago, when things
were far worse at home, there was a young enthusiasm for all
things foreign, and this enthusiasm was freely expressed. Does
Mr. Walsh know this ? Does he know the books above referred
to, or some of the many like them ? If he knows them, his
suggestion is flatly dishonest. If he does not know them, what
qualifications has he for the task he has rashly undertaken ?
Imputations on Dr. Pusey.
All wise men know what value to attach to the so-called
revelations of neurotic nuns regarding the life they have aban-

25
doned. Mr. Walsh quotes them as grave authorities. He
quotes in particular their imputations on Dr. Pusey. He cares
nothing for consistency. He reviles the venerable doctor for
his personal and private austerities revealed in his biography.
On another page he quotes these wretched women, without
question, to prove him a sort of Sybarite. He accepts without
hesitation their charge against him of breaking the seal of con
fession. He quotes the same charge from the strange and
bitter autobiography of Mark Pattison. There is One all-
sufficient answer to these charges — a complete disproof. It is
the fact that Dr. Pusey lived and died the honoured confidant
of men who knew his intimate life ; more and more honoured,
in spite of such charges, even by men who were far removed
from him in sympathy and opinion. Such charges now repeated
against the honoured dead merely recoil on him who makes
them. The Petition of 1873.
Mr. Walsh refers, as we have said, to the petition to Con
vocation, promoted by the Society of the Holy Cross in 1873.
He had the text of this petition before him. How does he
treat it ? The petitioners, he says, " suggest that Convocation
should 'promote' the 'addition' to the Prayer Book of the
following matters : —
" ' The doctrines, that is to say, of —
" ' I. The Real Presence of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
'Christ in the Holy Communion under the form of Bread and
Wine. " ' II. The adoration due to Him there present.
" ' III. The sacrifice which He there offers by the hands of
His Priest to the Divine Majesty.' "
Now here Mr. Walsh plainly asserts that the petitioners
desired the " addition " of these doctrines to the Prayer Book,
as not being contained there already. We turn to the text of
the petition, and what do we find ? The petitioners plead that,
if the Prayer Book be altered at all, it should be enriched with
certain additions which " ivould tend to the more distinct

26
enunciation in the formularies of the Church of England of
certain doctrines which .... are in exact accordance with
the formularies of the Church of England, and have even been
recently affirmed (with whatever amount of authority) by the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council to be not repugnant
thereto. The doctrines, that is to say, of —
I. The Real Presence, etc."
The petitioners, in fact, so far from asking for the " addition "
of certain doctrines to the Prayer Book, roundly assert them to
be there already. In other words, they say the exact opposite
of what Mr. Walsh makes them say. If this is the way in
which he treats the text of a public document, what value shall
we attach to his quotations from private documents inaccessible
to his readers ?
The Order of Corporate Reunion and the English
Chukch Union.
We have commented sufficiently on the absurd importance
attributed by Mr. Walsh to the Order of Corporate Reunion.
He gives an apparently ' full account of all that is known about
it. Why, then, did he suppress the fact that in January, 1882,
Mr. Mossmann, one of the " Bishops " of this Society, was
expelled lrom the English Church Union for professedly con
ferring Holy Orders ? The fact is not obscure. It was publicly
announced in the Church Union Gazette of March, 1882 ; it
was again referred to in the annual Report of the President
and Council for the same year. We ask the question with
the more interest, because the Church Association, in their
Intelligencer of March, 1898, roundly asserted that no mention
of the incident was ever made in the official Gazette of the
Union. We do not forget that Mr. Walsh has disclaimed
official connexion with the Association ; but the disclaimer
was carefully and diplomatically true ; we learn from the
concluding pages of the third edition that his Secret History
is actually published by the Association. Mr. Walsh's silence
about this incident, when coupled with the bold falsehood of
the Intelligencer, becomes the more significant. The sup-

27
pression of a material fact may be every whit as misleading
as a direct falsehood.
Father Puller and Mr. Lacey in Rome.
The events of two years ago ought to dwell in the most
imperfect memory. In 1896, it will be remembered, Father
Puller and Mr. Lacey went to Rome, on the invitation of two
members of the Papal Commission on Anglican Orders, to give
them the benefit of their knowledge. The facts were consider
ably noised abroad, and were, indeed, a nine-days' wonder.
This is how Mr. Walsh presents them : —
There went with Lord Halifax to Rome, two members of the
English Church Union, whose travelling expenses were paid for by
the Union. A verbatim report of their interviews with the Pope
would be interesting reading. One of the party, the Rev. T. A.
Lacey, a member of its Council, and also a member of the secret
Society of the Holy Cross, wrote a document for the private use of
the Roman Cardinals, to whom the question of the validity of
Anglican Orders had been remitted for consideration. Probably
Mr. Lacey never dreamt that such a document would ever see the
light of day in England ; but, somehow or other, the Tablet got hold
of a copy, and published it in full — translated from the original
Latin — in its issue for November 7th, 1896.
We have here an assertion, a suggestion, and an innuendo ;
and all three are false. It is well known, and the facts can be
verified by reference to the contemporary press— (i) that Father
Puller and Mr. Lacey did not go to Rome with Lord Halifax ;
(ii) that they never had any interview with the Pope at all;
and (iii) that the document in question was widely circulated
both in England and abroad, that copies were deposited in the
chief public libraries, and that Mr. Lacey himself called attention
to it in the Guardian of October 7th, and again, if we remember
rightly, in a speech at the Shrewsbury Church Congress. We
remember also seeing in the reading-room at the Congress
¦copies of this document which, according to Mr. Walsh, was
never meant to see the light of day in England. Assertion,
suggestion, and innuendo, are therefore alike false. If Mr.
Walsh thus blunders — to put on his mistakes the most chari
table interpretation — about matters so recent and so notorious,
what value shall we attach to his rigmarole of "secret history"?

28

The Alcuin Club.

Mr. Walsh states that the Alcuin Club is a continuation,
under a different name, of the Society of St. Osmund. Here,
of course, he finds more shuffling and chicanery. The assertion
is of very slight importance, except as affording a test of
Mr. Walsh's accuracy. He has lately renewed it, even more
expressly, in the Times. This drew two letters, one from
Dr. Wickham Legg, the first President of the Alcuin Club, the
other from Mr. St- John Hope, one of its four founders. Dr. Legg
explained that the club was founded to counteract the influence
of the Society of St. Osmund, and that not a dozen members of
the Society have joined the club. Mr. Hope writes that he, one
of the founders of the club, was not a member of the Society of
St. Osmund, nor even in sympathy with it. So much for
Mr. Walsh's information. It is, as we have said; a small matter,
but a useful test. Mr. Walsh makes this statement either upon
false information, or upon no information at all. He would
seem, from the way he. writes, to be in the latter case. From
very imperfect data he drew an inference, which happens to be
false, and then he put that forward as a fact. We know, then,
what is the general value of his statements.
The Use of Papist Testimonies.
We do not complain of mere omissions. Mr. Walsh was not
bound to say everything he knew. But when he professes to be
giving full information, or where he gives a one-sided statement
as the whole truth, omissions become falsehoods. His theory is
that the whole " Oxford Movement " has been and still is, more
or less secretly, a " Romeward Movement." He wishes to show
that Roman authorities have recognised and welcomed it as
such. He accordingly quotes three or four utterances which
look that way. But he says not a word of the far more
numerous occasions on which there has come from the same
quarter a wail over the effect of the movement in checking
conversions to Papalism. He has not a word on Cardinal
Vaughan's diatribe, attributing the whole movement to the

29
fraud of the devil. To omit these, while putting forward the
other statements, is a deliberate suppression of the truth.
Opinions and Persons.
And what shall we say of his treatment of persons ? He
is here so grotesquely inaccurate that his case would collapse
internally were he not protected by the ignorance of his readers.
In his appendix on What the Ritualists teach, he adduces various
persons to speak with authority as '' Ritualists." Among these
we find Mr. H. H. Henson. Who are the " Ritualists " for whom
Mr. Henson speaks ? He has recently made a fierce attack in
the Guardian upon the English Church Union. We admire
Mr. Henson, and we enjoy his paradoxes. He can express with
delightful clearness and force the opinions of — Mr. Henson. But
of whom else? There is, however, a lower depth of absurdity.
We find the Rev. T. Mozley among these typical " Ritualists."
That veteran leader-writer of the Times was not infrequently
in queer company, but never, perhaps, was he more uncongenially
classed than here.
But again, Mr. Walsh publishes the names of an immense
number of his dark and dangerous conspirators. In this aspect
the book is distinctly amusing. They will smile in the City of
London when they hear that Mr. Hoskins, of St. Martin's, Lud-
gate, is plotting against the Church of England. Lord Blachford
is amongst the traitors. Canons Bodington, Body, and Rhodes
Bristow are all engaged in machinations on behalf of Rome.
Canon Eyton is a secret adherent of the Scarlet Woman. The
Bishop of Rockhampton, Dr. Linklater, Bishop Hornby, late of
Nyassa, Archdeacon Hutchings, the late Warden of Keble —
these are some of the names that we glean in passing. The
Bishop of Truro backs them up. In describing these and other
like men as disloyal to the Church of England,Mr. Walsh is simply
making himself ridiculous. He might as well accuse the Duke
of Connaught of plotting against the Succession to the Crown.
We have done with Mr. Walsh's book. We have shown it
to be absurd; we have shown it to be irreligious; we have
shown it to be untrue. There is nothing more to be said.

30

APPENDIX.
STATEMENT OF THE SOCIETY OF THE HOLY CROSS.
Presented to the Upper House of the Convocation of Canterbury on
Friday, July 6th, 1877.
The Society of the Holy Cross desires to approach your Right Reverend
House -with the sincere expression of its respect for your Lordships' high and
sacred office; and, in deference to the expressed wish of the Archbishops of
Canterbury and York, and of the Bishop of London, to present the following
Memorial : —
The Society of the Holy Cross is a Society of Clergy, founded in 1855, for
the primary purpose of deepening the Spiritual Life in its Brethren.
Besides this main object, it is also engaged in aiding or carrying on
Mission Work at home and abroad ; it promotes spiritual and temporal charity
among the Brethren, and unites them in common consultation on matters
affecting their duties and the interests of the Church. With these views it
originated —
I. In 1856, the first Home Mission, viz., that of St. George's-in-the-East,
the pioneer of many others.
II. Special Parochial Missions, such as that of Bedminster, in 1862, con
ducted by its Brethren, and followed by the two London Missions,
in 1869 and 1874 (the first of which was organized by its Brethren,
and the second commenced under the auspices of the three Bishops
of London, Winchester, and Rochester), and also by the Missions at
Leeds, Bristol, Plymouth, Manchester, and other important centres.
III. In 1856, the first Spiritual Retreat for Clergy, followed in like manner
by Retreats for Clergy and Laity, conducted in the first instance by
the Brethren of the Society, but subsequently by Bishops,* or other
Clergy with Episcopal approval.
The Society, consisting for some years of a few Members meeting together
for prayer, meditation, and conference, has gradually grown and developed
itself. It is an entire mistake to suppose that the Society was originated for the
purpose of promoting the practice of Confession ; the Society has only
endeavoured to secure for Confession its due place among the aids to the
spiritual life, and the recognition of its importance amongst the ministerial
duties of the Clergy.

31
The connexion of the Sooiety with the book called The Priest in Absolution
arose from accidental circumstances. Some Members of the Society, feeling
the need of a Manual to help them in the difficult and important duty of
hearing Confessions and giving Absolution, to which Priests are obliged by
their commission at Ordination and the requirements of the Prayer Book,
informally asked one of their number to compile such a treatise. The learned,
devout, and experienced Priest, the Rev. J. C. Chambers (now deceased), who
undertook the work, published the first part, in accordance with this request,
on his own responsibility, and it was sold for some time in the ordinary way ;
but he afterwards wrote a second part, which, entering deeply into subjects of
Moral Theology and the nature of Sin, was rightly considered not adapted for
general circulation, and accordingly it was never sold through any bookseller ;
but Mr. Chambers supplied copies to certain of the Clergy who specially
applied to him for it, and who might need to consult it, in the same way as a
medical man consults medical treatises. The words, " Privately printed for
the use of the Clergy," appear in the title-page. At his decease his executors
informed the Society that, unless it interposed, the work would be sold to the
book trade. It is obvious that thus it would have obtained an indiscriminate
circulation. Out of respect to the memory and wishes of the compiler, and
for the common good, the Society purchased the remaining stock, removed it
to their rooms, and endeavoured to maintain the original restrictions of the
compiler. The Society, under the peculiar circumstances of the case, was never called
upon to revise, read, or pass any judgment on the book. Many of the
members knew nothing of it except by report. Many felt that the possession
of the book by the Society involved nothing more than the recognition of the
want often expressed by Clergy, that they should have some guide in fulfiling
this part of their sacred office.
The work itself, from which extracts have been made with entire disregard
to the context, and to the safe-guards most frequently, carefully, and plainly
laid down in it, and which govern the whole book, has been grievously
misjudged, as though it directed questions to be put under ordinary circum
stances which could only be needful in the most exceptional cases. The writer
says that one of his chief objects " in entering into this subject of spiritual
pathology is to aid the Priest to avoid needless and dangerous enquiries "
(p. 21). He further says (p. 81) " Questions should only be put when the
Priest has some reasonable ground for thinking that the penitent has failed
in any duty, or that he conceals his fault through shame or ignorance."
(Page 80) " The Priest cannot be too careful in questions about sin, to avoid
giving the penitent any further acquaintance with evil." With regard to
children, he is told that " such questions should be put in the most guarded
manner, and only when there is good reason to fear that the child has been
exposed to temptations." " It is better that a Confession should be materially

32
wanting in fulness, than that a child should learn or imbibe a desire to know
what hitherto had been hid from its understanding.'- (Page 144.)
The accusations which have been made against the Society and its Members,
as if questions of a dangerous character were used by them, are groundless.
The number of persons of all classes who resort to Confession has multiplied
year by year, and many of these are persons of the highest education and
refinement. Such an increase would have been impossible if these accusations
were true ; nor would it be the case (as it commonly is) that husbands who use
Confession desire that their wives should exercise the like privilege, and so
with parents and children, brothers and sisters, etc.
The laity have thereby abundantly shown their confidence in the character
of those Clergy to whom they resort, and their conviction that this confidence
has not been misplaced.
Resolutions of a Special Chapter of the Society, held
Thursday, July 5th,
1. That under these considerations the Society of the Holy Cross, while
distinctly repudiating the unfair criticisms which have been passed on the
book called The Priest in Absolution, and without intending to imply any
condemnation of it, yet in deference to the desire expressed by the Archbishop
of Canterbury to the representatives of the Society, resolves that no further
copies of it be supplied.
2. That the Members of the Society, while comiijg to this determination,
desire to state that they hold that their Commission at Ordination, and the
express terms of the Prayer Book, require them to hear the Confessions of all
those who resort to them for that purpose, and to give " the benefit of Abso
lution together with ghostly counsel and advice," to such of these as "humbly
and heartily desire it."
They hold that the Church of England teaches that Confession is not a
matter of compulsory obligation ; but they maintain also that all Christian
persons have liberty and right to make their Confession as frequently as they
feel the need for their own souls.
Daily experience in their Parishes convinces them more and more of the
importance of this provision of the Church for the reoovery of the sinner and
the consolation of the penitent.

J. PALMER, PRINTER, ALEXANDRA 8TREET, CAMBRIDGE.

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