f I must so call it, is this--that whereas it is
usual at this day to make the _particular belief of their writers_
their true interpretation, I would make the _belief of the Catholic
Church such_. That is, as it is often said that infants are
regenerated in Baptism, not on the faith of their parents, but of the
Church, so in like manner I would say that the Articles are received,
not in the sense of their framers, but (as far as the wording will
admit or any ambiguity requires it) in the one Catholic sense."

A third measure which I distinctly contemplated, was the resignation
of St. Mary's, whatever became of the question of the Articles; and
as a first step I meditated a retirement to Littlemore. I had built a
Church there several years before; and I went there to pass the Lent
of 1840, and gave myself up to teaching in the poor schools, and
practising the choir. At the same time, I contemplated a monastic
house there. I bought ten acres of ground and began planting; but
this great design was never carried out. I mention it, because it
shows how little I had really the idea then of ever leaving the
Anglican Church. That I also contemplated even the further step of
giving up St. Mary's itself as early as 1839, appears from a letter
which I wrote in October, 1840, to the friend whom it was most
natural for me to consult on such a point. It ran as follows:--

"For a year past a feeling has been growing on me that I ought to
give up St. Mary's, but I am no fit judge in the matter. I cannot
ascertain accurately my own impressions and convictions, which are
the basis of the difficulty, and though you cannot of course do this
for me, yet you may help me generally, and perhaps supersede the
necessity of my going by them at all.

"First, it is certain that I do not know my Oxford parishioners; I am
not conscious of influencing them, and certainly I have no insight
into their spiritual state. I have no personal, no pastoral
acquaintance with them. To very few have I any opportunity of saying
a religious word. Whatever influence I exert on them is precisely
that which I may be exerting on persons out of my parish. In my
excuse I am accustomed to say to myself that I am not adapted to get
on with them, while others are. On the other hand, I am conscious
that by means of my position at St. Mary's I do exert a considerable
influence on the University, whether on Undergraduates or Graduates.
It seems, then, on the whole that I a