I have been converted in a wrong way, I cannot help that now.

And now I have carried on the history of my opinions to their last
point, before I became a Catholic. I find great difficulty in fixing
dates precisely; but it must have been some way into 1844, before I
thought not only that the Anglican Church was certainly wrong, but
that Rome was right. Then I had nothing more to learn on the subject.
How "Samaria" faded away from my imagination I cannot tell, but it
was gone. Now to go back to the time when this last stage of my
inquiry was in its commencement, which, if I dare assign dates, was
towards the end of 1842.

In 1843, I took two very important and significant steps:--1. In
February, I made a formal retractation of all the hard things which I
had said against the Church of Rome. 2. In September, I resigned the
living of St. Mary's, Littlemore inclusive:--I will speak of these
two acts separately.

1. The words, in which I made my retractation, have given rise to
much criticism. After quoting a number of passages from my writings
against the Church of Rome, which I withdrew, I ended thus:--"If you
ask me how an individual could venture, not simply to hold, but to
publish such views of a communion so ancient, so wide-spreading, so
fruitful in Saints, I answer that I said to myself, 'I am not
speaking my own words, I am but following almost a _consensus_ of the
divines of my own Church. They have ever used the strongest language
against Rome, even the most able and learned of them. I wish to throw
myself into their system. While I say what they say, I am safe. Such
views, too, are necessary for our position.' Yet I have reason to
fear still, that such language is to be ascribed, in no small
measure, to an impetuous temper, a hope of approving myself to
persons I respect, and a wish to repel the charge of Romanism."

These words have been, and are, cited again and again against me, as
if a confession that, when in the Anglican Church, I said things
against Rome which I did not really believe.

For myself, I cannot understand how any impartial man can so take
them; and I have explained them in print several times. I trust that
by this time they have been sufficiently explained by what I have
said in former portions of this narrative; still I have a word or two
to say about them, which I have not said before I apologised in the
lines in question for saying out charges against the Church of Rome
which I full