eternity of the future torment of the wicked is a superstition
not warranted by the Thirty-nine Articles. A movement followed in the
council of the college to oust Maurice from his professorial chair. Mr.
Gladstone took great pains to avert the stroke, and here is the story as
he told it to his brother-in-law, Lord Lyttelton:--

_To Lord Lyttelton._

_Oct. 29, 1853._--I remained in town last Thursday in order to
attend the council of K.C., and as far as I could, to see fair
play. I was afraid of a very precipitous proceeding, and I regret
to say my fears have been verified. The motion carried was the
Bishop of London's, but I am bound to say he was quite willing to
have waived it for another course, and the proceeding is due to a
body of laymen chiefly lords. The motion carried is to the effect
that the statements on certain points contained in Maurice's last
essay are of a dangerous character, and that his connection with
the theology of the school ought not to continue. I moved as an
amendment that the bishop be requested to appoint competent
theologians who should personally examine how far the statements
of Mr. Maurice were conformable to or at variance with the three
creeds and the formularies of the church of England, and should
make a report upon them, and that the bishop should be requested to
communicate with the council. For myself I find in different parts
of what Maurice has written things that I cannot, and I am quite
certain the council had not been able to, reconcile. This
consideration alone seemed to me to show that they were not in a
condition to proceed with a definite judgment. I do not feel
sufficiently certain what his view as a whole may be, even if I
were otherwise competent to judge whether it is within or beyond
the latitude allowed by the church in this matter. And
independently of all this I thought that even decency demanded of
the council, acting perforce in a judicial capacity, that they
should let the accused person know in the most distinct terms for
_what_ he was dismissed, and should show that they had dismissed
him, if at all, only after using greater pains to ascertain that
his opinions were in real contrariety to some article of the faith.
I also cherished the hope, founded on certain parts of what he has