ceedings at Bonn, when he attempted to
establish a _formula concordiae_ upon the questions which most gravely
divided Christendom."(318) Among other topics Mr. Gladstone commended to
his mentor the idea of a republication in a series, of the best works of
those whom he would call the Henotic or Eirenic writers on the differences
that separate Christians and churches from one another. He also read
Pichler on the theology of Leibnitz, not without suspicion that it was
rather Pichler than Leibnitz. But neither Leibnitz nor Pichler was really
in his mind.

After the session of 1874, when the public ear and mind had been possessed
by the word Ritualism, he had as usual sought a vent in a magazine article
for the thoughts with which he was teeming.(319) He speaks with some
disdain of the question whether a handful of the clergy are or are not
engaged in "an utterly hopeless and visionary effort to Romanise the
church and people of England." At no time, he says, since the sanguinary
reign of Mary has such a scheme been possible. Least of all, he proceeds,
could the scheme have life in it "when Rome has substituted for the proud
boast of _semper eadem_ a policy of violence and change in faith; when she
has refurbished and paraded anew every rusty tool she was fondly thought
to have disused; when no one can become her convert, without renouncing
his moral and mental freedom, and placing his civil loyalty and duty at
the mercy of another; and when she has equally repudiated modern thought
and ancient history." If these strong words expressed his state of mind
before he went abroad, we may readily imagine how the Bavarian air would
fan the flame.

Though Dr. Doellinger himself--"so inaccessible to religious passions"--was
not aware of the purpose of his English friend, there can be little doubt
that Mr. Gladstone returned from Munich with the same degree of internal
ferment as that which had possessed his mind on his return from Naples
three-and-twenty years before. In October he writes to Lord Acton from
Hawarden:--

What you have said on the subject of ultramontanism and of the
mode in which it should be handled, appears to me to be as wise
and as good as is possible. It is really a case for hitting hard,
but for hitting the right men. In anything I say or do on the
subject, I would wish heartily and simply to conform to the spirit
of your words. But I feel myself drawn onwards. Indeed some of
yo