xford," the Tract-writers are made to appear as the
emissaries and secret tools of Rome, as in a _jeu d'esprit_ of Whately's
they are made to appear as the veiled prophets of infidelity.[68] It was
clever, but not clever enough to stand, at least in Oxford, against Dr.
Pusey's dignified and gravely earnest _Remonstrance_ against its
injustice and trifling. But the fire of all Dr. Hampden's friends had
been drawn on the leaders of the movement. With them, and almost alone
with them, the opposition to him was made a personal matter. As time
went on, those who had been as hot as they against Dr. Hampden managed
to get their part in the business forgotten. Old scores between
Orthodox, Evangelicals, and Liberals were wiped out, and the Tractarians
were left to bear alone the odium of the "persecution" of Dr. Hampden.
It must be said that they showed no signs of caring for it.

But the Roman controversy was looming in earnest, and it was idle to
expect to keep it long out of sight. The Tracts had set forth with
startling vehemence the forgotten claims of the Church. One reason why
this had been done was the belief, as stated in the first volume of
them, "that nothing but these neglected doctrines, faithfully preached,
will repress the extension of Popery, for which the ever-multiplying
divisions of the religious world are too clearly preparing the way."[69]
The question, What _is_ the Church? was one which the conditions of the
times would not permit men any longer to leave alone. It had become
urgent to meet it clearly and decisively. "We could not move a step in
comfort till this was done."[70] "The controversy with the Romanists,"
writes Mr. Newman in No. 71 of the Tracts, about the end of 1835, "has
overtaken us 'like a summer's cloud.' We find ourselves in various parts
of the country preparing for it, yet, when we look back, we cannot trace
the steps by which we arrived at our present position. We do not
recollect what our feelings were this time last year on the subject;
what was the state of our apprehensions and anticipations. All we know
is, that here we are, from long security ignorant why we are not Roman
Catholics, and they on the other side are said to be spreading and
strengthening on all sides of us, vaunting of their success, real or
apparent, and taunting us with our inability to argue with them."

The attitude taken by Mr. Newman at this time, as regards the Roman
Church, both in the Tracts and in his book