on _Romanism and Popular
Protestantism_, published in the early months of 1836, was a new one. He
had started, as he tells us, with the common belief that the Pope was
Antichrist, and that the case was so clear against the whole system,
doctrinal and practical, of the Church of Rome, that it scarcely needed
further examination. His feeling against Rome had been increased by the
fierce struggle about Emancipation, and by the political conduct of the
Roman Catholic party afterwards; and his growing dissatisfaction with
the ordinary Protestantism had no visible effect in softening this
feeling. Hurrell Froude's daring questions had made his friends feel
that there might be more to be known about the subject than they yet
knew; yet what the fellow-travellers saw of things abroad in their visit
to the South in 1832 did not impress them favourably. "They are wretched
Tridentines everywhere," was Froude's comment. But attention had been
drawn to the subject, and its deep interest and importance and
difficulty recognised. Men began to read with new eyes. Froude's keen
and deep sense of shortcomings at home disposed him to claim equity and
candour in judging of the alleged faults and corruptions of the Church
abroad. It did more, it disposed him--naturally enough, but still
unfairly, and certainly without adequate knowledge--to treat Roman
shortcomings with an indulgence which he refused to English. Mr. Newman,
knowing more, and more comprehensive in his view of things, and
therefore more cautious and guarded than Froude, was much less ready to
allow a favourable interpretation of the obvious allegations against
Rome. But thought and reading, and the authority of our own leading
divines, had brought him to the conviction that whatever was to be said
against the modern Roman Church--and the charges against it were very
heavy--it was still, amid serious corruption and error, a teacher to the
nations of the Christian creed and hope; it had not forfeited, any more
than the English Church, its title to be a part of that historic body
which connects us with the Apostles of our Lord. It had a strong and
consistent theory to oppose to its assailants; it had much more to say
for itself than the popular traditions supposed. This was no new idea in
Anglican divinity, however ill it might sort with the current language
of Protestant controversy. But our old divines, more easily satisfied
than we with the course of things at home under the pro