on the other
side, misunderstandings, misgivings, strainings of mutual confidence,
within. Dr. Hook alternated between violent bursts of irritation and
disgust, and equally strong returns of sympathy, admiration, and
gratitude; and he represented a large amount of feeling among Churchmen.
It was but too clear that storms were at hand. They came perhaps quicker
than they were anticipated.

Towards the end of 1838, a proposal was brought forward, for which in
its direct aspect much might plausibly be said, but which was in
intention and indirectly a test question, meant to put the Tractarians
in a difficulty, and to obtain the weight of authority in the University
against them. It was proposed to raise a subscription, and to erect a
monument in Oxford, to the martyrs of the Reformation, Cranmer, Ridley,
and Latimer. Considering that the current and popular language dated
the Church of England from the Reformation of the sixteenth century, and
cited the Reformers as ultimate and paramount authorities on its
doctrine, there was nothing unreasonable in such a proposal. Dr. Hook,
strong Churchman as he was, "called to union on the principles of the
English Reformation." But the criticism which had been set afloat by the
movement had discovered and realised, what defenders of the English
Church had hitherto felt it an act of piety to disbelieve, when put
before them by Romanists like Lingard, and radicals like Cobbett. that
the Reformers had been accomplices in many indefensible acts, and had
been inconsistent and untrustworthy theologians. Providentially, it was
felt, the force of old convictions and tradition and the historical
events of the time had obliged them to respect the essentials of
Catholic truth and polity and usage; we owed to them much that was
beautiful and devotional in the Prayer Book; and their Articles, clear
in all matters decided by the early theology, avoided foreign extremes
in dealing with later controversies. But their own individual language
was often far in advance of the public and official language of
formularies, in the direction of the great Protestant authorities of
Geneva and Zurich. There were still, even among the movement party, many
who respected the Reformers for the work which they had attempted, and
partly and imperfectly done, to be more wisely and soberly carried on by
their successors of the seventeenth century. But the charges against
their Calvinistic and even Zwinglian language w