e case.
The principal cause of the conversions above mentioned was what was
called the "Oxford Movement." In the University of Oxford had sprung up
a body of men who had consecrated their lives to the diffusion of
doctrines indefinitely near those of Rome. They spoke of the Reformation
contemptuously; advocated very many, obsolete rites and usages;
magnified the power of the church and the prerogatives of the
priesthood. Many of them, at length, finding that they could not, with
any shadow of consistency, remain in the English church, abandoned it;
but many others remained, and propagated the same opinions with
impunity. They were regarded as traitors by their brethren, though no
steps were taken to prevent them from teaching their notions, nor to
deprive them of their benefices and emoluments. Among those who gave up
their livings, of their own accord, from the feeling that they could not
hold them with a safe conscience, the principal was one afterwards
called Father Newman.

"'Now this Newman must by no means be confounded with another of the
same name, Professor Newman,--in fact his own brother,--who was also
educated at Oxford, but whose history was in most singular contrast
with his. While the one brother went over to Rome, exceeded in zeal
and credulity even the Romanists themselves, and sighed for a
restoration of mediaeval puerilities, the other lapsed into downright
infidelity, and denied even the possibility of an external revelation.

"'Very many thought, that, if the Oxford party had been wise enough
to proceed more gently in the propagation of their notions, they would
have accomplished much greater things, and perhaps eventually brought
the popular mind to embrace the Romish Church. But their later
publications (and especially No. 90) opened the eyes of many, and the
frequent defections from the English Church, which were almost daily
announced in the papers, opened the eyes of many more.

"'But whether or not Wiseman and other principal persons were misled
by erroneous representations of the state of the English mind, certain
it is that he advised the Pope to take this perilous step. The Pope
was persuaded; he assured the people of England, that he should not
cease to supplicate the Virgin Mary and all the saints whose virtues
had made this country illustrious, that they would deign to obtain,
by their intercessions with God, a happy issue to his enterprise.

"'The excitement produced by the public