n in good faith, for the great leader of the
Oxford Movement naturally expected that those who had espoused his
views, like honest men, would follow his example. Dr. Pusey, however,
was a more astute ecclesiastical statesman than Cardinal Wiseman. He was
in favour of a 'very moderate' declaration against Rome, for the
resources of compromise were evidently in his eyes not exhausted. The
truth was, Pusey and Keble, by a course of action which to this day
remains a standing riddle to the Papacy on the one hand, and to
Protestantism on the other, threw dust in the eyes of Pius IX., and
were the real authors of Papal aggression. Lord John Russell saw this
quite clearly, and in proof of such an assertion it is only necessary to
appeal to his famous Durham Letter. He had watched the drift of
ecclesiastical opinion, and had seen with concern that the tide was
running swiftly in the direction of Rome.

England had renounced the Papal supremacy for the space of 300 years,
and had grown strong in the liberty which had followed the downfall of
such thraldom. Oxford had taught Rome to tempt England; the leaders of
the so-called Anglican revival were responsible for the flourish of
trumpets at the Vatican. Lord John's ecclesiastical appointments called
forth sharp criticism. He was a Protestant of the old uncompromising
type, with leanings towards advanced thought in Biblical criticism. He
knew, moreover, what Puritanism had done for the English nation in the
seventeenth century, and made no secret of his conviction that it was
the Nonconformists, more than any other class, who had rendered civil
and religious liberty possible. He moreover knew that in his own time
they, more than any other part of the community, had carried the Reform
Bill, brought about the abolition of slavery, and established Free
Trade. He had been brought into contact with their leaders, and was
beginning to perceive, with the nation at large, how paltry and
inadequate were the claims of a rigid Churchmanship, since the true
apostolical succession is a matter of altitude of spiritual devotion,
and borrows none of its rights from the pretensions of clerical caste.

[Sidenote: THE DURHAM LETTER]

The Durham Letter was written from Downing Street, on November 4, 1850.
It gained its name because it was addressed to the Premier's old friend
Dr. Maltby, Bishop of Durham, and appeared in the newspapers on the day
on which it was dated. Lord John declared that he