y that those doctrines
were in the air; that to assert was to prove, and that to explain was
to persuade; and that the Movement in which they were taking part was
the birth of a crisis rather than of a place. In a very few years a
school of opinion was formed, fixed in its principles, indefinite and
progressive in their range; and it extended itself into every part of
the country. If we inquire what the world thought of it, we have
still more to raise our wonder; for, not to mention the excitement it
caused in England, the Movement and its party-names were known to the
police of Italy and to the back-woodmen of America. And so it
proceeded, getting stronger and stronger every year, till it came
into collision with the Nation, and that Church of the Nation, which
it began by professing especially to serve."

The greater its success, the nearer was that collision at hand. The
first threatenings of the crisis were heard in 1838. At that time, my
bishop in a charge made some light animadversions, but they _were_
animadversions, on the Tracts for the Times. At once I offered to
stop them. What took place on the occasion I prefer to state in the
words, in which I related it in a pamphlet addressed to him in a
later year, when the blow actually came down upon me.

"In your Lordship's Charge for 1838," I said, "an allusion was made
to the Tracts for the Times. Some opponents of the Tracts said that
you treated them with undue indulgence ... I wrote to the Archdeacon
on the subject, submitting the Tracts entirely to your Lordship's
disposal. What I thought about your Charge will appear from the words
I then used to him. I said, 'A Bishop's lightest word _ex cathedra_
is heavy. His judgment on a book cannot be light. It is a rare
occurrence.' And I offered to withdraw any of the Tracts over which I
had control, if I were informed which were those to which your
Lordship had objections. I afterwards wrote to your Lordship to this
effect, that 'I trusted I might say sincerely, that I should feel a
more lively pleasure in knowing that I was submitting myself to your
Lordship's expressed judgment in a matter of that kind, than I could
have even in the widest circulation of the volumes in question.' Your
Lordship did not think it necessary to proceed to such a measure, but
I felt, and always have felt, that, if ever you determined on it, I
was bound to obey."

That day at length came, and I conclude this portion of my narrative,
wi