mental questions of Christianity and give their whole mind to
what seemed to me rightly called in the newspapers "mere millinery."
I sought information from Stanley, but he shrugged his shoulders and
advised me to keep aloof and say nothing. This I was most willing to
do; I cared for none of these things. My mind was occupied with far
more serious problems, such as I had heard explained by men of
profound learning and honest purpose in the great universities of
Germany; these troubles arose from questions which seemed to me to
have no connexion with true religion at all. Even the differences
between the reformed and unreformed churches were to me mere questions
of history, mere questions of human expediency. I did not consider
Roman Catholics as heretics--I had known too many of them of
unblemished character in Germany. I might have regretted the abuses
which called for reform, the excrescences which had disfigured
Christianity like many other religions, but which might be tolerated
as long as they did not lead to toleration for intolerance. Luther
might no longer appear to me in the light of a perfect saint, but that
he was right in suppressing the time-honoured abuses of the Roman
Church admitted with me of no doubt whatsoever. Large numbers always
had that effect on me, and when I saw how many good and excellent men
were satisfied with the unreformed teaching of the Roman Church, I
felt convinced that they must attach a different meaning to certain
doctrines and ecclesiastical practices from what we did. I had
learned to discover what was good and true in all religions, and I
could fully agree with Macaulay when he said, "If people had lived in
a country where very sensible people worshipped the cow, they would
not fall out with people who worship saints."

I know that many of my friends on both sides looked upon me as a
latitudinarian, but my conviction has always been that we could not be
broad enough. They looked upon me as wishing to keep on good terms
with high and low and broad, and I made no secret of it, that I
thought I could understand Pusey as well as Stanley, and assign to
each his proper place. Stanley was of course more after my own heart
than Pusey, but Pusey too was a man who interested me very much. I saw
that he might become a great power whether for good or for evil in
England. He was, in fact, a historical character, and these were
always the men who interested me. He was fully aware of his import