tles and their followers; but a new Pantheistic element is to be
fastened on the faith of men,--a principle of Development which may
overshadow both the _verbum Dei scriptum_ and the _verbum Dei non
scriptum_ of the Romish Church, and change both the form and substance
of primitive Christianity."

It is only justice to Mr. Newman to say that he appears to have been
aware of this possible objection to his theory, and that he makes an
attempt to obviate it. Speaking of the difficulty which the Church
experienced in keeping "Paganism out of her pale," he adverts to "the
_hazard which attended on the development_ of the Catholic ritual,--such
as the honors publicly assigned to saints and martyrs, the formal
veneration of their relics, and the usages and observances which
followed." And he asks: "What was to hinder the rise of a sort of
refined Pantheism, and the overthrow of Dogmatism _pari passu_ with the
multiplication of heavenly intercessors and patrons? If what is called
in reproach 'Saint-worship' resembled the Polytheism which it
supplanted, or was a corruption, how did Dogmatism survive? Dogmatism is
a religious profession of its own reality as contrasted with other
systems; but Polytheists are liberals, and hold that one religion is as
good as another. Yet the theological system was developing and
strengthening, as well as the monastic rule, all the while the ritual
was assimilating itself, as Protestants say, to the Paganism of former
ages."[96]

It seems to be admitted in these words, that, in the _past_ history of
the Church, the development of the Catholic ritual _was_ attended with
some danger of infection from Paganism or Pantheism; and there may be
equal reason to fear that, in the _future_ history of the Church, still
working on the principle of development, that danger may be very
considerably aggravated by the general prevalence of theories utterly
inconsistent with the faith of primitive times. What the Church has
already done in the exercise of her developing power may be only a
specimen of what she may hereafter accomplish. She has already
developed Christianity into a system which bears a striking resemblance
to Polytheism; she may yet develop it more fully, so as to bring it into
accordance with philosophical Pantheism; or, retaining both forms,--for
they are not necessarily exclusive of each other,--she may use the first
in dealing with the ignorant, and reserve the second as a sort of
esoteric do