ialists have commonly surrendered and left
open to their opponents, to supply a more telling weapon than any which
these controversialists have used.

This line, though substantially involved in the theory of our most
learned divines, from Andrewes to Wake, was new in its moderation and
reasonable caution; in its abstention from insult and vague abuse, in
its recognition of the _prima facie_ strength of much of the Roman case,
in its fearless attempt, in defiance of the deepest prejudices, to face
the facts and conditions of the question. Mr. Newman dared to know and
to acknowledge much that our insular self-satisfaction did not know, and
did not care to know, of real Christian life in the Church of Rome. He
dared to admit that much that was popularly held to be Popish was
ancient, Catholic, edifying; he dared to warn Churchmen that the loose
unsifted imputations, so securely hazarded against Rome, were both
discreditable and dangerous. All this, from one whose condemnation of
Rome was decisive and severe, was novel. The attempt, both in its spirit
and its ability, was not unworthy of being part of the general effort to
raise the standard of thought and teaching in the English Church. It
recalled men from slovenly prejudices to the study of the real facts of
the living world. It narrowed the front of battle, but it strengthened
it enormously. The volume on _Romanism and Popular Protestantism_ is not
an exhaustive survey of the controversy with Rome or of the theory of
the Church. There are great portions of the subject, both theological
and historical, which it did not fall within the scope of the book to
touch. It was unsystematic and incomplete. But so far as its argument
extended, it almost formed an epoch in this kind of controversial
writing. It showed the command of a man of learning over all the
technical points and minutiae of a question highly scholastical in its
conceptions and its customary treatment, and it presented this question
in its bearings and consequences on life and practice with the freedom
and breadth of the most vigorous popular writing. The indictment against
Rome was no vague or general one. It was one of those arguments which
cut the ground from under a great established structure of reasonings
and proofs. And its conclusions, clear and measured, but stern, were the
more impressive, because they came from one who did not disguise his
feeling that there was much in what was preserved in the Roma