y day brought its contribution, that the
actual living system of the English Church was against what he had
taught to be Catholic, that its energetic temper and spirit condemned
and rejected him. What was it that private men were staunch and
undismayed? What was it that month by month all over England hearts and
minds were attracted to his side, felt the spell of his teaching, gave
him their confidence? Suspicion and disapprobation, which had only too
much to ground itself upon, had taken possession of the high places of
the Church. Authority in all its shapes had pronounced as decisively as
his opponents could wish; as decisively as they too could wish, who
desired no longer a barrier between themselves and Rome.

Thus a great and momentous change had come over the movement, over its
action and prospects. It had started in a heroic effort to save the
English Church. The claims, the blessings, the divinity of the English
Church, as a true branch of Catholic Christendom, had been assumed as
the foundation of all that was felt and said and attempted. The English
Church was the one object to which English Christians were called upon
to turn their thoughts. Its spirit animated the _Christian Year_, and
the teaching of those whom the _Christian Year_ represented. Its
interests were what called forth the zeal and the indignation recorded
in Froude's _Remains_. No one seriously thought of Rome, except as a
hopelessly corrupt system, though it had some good and Catholic things,
which it was Christian and honest to recognise. The movement of 1833
started out of the Anti-Roman feelings of the Emancipation time. It was
Anti-Roman as much as it was Anti-Sectarian and Anti-Erastian. It was to
avert the danger of people becoming Romanists from ignorance of Church
principles. This was all changed in one important section of the party.
The fundamental conceptions and assumptions were reversed. It was not
the Roman Church, but the English Church, which was put on its trial; it
was not the Roman Church, but the English, which was to be, if possible,
apologised for, perhaps borne with for a time, but which was to be
regarded as deeply fallen, holding an untenable position, and
incomparably, unpardonably, below both the standard and the practical
system of the Roman Church. From this point of view the object of the
movement was no longer to elevate and improve an independent English
Church, but to approximate it as far as possible to what w