as centre of unity; "it turned on the Faith of the Church"; "there
was a contrariety of _claims_ between the Roman and Anglican religions";
and up to 1839, with the full weight of Roman arguments recognised, with
the full consciousness of Anglican disadvantages, he yet spoke clearly
for Anglicanism. Even when misgivings became serious, the balance still
inclined without question the old way. He hardly spoke stronger in 1834
than he did in 1841, after No. 90.

And now (he writes in his Letter to the Bishop of Oxford[88]) having
said, I trust, as much as your Lordship requires on the subject of
Romanism, I will add a few words, to complete my explanation, in
acknowledgment of the inestimable privilege I feel in being a member
of that Church over which your Lordship, with others, presides.
Indeed, did I not feel it to be a privilege which I am able to seek
nowhere else on earth, why should I be at this moment writing to your
Lordship? What motive have I for an unreserved and joyful submission
to your authority, but the feeling that the Church in which your
Lordship rules is a divinely-ordained channel of supernatural grace to
the souls of her members? Why should I not prefer my own opinion, and
my own way of acting, to that of the Bishop's, except that I know full
well that in matters indifferent I should be acting lightly towards
the Spouse of Christ and the awful Presence which dwells in her, if I
hesitated a moment to put your Lordship's will before my own? I know
full well that your Lordship's kindness to me personally would be in
itself quite enough to win any but the most insensible heart, and, did
a clear matter of conscience occur in which I felt bound to act for
myself, my feelings towards your Lordship would be a most severe trial
to me, independently of the higher considerations to which I have
alluded; but I trust I have shown my dutifulness to you prior to the
influence of personal motives; and this I have done because I think
that to belong to the Catholic Church is the first of all privileges
here below, as involving in it heavenly privileges, and because I
consider the Church over which your Lordship presides to be the
Catholic Church in this country. Surely then I have no need to profess
in words, I will not say my attachment, but my deep reverence towards
the Mother of Saints, when I am showing it in action; yet that words
may not be altogether want