ersity met in October that signs of storm began to appear. But
before it broke an incident occurred which inflamed men's tempers. Dr.
Wynter's reign as Vice-Chancellor had come to a close, and the next
person, according to the usual custom of succession, was Dr. Symons,
Warden of Wadham. Dr. Symons had never concealed his strong hostility to
the movement, and he had been one of Dr. Pusey's judges. The prospect of
a partisan Vice-Chancellor, certainly very determined, and supposed not
to be over-scrupulous, was alarming. The consent of Convocation to the
Chancellor's nomination of his substitute had always been given in
words, though no instance of its having been refused was known, at least
in recent times. But a great jealousy about the rights of Convocation
had been growing up under the late autocratic policy of the Heads, and
there was a disposition to assert, and even to stretch these rights, a
disposition not confined to the party of the movement. It was proposed
to challenge Dr. Symons's nomination. Great doubts were felt and
expressed about the wisdom of the proposal; but at length opposition was
resolved upon. The step was a warning to the Heads, who had been
provoking enough; but there was not enough to warrant such a violent
departure from usage, and it was the act of exasperation rather than of
wisdom. The blame for it must be shared between the few who fiercely
urged it, and the many who disapproved and acquiesced. On the day of
nomination, the scrutiny was allowed, _salva auctoritate Cancellarii_;
but Dr. Symons's opponents were completely defeated by 883 to 183. It
counted, not unreasonably, as a "Puseyite defeat."

The attempt and its result made it certain that in the attack that was
sure to come on Mr. Ward's book, he would meet with no mercy. As soon as
term began the Board of Heads of Houses took up the matter; they were
earnestly exhorted to it by a letter of Archbishop Whately's, which was
read at the Board. But they wanted no pressing, nor is it astonishing
that they could not understand the claim to hold the "whole cycle" of
Roman doctrine in the English Church. Mr. Ward's view was that he was
loyally doing the best he could for "our Church," not only in showing up
its heresies and faults, but in urging that the only remedy was
wholesale submission to Rome. To the University authorities this was
taking advantage of his position in the Church to assail and if possible
destroy it. And to numbers of m