Walter Walsh: History of the Romeward Movement in the Church of England, pg. x.

Walter Walsh: History of the Romeward Movement in the Church of England, pg. x. This is one of the best studies of Tractarianism and Anglo-Romanism in Anglicanism, a squatter effort to drive off the Protestant and Reformed character of authentic Anglicanism.

http://books.google.com/books?id=skIkAVBbQFQC&pg=PR8&dq=walter+walsh&as_brr=1&output=text#c_top

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PREFACE

Many books have been written on the Oxford Movement, but this is, so far as I am aware, the first attempt to write its History from the standpoint of an Evangelical Churchman. It will be admitted by all that there is room for a distinctly Protestant, just as much as for a Ritualistic or High Church, record of events which have transformed the outward appearance of a considerable portion of the Church of England during the past sixty-seven years. I have not undertaken this task unasked, nor without a sense of the difficulty to deal with such an important subject in anything like an adequate manner. But I have honestly tried to do my best, and no man can do more than that. As to how far I have succeeded, or failed, others are better able to judge than I am. Although an Evangelical Churchman, I have certainly tried to deal with my theme in no narrow-minded manner. I claim to be as broad as the Church of England, nor would I banish from her ranks any of her loyal sons, though they may disagree with me on minor matters. I believe that I have written nothing but that which will meet with the approbation of old-fashioned High Churchmen and Broad Churchmen, as well as of thosewho glory in being termed Evangelical Churchmen. And certainly I have set down nothing in malice. I would not willingly misrepresent my opponents; my desire is only to tell the truth about them. It is human to err, yet I have done my best to be accurate. Full references are given for every statement in this work, and nothing is brought forward without ample proof. I am not afraid to have my assertions tested by the original documents. I claim that not more than one alleged fact has been refuted in my last book, The Secret History of the Oxford Movement, though the Ritualists in every part of the British Empire have attacked it fiercely again and again during the past three years. Whether I shall be as fortunate this time remains to be seen.

And I have tried to write in moderate language, even about very immoderate and highly censurable conduct. There is much recorded in the following pages which would justify stronger language than I have applied to it; but I prefer that my readers shall judge the Romeward Movement in the Church of England by facts rather than by adjectives of abuse and insult. I cannot, of course, expect to please the Ritualists ; indeed, I think it possible that they will be even more angry with this book than with its predecessor, for, in some respects, the facts here recorded are more damaging to their cause than those revealed in the Secret History. The exposures, herein contained, of the conduct of not a few of the leaders of the Oxford Movement will be unpleasant reading for their followers, as well as for those loyal Churchmen who love honest, straightforward conduct, and hate all crooked ways and double-dealing. It is a sad, though true, story I have to relate. Yet these are days when the truth, however unpleasant, needs to be told without fear or favour, and in the plainest terms.

No candid person who reads this book can fail to see that the destination of the Oxford Movement from its very birth thas been Rome. The evidence is too abundant and clear to leave room for doubt. For Corporate Reunion with Rome Newman (in his Anglican days), Froude, Keble, and, above all, Dr. Pusey, laboured and prayed. They did not wish to go to Rome as individuals. They wished to take the whole Church of England, with all her Cathedrals and Parish Churches, and her vast wealth, with them—a present worthy of the Pope's acceptance, and on conditions easy for him to accept. Nothing less than this would satisfy them, and nothing less than this will satisfy the leaders of the Ritualists of the present day. But before they can succeed the Protestantism of the Church must be destroyed, and the work God did for us in the sixteenth century, through the Protestant Martyrs and Reformers, must be undone. How they hope to accomplish this, and the tactics necessary for such a cause, are revealed in these pages. It is an attack not merely on the Protestantism of the Church of England, but of the whole nation also, with which we have to deal. What affects the National Church must, indirectly at least, affect Free Churchmen also. They have cause to dread the Romeward Movement; while the Church of Rome has cause to view it with unbounded joy. It is her work that the Ritualists are doing, and if it is allowed to go on unhindered we may expect ere long that the forces of Rome and of the Romanisers will join hands, with a view to destroying our National Protestantism by political weapons. And, therefore, it is that I rejoice to see the formation of an organisation like the Imperial Protestant Federation, in which some twenty-seven organisations have united, on strictly Evangelical lines, to defend Reformation principles against the attacks of Romanists and Romanisers, quite apart from ordinary views of Church polity and party politics. I believe that, with God's blessing, this Federation has a great future before it, in the Colonies as well as in the mother country. While Ritualists are looking to the Church of Rome for unity, let true Protestants seek unity with their brethren who hold the Evangelical faith. It was so at the time of the Reformation. Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Jewel, and all the learned English Reformers sought brotherly sympathy and help from their Protestant brethren on the Continent, even though they did not accept an Episcopal form of Church government. Their brotherly letters one to another may be read in the publications of the Parker Society, and in the historical works of Burnet and Strype.

I have only been able to bring this History down to the year 1864. If God shall spare my life I may complete it at a future date. It is not a repetition of my Secret History, but an entirely distinct work, covering different ground, though here and there I have been compelled, in a few instances only, to touch upon subjects already referred to. The book is issued with thankfulness to God for the wide circulation throughout the British Empire of my former work, and with an earnest prayer that He may graciously use this volume to open still more widely the eyes of the British nation to the many dangers which surround it from the labours of a gigantic army within the gates, whose dearest ambition it is to bring us back to the spiritual darkness of the Dark Ages, to the rule of priestcraft, and to the intolerable bondage of the Papacy. But, " We are not of the night, nor of the darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober" (1 Thess. v. 5- 6).

London, October 30, 1900.