"
"Catholic nonsense" is not a happy phrase on the lips of a man who was
officially bound to recite his belief in the Catholic Faith and to pray for
the good estate of the Catholic Church. A priest who administers Baptism
according to the use of the Church of England should not talk about "the
sanctified contents of a pump," or describe people who cross themselves as
"making right angles upon the breast and forehead." But time brings changes
in religious, as well as in social, manners, and Peter Plymley prophesied
nearly thirty years before Keble's sermon on "National Apostasy" had
started the second revival of the English Church.[176]
No one who has studied the character and career of Sydney Smith would
expect him to be very sympathetic with the work which bore the name of
Pusey. In 1841 he preached against it at St. Paul's.
"I wish you had witnessed, the other day, my incredible boldness in
attacking the Puseyites. I told them that they made the Christian
religion a religion of postures and ceremonies, of circumflexions and
genuflexions, of garments and vestures, of ostentation and parade;
that they took tithe of mint and cummin, and neglected the weightier
matters of the law,--justice, mercy, and the duties of life: and so
forth."
From Combe Florey he wrote:--
"Everybody here is turning Puseyite. Having worn out my black gown, I
preach in my surplice; this is all the change I have made, or mean to
make.
Pages:
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288