chapter 11._

"The two tasks … which the Tractarians set themselves, were to establish first that the authority of the primitive Church resided in the Church of England, and second, that the doctrines of the English Church were really identical with those of pre-Tridentine Christianity. … The Tractarians' second object is chiefly recollected because it produced the Tract which brought their series to an abrupt conclusion [1841]. Tract XC. is an elaborate attempt to prove that the articles of the English Church are not inconsistent with the doctrines of mediæval Christianity; that they may be subscribed by those who aim at being Catholic in heart and doctrine. … Few books published in the present century have made so great a sensation as this famous Tract. … Bagot, Bishop of Oxford, Mr. Newman's own diocesan, asked the author to suppress it. The request placed the author in a singular dilemma. The double object which he had set himself to accomplish became at once impossible. He had laboured to prove that authority resided in the English Church, and authority, in the person of his own diocesan, objected to his interpretation of the articles. For the moment Mr. Newman resolved on a compromise. He did not withdraw Tract XC., but he discontinued the series. … The discontinuance of the Tracts, however, did not alter the position of authority. The bishops, one after another; 'began to charge against' the author. Authority, the authority which Mr. Newman had laboured to establish, was shaking off the dust of its feet against him. The attacks of the bishops made Mr. Newman's continuance in the Church of England difficult. But, long before the attack was made, he had regarded his own position with dissatisfaction." It became intolerable to him when, in 1841, a Protestant bishop of Jerusalem was appointed, who exercised authority over both Lutherans and Anglicans. "A communion with Lutherans, Calvinists, and even Monophysites seemed to him an abominable thing, which tended to separate the English Church further and further from Rome. … From the hour that the see was established, his own lot was practically decided. For a few years longer he remained in the fold in which he had been reared, but he felt like a dying man. He gradually withdrew from his pastoral duties, and finally [in 1845] entered into communion with Rome. … A great movement never perishes for want of a leader. After the secession of Mr. Newman, the control of the movement fell into the hands of Dr. Pusey."

_S. Walpole, History of England from 1815,