498 



PUSEY 



the youngest BOD of the first Viscount Folkestone, 

 and hail assumed the name of Pusey when the 

 estate) in Berkshire were bequeathed to him by 

 the last representatives of the Pusey family. He 

 was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, 

 and was elected a Fellow of Oriel College in 1823. 

 As soon as he had completed his studies at Oxford 

 he passed to Cermany, partly to study livriiian, 

 which was in the Oxford <if those days practically 

 an unknown tongue, partly to study oriental 

 languages, and partly to become acquainted with 

 tln> latcsi forms of (ierman theological teaching. In 

 's-J7 he returned to England, and in the following 

 year the Duke of Wellington appointed him regiii< 

 jtrofessor of Hebrew at Oxford, a |x>si!ion which 

 he retained until his death. Although his fame in 

 other respects has caused his llelirew lecturing to 

 be forgotten, he laboured most unweariedly in 

 the duties of his chair, ami attracted a great num- 

 ber of pupils. His tiist work was an essay in which 

 he sketched the causes that contributed to the 

 Rationalistic character of recent German theology. 

 He acknowledges his indebtedness to Professor 

 Tholuck for some ixirtions of this essay, but the 

 elaborate proof of his position was his own work 

 executed with characteristic thoroughness. It was 

 severely commented on as leaning very decidedly in 

 the direction of the Rationalistic teaching with 

 which it dealt : the charge was greatly exaggerated, 

 besides being caused in part by vagueness of ex- 

 pression throughout the volume. His main |>osition 

 was unassailable : (ierman Rationalism he main- 

 tained was the consequence of the spiritual deadness 

 of the orthodox Lutneranism of the day. He was 

 misunderstood as if he had attacked the creed of 

 the Lutherans in its orthodox portions : as a matter 

 of fact he only wished to attribute Rationalism to 

 the want of life in the Lutheran body. Rut many 

 of his statements were in later years very unsatis- 

 factory to himself, and he withdrew the work from 

 circulation. The whole aim of his life was to prevent 

 the spread in England of Rationalism such as that 

 with which he had become familiar in (Jermarn. 

 Hence, when in 1833 John Henry Newman with the 

 same object began the issue of the Tracts for the 

 Times, Pusey very soon joined him : and they, with 

 Keble, were the leaders of this eventful effort. Their 

 object was not to attack the statements of Ration- 

 alistic teachers; there was as yet no call for that 

 in England ; but they desired to stir up in the 

 Church of England a npiritual vitality and power 

 which would be of itself the Irest preservative 

 against the infection of the Rationalistic spirit. 

 For this purpose they attempted not to reform, but 

 to restore ; they appealed to the idea of the church, 

 to its divine institution, to its services, to its sacra- 

 ments, to its formulas of faith, to its history, and to 

 the examples of the holiest lives in former genera- 

 tions. They endeavoured to make the church live 

 again In-fore the eyes and minds of men as it had 

 lived in times past. In this connection Pusey 

 wrote his contributions to the Trarts fur the T 

 especially tlm-e on llaptism and the Holy Eucharist. 

 Hi-* sermons also were vigorous appeals to live the 

 Christian life, and careful exjiositions of the doc- 

 trines which the church from the first had taught. 



With a similar purpose also in 1836 he commen I 



the translation of the writings of the ancient fat In MS 

 of the Christian church under the title of the 

 Oxford Library of the Fathers. I)r Pusey's chief 

 contrihutions to it were a translation of St Aliens- 

 tine's Confessions and of several of the works of 

 Tertullian. The result of these efforts to which, 

 with the exception of his professorial duties, pr 

 Puscy entirely devoted himself wax most conspic- 

 uous, and extended far Ix-yoml the ranks of those 

 who were called by their opponents either New- 

 manite* or Pnseyites. Bat the work was checked 



by the action of the authorities at Oxford. First 

 Newman's celebrated Tract HO was condemned in 

 1841, and in Is4.'i Pusey was sns|>ended for three 

 years from his oll'u-e of pleaching in Oxford. 

 The occasion of thi~ suspension was a sermon on 

 the Holy Eucharist which he preached Ix-fore tin- 

 University, and which a Ixiard of six doctors ..I 

 divinity, without allowing Pusey a hearing, or 

 specifying the points on which he was supposed ti 

 be in the wrong, pronounced to IK- contrary to tin- 

 teaching of the Church of England. As soon as an 

 opportunity uttered Pusey reiterated his teaching, 

 and this time he was unmolested. Hut before his 

 suspension w:is over Newman had joined the Roman 

 Catholic communion, and with him went several of 

 his leading disciples. All rumours pointed to the 

 certainty of Pusey soon following : but those who 

 knew him l'sl were assured tll.-it ne\er for one 

 moment did he entertain any thought of leaving 

 the Church of England. \Vith Keble he at 

 set himself to reassure those who were reeling 

 under the blow of Newman's departure; and 

 it was mainly the moral weight of 1'n- 

 work and character which prevented the powerful 

 efforts of Newman between 1833 and 1841 from 

 resulting irr a catastrophe greater than any which 

 the English Church has ever expci iem-cd. I'u 

 unfailing loyalty to the church and deep convic 

 lion of God I presence with it. his buoyant hope- 

 fulness even in the darkest days, and his great 

 patience cheered and settled many anxious hearts, 

 and stopped others who were on the iioirrt of follow- 

 ing Newman. His attitude would have had a \et 

 wider result, except for the sad events which fol- 

 lowed in rapid succession in the ten years subse- 

 quent to Newman's secession. The new power 

 which a civil court had acquired over doctrinal 

 suits which \vns exhibited in the judgment irr 

 the Gorhani case the constant attacks of bishops 

 and others upon the Oxford movement, the tuacti- 

 cal inhibition of Pusey from all ministerial work 

 in the diocese of Oxford by Uishop \Vilbcrforce, 

 whereby it was made to appear that the church 

 disowned his teaching these and other less impm t 

 ant but significant events caused the departine to 

 the Roman Church of another band of distinguished 

 men, including Archdeacon (Cardinal) Manning 

 and Archdeacon Willterforce. But still Pusey 

 laboured on, carefully defining the exact position 

 of the English Church, as against Roman claims 

 on the one hand and against Zwinglianisni and 

 Erastianism on the other. 



Only the chief of his numerous writings during 

 this iieriod can be alluded to. They included a 

 lengthy letter on the practice of confession, The 

 Church of En* jl it ii 1 1 Inires her children free to whom 

 to open their griefs (1850), a treatise the form of 

 which makes it appear to belong to a moment of 

 controversy, although the matter is really of per 

 nianent value ; a general defence of his o\\ n position 

 in A Letter to the Bishop of I.niuloii in Is.'il ; a work 

 on Tin Hi'iinl Xii/iri'iiiiti-if nut mi arbitrary authority , 

 lnil Iniiitril liift lie laws of t lie Cluirrli nftr/ur/i Kings 

 are members, in 1850 ; a larger Ixxik on The J>ni-frine 

 nf the Heal Presence, as contained in the Fathers 

 (1858), and as taught in the Chinch of England 

 (1857). In this class of writings may lx- included 

 also I ir l'usr\'- l-'.irrnicon (part i. in ISO'), ii. in 

 ISIHI, iii. in 1870). The object of these volume* 

 was to clear the way for reunion between the 

 Church of England and tin- Church of Rome on 

 the basis of Catholic, as distinct tn.ni Human 

 Catholic, doctrine and practice. 



The reform of Oxford University, which was- 

 undertaken after the report of the liisl lloyal 

 Commission on the Universities, and which 

 destroyed for ever the integrity of the originally 

 most intimate Ixnnl between the University and 



