ULTRAMONTANISM FROM AN HISTORICAL POINT OF VIEW. 173 
visibly waned, and when Dollinger refused to head the schism 
it had almost disappeared. But with an inexplicable, yet most 
pardonable inconsistency, Dollinger became the champion and 
the counsellor of the Church he had refused to join. He called 
together members of the Churches which claimed the title of 
Catholic, and in 1874 and 1875 Conferences were held at 
Bonn, which were attended by Anglican bishops and priests, 
Russian ecclesiastics and “ Orthodox ” bishops. I myself went 
to the Conference in 1875, at which, among others, Archbishop 
Plunket and Canon Liddon were present ; and the scene was a 
striking one. It seemed as though the cause of disunion in the 
Christian Church had been at last arrested, and that the current 
of feeling would henceforth run in the direction of reunion. 
The formula of concord between East and West arrived at on that 
occasion, after long and thorough discussion, seemed a pledge 
that this pleasing prospect was not deceptive. 
But the time for reunion movements had not yet arrived. 
The baneful spirits of prejudice and mutual suspicion were 
still too powerful. The refusal of Dr. Pusey to accept the 
formula cooled Dr. Liddon’s interest in the movement. The 
more extreme of the Tractarian party raised the cry of “ schism.” 
The Tractarian journals either threw cold water on Old Catholic 
concerns, or suppressed as much information about their affairs 
as possible. They sometimes even hinted that they “ could a 
tale unfold ” about the Old Catholic clergy, which, out of kind- 
ness they would leave unrevealed. The old-fashioned Anglican 
or High Church party still held fast to a movement which seemed 
to approximate to our own English Reformation. I am sorry 
that I must refer my hearers to Miss Scarth’s work for the 
generous and enthusiastic appreciation of the movement and its 
leaders on the part of Bishops Christopher Wordsworth and 
Harold Browne in England, and of Bishop Cleveland Coxe in 
America. But most unfortunately, as I must think, the old- 
fashioned High Churchman took no steps to preserve their 
existence as an organised school of thought in our Church, and 
our moderate men now are moderate by temperament rather 
than on definite grounds of theology and history. The old 
warm and generous appreciation of the English Reformation, 
and of the English Prayer Book as its exponent, has died out, 
and with it all interest in a movement which, of all religious 
movements, approaches most nearly to the principles of the 
Reformed Church of England. As long as Bishops Christopher 
Wordsworth and Harold Browne lived, there was close and 
continuous communication between the Old Catholics and our 
