the days of Nicholas III. Theologians often tell us of the mischief which these Friars have caused in their science, and to philosophy; and the harm they have done in ecclesiology is certain. They are credited with the introduction of the Stations of the Cross, which even Mrs. Jameson can see set forth unworthy ideas. Further, how little of antiquity remains in practice in the Roman Communion may soon be gathered by those who will attend a few popular functions. Liturgical services, with the exception of the Mass, have well-nigh disappeared ; and the seasons of the Christian year, which we prize so much, are but little thought of. Lent has given way to the month of Joseph; Easter and Whitsuntide are swallowed up in the month of Mary and the Sacred Heart. A distinguished Fellow of the Royal Society told me that the only sign by which he now knew of the presence of Whitsuntide was the red colour of the vestments. If then the more conservative in the Roman Communion have been unable to save from the wreck the Breviary services and the Christian seasons, are they likely to have kept anything ancient in such comparatively unimportant things as the details of the ornamentation of the altar? They are rather likely to have been overwhelmed by the Oratorianism which, in the early days of the ecclesiological movement, was shown to be destructive of a scientific ecclesiology. As in Germany, in philosophy, the cry has been of late years Back to Kant, so in ecclesiology I am sure we must raise the cry of Back to Pugin, to the principles which Pugin advocated; we must throw away the worldly spirit of the Renaissance, and take our inspiration from the middle ages, remembering the direction of the Prayer Book that the chancels 1 [I notice with regret how fashionable the cult of St. Francis of Assisi has become.] 2 Mrs. Jameson, History of our Lord, Lond. 1864. Vol. ii. p. 115. The Stations are very modern; about the same age as the gradin. 3 Ecclesiologist, 1852. Vol. xiii. p. 112. The Oratorian idea of a church is "a big hall with an altar at one end." We are going through a recrudescence of this idea at the present moment. shall remain as in times past, and holding fast to a medieval liberty of practice as contrasted with the attempts of the Congregation of Rites to establish all over the world the iron uniformity which is the aspiration in most things of the nineteenth century. The end of this paper will have been attained if I should succeed in persuading some ecclesiologists that all that is Roman is not ancient, and all that is English is not Puritan. I cannot end this paper without expressing my best thanks to Mr. Blew, for his goodness in allowing me to copy the woodcut in his Paris Missal; to Mr. Everard Green, for procuring for me from Mr. Willson a like permission to copy; to Mr. Micklethwaite, for his assistance in all that relates to Westminster Abbey ; and to Mr. W. H. St. John Hope. All these friends have been ready with suggestions and criticisms; but I must not be thought thereby to imply that they approve of all or any of the opinions which I have expressed in these foregoing paragraphs. 1 I am told that, despite their best efforts, they have not been able to secure uniformity in so small a detail as the size of the singing-bread. |