Surrounding things change, but these changes only contribute
to its development. Here below, to live is to change, and to be perfect
is to have changed often. This is all true of Christianity; the lapse of
years, instead of injuring it, has only brought out its power.[208]
These hints furnish a specimen of the ideal robe in which Father Newman
clothes Romanism. But it will take a stronger intellect than his to show
any harmony between his theory of development and the history of the
papacy. He has once more assumed the pen of the controversialist. In the
January number of _Macmillan's Magazine_, 1864, Kingsley, in a review of
Froude's History of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, said, "Truth for its
own sake has never been a virtue with the Roman clergy. Father Newman
informs us that it need not be, and, on the whole, ought not to be; that
cunning is the weapon which Heaven has given to the saints wherewith to
withstand the brute man's force of the wicked world, which marries and
is given in marriage." The venerable Father being thus assailed has
given vent to his indignation by a defense of his life, under the title
of _Apologia Pro Vita Sua_.
Pages:
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828