Sermons of the Rev. Francis A. Baker, Priest of the Congregation of St. Paul: With a Memoir of His LifeBaker, Francis A. (Francis Aloysius)
Religion
Sermons of the Rev. Francis A. Baker, Priest of the Congregation of St. Paul: With a Memoir of His Life
Baker, Francis A. (Francis Aloysius)
Baker, Francis A. (Francis Aloysius), 1820-1865; Catholic Church -- Sermons; Sermons, American -- 19th century
rector in great alarm speedily banished all innovations, and
brought his chancel and his windows back to the old-fashioned
style. There was a little preaching in the surplice, a little
display of crosses, and a great deal of Catholic talk in private
circles, and very little else. The attempt to make the Protestant
Episcopal Church in Maryland exhibit herself as the Reformed
Catholic Church was a most signal failure.
{67}
The _True Catholic_ labored faithfully to defend Mr. Newman
from the charge of Romanizing until he actually joined the
Catholic Church, and then took to decrying him and other converts
as much as possible. It then took up Archdeacon Manning, H. W.
Wilberforce, and Marshall, loading its pages with extracts from
their writings, until all these gentlemen followed Mr. Newman's
example. What it did afterward, and whether it has survived until
the present time or not, I do not know. The cassocks were
silently and gradually dropped. Some of the young clergymen
married, and took to walking sedately in the old paths, and
others left the diocese. The few who could not unlearn or forget
the Catholic principles they had imbibed, retired into themselves
and kept quiet. And thus matters went back to their old condition
of a sort of uneasy compromise between High and Low Church, on
the basis of a common hostility to Rome.
I remember well the startling effect produced by the news of Mr.
Newman's conversion. Whatever his modesty may induce him to say
in disclaimer, he was the leader, the life, and the soul, of the
Oxford movement: his genius and character had acquired for him in
this country, as well as in England, a sway over a multitude of
minds such as is seldom possessed by any living man. The news of
his conversion was brought to Baltimore by Bishop Reynolds, of
Charleston, who had just arrived from Europe. I heard it from
Bishop Whittingham, one evening, after I had been to prayers in
St. Paul's. I passed him on the steps and went out, and heard him
say in a sorrowful tone, "Newman has gone." It went to my heart
as if I had heard of my father's death. I did not wish to speak
with anyone on the subject, for, although I was not prepared to
follow him, yet I could not speak harshly or lightly of the
decision of a man whose wisdom and goodness I venerated so
highly, or endure to hear the comments of others.
{68}
Mr. Baker and I had no opportunity to converse together very much
on this matter, or indeed on any other. Our separation was at
hand, under circumstances painful and trying to both. He was
confined to the chamber of his brother Alfred, who was
dangerously ill with the varioloid, and, of course, could neither
make or receive any visits. I was obliged to leave Baltimore a
few days after, for North Carolina, by the order of my physician.
I took a hurried farewell of Mr. Baker, at the door of his house,
with very little expectation, on either side, of ever meeting
again. He had assisted me very frequently in the duties of my
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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