R,CHARD MONCKTON MILNES was born in the year - OUDL Home

Oxford in the 'Seventies 235had brought some at least among us to see that, whileMr Gladstone's fulminations on the civil and politicalaspects of Vaticanism might leave us comparatively cold,there was, on Church principles, no logical alternativebetween Papal infallibility and freedom of thought: andto hope that Anglican loyalties might prove to be reconcilablewith philosophic autonomy. But the leaders of theChurch party in Oxford at that time were not prepared toagree with the apostle of culture, while they were in theway with him; much less with the champions of science,whose First Principles were certainly still in a ratheragnostic, not to say unspiritual, stage of development.But the leaders were by that time hardly abreast oftheir followers in the University regarding either Apologeticsor Academic policy. Younger men, destined tosucceed them, soon showed themselves willing to acceptloyally the fait accompli in the abolition of tests, to admitthe Higher Criticism at least as applied to the Old Testament,and to promote the cause of Natural Science, withoutundue nervousness, fortified as some of them wereby the Idealist philosophy, which Green was bringinghome to Oxford to supersede the scepticism of the earlierTractarians, and to replace the sensationalism of Mill andBain, So it came about that no department of study andteaching in the University suffered a more completechange of method and spirit than became apparent in theTheological Faculty after the 'seventies. That Nonconformists,on their free admission to the University should,sooner or later, be admitted to the Theological as to theother Faculties was inevitable. What was really surprisingwas the immense modification in the teaching of theAnglican Professors—the Drivers, Cheynes, Sandays,Hatches, Gores and others. The celebrated volume ofessays entitled Lux Mundi (1889)—the first clear evidenceof the acceptance of Historical Criticism and philosophic