The life had
not died out of it, but the people whom it could permanently affect
were now limited in number and easily recognisable. This form of
religion might tempt and attract the strongest men for a while, but
it certainly would not retain them. It is by this time a matter of
history, though we are speaking of our contemporaries, that the abyss
between the Lives of the English Saints, and the Nemesis of Faith,
was narrow, and easily crossed. There was in Oxford that enthusiasm
for certain German ideas which had previously been felt for medieval
ideas. Liberalism in history, philosophy, and religion was the
ruling power; and people believed in Liberalism. What is, or used to
be, called the Broad Church, was the birth of some ten or fifteen
years of Liberalism in religion at Oxford. The Essays and Reviews
were what the Tracts had been; and Homeric battles were fought over
the income of the Regius Professor of Greek. When that affair was
settled Liberalism had had her innings, there was no longer a single
dominant intellectual force; but the old storms, slowly subsiding,
left the ship of the University lurching and rolling in a heavy
swell.
People believed in Liberalism! Their faith worked miracles; and the
great University Commission performed many wonderful works, bidding
close fellowships be open, and giving all power into the hands of
Examiners. Their dispensation still survives; the large examining-
machine works night and day, in term time and vacation, and yet we
are not happy.
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