CHAPTER VII

JAMES BOWLING MOZLEY

I

THE MAN AND THE THEOLOGIAN

AMONG the Oxford men who were brought into connection with Newman, and who participated in the theological and ecclesiastical discussions of the Oxford controversy, there was no abler nor more independent, honest, or judicious thinker than Canon Mozley. In his own day he was more widely known as a theologian than as a preacher. With all his intellectual suggestiveness and extraordinary moral impressiveness, he was not a particularly acceptable preacher, even to an Oxford audience, by which the gifts of oratory were not and are not held in very high esteem. Yet there are elements of intellectual and moral power in his published sermons, elements that seem almost to be more effective in the printed than they were in the oral form, that, after their kind, have not been surpassed by anything in homiletic literature that has been given to the public during the last half-century. They lack the intensity and literary grace of Newman's sermons, and are somewhat heavy and slow in movement; but they are intellectually stronger and, from the ethical point of view, more impressive than any that ever came from Newman's

pen. Of these sermons, the London Spectator has said that "the reading of them would be enough to change the whole character and life of a man." It is certainly an extraordinary experience for a preacher, and an extraordinary test of him, that his sermons must be known through the press before his value as a preacher can be adequately estimated. This is the test to which Mozley has been subjected, and it suggests somewhat significantly the possibilities of loss to the world if the manuscript were to be banished from the pulpit. Unlike Newman, whose intellectual vivacity and emotional fervor and force and grace of literary style fitted him after his fashion for the mastery of assemblies, Mozley reached only a limited circle of hearers. But, like Newman, he has reached and influenced a wide circle of readers. No intelligent and cultivated man who becomes familiar with these virile discourses will, I venture to say, fail to receive a strong moral and mental impression from them; and no preacher, especially, who would acquaint himself with the best that has been spoken in the modern pulpit, or who would study intelligently the elements of moral power in modern preaching and would avail himself of the strongest moral incentive, will willingly fail to acquaint himself with them.

Mozley was born in 1813 and was Newman's junior by twelve years. We are told that as a boy he disclosed, in a marked degree, just those qualities for which he was subsequently distinguished. He was strongly individualistic, high-spirited, and, according to his brother of the "Oxford Reminiscences," who might well have told us more about him and less about himself, quick

tempered. This strong individuality and high spirit he disclosed during the Oxford controversy in his resistance of Newman's influence and in the gradual formation of his own independent opinions, but he curbed his temper and secured the mastery of himself, accounting as a dishonor in himself and disliking in others any loss. of it. Like Newman, he was of a reflective turn, taking no interest in the games of his school, finding "thinking his diversion." He was shy and sensitive and easily impressed. Anything that was striking or characteristic always arrested his attention and became a basis for reflection, and, as we shall see later on, the disclosure of this impressibility became one of his most interesting homiletic peculiarities. It is this impressibility of the man that accounts in large measure for Newman's strong early influence over him, an influence, indeed, which it could not have been easy for any one, even the most independent, to resist. In his maturer years he speaks somewhat depreciatingly of this influence of Newman upon his literary style. Whatever may have been Newman's influence upon his opinions, there is no evidence that he recognized it as an important or permanent factor in his life; and whatever may have been true of his style, it is perfectly evident that it was but a transient influence, and it is equally evident that he formed his opinions independently of Newman's domination. It is not difficult to see how a man so slow in his development and who struggled as he did with the barriers of language should have been by contrast strongly impressed by Newman's facility and brilliancy of literary expression, and the very recognition of the influence discloses his exacting independence of pur

pose. In one of his sermons, entitled "The Educating Power of Strong Impressions," there is a very interesting discussion of the educative influence of one mind over another. It is not impossible that he may have had in mind Newman's influence over others, himself included. At any rate, in reading his words, one naturally thinks of his own experiences in connection with Newman. The point he makes is that although subjec tion to such an influence makes a child of a man, yet it is necessary to the development of his manhood. One "may be so much under the influence of an extraordinary and superior being, that it may prevent him, for the time, from finding out his own power." Yet all this may be necessary to one's personal development. "It is only the common truth, and a very familiar truth, of education." Such an one is all the while "collecting the maturity and vigor of a man." This was eminently true of Mozley. It was a wonderfully stimulating atmosphere in which he was placed, and the large and long result was seen in the virility of his intellectual and moral manhood. He was of a controversial turn of mind, and very early disclosed his readiness for discussion or debate. It was the product, not only of a combative temperament, but of his intellectual inquisitiveness, his positiveness of conviction, and interest in and devotion to the truth. One can easily conceive of him as exhibiting in private discussion the mental pugnacity and tenacity of the typical Englishman, but it is interesting to observe that, although, like Canon Liddon, he seems to have an antagonist in mind and is always defending some cherished interest, there is yet in his public

1 "Occasional and Parochial Sermons," XXI.

discussions and in many of his theological essays an almost entire absence of the polemic temper and method. He gripped his subjects by the roots and his mental movement was strong. It was necessary for him to get at the bottom of things. He always struck for the centre. He must master his subject. This was his life habit. He was, therefore, relatively slow in his movement and developed somewhat late into the maturity of his powers. One can easily imagine the powerful influence Dr. Arnold would have had for so slow but responsive a nature. It is certain that Mozley always had the highest admiration for Arnold, Broad churchman though Arnold was. But he failed to enter Rugby as a student because Arnold had fixed the age limit for entrance at fifteen, which young Mozley had already passed. It is interesting to conjecture what Arnold at that time of intense intellectual activity might have done with such strong timber. It is conceivable that Newman might have found him a formidable antagonist. But as for Mozley, he seems always to have regarded his rejection at Rugby as special good fortune, since he made better head in his studies alone and thus developed his own individuality to better advantage. His brother expresses the opinion that Arnold's exacting standard might have embarrassed one of his slow habit of mind, and that the two men were too much alike in their intellectual independence and fiery and pugnacious temper to get on together. Whatever may be the truth of this, it is clear enough that the two following years of private study were fruitful years.

In 1830, three years before Newman began the Anglican agitation, and three years after he had taken St.