about the house in her slippers, and is inert in the efficient conduct of her house, but, if the son were asked to kick her out of doors and adopt a substitute, he would rally to his true mother by blood and education. In fact, such an insulting suggestion would make the child become more dutiful and tender to the somewhat dowdy old woman than he had been before.
The blow was aimed by Pius IX full at the Anglican Church; not at its temporal relation, but at its spiritual character. It was the intrusion of a foreigner into the house, who, snapping her fingers in the face of the housewife, says : "Go to the workhouse or the Devil, whichever you like. I am going to manage affairs here, bring in my domestics, and wash, clothe and feed the children of this habitation as seems right to me."
The Bull was meant as a denial, to all who understood the meaning of such a denial, of its existence, the Anglican, as a Christian Church — not as an Establishment, but as a spiritual body, claiming Apostolic Faith and Continuity. The State may set up any Aunt Sally it likes, with psaltery and dulcimer call on its subjects to fall down and worship it; that is no odds of mine, said Pio Nono in effect. I must feed the flock of Christ and none save I.
The Roman Church in England was inspired with hope, because, here and there, it had picked up recruits from among the clergy and the upper classes of Society; and it was led by a very able man, Cardinal Wiseman, with wide influence, who was regarded with general respect.
Nevertheless, the Aggression roused a furious storm throughout the land. It was an open declaration of war against what the English people really did value, more or less unintelligently — the National Church.
Looking back on that time, and measuring the results of the Aggression, I feel convinced that it served to close up our ranks; that it inspired in ten thousand hearts, lay and clerical, a resolve to maintain Ecclesia Anglicana; many ignorantly, as a bulwark of Protestantism, others sagely, as the sole power in the land that could meet and defeat Popery. It led many to investigate and to appreciate the real claims of that Church, many who hitherto had not considered this as a matter of importance. I know that it had that effect on me.
