before?' The question seems difficult to answer, but Keble had,
as a matter of fact, forestalled the argument in the following
passage, which had apparently escaped the notice of the Rev. Mr.
Maitland: 'Now whether the facts were really so or not (if it
were, it was surely by special providence), that Abraham's
household at the time of the circumcision was exactly the same
number as before; still the argument of St. Barnabas will stand.
As thus: circumcision had from the beginning, a reference to our
SAVIOUR, as in other respects, so in this; that the mystical
number, which is the cipher of Jesus crucified, was the number of
the first circumcised household in the strength of which Abraham
prevailed against the powers of the world. So St. Clement of
Alexandria, as cited by Fell.' And Keble supports his contention
through ten pages of close print, with references to Aristeas,
St. Augustine, St. Jerome, and Dr. Whitby.

Writings of this kind could not fail in their effect. Pious
youths in Oxford were carried away by them, and began to flock
around the standard of Newman. Newman himself became a party
chief-- encouraging, organising, persuading. His long black
figure, swiftly passing through the streets, was pointed at with
awe; crowds flocked to his sermons; his words were repeated from
mouth to mouth; 'Credo in Newmannum' became a common catchword.
Jokes were made about the Church of England, and practices,
unknown for centuries, began to be revived. Young men fasted and
did penance, recited the hours of the Roman Breviary, and
confessed their sins to Dr. Pusey. Nor was the movement confined
to Oxford; it spread in widening circles through the parishes of
England; the dormant devotion of the country was suddenly
aroused. The new strange notion of taking Christianity literally