Calvinistic), given them by their mother in their childhood days, John
Henry Newman had drawn ever closer to the authority of the Church, while
Francis found himself seceding more and more from her, and more and more
drifting into undogmatic religion. It will be remembered that there had
been originally an idea that he should take Holy Orders. This, however,
very soon during his college life he found to be impracticable of
attainment, owing to his own pronounced and undogmatic views.

At that time, Cardinal Newman has said, earnest religious feeling among
the undergraduates was decidedly rare. Only one in every five could be
called religious-minded. So that the influence of these two young men,
whose very evident purpose was to attain some measure of spiritual truth,
was the more remarkable and powerful among their fellow students.

It was J. H. Newman, indeed, on one occasion who, on remonstrating with
those in authority, that the undergraduates should make their communions
at certain stated intervals because of the fact that he himself had seen
some of them get intoxicated at the college "breakfasts" on the _very_ day
after the service--was met by the remark that even if such a thing _did_
happen, they would rather not know of it!

Not far from Oxford there is a little village called Worton (or W_a_rton,
as I see in old papers it used to be spelt), or rather there are two
villages--Over Worton and Nether Worton, or Upper Worton and Lower Worton.
They lie between Banbury and Woodstock, near Oxford. Mr. Bateman, in his
_Life of Bishop Wilson_ (1860), says "their united population, consisting
of farmers and agricultural labourers, does not exceed two hundred." From
one village to the other is a distance of about three-quarters of a mile,
or perhaps a little less by the field path. Mr. Bateman says that before
Bishop Wilson came, "the church was much neglected, as a sporting curate