His character and attainments were of the
highest, and, as he was then occupying the foremost place in the
diplomatic service of his country, he was invited to receive an
appropriate honorary degree at Oxford. But, on his presentation for
it in the Sheldonian Theatre, there came a revelation to the people
he represented, and indeed to all Christendom: a riot having been
carefully prepared beforehand by sundry zealots, he was most
grossly and ingeniously insulted by the mob of undergraduates and
bachelors of art in the galleries and masters of arts on the
floor; and the reason for this was that, though by no means
radical in his religious opinions, he was thought to have been in
his early life, and to be possibly at that time, below what was
then the Oxford fashion in belief, or rather feeling, regarding the
mystery of the Trinity.
At the centre of biblical teaching at Oxford sat Pusey, Regius
Professor of Hebrew, a scholar who had himself remained for a time
at a German university, and who early in life had imbibed just
enough of the German spirit to expose him to suspicion and even to
attack.
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