SOURCE: "The Oxford Malignants and Dr. Hampden," in The Edinburgh Review, Vol. LXIII, No. CXXVII, April, 1836, pp. 225-39.

The father of English man of letters Matthew Arnold, Thomas Arnold was a distinguished scholar of classical literature and Christian doctrine. In the following essay, he defends the Bampton Lectures of Dr. Hampden, who criticized the perpetuation of Catholic traditions within the Anglican Church, against the accusations of "rationalism " by the proponents of the Oxford Movement. This essay, deemed excessively pro-Catholic by the critic's peers upon its publication, nearly cost Arnold his position as Master of Rugby School.

Dr Hampden, the present Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford, after having obtained as a young man the highest academical distinctions, was appointed, in the year 1832, to preach what are called the 'Bampton Lectures.' These consist of a course of eight sermons, preached before the University every year...