Reasonable Christian: Is Anglo-Catholicism a Via Media? Charles Pettit McIlvaine

Before proceeding any further, it is proper to state that the Divinity which we propose to examine, is loudly proclaimed by its advocates to be the middle path, the Via Media, of the Church of England, "distinct from the by-ways of Ultra-Protestantism on the one side, and neither verging towards, nor losing itself in, Romanism on the other."(1) The formularies of the Church of England, and the writings of her standard Divines are often and confidently appealed to as exhibiting the precise doctrines of the system. Now it is the simple question how far these pretensions are true, which we propose to institute. But in order to estimate this Via Media aright, the first thing is to get a view of the opposing sides between which it proposes to pass.... Keep reading.