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JOHN HENRY NEWMAN (1801-1890)
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See also: At the age of fifteen, during his last See also:year at school, he was " converted," an incident that throughout life remained to him " more certain than that he had hands or feet." It was in the autumn of 1816 that he thus See also:fell under the See also:influence of a definite creed, and received into his See also:intellect impressions of See also:dogma never afterwards effaced . The See also:tone of his mind was at this date evangelical and Calvinistic, and he held that the See also:pope was See also:anti-See also:Christ . Matriculating at . Trinity College, See also:Oxford, 14th See also:December 1816, he went into See also:residence there in See also:June the following year, and in 1818 he gained a scholarship of 06o, tenable for nine years . But for this he would have been unable to remain at the university, as in 1819 his See also:father's See also:bank suspended See also:payment . In that year his name was entered at See also:Lincoln's See also:Inn . Anxiety to do well in the final' See also:schools produced the opposite result; he See also:broke down in the examination, and so graduated with third-class honours in 1821 . Desiring to remain in Oxford, he took private pupils and read for a fellowship at See also:Oriel, then " the acknowledged centre of Oxford intellectualism." To his intense See also:relief and delight he was elected on the 12th of See also:April 1822 . E . B . See also:Pusey was elected a See also:fellow of the same society in 1823 . On Trinity See also:Sunday, 13th June 1824, Newman was ordained, and became, at Pusey's See also:suggestion, See also:curate of St See also:Clement's, Oxford .
Here for two years he was busily engaged in parochial See also:work, but he found See also:time to write articles on " See also:Apollonius of Tyana," on " See also:Cicero " and on " Miracles " for the See also:Encyclopaedia Metropolitana
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In 1825, at See also:Whately's See also:request, he became See also:vice-See also:principal of St See also:Alban's See also:
At this date, though still nominally associated with the Evangelicals, Newman's views were gradually assuming a higher ecclesiastical tone, and while See also:local secretary of the Church Missionary Society he circulated an See also:anonymous See also:letter suggesting a method by which Churchmen might practically oust Nonconformists from all See also:control of the society
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This resulted in his being dismissed from the post, 8th See also:
J
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See also:Rose, editor of the See also:British See also:Magazine, who has been styled " the See also:Cambridge originator of the Oxford Movement." It was in his rectory See also:house at See also:Hadleigh, See also:Suffolk, that a See also:meeting of High Church clergymen was held, 25th to 29th of July (Newman was not See also:present), at which it was resolved to fight for " the See also:apostolical See also:succession and the integrity of the See also:Prayer-See also:Book." A few See also:weeks later Newman started, apparently on his own initiative, the Tracts for the Times, from which the movement was subsequently named " Tractarian." Its aim was to secure for the Church of England a definite basis of See also:doctrine and discipline, in See also:case either of disestablishment or of a determination of High Churchmen to quit the See also:establishment, an eventuality that was thought not impossible in view of the States' See also:recent high-handed dealings with the See also:sister established Church of See also:Ireland
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The teaching of the tracts was supplemented by Newman's Sunday afternoon sermons at St Mary's, the influence of which, especially over the junior members of the university, was increasingly marked during a See also:period of eight years
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In 1835 Pusey joined the movement, which, so far as concerned See also:ritual observances, was later called " Puseyite "; and in 1836 its supporters secured further coherence by their See also:united opposition to the See also:appointment of See also:Hampden as regius professor of divinity
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His See also:Bampton Lectures (in the preparation of which Blanco See also:
At this date Newman also resigned the editorship of the British Critic, and was thenceforth, as he himself later described it, " on his deathbed as regards membership with the Anglican Church." He now recognized that the position of Anglicans was similar to that of the semi-Arians in the Arian controversy; and the arrangement made at this time that an Anglican bishopric should be established in See also:Jerusalem, the appointment to See also:lie alternately with the British and Prussiangovernments, was to him further See also:evidence of the non-apostolical See also:character of the Church of England
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In 1842 he withdrew to Littlemore, and lived there under monastic conditions with a small See also:band of followers, their life being one of great See also:physical austerity as well as of anxiety and suspense
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To his disciples there he assigned the task of See also:writing lives of the English See also:saints, while his owr_ time was largely devoted to the completion of an See also:essay on the development of Christian doctrine, by which principle he sought to reconcile himself to the elaborated creed and the See also:practical See also:system of the Roman Church
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In February 1843 he published, as an See also:advertisement in the Oxford Conservative See also:Journal, an anonymous but otherwise formal retractation of all the hard things he had said against Rome; and in See also:September, after the See also:secession of one of the inmates of the house, he preached his last Anglican sermon at Littlemore and resigned the living of St Mary's
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But still an See also:interval of two years elapsed before he was formally received into the Roman Catholic Church (9th See also:October 1845) by Father See also:Dominic, an See also:Italian Passionist
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In February 1846 he left Oxford for Oscott, where Bishop Wiseman, then vicar-apostolic of the Midland See also:district, resided; and in October he proceeded to Rome, where he was ordained See also:priest and was given the degree of D.D. by the pope
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At the See also:close of 1847 he returned to England as an Oratorian, and resided first at Mary-vale (near Oscott); then at St See also:Wilfrid's College, See also:Cheadle; then at St See also:Ann's, See also:Alcester See also:Street, See also:Birmingham; and finally at Edgbaston, where spacious premises were built for the community, and where (except for four years in Ireland) he lived a secluded life for nearly See also:forty years
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Before the house at Edgbaston was occupied he had established the London See also:Oratory, with Father See also:Faber as its See also:superior, and there (in See also: 
In 1858 he projected a See also:branch house of the Oratory at Oxford; but this was opposed by See also:Manning and others, as likely to induce Catholics to send their sons to that university, and the See also:scheme was abandoned . In 1859 he established, in connexion with the Birmingham Oratory, a school for the See also:education of the sons of gentlemen on lines similar to those of the English public schools, an important work in which he never ceased to take the greatest See also:interest . But all this time (since 1841) Newman had been under a See also:cloud, so far as concerned the great See also:mass of cultivated Englishmen, and he was now awaiting an opportunity to vindicate his career; and in .1862 he began to prepare autobiographical and other memoranda for the purpose . The occasion -came when, in See also:January 1864, Charles See also:Kingsley, reviewing Froude's See also:History of England in See also:Macmillan's Magazine, incidentally asserted that " Father Newman informs us that truth for its own See also:sake need not be, and on the whole ought not to be, a virtue of the Roman See also:clergy." After some preliminary sparring between the two—Newman's pamphlet, " Mr Kingsley and Dr Newman: a Correspondence on the Question whether Dr Newman teaches that Truth is no Virtue," published in 1864 and not reprinted, is unsurpassed in the English See also:language for the vigour of its See also:satire: the anger displayed was later, in a letter to See also:Sir William See also:Cope, admitted to have been largely feigned—Newman published in bi-monthly parts his Apologia See also:pro vita sua, a religious autobiography of unsurpassed interest, the See also:simple confidential tone of which " revolutionized the popular estimate of its author," establishing the strength and sincerity of the convictions which had led him into the Roman Catholic Church . Kingsley's See also:accusation indeed, in so far as it concerned the Roman clergy generally, was not precisely dealt with; only a passing See also:sentence, in an appendix on lying and equivocation, maintained that English Catholic priests are as truthful as English Catholic laymen; but of the author's own personal rectitude no See also:room for doubt was left . In 187o he put forth his See also:Grammar of Assent, the most closely reasoned of his See also:works, in which the case for religious belief is maintained by arguments differing somewhat from those commonly used by Roman Catholic theologians; and in 1877, in the republication of his Anglican works, he added to the two volumes containing his defence of the via media a long See also:preface and numerous notes in which he criticized and replied to sundry anti-Catholic arguments of his own in the See also:original issues . At the time of the Vatican See also:Council (1869-1870) he was known to be opposed to the See also:definition of Papal See also:infallibility, and in a private letter to his bishop (See also:Ullathorne), surreptitiously published, he denounced the " insolent and aggressive See also:faction " that had pushed the See also:matter forward . But he made no sign of disapproval when the doctrine was defined, and subsequently, in a letter nominally addressed to the See also:duke of See also:Norfolk on the occasion of Mr See also:Gladstone's accusing the Roman Church of having " equally repudiated See also:modern thought and See also:ancient history," Newman affirmed that he had always believed the doctrine, and had only feared the deterrent effect of its definition on conversions. on account of acknowledged See also:historical difficulties . In this letter, and especially in the postscript to the second edition of it, Newman finally silenced all cavillers as to his not being really at ease within the Roman Church . In 1878 his old college (Trinity), to his great delight, elected him an honorary fellow, and he revisited Oxford after an interval of thirty-two years . At the same date died Pope Pius IX., who had long mistrusted him; and See also:Leo XIII. was encouraged by the duke of Norfolk and other distinguished Roman Catholic laymen to make Newman a cardinal, the distinction being a marked one, because he was a simple priest and not See also:resident in Rome . The offer was made in February 1879, and the announcement of it was received with universal See also:applause throughout the English-speaking See also:world . The " creation " took place on 12th May, with the See also:title of St See also:George in Velabro, Newman taking occasion while in Rome to insist on the lifelong consistency of his opposition to " liberalism in religion." After an illness that excited See also:apprehension he returned to England, and thenceforward resided at the Oratory until his See also:death, 11th See also:August 1890, making occasional visits to London, and chiefly to his old friend, R . W . Church, dean of St See also:Paul's, who as See also:proctor had vetoed the condemnation of Tract go in 1841 . As cardinal Newman published nothing beyond a preface to a work by A . W . See also:Hutton on the Anglican See also:Ministry (1879) and an article on Biblical See also:criticism in the Nineteentk See also:Century (February 1884) . Newman's influence as controversialist and preacher (i.e. as reader of his written sermons, for he was never a See also:speaker) was very great . For the Roman Church his See also:conversion secured great See also:prestige and the dissipation of many prejudices . Within it his influence was mainly in the direction of a broader spirit and of a recognition of the important part played by development both in doctrine and in Church See also:government . And although he never called himself a mystic, he showed that in his See also:judgment spiritual truth is apprehended by See also:direct See also:intuition, as an antecedent See also:necessity to the professedly purely rational basis of the Roman Catholic creed . Within the Anglican Church, and even within the more strictly Protestant Churches, his influence was greater, but in a different direction, viz. in showing the necessity of dogma and the indispensableness of the austere, ascetic, chastened and graver side of the Christian religion . If his teaching a.; to the Church was less widely followed, it was becauseof doubts as to the thoroughness of his knowledge of history and as to his freedom from See also:bias as a critic . Some hundreds of clergymen, influenced by the movement of which for ten or twelve years he was the acknowledged See also:leader, made their sub-See also:mission to the Church of Rome; but a very much larger number, who also came under its influence, failed to learn from him that belief in the Church involves belief in the pope . The natural tendency of his mind is often (and correctly) spoken of as sceptical . He held that, apart from an interior and unreasoned conviction, there is no cogent proof of the existence of See also:God; and in Tract 85 he dealt with the difficulties of the Creed and of the See also:canon of Scripture, with the apparent implication that they are insurmountable unless overridden by the authority of an infallible Church . In his own case these views did not lead to See also:scepticism, because he had always possessed the necessary interior conviction; and in writing Tract 85 his only doubt would have been where the true Church is to be found . But,, so far as the See also:rest of the world is concerned, his teaching amounts to this: that the man who has not this interior conviction has no choice but to remain an agnostic, while the man who has it is See also:bound sooner or later to become a Roman Catholic . He was a man of magnetic See also:personality, with an intense belief in the significance of his own career; and his character may be described as feminine, both in its strength and in its weakness . As a poet he had See also:inspiration and genuine See also:power . Some of his short and earlier poems, in spite of a characteristic See also:element of fierceness and intolerance in one or two cases, are described by R . H . Hutton as " unequalled for grandeur of outline, purity of See also:taste and radiance of See also:total effect "; while his latest and longest, " The See also:Dream of Gerontius," is generally recognized as the happiest effort to represent the unseen world that has been made since the time of See also:Dante . His See also:prose See also:style, especially in his Catholic days, is fresh and vigorous, and is attractive to many who do not sympathize with his conclusions, from the apparent candour with which difficulties are admitted and grappled with, while in his private correspondence there is a See also:charm that places it at the See also:head of that branch of English literature . He was too sensitive and self-conscious to be altogether successful as a leader of men, and too impetuous to take part in public affairs; but he had many of the gifts that go to make a first-See also:rate journalist, for, " with all his love for and his profound study of antiquity, there was something about him that was conspicuously modern." Nevertheless, with the scientific and See also:critical literature of the years 1850-1890 he was barely acquainted, and he knew no See also:German . There are a few passages in his writings in which he seems to show some sympathy with a broader See also:theology . Thus he admitted that there was " something true and divinely revealed in every religion." He held that " freedom from symbols and articles is abstractedly the highest See also:state of Christian communion," but was " the See also:peculiar See also:privilege of the See also:primitive Church." And even in 1877 he allowed that " in a religion that embraces large and See also:separate classes of adherents there always is of necessity to a certain extent an exoteric and an See also:esoteric doctrine." These admissions, together with his elucidation of the idea of doctrinal development and his eloquent assertion of the supremacy of See also:conscience, have led some critics to hold that, in spite of all his protests to the contrary, he was himself somewhat of a Liberal . But it is certain that he explained to his own See also:satisfaction and accepted every See also:item of the Roman Catholic creed, even going beyond it, as in holding the pope to be infallible in See also:canonization; and while expressing his preference for English as compared with Italian devotional forms, he was himself one of the first to introduce such into England, together with the ritual peculiarities of the local Roman Church . The See also:motto that he adopted for use with the arms emblazoned for him as cardinal—See also:Cor ad cor loquitur, and that which he directed to be engraved on his memorial tablet at Edgbaston—Ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem—together seem to disclose as much as can be disclosed of the See also:secret of a life which, both to contemporaries and to later students, has been one of almost fascinating interest, at once devout and inquiring, affectionate and yet sternly self-restrained . There is at Oxford a bust of Newman by See also:Woolner . His portrait by Ouless is at the Birmingham Oratory, and his portrait by See also:Millais is in the See also:possession of the duke of Norfolk, a replica being at the London Oratory . Outside the latter See also:building, and facing the See also:Brompton Road, there is a See also:marble statue of Newman as cardinal . (A . W . Hu.) The See also:chief authorities for Newman's life are his Apologia and the Letters and Correspondence, edited by See also:Miss Mozley, above referred to . The letters and memoranda dealing with the years 1845–1890 were entrusted by Newman to the Rev . W .
See also:Neville as See also:literary executor
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Works by R
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W
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Church, J
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B
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Mozley, T
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Mozley and Wilfrid See also: The Anglican Career of Cardinal Newman, 2 vols . London, 1892), while some See also:minor traits and foibles were noted by A . W . Hutton in the Expositor (September, October and See also:November 189o) . See also P . Thureau-Dangin, La See also:Renaissance catholique: Newman et le mouvement d'Oxford (See also:Paris, 1899) ; Lucie See also:Felix-See also:Faure, Newman, sa See also:vie et ses oeuvres (it, . 1901); MacRae, See also:Die religiose Gewissheit bei John Henry Newman (See also:Jena, 1898); Grappe, John Henry Newman . Essai de psychologie religieuse (Paris, 1902) ; . •William See also:Barry, Newman (London, 19o3); See also:Lady See also:Blennerhassett, J . H . Kardinal- Newman (See also:Berlin, 19o4); Bremond, Newman . Le developpement du dogme chritien (Paris, 1905; 4th ed., 1906), Psychologie de la foi (ib . 1906), and Essai de biographie psychologique (ib . 1906) . |
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