John Henry Newman

Reception into the Catholic Church.

But still an interval of two years elapsed before he was formally received into the Roman Catholic Church (Oct. 9, 1845) by Father Dominic, an Italian Passionist. In Feb. 1846 he left Oxford for Oscott, where Bishop Wiseman, then vicar-apostolic of the Midland district, resided; and in October he proceeded to Rome, where he was ordained priest and was given the degree of D.D. by the pope. At the close of 1847 he returned to England as an Oratorian, and resided first at Maryvale (near Oscott) ; then at St. Wilfrid's college, Cheadle ; then at St. Ann's, Alcester street, 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 4o years. Before the house at Edgbaston was occupied he had established the London Oratory, with Father Faber as its superior, and there (in King William street, Strand) he delivered a course of lectures on "The Present Position of Catholics in England," in the fifth of which he pro tested against the anti-Catholic utterances of Dr. Achilli, an ex-Dominican friar, whom he accused in detail of numerous acts of immorality. Popular Protestant feeling ran very high at the time, partly in consequence of the recent establishment of a Roman Catholic diocesan hierarchy by Pius IX., and criminal proceedings against Newman for libel resulted in an acknowledged gross miscarriage of justice. He was found guilty, and was sentenced to pay a fine of I ioo, while his expenses as defendant amounted to about £14,000, a sum that was at once raised by public subscription, a surplus being spent on the purchase of Rednall, a small property picturesquely situated on the Lickey hills, with a chapel and cemetery, where Newman now lies buried.

In 1854, at the request of the Irish bishops, Newman went to Dublin as rector of the newly-established Catholic university there. But practical organization was not among his gifts, and the bishops became jealous of his influence, so that after four years he retired, the best outcome of his stay there being a volume of lectures entitled Idea of a University, containing some of his most effective writing. In 1858 he projected a branch house of the Oratory at Oxford ; but this was opposed by Manning and others, as likely to induce Catholics to send their sons to that university, and the scheme was abandoned. In 1859 he established, in connection with the Birmingham Oratory, a school for the 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 interest. But all this time (since 1841) Newman had been under a cloud, so far as concerned the great mass of cultivated Englishmen, and he was now await ing an opportunity to vindicate his career; and in 1862 he began to prepare memoranda for the purpose.

Works.

The occasion came when, in Jan. 1864, Charles Kingsley, reviewing Froude's History of England in Macmillan's Magazine, incidentally asserted that "Father Newman informs us that truth for its own sake need not be, and on the whole ought not to be, a virtue of the Roman clergy." After some preliminary sparring between the two, Newman published, in bimonthly parts, his Apologia pro vita sua, a religious autobi ography of unsurpassed interest, the simple confidential tone of which "revolutionized the popular estimate of its author," estab lishing the strength and sincerity of the convictions which had led him into the Roman Catholic Church.

In 187o he put forth his Grammar of Assent, the most closely reasoned of his works, in which the case for religious belief is maintained by arguments differing somewhat from those com monly used by Catholic theologians; and in 1877, in the republi cation of his Anglican works, he added to the two volumes con taining his defence of the via media a long preface and numerous notes in which he criticized and replied to sundry anti-Catholic arguments of his own in the original issues. At the time of the Vatican Council (1869-7o) he was known to be opposed to the definition of Papal infallibility, and in a private letter to his bishop (Ullathorne), surreptitiously published, he denounced the "insolent and aggressive faction" that had pushed the matter forward. But he made no sign of disapproval when the doctrine was defined, and subsequently, in a letter nominally addressed to the duke of Norfolk on the occasion of Mr. Gladstone's accus ing the Roman Church of having "equally repudiated modern thought and ancient history," Newman affirmed that he had al ways believed the doctrine, and had only feared the deterrent effect of its definition on conversions on account of acknowledged historical difficulties.

In 1878 his old college (Trinity), to his great delight, elected him an honorary fellow, and he revisited Oxford after an interval of 32 years. At the same date died Pope Pius IX., who had long mistrusted him ; and 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 resident in Rome. The offer was made in Feb. 1879, and the announcement of it was received with universal applause throughout the English-speaking world. The "creation" took place on May 12, with the title of St. George in Velabro, Newman taking occasion while in Rome to insist on the lifelong consistency of his opposition to "liberal ism in religion." After an illness that excited apprehension he returned to England, and thenceforward resided at the Oratory until his death, Aug. II, 189o, making occasional visits to London, and chiefly to his old friend, R. W. Church, dean of St. Paul's, who as proctor had vetoed the condemnation of Tract 90 in 1841. Personality.—Newman's influence as controversialist and preacher was very great. Although he never called himself a mystic, he showed that, in his judgment, spiritual truth is appre hended by direct intuition, as an antecedent 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 in dispensableness of the austere, ascetic, chastened and graver side of the Christian religion. If his teaching as to the Church was less widely followed, it was because of doubts as to the thorough ness of his knowledge of history and as to his freedom from bias as a critic. Some hundreds of clergymen, influenced by the movement of which for ten or twelve years he was the acknowl edged leader, made their submission to the Church of Rome. The natural tendency of his mind is of ten (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 God; and in Tract 85 he dealt with the difficulties of the Creed and of the canon of Scripture, with apparent implication that they are in surmountable unless overridden by the authority of an infallible Church. In his own case these views did not lead to scepticism, because he had always possessed the necessary interior conviction. He was a man of magnetic 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 inspiration and genuine power. "The Dream of Gerontius," is generally recognized as a masterpiece. His prose style is fresh and vigorous.

There is at Oxford a bust of Newman by Woolner. His portrait by Ouless is at the Birmingham Oratory, and his portrait by Millais is in the possession of the duke of Norfolk, a replica being at the London Oratory. Outside the latter building, facing Brompton road, is a marble statue of Newman as cardinal.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

The chief authorities for Newman's life are his Apologia and the Letters and Correspondence edited by Miss Mozley, above referred to. The letters and memoranda dealing with the years 1845-90 were entrusted by Newman to the Rev. W. Neville as literary executor. T. Mozley, Reminiscences chiefly of Oriel College, and the Oxford Movement, 2 VOL (1882) ; R. W. Church, The Oxford Movement, Twelve Years, 1833-1845 (1891) ; R. H. Hutton, Cardinal Newman (1891) ; W. P. Ward, The Life of John Henry Cardinal Newman, 2 vol. (1912; 3rd ed., 1927), should also be consulted. Adverse criticism will be found in the writings of E. A. Abbott (e.g., The 4nglican Career of Cardinal Newman, 1892). See also Cardinal Newman's Works, 4o vol. (with index by J. Rickaby, 1874-1921) ; P. Thureau-Dangin, La Renaissance Catholique en Angleterre au XIXe siecle, 3 pt. (1899-1906 ; trans. and rev. by W. Wilberforce, 2 VOL, 1914) ; L. Felix Faure, Newman, Sa vie et ses oeuvres 0900 ; G. Grappe, J. H. Newman, Essai de psychologie religieuse (1902) ; C. J. Blennerhasset, John Henry Kardinal Newman (1904) ; W. Barry, Cardinal Newman (1904 ; rev. ed., 1927) ; H. Bremond, Newman, 3 vol. (1905-06) ; N. J. D. White, John Henry Newman (1925) ; B. Newman, Cardinal Newman (1925) ; J. J. Reilly, Newman as a Man of Letters (1925) ; J. D. Folghera, Newman Apologiste (1927); trans. by P. Hereford as Newman's Apologetic (1929) ; I. L. May, Cardinal Newman 0920 . (A. W. Hu.)