WISEMAN, NICHOLAS, Cardinal, and Roman Catholic archbishop of Westminster, was b. Aug. 2, 1802, at Seville, of an Irish family settled in Spain. He was brought to Ire land in his childhood, and received his first education at Waterford, whence he was removed to the Roman Catholic college of St. Cuthbert at 'Milroy, near Durham. In his 16th year, he entered as an ecclesiastical student the English college at Rome, and after a very brilliant course, received holy orders at Rome in 1823, at which time he was also admitted to the degree of doctor of divinity, and was appointed vice-rector of the English college, and professor of oriental languages in the university of the Sapienza. In 1828 he published his Harm Syriacce, and in the end of that year was-named rector of the English college. It was while he held this office that he delivered his Lectures on the Connection of Science and Revealed Religion (2 vols. 8 vo, 1836). But in England be first became known by a series of lectures on The Doctrines of the Catholic Church, deliv ered at Moorfields church, and published in two vols. in 1836. In the same year he established, in concert with Mr. O'Connell, the Dublin Review, a journal which has since continued to be the quarterly organ of the Roman Catholic body, and to which Dr_ Wiseman, even while residing abroad, was a regular contributor. In 1840 he was named coadjutor vicar-apostolic of the central district of England, with the title of bishop of Melipotamus in partibus infidelium (q.v.). At the same time he was appointed president of St. Mary's college of Oscott, where he took up his residence. The circumstances of religious parties in England at this period contributed much to bring Dr. Wiseman's very remarkable abilities as a polemical writer into prominence; and the dissensions which arose in the church of 'England during the Tractarian controversy, were turned to effect by him in various lectures, pamphlets, reviews, essays, etc. In 1846 he was transferred as coadlutor vicar-apostolic to the London district; and in 1849 became him telf acting vicar. In the following year, he came still more remarkably into notice, during the progress of a change in the position of the Roman church in England, which, for a time, was the occasion of almost unexampled religious excitement in the country. From the reign of Elizabeth, the sees in England having been occupied by bishops of the established church, and it being penal for a bishop or priest of the Roman Catholic church to officiate in England. the Catholics, for the necessary religious ministrations of their church, had resorted to the well-known expedient of a system of bishops in parti bus snfidelium (q.v.), with the title and authority of vicars apostolic (q.v.). This form of church government, with some modification, had in substance subsisted from the time of James I.; but from the date of the passing of the Catholic emancipation act, it desire had gradually sprung up among Catholics for the restoration of the normal form of church government by the appointment of regular bishops. This measure was finally determined on by the pope in the year 1850, and a new distribution of the kingdom was made into 12 sees (one of them archiepiscopal), in which, in order that it might not be supposed to clash with the existing episcopal system, the names of time ancient sees were carefully avoided, the titles of the new bislrips being taken exclusively from cities and towns winch were non-episcopal. Dr. Wiseman was named archbishop of the see of Westminster, which included great part of the district already under his charge, and was at the same time created cardinal. This measure, for which the Protestant public were but little prepared, and which was made more formidable in their eyes by the lan guage which was employed, although but followino. the established canonical forms, and bearing altogether on the spiritual concerns of the Catholics, was supposed to involve an invasion of the rights and dignities of the established church and of the crown, and called forth a storm of religious excitement which was unexampled during the memory of the living generation. While this excitement, which was much influenced by a letter
addressed by the prime minister to the bishop of Durham, was at its height, the new car dinal, who bad gone to Rome to receive the cardinal's hat, returned to England, and published an explanatory address of great ability and moderation, but yet firmly asserting the strictly constitutional rights of his fellow-Catholics, entitled An Appeal to the .Reason and Good Feeling of the people of England on the Subject of the Catholic Bierachy, This address, as well as certain lectures subsequently delivered by him, and extensively cir culated, did much to mitigate the excitement, which nevertheless led to violent debates in parliament, and to the passing of an act prohibiting the use of ecclesiastical titles other than those recognized by the law. See ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES ASSIMrPTioa Acm. Notwithstanding these unfavorable circumstances of his introduction into notice in Eng land, however, the undoubted abilities and great literary eminence of cardinal Wiseman eventually compelled the admiration of the British public. He took frequent occasion, moreover, by public lectures and addresses on the neutral subjects of education, litera ture, and art, to identify himself with the spirit of progress, and with the national sentiments of his fellow-countrymen; and notwithstanding the infirmity of his constitution, which began to fail soon after his return to England as cardinal, he published during these years a succession of works which although with the strong religious bias natural to a Roman Catholic churchman of earnest convictions, possessed much, nevertheless, congenial to the sympathies of cultivated Englishmen of every degree. The Lectures on Religion and Science already referred to; On the Connec tion between the Arts of Design and those of Production; on the Influence of Words on Thought and Civilization; on the Points of Contact between Science and Art; Recollections of the Last Four Popes, and other similar works, obtained an extensive circulation; and partly from their effect upon the public mind, partly, no doubt, from the reaction con sequent on what was soon felt to have been a groundless and exaggerated alarm, cardi nal Wiseman came by degrees to command the respect of the public at large. He died in his 63d year, on Feb. 15, 1865; and his funeral, which was conducted with great solemnity, and excited great public curiosity and interest, was witnessed with every demonstration of respect by one of the largest assemblies seen for many years in Lon don. Besides admittedly high professional learning, lie was a scholar of rare and singu larly various attainments, an eminent linguist, a well-informed scientific scholar, a dis tinguished orator, a graceful and vigorous writer, and an accomplished critic and connois seur of art. In addition to the works incidentally mentioned above, he published The Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Eucharist (8vo, 1836); Reply to Dr. Turton on the Eucharist (8vo, 1839); Lectures on the Ceremonies of Doty Week (8vo, 1839); Essays on Various Suldects (3 vols., 8vo, 1853)—a selection of articles contributed to the Dublin 1?eView and other periodicals, and of other fugitive essays; Fabiola, or a Church of the Catacombs; a singularly truthful and life-like picture of early Christian life in classic Rome; Sermons (2 vol., 8vo, 1864); with many shorter publications. He also left a large collection of MSS., many of them prepared for the press. In 1866 appeared The Witch of Rosenberg, a Drama in Three Acts; and Daily .Medttations in 1868.