132 MANNING

Nonconformists, Spurgeon was in the last years of
his life - he died before he was sixty - perturbed by
the theological Liberalism of his brethren, and
hotly denouncing their disloyalty to traditional
Calvinism; and Nonconformity generally, under
the leadership of John Clifford, was at the be-
ginning of the loss of its spiritual fervour and in-
fluence and was rapidly becoming the Sunday
branch of the Liberal Party.

Two contemporary figures, and two figures
alone, in the world of religion had personality,
picturesqueness, and a large measure of audacity :
one was William Booth, the founder of the Salva-
tion Army, the other was Henry Edward Manning,
Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. Their
names were familiar to tens of thousands who
certainly did not know the names of either the
Archbishop of York or His Grace of Canterbury.
They had what is now known as a consistent news
interest. They were flamboyant ; they were
unusual. The General, with his hooked nose,
the Cardinal, with his emaciated frame and thin
ascetic face, were men in whom the nation was
keenly interested even when it criticised and
disagreed.

Manning succeeded in two great historic enter-
prises which have had a profound effect on the his-
tory of the years since his death. His intervention