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CORRESPONDENCE OF
JOHN HENRY NEWMAN WITH JOHN
KEBLE AND OTHERS . . . 1839-1845
CORRESPONDENCE OF
JOHN HENRY NEWMAN
WITH JOHN KEBLE
AND OTHERS . • . 1839-1845
EDITED AT
THE BIRMINGHAM ORATORY
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW. LONDON
FOURTH AVENUE & 30th STREET. NEW YORK
BOMBAY. CALCUTTA. AND MADRAS
1917
All rights reserved
A-
Nihil obstat
Carolus J. Cronin, S.T.D.
Censor Deputatus.
Die 7 AugusH, 1917.
Cum Opus cui titulus : " Correspon-
dence of John Henry Newman, etc. 1839-
1845," a Censore a Nobis deputato rite
recognitum et approbatum fuerit, Nos
illud paelo dignum judicamus.
D.Vl'M BlRMlNCHAMTAE
die 8 Auziiii, 1917-
iJ(Eduardus Archiep. Birmingamien
Imprimatur
Edm. Can. Surmont
Vic. Gen,
W r ;, M n V •<, RT r RI 1
die 11 Avgusli, 1917.
PREFACE
A FEW months after the death of Cardinal Newman in i8go
his ' Letters and Correspondence during his Life in the
EngHsh Church' (i 801-1845) were edited by his sister-in-law.
Miss Anne Mozley. The present volume is a further selection
from the last six years of the same correspondence. It
consists of letters which, with a small number of exceptions,
were not published by Miss Mozley. The chief exceptions
are some three or four letters from Newman to Mr. Bowden
written in 1840, and about the same number belonging to
the correspondence between Newman and Keble during
the years 1 843-1845. These latter have been included in
order that the reader may have before him the whole of the
correspondence of which they are a part. The letters to
Mr. Bowden were almost indispensable because of the events
which they describe. The choice practically lay between
reprinting them and giving a summary of their contents.
Some passages in them which were omitted by Miss Mozley,
and are not without interest, have been supplied.
The reader will hardly need to be reminded of the fullness
of the last six years of Newman's life in the English Church,
and their anguish. During the summer and autumn of
1839, when he was studying the history of the Monophysite
controversy in the fifth century, he began to discern * an
awful similitude, more awful because so silent and unimpas-
sioned, between the dead records of the past and the feverish
chronicle of the present.' It was in this way, and from this
most unlikely quarter, that his first doubts concerning the
tenability of his Anglican position crept upon him. He
was startled and dismayed, but there could be no question of
succumbing at once. His doubts might vanish as suddenly
as they had come. Time alone could show whether they
vi PREFACE
were a conviction of the intellect or an obsession of the
imagination.
Meanwhile others were beginning to have their doubts
and difficulties, one of which was how to reconcile sub-
scription to the Thirty-nine Articles with the profession of
Catholic principles. To meet this difficulty, which for his
own part he did not feel, Newman published in 1841 Tract
90. The storm which this Tract raised took him by surprise,
but he weathered it fairly well. If anything, it probably
helped him, by distracting his mind from the thought of his
own difficulties. As for the Tract, he was quite satisfied
with the position which he defended in it, and was content
if it escaped episcopal censure. This latter point, trusting
to an informal ' understanding,' he thought he had secured
by his ' Letter to the Bishop of Oxford.' It was, there-
fore, with a mind at ease that he took refuge in his books
from the turmoil around him and set to work at translating
St. Athanasius for the Oxford Library of the Fathers.
Now came a succession of blows which fairly broke him.
The chief among these were (i) the Jerusalem Bishopric
scheme, and the contrast between the calmness with which
the Church of England endured this public proclamation of
her homogeneity with foreign Protestantism and the outcry
against Tract 90 ; (2) the charges fulminated against Tract
90 ; and, worst of all, (3) St. Athanasius and the history of
the Arian controversy which brought to life again the doubt
that had assailed him in the summer and autumn of 1839.
Then — foris pugnce : intus timores — followed the dreary
years of spiteful attacks from without and ever-increasing
doubts from within, while he lay, as he afterwards described
it, on his death-bed as regards his membership with the
Anglican communion. In the spring of 1843 he could no
longer doubt that he doubted, and he sought counsel from
Keble. In the autumn of the same year he completed the
process of self-effacement, which he had begun after the
condemnation of Tract 90, by resigning St. Mary's. The
autumn of 1844 was the dark night of his soul, into which
hardly any ray of comfort seems to have penetrated. His
PREFACE vii
mind was full of the thoughts of the unhappiness he was
causing his friends, of the great work which he was undoing,
and of the unsettlement and despair of discovering religious
truth which would come over the minds of many. He did
not expect to have a large following, but he feared much
that great numbers, instead of standing where they were,
would gradually sink back to the level from which he had
raised them. The end came in October 1845, sooner than
he had anticipated. At one time he had thought of allowing
a full seven years to pass from the beginning of his doubts
before he came to a decision. Then he proposed to com-
plete his ' Essay on Development.' But the power to hold
his judgment in suspense had practically parted from him,
so clearly did reason and conscience now speak.
The editorial matter is intended to serve as a kind of
historical framework of the letters. For the convenience
of the reader it has been made distinguishable at a glance
from them by being printed in closer lines. The amount
of it may appear excessive to persons already familiar with
the history of the Tractarian Movement, but this history
is rapidly becoming ancient history, and the knowledge of
it on the part of the general reader which could have been
assumed twenty-five or thirty years ago can no longer be
taken as a matter of course. Letters are most precious
memorials of the past. It lives in them as it does in no
other kind of record or monument. This is their charm.
But the knowledge necessary in order to feel it, is very
rarely contained in them. They were not intended for
posterity to the end that it may know, and do not rehearse
for its benefit matters familiar to every one at the time when
they were being written. One need not go very far for an
illustration. The letters connected with Tract 90 in the
present volume will serve the purpose admirably. For those
who bring to them some knowledge of the contents and his-
tory of this famous Tract they make the excitement which it
caused almost contagious. But they do not supply this
necessary preliminary knowledge without which reading them
is like witnessing a play in an unknown language. The finest
viii PREFACE
display of emotion and feeling soon becomes wearisome
when the spectator does not know what it all turns upon.
It is a truism, almost too obvious to be uttered, that those
gain most from the letters and correspondence of a bygone
age who have least to learn from them in the shape of
actual facts.
The Editors desire to record with thanks their appreciation
of the courtesy extended to them by the following persons :
To Mrs. Thomas Keble and the Rev. Dr. Lock, Warden of
Keble College, for permission to use the valuable collection
of letters written by Keble to Newman. They are, further,
indebted to Dr. Lock for his kindness in correcting the
proofs of these letters, the originals of which were deposited
by Ne^vman in the library of Keble College. To Miss
Mary Church for permission to use two letters by her father
the late Dean Church of St. Paul's ; to Mr. J. C. Moberly
for a letter by Bishop Moberly of Salisbury ; to Mrs. Albert
Croly for a letter by Dr. James Henthom Todd ; to
the Rev. Lewis R. C. Bagot for letters by Bishop Bagot of
Oxford ; to the present Bishop of Oxford and the Rev.
Canon J. 0. Johnston for letter by Dr. Pusey ; to Miss
Caroline S, Landon for a letter by the Rev. Arthur Perceval ;
to the Rev. Canon Wyndham for letters by Cardinal Man-
ning ; to Mr. R. E. Froude for a letter by his mother, Mrs.
William Froude ; to Mr. J. R. Mozley for a letter by the
Rev. Thomas Mozley, and much valuable information
besides ; to the family and literary representatives of Dr.
Russell of Maynooth for letters by Dr. Russell ; to Mr. E. C.
Hawkins for a letter by his grandfather, Dr. Hawkins of
Oriel ; to Bishop Hook and to Messrs.^ Macmillan and Co.,
Ltd., for letters by Dean Hook ; and to Mr. John Murray
for extracts made from the ' Life of Bishop W^ilberf orce, '
and from the ' Letters of Frederic, Lord Blachford.'
For any acknowledgment which may be wanting, the
Editors rely upon the indulgence of those whose names have
been omitted, whether through inadvertence or from the
difficulty, after the lapse of so many years, of identif)dng
them.
CONTENTS
CHAP
I. The Summer of 1839
II. The New School of Tractarians
III. Tract XC. January to April 1S41
IV. Dr. Russell and Newman, 1841 .
V. The Jerusalem Bishopric, 1841 .
VI. Increasing Difficulties, 1842
VII. Resignation of St. Mary's. 1843
VIII. In Retirement
IX. The End
Appendix
Index
PAOn:.
I
27
70
III
165
202
294
393
397
CORRESPONDENCE OF
JOHN HENRY NEWMAN
WITH JOHN KEBLE AND OTHERS
1839-1845
CHAPTER I
THE SUMMER OF 1839
* Is there anything whereof it may be said, See, this is new? It hath
been already of old time, which was before us.' — Eccles. i. 10.
In the summer of 1839 Newman took advantage of the
quiet of the Long Vacation to study the history of the
Monophysite controversy. Things were going remarkably
well with him just then. ' I had/ he says, ' supreme con-
fidence in my controversial status, and I had a great and
still growing success in recommending it to others.' ^ [His
controversial status was the Anglican Via Media with its
appeal to antiquity against Rome on the one side, and
Protestantism on the otherTJ
There are stories of haunted places where some tragedy
of the past is being constantly re-enacted after a ghostly
fashion in the present. The exact opposite of this happened
to Newman. He plunged into the past and encountered
the spectre of the present * like a spirit rising from the
troubled waters of the old world, with the shape and
lineaments of the new.' ^
This is how he describes his amazement and disgust : —
' My stronghold was Antiquity ; now here in the middle
of the fifth century, I found, as it seemed to me, Christendom
of the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries reflected. I saw
my face in that mirror, and I was a Monophysite. The
^ Apologia, p. 93. * Ibid. p. 115.
2 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
Church of the Via Media was in the position of the Oriental
communion, Rome was where she now is ; and the
Protestants were the Eutychians.' ^
And again : —
' It was difficult to make out how the Eutychians or
Monophysites were heretics, unless Protestants and j
Anglicans were heretics also ; difficult to find arguments |
against the Tridentine Fathers, which did not tell against j
the Fathers of Chalcedon ; difficult to condemn the Popes i
of the sixteenth century, without condemning the Popes /
of the fifth. The drama of religion, and the combat of truth
and error, were ever one and the same/ ^
It seems a strange thing to insert a piece of fifth-century
church history into a volume of nineteenth-century letters ;
but it is not stranger than the facts which practically
dictate such a procedure. ' Of all passages of history, since
history has been, who would have thought of going to
the sayings and doings of old Eutyches, that delirus senex
as, I think, Petavius calls him, and to the enormities of the
unprincipled Dioscorus, in order to be converted to Rome ? '^
But as this is what actually happened in the case of Newman,
it is to Eutyches and Dioscorus that they must go who wish
to enter into his feelings and reasonings during the years
1839-1845 ; and they must try to realise these two worthies
as vividly as they realise the Heads of Colleges who
condemned Tract XC, or the bishops who wrote charges
against it. The ancients supplied a text and the moderns
provided it with a commentary.
In A.D. 448 Eutyches, the abbot of a monastery in the
suburbs of Constantinople, was condemned by a synod
held in that city, and presided over by St. Flavian, Patriarch
of Constantinople, for teaching the doctrine of One, not
Two, Natures in Christ. Eutyches was a persona grata
at court, and St. Flavian was not. In consequence the
affair soon became one of the first magnitude, and the
Emperor, Theodosius II, determined upon a General Council
to settle it. Meanwhile both the Emperor and Eutyches
wrote to the Pope, St. Leo the Great, but no report came
from St. Flavian.'-l'The Pope wrote somewhat sharply to
the last-named. If^was from him that he ought first to
have heard of the scandal, and it was not clear that Eutyches
.J- Apologia, p. 114. * Ibid. p. 115. a 75,^ p^ ^^^
THE SUMMER OF 1839 3
had been justly condemned. ' Send therefore/ the letter
continued, ' to give us a full account of what has occurred/
On hearing from St. Flavian, the Pope, now fully informed,
wrote his Epistola Dogmatica ad Flavianum, generally
known as the Tome of St. Leo, in which Eutyches was
condemned, and the Catholic doctrine of the Two Natures
was set forth.
St. Leo somewhat reluctantly acceded to the Emperor's
proposal of a General Council, and agreed to be represented
at it by legates. These were furnished with very definite
instructions which they were to deliver to the assembled
bishops. The Council met at Ephesus in August a.d. 449.
Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria, presided, and carried
everything before him. The legates were not refused a
hearing point-blank ; but it was contrived that it should
never be the opportune moment for them to speak and
deliver their instructions. Eutyches was honourably
acquitted ; and St. Flavian was deposed. Unmasked
violence was used to force the bishops to subscribe to this
last measure. The legates escaped with their lives, having
uttered a final protest in the single word ' contradicitur.'
The Council was dubbed by the Pope a Latrocinium or
Gang of Brigands, and the name has stuck to it.
Theodosius died in 450 and was succeeded by Marcian.
In the following year a Council met at Chalcedon to repair
the scandal of the Latrocinium. Like the Latrocinium
it consisted of Eastern bishops, of whom more than
600 were present, and papal legates. The Emperor
was represented by lay officials. Proceedings were opened
by the legates demanding that Dioscorus should leave
his place among the bishops and be put upon his trial
because ' he had presumed to hold a Council without the
authority of the Apostolic See, which had never been done,
nor was lawful to do.'^ He was condemned at the third
session of the Council, sentence being pronounced by the
legates in the name of the Pope and the Council. It may
be noted that the only defence which Dioscorus offered for
his treatment of the legates at the Latrocinium was an
attempt to cast the blame upon others. Also, he was ready
to throw Eutyches overboard. This was typical of the
Middle Path, which the Monophy sites afterwards tried to
steer, between Chalcedon and Eutychianism. The acquittal
* Dioscorus had continued the Council after the flight of the legates.
4 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
of the heresiarch at the Latrocinium was always a raw
place with them.
In the second session the creeds of Nicea and Con-
stantinople, and two Epistles of St. Cyril of Alexandria
which stood as authentic monuments of the Faith defined
at the third General Council, were read. Then followed
the Tome of St. Leo. It was received with such acclama-
tions as ' This is the Faith of the Apostles . . . this is the
Faith of the Fathers . . . Peter has thus spoken through
Leo.' During the interval between the second and fifth
sessions of the Council, practically all the bishops had
subscribed, or in some other way declared their adhesion to
the Tome.i
In the fifth session a storm arose which threatened to
wreck the Council. A definition was drafted which did not
satisfy the legates. This document has not been preserved,
but it apparently contained the ambiguous expression
' Of Two Natures ' instead of the unambiguous one ' In
Two Natures.' The legates at once declared their intention
of returning to Italy, where another Council would be held.
The Imperial officers came to the rescue. Did the bishops,
they demanded, accept the Tome ? The bishops declared
they did accept the Tome ; they even ventured to affirm
that their definition confirmed it, but they would not make
the desired alteration. The Emperor intervened. The
bishops might appoint a fresh committee to draft another
definition ; or they might individually declare their Faith
through their respective metropolitans. If neither course
pleased them, then, seeing that they refused to give a stable
definition respecting the Faith, the Council must be trans-
ferred to Italy. There was still some show of opposition
which the Imperial officers quelled with the dilemma,
' Dioscorus says " Of Two Natures," Leo, '' In Two
Natures." Which will you follow ? ' ' We believe with
Leo,' they replied, ' not with Dioscorus. Whoever opposes
this is an Eutychian.' ' Well then,' rejoined the Imperial
officers, ' add to the definition according to the judgment
of our most holy Leo.' This was decisive, and a definition
was drawn up such as the Pope required.
J Except the Egyptian bishops, who refused on the ground they could
do nothing without their Patriarch, i.e. till a successor to Dioscorus had
been appointed. They pleaded their lives would not be safe when they
returned home if they did so.
THE SUMMER OF 1839 5
The Council was not concluded before a monk named
Theodosius hurried off to Palestine proclaiming that the
Faith was betrayed, and Nestorianism set up in its place. ^
He took forcible possession of the see of Jerusalem and
was able to maintain his position for two years. In Egypt
the bulk of the people espoused the cause of Dioscorus.
There were fierce riots in Alexandria and savage reprisals
on the part of the government. In 457 the Catholic
patriarch Proterius was murdered, and his see usurped
by Timothy the Cat. Timothy was ejected three years
later.
In 470 a similar attack was made on the see of Antioch
by Peter the Tanner. He was ejected about a year later.
In 476 Timothy and Peter were once more in possession
of Alexandria and Antioch respectively. They were both
ousted by the Emperor Zeno in 477. Five years later Zeno
grew weary of the struggle, and issued his famous Henoticon
which anathematised Eutyches and put aside the Council
of Chalcedon, passing over the question of the One or Two
Natures. The Henoticon was, of course, rejected by
Rome ; and for thirty-five years the East was in schism.
There were two types of dissidents from the Council
of Chalcedon : the ultras who may be classed together as
Eutychians (though strictly speaking this term should be
confined to the avowed followers of the heresiarch), and
the more sober Mqnophysites who anathematised Eutyches,
and endeavoured to strike out a middle path between
the extravagances with which he was credited, and
Chalcedon. It would not be possible to draw a sharp line
of demarcation between the two parties. But such men
as the Phantasaists, with their denial of the objective
reality of the Sacred Humanity, and those who held
that It was so intermingled with the Divine Nature,
that the latter became passible and suffered on the Cross,
were clearly on the Eutychian side of the boundary :
and on the other hand those who held that the Divine
Nature, while forming one composite Nature with the
Sacred Humanity, yet remained distinct and unaltered
^ A report was circulated that the Pope had repudiated the Council.
It had this much foundation in fact — he rejected the 28th canon, elevating
Constantinople to the dignity of the second See in Christendom. St. Leo
probably foresaw that bishops in such close proximity to the court would
prove very indifferent guardians of the spiritual independence of the
Church.
6 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
(they used, or rather abused, the analogy'of^soul and body)
were on the Monophysite side.
! Some of the Monophysites came so near orthodoxy,
that a contemporary CathoHc bishop, VigiHus of Thapsus,
declares that many of them did in reahty hold the Catholic
doctrine, but were afraid to profess it except by circum-
locutions. He applies to them the words of the Psalmist,
they were afraid where no fear was. They were afraid of
the term Physis or Nature. They would not accept it as
explained by St. Leo and the Council, but insisted that it
must have another meaning, and imply the Nestorian
doctrine of a human Personality in Christ. There was
something to be said on behalf of their timidity. Many of
the ancient Fathers had avoided the term, or been very
chary of using it, employing in its stead such expressions
as ' The Man,' ' Manhood,' ' The Flesh.' They too, like
the Monophysites, had feared that the word might be taken
to imply those seemingly inseparable adjuncts of human
nature, viz. (i) a human personality, and (2) the frailties
in the moral order which are the consequences of original
sin.i Moreover, St. Cyril's celebrated formula could
easily be represented as almost canonising the restriction
of the term, in the Mystery of the Incarnation, to the
Divine Nature. It is hardly necessary to point out that to
avoid a word while it is open to misconstruction is one thing,
and to refuse it after such misconstruction has been carefully
provided against is another. ^ The ultra-conservatism of the
Monophysites flung the door wide open to a new heresy.
The above is a brief summary of that chapter in early
church history which brought the theory of the Via Media,
elaborated by Newman in his ' Prophetical Ofhce of the
Church,' tumbling about its champion's ears. In the
* Apologia ' he describes how it affected him, but says very
little about why it did so. The omission can be partly,
but only partly, supplied from others of his published
writings, and in some measure from his correspondence.
It is only a very incomplete account of what passed through
his mind that can be attempted, for he never fully recorded
it, very likely — indeed, he as much as says so- — he could
^ Compare such expressions as ' Poor human nature ' ; * What can you
expect from human nature ? ' and the hke.
^ For the employment of the word before the Council of Chalcedon, see
Newman's dissertation on St. Cyril's formula, MIA *T2I2 TOT ©EOT AOFOY
2E2APKnMENH, in Tracts Theolog. and Eccles. pp. 331 ff.
THE SUMMER OF 1839
1 (
not. It was a process of recognition or identification
by which he became convinced that (i) the Church of
to-day which is in communion with the see of St. Peter,
is the representative of the Church of the fourth and fifth
centuries which was able to declare her own mind against
the Arian, the Nestorian, and the Eutychian ; and that
(2) he, for his part, was in a position analogous to that of
the semi-Arians, and semi-Eutychians or Monophysites.
Recognising is a process which it is difficult to explain to
others, or even to oneself. Who could put into words the
means by which he is able to identify his own handwriting ?
or stand cross-examination on how he can discern the
voices, footfall, or features of his friends ?
The first shock to Newman was the great power of the
Pope. It grew upon him, as his mind became steeped
in the Epistles of St. Leo and the Acts of the Council of
Chalcedon, that this was something which he had not
before realised, to which he had been blind partly through
prejudice, and partly because he had hitherto read the
Fathers through the eyes of others.
' In June and July I found my eyes opened to a state
of things very different from what I had learned from my
natural guides (i.e. the great Anglican divines). The
prejudice, or whatever name it be called, which had been
too great for conviction from the striking facts of the Arian
history, could not withstand the history of St. Leo and the
Council of Chalcedon. 1 saw that, if the early times were
to be my guide, the Pope had a very different place in the
Church from what I had supposed. When this suspicion
had once fair possession of my mind the whole Enghsh
system fell about me on all sides.' ^
This ' the place of the Pope ' was only a beginning, and
a beginning which he did not directly follow up. ' I doubt,'
he writes in the 'Apologia,' ' whether I ever held any of the
Pope's powers to be de jure divino while 1 was in the Anghcan
Church. ' 2 He did not make up his mind upon this point,
^ P. 17. Compare letter to Rogers in July, giving an account of the
progress of his studies. ' Two things are remarkable at Chalcedon — the
great power of the Pope (as great as he claims now almost), and the
marvellous interference of the civil power, as great almost as in our
kings.' He jestingly makes the latter a set off against the former.
The letter is printed in Miss Mozley's Letters and Corr. &c. ii. 254.
2 P. 113. ' Not that,' he continues, ' I saw any difficulty in the
doctrine ; not that in connexion with the history of St. Leo, the idea of his
infallibility did not cross my m.ind, for it did.'
8 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
any more than he did upon Transubstantiation, and many
other doctrines, till he accepted them on the testimony
and authority of the Catholic Church. But the door had
been opened to a host of other questionings. The truth is,
the question of the Pope's authority was never regarded by
Newman as adequately representing the real difference
between England and Rome. It did not go to the root of
their quarrel, and to treat it as if it did was to obscure the
real issue. If the Church, Catholic and Roman, had been
confronted throughout the world by a Church Catholic
but not Roman, having the same conception of her rights
and duties, making the same exclusive claim to the authority
which the Church of St. Athanasius and St. Basil, of St.
Ambrose and St. Leo, had claimed — under such conditions
the crucial question, the essential point of difference, might
well have been the authority of the Pope. But this was
not how matters stood between England an(i Rome. The
root of their divergence lay much deeper. / It was to be
found in their irreconcilable ideas concernmg the unity
of the Church, and her office in regard to the Faith J These,
therefore, were the questions which had first to be disposed
of. When that had been done it would be time to settle the
question of the Pope's authority, if, indeed, it was not found
to have already settled itself.
The method uniformly followed by Newman, both before
and after 1839, up to the time when he abandoned the
controversy, was as follows. He first tried to show that
the English Church, in spite of her isolation, was not out-
side Catholic unity. This, he candidly admitted, was the
difficult part of his argument, and he did not try to destroy
his opponents' conception of unity, but to provide an alter-
native view. Having done this, he took the offensive and
accused Rome of adding to the Faith. His Catholic adver-
saries kept on much the same ground. They insisted on
the unity and catholicity of the Church, and on her
authority; and they defended the doctrines which their
opponents attacked. Among these the Roman primacy
was not very prominent. Both sides seem to have
realised that it was idle for men, whose ideas of the
Church were fundamentally different, to dispute about the
form of her government.
* Is there anything whereof it may be said, See, this
is new ? It hath been already of old time, which was
THE SUMMER OF 1839 9
before us.' ^ Newman was feeling about for a Middle Path
between Protestantism and the Council of Trent. Up to
the autumn of 1839 i^ did not occur to him that his experi-
ment was other than a novel one. It might succeed, it
might fail, but as it had no counterpart in history, it was no
use looking there for auguries of success or of failure. Now
it flashed upon him that history was merely repeating
itself. The Monophysites with a very plausible Via Media
between Eutyches and the Council of Chalcedon, and, as
he came to feel in 1841, the semi-Arians trying to steer
between Arius and the Council of Nicea, had both fore-
stalled him. ' To his confusion and distress [he is speaking
of himself in the third person] he found in history a veritable
Via Media in both the semi-Arian and Monophysite parties,
and these, as being heretical, broke his attachment to
middle paths.' ^
He was also much impressed by the inability of the
Monophysites to keep clear of the Eutychians. Their
middle path showed up well enough on paper, but to keep
one's footing on it was not easy. It ran between a mountain
and a bog, and those who would not step off on to the
mountainside were continually found floundering in the
bog. ' It might have been charitably hoped that the
Monophysites' difference from the Catholics had been simply
a matter of words, as it is allowed by Vigilius of Thapsus
really to have been in many cases ; but their refusal to 1^
obey the voice of the Church was a token of real error in
their faith, and their implicit heterodoxy is proved by
their connection, in spite of themselves, with the extreme
or ultra party whom they so vehemently disowned. It
is very observable that ingenious as is their theory and
sometimes perplexing to a disputant, the Monophysites
never could shake themselves free of the Eutychians ;
and though they could draw intelligible lines on paper
between the two doctrines, yet in fact by a hidden fatality
their partisans were ever running into or forming alliance
with the anathematised extreme.' ^ With this example
before him one can easily understand the peculiar horror
with which he regarded an alliance between English Church-
men and Prussian Lutherans such as the Jerusalem Bishopric
scheme seemed to contemplate.
He also seems to have felt that according to the principles
^ Eccles. i. 10. 2 Via Media, i. i6. * Development, p. 314.
10 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
of the Via Media the Monophysites ought not to have been
condemned. Commenting on the reasons given by Eutyches
for refusing the formula, presented to him at the synod of
Constantinople, he says ' It is plain . . .^ that there could
be no consensus ^ against him, as the word is now commonly
understood ' ; and a little further on, ' Much might be
said on the plausibiHty of the defence which ^ Eutyches
might have made for his doctrine, from the history and
documents of the Church before his time/ ^
In a like tone he comments on the definition passed at
Chalcedon, that it ' is the Apostolic Truth once delivered
to the Saints is most firmly to be received, from faith in
that overruling Providence which is by special promise
extended to the acts of the Church ; moreover that it is in
simple accordance with the faith of St. Athanasius, St.
Gregory Nazianzen, and all the other Fathers, will be
evident to the theological student in proportion as he
becomes familiar with their works : but the historical
account of the Council is this, that a formula which the
creed did not contain, which the Fathers did not unani-
mously witness, and which some eminent Saints had almost
in set terms opposed, which the whole East refused, as a
symbol, not once but twice . . . and refused upon the
grounds of its being an addition to the Creed, was forced
upon the Council, not indeed as being such an addition
[i.e. it was not actually inserted in the Creed like the term
Consubstantial], yet, on the other hand, not for subscription
merely, but for acceptance as a definition of faith under the
sanction of an anathema — forced on the Council by the
resolution of the Pope of the day, acting through his legates,
and supported by the civil power.' ^
1 He refers to the rigoristic interpretation of the Vincentian canon
quod uhique &c., which interpretation was in his opinion necessary for the
Anglican position. See Essay on Development, pp. 14, 15.
^ Ibid. pp. 301 ££.
3 Development, p. 312. He goes on : 'It cannot be supposed that such
a transaction would approve itself to the Churches of Egypt . . . they
disowned the authority of the Council and called its adherents
Chalcedonians and Synodites.' In a footnote on ' Chalcedonians ' he
writes : ' I cannot find my reference for this fact.' The omission can be
supplied after the lapse of more than seventy years. In 1838 Newman
reviewed Palmer's Treatise on the Church. Palmer makes the same state-
ment (i. 422), giving as his authority Buchanan's Christian Researches,
p. 123. Buchanan in his travels came across a creed still in use among
the Monophysites in which the errors of Arius, Sabelhus . . . Nestorius
and the Chalcedonians were anathematised. The fact would stick in
THE SUMMER OF 1839 11
There is a further aspect of the same subject, viz. the
significance of what was done at the Council, which cannot
be passed over, though it is impossible to do justice to it in
a few words. 1
Newman tells us in the ' Apologia ' that the controversy
between England and Rome did not in his view turn upon
the infallibility of the Pope ; ' it turned upon the question
of the Faith and the Church.' ' This,' he continues, ' was
my issue of the controversy from the beginning to the
end. jThere was a contrariety of claims between the
Roman and the Anglican religions, and the history of my
conversion is simply the process of working it out to a
solution] In 1838 I illustrated it by the contrast presented
to us by the Madonna and Child, and a Calvary. The
peculiarity of the Anglican theology was this, that it
" supposed the Truth to be entirely objective and detached,
not " (as in the theology of Rome) " lying hid in the bosom
of the Church as if one with her, clinging to and (as it
were) lost in her embrace, but as being sole and unapproach-
able as on the Cross or at the Resurrection, with the Church
close by, but in the background." ' ^
The context of the passage written ' in 1838 ' will
bring out his meaning more clearly : * The received notion
in the English School seems to be that the faith which the
Apostles delivered, has ever existed in the Church whole
and entire, ever recognised as the faith, and ascertainable
as such, and separable (to speak generally) from the mass
of opinions, which with it have obtained a footing among
Christians. It is considered definite in its outline, though
its details admit of more or less perfection ; and in con-
sequence it is the property of each individual, so that he
may battle for it in his day, how great soever the party
attacking it ; nay, as not receiving it from the Church of
the day, but through other sources besides, historical and
Newman's memory though he had only casually come across it. He
would remember Hurrell Froude calling CathoUcs ' those miserable
Tridentines.'
^ And, it must be added, impossible to be sure that one is not reading
more into Newman than there is warrant for. Up to now one has had
the Essay on Development as a guide. The reflections which he makes
there on the history of the Monophysites are hkely to be those which he
made in 1839. But he had no occasion in the chapter of the Development
which treats of the Monophysites to enter into the question now about to
be considered.
^ Apologia, pp. 111-112.
12 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
scriptural, he may defend it, if needs be, against the Church,
should the Church depart from it. . . . This is the doctrine
of Fundamentals,! and its peculiarity is this, that it supposes
the Truth to be entirely objective and detached,' &c.2
It is difficult to imagine that Newman, with this issue
definitely shaped in his mind, should take up the history
of one of the General Councils, and yet not be constrained
to ask himself which of the two theologies, the English or
the Roman, it favoured. The Council with which he was
occupied, like previous Councils, put forward a definition
in terms selected by itself, and anathematised or unchurched
those who refused to accept it. He is likely to have felt
that such a procedure was less easy to justify on the sup-
position that the Faith is something separable or detached
from the Church, than on the contrary supposition. A
definition is a claim on the part of the Church to a right
to interpret the Faith, and the superadded anathema is
an emphatic denial of such a right to others. It may be
observed that at Chalcedon the claim and the denial are
particularly marked because the Monophysites approached
the Faith from externally the same point of view as the
Council. They did not rationalise like the Arians, or put
forward their own interpretations of Scripture as the
Nestorians may be said to have done ; but they rested
their whole case upon tradition. One may put the question
which the phenomenon of a General Council is likely to have
suggested to Newman's mind thus. Suppose England,
Moscow and Rome to be brought together in a General
Council, and suppose this Council to decide questions as
delicate in its day as was the Monophysite controversy
in the fifth century — would not the acceptance of the
definitions of such a Council as irreformable, entail a com-
plete revolution of spirit and character in English divinity ?
^ By ' Fundamentals ' he seems to have understood the doctrine
contained in the Creed as representing essentials, see Prophetical 0£&ce
{Via Media, i. 216-7). It may be noted here that in the Prophetical
Office (i) when Newman speaks of the Creed in the singular he means
both the Western and the Eastern type ; (2) he seems to assume that the
Creed contained all that was essential, and not merely the heads of doctrines
communicated to catechumens. Yet the Creed says nothing about the
Eucharist !
2 Palmer's View of Faith and Unity reprinted in Essays Crit. and Hist.
i. 209. By a curious irony of fate, Newman's celebrated Essay in the
Rambler was delated at Rome as contradicting that very view of the
magisterium which made him a Catholic.
THE SUMMER OF 1839 13
But it would be presumptuous to pursue this train of
thought any further. One runs the risk of reading more
into Newman than one has a right to. All that is certain
is (i) that the question of 'the Faith and the Church/ as
described in the * Apologia/ was before his mind in 1839 >
(2) that, if not then, at all events very soon he began to
feel that from the English point of view the General Councils
were a difficulty ; ^ (3) that he realised he was not the
first Anglican to feel this difficulty. An imposing list of
divines could be drawn up to whom the definitions, or at
least the anathemas of the Councils seemed out of harmony
with English theology. These solved the difficulty by
something like the following compromise, which, of course,
Newman could not accept. On the one hand they defended
the definitions as true doctrine ; on the other, they
were prepared, if opportunity offered, to enter into
communion with Monophysites and Nestorians in the
East. They excused them on the ground either that
their differences from the Church were verbal rather than
real, or, that by keeping to the Creeds they preserved the
essentials of the Catholic Faith.^
On August 30 Newman noted down in a memorandum
book which he kept, ' Finished my reading on Mono-
physitism.' In the 'Dublin Review' of the same month
appeared the celebrated article of Dr. Wiseman in which
a parallel was drawn between the Anglicans and the
Donatists. This article made a considerable stir, and
Newman's attention was called to it about the middle of
September. He read it without being much impressed
by it. He had discovered his own lineaments in the
Monophysites ; but he did not see them reflected in the
Donatists. The position of these turbulent sectaries seemed
to differ materially from that of the English Church. But
a friend laid his finger on a passage from St. Augustine,
quoted in the article, containing the words ' Securus judicat
orbis terrarum,' and repeated them again and again to him,
till they rang in his ears. St. Augustine did not ransack
the dusty archives of the past in order to confute the
Donatists, but appealed to the living present Church of his
day ; and her judgment, which he triumphantly quoted
as final, covered the case of all schisms whatever their
peculiarities might be.
^ See infra, p. 22. 2 ^qq jjijy^ of Aug. i. 389 ff.
14 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
To two only of his friends did Newman unburden his
mind — Frederic Rogers and Henry Wilberforce. The
latter thirty years afterwards described how this happened
in his case :
' It was in the beginning of October 1839, that he made
the astounding confidence, mentioning the two subjects
which had inspired the doubt, the position of St. Leo in
the Monophysite controversy, and the principle "securus
judicat orbis terrarum " in that of the Donatists. He
added that he felt confident that, when he returned to his
rooms and was able fully and calmly to consider the whole
matter, he should see his way completely out of the difficulty.
But, he said, *' I cannot conceal from myself, that for the
first time since I began the study of theology, a vista has
been opened before me, to the end of which I do not see."
He was walking in the New Forest, and he borrowed the
form of his expression from the surrounding scenery.^
His companion, upon whom such a fear came like a thunder-
stroke, expressed a hope that Mr. Newman might die rather
than take such a step. He replied, with deep earnestness,
that he had thought, if ever the time should come when
he was in serious danger, of asking his friends to pray that
if it was not indeed the will of God, he might be taken away
before he did it. Of such a [danger ^] meanwhile he spoke
only as a possibility in the future, by no means as of a thing
that had already arrived. But, he added, with special
reference to Dr. Wiseman's article on the Donatists, " It
is quite necessary that I should give a satisfactory answer
to it, or I shall have the young men around me — such
men," he added, " as Ward of Balliol — going over to Rome."
Hopeful, however, as he still was, it was impossible not to
feel
Haeret lateri lethalis arundo ;
for he would walk some time in silent musing, and then
say " One thing I am sure I can promise you, that I shall
never take such a step unless Pusey and Keble agree with
me that it is a duty." At another time, " I wonder whether
such a step would be justifiable if a hundred of us saw it
to be their duty to take it with me ? " These words may
* He had used the term ' vista ' in his letter to Rogers written a few
days previously ; see Miss Mozley, Letters &c. ii. 256.
* There are clearly some misprints and omissions in this sentence.
THE SUMMER OF 1839 i5
not be quite exact, but the deep wound which they branded
upon the inmost soul of the hearer makes it quite impossible
that they should not be correct in substance/ ^
The reader of the letters contained in this volume will
have no doubt of the more than substantial accuracy of
Mr. Wilberforce's recollections. The ideas, almost the
very words which he placed in Newman's mouth, will be
found recurring again and again in them.
Newman's confidence that he should see his way out
of his difficulties when he was back in his rooms was in great
measure justified. He set himself to reply to Dr. Wiseman
in an article entitled ' The Catholicity of the Anglican
Church ' ; ^ and this article quieted his mind for about two
years. These years might be called the St. Martin's summer
of his Anghcanism. The sun shone out finely during the
day, but the nights grew longer and more chilly.
The crisis through which he had passed did not at first
seem to bring him any nearer to Rome. It destroyed, but
did not build up. ' Down had come the Via Media, as a
definite theory or scheme, under the blows of St. Leo * ;
I had no positive theory : I was very nearly a pure
Protestant,' ^ i.e. with nothing to go upon except anti-
Romanism. Yet it is difficult to see what tangible difference
as regards his position this tremendous upheaval in his
mind had made. [Before 1839 ^^ wished to seethe doctrines
of the primitive church without ' Roman additions,' or
Protestant suppressions of them, realised in the Anglican
Church.T It was the same too in 1840 and 1841.* There
then he was in effect still on the middle path, but with
this difference ; before 1839 he marched \along it gaily,
after 1839 ^^ shudder ed^^. at it as an ill-omened road —
vestigia terrent, the footprints'^of Dioscorus and his crew.
Again, before 1839 ^^ ^^^ weighed the strength of the Roman
position, as presenting a Church Catholic and undivided,
and the weakness of England as being apparently in a state
of schism ; but this weakness was more than compensated
in his eyes by what he considered the Roman additions to
the Creed. His mind was the same for some time after
^ Dublin Review, April 1869, pp. 327-8.
* Reprinted in Essays Crit. and Hist. vol. ii., with what almost
amounts to a commentary.
V Apologia, p. 120.
* The ' Ghost ' appeared again towards the end of 1841 when he resmned
his studies.
i6 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
1839 with two important modifications : (i) St. Augustine
had taught him that a state of schism or isolation was an
even graver matter than he formerly judged it to be ^ ;
(2) the suspicion gradually grew upon him that Roman
* additions ' to the Creed were not so patent an introducing
into it of alien matter as he had once supposed.
The following are memoranda drawn up by Newman
during the latter half of 1844. He obviously intended them
to serve as explanations of the change in his religious
opinions ; but he never completed or revised them.
They are merely hasty jottings which he did not go on
with. Fragmentary though they are, no apology is needed
for printing them. It should be added that some portions
of them have been difficult to decipher, and, what is more
serious, the order or arrangement of the material which the
writer intended is not always clear.
I
July 28, 1844. Memorandum in case of need — a rough
draft.
Anyone who thinks well of me will easily understand
that it would be much more pleasant to me under present
circumstances to be silent than to speak. But I do not
think I have a right to indulge my wishes. There are
persons whom my conduct is likely to perplex, if it is un-
accompanied by explanation, and they are just the persons
whose feelings I should be most grieved to disturb.
I believe I have no other motive in writing. I am too
sure that I am right in the step on which I have deter-
mined, to feel disposed on any other ground to say a word.
I have waited till I could act without doubt or hesitation,
I have waited in much dreariness though not in sadness for
years — I have not waited in order at the end of that time
to get into controversy about myself. Still, those who
think well of me and wish me well, have a claim on me to
say how it is I have come to hold what once I disowned,
^ He still thought this difficulty could be met fairly and squarely, and
attempted to do so in his article ' The CathoUcity of the AngUcan Church.'
THE SUMMER OF 1839 r^
and they and their feeUngs are in most cases unknown to
me, and couldn't be reached by any private communication.
I cannot be ashamed that my first efforts were to support
the Church within v.^hich I was born, or that I came to her
system with a confidence it was true, and studied it with
prepossessions in its favour, and accepted it with my
heart as well as with my intellect. I was zealous for her,
I reverenced her divines, I entered into their theory,
ecclesiastical and theological — I admired its internal con-
sistency and beauty. I read the Fathers through them,
I read the history of the first centuries with their eyes.
My object was, in what I wrote, to serve them, and their
and my Church ; to develop their views, and to supply
and harmonise what was wanting or irregular [he wrote
above, ' irregular ' * faulty ' as alternatives] in them.
But so it was, in June and July 1839 reading the
Monophysite controversy I found my eyes opened to a state
of things very different from what I had learned from my
natural guides. The prejudice, or whatever name it be
called, which had been too great for conviction from the
striking facts of the Arian history, could not withstand the
history of St. Leo and the Council of Chalcedon. I saw
that, if the early times were to be my guide, the Pope had
a very different place in the Church from what I had
supposed. When this suspicion had once fair possession of
my mind, and I looked on the facts of the history for myself,
the whole English system fell about me on all sides, the
ground crumbled under my feet, and in a little time I found
myself in a very different scene of things. What had
passed could not be recalled.
I must not leave the impression that this took place in
an instant. What my state of feeling was through the
summer of 1839 I cannot tell. I was engaged in the
theological controversy ^ and that of course had far the more
prominent place in my thoughts, but toward the end of
October my attention was drawn to the subject of the
Donatists, in consequence of an article in the * Dublin
* [The question of the ' Two Natures.']
i8 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
'Review.' The English explanation I found a second time
unequal to the facts of the case— and for a time the grave
truth 1 that the Anglican Church is in a state of schism
had possession of my mind.
Yet I did not dare to trust my impression— and I
resisted it. I trust I did so on principle ; certainly I have
long thought it a duty to resist such impressions— If true
they will return (St. Theresa).
I collected myself and wrote a paper against the article
in the ' Dublin Review ' [' On the Catholicity of the English
Church ' which appeared in the ' British Critic ' for Jan.
1840]. This paper quieted me for nearly two years, till
the autumn of 1841.
Meanwhile an important event had occurred. No. 90
had been censured (at that time, as far as I recollect my
doubts were as much quieted as they have been at any
time since 1839).
At that time, though what had happened had left
permanent effects upon my opinions, my doubts had so far
passed away that I could, at the Bishop's wish, repeat what
I had said against the Church of Rome so far as this, viz.
that I thought that there was error in it, and till that error
was removed one could not hold communion with it. This
indeed I was unwilling to do, not liking to commit myself
again, with the consciousness of the chance of change in
prospect, but I did not feel that I had any right to put a
contingency against a Bishop's command — to confess I had
had doubts while I made it, would have been to scatter
firebrands.
(You say I have changed. I have. There is nothing
to be ashamed of. Changes there are which carry shame,
but why should this ? Is it any shame that being bom
under a certain faith, I took it up and tried to maintain it ?
that I loved the Church into whose communion I had been
received ? that I adopted the system of its chief divines ?
that having a Hving in it, I felt I had a charge to fulfil ?
that being accused of inclining to Rome — and having no
^ [The word used in the MS. is quite illegible. It may perhaps be
' doubt,'
THE SUMMER OF 1839 19
consciousness that I held what our divines had not held,
and feeling with them that there were things in Rome with
which I could not agree, that I should say so ? Ought I to
have held my tongue when accused untruly ? etc.) On the
last words of my article on ' Private Judgment ' ^ compared
with the Jerusalem Bishopric, is not that an act of schism ?
II
Rough draft of a letter to a friend ^
October 30/44. Carissime — If I consulted my own feelings and
habits, I should do what I have so often done when I was
exposed to obloquy on the part of others, keep silence. I don't
take to myself merit or demerit for such silence on former
occasions. It is my way. I feel much indisposed to attempt
what I despair of succeeding in. Men will misunderstand one,
whatever one says — that is those who wiU, will, and those
who will not, will not. Those who feel any love for a person
will interpret his most perplexing words and deeds in a
charitable way — and those who already think one utterly
self-deceived, hopelessly inconsistent, and faulty and
unsound at the hidden springs of character will put a bad
interpretation on everything — Decipi vult populus, et
decipiatur. I am impatient of attempts to which I despair
of an issue. ^ If this comes from disdain it is miserable no
doubt. But it takes up time, wearies, unsettles the mind ;
and writing itself is a trouble, and having to arrange the
thoughts. And then when a man vividly feels that Time
is the great arbiter of actions and corrector of judgments,
why should he not leave the elucidation of his thoughts and
notions to Time ?
' Leaving the thing to Time who solves all doubt.
By bringing Truth his glorious daughter out.'
And above all if he dare look forward to that Day in which
^ [Written July 1841 ; reprinted in Essays Crit. and Hist. vol. ii.]
* Evidently intended to be an Open Letter.
^ Written above ' when I cannot see their utility.'
20 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
Time will end, or if now he is able to look beyond this
world to judgment now passing out of sight (yes now
passed), and if the judgment within his own heart, after
all drawbacks, gives him hopes that the unseen judgment
is more gracious than the thoughts of men, he will feel very
little disposed to put himself out of his way to do for him-
self what he trusts will one day be done for him. ' Populus
me sibilat, at mihi plaudo ipse domi,' rises in his mind
with a Christian meaning.
Yet there are considerations which overcome this
sluggish habit, inclination, or by whatever better name you
choose to call it, without laying claim to any very exalted
charity or any very keen sympathy towards others. Surely
one may have a conviction about what is due to certain
persons, persons whom one has never seen, persons who
only know one through one's writings strong and bitter [?]
enough to make it a duty to speak now or not to have
spoken at all. Do then what you will with this letter ;
you have the entire disposal of it : though I shall write
it as far as I can with the thought of an individual friend
before me, not of my well-wishers in general, much less of
my ill-wishers. But I do not wish my name put, for that
would be like a call on persons to read it, whereas in an
anonymous pamphlet it is more their own act, or they may
excuse themselves, though there are persons of course
whom I should wish to see it.
Well then you know what this most distressing, awful
confession is I have to bring out, if I can find words for
it. Long, very long, as the subject of it has been before
my mind, so that it might seem to have lost its fresh-
ness — ^the contemplation of its keenness ; it is not so. And
you will understand yourself what I would say without my
saying it outright in my first sentence.
It is at this time above four years since [that] a clean
conviction rose on my mmd, from reading the early con-!
troversies of the Church, that we were in loco hereticorum.^
I saw the position of the Novatian, the Arian, the Donatist,
the Nestorian, the Monophysite, a very definite one. I saw
THE SUMMER OF 1839 ("21
their position, their characteristics, their acts, their fortunes :
these were all substantially one and the same. We seemed
to me faithfully to reflect them at this day : i.e. to be as
like them as they are to each other. I saw they generally
consisted of a two-fold variety, an extreme party and a
moderate. I saw our own image reflected in the ancient
Via Media. I saw that of [the] Church of Rome reflected
in the severe, uncompromising, and if you will, imperious,
peremptory behaviour of the saints of the ancient Church,
St. Ignatius, St. Cyprian, St. Athanasius, St. Augustine,
St. Leo. But at first I saw still more strongly the opposite
fact ; not merely that Protestant bodies, that individuals,
that numbers among ourselves, but, if it must be spoken,
that our own communion, as such, was there where heretical
churches were of old.
It became far more certain to me that we were cut off
from the Church [he wrote first ' in heresy and schism '
and then crossed it out] than that the Roman Church has
departed from primitive doctrine [he wrote first 'erred
in doctrine ']. I saw more in the early Church to convince
me that separation from the great body of the Church, and
separation from the See of St. Peter was the token of heresy
and schism, than that the additions which that great
body, which the See of Peter has received upon the primitive
faith were innovations [he first wrote * corruptions '].
I was not so certain that they might not be developments,
instead of corruptions, as I was certain that we were not
in a position to know, that our Church was not in a position
to pronounce whether they are corruptions or not.
I ought to illustrate all this — ^but I do not know how to
do justice to my own reasonings and impressions. They
are past not present — the impression remains, but the
process of argument is like a scaffolding taken down when
the building is completed. ; I could not recollect all the
items which went to make up my convictions, nor could I
represent it to another with that force with which it came
to my own mind. , Corroborations too are generally coin-
cidences — ^resulting from distinct courses of thought or from
22 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
the bodies of fact which require a certain frame of mind
to appreciate, and a most extended space even to explain.
However I will do my best.
Now first I have very long been perplexed about these
[ecumenical] Councils. Anglicans generally agree in
receiving at least four— On what ground do they receive
them ? Why do they receive the Nicene Creed ? If merely
because it is Scriptural, then, of course, they do not receive
the Council, as a Council, at all. They do not receive the
Council in any other light than they receive the words of
any private person who agrees with them in opinion. If
as being near the times of the Apostles, this is not receiving
the Council, else we ' receive ' St. Athanasius or St. Hilary.
But to receive a Council is to receive it as a Council. It is
to hold that certain kinds of Councils are infallible, and
certain actual Councils are true. Now I cannot make out
in what sense the Council of Nicea, Constantinople,
Ephesus or Chalcedon are true Councils, in which that of
Trent is not a true Council also. I seem to feel I must
either go on to Trent or stop short of Nicea. (Draw out
Trent "W'ith, (e.g.) Stillingfieet's or Geddes's objections to it,
then Chalcedon by way of parallel in this way : ' There is
a Council in which ' so and so . . . Now this is Chalcedon.)^
Again I cannot make out about the separate books of
the Canon — ^why I receive e.g. Esther and not Ecclesiasticus
or Wisdom, or (as the late Dr. Arnold speaks) part of the
Book of Daniel.
Again about separate doctrines, I cannot see why
prayers for the dead are primitive, and not the Pope's
Supremacy.
Thus I am in the condition that I must either beheve
all or none. And so it really is. I see no resting place for
the sole of my foot between all and none.
(If I must illustrate what I mean, I will take the Mono-
physite controversy which affected me most, though I
think the Donatist furnishes a stronger instance in point —
* In the margin against the words in brackets he wrote * a separate
pamphlet.'
THE SUMMER OF 1839 23
I felt on what principle do we receive Chalcedon yet not
Trent ? illustrated by conduct of American Church, being
more unshackled than we, which is obliged to receive
Nestorians. On same argument which would prove our
Church one with Rome would prove our Dissenters one
Church with us.)
About at proper place how far going into extreme of
beheving all, lest one should be sceptical as Arnold puts it.
No — reason comes in. It is irrational to believe so much
unless we believe more. This not the mere relief, as he
says. . . .
Ill
An undated fragment
Of course I do not mean to say that all these thoughts
came upon me at once and in their distinctness. But they
came forcibly and pointedly enough in 1839 ^^ produce at
the time a clear conviction of our unsatisfactory position
relatively to Rome which I did not get rid of but with much
reasoning and consideration, and only gradually. But
through 1840 and the greater part of 1841 I had reconciled
myself to things as they are among us, so far as to think
it a duty to remain under them, and to acquiesce in the
Anglican professions and formularies ; not indeed without
a strong desire to find or to read them Catholice ; and on
the other hand almost an increased anxiety to speak sharply
against what I considered the practical corruptions of the
Church of Rome. These two things were the two conditions
of my feeling it possible to remain where I was ; for they
of course who insist upon the distinction [written above
' draw a line '] between the authoritative documents and
the practical teaching of the Church of Rome, will, of course,
be led to speak strongly against her teaching to account
[written above ' as a reason '] for not joining her, and to
interpret our own Church by her doctrines as a reason for
\here he broke off].
24 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
IV
Extract from a letter to a friend [April 5, 1844)
[The Council of Chalcedon.] I found what surprised
me very much. It struck me at once, but when it began
to assume an unsetthng character I do not recollect — ^but
I found in that history more matter for serious thought
than in anything else I had read . . . Now I cannot bring
together all the strange things I found . . . I found the Eastern
Church under the superintendence (as I may call it) of Pope
Leo. I found that he made the Fathers of the Council
unsay their decree and pass another, so that (humanly
speaking) we owe it to Pope Leo at this day that the Catholic
Church holds the true doctrine. . . I found a portentous
large body of Christians thrown into schism by this Council
— at this day the Churches of Egypt, Syria (in part), and
Armenia — and the Schismatics, not like the Arians of a
rationalist [character], but with a theology of a warm and
elevating character. I found that they appealed, and with
much plausibility, to certain of the Fathers, as St. Athanasius
and St. Cyril of Alexandria — that they professed to be
maintainers of antiquity — that they called their opponents
(the Catholics) Chalcedonians, as we call the Roman Catholics
Tridentines. . . Further, I found there was a large middle
party as well as an extreme. There was a distinct Via
Media . . . and there was a large body which went on
for some centuries without Bishops — I am writing from
memory, but I am sure I am right in all points of consequence
— in a word I found a complete and wonderful parallel,
as if a prophecy, of the state of the Reformation contro-
versy ; and that we were on the anti-Catholic side.
V
The same continued
[The Arians and semi- Arians.] I will go on with this
part of the subject at the expense of the order of time. I
add then that from that time to this, the view thus brought
THE SUMMER OF 1839 25
before me, has grown upon me. I had hitherto read
ecclesiastical history with the eyes of our Divines, and taken
what they said on faith ; but now I had got a key, which
interpreted large passages of history which had been locked
up from me. I found everywhere one and the same picture,
prophetic of our present state ; the Church in communion
with Rome decreeing, and heretics resisting. Especially as
regards the Arian controversy. How could I be so blind
before ! except that I looked at things bit by bit, instead of
putting them together. Here was Pope Julius resisting
the whole East in defence of St. Athanasius ; the Eusebians
at the Great Council of Antioch resisting him, and he
appealing to his own authority (in which the historians
support him), and declaring that he filled the See of Peter.^
. . . There were two parties, a Via Media and an extreme,
both heretical, but the Via Media containing pious men
whom St. Athanasius and others sympathise in — ^there
were the Kings of the earth taking up the heresy against the
Church — ^there was precisely the same appeal to Scripture,
which now obtains, and that grounded on a literal inter-
pretation of its text, to which St. Athanasius always opposes
the ' ecclesiastical sense ' — ^there was the same complaint
of introducing novel and unscriptural terms into the Creed
of the Church, ' consubstantial ' and ' Transubstantiation,'
being both of philosophical origin ; and if Trent has opposed
some previous Councils (which I do not recollect), at least
the Nicene council adopted the very term ' consubstantial,'
which a celebrated Council of Antioch, sixty or seventy
years before, condemned or discountenanced.
VI
Continuation : April 9, 1844
[The Donatists.] At the end of the Long Vacation
(1839) 3- number of the ' Dublin Review ' appeared, containing
an Article by Dr. Wiseman which made some talk in Oxford.
^ Julius' Letter, with Newman's notes on it, can be read in the Oxford
Library of the Fathers — Historical Treatises of St. Athanasius (published
in 1843). It is interesting to compare the frigid character of the notes
with the above.
26 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
I looked at it, and treated it very lightly. Persons, who
(I suppose) half took up our views, said we were bound to
answer it, meaning it was a great difficulty in the way of the
Anglican theory. I recollect saying it was ' all the old
story ' — and would not think about it . . . but I found it,
on careful attention, to contain so powerful an argument
that I became (I may say) excited about it. . . The
argument in the Article in question was drawn from the
history of the Donatists, and was directed to show that the
English Church was in schism. The fact to which the
Monophysite controversy had opened my eyes, that anta-
gonists to Rome, and churches in isolation, were always
wrong in primitive times, and which I had felt as a presump-
tion against ourselves, this article went on to maintain,
as a recognised principle and rule in those same ages. It
professed that the /ad of isolation and opposition was always
taken as a sufficient condemnation of bodies so circumstanced,
and, to that extent, that the question was not asked How
did the separation arise ? Which was right, and which
wrong ? Who made the separation ? but that the fact
of separation was reckoned anciently as decisive against
the body separated. This was argued chiefly from the
language of St. Augustine, as elicited in the Donatist Con-
troversy, and the same sort of minute parallel was drawn,
between the state of the Donatists and our own, which I
had felt on reading the history of the Monophysites.
CHAPTER II
THE NEW SCHOOL OF TRACTARIANS
* I am surprised at your horror of our ultras — some of them are the
very persons you would Hke if you knew them.' — Newman to Mr. Hopey
Dec. 1841.
No outward event of importance in the history of the
Oxford Movement marks the close of 1839 and the following
year. But there was one noteworthy feature in the situa-
tion — the sudden and unexpected emergence of a new party
or school with what were called Romanising tendencies.
This was the school which ' cut into the original Movement
at an angle, fell across its line of thought, and then set
about turning that line in its own direction/ It ' knew
nothing about the Via Media and had heard much of
Rome.'i
The rise of such a party was a not unnatural consequence
of (i) the doctrinal, and (2) the religious principles of the
Movement, especially when they encountered opposition.
(i) The movement began at a time when Disestablish-
ment and Disendowment seemed far from remote dangers.
It was an attempt not to avert but to provide against such
a crisis. The Church must stand for something or cease
to exist. What was this something to be, if the State
disowned her ? The Tractarians found an answer in the
two kindred and almost forgotten doctrines of the Catholic
Church and the Apostolic Succession. In the strength of
these the clergy could face the worst the State might do.
She might discharge them from her service, and leave them
to shift for themselves ; but if they were the successors of the
Apostles she could not deprive them of their mission. Natur-
ally enough, when a number of men had grasped the idea of
the Catholic Church with its fundamental note of unity,
* Apologia, p, 163.
28 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
there were among them some to whom the isolated position
of their own communion presented itself as an anxious
problem. The originators of the movement had not
anticipated this ; but within little more than two years
after it began there was a vague feeling of uneasiness in
the air :
' The controversy with Roman Catholics has overtaken
us like ''a summer's cloud." We find ourselves in various
parts of the country preparing for it, yet, when we look back,
we cannot trace the steps by which we arrived at our present
position. We do not recollect what our feelings were this
time last year on the subject — what was the state of our
apprehensions and anticipations. All we know is that
here we are, from long security ignorant why we are not
Roman Catholics, and they, on the other hand, are said to
be spreading . . . and taunting us with our inability to
argue with them.' ^
(2) The Tracts represented the doctrinal side of the
movement : but there was another influence at work
more potent than they. ' The Tracts,' to quote Dean
Church, ' were not the most powerful instrument in drawing
sympathy to the movement. None but those who remember
them can adequately estimate the effect of Mr. Newman's
four o'clock sermons at St. Mary's. The world knows
them, has heard a great deal about them, has passed its
various judgments on them. But it hardly realises that
without these sermons the movement might never have
gone on, certainly would never have been what it was. . . .
While men were reading and talking about the Tracts,
they were hearing the sermons ; and in the sermons they
heard the living meaning, and reason, and bearing of the
Tracts. . . . The sermons created a moral atmosphere in
which men judged the questions in debate.' 2
Can there have been any connection of cause and effect
between these sermons and the party or school in question ?
At first sight it would appear certainly not. The sermons
treat mainly upon religious and moral subjects, and
doctrinally they keep well within the limits of a moderate,
one might say very moderate, high church orthodoxy.
Then their tendency is to isolate the hearer from his sur-
1 Newman, Tract LXXI — reprinted in Via Media, vol. ii.
* Church, Oxford Movement, pp. 129-130,
THE NEW SCHOOL OF TRACTARIANS 29
roundings and almost to prevent him dwelling upon them.
It is not by them but by what he is in himself that he will
be judged. To each man the two supreme realities are
God and his own soul.
The Church and her ordinances are treated chiefly as
means of Grace for the individual soul. As for the
distressed state of Christendom, the shattered unity of
the Church split into three great fragments, the Eastern,
the Latin, and the English, this comes before the mind
not as an anxious problem, but rather as an incitement to
watchfulness and prayer. It is a reminder of that crumb-
ling away of Faith which is to precede the Second Coming.
On some minds the effect of such teaching would be to make
them withdraw within themselves and be resigned to what
there seemed to be no escape from. But on others the
effect would be different. The preacher was known to
hold, though he did not obtrude them, strong views on the
superiority of the single over the married life.^ He insisted
much upon the duty of self-denial ; on the fearful character
of sin, especially post-Baptismal sin, on the uncertainty
there must always be with regard to this latter as to whether
it had yet received pardon ; on the necessity of self-
discipline, circumspectness, rigorous self-examination, in a
word, of 'working out our salvation in fear and trembling.'
By men of one religious party such ideas would be denounced
as carnal, legal, trusting in good works, and the like. By
those of another party they would be denounced as opposed
to the march of intellect, gloomy and superstitious. ^ But
there must have been some, certainly not without a
share in the mens naturaliter Christiana, on whom their effect
may best be illustrated by the following passage from ' Loss
and Gain.'
' Reding, for instance, felt a difficulty in determining
how and when the sins of a Christian are forgiven ; he had
a great notion that celibacy was better than married life.
^ Church, Oxford Movement, p. 370.
2 ' They all discard (what they call) gloomy views of religion . . .
and are ready to embrace the pleasant consoUng religion natural to a
polished age. . . . We are expressly told that " strait is the gate "...
this is the dark side of rehgion ; and the men I have been describing
cannot bear to think of it. They easily get themselves to beUeve that
these strong declarations of Scripture do not belong to the present age,
or are figurative,' Paroch. and Plain Sermons, i. 317-319. The Oxford
Movement, hke all great rehgious revivals, was fundamentally a call to
repentance.
30 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
He was not the first person in the Church of England who
had had such thoughts ; to numbers, doubtless, before him
they had occurred ; but these numbers had looked abroad
and seen nothing around them to justify what they felt,
and their feelings had, in consequence, either festered
within them or withered away. But when a man thus
constituted within, falls under the shadow of Catholicism
without, then the mighty Creed at once produces an influence
upon him. He sees that it justifies his thoughts, explains
his feelings ; he understands that it numbers, corrects,
harmonises, completes them ; and he is led to ask what is
the authority of this foreign teaching.' ^
But whether chiefly owing to the sermons at St. Mary's
or to other causes, the important fact is that the new school
which was rising up was as much, if not more, influenced
by its religious sympathies as by purely doctrinal and
polemical questions. Newman realised this, as many
passages both in his letters and published writings show ;
and another shrewd observer. Dr. Hook of Leeds, saw it too.
As early as January 1840 he wrote to a friend :
' I think that if the Rulers of the Church of England
do not take very good care, we shall have ere long a great
defection to Romanism. I do not fear the clergy, but
there are young men, the generation below us, who have
been educated in a school of transcendental metaphysics
mingled with religion, and they require something in their
religion which will raise the imagination. For a long
period there was a prejudice against everything mysterious
in religion ; the feeling now is that mystery is a priori
evidence in favour of a doctrine. These persons see much
to admire in Romanism. They admit its doctrinal errors,
but they see that many of its practices are superior to our
own ; that when men are striving for perfection they receive
greater encouragement. Hitherto men's eyes have been
bhnded to this, partly by Protestant lies, which, discovered,
'} Loss and Gain, pp. 204-5. The sermons at St. Mary's certainly
did make men discontented with the existing religious system, and turned
their minds elsewhere. Newman felt this (see his letter to Keble, Apologia,
p. 133) and the authorities felt it too, and did their best to keep young
men from going to St. Mary's. It ought to have been a very serious question
to these latter why preaching which from a doctrinal point of view might
be described as moderately Anglican, which did Uttle more than make
real what they themselves professed, should have been unsettUng. But
they were not in the mood for heart -searchings.
THE NEW SCHOOL OF TRACTARIANS 31
give strength to Romanism, and partly by assertions that
attention to these things is superstition, trusting upon
works, &c.; the weakness of which dogmatism is easily
perceived. Men now see that there is good mingled with
the evil of Romanism, and that much of what has hitherto
been called superstition is a help to devotion. Having got
so far as this, there will be many who will consider the
doctrinal differences of less importance than they really are.
Surely it is important for our rulers to bear all this in mind,
and not only to render the Church of England sound in
doctrine, but to do everything that in them lies, according
to her principles, to aid men in these their high aspirings
after perfection.' ^
These high aspirings exposed men ' to the danger of
being swayed in their religious enquiries by sympathy
rather than reason.' ^ Newman was alive to this danger,^
and it made him in his own case slow to move, and nerved
him to hold others back. But while he could tug might
and main at the reins, and keep his team of mettlesome
young men, though kicking and plunging, stationary for
awhile, he could not try to tiurn them aside from the high
ideals which he set before them.
It is not surprising if individual members of this party
sometimes did and said wild or extravagant things. They
were under the influence of a great enthusiasm. They had
entered suddenly into a new world of ideas, the mutual
bearings and proportions of which they had neither the
time nor the opportunity to master. Then there was the
1 Life of W. F. Hook, ii. 45, 46. * Apologia, p. 165.
2 He was equally alive to it nearly forty years later, as the following
letter will show :
The Oratory, October 11, 1879.
Dear Sir, — In answer to your question, I would observe that there is
a great temptation, (as it is to some people) without beheving that the
CathoUc Church is the One Authoritative Oracle of God, and the One Ark
of Salvation, to join it merely because they can pray better in it, or have
more fervency than in the AngUcan Church, and in consequence conceive
a ' hope ' of becoming more rehgious in it than they are at present, whereas
the demand which the Church of God makes on them is to believe her teaching
as the teaching of God. We will say, perhaps they become CathoHcs ;
their fervour after a while dies away, their faith is demanded for some
doctrine which as yet they have not heard of or considered — and they
stumble at it and fall away. They have had no root in themselves —
they never have been CathoHcs in heart, because they never have had
faith. — Very truly your?,
J. H. Card. Newman,
32 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
excitement of belonging to the clever party ; of fighting
against heavy odds ; and of the sacrifice which they were
making of their future prospects, for it was not long before
the authorities made it clear that no good things in the
University or the Church should come to those who were
the disciples of Dr. Pusey and Mr. Newman.^ Naturally
enough under such circumstances, zeal sometimes got the
better of discretion. This was inevitable. ' There will
ever be a number of persons professing the opinions of
a movement party, who talk loudly and strangely, do
odd or fierce things, display themselves unnecessarily,
and disgust other people ; there will be ever those who are
too young to be wise, too generous to be cautious, too
warm to be sober, or too intellectual to be humble : of
whom human sagacity cannot determine, only the event,
and perhaps not even that, whether they feel what they
say or how far ; whether they are to be encouraged
or discouraged.' ^
A number of this eager and earnest body of men followed
Newman to the end. Others, probably a large majority,
settled down in Anglicanism ; and others, like James
Anthony Froude and Mark Pattison, turned to Liberalism.
All, or nearly all, kept this in common — they were thankful
to the end of their days that at one period of their lives
they had come under the influence of Newman. ^
The following letter is strictly speaking of too early a
date for the present volume. But it would be a pity
to exclude it on this account, for it forms a fitting intro-
duction to the numerous letters in which Mr. Bowden's
health is spoken of. The illness of Mr. Bowden was a great
cloud of sorrow and anxiety hanging over Newman's head
for the next five years.
1 ' It became necessary to surrender tutorships, fellowships, and the
hopes of them ; to find difficulties in getting ordained, to lose slowly the
prospects of pleasant curacies andhvings, &c.' — Froude, Nemesis of Faith,
p. 138. There is some exaggeration in this statement. The authorities
were not able to deprive men already in possession of their fellowships.
2 Newman, 'Prospects of the Anghcan Church' [April 1839], Essays
Crit. and Hist. i. 277,
3 ' The veneration and affection which I felt for you at the time you
left us, are in no way diminished. ... I can truly say that I have learnt
m.ore from you than from anyone else with whom I have ever been in
contact. Let me subscribe myself for the last time your affectionate son
and pupil, Mark Pattison.' From a letter written to Newman in 1883,
quoted in Mr. Ward's Life of Cardinal Newman, ii. 182.
THE NEW SCHOOL OF TRACTARIANS 33
S. F. Wood, to whom the letter was written, is described
in the ' Life of Pusey ' (vol. ii. p. 396) as ' a layman of
saintly life whose early death was deeply mourned by Pusey
and Newman.' He died in 1843. Mr. Bowden died in 1844.
It was over his coffin that Newman ' sobbed bitterly to
think that he left me still dark as to what the way of truth
was, and what I ought to do in order to please God and
fulfil His will.' (' Apologia,' p. 227.)
J. H. Newman to S. F. Wood, Esq.
Oriel College : February 8, 1839.
Charissime, — Your letter was one of the heaviest I
ever had in my life. It was so unexpected. We do rely
on man far more than we know ; at least I fancy I have
taken it for granted that a long course of usefulness was
reserved for Bowden. And now, when the possibility
of another course of things is suggested, I «^eem, what I
ought not to do, almost to give up all hope. What a most
dreadful stroke is this for Mrs. Bowden — I mean only the
idea or prospect — I have written to her a few lines. If I
might be earnest about anything which does not concern
me, I would plead most strongly for his going abroad
at once — ^What has happened is a warning, they should
make up their minds to go abroad for three years. It does
us good when the first warning is past and over. Do urge
this, if you agree with me. The sea always does him good.
Naples I should think would be just the place for him and
them ; it is dry and bracing. I fear Rome would be re-
laxing. I feel the hope suggested by what you say about
his general ill health — and after all there are very various
complaints of the lungs, some much more serious than
others — e.g. Mrs. Pusey has two distinct complaints in
distinct places — one is getting well — the other (and worse)
not. I think this news has brought home to me, more than
anything else, how in the midst of life we are in death. It
is as if one were standing in a fight, and anyone might be
shot down.
34 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
I long to see you. Whether we have an election at
Easter none of us know. If you do not come then, I shall
hope for Whitsuntide.
Love to R. Williams, who has sent me a very nice little
book this morning which I rejoice to see — pray thank him.
Ever yours most affectionately,
John H, Newman.
P.S.— Can you get for me from Williams the name and
direction of the Carver of the Littlemore Eagle ?
J. H. Newman to S. F. Wood, Esq.
Cholderton : In Fest. S. Mich. 1839.
My dear Wood, — I hear very disappointing accounts
of your health — and should some time or other like to know
how you are. I saw Bowden two days before he went, and
for what I know Rogers saw him off. He was most
strikingly better than when you last saw him — almost quite
himself. They were all in good spirits, and had done their
packing. Mrs. Ward was there and had been helping —
and Johnson too. This was on Wednesday. On Friday
morning at ten o'clock they were to embark at Blackwall ;
and are to be at Falmouth to-morrow. I am pleased to
think they must have had very fair weather all down the
Channel. This [is] all I have to tell you of them, I believe.
R. Williams has led me to look into Dr. W.'s new
article in the Dublin. I have not studied it, much less
referred to his authorities — ^but I do not deny that it requires
considering and has a claim upon us for an answer. I will
not at all, if possible, act unfairly by it — but think he
must bring out the whole, before anything is done on our
part. What I very much fear is our all not keeping together,
though moving on the same road. Accident of one kind
or other occasions this or that person to anticipate a truth
to which others are advancing also — and his anticipating
it throws others back. There either is something in what
Dr. W. says, or there is not. If not, all will reject it — if
THE NEW SCHOOL OF TRACTARIANS 33
there is, all will accept it, i.e. at length. I think one feels
very diffident about one's own judgment — as if it required
some exceeding moral perspicacity to be warranted to
accept doctrines beyond what one's Church admits —
whereas, it being a clear duty at first sight to accept what
she enjoins, it were allowable, without any great claim to
illumination, to defend these. I feel confident that, if
Dr. W. turns out to prove an3rthing, great or little, Keble
will eventually see it — and am glad, as well as bound, to
wait to see what he says. It is more likely that he should
be right than my own judgment. On the other hand, going
by my own judgment, even granting, which I do not exactly
see, that Dr. W.'s argument is good on the one side, yet
that same judgment tells me of arguments good on the
other. I almost fear I may give you an appearance of
taking this too seriously — ^but I write on, since I have pen
in hand, and from first impressions, which are just the very
worst in a matter which depends on an examination of facts
and reasonings.
Mozley and my sister are very flourishing. He is full
of plans, and, I hope, will be persuaded to take up the
subject of the Poor Laws, and other portions of Political
Economy. I went down to Rogers for a day when in
London — he is very well, but his eyes the same. He has
seen an amusing French Priest at Rouen, with whom he
had some interesting conversation about Henry Wilberforce.
— I am going to the latter worthy next Friday to stay till
the nth when I return to Oxford —
Ever yours. My dear Wood,
affectionately,
John H. Newman.
The Dr. W. of this letter is, of course, Wiseman, and the
' article in the Dublin ' the celebrated one on the Donatists.
It was Robert Wilhamsi who fastened Newman's attention
on the words of St. Augustine quoted in the article, but
which had escaped his observation, ' Securus judicat orbis
* For an interesting account of him see OUard's Short History of the
0/fford Mov»m§nt, pp. 63, 64 (footnote).
36 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
terrarum.' He was a source of much anxiety to Pusey
and Newman. ' As to R. W./ wrote the latter to Pusey m
January 1840, ' I have resigned him in my mind some
time . . . since I read Dr. W/s article I have desponded
much ; for I have said to myself, if even I feel myself
hard pressed, what will others who have either not
thought so much on the subject, or have fewer retarding
motives/ And some months later : ' R. W. is stationary at
present ; but what is to be done with a man who begins
with assuming as a first principle . . . that the Roman is
the Catholic Church/ ^ Williams did not remain stationary,
and did not realise the fears of his friends, but swung back
to a robust Protestantism. It is presumably he to whom
Serjeant Bellasis refers in the following memorandum.
' J'^^y ly 1S50. — Called on Robert Williams ... I had
not seen him for some time, and did not know how he
might be affected by the occurrences of the last few months.
He thought there was no divine authority save the Bible
. . . the disturbance now making about Mr. Gorham's
opinions was absurd. . . . The Roman Catholic Church,
he was convinced, was coming to an end, it must fall, it
was clearly foreshown in the Revelations. He had been
reading a work on Prophecy by Mr. Elliott, which was in
his judgment irresistible ; it was in four volumes. '^ In spite
of his changes he preserved Newman's friendship — ' My
friend, an anxiously religious man, now, as then very dear
to me, a Protestant still/ ^
J. H. Newman to J. W. Bowden, Esq.
Oriel College : Nov. 4, 1839.
My dear Bowden, — I have written you a letter, and find
it is too heavy for the Marseilles post — so I begin again.
We have heard with great pleasure of your safe arrival at
your destination ; and I congratulate you on your progress
towards health and strength, and Mrs. Bowden on the
miseries of the voyage being over.
The chief thing I have to tell you concerns Morris of
Exeter, whom perhaps you know, perhaps not. He is a
^ Pusey 's Lije, ii. 152-3.
" Memorials of Mr. Serjeant Bellasis, p. loi.
Apologia, p. ri6.
3
THE NEW SCHOOL OF TRACTARIANS 37
most simple minded conscientious fellow — but as little
possessed of tact or common sense as he is great in other
departments. He had to take my Church in my absence ;
I had not been one Sunday from Oxford till lately since
October 1838. I had cautioned him against extravagances
in St. Mary's Pulpit, as he had given some specimens in
that line once before. What does he do on St. Michael's
day but preach a Sermon, not simply on Angels, but on his
one subject for which he has a monomania, of fasting, nay
and say it was a good thing, whereas Angels feasted on
festivals, to make the brute creation fast on fast days.
So I am told — May he (salvis ossibus stiis) have a fasting
horse the next time he goes steeple chasing. Well this was
not all. You may conceive how the Heads of Houses,
Cardwell, Gilbert etc. fretted under this — but next Sunday
he gave them a more extended exhibition si quid posset.
He preached to them totidem verbis the Roman doctrine of
the Mass, and, not content with that, added in energetic
terms that every one was an unbeliever, carnal, and so
forth, who did not hold it. To this he added other specula-
tions of his own, still more objectionable. This was too
much for any V.C. — In consequence he was had up before
him — his sermon officially examined, and he formally
admonished, and the Bishop written to. Thus the matter
stands at present. The Bp. is to read his sermon — and
I have been obliged to give my judgment on it to him —
which is not favorable, nor can be. I don't suppose much
more will be done but it is very unpleasant. The worst
part is that the V.C. has not said a single word to me, good
or bad, and has taken away his family from St. Mary's.
I cannot but hope he will have the good sense to see that
this is a mistake. I wish all this kept secret, please, for it
is not known even here.
Matthison has just called on me. It seems that the
Bp. of London is intriguing to hinder the Church Cate-
chism from being a sine qua non in the National Schools^
and that the Bp. of Exeter in another way is playing so
strange a game, people cannot make out what he is at.
38 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
The waters are rising so fast, that though they destroy the
Church Catechism I think the ^(9o9 of it will come in with
the schoolmasters, whoever they are. Jeffreys is appointed
training Master of the Gloucester School, and Wilson is to
be of the London — but so strong an opposition is being made
by Mr. Close, that it is feared it will end in both of them
withdrawing. I am almost sorry you hindered Lewis from
accepting the Oxford Mastership (if it was you) as we want
one badly.
The authorities of this place are said to have returned
very much frightened about the spread of Apostohcity, —
but they cannot stop matters now. The only fear is of
persons going too far. You should read the late article
in the Dublin — it is the best thing Dr. Wiseman has put
out. It is paralleling the English Church to the Donatists
and certainly the parallel is very curious — the only question
is whether Augustine's notions are Catholic on this point
— he certainly does seem to make for Dr. W. — The papers
say that the question of mixed marriages is coming on in
Russia — and that the Emperor has sent off the Catholic
Clergy to Siberia. Other accounts (improbable) are that
4,000,000 Catholics have gone over to the Greek Church.
There was a curious document in the papers the other day
in the shape of a firman of the Porte — I was struck by
observing that it called the Romans and not the Greeks
Catholics. . . .
J. H. Newman to S. F. Wood, Esq.
Oriel : November lo, 1839.
My dear Wood, — I have stupidly written the enclosed
on half a sheet, and have so miserably written it that you
will be plagued by reading it. But, please, read it — and
if you think it advisable, send it on.
I don't know what to do about the direction not knowing
where R.W. is. I direct it at a shot — and the people in
Birchin Lane can redirect it. I would leave it to you, but
am not sure how far you would like to appear in the matter.
THE NEW SCHOOL OF TRACTARIANS 39
I heartily wish you were better and stronger in health.
I congratulate you on your Anti-Eras tian hit. People
are getting stronger you see without knowing it. Soon
they will be swimming in hot water — and it will do no good
to say ' Take me out,' when parboiled.
The steam is getting up here. By bad luck some one
(Morris) in my absence has been preaching the Roman
Mass (by accident) in my pulpit — by bad luck the V.C.
heard it, and he has taken it [up] officially and reported
it to the Bishop. This is a secret. Two of our ' House '
or ' Hall ' men have just got on foundations, to my great
satisfaction — Pattison and Christie. The former would
not have stayed up in Oxford but for the House. And
but for it I should not have known the second. We are
somewhat scant of inhabitants at this moment.
Faber of Magdalen has been chosen by V.C. to preach
Guy Fawkes Sermon, as being a moderate man ; and he
has preached in favour of the Apostolical movement ^ and
defended praying for the dead, or at least those who prayed.
The Provost is hard at his Bamptons, meanwhile — and
' hushed in grim repose, expects his evening prey.'
Ever yrs. affectionately,
J. H. N.
The ' House ' or ' Hall ' referred to in the above letter
was a house taken by Pusey or Newman, where young men
who had taken their degree could reside. They lived in
common, rent free, each, however, paying a small sum
for his board. They were employed on the Library of the
Fathers and other literary projects connected with the
movement. Newman, in a letter to Bowden thanking him
for a donation to the house, jokingly calls the inmates ' our
young monks.' J. B. Mozley in one of his letters described
it as a 'reading and collating estabhshment.' It was a
short-lived institution, for it closed when the last inmate,
J. B. Mozley, was elected fellow of Magdalen in 1840.2
1 I.e. The Tractarian Movement.
2 Newman's Life and Correspondence, by Miss Mozley, i. 223 ; Pusey's
Life &c. i. 339 ; Mark Pattison's Memoirs, pp. i8o fi. ; Letters of J. B.
Mozley, pp. 78 and 94.
40 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
'When I got back to Oxford in October 1839, it so
happened there had been occurrences of an awkward
character, compromising me both with my Bishop, a.nd
also with the authorities of the University' ('Apologia/
pp. 127-8). One of these ' occurrences ' must have been
Mr. Morris's sermons on the Mass and on Fasting ; another
was * Bloxam's Escapade.' ^
On Nov. 18 the Rev. W. Dodsworth wrote to Newman
to the following effect. He had heard in Staffordshire that
Newman's curate, Mr. Bloxam, when on a visit to Dr. Rock
at Alton Towers, had attended service in a Romish chapel,
and like other worshippers bowed down at the elevation of
the Host. So many falsehoods on such matters were re-
ported that his natural instinct would be to discredit the
story though it came to him on what seemed good authority.
So great a departure from what is ' Catholic,' and even
' honourable ' in a clergyman of the Church of England
should not be believed except on the admission of the
person implicated. The writer had to confess to some
alarm at the feelings manifested in certain quarters. Some
young men seemed almost prepossessed in favour of Roman-
ism. It reminded him of the feeling prevalent among the
Low Church clergy a few years ago, that the nearer they
approached to dissenting methods the better. Of course
he did not speak of his fears to others, but he felt that he
might do so to Newman.
John Rouse Bloxam lived on till 1891, so all reference to
his ' escapade ' was omitted in Miss Mozley's ' Letters and
Correspondence of Cardinal Newman' published in 1890.
But the editors of the present volume do not feel that they
are showing any want of respect to the memory of one of
Newman's staunchest friends by bringing it to light now,
when people are more likely to be amused at the fuss which
was made over the affair than shocked at its happening.
Perhaps Mr. Bloxam during the years 1840-1845 was some-
what of an extremist, for he is found corresponding with
Phillipps de Lisle on the subject of Reunion. If such he was,
he only illustrates the fact that many of these extremists
eventually settled down as Anglicans.
Mr. Dodsworth, on the other hand, who became a
Catholic in 185 1 after the Gorham Trial, may be taken to
^ This is how Newman in later years docketed his correspondence
with the Bishop of Oxford on this subject.
THE NEW SCHOOL OF TRACTARIANS 41
illustrate the corresponding fact that the majority of the
converts were not men who in their Anglican days had said or
done very startling things.
J. H. Newman to Rev. W. Dodsworth
Oriel College : November 19, 1839
My dear Mr. Dodsworth, — I hasten to answer your
friendly letter, and in a way less satisfactory than your
kindness would desire, yet better than my own fears.
I was aware Mr. Bloxam had been at Lord Shrews-
bury's ; the idea that he had bowed down at the elevation
of the Host had not entered my mind for an instant, tho' he
told me he had been in the Chapel.
On the receipt of your letter I went and asked him
about it. He gives me the following account which I have
taken down from his mouth.
* I went into the Gallery of the Chapel every day morning
and evening and said there our Morning and Evening Service
for the day according to our Book of Common Prayer. After
Morning Service I used to stay some time on my knees,
during which the family came in and had Service in which I
took no part. This Service, on the Friday, and the Friday
only, was Low Mass ; in which I took no part either, but re-
mained just as on other days without changing my posture.'
I did not think to ask him, but no doubt, had I done so,
he would have added, ' I had no intention whatever of
bowing down to the Host.'
In consequence of your letter, I have written to our
Bishop — quoting without your name your words, and
Mr. Bloxam's explanation as given above.
Of course this is a very unpleasant occurrence, but I fear
that I must expect some or other in one or other quarter for
some little while. I fully sympathise in what you say about
the temper of some younger men. I suppose the case is
simply this, that we have raised desires, of which our Church
dpes not supply the objects, and that they have not the
patience, or humihty, or discretion to keep from seeking
42 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
those objects where they are supplied. I have from the first
thought that nothing but a quasi miracle, would carry us
through the trial with no proselytes whatever to Rome—
and, though I shall fairly have to bear my share in them,
shall not feel surprise, nor I trust self-reproach at what is
not my doing.
I am truly sorry to hear you have passed through Oxford,
and I away. I have been away only a week at one time,
and a fortnight at another since Christmas.
Yours very sincerely,
John H. Newman.
J. H. Newman to the Bishop of Oxford
November 19, '39.
My dear Lord, — I feel much grieved to have to trouble
your Lordship so soon again on an unpleasant subject,^
which I find myself obliged to do.
I received this morning a letter from a friend in London
containing the following enquiry :
' When I was in Staffordshire this Autumn I heard on
what appeared to me unquestionable authority that your
Curate, Mr. Bloxam, when on a visit to Dr. Rock at Alton
Towers, had attended a service at the Romish Chapel,
in which, like the other worshippers he bowed down at the
Elevation of the Host.'
I accordingly have inquired of Mr. Bloxam, who, I
was aware has been at Lord Shrewsbury's in the summer,
and he gives me the following account which I have written
down from his mouth.
* I went into the gallery of the Chapel every day, morning
and evening and said there our Morning and Evening Service
for the day according to our Book of Common Prayer.
After Morning Service I used to stay sometime on my knees,
during which the family came in and had Service in which
I took no part. This service, on the Friday and Friday
only, was Low Mass in which I took no part either, but
^ There must have been some correspondence on the Morris afiair.
THE NEW SCHOOL OF TRACTARIANS 43
remained just as on other days without changing my
position/
I do not know what I have to say more than this, to
bring what to me is a very distressing occurrence before
your Lordship, and am etc.
J. H. N.
The Bishop of Oxford to J. H. Newman
November 25, 1839.
My dear Sir, — I much regret the information which
you felt obHged to give me in your letter of the 19th, respect-
ing your Curate, Mr. Bloxam.
I feel, however, that it is a matter at present resting
between yourselves.
If from any apprehension of Mr. Bloxam really having
a propensity towards Romanism, or from the great indis-
cretion he appears to have shown at Alton Towers, you
think he has acted in a manner unbecoming a Minister of
our Protestant Church, and therefore as one whom you
could not with comfort to yourself, employ as your Curate,
the proposal of separation should come from yourself, and
it would only be in the event of your Curate's refusal to
resign his Curacy that the Bishop's aid or interference
would be necessary.
Believe me.
My dear sir, faithfully yours,
R. Oxford.
P.S. I shall be at Canterbury to-night.
J. H. Newman to the Bishop of Oxford
December g, 1839.
My dear Lord, — I am very sorry to find from Dr. Pusey
that I have been careless enough to misunderstand your
Lordship's note in answer to mine on the subject of Mr.
Bloxam, and that you are expecting an answer from me.
I write at once to apologise for it.
44 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
Understanding that your Lordship did not intend to
take up the case yourself, and since I had no view myself
of Mr. B/s conduct but that it was an unfortunate in-
discretion (which is your Lordship's view of it) and one
which I was sure would not be repeated, I thought the
matter was at an end.
I brought it before your Lordship simply because I
did not like anything to happen connected with St. Mary's
of a certain character at the present time, without your
being put at once in possession of the facts. I wish to look
on myself as merely your Lordship's delegate in the parish,
not mentioning indeed common occurrences for that would
be giving your Lordship trouble which it is my very business
to take from one who has the care of so many Churches,
but not letting anything pass which I think you would like
to know. I ought to have reflected that I had not yet
expressed my own opinion of the occurrence and that you
seemed to ask it.
I did not write to your Lordship from any annoyance
of feeling with Mr. B., and I did so with his full concurrence.
I am much attached to him (two words illegible). I have
no serious fault to find with him, though I much regret the
conduct in question. He is a most valuable Curate to me.
He shall write to your Lordship himself and he will
both gladly and cheerfully submit to whatever you think
fit to be done.
Yours etc.,
J. H. N.
The Bishop of Oxford to J. H. Newman
Blithfield : December 26, 1839.
My dear Sir, — It is long since the receipt of your last
letter, and I did not at first think it required an answer,
at least, not an immediate one, although there were points
upon which I should have wished some time or another to
remark.
Shortly after I heard from Mr. Eloxam himself, and to
THE NEW SCHOOL OF TRACTARIANS 45
that letter I have as yet sent no reply, for I have really
for sometime past been hampered by so great a pressure
of business that I have had no leisure. A note from Dr.
Pusey, on Sunday night last, informed me that Mr. Bloxam's
late indiscretion, and my disapprobation, were preying
upon his mind. I now therefore take the first opportunity
since I left Oxford of recurring to the subject.
With regard to Mr. Bloxam, although I think he might
have given a more detailed explanation than his short letter
contains, I am quite willing to consider his feeling and
expression of sorrow for what took place at Alton Towers,
as tantamount to a recorded assurance that nothing similar
either there or elsewhere, shall occur again. Had it occurred
in my own Diocese, or had it been more generally known,
my present course would have been less easy — and here,
my dear Sir, let me entreat you to exert your own high and
influential name among a numerous body of the Clergy,
and young men destined for orders who look up to you, —
to discourage by every means in your power indiscretions
similar to Mr. Bloxam's, or any little extravagances, the
results of youth, — harmless perhaps in themselves, but
which, I am sure, when they occur, and are known, tend
to retard the progress of sound and high Church principles
which you would inculcate. You will I feel confident
forgive my speaking so frankly on this head.
And now with regard to your last letter to me on the
subject, you must allow me to say a few words, because I
think you have rather mistaken the rule on which an In-
cumbent should act, in regard to referring matters to his
Diocesan. He ought, I conceive, to make up his mind
with respect to cases which may occur, to the best of his
judgement, and to be prepared to render an account cf his
proceedings to the Bishop if called on, but it seems hardly
fair to throw the responsibility of acting or not on the Bishop,
when the Incumbent has abready determined in his own
mind what course he should take. If such a practice were
general, what a burden would be thrown on the Bishop,
more especially as his judgements must be formed on the
46 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
statements submitted to him by the Incumbent, and this
in regard to matters on which he might afterwards be
required to decide as Judge. I am led to this statement
of my opinion by the expression in your letter that you
wished to look upon yourself merely as my delegate in
the parish.
After this letter I, perhaps, need hardly write to Mr.
Bloxam, at the same time should it be any relief to his
mind that I should, I will, upon hearing from you or himself,
do so.
Believe me, etc.
R. Oxford.
J. H. Newman to the Bishop of Oxford
Oriel : January 5, 1840.
My dear Lord, — Mr. Bloxam joins with me in thanking
you very much for your kind letter. I have waited to
acknowledge it, hoping he would have enclosed a note from
himself. But the plain fact is that he is in a very delicate
state of health, to say the least, and this occurrence has
quite upset him. He has made an attempt to write to
your Lordship, but could not please himself. I think it
will end, much against my wish, in his retiring from the
charge of Littlemore.
I can assure your Lordship that my efforts neither are,
nor have been, wanting in keeping younger men from the
indiscretions to which you allude ; but I feel obliged by
being reminded of the duty of making them.
I will do in future as your Lordship wishes about bringing
things before your Lordship which happen in my parish.
As the Archdeacon advised me to write to you at once on
the subject of Mr. Morris before having heard from you
I thought you would wish me to do so in like manner now.
I knew your Lordship was in Staffordshire, I thought you
were very likely to hear the report, and would wish to know
what the state of the case was. I did not know (I say it
quite unaffectedly) whether your Lordship's view of the
THE NEW SCHOOL OF TRACTARIANS 47
matter would be the same as I took myself. I was prepared
to act on your Lordship's whatever it might be, I did not
like to give my own uncalled for. I had not the most distant
intention of relieving myself of responsibility.
Yours etc.
J. H. N.
The Bishop of Oxford to J. H. Newman
Blithfield : Monday, January 6 [1840].
My dear Sir, — I must trouble you with one more line
to thank you for your letter received this morning, and to
request you will beg Mr. Bloxam to dismiss from his mind
all idea of the necessity of writing to me ; I am quite satisfied,
and very much regret to find this business has had so un-
comfortable an effect upon his health and spirits.
With regard to yourself My dear Sir, I trust you did
not in any degree misunderstand my letter. I stated what
I conceived to be the ordinary rule respecting the course
between an Incumbent and Diocesan in cases where it might
be necessary to act, but be assured it will always give me
pleasure to hear from you, and to have the most unreserved
of friendly communications.
I am, Dear Sir,
Faithfully yours,
R. Oxford.
J. H. Newman to J. W. Bowden, Esq.
Oriel College : January 5, 1840.
My dear Bowden, — The best wishes of this season and
the New Year to you and all yours. I have had two letters
from you, for which I am much obliged, and the account
they give is very satisfactory. May He who has helped us
hitherto, lead us on still.
I followed Johnson's instructions implicitly about the
direction of my letter. I now will follow yours. I hoped
to have written before this, but have been very busy.
48 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
I believe I did not tell you the sequel of the Morris affair.
The V.C. (very kindly in manner) officially admonished him.
There you would suppose the matter would end. But not
so. Against the rule of the Canons a double punishment
was inflicted for the same offence. The V.C. wrote to the
Bishop, who wrote to me ; and then came a letter (very
kind) from the Bishop to Morris, and that at last ended the
affair. But since that a worse matter has risen ; which
I think I have this very day closed in a letter to the Bp.
at least I hope so. Dodsworth in the beginning of November
wrote to ask me whether it was true that Bloxam my Curate
had paid a visit to Alton Towers (Lord Shrewsbury's) and
had there attended Mass, and prostrated himself at the
elevation of the Host with the other worshippers. I knew
that he had been to Ld. S's and he had told me, with some
misgivings that he had been into the Chapel — so this
frightened me much. On asking him about it he gave me
this [in re mala) satisfactory account. ' I went into the
gallery of the Chapel morning and evening to say the
Prayers for the day from our Common Prayer Book. After
going through them, I used to remain some time on my
knees. In the course of this latter time, the family came
in and service was performed. On the Friday was Low Mass.
I took no part whatever in it, but remained in the posture
I was as before.' He seems to have gone to the Chapel as
a Consecrated place when there was no other place to go
to. But it [was] very indiscreet certainly. I thought it
best at once to write to the Bp., who has done nothing,
but is scarcely pleased at my having brought the matter
before him. Bloxam is sadly cut up and has let it prey on
his mind. I suppose it will end in his giving up the Curacy,
much against my will. He quite agreed with me that the
Bp. ought to be written to. All this is not known in
Oxford, but I have expected to see it continually in the
Record or Christian Observer. But so many lies have been
told about us that even they perhaps will be tired of
believing it.
The said Observer has got milder lately. I suppose it
THE NEW SCHOOL OF TRACTARIANS 49
finds it is overshooting the mark. Mr. Taylor,^ I think,
is destroying himself and his cause by proving too much.
I have not read his fascicuh yet, but I see he talks of the
Nicene Fathers having the brand of Apostacy on their
foreheads. It is curious to find that the lawyers and laity do
not take to Mr. Taylor but the Clergy do — for why ? because
the doctrine of celibacy touches the latter much more
closely. Put aside all Mr. Taylor's gross misrepresentations,
this is the real hitch at bottom. Mr. Todd's ' Sermons on
An ti- Christ ' etc., have at last appeared, and seem to be
both bold and seasonable. Not Mr. Taylor, but Dr. Wise-
man seems taking the lawyers — so I hear. Indeed his
last article comparing us to the Donatists has taken in
quarters where I should not have expected it would excite
an interest. Indeed he has fixed on our weak point, as
Keble's Sermon, Manning's Rule of Faith, and my Lectures
on his. (By-the-bye they none of them have attempted an
answer to this part of the subject.) It is plainly necessary
to stop up the leak in our boat which he has made, if we
are to proceed. This I have attempted to begin to do in an
article in the January ^.C. on the ' Catholicity of the English
Church.'
The new volumes of the ' Remains ' ^ are selling
excellently. The preface by Keble is much liked. I
suppose we shall have Fraser's Magazine picking out
what it will call disloyalty and sedition. Old Faussett
started half off his seat when he heard of new volumes,
as if he should say ' Why, I annihilated Mr. F.'s writings
last year — ^what is meant by the absurdity of continuing
them ? '
I am publishing the ' Church of the Fathers.' It makes
me very anxious. I have not put my name to any strong
thing yet — and this is regularly strong meat. I suppose
I must expect a clamour, unless persons are tired of
clamouring.
^ Author of Ancient Christianity and the Doctrines of the Oxford Tracts
for the Times — published in parts 1 839-1 842 : and of Spiritual Despotism.
2 I.e. the second part of Froude's Remains.
£
50 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
Mr. Spencer the R.C. Priest is coming here to-morrow
on a visit to Palmer of Magdalen. Those men, who are not
called ' the party/ may do anything. Dr. Rock was here
not long since, and Hamilton feted him. But then he is
not one of the party either.
Pusey is at Brighton ; his children are not at all better.
He is pretty well, at present he is very much bent on estab-
lishing an order of Sisters of Mercy, (I despair somehow, but
I always croak) and is collecting information.
At this point, where Newman put aside his letter for
three days, something may be said about Dr. Todd's
' Sermons,' or, to give them their proper title, ' Discourses
on the Prophecies relating to Antichrist,' &c., and why
they were ' bold and seasonable.' Dr. Todd allied himself
with Dean Maitland in England in attacking the prevailing
opinion, over which the Protestant world was, perhaps,
more nearly unanimous than upon anything else, that the
Church of Rome was the communion of Antichrist. It
would be a mistake to regard this grotesque and horrible
idea as a mere curiosity of polemical literature. For
centuries it was fervently believed in, and lived up to ;
perhaps nowhere more than in Ireland. It was still in
possession in 1840, and real courage was required to attack
it. Newman had imbibed it in his youth, and, so he tells
us, it stained his imagination for a long time after it lost
its hold upon his intellect. He had, of course, abandoned
it long before 1840 ; but he recognised that it was a real
obstacle to the spread of Tractarian principles. For
this reason he welcomed Dr. Todd's ' Discourses,' and made
them the basis of an article in the British Critic on the
* Protestant Idea of Antichrist.' ^ Maitland and Todd
traced the idea back to the disreputable sources in the
Middle Ages, from which the Reformers derived it . Newman
only went back a few years. Who had revived the idea,
when it was growing obsolete, and given it a new lease of
life ? This fearful duty of once more fixing the seal of per-
dition on the greater part of Christendom seemed to have
fallen to a very amiable, but exceedingly comfort-loving
and preferment -hunting eighteenth-century bishop, ' whose
most fervent aspiration (as revealed in his frank and
^ Reprinted in Essays Crit. and Hist. vol. ii.
THE NEW SCHOOL OF TRACTARIANS 51
engaging autobiography) apparently was that he might
ride in a carriage and sleep on down, whose keenest sorrow
was that he could not get a second appointment without
relinquishing the first, who cast a regretful look back at
his dinner while he was at supper, and anticipated his morn-
ing chocolate in his evening muihns/ There was a great
deal in the article of a more serious character than the
sketch of Bishop Newton ; but nothing that was so Hkely
to stick in the memory of its readers. It must have been
a relief to many persons who had been brought up in Evan-
gelical homes to learn that they were free to consider
the tenet in question on its own intrinsic merits, without
being overawed by the grave and reverend character of
its champions.
Letter to J. W. Bowden, Esq., continued
Jan. 8. — Mr. Spencer called on me to-day under the
following circumstances. He had come it seems to Oxford
to see us, and Palmer had asked me to dine to meet him.
I considered, however, that he was in loco apostatae, one
who had done despite to our orders etc., etc., so I declined,
giving that reason, namely that I could have no familiar or
social intercourse with him. After various remonstrances,
and fruitless plans on Palmer's part. Palmer asked whether
I should object to his calling on me. I said that I had no
right to entertain the idea of putting him to that inconveni-
ence, but if he would, I should be glad to see him. So he
came with P. and sat with me an hour. I wish these R.C.
priests had not so smooth a manner, it puts me out. He
was very mild, very gentlemanlike, not a controversialist,
and came to insist only on one point, that we would take
steps to get Anglo-catholics to pray for the R.C.'s. He said
he was sure that if we felt the desirableness of unity, and
if we prayed for each other, where there was a will there
would be a way, etc., etc. He said that he had been instru-
mental in beginning the practice in France, that it had
spread all over that country, and was now being taken up
in Germany — Thursday being the day fixed on. It is
52 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
certainly a most dreadful thing that we should be separated
from them — but your account of the Southern Churches,
makes one almost feel as if a formal union would do no good.
If we could make strong terms with them so as to act upon
them, that would be the thing. He called on Routh and
had a similar talk with him.
Since I began this letter I have had a most kind letter
from our Bishop in answer to mine, which has put Bloxam
in good spirits — but I think it will still end in his ultimately
retiring from Littlemore. Thank you for the £50, which
I will lay out in the best way I can, as you shall hear.
They say there is no doubt the Conservatives are coming
in — -the Bp. of Exeter says, before the end of 3 months.
He says also that they will be out by the end of 6 years, and a
radical Government succeed them — and that their business
meanwhile is to * make way,' and to do all they can to meet
the storm, as by building Churches, etc., etc. The Quarterly,
you will see, is persisting in its Apostolical, though cold,
tone.
You know Reginald Copleston (of Exeter College) a
very good fellow, is to be the new incumbent of Barnes ;
the Dean of St. Paul's presenting him. Mr. Close and Co. of
Cheltenham clamoured so much about H. Jeffreys' appoint-
ment to the training school at Gloucester that he was obliged,
though appointed by the Bp. to withdraw. Well I hear
to-day that at last they have got a young fellow of Lincoln, of
the name of Atkinson, who is one of our translators ^ ! In like
manner they refused Copeland here, and have got a man who
{ex ahundanti cautela) had been a semi-Bulteelite — but who
it turns out is now rapidly coming on to Apostolical opin-
ions. In London they are still unprovided. (They say
the Bp. of London is warning about us.) To return to
Lincoln, after rejecting James Mozley for a fellowship two
years since for his opinions, they have been taken in by
Pattison this last term, an inmate of the Coenobitium.
He happened to stand very suddenly and they had no time
to inquire. They now stare in amazement at their feat.
^ For the Library of the Fathers.
THE NEW SCHOOL OF TRACTARIANS 53
Christie too another of our inmates, has been elected off on
the Mitchell Foundation Queen's — so we are run short of
monks, and hardly know what to do.
Thank you for your amusing account of your Italian
friend. Kindest thoughts of the season to Mrs. Bowden
and the children.
Ever yrs. affly.,
John H. Newman.
J. H. Newman to J. W. Bowden, Esq.
Oriel College : February 21, 1840.
My dear Bowden, — I will not let the day pass over,
without showing you, what you will not doubt, that I am
thinking of you upon it, and that I wish to repay the kind
thoughts which I know you are giving me. Your last letter
was a very comfortable one about yourself, and I hope you
continue to go on as well as it promised.
I have got into a desponding way about the state of
things, and I don't know why quite. Right principles are
progressing doubtless, but it seems as if they were working
up to a collision with Puritanism, which may split the
Church. I fear the Bps. are not so favorable : but one
fancies. What I said in my last was that the Bp. of L.
wavered about us, which was good — but I have lately heard
that the Bp. of Ripon was about to show some distrust in
Tot? irepl Hook. But this is a secret — also I am not quite
sure that Hook himself is not getting frightened ; but this is
another. Here, the authorities are getting more and more
cold and averse, I fear — though it may be fancy in me to say
so. I fear too that some persons will turn Roman Catholics,
up and down the country ; indeed how is this possibly to
be helped as things are ? they will be right in their major and
wrong only in their minor^ — right in their principles, wrong in
their fact — they seek the true Church, but do not recognise
the Church in us.
As to Bloxam you must not be hard upon him — he is an
exceedingly good fellow. He has been so annoyed at this,
54 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
that it quite preyed on his mind, and I fear for his health, for
he is in a very deHcate state — he has given up Littlemore,
and Copeland is to be my Curate, i.e. during Lent. I am
going up to lodge there to see how things are going on.
I like your idea of an article on the position of our
Church in the Mediterranean very much — but perhaps I have
apprehensions of a suffragan at Malta. You see even the
Christian Knowledge Society has shown a disposition to
meddle with the foreign Churches, to substitute our Liturgy
for theirs, etc., etc. I hardly see how a Bp. at Malta could
escape this. On all sides our misery is this, that we have not
the Catholic ?}^09 — in consequence, one dare not hardly move
— there is almost a certainty of some absurdity or sin being
the consequence. This feeling has almost made me despon-
dent and sluggish — as if nothing co^ild be done. Pusey at
present is very eager about setting up Sisters of Mercy. I feel
sure that such institutions are the only means of saving some
of our best members turning Roman Catholics, and yet I
despair of such societies being 7nuch externally. They must
be the expansion of an inward principle. All one can do is
to offer the opportunity. I am sceptical too whether they
can be set up without a quasi vow.
As to Dr. Wiseman's article I do not think you have hit
the point of it. It made a very great impression here, and
to say, what of course I would only say to such as your-
self, it made me for a while very uncomfortable in my own
mind. He maintains first that the present look of Christen-
dom is such, that St. Austin or St. Basil coming among us
would say at once ' That is the Catholic Church — and those
are the heretics,' meaning Rome and us respectively — and
next the said Fathers and all the Fathers teach that that
' look ' of things was ever meant to be a providential note, in
order to save argument ; without going into the question
who excommunicates, Vv^hen, etc., etc., I frankly confess I
cannot deny either of his positions — that the Fathers wotdd
at first sight so judge of us — or that they did so teach. My
article was to meet this, and I am glad to hear in many
quarters that it has done good service. But the great
THE NEW SCHOOL OF TRACTARIANS 55
speciousness of his argument is one of the things which have
made me despond so much. My ' Church of the Fathers ' is
now finished, and, I suppose, will be out in the course of
a week. It is in duodecimo but far too thick — about 400
pages, which are equal to oct"'" pages. It is the prettiest
book I have done — which is not wonderful, being hardly more
than the words and works of the Fathers. Good part of it
is translation and abstract. I have no notion how it will
take, as I have been obliged to give out the Fathers* views
about celibacy and miraculous power.
The Duke of Wellington is said certainly to be break-
ing up — and the Wintle ^ party are already canvassing
for the Duke of Buckingham as Chancellor. Which will
be miserable but the chance is they are successful as [some
words illegible'] were in the poor Duke's case. What a
wonderful thing it is, and what a strange reproach to the
nation that for the last ten years the Duke should have
done nothing. Considering his great influence with Euro-
pean Powers, it is like infatuation that the country should
not have availed itself of what will never come again ;
it was part of our purchase by twenty years of bloodshed,
and now it is thrown away. Dukes of Wellington are not
to be had for the asking. Is it not sad what the papers say of
the Queen ? when she is wiser, she will repent when nothing
remains of the Duke but his name.
I was told that Mr. Spencer expressed himself quite
puzzled why I would not dine with him ; so I wrote him
a letter about a fortnight since, which he has not answered,
perhaps from fear of getting into controversy. I merely
said, that it was useless for them to attempt amicable inter-
course between themselves and us, while their acts were
contrary, while they allied themselves to Dissenters and
Infidels, and were plotting our ruin — the voice was Jacob's
voice, but the hands were the hands of Esau ; that he did
not come as an individual R.C. but as a priest, on a religious
purpose, etc., etc.
Ward of Trinity has been trapped by Mr. Sewell of
1 [This word is not quite certain.]
56 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
Magdalen (apropos of the publication of the Magdalen
Statutes) into the absurd step of sending the latter a
challenge. Mr. S. seems to me to have behaved very badly
— Ward very well, after the first step. He has apologised
&c., &c., in the fullest way. The matter is before the
V.C. who gives his judgment to-morrow. The University
Punishment is bannitio, but no one can tell what hannitio
means. Amotio is expulsion, and the idea of rusticating
a man who is living at Headington does not seem satis-
factory. I am going up to Littlemore in about lo days.
Our Provost's Bamptons have not begun. We are having
bitter frosts, the glass 30 in my room when there is not a
fire. They are very acceptable ; the wet has been excessive.
Kindest thoughts to all yours.
Ever yrs. affly.,
J. H. N.
From this time Newman began more and more to reside
at Littlemore. He threw himself into the work of cate-
chising the village children, and seems to have been extra-
ordinarily successful in it. But this phase of his life has
been fully described in Miss Mozley's ' Letters and Corre-
spondence/ &c.
G. R. M. Ward of Trinity, who must not be confused
with W. G. Ward of Balliol, the author of the ' Ideal,' &c.,
was a man of pronounced views and of a combative disposi-
tion. He was also smarting under the sense of a personal
grievance, for he had been obliged to relinquish his Fellow-
ship on his refusal to take Orders. In 1839 he had pub-
lished a ferocious pamphlet under the title of ' An Appeal to
the Bishop of Winchester, Visitor of Trinity College, Oxford,
on the Misappropriation of the Endowments of that Society,
with Hints towards a History of the '' Poor Man's Church
in Oxford." ' The ' Appeal ' was followed up by a translation
of the ' Statutes of Magdalen College,' intended to be the
first of a series of similar translations, which would be the
means of 'enabling public opinion, no less than the consciences
of interested individuals, to canvass the question how far
any aberrations of practice (i.e. departures from the inten-
tions of Founders) are justified or unallowable under the
changes of times and manners.'
THE NEW SCHOOL OF TRACTARIANS 57
Mr. Ward's zeal for the ' Intentions of Founders '
proved infectious, and he was accused of violating them by
publishing the Statutes. ^
It is difficult to imagine Mr. Ward and Newman having
anything in common. Nothing would be more repugnant
to the feelings of the latter than the idea of the colleges
being summoned before the tribunal of public opinion, this
said pubhc opinion being informed by translations of Statutes
without note or comment. Nevertheless the two men seem
to have been good friends. Newman did not wish people
to be too hard on Mr. Ward, and Mr. Ward, even in his most
truculent moods, would go out of his way to express his
admiration for Newman.
Mr. Ward's grievance was that Fellowships and Scholar-
ships were lavished upon men already possessing a com-
petency instead of being reserved for indigent students. He
does not seem to have troubled himself much with the reli-
gious ideals of the Founders. The Tractarians and their
friends wished to go back to the Intentions of Founders in
rehgious matters also. A movement in the direction of con-
servative reform, in which James Hope took a leading
part, had already been initiated at Merton. Newman
must have thought that the translation of the Magdalen
Statutes was a good opportunity for calling attention to
the question, for he suggested to Mr. Hope that he should
make them the subject of an article in some magazine.
J. H. Newman to J. R. Hope, Esq.
Jan. 31, 1840. — I was exceedingly pleased and obliged
by your prompt answer. Whether your article appears in
Quarterly or British Critic ^ is a matter for your own judg-
ment. It depends on what your article is to be, and
whether the Quarterly likes to meddle with the subject. As
to my own notion it would be this : that the subject of our
^ According to Mr. Ward's own account, in his preface to his translation
of the Statutes of All Souls, published in 1841, his version of the Statutes
of Magdalen was attacked ' both as a breach of the law of the land, and
as a work at variance with a good conscience.' He goes on to recount how
the authorities of Magdalen attempted legal proceedings against him, which
broke down at a very early stage.
- Newman was editor of the British Critic.
58 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
Statutes was at this moment uninteresting to the Quar-
terly s public, and that there has lately been a review in
the Q. on the subject, whereas the public one wishes to
interest was the University and clerical public, viz. to put
words in their mouths against assailants, and to suggest
hints to those whom it concerned. And now you know
my meaning you shall decide.
I do not think your anticipating your book ^ is of any
consequence. I should have thought it would interest
persons in the subject, and prepare them for your book.
And I could have fancied it might have improved your
book. Both these effects have taken place in my own
experience. But you are judge.
As to time I have no right to be strict. . . . Let me
repeat my thanks. You put it to me to say whether the
object is important. I cannot help thinking it is, now
that Magdalen ^ wishes to move, and will be a precedent to
other bodies — yet one does not like to take the responsi-
bility of saying so. Is it not important ?
Ever yours, etc.
J. H. Newman to J. R. Hope, Esq.
Feb. 3, 1840. — I was pleased to think that R. Palmer
was likely to have a share in your work, or rather sure.
There can be no doubt I suppose, that he would feel it
desirable to reform. It seems to me a great point to try
to bring persons to contemplate the possibility of coming
back to the Statutes, and not to rule it that conformity
is impossible, as people are so apt to do. All things must
have a beginning — therefore it does not follow that literal
obedience must at once be attempted, because it is desirable.
As to Wilberforce he seems deep in the subject, and is
unwiUing to part with the books. He must, of course, if
they cannot be purchased in London. . . .
You must not be severe with Ward. He is a con-
temporary of mine at Trinity, a fellow scholar, and does
me the unmerited honour of thinking me one of the few
* Mr. Hope was preparing a book On Colleges. He never published it.
2 Can Magdalen be a slip of the pen for Merton ?
THE NEW SCHOOL OF TRACTARIANS 59
Catos or Scipios in the University. So it would be most
ungrateful in me to attack him. And besides, he really
has a number of good points.
Yours very truly, etc.
J. H. Newman to J. R. Hope, Esq.
My dear Hope,— Bandinel tells me as follows :— ' It
is not a Laudian MS.,^ but came into the Bodleian Library
among Rawlinson's Collections. It is certainly official,
tho' it cannot be ascertained from what quarter it was
stolen ; I say official, because it has some documents sub-
sequent to the Foundation added to it, and regularly
attested by a Notary Public' He thinks it of greater
authority, if I understand him right, than any other copy.
The College (I think he said) had lost their original, and
so had the Visitor. He showed it to me ; and it seemed
of very considerable age. There are corrections upon it,
as if it had been compared with some other copy.
I am obliged to you for the trouble you are taking. . . .
As to your suggestion, long ago many of my friends have
been desirous of a Clerical Chancellor, etc.
Newman then goes on to discuss Mr. Hope's idea of a
Clerical Chancellor. He was evidently much taken with
it, and suggested the Bishop of Salisbury ; but not without
hesitation. * I should be afraid that one would never know
where to find the Bishop/ He was ' a man to put forward
and patronise men much less sound than himself.' It
has not been thought worth while to print this portion of
the letter. Projects which were never realised have little
interest, except so far as they illustrate, like the hopes of
bringing back the Colleges to the ideals of their Founders,
how full of confidence and enterprise the Tractarians were
before the catastrophe over Tract 90. The freedom with
which Newman in this and other letters unbosoms himself
to Mr. Hope and the confidence which he already had in his
judgment are striking. Mr. Hope was his junior by more
than ten years ; and their friendship had only just begun.
The postscript to the above letter is a trifle which seems
worth preserving.
* The MS. of the Magdalen Statutes which Mr, Ward had used.
6o CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
P.S. — Rogers was going quietly to bed, when Eden,
who had already been knocked down once, came and begged
him and Church to consent to be knocked down again
with him. It was late at night — the young men had left
the street — the Proctors were retiring. Accordingly they
went out, were surrounded by the mob, thrashed soundly
with bludgeons, and came in again. There was literally
no one object, either assignable or accomplished, for their
going out, except that of being knocked down.
On February the 2ist, and again on the 25th Newman
wrote to Hope discussing the question of the Chancellorship.
Pusey was against the Bishop of Salisbury, and the merits
of other Bishops were discussed. On March 7 Newman
received the proofs of the article on the Magdalen Statutes.
Mr. Hope had been very severe on Ward.
J. H. Newman to J. R. Hope, Esq.
March 7, 1840.
Your parcel just come. Many thanks indeed for the
great trouble you have taken. I am on the point of setting
off to Littlemore, where, Bloxam being at home from his
father's illness, I shall be some weeks. I shall send your
paper to the press forthwith. ... I have looked through
it. It seems very good and interesting. You are severe
on Ward, but you are a better judge than I am of the ne-
cessity of being so. I shall see it in proof as weU as you —
and will suggest if there is any minor alteration necessary.
On March 13 Newman again wrote to Mr. Hope. He
wished in his editorial capacity to say something to soften
the effect of Mr. Hope's strictures on Mr. Ward. On
March 19, having carefully studied Mr. Hope's article, he
wrote to him praising it most enthusiastically. 1 The article
was published in the April number of the British Critic.
The last was not yet heard of Mr. Ward. To Newman
in his capacity of editor of the British Critic he wrote a
letter which was too indignant for publication. Newman
rephed in the next number and had to make a concession
1 See Memoirs of J. R. Hope-Scott, vol. i. p. 190.
THE NEW SCHOOL OF TRACTARIANS 6i
upon one point which Mr. Ward had a right to regard as
important. He had to admit that a passage in which the
Founder seemed to prohibit the pubUcation of his Statutes
might admit of Mr. Ward's interpretation, and refer, not
to the Statutes, but to other documents. Mr. Ward rephed
the following year in his preface to a translation of the
' Statutes of All Souls.' He was rejoiced ' to find that there
is no ground, save matter of mere opinion, for a dispute
between himself and a gentleman whom, from long acquain-
tance, he regards with the highest esteem and respect, and
reveres as one of the chief leaders of the most healthful
and happy movement in the cause of true religion since the
Reformation.' Newman must have winced at this implied
comparison between himself and the Reformers. From the
editor Mr. Ward turned to the writer of the article, and had
a good deal to say about him. But the subject may be left
here. The fact that the publication of the Statutes of a
College engendered so much heat is interesting ; but the
rights and wrongs of the controversy are not ; and, moreover,
they could only be dealt with by an expert.
J. H. Newman to S. F. Wood, Esq.
Littlemore : March lo, 1840.
My dear Wood, — It is an age since I have seen your
handwriting ; and, since I have questions to ask, I hope
to elicit it.
Bloxam has long wished me to interfere in the school
here — and since he is now summoned away by his Father's
illness (by the bye he is leaving Littlemore to my great
sorrow and regret) I have come up to try to mend matters.
I think you can get me some practical information and
suggestions too.
What is thought of the system of monitors ? What is
thought of masters taking private or independent pupils ?
I want to be put in the way generally — what the daily
lessons should be, etc.
We have about 30 boys and girls, each. Have you not
some outline engravings which you could recommend ; or
if not on the Society's list, yet which I could get. I want
62 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
a cheap Edition of Overbeck, etc. Can you give me any
hint about music and psalmody ? Any hint of whatever
kind will be valuable, though I fear I can do little sub-
stantial while my present mistress continues, who was taken
as being wife of the master and is a very incompetent person.
I have no news to tell you about Oxford — Right views
and practices are spreading strangely ; nor do I think with
you that they tend to nothing more than rubricism. Yet
I am not the less anxious on that account. Anglicanism
has never yet been put to the test whether it will bear life ;
it may break to pieces in the rush and transport of existence,
and die of joy.
You had better direct to me at Oxford, if you have
anything to say. Tell me some London news.
Ever yrs. affectionately,
John H. Newman.
The following is the rough draft of a letter to some one
who seems to have taken exception to the following passage
in the sermon on * Secret Faults,' presumably on account
of its affinity to the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory. ' Nay
even to the true servants of Christ, the prospect ^ is awful.
"The righteous," we are told, "will scarcely be saved."
Then will the good man undergo the full sight of his
sins, which on earth he was labouring to obtain, and partly
succeeded in obtaining, though life was not long enough to
learn and subdue them all. Doubtless we must all endure
that fierce and terrifying vision of our real selves, that last
fiery trial of the soul ^ before its acceptance, a spiritual
agony and second death to all who are not then supported
by the strength of Him who died to bring them safe through
it, and in Whom on earth they have believed.' ^
J. H. Newman to a Correspondent
Littlemore : April 15, 1S40.
Dear Sir, — Thank you for your kind and frank note.
I have referred to the passage of my sermon (on ' Secret
Faults ') and send you the following explanation of it.
^ I.e. of the Last Day. * j Qq^ jjj j^.
^ Parochial Sermons, i. 48.
THE NEW SCHOOL OF TRACTARIANS 63
I consider Scripture expressly tells us that the secrets
of all hearts will be openly disclosed at the last day, i Cor. iv.
5 [vide also i Cor, iii. 13). But, if disclosed, to whom if
not to the individual himself ? and again, if thus disclosed
to him it will be a most fearful and trying disclosure.
This is indeed a deduction of my own, but I signify it
to be such by the word ' doubtless.'
I conceive everyone has a right to make his own
inferences from Scripture, provided they are not such as
to contradict what is directly revealed doctrine.
As to the particular deduction made in the passage in
question, I have said the view of ourselves at the last day
will be terrifying, but as to those who on earth have duly
believed in our Lord, it will be without harm, as they will
be supported by His strength ; however that to others it
will be a second death. I have considered that the mention
of fire in i Cor. iii. 13 shadows this out among other things.
Has that text no meaning ?
My sermon was written in 1825, fifteen years hence. I
hold to its awful view still, and wish it was more impressed
upon my heart.
J.N.
The reader will find himself constantly reminded of
the closing words of this letter. The fear of judicial blind-
ness, the punishment of some * Secret Faults ' seems to have
been constantly present to Newman's mind during the
last two years or so of his Anglican life, and held him back.
See especially the letters to Keble in 1843.
The following is the rough copy of a letter to some
correspondent who found things that shocked him in
Newman's recently published ' Church of the Fathers.'
J. H. Newman to a Correspondent
Oriel College : May 21, 1840.
My dear Sir, — I should gladly have replied to your
kind note before this, had I more command of my time.
It gave me much pleasure to find that the ' Church of the
Fathers ' was not unacceptable to you — that there are
64 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
things in it which you or others may wish away I can easily
believe and should be very inconsiderate not to anticipate.
Indeed I have frequent evidence of it from the candid state-
ments of friends such as your own. What I find, however,
is that persons whom I respect or value, while they all
perhaps object, do not agree, or rather conflict with one
another in their objections, and, though this does not show,
nor do I take it to show, that I am therefore undeserving of
criticism, yet it does make it hopeless to attempt to alter
what I have written with a view of pleasing others, and
seems to leave me at liberty to go by what I think truth in
opinion and historical fact.
I am led to say this from your observing that ' I do
not know how many really thoughtful men ' I ' offend and
alienate by some of my statements.' Certainly I do not
know their numbers, but on the other hand I know perfectly,
(if one must appeal to results), that I gain ardent and
superior minds by the very things by which persons to
whom you allude might be offended. Men are so variously
constituted that we cannot appeal to expediency in this
matter. I utterly despair of pleasing all persons, and find
that, as I conciliate one, I offend another. I find this
daily — I find I have to unlearn the habit, natural (I suppose)
to most of us, of trying to please people. I have no mis-
giving in declaring what many probably will not believe
of me, that I do not love paradox or wish to startle people.
I am more and more convinced that the business of all
of us is to be honest, and to court no one — and to leave
the course of things to itself, or rather to higher guidance.
Another thing which somewhat hardens me against
such friendly remonstrances as yours, is this — that from the
time when my friends and I began to write on the subjects
to which the ' Church of the Fathers ' relates, we have
been exclaimed against, reprobated, and followed. If you
had our experience of the indignation and horror which
has been the process through which men have been per-
suaded and converted, how they protested against points
which can now be quietly assumed as first principles, how
THE NEW SCHOOL OF TRACTARIANS 65
we were accused of intemperance and rancour for writings
which are now blamed as plausible, artful, and affectedly
dispassionate, you would not wonder that I cannot help
anticipating that some persons who just now are startled
at the ' Church of the Fathers ' may end in allowing its
statements, if not in approving them. The newest Tract or
volume has always been the indiscreet one, and our last point
but one has been that at which we ought to have stopped.
As to St. Gregory's address to St. Basil, and my remarks
upon it, I assure you there are persons who have been much
taken with those pages of my book, who see in them no
' sneer * at our Church, who feel in them nothing repugnant
to their Anglo-catholic principles. Indeed, I should have
thought that what is there said was in accordance with
your own views, viz. that Invocation of Saints, though
not abstractedly wrong, has been proved by experience
to be dangerous. At the same time surely it is a great
principle of our Church, as expressed in the Canons of
1603, that ' usum non tollit abusus ' ; whereas to urge the
abuse against the use is the very ground of the Puritans,
which Hooker is at such pains to invalidate. Scripture
is as silent about kneeling at the reception of the Elements
or crossing in Baptism, as about making mention of the
saints, after St. Gregory's manner ; on the other hand in
our daily service we say, ' O ye spirits and souls of the
righteous, O Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, bless ye the
Lord,' which would seem to show that there are invocations
which are not Romish.
As for celibacy does not the notion that it is not a holier
state than matrimony tend to Pelagianism ? Does not
the conclusion that it is, follow from the words of the
Article, ' Concupiscence has the nature of sin ' ? and what
is the meaning of ' In sin hath my mother conceived me ' ?
I am, etc.,
John H. Newman.
The ' address to St. Basil ' (three years after his death)
ran as follows : ' This, O Basil, to thee from me
66 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
But O, that thou, divine and sacred heart, mayest watch
over me from above, and that thorn of my flesh, which
God has given me for my discipline, either end it by thy
intercessions, or persuade me to bear it bravely ! and
mayest thou direct my whole life towards that which is
most convenient ! and when I depart hence mayest thou
receive me into thv tabernacles ! ' ^
The comment on this ' address ' in which Newman's
correspondent fancied he saw a sneer at the Church of
England is omitted in later editions of the ' Chiurch of the
Fathers '; it was as follows :
' The English Church has removed such addresses
from her Services, on account of the abuses to which they
have led ; and she pointedly condemns what she calls
the Romish doctrine concerning Invocation of the Saints
as *' a fond thing " ; however, Gregory not knowing what
would come after his day, thus expresses the yearnings
of his heart, and as we may suppose, at the time he thus
made them public had already received an answer to them.'
Newman, so long as he was an Anglican, set his face
against direct invocations of the saints. It was, in his
eyes, a practice not to be adopted, even in private devotion,
without the sanction of Authority.
J. H. Newman to J. W. Bowden, Esq.
Oriel College : June 28, 1840.
My dearest Bowden, — I am truly glad to hear from
Manuel [Johnston] of your arrival. In anticipation of
your arrival I have arranged to come to town next week
(about July 6) and must pass a day or some hours with you.
I shall be partly at Westmacott's, partly at R. Williams's.
On Tuesday next I go to Derby ; if you v^ite me a line
direct, ' J. Mozley, Esq., Friar Gate, Derby.'— J. M. and
my sister H. are there at present.
So you are back — God be praised. Rogers is going
this winter. He is not so well quite as one should like.
I have various things to tell you, which I shall reserve
till we meet. C. Marriott, who is viriting opposite to me,
desires kindest remembrances.
1 •
Church of the Fathers,' Hu^t. Sketches, ii. 75.
THE NEW SCHOOL OF TRACTARIANS 67
I will give you some account of some of your Tracts.
I Edn. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
No. 5. 1000 1000 1000 750 1000 1500 1500
No. 29. 1000 500 750 1000 1000 1500 1500
No. 30. 1000 750 1000 1000 1500 1500
I have made a table of all of them and their editions.
The Tracts have cleared £300 this last year.
Kindest thoughts of your wife and children^ all blessings
be with you.
Ever yrs. afHy,
J. H. Newman.
In June, 1839, Newman wrote to Bowden : ' We sold
altogether about 60,000 Tracts last year.'
J. H. Newman to S. F. Wood, Esq.
Oriel : September 6, 1840.
My dear Wood, — Your sketch was very satisfactory.
Pusey much approved it. He has marked two passages,
I think, for correction — which perhaps you had better look
to yourself. I hardly agree with him. In one you speak of
Fronde's views as influencing the writers of the Tracts.
Now Pusey of course ought to be excluded — ^but as to the
anonymous writers it is quite true — and I could not consent
to it not being said. The other is where you prophecy that
the English Clergy will fall back again upon the Rubrics —
I should think it a great pity to omit that passage. But,
since Pusey perhaps thinks it is not sanguine enough, per-
haps you could put in a sentence or a clause, saying * we
hope otherwise, etc., etc'
I want you to review Hope's speech ^ in the House of
Lords for the British Critic and give a sketch of the history
of the struggle. Some record should be made of it, and it will
soon be forgotten if not done at once. You are one of the
few persons who can do it.
My love to R.W. and thank him for his kind and
1 On Anglican Chapters. See Hope-Scott's Life.
68 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
comfortable letter, which I hope he did not expect me
to acknowledge.
Pusey is returned better and more cheerful than I have
seen him many a day.
I have been sadly pressed with the B.C. this quarter.
At one time I almost thought I should have to write | of it
myself — but the prospect brightens — and T.M.i I hope will
come to the rescue. The said T.M. has 20,000 bricks in his
Church yard, and his people are dispersed over the plain
gathering flints; he being in the act of rebuilding his
Church.
I am glad to hear so good an account of yourself. As
to Shuttleworth,^ I suppose we shall have some episcopal
Charges from him aimed at certain things.
Ever yrs. affectionately,
John H. Newman.
P.S. — I will send you MS. when and whither you direct.
The following letter introduces us to one of the most
valued of Newman's friends and advisers for over a quarter
of a century. Edward Lowth Badeley, Q.C., was educated
at Brasenose College, Oxford, taking his degree in 1823. In
1841 he was called to the Bar. As a lawyer he devoted
himself almost wholly to ecclesiastical cases. He was one of
the counsel employed by the Bishop of Exeter in the Gorham
case. In 1852 he became a Catholic. He lived almost the
life of a recluse in his chambers, devoting himself from
' that time exclusively to the solution of the various legal
difficulties attending the administration of Roman Catholic
trusts and charities.' ^ He was the friend — ' a man about
my own age, who lives out of the world of theological con-
troversy and contemporary literature, and whose intel-
lectual habits especially qualify him for taking a clear and
impartial view of the force of words,' — consulted by Newman
about the adequacy of Kingsley's apology for the insulting
remarks in Macmillan's Magazine. If he had ruled Kingsley's
amende satisfactory, the ' Apologia ' in all probability would
never have been written. Newman dedicated his ' Verses on
1 Thomas Mozley. ^ Bishop of Chichester.
2 Gtnthman's Magaiine, v, 6x8 (1868).
THE NEW SCHOOL OF TRACTARIANS 69
Various Occasions, to Badeley, wishing it to be ' the poor
expression, long-delayed, of my gratitude, never to be inter-
mitted, for the great services which you rendered me years
ago, by your legal skill and affectionate zeal, in a serious
matter, in which I found myself in collision with the law
of the land/
J. H. Newman to E. L. Badeley, Esq.
Oriel : September i6, 1840.
My dear Badeley, — I fear you have thought me neglect-
ful of your kind note. Till I saw Hope I was not quite
certain whether ' Temple ' would have been enough of a
direction — he has given me more.
It pleased me not a little to read what you said of that
Sermon — which relates to a very large subject, of which it is
but a part. I have been trying from time to time to work
it out but not to my satisfaction. Should I ever do so, the
Sermon might appear as part of a whole. The volume I
am going to publish is to be on a particular line of subjects,
with which it would not fall in.
Do not think I do not value your suggestion or advice,
and shall not be grateful for it at any time, because I do not
avail myself of it now.
A pleasant tour to you — -pray try to make Hope under-
stand he must take care of his health in Italy, and that if
he rambles about he had better stay at home.
Yours very sincerely,
John H. Newman.
The volume of sermons about to be published must
have been ' Parochial Sermons,' vol. v., the preface to which is
dated October 21, 1840. The particular sermon to which
the letter refers must have been ' Implicit and Explicit
Reason,' i which was preached ' on St. Peter's Day, 1840.'
^ University Sermons ^ No. XIII.
CHAPTER III
TRACT XC. JANUARY TO APRIL 184I
Quae ignorabam interrogabant me
The year 1841 was as eventful as the preceding one had
been uneventful ; for it was the year of Tract 90, and the
ill-starred Anglo-Prussian Jerusalem Bishopric.
The editors have not in their hands many important
letters written by Newman in connection with Tract 90
which have not already been published either by Miss
Mozley or in the ' Life of Dr. Pusey/ but there are many
of considerable interest which he received ; and from these,
chiefly, a selection has been made.^
Tract 90 was published on February 27, 1841. Like
its predecessors, with one or two exceptions, it was anony-
mous. But the veil of anonymity was so thin that every-
one in Oxford must have seen through it. On March 8,
four senior Tutors addressed to the Editor of Tracts for
the Times, ' i.e. Newman, a not very happily worded letter —
there was a tone of self-conscious correctness and modera-
tion about it — in which they expressed their apprehension
that the Tract had a highly dangerous tendency and their
feeling that some one should avow himself responsible for
it. In giving specimens of the grounds of their apprehe^ision
the}^ betrayed such an entire misunderstanding of the scope
of the Tract, that it might almost seem pardonable to
suspect that every one of the four, feeling confident that
the other three had studied it, omitted to do so himself.
It is, of course, certain that none of them was competent
^ All the official documents connected with Tract 90, viz. the Tract
itself ; the Letter of the Four Tutors ; the Censure of the Tract ; New-
man's Letter to the Vice-Chancellor after the appearance of the censure ;
the Letter to Dr. Jelf ; the Letter to the Bishop of Oxford, are reprinted
in Via Media, vol, ii.
TRACT XC 71
to pronounce an opinion. A novel and complicated piece
of critical research, such as was Tract 90, cannot be mastered
by the most practised intellect in the space of eight days.
Copies of the letter were at once put in circulation. It
was obviously the opening of a campaign. Two days
later, on March 10, the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Wynter, brought
the Tract and the Letter of the Tutors before the Hebdo-
madal Board. On March 12 Newman, with the rapidity
that he was capable of in an emergency, vindicated the
Tract from the misinterpretations of the Tutors, and cut
away the ground of the impending censure, in his Letter
to Dr. Jelf. This was submitted to Dr. Jelf, and sent to
the press the following day. On March 15 the Hebdomadal
Board, refusing to wait for the publication of the Letter to
Dr. Jelf, condemned the Tract. On March 16 Newman
entered in his diary, ' Hebdomadal Act came out early in
the morning. My letter to Dr. Jelf came out at midday.
Dined in Hall.' On the same day he publicly acknowledged
himself the author of the Tract in a courteous letter to the
Vice-Chancellor.
If the Hebdomadal Board, instead of being in such a
hurry to strike, had condescended to wait a few hours for
the promised vindication of the Tract, they might have been
saved from doing a very foolish thing. There were two
important facts which they could have learned from the
Letter to Dr. Jelf. The first was that the writer of the
Tract had a good deal to say in his defence ; the second,
that he was not a wanton disturber of the peace, merely
unsettling people's minds. The members of the Board
acted under the impression that the Tract was designed to
foster Romanising tendencies. It never occurred to them
to ask whether these tendencies had not passed the stage
in which they needed fostering, and whether a toleration
of the views put forward in Tract 90 might not be the best
means of restraining them. ' No one,' lamented Dr. Pusey,
nearly a quarter of a century later, ' can tell how much the
subsequent history of the Church of England might not
have been altered, had the respite of the few hours [needed
for the publication of the Letter to Dr. Jelf] been granted.' ^
Equally severe, though not a lament, was the judgment
1 Tract XC . . . with Historical Preface by the Rev. E. B. Pusey, &c.
First pubUshed in 1866. The above is quoted from p. xiii of the edition
of 1903,
72 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
passed by Frederick Oakeley on the blindness of the Heb-
domadal Board :
' Had the Oxford authorities been far-sighted enough to
take Dr. Newman for their guide, and allowed Tract 90 to
do its intended work without molestation, I do not say they
would have prevented the subsequent conversions to the
Church, but they might have indefinitely retarded them.
Thank God who ordered it otherwise.' Newman realised
what the authorities were too heedless to know, ' the depth
in the yearning [in the minds of many] after Rome : and
. . . that the best way to encourage this yearning was to
close up, without necessity, the interpretation of the
Articles.' 1
The thesis put forward in Tract 90 may be summed up
in a dictum, current at the time, to the effect that the Articles
were patient hut not ambitious of a Catholic interpretation.
The writer of the Tract insisted, with a distinctness which
severely taxed the forbearance of many of his friends and
supporters, that the animus of the Articles was uncatholic,
that they were the product of an uncatholic age, that they
were not intended to inculcate Catholic doctrine ; but
having admitted all this, he maintained that they were of
deliberate purpose so framed that it might be possible for
men having Catholic leanings to subscribe to them without
doing violence either to their own consciences, or to 'the
literal and grammatical sense ' of the Articles.
To quote his own words : ' Their framers constructed
them in such a way as best to comprehend those who
did not go so far in Protestantism as themselves. Anglo-
Catholics are but the successors and representatives of
those moderate reformers ; and their case has been
directly anticipated in the wording of the Articles. It
follows that they are not perverting, they are using them
for an express purpose for which among others their authors
framed them.' He then proceeds to illustrate this by the
history of the 28th Article. ' In the beginning of Elizabeth's
reign a paragraph formed part of this Article ... in which
the Real Presence was denied in words . . . Burnet observes
on it thus :
'"When these Articles were first prepared by the con-
1 Popular Lectures. ' Personal Reminiscences of the Oxford Movement,*
Lect. II, p. 9 [1855].
TRACT XC 73
vocation in Queen Elizabeth's reign, this paragraph was
made part of them. . . . But the design of the government [the
itahcs are Newman's] was at that time much turned to the
drawing over the body of the nation to the Reformation, in
whom the old leaven had gone deep ; and in no part of it
deeper than the belief of the corporeal presence of Christ in
the sacrament ; therefore it was thought not expedient to
offend them by so particular a definition in this matter ; in
which the very word Real Presence was rejected." '
The concluding words of the Tract were : * The Pro-
testant confession was drawn up with the purpose of
including Catholics ; and Catholics now will not be excluded.
What was an economy in the Reformers is a protection to
us. What would have been a perplexity to us then, is a
perplexity to Protestants now. We could not then have
found fault with their words ; they cannot now repudiate
our meaning.'
It seems perfectly clear that if the history of the Articles
was as Newman describes it, his method of interpreting
them was unassailable. But, as will presently be shown,
the history of the Articles was far from being his only
argument.
One may here call the reader's attention to the distinction
drawn in the Tract between Romish, a term used in the Thirty-
nine Articles, and Tridentine. It was this apparently para-
doxical distinction which lay at the root of the four Tutors'
misconstruction of the Tract. It also brought Dr. Wiseman
into the fray, and led Dr. Russell of Maynooth to enter into
correspondence with Newman.
By Tridentine was meant the cut-and-dried propositions
enunciated in the decrees of Trent. These decrees were
promulgated after the Thirty-nine Articles were drawn up.
By Romish, the term used in the Articles, was meant
something far vaguer and more indeterminate,^ viz. what
was taught in the theological schools and from the
pulpit, and embodied in numberless devotional usages and
practices. This was vividly present to the framers of the
Articles. It was part and parcel of the living system in
which they had been nurtured, and into which they dug
their knives.
It was not, of course, suggested that Romish doctrine
^ And (though this point is not handled in the Tract) far more exposed
to misrepresentation and caricature at the hands of the Reformers.
74 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
contradicted Tridentine doctrine or even that it was dis-
countenanced by it. Just the opposite was insisted upon.
But it was maintained that the former outstripped the
latter, much as popular Protestantism went beyond the
Thirty-nine Articles. Both England and Rome had their
traditionary system which was not fully represented by
their formularies.
The distinction was both legitimate and to the purpose.
It was legitimate because a less developed system of devo-
tion, and in a measure even of belief regarding some matters,
than that which prevailed, might be theoretically com-
patible with the bare letter of the decrees of Trent. It
was to the purpose because it is the first duty of a com-
mentator to ascertain the exact meaning of the terms used
in his text.
This distinction between Romish and Tridentine had often
been made by Newman before ; it was not therefore devised
for the benefit of the thesis which he put forward in Tract
90.^ But it had an important bearing upon it. There
were matters upon which the decrees of Trent spoke in such
general terms, that to take them as representing the
doctrines which the Articles condemned, would come
dangerously near to bringing the Articles in collision with
doctrines and practices which all students of antiquity had
to allow were primitive.
But there were further reasons for making much of this
distinction. It seemed to be necessary in order to preserve
the very idea of a Catholic Church for English Churchmen.
According to the Tractarian theory England, Rome and the
East were branches of the one indivisible Catholic Church.
The difficulty, a fearfully anxious one to those for whose
sake Tract 90 had been written, was to reconcile this theory
with the first note of the Church, that of unity. The only
means of coming to terms with this difficulty was to mini-
mise the differences between England and Rome by
endeavouring to show that they were not radical ones. To
unchurch Rome by accusing her of having formally and
officially contravened the Faith at a General Council was
^ The legitimacy of the distinction from an Anglican point of view
might have occurred to the censurers of Tract 90 if they had given them-
selves as many months as they took days before pronouncing judgment
upon it. Explanations, not retractations, of canonised formulanes were at
the basis of such projects of Reunion as had been from time to time enter-
tained by English Churchmen of unimpeachable soundness.
TRACT XC 75
like a redudio ad absurdum ; for who could look facts
steadily in the face and believe in a ' Holy Church through-
out the world ' from which all the Churches in communion
with the See of Peter were excluded ?
After all, then, it was not such a paradoxical thing for a
clergyman of the Church of England to explore what might
be done in the way of a benignant interpretation of the
decrees of Trent, and the more learned of his brethren ought
to have thought twice before raising a popular outcry against
him. He was only vindicating their right to profess belief
in one of the articles of the creed.
The critical principles of Tract 90 may be summarised
thus. The Articles are to be studied in the hght of the
following facts:
1. They do not profess to be a complete body of divinity.
Doctrines therefore which they do not mention are not of
necessity condemned.
2. The Convocation which received and passed them
spoke with respect of ' the Catholic Fathers and Ancient
Bishops.' They were not, therefore, intended to be incon-
sistent with patristic literature.
3. They approve of the Homilies as ' containing a godly
and wholesome doctrine.' It was therefore reasonable to
interpret them in the light of the said Homilies. Now, on
the one hand, the Homilies countenance much Catholic doc-
trine which is not found in the Articles, and, on the other
hand, when they seem most unsparing in their denuncia-
tion of Catholic ideas, they are often found, whether intention-
ally or unintentionally, to miss the real Catholic doctrine, and
to hit ai: real or imaginary abuses of it.
4. The Articles were published before the decrees of
the Council of Trent. The importance of this fact has
already been pointed out.
5. Those who imposed the Articles on the clergy wished
it to be possible for men of widely different views, not ex-
cluding those who did not wish to break altogether with
the past, to be able to subscribe to them.
All these facts created a presumption that the Articles
when examined critically would prove ' patient but not
ambitious of a Catholic interpretation.' The object of
Tract 90 was to test this presumption.
The Tract may be considered as having two objects
76 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
in view. The first, the most important, and the immediately
practical one was to prove that the Thirty-nine Articles did
not condemn the Anglican Via Media as it was expounded
by the writers of the ' Tracts for the Times/
The secondary and altogether subordinate object might
be described as a tentative inquiry into how far Rome,
supposing her to be ready to treat with England on equal
terms, would be able to offer interpretations of the decrees
of Trent which Anghcans could accept. It was over this
secondary object that the author of the Tract exposed him-
self to misconstruction and misrepresentation. People
jumped to the conclusion that he was ready to surrender
everything and ask nothing in return. The very opposite
was the fact. Those who had most right to complain, if
they had cared to do so, were the Catholics. They were
asked to move out of range of the Articles by adopting almost
admittedly forced interpretations of the decrees of Trent.
The Tutors in their Letter enumerated five points upon
which, as they alleged, the Tract made no difference be-
tween the doctrine of the Articles and the authoritative
teaching of the Church of Rome. These five points were :
(i) Purgatory ; (2) Indulgences ; (3) the Honours paid to
Images and Relics ; (4) the Invocation of the Saints ; (5) the
Mass. The list is a useful one. It contains practically all
the points upon which, in Newman's eyes, the differences
between the two Churches were almost irreconcilable ones.
The concessions which, as an Anglican, he would have
demanded from Rome upon these several points were little
else than capitulation with the honours of war.
Newman always maintained that Tract 90 was a legi-
timate interpretation of the Articles. He did so in the
'Apologia,' and again in the second volume of his ' Via
Media.' But in 1883 he expressed himself dissatisfied with
the reasoning in one important part of the Tract, viz. sec. 9,
which treats of Art. xxxi., ' the sacrifice of masses,' &c.^
There was an important group of Churchmen who were
in substantial agreement with the Tractarians, but disliked
and distrusted their methods and the length to which they
carried their principles. To this school Tract 90 must have
been a sore trial. Nevertheless, when trouble began, its
leaders stood by Newman. The first to come forward was
Palmer of Worcester. His conduct was particularly hand-
^ See later editions of Via Media, vol. ii. pp. 251-256.
TRACT XC 77
some, because for some time past there had been a coolness
between him and Newman.^ He wrote the following letter
the day before the Tract was brought under the notice of
the Hebdomadal Board.
Rev. W. Palmer to J. H. Newman
St. Giles : [March 9, 1841].
My dear Newman, — Though I have taken no part in
the discussions relative to the Tracts, I yet feel it my duty
to express to you, under present circumstances, the gratifica-
tion which I have derived from No. 90 just published.
While I should hesitate to commit myself to every state-
ment contained in it, I have no hesitation in expressing an
opinion that it is the most valuable of the series of Tracts
that has come under my observation. It will tend to shake
people out of their implicit reception of traditionary inter-
pretations which impose human opinions as little less than
articles of faith. It will lead to a really critical system of
interpreting the Articles, and will ultimately produce more
union on the articles of Catholic Faith, and more toleration
of opinions which have been at all times tolerated in the
Universal Church.
I may perhaps have seen a few expressions that I could
have wished otherwise, but on the whole I most cordially
thank you for this interesting Tract, and if my opinion
can be of any service to you I do not wish to conceal it.
Ever Yours,
W. Palmer.
If Mr. Palmer's letter had been written a few days
earlier, and circulated before people had had time to commit
themselves, it might have saved the situation ; for he was
one of the most learned theologians of the day, and the
soundness of his Churchmanship was beyond suspicion.
Newman, who was at Littlemore, sent it at once to Church.
Church passed it on to W. G. Ward, who showed it among
other persons to Tait, and then scrawled a hasty note to
1 Letters of the Rev. J. B. Moxley, p. 113.
78 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
Church reporting that Tait was ' extremely struck ' by it,
and asking that it might be placed in the hands of Dr.
Richards, the Rector of Exeter, for ' Tait says Twiss tells
him there is a report of the Heads meeting to-day on the
subject.' Church forwarded Ward's letter to Newman,
writing at the bottom of it :
' Dear N., — I have said yes. I suppose I have done
right.— Yours affectly, R. W. C Later on, the same day,
he wrote as follows :
Rev. R. W. Church to J. H. Newman
March lo [1841].
My dear Newman, — The Heads had a meeting to-day,
sure enough to discuss No. 90, and Cornish^ came to me
after it was over, and reported what the Rector ^ had said
of it. It seems that nothing was done to-day for two
reasons : i. That they had a good deal of other business,
and 2, that many or most of the assembly had not yet
read the said Tract. However they were very fierce against
it, and against the Tracts in general, against which they
seem to have declared 'War to the knife.' They are
accordingly to meet again on Friday at 2 to determine on
their measures, as by that time everybody may be presumed
' up ' in the Tract.
The feeling in the board is represented by the Rector ^
as so strong that he did not like to read P's letter, as it
would have been throwing ' cold water on red-hot iron.'
Cornish seemed to think that he would not read it, but
he is to take it with him on Friday, to make what use he
may of it according to circumstances. He has not read
the Tract himself yet, but there is no doubt but that though
he might differ, and perhaps strongly with part of it, he
would be utterly opposed to any step against it. Daman ^
seems to be of the same mind ; I showed him Palmer's
letter this morning — which has reassured and comforted
^ Rev. C. L. Cornish. Fellow of Exeter.
^ Dr. Richards, Rector of Exeter.
^ Rev. C. Daman, Fellow of Oriel.
TRACT XC
79
Cornish himself, as far as he wanted comfort. Keble is
here in my room writing his lecture. All well. He hangs
out in Rogers' room.
Ever yours affectionately,
R. W. C.
Golias [Golightly] is in high glee ; he ventured to join
the tto/jltttj of the Provost, and actually took the conde-
scending line about a paper which he had sent the Provost ^
and which the latter had not yet looked at.
Rev. R. W. Church to J. H. Newman
Oriel: March ii, 1841*
My dear Newman, — I have shown your note to Cornish,
I. Williams and Keble. They all agree that it is better to
remain quiet and not give up your name till it is officially
called for. The Exeter C.R. [Common Room] according to
Cornish (i.e. Sewell, Dayman and Spranger) are all of this
mind. Things might be said out of Oxford agamst an
anonymous Tract, which would not be said against you
and I should have thought it desirable that your name
should come out ultimately ; but this it will in the course
of things, I suppose, time enough to meet ra e^co, while
in Oxford to give it now, would be merely giving them a
move.
People are still very angry. Golly ^ has struck up a
great intimacy with the Provost, whom he has propemped ^
twice to his lodgings, and whom he patronises most kindly.
The first consequence to the Provost of his new alliance
was the loss of his breakfast this morning owing to G/s
pertinacious prosing. There was a meeting from 9 to i —
but I don't know what about. The report is that V.C.
has said he will not meddle : other people talk of an admoni-
tion to the Four ^ — concerning what ? Keble has written
to V.C. saying that he had carefully read the Tract and
' Dr. Hawkins, Provost of Oriel, " Golightly.
'■ \ word coined by the writer from irpoTri/xira. * The Four Tutors.
8o CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
recommended its publication. He does not think that
anything will come of it.
The Times is flinching, but at the same time kicks the
Four [Tutors]. I have shown P's letter to Mules, Eden, and
Daman. I. Williams showed it to Short : I suppose I have
not been too free with it. I let Mules take a copy.
I am sorry to say that S. Wilberforce has just lost his
wife. She died yesterday.
Ever Yours affectionately,
R. W, C.
A copy of the following letter was sent by Church to
Newman. It is undated, but must have been written
before news had reached the writer of the censure of the
Hebdomadal Board, and the Letter to Dr. Jelf.
Rev. G. Moberly to Rev. R. W. Church
Dear Richard, — I am much obliged to you for Palmer's
letter. I have now read No. 90 carefully, and though I find
both some expressions and some opinions indicated which
I am not prepared to go with, yet on the whole the Tract
in its main design, and i9/20ths of its execution appear to
me most valuable. We want to be taught that we have a
higher and holier origin than the Reformation and the
Articles : and that it is a matter of separate thankfulness
that we can hold the Church's Truth, and at the same time
sign the Terms of National Communion. Meanwhile many
really take the Articles for Creed, Scripture, Church, and
Commandments. I am extremely anxious to hear further,
and whensoever you can write shall rejoice to hear. But
what practical measures can be taken ? I shall probably
see Keble to-morrow.
Your affectionately,
George Moberly.^
' There were indeed men, besides my own immediate
friends, men of name and position, who gallantly took my
* Afterwards Bishop of Salisbury.
TRACT XC 8i
part, as Dr. Hook, Mr. Palmer, and Mr. Perceval.'
[* Apologia,' p. 89.] The following letter was from the last
named of these three :
Rev. a. Perceval to J. H. Newman
East Horsley : March 10, 1841.
My dear Newman, — Pusey, whom pray thank for his
letter received to-day, writes me word of some counter
movement in consequence of the last Tract. This has led
me to look it over more carefully than I had done before,
and it seems to me both right to you, and a satisfaction to
myself to tell you, that though in my shortsightedness I
could have wished it at another time than just at present
when men are perhaps less qualified to receive the statements
calmly, than they were a little time back, or will be probably
a little time hence — I mean from the political espousal of
the question pro and con. by the state politicians — and
though I should have been tempted to employ a little more
of the wisdom of the serpent, e.g. not have unnecessarily
quoted the passage from Estius which both from the matter
and author must needs be very likely to raise a cry of war
to the knife. Yet I think it one of the most important
papers that has been put out, and calculated, under God's
Blessing to do much good. Its main object is unexception-
able, and in details its opponents must look sharp to ground
a serious objection.
If I can be of any service I will not fail you. But that
can only be if good opportunity offers, which does not
depend upon myself.
Yours in heart and affection,
Arthur Perceval.^
On March 12 Pusey wrote to the Vice-Chancellor, Dr.
Wynter. His letter defended Tract 90 from the aspersions
cast upon it by the Tutors, and called attention to its
opportuneness.
' His [i.e. the author's] feelings were these : our Church
has condemned nothing Catholic, but only Romish errors ;
* For Newman's reply see Notes, p. 393.
82 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
yet there are certain opinions and practices, more or less
prevailing in Catholic antiquity, having some relation to the
later Romish error, which might seem to be condemned
by our Articles, as they are often popularly understood.
This would be a subject of great perplexity to some minds
... (I happen to know one such case, which would, as
far as an individual can be, be a great blow and shock, where
a person's doubts, whether he will remain in communion
with our Church, turn on this very point.) Thus, as he
has noticed, there are several opinions of there being some
Purgatorial process before or at the Day of Judgment,
whereby those who departed out of this life in an imperfect
state would be fitted for the Presence of God. Are all
these (such an one would ask) condemned by our Church ? '
The whole letter should be read ; ^ but this extract
from it will be enough to show how seriously the authorities
were warned of the risk they ran by not keeping their hands
off Tract 90.
The following undated letter of Pusey's must have been
written on March 13 or 14 ; the ' paper ' which is spoken
of was the Letter to Dr. Jelf.
Rev. E. B. Pusey to J. H. Newman
My dear N. — I like the beginning of your paper very
much ; it is very clear. There is an admission in a page
towards the end which I have turned down which would
be laid hold of. Could you not qualify it consistently with
your opinion ? ' The only religious communion practically
in possession of the something is the Church of Rome.' ^
^ It is given in extenso in Pusey 's Life, ii. 170.
* The following is the passage alluded to. Perhaps in its present
form it owes something to Pusey's suggestions : ' The age is moving
towards something, and most unhappily the one religious communion
among us which has of late years been in possession of this something, is
the Church of Rome. She alone, amid all the errors and evils of her
practical system, has given free scope to the feelings of awe, mystery,
tenderness, reverence, devotedness, and other feelings which may be
especially called Catholic. The question then is, whether we shall give
them up to the Roman Church or claim them for ourselves, as we well
may, by reverting to that older system, which has of late years indeed
been superseded, but which has been and is, quite congenial ... to
our Church.' Via Media, ii. 386.
TRACT XC 83
Could you not mark it as being a temporary deficiency in
our system, not as if our Church never had had it (as in the
17th century), or as if it might not be brought out in our
Church, if we acted up to her system ; and again might
something be thrown in as to the comparative purity of
Enghsh Romanism, e.g. ' The only religious community
which has of late years (or the like) been practically in posses-
sion of that something is the Church of Rome, which being
seen among us chiefly as it acts upon the higher classes is, as
Bishop Lloyd observed, free from ' etc. ? But this is long.
I see your next sentence does qualify this ; only this
is pithy and might be extracted if not guarded.
The further points which I want to see brought out
are (i) that the latitude of interpretation which you claim
would not extend in other hands to the first five Articles,^
because, as you say in the one class the writers meant to be
comprehensive, in the other definite. (2) Could you explain
prudently how far you would wish this explanation of the
Articles to go? What are the Catholic or quasi- Catholic
tenets or practices which you would wish for the sake of
others to see admitted by this construction of the Articles ?
(3) To show again how the Articles bear this, that
e.g. if they speak of the Romish doctrine of Purgatory they
do not mean the Greek Purgatorial fire at the Day of Judg-
ment : if they say the Romish invocation of Saints they
do not mean such apostrophies as you find in St. Gregory
Nazianzen etc.
Could you explain the term ' stammering formularies '
as I understand they are (as in Isaiah ^) providentially
fitted to our imperfect state (as in Wilhams' Tract) ? ^ If
persons so ill bear our Baptismal service, how much less
would they bear a Communion Service in which the true
doctrine was developed ?
I understand people have been most perplexed by the
view of the last pages, as if the writers of the Articles were
1 Those dealing with the Mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation.
^ Isaiah xxviii. ii.
3 The reference is to Tract 86, and to the arguments on pp. 80-82. This
was kindly pointed out by Canon Johnston.
84 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
taken in their own trap, and by this expression [i.e.
stammering formularies] .
I enclose a painful note from the Vice Chancellor, but
it may show you where the difficulty lies.
I see you mean to preserve your anonymousness which
I believe would be very desirable till the Heads of Houses
have decided.
Yours very affectly,
E. B. P.
I mentioned to Jelf your thought of writing to him,
which he quite enters into, but thought it very desirable
that you should keep your anonymousness.
I called just now, but it was only with a view of talking
over and explaining what I have set down in this note.
Could you show by quotations what the authoritative
teaching was before the Council of Trent, so as to contrast
it with the earlier views of the Fathers, since the more
definite that teaching and that system, the less room will
there be for identifying it with the Fathers.
The following are the two passages which according to
Dr. Pusey perplexed many people. The first comes quite
at the beginning of the Tract.
' Till we feel this, till we seek one another as brethren,
not lightly throwing aside our private opinions, which we
seem to feel we have received from above, from an ill-
regulated, untrue desire of unity, but returning to each
other in heart, and coming together to God to do for us
what we cannot do for ourselves, no change can be for the
better. Till her members are stirred up to this religious
course, let the Church sit still ; let her be content to be in
bondage ; let her work in chains ; let her submit to her
imperfections as a punishment ; let her go on teaching with
the stammering lips of ambiguous formularies ' &c.
The second passage is the conclusion of the Tract. It
follows a long quotation from Burnet on the Articles already
given ; ^ it described how in Article XXVIH, because ' the de-
sign of the Government was at that time much turned to the
drawing over the body of the station to the Reformation,' a para-
1 p. 72.
TRACT XC 85
graph rejecting the very term Real Presence was expunged,
and there were substituted for it words which were
ambiguous.
' What has lately taken place,' commented the author
of the Tract, ' in the political world will afford an illustration
in point. A French minister desirous of war, nevertheless,
as a matter of policy draws up his state papers in such
moderate language that his successor, who is for peace, can
act up to them, without compromising his own principles.
The world, observing this, has considered it a circumstance
for congratulation ; as if the former minister, who acted a
double part, had been caught in his own snare. It is neither
decorous, nor necessary, nor altogether fair, to urge the
parallel rigidly ; but it will explain what is here meant to
convey. The Protestant Confession was drawn up with
the purpose of including Catholics ; and Catholics now will
not be excluded. What was an economy in the Reformers,
is a protection to us. What would have been a perplexity
to us then, is a perplexity to Protestants now. We could
not then have found fault with their words ; they cannot
now repudiate our meaning.'
Thirty-five years afterwards Newman appended the
following note to the passage in Pusey's letter about * the
writers of the Articles being caught in their own trap ' :
N.B. : Aug. 9, 1876.
I did mean this. It was always a wonder to me that
Pusey and Manning wished me to cut out my concluding
words of No. 90, which were necessary for my position ;
I always said ' The Article framers were double-tongued or
I. I said in these last words that it was the Article framers,'
On March 14 Oakeley, who was carrying out Tractarian
principles at the Margaret Street Chapel in London, wrote
a long letter to Pusey to the following effect. All persons
whom he met, and he was not speaking of those who would
be called ' extreme people,' felt themselves indebted to the
author of Tract 90 ; and till the news came of the Tutors'
protest, he had heard of no objections except from some
correspondent in the Times. There were persons about him,
among the most valuable members of the Church, who had
long felt perplexity about certain passages in the Articles ;
and could not, except on the supposition of a/ Catholic inter-
86 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
pretation ' being possible, subscribe to them &c. This
letter must have been a great comfort to Newman. It was
proof not only that the Tract was needed, but also that it
was doing its work.
A country clergyman wrote, March i6, 1841 :
To J. H. Newman
' I have just heard of the uproar and got No. 90 of the
Tracts, as I was in town to-day. All I can say is that should
any vote of censure on the part of Convocation be proposed,
I shall feel quite happy to come up to oppose such a thing.
.... Of course I cannot pretend to enter into the full
bearings of every point — that would be presumptuous, but
allow me to say that I owe much, very much to your example,
and, with your leave, friendship to me. I met by chance
in Rivington's shop Golightly . . . his temper of mind
was to me very sad, and I could not help telling him in
plain terms what I thought of him. I was with the Bishop
of London — he was especially kind ... I live out of the
world, but still am anxious to do my duty. If therefore
I am wanted let me know.
Very truly and gratefully yours.'
Newman concluded his Letter to Dr, Jelf as follows :
' In conclusion I will but express my great sorrow that I
have at all startled or offended those for whom I have
nothing but respectful and kind feelings. That I am startled
myself in turn, that persons who have in years past and
present borne patiently disclaimers of the Athanasian
Creed, or of the doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration, or of
belief in many of the Scripture miracles, should now be
alarmed so much, when a private Member of the University
without his name, makes statements in an opposite direc-
tion, I must also avow.'
The same idea struck his brother-in-law Thomas Mozley,
who on March 17 wrote :
TRACT XC 87
Rev. T. Mozley to J. H. Newman
March 17, 1841.
You will have as little time to read as I have to write
just now. Your packet has just come, and I cannot let the
post go, without saying that we both feel the fullest and
calmest confidence in your cause and you. For my own part
I am rejoiced to see the controversy becoming one of acts.
I have read the first sheet of your Letter, and Harriet the
second. I was just observing on the Heads of Houses having
required a 1000 men to be pushing them a whole month
before they would repudiate a denial of the doctrines of
the Trinity and Incarnation, and now 4 men, and these of no
such very great weight, are able in 4 days to make them
speak on a question which leaves these doctrines alone,
and merely affects the distinctive grounds of the EstabUsh-
ment — I was just saying this when Harriet showed me a
passage in the second sheet at the conclusion to the purpose.
I must confess that I have not yet seen the Tract,
but am expecting it every day. You have my prayers
which I wish I could suppose were as effectual and
fervent as the cause deserves. Lord Morpeth and Mac-
donald will, of com'se, have the credit of this movement.
By the bye there must be a traitor in Oxford somewhere,
for the article in the Dublin Review on Sewell's article
on Romanism, written I suppose by Quin, shows the most
perfect acquaintance with Sewell's character and circum-
stances.
On March 17 Dr. Hook, the first of those whom Newman
singles out in the ' Apologia ' as ' gallantly ' taking his part,
wrote:
Rev. W. F. Hook to J. H. Newman
Vicarage, Leeds : March 17, 1841.
Dear Newman, — I write a line merely to express to you
my most cordial sympathy and my readiness to stand by
my friends at Oxford in any steps they may agree to take
at this painful Crisis. Our enemies force us into the position
of a Party, and as a Party we must be prepared to act ;
88 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
by which I mean, that in any ulterior proceedings little
minor points of difference must be forgotten, and we must act
as one man in asserting our general Principles.
Do the Heads of the Houses form the University of
Oxford ? If so we must submit. If not, does not their
conduct render it necessary for us to ascertain what the
opinion of the University is ? It seems to me that we shall
be compelled to have the formal decision of the University
now. May we be guided by a Wisdom not our own !
You will, I am siu-e, pardon me for saying that if these
were piping Times of peace I should have a little quarrel
with you for some things in Tract 90. I do not like your
seeming to assert that High Churchmen generally have
found a difficulty in holding Catholic Principles consistently
with a subscription to the Articles. I do not like yoiu*
assuming that our Reformers were uncatholic when Manning
and other High Churchmen contend for the contrary : your
opinion is different, but the question is not decided among
us ; and I do not hke your insinuating that while repudiating
the Romish Doctrine with reference to Images, Relics, etc.
we wish to maintain some doctrine on these points on which
I presume no Catholic Doctrine exists. I mention these
points that if you write on this painful occasion you
may say something on them for the satisfaction of your
friends. At the same time we must ever thank you for
boldly vindicating in this Tract our Liberty of interpreting
the Articles in our own and not in a traditional sense.
I have only to repeat to you the cordial expression of my
sympathy and of my readiness to stand by you.
Your very affectionate Friend,
W. F. Hook.
Newman did not get Hook's letter till the 19th, for on
the 18th he ' went over to Littlemore and slept there.' He
had plenty to think of, for the morning's post had brought
two letters from his Bishop, one to Pusey, and another,
enclosed in the letter to Pusey, to himself. Both letters
were as kind and considerate as they could be, but there was
no mistaking the fact that the writer was anxious and dis-
TRACT XC 89
tressed. In the letter to Newman he merely expressed his
earnest wish that there should be no more discussions upon
the Articles in the Tracts ; to Pusey he suggested that
Newman might perhaps be willing to publish explanations
avowing that he did so in deference to the wish of his
Bishop. Both letters were answered the same day in a way
most gratifying to the Bishop.^ To Pusey the Bishop wrote
again a somewhat lengthy letter in which the idea he had
thrown out in his previous one took a more definite shape ;
while to Newman he wrote as follows :
The Bishop of Oxford to J. H. Newman
Cuddesdon : March 19, 1841.
My dear Sir, — Though rather hurried by letters to-day,
I should be sorry to let a Post pass without acknowledging
yours, and expressing my gratification and thanks (tho'
no more than I anticipated from the spirit shown in all
former communications) at the kind manner in which
you have received my letter, and my apprehensions of
harm which might come from a continuation of discussion
upon the Articles in ' Tracts for the Times,' judging by
the sensation which the publication of the 90th has excited.
Believe me that in anything I have said, or in anything
I may hereafter suggest in a friendly manner ; I am guided
by a consideration for yourselves, and the great good which
it is your power to effect, and which in many respects you
have already done, as well as for the peace of the Church.
Believe me etc.,
R. Oxford.
In re-reading this letter, probably some thirty years
afterwards, Newman wrote on the top in pencil, ' To Pusey ? '
But it was not the letter which the Bishop wrote to Pusey,
which was a much lengthier one.^
On returning to Oxford on the 19th Newman found
Hook's letter awaiting him. He answered it the same
day without alluding to the Bishop's letters to himself
and Pusey, but clearly showing how alarmed he was.
^ All four letters can be read in Pusey's Life &c. ii. 183-187.
^ See Pusey's Life, ii. 187.
90 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
J. H. Newman to Rev. W. F. Hook
Oriel: March 19, 1841.
Dear Hook, — Your letter is most kind. I am adding
a postscript to my letter to Jelf and I will take notice of
the points you mention. As to the notion of a Declaration,
I have from the first said ' no ' to it. I think our strength is
to sit still. But one thing I am very anxious about, viz., that
the bishops should not commit themselves to one view of
the Articles. This is well worth your charitable exertions.
I fear the Bishop of London, and the influence thence
exerted upon our own diocese. But this in confidence
Many thanks indeed for youi kindness, which I feel much.
As to your notion of a University Protest against the
unauthorised act of the Heads of Houses, I hear people
talking of this, and it is a very different sort of thing — but
I suppose it will come to nothing.
Ever yours affectly,
J. H, N.
P.S. — With my postscript I shall have said in my letter
to Jelf all I can say pretty nearly. I do earnestly intreat
their Lordships to urge me no further.
It is a good joke — the Heads of Houses, I am told, now
say that I have recanted in the letter to Jelf. On Friday
night last, the 12th, I heard they meant to do something.
On the 13th I wrote my letter. On the 14th (Sunday) I
and others wrote to the V.C., Provost etc. begging they
would suspend their decision till the letter appeared. On
the 15th the letter was through the press, and the decision
just got ahead of it by a few hours.
Hook replied on the 20th.
Rev. W. F. Hook to J. H. Newman
My dear Newman, — I have acted on your hint and
have just written a very strong and decided but respectful
letter to the Bishop of London. Except to Pusey and
TRACT XC 91
Palmer, you had better not mention this until you hear
again. If the Bishop acts rightly he may not wish it to
be known that I wrote to him ; if wrongly it will be time
enough hereafter to mention that he did this in spite of a
remonstrance. Thank dear good Palmer for his letter.
Yours affectly,
W. F. Hook.
What appears to be Bishop Blomfield's answer to
Dr. Hook will be found in the latter's ' Life and Letters '
(vol. ii. p. 64). The Bishop considered the 'tendency'
of Tract 90 * to be most pernicious/ and ' what you say
of a number of serious young men who might probably go
over to the Church of Rome, if Mr. Newman were openly
condemned is very alarming. . . It is to my mind the
strongest possible evidence of the evil tendency of the
Oxford Tracts that they should have made it necessary
for Mr. Newman to put forth such a commentary on our
Articles, to prevent his disciples from becoming papists.*
On the 2oth Newman received the following letter from
Dr. Todd.
Rev. J. H. Todd to J. H. Newman
Trinity College, Dublin : March i8, 1841.
My dear Newman,— I wrote you a note a couple of days
ago to introduce to you a very promising young clergyman,
Mr. Lloyd, who has been ordered to relax a little for the
benefit of his health, and intends to spend a few days at
Oxford. I did not at that time know anything of the
wonderful attack made upon you about the Tract No. 90,
nor had anything of what has occurred reached my ears,
or eyes, for I am out of the way of seeing newspapers, and
have scarcely anybody here to speak to on such matters.
However, I was this day sent from Oxford a copy of the
resolution of the Vice-Chancellor and Heads of Houses of
the 15th inst., and by the same post, a copy of your letter
to Dr. Jelf. I cannot help writing to say how much I
sympathise with you, although I trust that is unnecessary —
nothing can be more true than what you say, that men's
minds seem drawing towards a higher standard of Christian
92 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
feeling, than could satisfy the last generation, and that this
seems going on quite independently of the exertions of
individuals to promote it — better views seem springing up
in different places, without any connection with others who
held them before, as if the hearts of men were stirred by some
superior power, and a yearning created for Catholic truth,
even before it is known what Catholic truth in practice is.
I trust and pray that you may be guided in this crisis,
and that the result may be for His glory, and the permanent
good of this unhappy, divided and disunited Church, for
I am more and more convinced that (humanly speaking) our
only safety against the two streams of Popery and Puritanism
that are beating upon us, is a return to what you truly say,
is our native spirit. If the enemies of the Truth should
succeed now in extracting from our Prelates or Universities
any very strong condemnation of Church principles, the
consequences may be very formidable.
One of my reasons for troubling you with these lines is
to tell you that the four gentlemen, who have raised this
storm, seem to be making every exertion to effect that
object. I have just heard that they have sent their protest
together with a copy of your Tract, to our Primate — and
I presume they have done the same to the other Bishops.
I do not know whether you would think it right to send
copies of your letter to Dr. Jelf to the Bishops in the same
way. The Primate, I have no doubt favours you in his
heart, although he is very cautious about committing
himself, and there is a large body of sound clergy in the
diocese of Armagh. The Bishop of Elphin is also, I think,
disposed to favour Church principles ; and his son who has
a great deal of influence with him. The Bishop of Cork is
also very much in our favour, but he is timid, and greatly
alarmed lest some people should go too far. He is also
tremblingly afraid of the so-called Evangelical party, and
labours to keep them quiet. The Bishop of Kildare is
sound, but cautious, and the rest I need not speak of. You
know the Bishop of Down yourself. How far it would be
wise to appeal to the Bishops even so far as by sending
TRACT XC 93
them your letter, may admit of discussion, and I can hardly
venture to advise you, but there can be no harm in sending
a copy to the Primate, as I know he has been appealed to
by your opponents.
Ever sincerely yours,
J. H. Todd.
The Evangelicals of whom the good Bishop of Cork was
* tremblingly afraid ' were particularly nasty over Tract 90 ;
and altogether oblivious of their own equivocal position
with regard to the Prayer Book. ' How had I done worse,'
asked Newman in the 'Apologia,' 'than the Evangelical
clergy in their ex animo reception of the Service for Baptism
and the Visitation of the Sick ? ' And in a footnote he adds,
' For instance, let candid men consider the form of Absolu-
tion contained in the Prayer Book ... I challenge, in the
sight of all England, Evangelical clergy generally to put
on paper an interpretation of this form of words, consistent
with their own sentiments, which shall be less forced than
the most objectionable of the interpretations which Tract 90
puts upon any passage of the Articles.' Of the Four Tutors,
two, Mr. Churton and Mr. Griffiths, were Evangelicals.
They were hardly the men * to cast the first stone ' at
Tract 90. Neither, as the future was to show, were the
other two better fitted for the work.
A good deal was heard of Mr. Wilson, whose name in
the Letter of the Tutors came between those of Mr. Churton
and Mr. Griffiths, some twenty years later. He was one of
the contributors to ' Essays and Reviews ' where he cham-
pioned the use of ' forms of expression ' which might be
* adopted with respect to the doctrines [of the Trinity and
Incarnation] in the first five Articles without directly con-
tradicting, impugning, or refusing assent to them, but pass-
ing by the side of them — as with respect to the humanifying
of the Divine Word and to the Divine Personalities.' ^
We now come to the one really important name among
^ 'What is meant by ^^ passing by," etc. . . . The clergy are bound by
the King's declaration to take the Articles in their literal and grammatical
sense ; the first five Articles are the most important of all. Is it con-
sistent with their literal and grammatical sense to pass them by ? I
think not. Is it consistent with the declaration that they are agreeable
to the Word of God ? If so, why pass by ? ' &c. Dr. Lushington's
Judgment in the Court of Arches on Essays and Reviews, quoted in Pusey's
edition of Tract 90, p. 33.
94 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
the four, that of Archibald Tait, the future Headmaster
of Rugby, then Dean of CarUsle, then Bishop of London, and
finally, Archbishop of Canterbury.^
In 1844 the Hebdomadal Board had three proposals
ready to submit to Convocation. The first two had reference
to W. G. Ward, and were to the effect that (i) certain
passages in his ' Ideal of a Christian Church ' were incon-
sistent with his good faith in subscribing to the Articles ;
and that (2) in consequence he should be deprived of his
degrees. The third proposal took the form of a Test. It
rendered any member of the University, who might be
suspected of unsound views, liable to be called upon to
declare that in subscribing to the Articles he took them in
the sense in which ' they were first published and were now
imposed by the University.' The Test raised such a storm
of protest that it had to be withdrawn.
Among the most indignant of those who protested was
Dr. Tait, then Headmaster of Rugby. His protest took
the form of an open letter to the Vice-Chancellor.^ The
fact that he made a protest was not remarkable, but the
grounds upon which he based it certainly were, when
taken in connection with his procedure in the case of Tract
90. They shall be given as far as possible in his own words.
First, however, let it be noted that he did not take the
line of opposing the Test primarily on the grounds that
nobody knew exactly what was the sense in which the
Articles were originally intended to be taken, or in which,
at any given time, the University might intend them to be
taken, or whether the two senses must necessarily be one
and the same. He eschewed such subtleties, and assumed
1 He was the prime mover. The letter of the Four Tutors was an
abridgment of one which he had originally intended to send in his own
name alone. Besides inspiring the other three he saved them from a
great blunder, if the following piece of contemporary gossip retailed by
Frederick Temple can be trusted : ' One thmg in the business [of Tract Qo]
reflects some credit on the " Canny Lion of the North " ; his three brethren,
it appears, were anxious not only to protest against the false doctrine of
the Tract, but wished also to insert a scheme of the Church's (i.e. their)
doctrine on the points in question ; Tait, however, would not have any-
thing to do with that. Just imagine what a glorious opportunity for
Newman, if they had been fools enough to have answered his Ultra High
Church Tract by a scheme of Ultra Low Church doctrine ! He would
have smashed them so completely that nobody would have liked to attack
No. 90 again. But it certainly would have been very unlike Tait to have
placarded an express opinion in his own name to the walls of the University.'
— Life and Correspondence of John Duke Lord Coleridge, Lord Chief Justice
of England, i. 98, 99.
2 A Letter to the Rev. the V ice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford,'
etc. (Blackwood & Sons. 1845.)
TRACT XC 95
that the Test would be, what it was intended to be, a means
of insisting that the Articles should be taken Hterally. He
objected to this being insisted upon because the Articles
represented a ' method of theologising ' which was quite
out of date !
He begins by reading the Heads a lecture, the severity
of which is in striking contrast with the uniform courtesy
of Pusey and Newman over the matter of Tract 90. ' All
men,' he informed them, 'have a tendency to think, as life
advances, that public opinion cannot have entirely changed
since they were young ; and when sentiments are brought
forward, which they never heard of in former times, they
naturally enough conceive that these are merely the follies of
youthful inexperience. . . . Now I confess that it appears
to me that the Hebdomadal Board in their present praise-
worthy efforts to vindicate the character of the Protestant
University over which they preside, have fallen into this
common error — that they have judged of the rising genera-
tion by what they remember of themselves * (p. 6) . He had
no objection, quite the contrary, to the first two proposals
which dealt with Mr. Ward : ' I must confess that the
most vital interests of the Church of England require some
distinct announcement on the part of the University that
the misinterpretation of the Articles which he advocates
is inconsistent with his position as one of its authorised
teachers ' (p. 8). Special cases require special treatment. Mr.
Ward's case was on a par with that of an M.A. who avowed
himself a Socinian. Extreme cases such as these should
be dealt with as they arose, and not made the pretext for
sweeping legislation curtailing the liberty of persons
deserving of every consideration.
' Of men below the age of forty-five throughout the
kmgdom, there may be a few — but they are very few, and
their number is to be counted by units — whose mind is a
sort of transcript of the Thirty-nine Articles and Prayer
Book — who have so habituated themselves from their
earliest years to look upon all which they find therein written
as infallible, that their thoughts have never ranged beyond
the prescribed limits' (p. 10).
The writer then went on to distinguish four theological
schools ' according to which the younger members of the
Church of England generally may be classed.' These were :
(i) The school which ' claims for itself the title of Anglo-
Catholics ' [i.e. the milder ^kind of Tractarians].
96 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
(ii) ' The small compact body of the decided followers of
Mr. Newman, against whom the test is primarily directed/
(iii) The Evangelicals.
(iv) * A large and growing body of younger men, who
are, for the most part, what is called Low Church in matters
of discipline, and whose doctrinal theology is in a great
measure modified, if not formed, by the study of the great
Protestant writers of the Continent/
The ' Anglo-Catholics ' constituted the only party
' which at all approaches to such a method of theologising
as that which I have now mentioned,' viz. the method of
those whose minds were ' a sort of transcript of the Thirty-
nine Articles/ It was ' the only one which can with any
consistency support the proposition of the Board of Heads
for a new Test.' But, as a matter of fact, so far as the
writer could ascertain this party did not want the Test. It
was hardly to be expected that they should, for it was
' against the very men [Mr. Newman and his followers]
to whose earlier writings they know it to be owing that
their favourite theology [presumably he meant the doctrines
of the Apostolic Succession, and the Catholic Church] has
been resuscitated from the deathlike slumber into which
it had sunk' (pp. ii, 12).
The writer did not think much of the ' Anglo-Catholics.'
They were ' respectable and amiable ' but ' hardly deep
thinkers,' not likely to be able * to repel the assaults of
infidelity, or to guide the burning thoughts of a generation
displeased with its present state, and craving for something
deeper and more truly earnest' (p. 10). This task was
apparently reserved for the fourth school.
The party of Mr. Newman did not, of course, want
the test. It was levelled at them.
The Evangelical party could only desire the test * from
a momentary forgetfulness, in the midst of conflict, of
its own real position. It is impossible that the Divines
of this school can be anxious for a more stringent assertion
of their agreement in the doctrine of the Baptismal Service,
or of the Catechism' (p. 15).
The fourth and last school, which * my belief is, ...
contains by far the greatest amount of the talent of the rising
generation ' (p. 16) — whose * theological sympathies ' ' are at
present very comprehensive, seeming almost to range from
Mr. Carlyle or Schleiermacher on the one hand, to Mr.
TRACT XC 97
Newman, or the Hermesianer of Germany, or Mohler's
Symbolik on the other ' — whose members * will seldom be
found to belong to any distinct party, but appreciating
what is good and noble, and abhorring what is low and
selfish in all ' (p. 17)— which (p. 16) ' I suspect will soon be
found to contain the best scholars, metaphysicians, and
poets of the rising age ' (p. 16) — ^which if it ' can be saved
from too latitudinarian and rationalizing a spirit ' ... [is
the school to which] * we must look as the best hope of the
generation which is to stand in our place when we are
dead ' — this school had trouble enough, with the Articles and
the Prayer Book ; more than was generally known, for it
had not aired all its grievances. ' The damnatory clauses
of the Athanasian Creed, and the i8th Article (to say
nothing of many other points of difficulty which have not
been made public by an appeal to Parliament), must of
necessity warn them to pause, before they bind themselves
more strictly than now to the letter of the Articles ' (p. 15).
There was something lacking, one might perhaps call it a
sense of seemliness or gravity, in the man who three years
after he brought about the condemnation of Tract 90, thus
championed the right of Broad Churchmen to what amounted
to a wholesale non-natural interpretation of the Articles
and the Prayer Book. It would have been better to leave
this task to others.
This has been a lengthy digression, but the reader will,
perhaps, pardon it when he is reminded of Newman's state-
ment in the ' Apologia ' that ' the men who drove me from
Oxford were the Liberals.' Besides, an account, however
compendious, of the condemnation of Tract 90, which passed
over the views of those who brought it about, would be in-
complete to the extent of being misleading.
Edward Bellasis (afterwards Serjeant Bellasis), in
a letter to a friend of Newman's, wrote as follows from
London :
Edward Bellasis, Esq., to Rev. J. B. Morris
March i8, 1841.
... Generally speaking I find that those who had
liked the previous Tracts like this, and attribute the attack
on Newman to jealousy of the place he has for some time
occupied at Oxford to the exclusion^of their more dignified
98 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
selves. Whether this is a correct supposition I do not
presume to determine, particularly as Newman suggests
better motives in his letter to the V.C. . . . my own opinion
of the Tract is of httle moment, but it is decidedly this,
that it is a true carrying out of principles that have been
contained in the Tracts, and that to my mind it contains
a ' wholesome doctrine and very necessary for these times.'
Our London Rectors like your Oxford Heads are somewhat
astonished and shake their heads, and others say ' so in-
judicious,' but I think that all those whose opinions you
would have expected to be favourable are satisfied.
Another correspondent wrote as follows,
Letter to J. H. Newman
... Is it not a little worth remarking in the proceedings
of the Heads of Houses, that while they are so very much
displeased at the notion of setting forth what things there
are which we are not obliged to condemn simply because
the Church of Rome enjoins them, (which our Articles set
forth as a church), yet they testify no disapprobation of
any expressions of charity, or sympathy, or agreement
with bodies which are not Churches ? We may soften
down anything almost to show how blamelessly Dissenters
might sjnnbolise with us, how little [there is] with us which
need be an offence to them, but must not say a word in
the same strain as to Roman Catholics.
Among some criticisms which this writer made of the
Tract was the following : ' I also regret the last paragraph con-
taining the illustration from recent political manoeuvres in
France. It carries an air of secret satisfaction at being able
to parallel the words of our Reformers with something of
low cunning if not of knavery.' ^
On March 23 the Bishop of Oxford, who had been con-
sulting with the Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote to Pusey
inviting him over to Cuddesdon ' for a little private con-
versation on this painful position of things.' ^ Pusey went
1 See p. 73. * Pusey's Life, ii. iy2.
TRACT XC 99
the next day, and received from the Bishop the following
proposals, (i) The Tracts should be discontinued ; (2)
Tract 90 should not be reprinted ; (3) Newman should make
it publicly known that this was done in deference to the
Bishop's wishes. The negotiations which followed are
fully described in Pusey's Life. Newman made no demur
to the first and third of the proposals ; but the second, the
suppression of Tract 90, seemed to him very hard. If the
Bishop insisted he would obey him ; but then he must
resign St. Mary's. He turned for advice to Hook and to
Keble. To the former he wrote as follows :
J. H. Newman to Rev. W. F. Hook
Oriel : in fest Annunc. : [March 25], 1841.
My dear Hook, — I write to you in some anxiety, and
quite in confidence. I should like to have a line from you
at once.
The Bishop wishes me, in a letter I am to write to him,
to say that ' at his bidding I will suppress Tract 90.' I have
no difficulty in so saying and doing, if he tells me, but my
difficulty is about my then position. I shall then have
been censured for an evasion by the Heads of Houses, with
an indirect confirmation of it by the Bishop ; for though
he puts it on the ground of peace, people do not make nice
distinctions. I cannot acquiesce or co-operate in such a
proceeding. To condemn Tract 90 in the wholesale is to
condemn its interpretation of Articles 6 [of the sufficiency
of H. Scripture] and 11 [of Justification] quite as much as
of 22 [of Purgatory, Pardons, Images etc.]. I am a repre-
sentative at this moment of the interests of many : I cannot
betray them.
It seems to me that I shall be observing my duty to the
Bishop by suppressing the Tract, and my duty to my
principles by resigning my living. Again, it is painful
enough to be at St. Mary's with all the Heads against me,
but if the Bishop indirectly joins them, what is to be my
support ? I cannot be a demagogue. The Bishop himself
is all kindness, not so the authorities in London.
100 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
Though the Tract were suppressed, answers to it would
be circulated freely, and there would be no lack of them.
Bishops too, to a certainty are to charge. I cannot hold
a living with such a force against me.
Ever yours affectionately,
J. H. N.
The letter to Keble is given in Miss Mozley's ' Life and
Correspondence,' &c. It does not differ substantially from
the one to Hook. The latter replied as follows — we give
only the opening sentences : '
Rev. W. F. Hook to J. H. Newman
The Vicarage, Leeds : March 27, 1841.
My dear Newman, — I do not think you are in any way
required to write as the Bishop of Oxford proposes. It is
to your Bishop, not to Dr. Bagot that you are to yield
obedience. Let Dr. Bagot act as your Bishop and all will
be right. If he condemns you it will be in his Court and
by his proper officers, but he cannot condemn you before
you have obtained a hearing. You may demand permission
to plead your cause and in so doing you may persuade
him. It is most important at this time to act with due
form, for our rights, as well as the authority of our rulers,
are protected by forms ; and a regard to the proper forms
will interpose that delay which may prevent the Bishop
from acting rashly. . . .
The following was Keble's reply :
Rev. J. Keble to J. H. Newman
Hursley : March 26, 1841.
My dear Newman, — I am afraid I shall write very little
to the purpose, but I must answer your letter just received
as I can. I am very much concerned at it, and cannot but
believe that so good a man as your Bishop will be somehow
preserved from being the instrument of so bad a proceeding.
Certainly I do not see how it is consistent silently to
1 The full letter can be read in Hook's Life &c. ii. 66.
TRACT XC loi
suppress the Tract and go on as if the point was given up,
even at a Bishop's command. The least you can do must
be to get leave to accompany the suppression with a public
declaration that you do so and so for obedience' sake, not
at all giving up the view. If the Bishop allows this, he
permits his clergy to hold the view, as consistent with the
literal and grammatical sense, which is a great point gained.
If he does not allow it, I do not see, unwilling as I am to
come to the conclusion, how you can retain St. Mary's.
And if you give it up on such a ground, I do not see how
I and others in other dioceses can remain as we are without
scandal. We must in some way or other declare our own
sense of the Articles, by reprinting Tract 90, or writing fresh
Tracts, or by direct application to our Bishops. I for one
feel that I must do something, though I cannot clearly see as
yet what that something would be. Otherwise we entangle
ourselves in the snare of holding office, and receiving Church
payments on an implied condition which we know in our
hearts we are not fulfilling. In short there is no end to
the serious results which such a step on the Bishop's part
would have. The least that can be looked for is that he
would drive some scores of us to lay communion.
I think you will be able to get this view laid before the
Bishop, or rather to do it yourself in such a way as he
will not misunderstand, and that he will on consideration
waive the measure you speak of. If all the Bishops join,
that is another thing : and will leave us, I imagine, no
choice, unless by respectful remonstrance we could induce
them to mitigate their sentence. It is a sad case, but we
ought to be very thankful we have Lay Communion to fall
back upon. I begin now to think that perhaps Pusey
was right, and we ought to have moved — ^but I don't know.
God bless and guide you.
Your ever affectionate,
J. K.
P.S.— E. Churton writes to Wilson very kindly, rather
disapproving of No. 90, but much more of the Heads of
Houses. He talks of some protest.
102 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
It is interesting to compare Keble's advice with Hook's.
Try to persuade the Bishop ; if you cannot, obey and resign
your living, was that of the former. Insist upon his acting con-
stitutionally, was that of the latter. There was much to be
said for Hook's advice. The Bishop, in spite of all his kind-
ness, was asking very much ; and to make matters worse
he could not protect those who submitted to him. The
Evangelicals and Liberals were not troubled with ' high
views ' concerning episcopal authority. To keep their
hands off Tract 90 and its author because he had satisfied
his own bishop was almost the last thing in the world which
it would occur to them to do. Neither would the other
bishops refrain. But in spite of all this Hook's advice
was not to Newman's taste. He has told us in the
' Apologia ' what his views as an Anglican were with regard
to episcopal authority. He considered each bishop ' as
the one supreme authority in the Church, that is in his
own place, with no one above him, except as, for the sake
of ecclesiastical order and expedience arrangements had been
made by which one was put over or under another.' ^ But,
it might be asked, why not insist upon the Bishop observing
legal forms ? One cannot tell how he would have answered
this question. Perhaps by asking another. By what
authority in England were these legal forms restricting the
divine authority of the Bishop imposed ? Certainly not
by that of the Universal Church. Or he might simply
have said he did not like to contend with his Bishop.
Eventually the Bishop yielded the point of suppressing
Tract 90 ; but he still insisted upon an open Letter to him-
self in which his judgment that Tract 90 is ' objectionable,
and may tend to disturb the peace and tranquillity of the
Church,' together with his ' advice that the Tracts for the
Times should be discontinued,' was to be recorded. It
was to be done instanter. This Newman agreed to do.
His journal for March 29-31 is as follows :
March 29. — Manning went. J. W. went, and Church,
Daman and Prichard. Wrote my Letter to the Bishop ;
it going to the press as I wrote it page by page. Dined
in rooms early.
March 30. — The rest of the Letter through the press —
dined early in rooms — letter seen by Pusey.
^ Apologia, p. 107.
TRACT XC 103
March 31. — And by the Archdeacon, who went over
to Cuddesdon with it to the Bishop. Letter came out.
Two days later the Bishop wrote as follows :
The Bishop of Oxford to J. H. Newman
Cuddesdon : Friday, April 2, 1841.
My dear Sir, — I cannot let our late communications
terminate without a few last words to express my entire
satisfaction, and gratification with your letters received
yesterday morning, both printed and written.
It is a comfort to me too (now that calm has, as I hope,
succeeded the threatened storm) to feel assured, that though
I have perhaps caused pain to one in whom I feel much
interest, and for whom I have a great regard, you will never
regret having written that letter to me. It is one calculated
to soften and to silence opponents, as also to attach and to
regulate friends, whilst the tone and temper of mind with
which it is written must please and gratify aU who read it.
Believe me, my dear Sir, faithfully yours,
R. Oxford.
Mrs. Froude to J. H. Newman
March 30.
My dear Mr. Newman, — I must trouble you again with
a few lines to thank you for sending me the Tract and also
to say that your secret is quite safe with us. Indeed we feel
highly honoiired to be the only people in the world besides
two others who have a secret of yours in keeping. I was
glad I did not write this yesterday, for I was (I must confess)
sadly disappointed and very much disposed to be cross
at the news contained in your note, viz., that ' the Tracts
were to cease at the Bishop's expressed desire.' It is indeed
humihating to find how human feelings mix themselves
up with our good motives. I had fancied I only wished
the advancement of your views for the sake of Truth, and
yet I find in my mind that I was more vexed altogether
104 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
yesterday at thinking of the triumph of our adversaries,
than at losing the Tracts for their own sakes.
But William took it in so different a way, and is so
much quieter-minded, that he has much reconciled me to
what has happened. He says he is quite sure that nothing
could have passed which will tend more to advance the
cause, and that there are quite Tracts enough published
already to * poison the universe,' and that the rapid sale of
Tract 90 shows that you are like Samson and have slain
more Philistines at your death than all you did during your
life, for though many have, of course, bought Tract 90 only
from curiosity, still, if they will read it, they will be sure
to get some good from it, so I think one may see that
one of the effects of this controversy has been to raise the
tone of those who oppose you most decidedly.
I enclose you some Queen's heads [postage stamps],
as William says I am to pay for the Tract in them. . . Pray
do not trouble to answer this, and pray excuse it if I seem
to you to write too familiarly, for somehow you have been
so kind and friendly to me, that I never could write in a
more formal way.
A Cambridgeshire clergyman wrote as follows on
March 30 :
I have on more than one occasion expressed my gratitude
for the benefit of your writings, not only as regards myself^
but the church in this country at large ; and I feel it no
more than due to truth ... to express to you at this
particular time, when you are as the writer of Tract 90
assailed with more than usual injustice, the effect of the
Tract upon my mind and those with whom I am in the
habit of comparing opinions. ... I began to read the
Tract with some alarm when I heard of the sensation it
had made at Cambridge , . . my astonishment was never
greater than when I got to the concluding words. . . .
I hope there is no foundation for the report . . . that the
Archbishop has forbidden the continuation of the Tracts.
So absurd a thing cannot be true. But I am prepared for
TRACT XC 105
anything after the late wicked caricature of the Sacrament
in the Palace under his Grace's immediate sanction.
I am rejoiced with the Tract. Its notoriety will give
notoriety to others that have preceded it . . . you have,
I think, broken the chain which bound the Christian com-
munity to a deadly and deadening system — a system as
remote from that which has been preserved to us in the
Liturgy as truth is from its counterfeit etc.
Mr. Roundell Palmer (afterwards Lord Selborne) wrote
on April 2 :
I have accidentally seen a proof copy of your letter
to the Bishop of Oxford. I will never trust myself to form
an opinion as to the future again if it does not do extensive
good, and far over-balance any untoward consequences of
late events. At any rate, I as an individual, feel deeply
indebted to you for it.
A Gloucestershire Rector wrote on April 6 :
My dear Newman, — I think it is probable that about
this time you will be receiving far too many letters for your
convenience . . . still I am tempted to add to the number
. . . my object is simply to express to you personally what
(I see by my Oxford Paper) some persons . . . intend to express
publicly in the way of Declaration.^ The only part of that
Document with which I am now concerned is that in which
the subscribers ' gratefully acknowledge the eminent services
which the Authors of the Oxford Tracts have done in re-
calling the public attention to the distinctive principles
maintained by the Church of England in common with the
whole Chiirch of Christ.' I certainly hope to see that
Declaration or some other to the same effect largely signed.
Meanwhile this will tell you what that could not, that to
one of those authors in particular I look with a great degree
of affection as well as respect, and I firmly beHeve that
the manner in which that affair of the Tract 90 has been
^ The Declaration alluded to was drawn up by W. Palmer of Worcester.
It was suppressed in deference to the Bishop of Oxford. See Life 0/
Pusey &c. vol. ii. pp. 205 S,
io6 CORRESPONDENCE OF^J. H. NEWMAN
closed will establish the author in that position which it is
most for the benefit of the Church that he should continue
to hold. If I regret the Tract, I rejoice more in your letter
to the Bishop. It must do great and lasting good.
On April lo, Newman wrote to a friend :
From what I am told, and from the letters every post
brings from friends and strangers, I doubt very much whether
the sum total of relief and comfort which Tract 90 has
given, does not equal the sum total of the annoyance it
has inflicted. I have no misgivings about it, nor have had.
I feel it to have been necessary.
Robert Wilberforce wrote on April 8 :
... I know you are not a person who wishes for praise,
but I hope that it will not be indifferent to you to receive
the expression of my hearty sympathy and regard from
the humblest member of Christ's Church. Respecting the
prudence of publishing No. 90 I do not speak, but I am
well satisfied that nothing can be more unjust than the
attacks made upon it. Its main principles are proved
beyond controversy. But your letter to the Bishop is
written in a tone so calm. Christian, and convincing, that
I am satisfied it will have great weight with all good men.
I hope the inclination you there express to give up your
Church at Oxford will not be acted upon.
A clergyman living at Bath wrote on April 9 :
He had been reluctant to write to Newman ' on an
occasion like this when, if ever, a man ought to be accessible
only to his friends strictly so called.' But he now felt ' it
would be disingenuous, unjust, and unkind in one of the
class for whose comfort and relief Tract 90 was written,
and who has received both from it, not candidly to state
as much, to thank you for it, and to place the statement,
tho' not his name at your disposal ' &c.
The following letter, with some others, was sent by
Newman to his sister Mrs. J. Mozley. On the top of it is
TRACT XC 107
written : ' My dear J., — These letters are too kind to show to
anyone but Aunt. Ever yrs, J. H. N.'
From a Country Clergyman
[April 9].
My dear Sir, — It will appear, I am afraid, great pre-
sumption in me that I should think of addressing you under
your present severe trial, but I cannot resist doing so. . . .
The grounds of comfort I can see, to any one else I should
be apt to suggest, but to offer them to you would be folly
in the extreme, knowing so much better as you do the
ways of a merciful Providence. There is perhaps one thing
I may be permitted to say, which is, that it seems to me
a peculiar favour done you that your trial should be allotted
you in the season of Lent when your own prayers and those
of your friends can be offered up for you without distraction,
for that we are to pray for you I needed not the admoni-
tion which I received from Jno Keble this morning, who
cheers himself up with the sanguine hope of a blessing
attending you from your ' behaving so well under very
trying circumstances.'
That I have been bearing you in mind ever since I
have read your most valuable 90th Tract the following
passage from my Tuesday sermon may perhaps serve to
show you, and for this purpose I send it to you, not with
the foolish notion of suggesting grounds of comfort — ' It
seems to be a part of the nature of high truths to be received
with an unkind welcome, and those therefore who were
appointed to deliver them must look for bitter words, but
submit to them meekly with the humble hope that the
day will shortly come when these high truths will be dis-
covered and valued, and then the deliverer of them will
come to be loved, and these bitter words be reflected upon
with sorrow, and the meekness with which they were
received be duly prized.'
After saying this I must now come to discharge what
I look upon as a duty, which is to thank you from my heart
for the delight as well as benefit I have derived from
io8 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
your Tract, the opposition to which I can account for
in no other way than by supposing it is intended to
give it a greater pubhcity, and advance the cause of
CathoHcity, &c.
■ On the same day, April 9, his sister, Mrs. J. Mozley,
wrote to him :
Dear John, — I was only waiting till Aunt had finished
reading your letter to the Bishop to write and thank you
very much indeed for sending it to me, but more, I was going
to say, for writing it. I really cannot but look upon that as
a happy combination of circumstances which has extracted
it from you, for I think it tends more to set your character
in a true point of view to well disposed persons than any-
thing you have hitherto written. / knew all this was in
you, but you must be aware that to persons who have not
been brought up with you, or long accustomed to your
manner of thought, yours is a difficult character. There is
something which seems almost paradoxical which they
cannot understand. I suppose you had heard remarks of
this sort made on your letter to the V.C, by your notice of it
to the Bishop. / had — Some people could not quite under-
stand that this was your habitual feeling — they thought
you had written under some feeling of depression etc.^
As to my opinion of your letter to the Bishop, I must say
it seems to me quite perfect in its way, and I cannot fancy
anybody reading it, unless they had a most fearful twist
of mind without being mollified towards the writer . . .
you are very kind to be thinking of us so much in the way
of sending things that interest us, &c.
The correspondence connected with Tract go cannot
be better concluded than with the following letter written
by Newman in 1863.^
^ The meekness of Newman's letter to the Vice-Chancellor seems to
have given rise to the impression that he was cowed. It was the expression
of his ' habitual deference to persons in station.' Letter to the Bishop of
Oxford, last paragraph but one.
* For the circimistances under which this letter was written see Pusey's
Life, iv. I.
TRACT XC 109
To THE Editor of the ' Times '
Sir, — It would be a great impertinence in me to say one
word on the subject of the Oxford controversy which has
lately occupied your columns, nor do I write this with any
such intention. But Mr. Maurice has thought fit to intro-
duce my name into his criticisms on Dr. Pusey, and to cast
imputations on me, which, as a matter personal to myself,
I think you will in fairness allow me to repel.
I would rather be judged by my own words than by
Mr. Maiu-ice's interpretation of them. I distinctly repudiate
his accusation that I maintained, either in Tract 90 or else-
where, the right of a man's subscribing to the Thirty-nine
Articles in a non-natural sense. Nor ought he to speak
from mere memory, as he seems to confess he did, when
making a serious charge against another. I maintained
in Tract 90 that the Thirty-nine Articles ought to be sub-
scribed in their ' literal and grammatical sense ' ; but I
maintained also that they were so drawn up as to admit,
in that grammatical sense, of subscription on the part of
persons who differed very much from each other in the
judgment which they formed of Catholic doctrine.
I ask your permission to quote the passage to which
Mr. Maurice refers :
* Their framers constructed them in such a way as best
to comprehend those who did not go so far in Protestantism
as themselves. Anglo-Catholics, then, are but the successors
and representatives of those moderate Reformers ; and
their case has been dhectly anticipated in the wording of
the Articles. It follows that they are not perverting, they
are using them for an express purpose, for which, among
others, their authors framed them. The interpretation
they take was intended to be admissible, though not that
which the authors took themselves. Had it not been
provided for, possibly the Articles never would have been
accepted by our Church at all. If, then, their framers
have gained their side of the compact in effecting the recep-
tion of the Articles, let Catholics have theirs too in retain-
ing the Catholic interpretation of them. . . .' Tract 90,
pp. 81 and 82 (first edition, February 1841).*
^ Via Media, ii, 346.
no CORRESPONDENCE OF J, H. NEWMAN
After illustrating my position from Burnet, I end the
Tract with the following allusion to M. Guizot and M.
Thiers :
What has lately taken place in the political world will
afford an illustration to point. A French Minister desirous
of war, nevertheless as a matter of policy draws up his
State papers in such moderate language that his successor,
who is for peace, can act up to them without compromising
his own principles. The world observing this, has con-
sidered it a circumstance for congratulation, as if the former
Minister, who acted a double part, had been caught in
his own snare. It is neither decorous or necessary, nor
cdtogether fair, to urge the parallel rigidly ; but it will
explain what it is here meant to convey. The Protestant
profession was drawn up with the purpose of including
Catholics, and Catholics now will not be excluded. What
was an economy in the Reformers is a protection to us.
What would have been a perplexity to us then is a per-
plexity to Protestants now. We could not then have found
fault with their words ; they cannot now repudiate our
meaning (p. 83).^
I will take this opportunity of adding that I never held
that persons who subscribed the Thirty-nine Articles were
at liberty to hold all Roman doctrine ; but I aimed in
Tract 90 to open the Articles as widely towards all Roman
doctrine as was consistent with that ' literal and gram-
matical sense ' which at p. 80 I professed to be maintaining.
I have wished to confine myself in the above to matters
of fact ; and with the same view I am bound, in justice to
Dr Pusey, to state, what perhaps no one but myself is in a
position to testify — viz., that he had no responsibility in
the publication of the Tract, and has no responsibility in
regard to it to this day, except so far as he has in writing
committed himself to portions of it, or to certain of its
principles. He defended me, when it excited notice, from
the generosity which is his characteristic ; but I am quite
certain that he did not like it as a whole, and in all its parts.
I am. Sir, etc.
The Oratory, Birmingham,
Feb. 24 [1863].
^ Via Media, ii. 347.
CHAPTER IV
DR. RUSSELL AND NEWMAN, 184I
Dr. Russell of Maynooth, who ' had, perhaps, more to do with my
conversion than any one else ' — ^Thomas Scott, ' to whom (humanly speak-
ing) I almost owe my soul ' — Walter Mayers, ' who wcLS the human means
of this Beginning of Divine Faith in me.' — Correspondence with Dr.
Russell and Wiseman.
Tract 90 brought Newman into correspondence with
one whose services to him he gratefully acknowledges in
the * Apologia/ his ' dear friend Dr. Russell, the present
President of Maynooth, who had, perhaps, more to do
with my conversion than any one else.' In striking contrast
to the refined and scholarly Irish priest was another to
whom Newman acknowledged himself a debtor — the stout
old Calvinist, Thomas Scott of Aston Sandford, ' to whom
(humanly speaking) I almost owe my soul.' ^
Newman's indebtedness to Dr. Russell needs no ex-
planation ; but the precise nature of his obligations to
Scott will not be so intelligible to the present generation
as they were when the ' Apologia ' was written. Scott
(i 747-1 821) was a clergyman whom Newton, the spiritual
guide of the poet Cowper, converted from Socinianism.
Thorough Calvinist as he became, in intention at least,
Scott's relations with his party were not always peaceful.
He took up a strong line in inveighing against Antinomianism
and insisting on the need of good works. This was dis-
tasteful to many persons, and thought by them to savour
of Arminianism. They apparently wished him to confine
his preaching to such topics as Justification by Faith only,
Assurance, Predestination, and the like. Virtuous habits
would be a matter of course with those who were spiritually
minded. The following is a typical example of Scott's
^ The following digression will, it is hoped, be excused, on the ground
that it contains some facts connected with Newman's early life which
seem worth rescuing from oblivion.
112 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN .1
experience, as he describes it himself. He advertised a
course of lectures on the Epistle to the Ephesians, to be
delivered at the Lock Hospital in London. The lectures
were well attended while he was going through the doctrinal
part of the Epistle ; but when he came to the fourth chapter,
and spoke ' more particularly on Christian tempers and
the relative duties/ there was an uneasiness which culmin-
ated when he preached on the words in the fifth chapter.
See that you walk circumspectly &c. ' The charge,' he says,
' was everywhere circulated that I had become an Arminian ;
and at once I lost half my audience.'
Newman studied Scott's writings when he was a boy of
fifteen, and they planted deep in his mind the doctrine
of the Holy Trinity. On the practical side — and this is
worth noting — he admired in Scott ' besides his unworldliness,
his resolute opposition to Antinomianism, and the minutely
practical character of his writings.' * I deeply felt,' he
continues, ' his influence, and for years I used almost as
proverbs what I considered to be the scope and issue of his
doctrine, Holiness rather than peace, and Growth the evidence
of life.'^ These two maxims might almost be said to sum
up the religious spirit of the Oxford Movement in its
antagonism to Evangelicalism.
It seems likely enough that Scott's writings helped to
preserve Newman from the subjectivism in religion, the
tendency to dwell upon one's own feelings and emotions,
as if they were the things that really mattered, instead of
upon the objective truths of Revelation, which was one
of the weak sides of much that was truly admirable in
Evangelical piety.^ Scott took up Evangelicalism because,
as the story of his life seems to suggest, it was, in a lati-
tudinarian age, the highest form of religion with which he
became acquainted. Happier than Scott, Newman escaped
from the prison-house, because he found at Oxford traditions
1 Apologia, p. 15-
* Those who wish to understand the fearful evil which, in Newman's
eyes, this subjectivism, or religion of feeling, was during the earher part
of the last century, should read his lecture on ' Preaching the Gospel,'
in Lectures on Justification, pp. 312 ff. 'A man thus minded does not
simply think of God when he prays to Him, but is observing whether he
feels properly or not ; does not beUeve and obey, but considers it enough
to be conscious that he is what he calls warm and spiritual ; does not
contemplate the grace of the Blessed Eucharist, the Body and Blood of
his Saviour Christ, except — O shameful and fearful error — except as a
quality of his own mind.' — Ibid, p, 330.
DR. RUSSELL AND NEWMAN 113
and survivals of a deeper and, in the literal sense of the
word, more refined religious spirit.^
Something may now be said about that ' excellent man,
the Rev. Walter Mayers, of Pembroke College, Oxford, who
was the human means of this beginning of divine faith in
me.' 2 Mayers was Newman's classical master at Ealing
School. He was an extreme Evangelical. A short ' Life '
of him was published a year or two after his death. From
this we learn that he had ' conscientious scruples in reference
to the large portion of his time devoted to tuition.' He
would have liked to devote himself entirely to his duties as
a clergyman. But this was impossible, for he had relations
largely dependent upon him so ' he became more reconciled
to his situation, and endeavoured to redeem a portion of the
time devoted to classical studies, for religious instruction.
Little encouragement was derived, in consequence of the
apparent indifference with which his devotional exhortations
were received; he had, however, reason subsequently to
rejoice in the fruit of his labours ; some of his pupils, who
were eminently distinguished for their superior talent and
classical attainments in the University of Oxford, having
likewise become zealous servants of the Lord. The path
of duty eventually proves the path of pleasantness and
way of peace, nor will the believer ever regret following its
course.'
t.
Little did the zealous biographer dream that the fruits
of Mr. Mayers' pathetic endeavours were to be something
more than a slight increase of the number of Evangelical
clergymen who had taken good degrees !
Mr. Mayers deserved something better than to have his
life written in the style and terminology of an Evangelical
tract. Newman did more justice to his memory in a few
simple words which he spoke at his funeral :
* His was a life of prayer. The works and ways of God,
the mercies of Christ, the real purposes and uses of life, the
unseen things of the spiritual world, were always uppermost
^ One must not, however, overlook what Newman owed to the writings
of the early Fathers, to which his attention was first directed by an
Evangelical Church History.
2 Apologia, p. 4:
114 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
in his mind. His speech and conversation showed it. . . .
It pleased God to show to all around him the state of his
heart and spirit, not only by the graces of a meek and
peaceable and blameless conversation (which is, of course,
displayed by all good Christians), but also by the direct
religiousness of his conversation. Not that he ever spoke
for the sake of display — he was quite unaffected, and showed
his deep religion quite naturally.'
Yet, in spite of his admiration for good men among the
Evangelicals, in spite of his indebtedness to many of their
writers, Newman's judgment went dead against their
system. The truth is, he never was a real Evangelical ; he
never passed through the conventional experiences — ' con-
viction of sin, terror, despair, news of the free and full
salvation, apprehension of Christ, sense of pardon, assurance,
joy, and peace,' &c. Of his conversion, when he was
fifteen, i.e. of the fact that he then ' fell under the influences
of a definite creed, and received into his intellect impres-
sions of dogma, which, through God's mercy, have never been
effaced or obscured ' — of this he was as certain as that he
had ' hands and feet,' but it did not pass through the
conventional stages. So little was it according to rule,
that after he had described it in the ' Apologia,' people used
to write to him, telling him that ' he did not yet know what
conversion meant, and that the all-important change had
still to be wrought in him if he was to be saved. 'i
When Newman left Eahng, in December 1816, Mr.
Mayers gave him, as a parting gift. Bishop Beveridge's
* Private Thoughts.' It was forwarded with the following
rather wistful letter :
Ealing, 31 December, 1816.
My dear Friend,— With this [you wiU receive Bishop
Beveridge's ' Private Thoughts,' of which I beg your accept-
ance as a small token of my affectionate regard. On perusing
it, you wiU see that the opinions which we have discussed,
though at present singular are not novel, nor are they
without authority, for they are deduced from the only
authentic source. To that source let me direct your atten-
^ Autobiographical Memoir, Miss Mozley's Letters and Corr., vol.- i. p. 108;
DR. RUSSELL AND NEWMAN 115
tion. Be more disposed to form your sentiments upon
religion from that, than to adapt and interpret it to your
opinions. I have, of course, had somewhat more experience
of what is called the world, but I can assure you there is
no real or substantial happiness to be found in its vain and
unprofitable pursuits. We are candidates for eternity, and
should live as such ; if we do not, we shall bitterly lament
our folly in that day when time is no more, and all that is
human shall appear divested of every disguise. If you
know me, you will not suppose I would discourage activity
or exertion in the profession which may be selected for you,
or that I would encourage melancholy views. Seek first
the Kingdom of God and His righteousness is a precept
which reminds us something is to be the secondary object,
and the exhortation to Rejoice in the Lord always, may
admonish us that the Christian only has a right to joy, be-
cause he only can rejoice in the Lord. Did you ever read
Doddridge's * Rise and Progress,' or Law's ' Serious Call ' ?
both admirable pieces of practical Divinity. When you are
settled at the seat of learning, I shall hope to hear of your
proceedings. I write this in the midst of packing, as I
intend to leave in the morning. To-morrow will commence
a new year ; may it be propitious to you, about to embark
on the tempestuous ocean of hfe — not, I hope, without a
helm.
Yours affectly.,
W. Mayers.
The religious principles which Mr. Mayers instilled into
his pupil's mind were new to him. There was no trace of
Calvinistic teaching in Newman s home. This was positively
affirmed in later years by his sister, Mrs. J. Mozley.^ His
father most certainly was not an Evangelical ; and there
is not a particle of evidence that his mother had any
leanings that way. Further, the religious atmosphere of
^ See Appendix I. It may be observed that Calvinist and Evangelical
seem often to have been used as synonymous terms. The majority of the
early Evangelicals were Calvinists, though there was a substantial minority
which was not. It should be remembered that those who were Calvinists
did not make much, as a rule, of the Calvinistic doctrine of Predestination,
which horrifies those who do not hold it.
ii6 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
Ealing School seems not to have been distinctively Evangeli-
cal. The coldness with which the boys received Mr. Mayers'
devotional exhortations, the fact that in his letter he speaks
of the ' opinions ' which he and Newman discussed as being
' singular/ both suggest that he was trying to introduce
something new into the school. It may also be noted
that the boys used to act the plays of Terence. Newman
himself was one of the characters in a play which some
forty years later he made more suitable for the present day,
and renamed the ' Pincerna.' Now, considering the aversion
which strict Evangelicals had for the theatre, it seems im-
probable that a school which was intended to meet their
requirements should go out of its way to have plays at
all. But this is a point which it would require a minute
knowledge of the customs of the times to speak upon with
confidence.
Newman, nearly sixty years afterwards, wrote in the
little volume given him by Mr. Mayers, in which the above
letter was carefully preserved, the following memorandum :
' This work is not mentioned in my '' Apologia," because I
am speaking there of the formation of my doctrinal opinions,
and I do not think they were influenced by it. I had
fully and eagerly taken up Calvinism into my religion before
it came into my hands. But no book was more dear to
me, or exercised a more powerful influence over my devotion
and my habitual thoughts. In my private memoranda I
even wrote in its style.' i
It is a pity that he did not state which among the
doctrines of Calvinism were most eagerly taken up by him ;
but the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination was almost cer-
tainly not one of them. Indeed this doctrine does not seem
to have exercised much influence even upon those of the
Evangelicals who were most staunch in their Calvinism.
They believed in it without assimilating it. The doctrines,
apart from those common to all or to nearly all Christians,
which really seem to have moulded their hearts and
minds were : (i) Total Depravity — that is, the belief that
human nature was entirely corrupted by the Fall ; (2)
that Justification is the imputing of righteousness, not the
bestowal of it. Of these doctrines the former kept its hold
^ Just as Newman was able to throw himself into the minds of others
so, when he was young, he could catch the style of any writer who took
his fancy.
DR. RUSSELL AND NEWMAN 117
upon Newman much longer than the latter. It is perhaps
the subtle but all-pervading influence of these two doctrines
on the minds of persons who really embraced them, that
accounts for a certain sense of oppression which steals
over the mind of those who try to read the books which
influenced Newman in his youth.
Beveridge's ' Private Thoughts ' is a solid treatise on
the duties of a Christian life. It is severe in its tone, and
makes no appeal to the imagination or to the emotions.
Most persons would think twice before placing it in the
hands of a beginner, for fear lest its austerity might repel
him. The event, however, fully justified Mr. Mayers'
prudence as a spiritual guide. It speaks much for the
maturity of Newman's religious life when he was only
sixteen, that such a book should have captivated him.
It is as if a Catholic boy of the same age were to fasten eagerly
upon Rodriguez, or the devotional writings of Blosius and
Bona. Those who are fond of associating Newman's
memory with that of St. Philip Neri, the founder of the
Oratory, will recall the account, given by Bacci, of the
saint's early days, how ' his devotion had a certain
maturity about it. It did not consist in those exhibitions
of childish piety, which are laudable enough in themselves,
such as dressing little altars and the like, but in praying,
reciting psalms, and, above all, in eagerly listening to the
Word of God. He never spoke lightly, as boys will do,
of becoming a priest or a monk, but concealed the wish of
his heart, and began even from his childhood to shun all
parade, of which he was ever an implacable enemy. '^ In
many respects Newman was a ready-made disciple of
St. Philip before he came to know him ; in none more than
in his implacable hostility to all parade. But a comparison
between St. Philip and Newman is a domestic matter which
one has hardly a right to intrude upon the reader.
To go back to Dr. Russell. ^ His study of Leibnitz,
whose ' System of Theology ' he translated a few years
'Bacci's Life of St. Philip (English translation), i. 5, 6.
^ Born in 1812, died in 1880. The account of Dr. Russell's literary
labours in the short biography of him in the Dictionary of National Bio-
graphy shows him to have been a man keenly interested in the advance-
ment of learning, and quite indifferent to personal renown. In the course
of his life, he refused two bishoprics and one archbishopric. He was only
thirty when Gregory XVI chose him to be the first Vicar-Apostolic of
Ceylon, and he had to go to Rome to escape the burden.
Ii8 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
later, disposed him to watch with interest any signs of a
revival of Catholic doctrine in the Reformed Churches.
He was one of the very few among the Catholic clergy to
encourage Dr. Wiseman, with whom he was co-editor of
the ' Dublin Review/ in the favourable view which he took
of the Tractarians. ' Newspaper assaults/ Wiseman
complained, ' remonstrances by letter (and from some of
our most gifted Catholics), sharp rebuke by word of mouth
and resisting to my face, were indeed my portion/^ It
took Dr. Russell a long time before he could summon up
courage to write to the great Oxford divine, for, besides
being a comparatively young man, he was one whom it
cost an almost heroic effort to bring himself forward.
But at last, as often happens in such cases, he made up
his mind quite suddenly. He had read Tract 90, and was
deeply pained by the parts which treat of the 28th Article
and the condemnation of the doctrine of Transubstantiation.
It was suggested in the Tract that the framers of the Article
had chiefly in their minds a gross view about the doctrine
in question. The natural inference was that this view was
current at the time of the Reformation. One shrinks
from describing this supposed view. All that need be
said is, that he would be a very ingenious man who could
reconcile it with the teaching contained in the following lines
of the Lauda, Sion, a hymn which was as familiar to the
early Reformers as ' Lead, kindly Light ' is to modern
Englishmen :
Nulla rei fit scissura,
Signi tantum fit fractura,
Qua nee status nee statura,
Signati minuitur.
Rev. C. Russell to J. H. Newman
Maundy Thursday [April 8, 1841].
Reverend Sir, — The amiable and unassuming spirit
which pervades all your writings induces me to hope that
the following observations, although they come from an
1 Quoted from an ' Autobiographical Fragment ' published in the
Ushaw Magazine, March 191 6. For two adverse judgments, delivered,
as is evident from their style, by men sure of an attentive hearing, see
Newman, Letter to Dr. Pusey [Anglican Difficulties, ii. pp. 4, 5),
DR. RUSSELL AND NEWMAN 119
humble Irish CathoHc priest, will not appear, at least
offensively, obtrusive. If any apology be necessary, I
trust I shall not offend your delicacy by pleading the kind
and benevolent disposition which I cannot help reading in
all, especially your more recent pubhcations. I write in
no vain or forward spirit. I have not communicated my
intention to any person — I have never seen you, nor do I
see any reason to hope for that honour. And yet I cannot
bring myself to look on you as a complete stranger. I
have long regarded with the deepest interest the very
remarkable movement which originated in your exertions.
I can scarcely account, even to myself, for the strangely
powerful impulse by which I am drawn towards yourself,
personally a stranger in all except your admirable writings.
It grieves me, therefore, to observe, that, amid the varied
and profound erudition in all that concerns your own Church
which your works display, there is to be met much mis-
apprehension of many doctrines and practices which I
have been taught since childhood to venerate, and which,
were they indeed as you represent them, I should abhor as
fervently as you yourself can do. I need hardly [say] that
I do not hope to discuss them all in the compass of a letter,
for the perusal of which I can only reckon on the candour
which I beheve to characterise you. I perceive from the
pubHc prints, that a prelate, whom I venerate and love,
has undertaken the task — I well beheve in the most kind
and friendly spirit. But I trust that the date of this letter
wiU sufficiently explain why I take the Hberty of calling
your attention to one precious doctrine in particular —
that of the Blessed Sacrament — a doctrine, I doubt not,
as dear to you as it is to myself.
I beg, then, with the most respectful earnestness, to
assure you that you have utterly misconceived our behef upon
this point, raising up to yourself in it horrors, which every
member of our Church discards as impious and revolting.
In explaining the 28th Article you write (No. 90, p. 47) :
' What is there opposed as '' Transubstantiation " is the
shocking doctrine that the *' body of Christ/' as the Article
120 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
goes on to express it, is not " given, taken, and eaten, after
a heavenly and spiritual manner, hut is carnally pressed
with the teeth, that It is a body and substance," ' etc.
Your whole exposition of this Article proceeds on the
supposition that our conception of * Transubstantiation '
is of the most gross and repulsive nature, that we think of
the adorable Body of Our Lord in the Eucharist as of an
earthly and fleshly thing ; of the eating and drinking as
animal and corporeal actions, a carnal eating — it is painful to
write it in this sense — ' tearing with the teeth,' of the Blessed
Body — a natural and bloody drinking of the adorable Blood.
That you should explain the Article of your Church in
the most Catholic sense of which the words or the circum-
stances render them susceptible, far from complaining,
I rejoice and am sincerely thankful. But I equally lament
that this explanation of your own belief should involve the
imputation upon us of doctrines as odious and repulsive,
as they are opposed to our true creed. It is to this I beg to
call your attention in the spirit of most respectful, but, I
must add, of most earnest remonstrance. Far from entering
in any way into our behef of the Eucharist, the gross imagina-
tions ascribed to us are rejected with horror by every
Catholic ; and you will find in Veron's ' Regula Fidei ' (a
small volume which I earnestly recommend to your notice,
and which I should feel most grateful if permitted to send
you) how far we may go upon the opposite side without
trenching upon Cathohc principles (' Reg. Fid./ c. ii, n. 4)
It is true that in the statement of our doctrine, very strong
language has occasionally been employed by our divines,
of which Bishop Taylor, as cited by you, produces some
examples. But these expressions are always understood
in a sense quite different from that which you attribute to
them. In the passages quoted from Bellarmine by Bishop
Taylor, and also by Dr. Pusey in his letter to the Bishop of
Oxford (p. 134, I beheve), a limitation is appended which is
altogether omitted by the latter, and imperfectly stated
by the Bishop, but which, notwithstanding, divests it of
all its offensiveness. In explaining the abjuration of Beren-
DR. RUSSELL AND NEWMAN 121
garius (which you yourself bring forward), Bellarmine
expressly declares that the Body of the Lord is seen, touched,
broken, and bruised, through the medium of the species,
which ALONE are formally touched, seen, broken, and
bruised (Lib. iii. cap. 23, answer to the 4th objection) ; and
he rejects as impious and horrible (Lib. i. cap. 7, object. 4)
the ' Capharnaite ' conception of the mode of eating, which
Bishop Taylor accuses him of adopting. It is thus the
Church understands the phraseology employed in the
retractation of Berengarius, which, however strong it may
appear, can scarcely surprise us when we remember the
evasions by which he had explained away his former abjuration,
and which, by using the strongest language, it was intended
to exclude from the new one.
Rest assured, therefore, that you have completely
misconceived us ; and attribute to the necessity of ex-
cluding cavils, as offensive to your notions as to ours, the
strong, and sometimes [coarsely] ^ sounding language
occasionally employed, but always understood with the
limitation mediantibus speciebus. It may be useful to
remind you that the very strongest phrases are transcribed
literally from the CathoHc Fathers. Of the annexed extracts
from St. John Chrysostom, three are cited by BeUarmine
in the very passage objected to him.
(i) 'To those who desire it. He hath given Himself
not only to see, but to touch, and to eat, and to fix the teeth
in His flesh ' [ifnrrj^ai Tov'i ohovra^ rfj aapKi], 46th Hom.
on St. John, Lect. 3, vol. viii. p. 72. Bened Ed., Paris, 1728.
(2) ' Of what sun-Hke briUiancy should the hand be,
which cutteth the Flesh asunder,' 82nd Hom. on Mat., sec. 5,
vol. vii. p. 788.
(3) ' Behold thou seest, touchest, eatest Him,' ib., sec. 4.
(4) ' He gives Himself to thee, not to see only, but to
touch, to eat, to receive within,' p. 787.
(5) * But why do we add " which we brake " ? for thou
mayest see that this is done in the Eucharist, — What He
did not suffer on the Cross, this He beareth for thee in the
* The writing here is illegible.
122 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
Oblation, and submitteth to be broken {avkx^rai StaKkcofLevo';)
to mi all/
In more than one passage of the Tracts the policy of
our Church in defining the mode of the Mysterious, is con-
demned as presumptuous, and is elsewhere condemned in
less measured terms. I, on the contrary, regard the very
stringency of the definitions as under Heaven the great
preservative of our Faith ; and it has always appeared to
me that the universal and contemptuous forgetfulness in
your Church of this heavenly truth, until revived by your
own enthusiastic and ill-requited exertions, might have
taught you the wisdom of that ancient policy which, avoiding
the human device of ' open questions,' has always, as each
new heresy arose, shut out controversy in all essentials
for ever, by a clear and stringent definition.
Permit me, again. Reverend Sir, to apologise for this
ill-timed, perhaps, but certainly not ill-meant or [un-
generous] 1 communication. I trust my motives, which,
believe me, are of a higher order, will not be misunderstood.
1 have long felt a warm, though distant and respectful
interest in all that concerns you. I have watched with
anxiety any approximation to that faith which is my dearest
and highest hope, and at the altar of which I am an unworthy
minister, I never fail to remember you in my worthless
prayers. — I have the honour to remain, Rev. Sir, with the
utmost respect,
Your obt. servant,
C. Russell.
J. H. Newman to Rev. C. Russell
Oriel College, April 13/41.
Dear Sir, — Nothing can be kinder or more considerate
than the tone of your letter, for which I sincerely thank
you. It will relieve you to know that I do not accuse your
communion of holding Transubstantiation in the shocking
sense which we both repudiate, but I impute that idea of
it to our Articles which, I conceive, condemn a certain
^ The word used is not legible.
DR. RUSSELL AND NEWMAN 123
extreme view of it which some persons or party [?] in your
Church have put forward against the sense of the sounder
portion of it I am quite aware of Bellarmine's explana-
tions ; I am aware that well-informed R.C/s hold the
spiritual presence in the Eucharist ; but should be very
loth to think that our Article was regarding such a belief
when it spoke of Transubstantiation. If I have not said
so in the Tract, it was because my object in it was not to
defend you, but to exonerate our Articles from what is
traditionally imputed to them. And in doing so I was taking
the line of your own writer Davenport, or a Sancta Clara,
who, if I mistake not, commenting on this particular Article,
says, ' Capharn ait arum haeresim procul dubio spectat/
I heartily wish that I could extend to all your received
doctrines the admission I make concerning this — which is
that you have adopted a word ' Transubstantiation ' con-
veying a wrong idea, which practically you explain away.^
O that you would reform your worship, that you would
disown the extreme honours paid to St. Mary and the Saints,
your traditionary view of Indulgences, and the veneration
paid in foreign countries to Images. And as to our own
country, O that, abandoning your connection with a political
party, you would, as a body, ' lead quiet and peaceable
lives in all godliness and honesty.' It would do your religious
interests as much good in our eyes, as it would tend to rid
your religious system of those peculiarities which distinguish
it from primitive Christianity.
I will thankfully accept Veron's book at your hands,
if there is any easy mode of conveyance for it.
I am etc.
Rev. C. Russell to J. H. Newman
St. Patrick's College, Maynooth :
Feast of St. Anselm (April 21 1814).
My dear Sir, — I had left Dundalk on my way here,
where I hold the chair of Humanity, before your letter
arrived. The delight which it gives me has thus been
* What did he mean by ' conveying a wrong idea ' ?
124 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
delayed for some days. I cannot say how grateful I am for
the kind and cordial spirit in which it is written, nor how
much I am consoled by the information it contains. I
wrote from impulse rather than from reflection. I had
just returned from the affecting service of our Church on
Holy Thursday. The striking passage from St. Augustine
which we read in the Matins of that day was fresh upon
my mind ; the mystery of the day itself filled me with deep
sorrow that there should be any to misunderstand ; and,
although I felt the boldness, and, perhaps, indelicacy, of
addressing a stranger upon a topic so solemn, yet I trusted
that I could not err much in yielding to the feelings which
prompted me to write. Your kind letter completely re-
assures me. I find that I have not erred in the estimate
which your writings led me to form of you ; and I thank
God for the consoling knowledge that full justice is at
length rendered to a doctrine which, if it be permitted to
distinguish, may well be termed the most striking evidence
of His love for us.
Believe me, my dear Sir, our other doctrines, and the
practices which flow from them, will bear the same rigid
examination, and it is only when searched in a Catholic
spirit, like that with which God has singularly blessed you,
that their full character is felt and appreciated. Leibnitz,
the great antagonist of Bossuet, had seen and studied them
in all their phases, and he is the only uncatholic writer (if I
may indeed call him so) who has done them full justice.
I am sure you will read his Sy sterna Theologicum (pp. 103, 201)
with great pleasure. With how different feeling, for example,
would you regard the religious honours of the adorable
Eucharist from what you should have had before — ^if I
be right in supposing such a time — you came to know with
us * that which lieth hid within.' And be assured if you
knew us well, oui doctrine on the Blessed Virgin and the other
Saints, if you knew the correctness of the views entertained
by our very rudest people on the value of Indulgences and
the use of Sacred Images, your fears of our * traditionary
system ' would disappear — you would feel that our worship
DR. RUSSELL AND NEWMAN 125
needed no ' reform ' — you would be less disposed to regard
our honour of the Saints as ' extreme/ or to be offended by
our * traditionary view of Indulgences/ Where can the
true spirit of our devotions be traced so surely as in the
devotions themselves ? Examine these, and you will cease
to fear them. Every Hymn has its doxology — every Litany
begins with a prayer for mercy to the Blessed Trinity,
and after asking the prayers of the Saint or Saints, closes
with a supplication again for mercy to the Lamb of God ;
every Prayer terminates by assigning the Merits of our
Lord as the ground of its petitions, and the Rosary, which
is considered the most offensive of all, is but a series of
meditations on the Incarnation, Passion, and Glory of our
Redeemer. If I had no other security that these tender
and consoling devotions, far from defrauding the worship
of God, on the contrary elevate it, and give it that stability
which our weak and frail hearts require, I should find it
in the fact that the holiest servants of God — ^those like St-
Bernard, or, in later times, Francis Xavier, or Vincent of
Paul, whose souls burnt on earth almost with a seraph's
fervour, whose piety towards God was of the sublimest as
weU as tenderest character — were also, in the same pro-
portion, the most devoted clients of the Mother of God, and
the humblest suitors for her intercession.
But even though your views were correct in point of
fact as to the dangerous tendency of what you conceive to
be our * traditionary system,' how much greater the peril
of salvation for an ordinary Christian in yoiu" own com-
munion, where the blessed doctrines to which your dearest
hopes, as well as mine, must cling, are barely (and, indeed,
not even so,) tolerated, where all your learning and all
your moderation can scarcely ensure even this for them,
when the very attempt has raised a storm such as our days
have never seen before ; and when, on the other hand, the
uncatholic (and may I add almost unchristian) views
were those of the mighty majority, and most probably
remain so even still, when, according to yourself, there is
no positive creed (but only articles of peace) upon many
1267 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
points which I cannot conceive how any one, once admitting,
can regard as unessential, and when the public formularies
do not exclude from the highest dignities, and, I believe,
cannot, such men as^Hoadley, and jWatson, and Balguy.
Pardonjme that I write thus freely. I trust you will
believe it is due to no unworthy spirit. To you who have
borne with me so patiently until now, I do not fear to avow
the conviction, which I should scarcely venture to make
public, that in the mysterious views of Providence, a great
change is gradually coming upon us, even without ourselves.
Every day, every new event, increases the confidence with
which I put up my humble prayers that I may be permitted
to see it fully accomplished — to see your Church once again
in her ancient and honourable position, to have the happi-
ness of knowing that you and your devoted friends are
ministering to the same altar to which my own life is vowed.
I have long regarded you all as brethren in spirit, separated
only from us because we did not know each other ; and
although I was often afflicted by the misconceptions and
mis-statements which this want of knowledge occasioned,
yet I could not help but forget and forgive it all for the sake
of the Catholic germ ^ which lay beneath, and which was
quickening even the cold and languid and [word illegible]
forms into life and vegetation, and, under God's grace,
was forcing its way through the stiff and unpromising soil
upon which it had fallen. Oh I may you find your best
reward in restoring to your beloved and revered Church
the glory, which, alas, she has lost. Human means will never
effect this change. Bossuet and Leibnitz failed of success.
I do not myself see the means. But my hope is not there-
fore the less strong. I believe, with all the fervour of my
heart, that once again the ' weeks will be shortened upon
our people, that transgression may be finished, and sin
may have an end.' And I am equally persuaded that in
the wondrous ways of God, you and your friends have
been especially raised up, imbued with an especial spirit,
and fitted with peculiar powers for its accomplishment.
^ Word uncertain.
DR. RUSSELL AND NEWMAN 127
Our political position is, indeed, an unhappy one ; but
it is the result of circumstances which, as they created,
may, and, I trust, will amend it. We have suffered much,
and however it is to be deplored, one can hardly wonder
at the violence of the reaction which long continued
oppression has produced. Would that I could see my
Catholic countrymen freed from a political connexion with
those with whom they have not, and cannot have any com-
munity of religious interest, and religious feeling !
But I am forgetting myself and overtaxing you. My
heart, I believe, has outrun my judgment, and I have not
cared to check it in the belief that you will not misconstrue
my words nor misinterpret my motives.
I shall be delighted to have ' Veron ' left at Messrs.
Rivington's, who, I doubt not, will do me the favour to
send it forward. The volume contains two other works,
neither of great interest, with itself. Perhaps when you
read it you may remember that it comes from one, who,
though a stranger, feels and prays fervently for your best
and highest interests.
I remain, my dear Sir,
Yours faithfully in our Lord,
C. H. Russell.
Newman's answer to this letter has not been found
among his papers. But it seems very probable that it was
the letter of April 26, 1841, quoted in the 'Apologia ' (p. 187).
Rev. C. Russell to J. H. Newman
May I, 1841.
My dear Sir, — Knowing the numerous and pressing
calls upon your time to which your present position
necessarily exposes you, I should not think of prolonging a
correspondence which, however gratifying and consoling to
me, has been, I feel, an unwarrantable tax upon one so
peculiarly engaged as you, were it not that I am anxious
to assure you how heartily I unite in the concluding wish
of your letter. I feel that it is only through that humihty
128 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
and single mindedness — to be obtained by prayer alone —
that we can ever hope for a great movement to which many
human obstacles oppose themselves ; and I, with many
warm and zealous friends, who think and feel with me, have
long made this the object of earnest prayer, especially at
the Holy Altar. I propose to myself a visit, during the
summer months, to France, Rome, Austria, and Bavaria.
In a first visit the rehgious settlements of these countries
will be the principal objects of interest to me, and I trust
I shall leave behind me, among the members of each, the
same kind and charitable feeUng. My hopes, although
later events have confirmed and exalted them, are not of
recent origin. In a short review of a remarkable German
work — Honinghaus' ' Wanderings through the Domain of
Protestant Literature ' — which I wrote in the * Dublin
Review ' a considerable time ago, (No. XIV. i) you may
find the very same sentiments which I should write to-day
— bating one or two little words from which I should now
abstain. May He, who alone can grant that these hopes
prove not too sanguine — may He, to use the words of your
Ecclesiastical Almanac, which I have just examined with
the greatest interest, ' hasten that union and make us worthy
of entering into it.' You wiU remember that when I spoke
of your Church, I contrasted it, not with Protestant Churches
but with our own. I never dreamed of saying (God forbid !)
that there are not many of her members at the present day
who earnestly ' aim at being Catholic in heart and doctrine.'
But I expressed my behef that this struggle must carry
them beyond if not against the pubUc formularies of their
faith, and that it required aU your learning to demonstrate
that it was not so. And my idea in that contrast was this :
that the position, in your communion, of an individual
so disposed, was far more perilous than it would be in ours,
even supposing that there were extremes among us ; because
with us Catholicism is the rule, and these extremes, if they
existed, would be but accidental exceptions ; while with
you, until of late years even the shadow of Catholicism had
been unknown for an entire century ; and now-a-days though
DR. RUSSELL AND NEWMAN 129
the spirit is rapidly spreading, it is still, I fear, though I
trust not [for] long, the exception — it is a stranger, as it
were, among your institutions, which if they were not made
against, certainly were not designed for it, and, if it could
Hve at all should live in spite of them, instead, as with us,
borrowing strength and vitality from their aid. In other
words I wished to say that for an ordinary Christian (and
it is for these the Church must best provide) the danger
of lapsing from Anglicanism into Protestantism in its
most naked forms, is fearfully greater than that of falling
among us from the doctrines of the Council of Trent into
superstition or idolatry. To my mind there is much
significance in this contrast, remembering, as I must, how
much we depend on external things and circumstances,
not only for our actual thoughts, but for the habit and
colour of our minds.
* I pray daily,' he writes in the concluding portion of
the letter, ' that you and your friends may be strengthened
to dismiss all fears of that secondary and traditionary
system among us, which seems to haunt you. Believe me,
my dear Sir, it has no existence in fact. ... I am as
confident as I can be of my own belief that had you the
same sources (and God will give them to your prayers) of
information, you would beheve with me that your fears
are groundless.'
Newman's answer to this letter, dated May 5, 1841,
can be read in the ' Apologia.'
J. H. Newman to Dr. Wiseman (rough draft) ^
April 3, 1841.
Mr. Newman has just received the Bishop of Melipota-
mus's published Letter and offers him his best acknowledg-
ments of it. He assures the Bishop that in what he has
said in his Letter to Dr. Jelf concerning the received system
in the Church of Rome, he had no intention of assailing or
insulting that communion, but merely wished to state what
1 Acknowledging the receipt of a published Letter addressed to him.
K
130 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
his own view of it was. He had been challenged to state
his view of it, and he stated it as a fact. He may be wrong
in it ; if so he is quite willing to be proved wrong ; and if
he is ever convinced that he is wrong, he will say so. It has
somewhat pained him to find that the Bishop considers
that he is ' eager to seize on a prejudice existing against the
Roman Catholics in the minds of his own Churchmen, as a
shield to cast between himself and their attacks.' This is
imputing a motive ; and the less expected by him because
at this moment he is actually suffering from his own
communion for his kind feelings towards the Church of
Rome.
Wiseman replied promising to suppress the words com-
plained of in subsequent editions. But he on his side had
something to complain of, in the way Newman had spoken
of the ' authorised teaching ' of the Church.
J. H. Newman to Dr. Wiseman
Oriel, April 6, 1841.
My dear Lord, — I thank you for yoiu" Lordship's note
just received and the kindness it expresses. It gives me
very great sorrow to pain members of your communion in
what I write ; but is not this the state of Christendom,
that we are all paining each other ? If the terms I have
used pain Roman Catholics, must not I be pained, though
I am not so unreasonable as to complain of it, at their hold-
ing us to be heretics and schismatics, as they do ? is it not
painful to be told that our Sacraments have imparted no
grace to us ? that we are still in the flesh, that we worship
Christ in His Sacraments but that He is not there ? Yet
to hold this is part of their religious system — they cannot
help it ; it is one of the necessities of their position. And
it is part of our religious system, and we cannot help it, to
think that they admit doctrines and practices of an idola-
trous character into their communion. Such a belief is an
essential element in our religious profession ; else why are
we separate from so great a portion of the Catholic world ?
DR. RUSSELL AND NEWMAN 131
have we placed ourselves in this miserable position for
nothing ?
I trust I never make accusations against Rome in the
way of railing or insult. I have never meant to say, as you
seem to think, that your Lordship's authoritative teaching
is ' blasphemous.' I have not used the word except to
disclaim the application of it by the English Church to the
Mass. I have expressly said that the authoritative teaching
was not such as to hinder other senses of the Decrees of
Trent short of it, being ' now in point of fact held ' in the
Roman communion, as considering that what is objection-
able in the teaching in great measure Ues in its tone, the
relative prominence of doctrines, and the practical impres-
sion conveyed. And after all the phrase ' authoritative
teaching ' is not mine, — but having it urged upon me by
others, I say in my letter to Dr. Jelf, that in my own sense
of it, which I explain, I can accept it. On the contrary I
have quoted at the same time a passage from a work of
mine in which I apply the word to the formal and recognised
doctrine of the Church. I say, speaking of the Church of
Rome, ' viewed in its formal principles and authoritative
statements, it professes to be the champion of past times.'
And as to the charge of ' idolatrous usages,' I expressly
say that I use the word in such a sense as not to interfere
with their advocates belonging to that Church from which
it is said that * the idols shall be utterly abolished.' And
without professing to be able to compare one error with
another, I am ready to allow that we too have our idolatries,
though of a different kind. Covetousness is called idolatry
in Scripture, and I have hinted at other kinds of possible
idolatry in a letter I have just written to the Bishop of
Oxford.
I feel as much as any one the lamentable state of Christen-
dom, and heartily wish that the communions of Rome and
England could be one — but the best way of tending to this
great end seems to me to be, in charity and meekness, to
state our convictions, not to stifle them.
Your Lordship's faithful servant,
J. H. Newman.
132 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
In Mr. Ward's ' Life of Cardinal Wiseman/ there is a
letter to Mr. Phillipps in which Wiseman complains of ' a
most distressing letter from Newman/ which had painfully
dispirited him.i ' I had written him/ he says, ' a letter
in consequence of one in the Tablet last week from Oxford,
harsh against O'Connell, as I had some interesting particulars
concerning O'Connell's conduct at the prehminary meeting
of the Institute. On this point Newman's letter was satis-
factory.' Wiseman's letter was preserved by Newman,
and from it we learn that O'ConneU ' brought two very
beautifully worded and conciliatory resolutions, respecting
the state of feeling at Oxford.' After a heated discussion
which lasted three hours, O'Connell, ' rather than have
a public difference of opinion upon so delicate a matter
withdrew his resolutions.'
^ Vol. i. p. 372.
CHAPTER V
THE JERUSALEM BISHOPRIC, 184I
' Alas ! I cannot deny that the outward notes of the Church are partly-
gone from us, and partly going ' (see Sermons on Subjects of the Day,
p. 335).
The apparent termination of the affair of Tract 90 left
Newman * without any harass or anxiety ' on his mind.i
It was natm-al that he should feel an inward peace after
the meekness with which he had borne the contumely
with which he had been treated by the University, and the
arduous act of obedience which he had rendered to his
Bishop. Then the doubt which had assailed him in the
autumn of 1839 seems to have been almost quiescent.
Nevertheless he felt that retirement and self-effacement
became him, and in consequence withdrew more and more
to Littlemore, and occupied himself with his translations
from St. Athanasius for the Library of the Fathers.
His security did not last long.
' I had,' he records in the * Apologia,' * determined to
put aside all controversy, and I set myself down to my
translation of St. Athanasius ; but between July and
November, I received three blows which broke me.
(i) ' I had got but a little way in my work when my
trouble returned on me. The ghost had come a second
time. In the " Arian History'' I found the very same
phenomenon, in a far bolder shape, which I had found in
the Monophysite. ... I saw clearly that in the history of
Arianism, the pure Arians were the Protestants, the semi-
Arians were the Anglicans, and that Rome now was what it
1 Apologia, p. 139. He had been given to understand that his Letter
to the Bishop of Oxford would, so far as the bishops were concerned,
terminate the matter. But the ' understanding ' was not respected.
134 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
was then. The truth lay, not with the " Via Media," but
with what was called *' the extreme party/' . . .
(2) * I was in the misery of this new unsettlement when
. . . the bishops one after another began to charge against
me. . . . They went on in this way, directing their charges
against me, for three whole years. I recognised it as a
condemnation ; it was the only one that was in their power.
At first I intended to protest ; but I gave up the thought
in despair. . . .
(3) ' As if all this were not enough, there came the
affair of the Jerusalem Bishopric. . . . Now here at the
very time that the Anglican Bishops were directing their
censure upon me for avowing an approach to the Catholic
Church not closer than I believed the Anglican formularies
would allow, they were on the other hand fraternising, by
their act or by their sufferance, with Protestant bodies. . . .' *
These were the three great blows, but there were other
troubles besides, such as (i) the extremes into which the
' ultras ' were rushing, (2) Keble's relations with his own
Bishop, (3) the contest for the Poetry Professorship which
was made a theological question. The obvious man for the
post was Isaac Williams, but an opposition, which proved
successful, was raised against him because he was a
Tract arian.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Oriel : July 7, 1841.
My dear Keble, — I have just returned to Oxford from
Cholderton and find your kind note. When there I saw
the British Critic which I had not seen before. I asked
T. M. [Thomas Mozley] at once how he came to speak
about ' apoplectic ' etc. — he declares he had no notion of
Faussett's person whatever. He had seen him once in the
pulpit ten years ago ; this will relieve you, but I am afraid it
cannot be given out, for no one but a friend will believe it.
The B.C. has been and is a matter of great anxiety to
me. The difficulty is how to bring things home to T. M.
without dispiriting him. I am quite sure that he writes
in perfect simplicity and good humour, and that he thinks
^ Apologia, pp. 139-142.
THE JERUSALEM BISHOPRIC 135
that article good humoured. I bargained to see all his
articles in proof, but hearing that this was upon No. 90, I
thought I was too near a party to see it with propriety,
and some one at my elbow, whom I asked, agreed. My
sister made T. M. put in some softening things and was
very anxious, and there is on all hands a great wish to avoid
excesses, if one saw the best way of doing it. I suppose
T. M. would have no objection whatever himself not to
write except upon given subjects such as you might name,
if he can get others to write for him. I think that one
such excess will not do harm, though a train of them would.
I have some satisfaction that the long Vacation has com-
menced, it is like bed time at school, soothing and oblivious
— people go and bathe in the sea, or drink waters, or travel,
or rusticate, and annoyances are forgotten.
I ought in honesty to say that I had been so anxious
about the Article in question, that when I saw it in print
and had the explanation about ' apoplectic ' I was agreeably
relieved.
Ever yours affecly,
John H. Newman.
Thomas Mozley had just taken over from Newman
the editorship of the British Critic. Under his tolerant
and genial auspices, this Review practically became the
organ of the extreme men, such as Ward and Oakeley. His
first number (July 1841) led off with a contribution for
which Newman had declined to be responsible. This was
Oakeley's famous article on Bishop Jewel, of which it is
enough to say here that more than anything else it marked
the parting of the ways between the old and new school of
Tractarians. The editor's own contribution was a castiga-
tion of Dr. Faussett, the Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity,
for a blatant piece of rhetoric which he had just shot off
against Tract 90. It was a castigation having the supreme
felicity of being very witty and richly deserved. The
victim, of course, could not have liked it, and Pusey,
Keble, and Newman felt that it transgressed the bounds of
charity. But nearly every one else seems thoroughly to
have enjoyed it. The passage which it was such a relief to
135 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
Newman to learn was not intended to be physically per-
sonal, is as follows :
' He [Dr. Faussett] confesses to a great difficulty in
mere reading, not to speak of understanding what he reads.
Two or three pages of quotation or argument he speaks of
as a "long," "wearisome," ''tedious," "perplexing,"
" irksome task " ; "a prolixity well calculated to bewilder
the reader and cause him to lose the thread of a disjointed
argument " ; " an entangled web of sophistical reasoning."
So often do such expressions recur, that one is painfully
reminded at every other page of headache, plethora, drowsi-
ness, vertigo, depression of spirits, and other apoplectic
symptoms. Knowing therefore the extreme difficulty some
people find in mental operations, we are willing to suppose
the delay before publication was no more than the Professor's
constitution required. But for his own avowals on this
point, we might have thought some explanation necessary.'
Dr. Faussett had discharged his piece just before the
Long Vacation, thus making an effective reply difficult.
He had done the same thing three years before ; but on
that occasion Newman got his reply through the press
within twenty-four hours. ^
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
July 20, 1841.
My dear Keble, — I am much concerned at your news
about Young — I suppose this may be henceforth the case
in some Dioceses, but I cannot understand its taking place
on a large scale.
As to T. M. [Thomas Mozley] will you please say more
at length what you think best. The Review is Rivington's ;
we cannot change about editors at our pleasure — nor can
we force him to stop the Review. If we give it up, I suppose
it will get into the hands of our opponents, but I assure you /
have not the slightest personal wish to keep it in our hands.
My only feeling would be that we were all rather hasty with
T.M., but this is a thing which neither he (I am sure) nor I
^ ' A Letter addressed to the Margaret Professor of Divinity.' Re-
printed in Via Media, vol. ii.
THE JERUSALEM BISHOPRIC 137
shall trouble about. I think it might be a good thing
certainly for Wilson to put facts before him — but I can
fancy him, though defending himself to W. throwing up
the Review thereupon — which may be a good thing, but
W. should know what he is doing.
The question is whether it is not more possible to put
T.M. under control than to extinguish the Review itself.
But I assure you I have no opinion about it further than
I say. Would you undertake a general control over it
privately, which T.M. I am sure would gladly yield to you.
Ever yours affectly,
J. H. N.
P.S. — On second thoughts I hardly like Wilson writing
to T.M. I suspect he would not write in the most persuasive
manner ; I do not speak at random.^
' The news about Young ' was that Keble^s curate, the
Rev. Peter Young, had been refused Priest's Orders. When
he presented himself for examination, a regular set was
made at him by the Bishop and his chaplains. He was ques-
tioned about how he interpreted the Thirty-nine Articles, and
about his views on the Real Presence, and finally sent back
unordained. This incident had a great effect on the sensitive
conscience of Keble. He began to ask himself if a clergy-
man whose views were antagonistic to those of his Bishop
ought to hold preferment under him. The Bishop, as will
appear later on, was somewhat taken aback by the possibility
of such a result. It was one thing to bully a curate in
deacon's orders, another to drive a man like Keble into
resigning his living.
J. H. Newman to E. L. Badeley, Esq.
Oriel College : July 28, 1841.
My dear Badeley, — I thank you very much for your
friendly letter, sorry as I am for the cause of it. If I say
very little in answer, impute this, first to the difficulty of
conveying what I would say in a few words, and next to
^ The Letter from Keble to which the above is an answer will be
found in Mss Mozley's Letters and Corr. &c. ii. 313.
138 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
my hand being very tired with much writing. I trust
things will turn out better than you anticipate, and that
our credit will not be affected by one of those misfortunes
to which all parties are liable.
Yours, My dear Badeley, very sincerely,
J H. N.
The following letter apparently refers to Keble's letter
on ' Catholic Subscription.' ^ In consequence, it would
seem, of Newman's remarks, Keble omitted the note in
which in the case of clear heresy, disobedience to a National
Synod was contemplated, and struck out ' famous ' before
Cranmer's name.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Sept. 4, 1841.
My dear Keble, — As to an appeal you seem (Letter p. 29) ^
to allow of continuing in ministration in the supposed case
of clear heresy in the Diocesan. And in your note you seem
to contemplate the case (viz. in the same case) of dis-
obeying a National Synod also. But is there not this
difficult question. What is heresy ? and again, considering
in what deplorable ignorance the clergy, including the
Bishops, are, of what Catholic doctrine is (for I suppose
this is just the fact, though I do not mean to say we are
not in some ignorance also) are you not hazarding all sorts
of crude decisions, even if short of heresy, if you bring
matters before an Episcopal Synod.
I can understand that a Convocation would be more
aggressive, but I declare I think an Episcopal Synod would
be quite as uncatholic, or rather more so. We should
be better represented, there would be far more intelhgence
and power on our side in a Convocation than in an Episcopal
Synod — yet do we not (rightly) deprecate a Convocation ?
Is not appealing to a Synod bringing matters to a fearful
^ * The case of Catholic Subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles con-
sidered : With especial Reference to the Duties and Difficulties of Enghsh
Catholics in the Present Crisis : In a Letter to the Hon. Mr. Justice
Coleridge, etc. London, 1841, Not Pubhshed.' Pubhshed by Dr. Pusey
in 1866 together with Tract 90.
" P. 20 in Pusey 's Edition.
THE JERUSALEM BISHOPRIC 139
issue ? There are many men who only want as much as
some Synodical ac^aXfia to give up the EngHsh Church.
I do not mean they know their position. Nay who can
answer for himself what he would think of our Church
with an heretical note upon it.i If the Church of Antioch
or of Alexandria hath erred, at least it was in communion
with other Churches, and orthodox persons might console
themselves under an Arian Bishop that they also were
part of the great Catholic body, but if our English Church
makes itself heretical, we (individuals) actually are in
communion with no part of the Catholic Church whatever.
Is not an Independent in communion with the Church
almost as truly as we should be ? This is what strikes
me. And then, as I said, What is heresy ? is the Pro-
testant doctrine of Justification ? is the denial of the
Real Presence ? or the denial of Episcopal grace, or of
the Catholic Church ? I really fear that the majority
of our Bishops at the moment would be on the Protestant
side on all these points. But anyhow heresy must be
defined for practice.
N.B. — Do you advisedly call Cranmer famous ? I only
mean lest people should say you were canonizing.
Ever your affectly,
J. H. N.
Newman's difiiculty in finding a definition of heresy
which would include the doctrines of Protestantism arose
from the fact that these doctrines had not, of course, been
condemned by any General Council to which he as an
Anglican could appeal. He had to meet the same difficulty
a few weeks later when he wished to protest against the
Jerusalem Bishopric.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Sept. 4, 1841.
My dear K., — I have just received your parcel. As Pusey
has returned, he shall read the letters before they go to
your brother. I think you should say something (I have
^ These were ominous words. Within a few weeks the Jerusalem
bishopric scheme was to bring him face to face with this position.
140 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
not read your paper yet) on the difference between one's
own bishop and another's, and a Bishop as a doctor and a
governor, e.g. my word to the Bishop of Oxford ' a Bishop's
hghtest word is heavy ' apphes to my own Bishop not to
the Bishop of Chester. . . . We have all been thinking
of you and your trouble. One is glad that the Bishop is
apparently drawing back, except that it is very hard upon
Young.
Ever yours affecly,
J. H. N.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Sept. 14, 1841.
My dear Keble, — I cannot help hoping that things are
better with you than you anticipate. This story has come
to Oxford : Ridley advised his father-in-law, the Bishop,
not to send back Young's papers to you, ' for,' said he,
' when Keble sees how very mild his statements are he will
give up his living.' The Bishop was much struck and
astonished, and said, ' Then I shall not send them back.'
Again [entre nous) from what we hear, though of course
we must expect heterogeneous proceedings, it is not at all
certain that Sir Robert Peel will not be taking men called
Puseyites, as thinking them more suited for certain places.
On the whole, as things have before now been at the
worst as regards the clergy, so they now are as regards the
Bishops, and they will improve I think. Recollect the
clergy left off their wigs before the Bishops did. All in
good time.^
I wish I could promise myself the pleasure of coming
to see you when Archdeacon F[roude] does. But I do not
know how. I am just getting Athanasius to press, which
will be a very anxious matter — and, while one's thoughts
get dissipated by leaving one's work, the printer will be
sure to make it the excuse for indefinite irregularity. If
there were a railroad between us I might come for a day —
^ Up to this point the letter has already been published by Miss Mozley.
THE JERUSALEM BISHOPRIC 141
but it seems hard to lose two days on the road. If I did
the thing, I should go up to town by the railroad and get
down to you early next morning, and leave you in middle
of next day so as to get to Oxford late at night the same
day. In this way I should only be two days from Oxford,
and more than one day of it with you.
As to the little Puseys, P. says they are better, but I do
not know how to credit him. His mother ^ read me part of
a letter from him, in which his sanguine tone was the worst
part of it — as she seemed to feel. The facts were so serious.
I mean the complaint seemed so deeply seated in Lucy and
Philip. Mary is pretty well, e.g. he said that the medical
men say that Philip will, they hope, be able to walk with
a high shoe ; though he cannot escape a stiff knee, and that
they do not see why he should not recover his hearing —
meanwhile P. alone can make him hear.
My sister,^ who is easily overset, has been fidgetted
with doing too much, and her eyes have failed her. The
doctor says, I think truly, all she wants is change of air ;
but I am glad to say she is now much better, which I
attribute to the R.'s coming. It is likely, among other
things, that the British Critic has annoyed her.
Ever yours affectly,
J. H. N.
P.S. — The printer promises (pie crust) six sheets a week.
You are to have one — Keble one, Marriott three, I two.
Newman records in his diary that on October 5 he
received a letter from ' Walter.' One may fairly pre-
sume that this was Mr. Walter of the Times, and that
his letter contained the news concerning the Jerusalem
Bishopric which is referred to in the following letter to
Keble. The Times at this period was friendly to the
Tractarians and took a strong line against the Bishopric
^ Lady Lucy Pusey. It was she who when Mrs. Pusey died ' with the
true instinct of a mother, knew what would best help her son, and. against
his first wish, sent for Newman.' ' God,' wrote Pusey to Keble, ' has
been very good to me. . . . He sent Newman to me (whom I saw at my
mother's wish against my inclination ) in the first hour of sorrow; and
it was like the visit of an angel.' Pusey 's Life, ii. lOO, loi.
2 Mrs. Thomas Mozley.
142 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
scheme. It may be worth recalHng in this connection
that during the preceding February, ' while Mr. Newman
was correcting the proofs of No. 90, he was also writing
to the Times the famous letters of Catholicus ; a warning
to eminent public men on the danger of declaiming on
popular commonplaces without due examination of their
worth.' 1
These Letters were one of the earliest specimens Newman
gave of his power as an unsparing hitter. They were
provoked by an oration of Sir Robert Peel's on the occasion
of the opening of a Reading Room at Tamworth in which
he ' had spoken loosely, in the conventional and pompous
way then fashionable of the all-sufficing and exclusive
blessings of knowledge.' ^ Even Newman's friends did not
know who Catholicus was. It is interesting to speculate
what the feelings of the * Four Tutors ' and the * Heads '
would have been if the secret had come out ; and whether
they would have appreciated their luck. They owed some-
thing to the Catholic instinct of deference to authority. It
had saved their backs from the stick with which the
shoulders of good Sir Robert, and ' the arch sophist ' Lord
Brougham, had been belaboured.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J . Keble
October 5, 1841.
Dear Keble, — I enclose what will be no consolation to
you, but think you ought to see. It really does seem to
me as if the Bishops were doing their best to uncatholicise
us, and whether they will succeed before a rescue comes,
who can say ? The Bishop of Jerusalem is to be conse-
crated forthwith, perhaps in a few days. M. Bunsen is
at the bottom of the whole business, who, I think I am
right in saying considers the Nicene Council the first step
in the corruption of the Church. . .
Newman's authority for this last statement, though he
seems to have forgotten it, was a letter he received from
T. D. Acland written at Bologna, May 11, 1834 • ' Bunsen
^ Church, Oxford Movement, p. 313.
2 Ibid. The Letters are reprinted under the title of * The Tamworth
Reading Room ' in Discussions and Arguments.
THE JERUSALEM BISHOPRIC 143
took your book [' The Arians '] with him ; he was much struck
with the beginning, and with the economy. I dont know
whether you will succeed in shaking him in his strong
Protestantism. He says the Council of Nice was the begin-
ning of Popery, of adding an authority to Scripture,' &c.i
Bunsen was for many years the Prussian Minister at
Rome. He spoke English perfectly, and made the embassy
a kind of social and intellectual centre much frequented
by English visitors.^ Newman made his acquaintance
in 1833, when he was in Rome. He seems to have become
fairly intimate with him. He writes to his sister : ' We have
encouraging accounts from M. Bunsen, who has received
us very kindly. There is every reason for expecting that
the Prussian communion will be applying to us for ordination
in no long time.' ^
Bunsen came to England in the summer of 1841 to
negotiate the Jerusalem Bishopric. An enchanting man
he must have been, for he captured Pusey in the course of a
single interview. The bait apparently was the conversion
of the Jews and the setting up in Jerusalem of a Church of
the Circumcision. To this was joined a characteristically
sanguine hope on Pusey' s part that Prussian Protestants
who placed themselves under the jurisdiction of the new
Bishop ' would be absorbed into our Church to which they
had united themselves, and gradually imbibe her spirit
and be Catholicised.' It speaks much for Pusey 's optimism
that, in the midst of the outcry against Tract 90, he should
have thought the then prevailing spirit of the Church of
England so contagiously Catholic. As for the Jews, he
somehow inferred from his conversation with Bunsen that
there was a considerable number of them in Jerusalem
already converted and only awaiting a Bishop to be formed
^ When Bunsen had finished reading The Arians he delivered a most
outspoken judgment. ' M. Bunsen has pronounced upon our views,
gathered from The Arians with singular vehemence. He says that, if we
succeed, we shall be introducing Popery without authority, Protestantism
without Uberty, Catholicism without universality, and Evangelism with-
out spirituality.' Letter of Newman's to R. H. Froude (Mozley's Letters
and Corr. ii. 128). One may take it for granted that if Bunsen later on
became acquainted with the Parochial Sermons he must have reconsidered
the last item of this wholesale condemnation.
* The dialogue ' How to accomplish it ' (published in 1836, reprinted
in Discussions and Arguments) opens on the staircase of the Prussian
Embassy as if this was the most natural place in the world for two
Englishmen to meet.
^ Letters and Corr. i. 331 ; of. ibid. ii. 59.
144 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
into a Church. Pusey's eyes, thanks to Mr. Hope and
others, were soon opened to what he was letting himself
in for, and he thoroughly agreed with Newman's Protest.^
Another conquest of Bunsen's, and this not an ephemeral
one, was Samuel Wilberforce, then Archdeacon of Surrey.
He wrote on August 21 to his brother Robert :
' I have seen a great deal of Bunsen. What a noble
fellow he is ! He is now, it seems, bringing to completion
a truly noble plan by which, I trust, on a back current,
Episcopacy will flow into Prussia. It is at present an
entire secret, but he has made me privy to his councils.'
And on October 30 he wrote to a lady :
' I have of late got very intimate with Bunsen. . . He
showed me numbers of the King's private letters, and
detailed to me his conversations. The King's intention
is most pure. He quite wishes to gain over his people to
true Episcopacy : he longs to give up the keys of the Church,
but says, ''No, thank you," to the Lutherans, who wish
to take them from him, "because," he says, "God gave
them me no doubt to keep till I could give them up to His
Bishops, and then I will. . ." If time would serve I could
tell you most interesting traits as to this Jewish Bishopric,
and his right-minded simplicity of purpose,' &C.2
On October 7 Newman heard from Mr. Hope. He
replied in a tone of excitement unusual with him.
J. H. Newman to J. R. Hope, Esq,
Your account of the Jerusalem matter is fearful — the
more I think of it the more I am dismayed. On me it falls
very hard — here I am labouring with all my might to keep
men from Rome, and as if I had not enough trouble, a new
element of separation is introduced. I feel so strongly
^ See Life of Pusey, ii. vii. passim.
- Life of Bishop Wilberforce, i. 198 ff. This idea 'of Episcopacy on *a
back current,' i.e. the conferring of Holy Orders on men too indifferent
to them even to dechne them, was revolting to a layman like Mr. Hope.
He called the whole scheme ' a Political Protectorate soldered together
by a divine institution.'
THE JERUSALEM BISHOPRIC 145
about it that when I once begin to pubHsh my ' Protest,' ^
I think I shall introduce it as a preface or appendix to every
book and every edition of a book I print. If people are
driving me quite against all my feelings out of the Church
of England, they shall know that they are doing so. Is
there no means of impeaching or indicting someone or
other ? Lawyers can throw anything into form. Should
Bishop Alexander commit any irregularity out in Palestine
might not one bring him into Court in England ? I really
can fancy our people giving an indirect sanction or
connivance in the course of a few years to that dreadful
scheme, which writers in the Record and elsewhere have
put forth, of building the Jewish Temple for Jewish
service.
My reasons for thinking of an action (prospectively)
against the Standard or the like was this — that till I was
cross-examined on my oath people would not believe I
had not some understanding with the Pope.
Ever yours,
John H. Newman.
In a pamphlet ^ which he published two months later
Hope justified Newman's trust in lawyers. He showed
that Dr. Alexander, as a Bishop of the United Church of
England and Ireland, could be called to account for any
irregularities he might be guilty of out in Palestine. If he
refused to * submit to the Court or its sentence, and the
Turkish Government should decline to give effect to an
EngHsh decree, he might not the less really and publicly be
cut off from and rejected by our Church.' ^ If this happened
the Church of England would, of course, cease to be com-
promised by him, and he would lose the protection of the
English Goverrmient.
^ The ' Protest ' can be read in Miss Mozley's Letters and Corv. ii. 324, or
the Apologia, p. 145. It was sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury and
the Bishop of Oxford on November 11.
^ The Bishopric of United Church of England and Ireland at Jerusalem
considered in a Letter to a Friend, by James R. Hope, B.C.L., &c. London,
1841.
3 Ibid. pp. 54, 55. In a footnote he added : ' The Porte has lately
deposed a Greek Patriarch at the request of our Government ; surely it
would not be less courteous in the case of an English Bishop.'
L
146 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
On October lo Newman wrote as follows to his friend
Samuel Wood :
J. H. Newman to S. F. Wood, Esq.
. I fear this weather has been against yoiu: taking much
exercise. Pray do make yourself well. Why should you
not remain in the country through the winter ? . . . Have
you heard of this deplorable Jerusalem matter ? I do
dread our Bishops will convert men to Rome, Dr. Wiseman
sitting still. There is not a single Anglican at Jerusalem,
but we are to place a Bishop (of the circumcision expressly)
there, to collect a communion of Protestants, Jews, Druses,
Monophysites, conforming under the influence of our war
steamers, to counterbalance the Russian influence through
Greeks, and the French through Latins. I have written
it concisely, but, I assure you, not epigrammatically or
with exaggeration, except that perhaps the Monophysites
are to be with not under the Bishop.
Ever yours affectionately,
J. H. N.
So far as concerned the English Government, the
Jerusalem Bishopric was, as Newman in the letter just
quoted described it, primarily a political move. France
and Russia enj oyed great prestige in the East as the official
protectors of the Catholic and the Greek or Orthodox
communions respectively. The idea was to construct out
of such stray Protestants as might be living in Palestine,
converted Jews,^ and any minor Oriental sects which might
be ready to fall in with the arrangement, a third great
communion to be under the protection of England and
Prussia. The plan was, on the whole, well received by the
religious world in England. Great things were prophesied
of it, and subscriptions came in.^ The fraternisation with
^ Form by, who had lately been to Jerusalem, told Newman that
there were no AngUcans and only about half a dozen converted Jews
there. — Mozley, Letters and Corr. &c. ii. 316.
^ The Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews promised
;^3ooo . The late Father William Neville used to tell a story of a fund started
by some ladies towards the expense of ' the dear bishop's ' morning tub.
Material for this would have to be brought on the heads of water-carriers,
THE JERUSALEM BISHOPRIC 147
Prussian Lutherans and Calvinists gave a Protestant aspect
to the scheme which dehghted the EvangeHcals. But
perhaps what pleased them most was the prospect opened
out of a great work among the Jews, whose return to
Palestine and conversion, their favourite study of Prophecy
led them eagerly to anticipate. Liberal Churchmen were
naturally pleased with the sinking of theological differences
which a coalition of sects necessarily implies. High Church-
men such as Hook, Perceval, and Palmer of Worcester,
the very men who had braved evil report in their defence
of Tract 90, were pleased with the assertion of the principle
of Episcopacy which the scheme involved. They were led
to hope that it would prepare the way for the Prussian
Church becoming episcopal.
The following letter to Keble is one among many which
show how distressed Newman was by the Bishops' charges
and the Jerusalem scheme.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
October 24, 1841.
Dear Keble, — ... I expect it was something which
Pusey scribbled in a note to Jelf, and Jelf sent bodily to
the Bishop of London, which is the light thing. (Perhaps
it was a letter of mine to Mill. It was not light.) The
truth is they cannot bear the plain truth to be spoken to
them. I am too anxious for others, nay for myself, to say
anything light about going to Rome. Our Church seems
fast protestantising itself, and this I think it right to say
everywhere — not using the word protestant — but not
lightly. Have you seen the Bishop of Chester's Charge ?
He seems to me, as far as in him lies, to have cut off Chester
by it, from the Catholic Church. In such cases I only see
the alternative of obeying or of calling the Bishop heretic.
St. Ignatius' words about trifling with the Bishop invisible
a picturesque Oriental detail which appealed to the imagination. The
Bishop, who was a converted Jew, was evidently supposed to be as
thoroughly Anghcised as he was Christianised. But very Ukely the story,
together with a flippant commentary which was part of it, merely records
the irreverence of some of the 3'ounger Tractarians.
148 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
are so strong,^ I really see no alternative between den3^ng
that he is in possession of his functions and obeying him.
But perhaps, after my saying all this, you will be relieved
at seeing the Charge, and think more mildly of it.
As to the Jerusalem matter the simple case is this—
our government wants a resident religious influence there,
such as the Greek Church is to Russia and the Latin to
France, and its power is so great that they say a Bishop
would be at the head of a large communion in no time,
though we have no members of our Church there at present.
So we join with Protestant Prussia to found a sect, and
put a Bishop over it. Really if one has any right to utter
such a thing, considering Jerusalem is the spot, there is
something almost awful in this.
Ever yours affectly,
J. H. N.
P.S. — I am full of dismay lest a secession to the Church
of Rome is in prospect (years hence perhaps) on the part
of men who are least suspected.
A. B. [the name is not legible] is going out to Malta to
show Greeks and Latins what an English Bishop's wife
can be like.
On November i Newman wrote as follows to Mr.
Walter of the Times :
J. H. Newman to Mr. Walter
Oriel College.
My dear Walter, — I was most obliged by your attending
to my hint about the Palestine Bishop, and hope, indeed
I know, that the articles have done good service.
What would you say to putting the accompanying
letter into the columns of the Times ? I know it is fierce
— or what people call bitter — but the Paper, if you thought
necessary, might disown it. I assure you such acts on the
* ' It is meet that ye should be obedient without dissimulation. For a
man doth not so much deceive this bishop who is seen, as cheat the other
who is invisible.'
THE JERUSALEM BISHOPRIC 149
part of our authorities are doing great harm — are unsettHng
persons* minds. Do you hear that Sibthorpe has con-
formed to Rome ? this is quite a secret as yet, but will
probably be known in a few days. The subject you suggest
is a very favourite one of Rogers', and he caught at it. I
think he will try to send you some papers on it. It seems
to me a very important one, but just at this time I am too
full of Athanasius.
Yours very truly,
John H. Newman.
The Letter to the Times which accompanied this note
was not published. The following is apparently the rough
draft of it.
Sir, — ^The appointment of a Bishop to Palestine on the
part of the English Church is too grave a matter to be
passed over in silence by those, who while they are opposed
to it, do not take the ground against it which has been so
ably supported in your columns.
I beg your permission to state the circumstances of the
case. A few of our Bishops, acting for the whole, without
bringing the matter formally before the Episcopal College,
but at most only happening to mention it to several of their
brethren, perhaps one by one, at the late meeting of
Convocation, (which was attended by but seven Bishops
in all) and keeping close their intentions even from parties
of high consideration staying at their palaces, and from
their ordinary advisers, resolve on committing, or have
committed our Church to a measure of a very novel
character, momentous in point of precedent, and involving
consequences which no one can at present foresee.
They are for consecrating a Bishop for a country where
at present there are no resident members of our Church.
At Malta they are providing a Bishop for a flock which has
none ; but in Palestine there is no flock. They send the
Bishop to make a flock. They treat the country as heathen.
Last Easter, I believe, there were thirty-five members
of our Church at Jerusalem. They were travellers ; call
150 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
them residents; call all the British officials Anglicans.
Suppose these are a round fifty ; is this a number for a
Bishop ?
Wesleyan Methodists indeed there are in ' Syria/ Are
we sending a Bishop to them ?
But it is urged that there are converted Anglican Jews
there, for whom a Bishop is needed. How many ? I am
credibly informed that there are not half-a-dozen.
Moreover by the late Act under which the consecration
will take place, the Bishop may exercise within his limits
' spiritual jurisdiction over the ministers of British congre-
gations of the United Church of England and Ireland, and
over such other Protestant Congregatio7is as may be desirous
of placing themselves under his authority.' Now it is
probable that all Protestants will be glad to avail themselves
of this invitation, in consideration of the great temporal
advantages which will attend it. All Christians, but Greeks
and Latins, are in a state of persecution in the East. They
are not recognised, they belong to no Power. Russia supports
the Greeks, and France the Latins ; but the Protestants
are almost like the Jews of the Middle Ages. Very desirable
is it that they should have a Protector ; generous it may
be in Great Britain to become that protector ; and joyfully
will these parties hail the protection. But what has this
to do with the English Church ? Why must the successors
of Augustine and Anselm become superintendents of a
mixed multitude of Protestants, and, what is more likely,
of men of no Profession whatever ? What, for instance, is
to hinder a congregation of RationaUsts or Socinians putting
themselves under the ' spiritual jurisdiction ' of the Anglican
Bishop ? and how is he to manage to dispossess them of
their Socinianism ? What has a Bishop to do with the
matter at all ? Why not make a consul instead ? Sanda
Sanctis. Why profane religion to political purposes ? Why
send out a Boy Bishop or an Abbot of Unreason, or Pope
of fools, or Monk of Misrule, to mock the Greek and Latin
functionaries, and to disgrace, defile, uncatholicize ourselves ?
I mean no offence whatever to the individual himself on
THE JERUSALEM BISHOPRIC 151
which the choice of our acting authorities is said to have
fallen. The more respectable the person raised to that bad
eminence, the more anti-Christian is the exhibition. He is
said to be well versed in rabbinical learning ; this will not
teach him the difference between Catholic and Protestant.
Nor is this all. I see it is now professed that an under-
standing is to exist between our Bishop and the Greek
orthodox body. This was an afterthought. The main
object was, and I believe is, to negociate with the heretical
Monophysites especially of Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia is
the way to the Euphrates ; the Euphrates is the way to
India. It is desirable to consolidate our Empire. What
is the Church worth if she is to be nice and mealy-mouthed
when a piece of work is to be done for her good lord the
State. Surely, surely, in such a case, some formula can be
found for proving heresy to be orthodoxy and schism to be
charity.
Our mouths, however, are stopped by a confidential
whisper that this is to be the means of introducing Epis-
copacy into Prussia. What is the worth of Episcopacy
without orthodoxy ? What is it but a husk pretending
to be what it is not ? Do the Prussians take the orthodox
view of the Sacraments ? What respect is due to a Bishop
who denies the grace of Baptism ? Surely it is an evil
great enough to find Bishops heretics, without going on
to make heretics Bishops.
Is all this the way to keep certain of our members
from Rome ? or is it on the whole desirable that they
should go, and a good riddance ?
lAmTHS.
The following lengthy letter was written by Newman
to his sister, Mrs. J. Mozley, on a Sunday, on which day he
probably left his ' St. Athanasius ' alone. It is a document
of particular interest both on account of the careful survey
it gives of the general situation, and the state of men's
minds ; and also because of the personal information
contained in it. The ten to twelve hours a day at * St.
Athanasius/ in the midst of all his poignant anxieties, is a
152 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
fine testimony to Newman's discipline of mind and strength
of will, especially when one remembers that his work so
far from being a distraction increased his troubles by
reviving in an intenser form the doubts which had
assailed him in 1839. In spite of all these drawbacks he
achieved a work which 'must always be ranked among
the richest treasures of English Patristic literature.' ^
The two volumes, ' Select Treatises of St. Athanasius in
controversy with the Arians, translated with Notes and
Indices/ were published in the * Library of the Fathers'
during 1843 and 1844. Soon afterwards Newman set to
work at his ' Essay on Development. ' A scholarly work
Hke the ' St. Athanasius/ and a literary and philosophical
landmark like the Development would have been plenty
to show for four years of unbroken leisure and peace. Like
many other people Newman seems to have done his best
work under heavy pressure.
To return to the letter to his sister. Five days pre-
viously Newman had written another letter ^ to her, telling
her not to credit newspaper reports of secessions to Rome.
' Do not,' he continues, ' believe it. Not one will go.
At the same time I cannot answer for years hence, if the
present state of things is persevered in.' In the following
letter he says, ' It is impossible to answer for what may
happen any day.' Something must have taken place
during the interval between the two letters to make him
more despondent.
J. H. Newman to Mrs. J. Mozley
Oriel : Nov. 21, i84i_
My dear Jemima, — I am at present so overpowered
with work that I have in vain wished to write to you for
a long while past. For the last six or eight weeks I have
been at the Athanasius for ten to twelve hours every day,
merely in getting it through the press, and we have achieved
in that time something like six sheets. The work will not
show at all ; I had translated it in the early part of the
^ Dr. Bright in Diet, of Christ. Biog. — ' The most important work
pubHshed since Bull,' the eaitors of the Oxford Library of the Fathers
called it, long after Newman had left them. Compare also Liddon, Life
of Pusey, i. 436.
- Printed in Miss Mozley 's Letters and Corr, ii. 325^
THE JERUSALEM BISHOPRIC i53
Long Vacation. My health, thank God, does not suffer a bit,
and if I [it ?] did, I should stop. And I will add for Harriet's
sake, who has kindly inquired (for I wish you to send this
to T. and H. under strict secrecy — as to Derby I do not
know what to say — it is unnatural John should not see —
and Mrs. Mozley and Anne M. are so kind that I do not
like secrets with them, but I do not know how to draw
the line) that my sleep is better than it ever has been.
It has been gradually improving for years, if it is right to
boast — and now I sleep sound and am refreshed even
though I go late to bed. I so dread want of sleep, that I
should be on my guard against any symptoms of its approach.
And perhaps it is well that I should be very busy, for
though I am not apt to be downcast about prospects,
having never been sanguine, and do not realise so vividly
as to pain me the difficulties which are on every side, yet
certainly there is enough to make me anxious, if anxious
I am ever to be. Yet I am not.
Our present great anxiety is the matter of Williams' elec-
tion to the Poetry Professorship. I have been against his
standing throughout, for a great dread of Convocation —
but considering / am the cause of the opposition by Tract 90,
it would have been ungenerous to press my objection, and
I cannot complain of the difficulty though I foresaw it.
I have a dread of Convocation exceedingly great — but
now we hear that, if our opponents succeeded in this contest,
which I fear they will, there is already a plan to proceed
to measures which are to have the effect of ' driving us
clean out of the University/ I suppose this means, when
put soberly, something like a test about the sense in which
the Articles are subscribed, which need not be retrospective.
Now the effect of W.'s failure will be bad enough in itself ;
and I am sorry to say, I fear some friends of mine, though
they do not say so, would not be sorry for it. They feel
the misery of the present state of the Church, without
half the notes of the Church Catholic upon her — they look
out for signs of God's providence one way or the other ;
and since they despair of the Church actually righting.
154 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
they look with some sort of relief, as the second best count,
for signs of her retrograding and withdrawing her notes.
And though the mere defeat of a person in a University
Election is a little thing enough, yet if there is a movement
of the Church as a whole in all its ranks to disown Catholic
truth, in its Bishops, Societies, popular organs and the
like, the fact of a series of disavowals on the part of the
University is an important fact as part of a series or collection.
And it cannot be denied, I suppose, that a series of such
facts might happen amounting to a moral evidence that
our Church was quite severed and distinct from the Church
of the first ages.
At first sight it does not appear that such a conclusion,
however plausible, would at once lead persons to Rome —
but it would, even in the way of reason. For they would
say, since the Church must be somewhere and is not in
England, it must be in the communion of Rome — and on the
strength of this inference they would submit in faith to
what they did not like in the Roman system. I say in
the way of reason, for to this must be added the undeniable
agreement of these persons in devotional spirit and practical
view of things to what is inculcated (I do not say fulfilled)
in the Roman Church, and again, the support, whatever
it is, which Rome has in Antiquity. And there is a notion
springing up that we should improve Rome by joining
it, whereas we have protested for three centuries and effected
nothing.
I need hardly say that I steadily opposed whatever acts
of intercourse have taken place between anyone here
(they have been very slight and few) and the Roman Catholics.
I should like very much to make them better only it is to
my mind like running into temptation. But when men find
sympathy there and none at home, and when they find in [their
Church] private amiable and devout men whom the world
does not hear of, it is a difiiculty altogether to prevent it.
Things being in this state, and in a place like this, Catholic
opinions being ever in course of communication from one
person to another, it is impossible to answer for what may
happen any day. At present the men who are most in
THE JERUSALEM BISHOPRIC 155
danger here and elsewhere declare they will do nothing
which I do not approve, and they do really try on the
whole to act upon this resolve.
And here by the bye I do not account it any mistake
to have said that CathoHc opinions will strengthen the
Church against Rome, when appearances are now vice versa.
Those opinions are a powerful weapon — they have not
come into the world for nothing. They must tell either
for us or against us. If we will not use them others will.
If a physician promises to cure a patient, it is on condition
of his taking his medicine, not if he chucks it out of window.
We have not, for eight years been encouraged by any one
dignitary of the Church, I think I may say. What can
you expect ?
If testimonials are refused, or if any measure passes
Convocation, such as I have hinted at, only consider the
consequence ! You cannot destroy opinions — if our church
does not admit [them] men will look out for a Church that
does — not to insist on this very grave question, whether
the denial of certain opinions does not involve a denial
that we are a branch of the Church.
Now what has been said is miserable enough — but as
if it were not enough, a new difficulty, and most unexpected,
has happened in this matter of the Jerusalem Bishoprick.
The Church is actually changing her position, by forming
a special league which she has never done before with
foreign Protestants. I have reason to think that whether
on the part of Bunsen or another, still a plan there is for
organizing a large Protestant league throughout the world,
and in order to this it is desired, or it will be involved, to
put the Church of England on a more Protestant footing
than it has hitherto acknowledged. The present measure
has been done without advice of the body of Bishops — my
own Bishop's letter in answer to my Protest is not only
most kind in itself but most satisfactory on this point — he
knows nothing at all about the matter except through the
newspapers. Indeed it is as yet but an inchoate act, and
I trust it will never be completed — but if it be, it will be
the most fearful event for the Church of England since
156 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
her separation from Rome. It is a formal recognition of
the Protestants by communicating with them in a Church,
without reconcihation on their part. In addition we are
sending out a Bishop there who they boast is of ' the pure
blood of Judah/ and his wife of ' the pure blood of Levi ' —
as if this was not the very error of the Galatians, as if the
Jewish Law had [not] been abolished once for all. Dr.
Miirs great fear was our projected union with the Mono-
phy sites, for one aspect of evil does not do justice to the
measure — but now the Standard of a day or two since openly
advocates our union with the Nestorians. I fear I must
say that, if we go into communion with the Nestorians,
our own communion will not be safe to remain in — but I do
not believe we shall — and in order to do my part towards
preventing it, I have sent the Protest you have heard me
speak of to the Bishop of Oxford. Magdalen Palmer is
sending out a Protest too — it will be criticized in point of
style and manner, because they are his own — but it is most
powerful and comes from his heart. It will be called mad,
so will mine — but never mind if it does its work — if it does
not, why then I can only wish it did. I had intended to
publish it at once — but the kind way in which my Bishop
takes it, makes me suspend my purpose. I enclose a copy,
which send to T. and H./rom them it must come back to me.
Now I have not mentioned what is doing as much harm
as anything, the Episcopal charges. At this very moment
the Bishop of Winchester's is the most pernicious, for he
does not publish but delays — now Keble's resignation
depends upon this charge — the consequence is that people
are kept in a continual suspense, and no one knows what is
to happen. You may fancy how young men are unsettled
in consequence — till at length questions like these are
breaking out, ' Would you go to Rome if K. and N. did ? '
While others say that they will go if I go.
But now I have said more than enough — and so with
kind love of my Aunt, and hoping A. M. has got well
I am, my dear^ J. Ever yours affectly,
John H. Newman.
THE JERUSALEM BISHOPRIC 157
On November 24, Newman wrote a long letter to Mr.
Hope, from which the following extract may be given.^
' Nor do I see that any one should be surprised at my
resolving on such a course. I have been for a long while
assuring persons that the EngHsh Church was a branch of
the Catholic Church. If, then a measure is in progress
which in my judgment tends to cut from under me the very
ground on which I have been writing and talking, and to
prove all I hold a mere theory and illusion — a paper theo-
logy which facts contradict — who will not excuse it if I am
deeply pained at such proceedings ? When friends who
rely on my word come to me and say, " You told us
the English Church was Catholic,'' what am I to say to this
reproach ? '
On this same day, November 24, Mr. Hope was writing
a long letter to Mr. Gladstone on the same topic. It is a
letter which should be carefully read by all who are interested
in the history of the time to which it belongs, though it is
only possible to give here a couple of short extracts. ^
'The "common sense" or general tenor of questions
is what alone the majority of men are guided by. . . .
Look at the present state of Christendom, and you will
see three great divisions — Catholicity, Protestantism, and
Rationalism . . . the third existing amongst both the
others, but chiefly in the second class, and by many thought
to be a necessary development, or even privilege implied
in its fundamental principles. Poised between the first
two has hitherto stood the Church of England. ... At a
moment like this, when to take a step which upon its
general surface implies Protestantism, and which can be
secured in its Catholicity only by theological distinctions,
which (if tenable) are tenable only against theologians
and upon arguments, is in the "common sense" of the
day to determine the question at issue. Who will believe
that distinctions which to your mind are so strong had
* The whole letter can be read in Memoirs of J. R. Hope-Scott. The
latter half was also printed in Miss Mozley's Letters and Corr. ii. 328 ff.
- The whole letter will be found in Memoirs of J . R. Hopc-Scott, i. 323 ft.
158 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
any weight with the hasty generahsers from whom this
plan has emanated ? Who will be disposed to pause and
weigh the particulars of communion when he sees that the
parties engaged in estabhshing it hardly took time even to
ascertain its general possibility and expedience ? Who
can think that the Bishops of our church who have
swallowed the Augsburgh confession, and dispensed with
the Liturgy have attached any saving sense to the one
particular of Orders — which was in fact a proposal on the
Prussian side rather than a condition on ours ? '
And again :
' Had Prussia come to us humbled and penitent, com-
plaining that separation from the Catholic Church was too
heavy any longer to be borne . . . then none more gladly
than I would have prayed that, as far as higher duties
would allow, she should become one with us. But, as it
is, she comes jauntily, by a Royal Envoy, with a Royal
Liturgy in her hand, and a new and comprehensive theory
of religion on her lips, to propose joint endowment of
Bishoprics, alternate nominations, mixed confessions of
faith . . . and a Political Protectorate soldered together
by a divine institution. . . . And, alas that it should be
so, she has found amongst our Bishops men ready to grant,
without a pause or a doubt, all that she desired.'
J. H. Newman to J. R. Hope, Esq.
November 26, 1841.
My dear Hope, — If you knew how busy I am with
Athanasius (I have been at it from ten to twelve hours every
day these six or eight weeks) you would pardon, what
needs it, my sending you Mr. Formby's letter and making
the mistake about Stapleton. I have written something
on the general subject of your letters, and now to answer
your details.
You have seen I suppose the Prussian State Amiounce-
nient of the arrangement, which has been in the Papers.
THE JERUSALEM BISHOPRIC 159
As to Publishing my Protest, I shall leave that in the
hands of others. .
You may show my Protest to whom you like.
We are doing well in the Professorship absolutely — ^but
I fear not relatively. At least I hear of a great force coming
up against us. I think the Wadham story is this— Mr.
Allies, the Bishop of London's Chaplain (?) wrote to Trinity
to give his vote to W. because the Wadham people who
canvassed him had mentioned ulterior measures. But I
have no right to state reasons ; so you must not repeat it
thus formally.
I fear few Colleges would have so united a set of fellows
as to refuse the College seal to testimonials. It would
seem to be spiting other men also. For myself, my battles
have been passed many years.
Supposing the Standard cannot prove its point about
the ten men, yet mentioned names, might we not have an
action against it ? I suspect by its manner it is afraid of
one. This would be good fun. At first sight I do not
dislike the idea.
Ever yrs,
John H. Newman.
J. H. Newman to S. F. Wood, Esq.
Oriel College : December 6, 1841.
My dear Wood, — It seems unkind in me to have kept
silence so long — but I am very busy. Oakeley told you
what I thought generally — for he came to me with a message
from you. I do not at all like forcing the mind — and I
recommended that you should join in such services as were
pleasant to you. He seemed to think that they would
not wish to adopt any in which you woiild not wish to
join, and I have not heard from him since he left the place.
There is one thing very much needed as a law question —
but I am not sure whether it comes in your range, or would
be enough of a subject, to know the legal process &c., &c.,
for conducting an impeachment of heresy, e.g. against a
i6o CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
dignitary. We are in so bad a way, that there seems no
medium between taking very strong measures in time to
come — or acknowledging we are not a Church. I wish
there were some possible way of interfering in this Jerusalem
matter. Is there no shape in which it could be thrown at
present, or prospectively, in which the Presbytery could
interfere ? Supposing the Bishop of Jerusalem, being a
Bishop of the United Church of England and Ireland, were
to communicate with a heretic, could one impeach him ? &c.
As to my deed, I must have a talk with you before I do
anything. I am in no hurry — and circumstances are so
unsettled just now, that I hardly know what to settle
myself.
I hope to have better and better accounts of your
health.
I wish we were out of our present most distressing
struggle here — but I don't see how it is to be effected. We
have a very fair chance of success — on the other hand
retirement is defeat with nothing to show for it.
Ever yrs. affectionately
John H. Newman.
P.S. — As to Bowyer, at any moment I could send up
a letter — but he is rather acquainted with foreign, i.e.
Canon Law, than English.
J. H. Newman to S. F. Wood, Esq.
Oriel: December 13, 1841.
My dear Wood, — An account of a Sermon of mine has
come round to me thro' Oakeley, you and R. Wilberforce,
so very different from the fact that I write to you about
it — especially as the last mentioned speaks to me of you.
He would not like it mentioned, but in short he thinks
I am turning R.C. — It makes one melancholy when
friends are in so sensitive a state as he must be. What
have you said to him to make him think so ?
My dear W. in many ways I am anxious about you.
I think that you are in a state of health, such, that it is
THE JERUSALEM BISHOPRIC i6i
wrong to burden yourself with many thoughts. I have
intended for some time past to talk to you on this subject.
As fulness of bread incapacitates one from sacred thoughts,
so I conceive great weakness of body may make it a duty
to intermit penitential ones. I give it as my clear judgment,
and earnestly, from my love for you, that you are likely
to be doing yourself harm. More than ' likely ' I cannot
say without seeing more of you.
R. W. makes me think that your mind is also getting
unsettled on the subject of Rome. I think you will give
me credit, Carissime, of not undervaluing the strength of
the feelings which draw one that way — and yet I am
(I trust) quite clear about my duty to remain where I am.
Indeed much clearer than I was some time since. If it is
not presumptuous to say, I trust I have been favoured with
a much more definite view of the (promised) inward evidence
of the Presence of Christ with us in the Sacraments, now
that the outward notes of it are being removed. And I am
content to be with Moses in the desert — or with Elijah
excommunicated from the Temple. I say this, putting
things at the strongest. But post time is come. Excuse
an abrupt letter.
Ever yr. affectionately,
John H. Newman.
J. H. Newman to J. R. Hope, Esq.
Oriel College : December 231(1/41.
My dear Hope, — I guess the principal balance on my
Book account is the trouble you have had about it. When
you look into it, if really there is as much as £5 due to me,
please to give it without my name to the Scotch College —
if it is under £5 please to pay it to Stewart, and I will take
out some books to the worth of it from him.
You take the Canons of 1603 as legal authority, I see.
This has been a bone in my throat. I wish them to show
the animus of our Church, but directly you make them
authority, the unhappy Ward is ipso facto excommunicate
M
i62 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
for having been to Oscott, until he repent of his wicked
error. But there is no resisting law.
Palmer's ' Aids to Reflection ' contain some very valuable
documents.
What the Bishops are doing is most serious, as well as
unjustifiable, as I think. Really one does not know but
they may meet in council and bring out some tests which
will have the effect forthwith of precipitating us, and
leaving the Church clean Protestant. Pray, does a majority
bind in such a council ? I mean in the way of canons.
Can a majority determine the doctrine of the Church ?
If so, we had need look out for cheap lodgings. Where
am I to stow all my books ?
I think Gladstone will have a hard matter to put an
end to this contest.
I am amused at old Mr. Hallam. He used to patronize
me for some time, and express a wish to see me — when
he thought it all moonshine — as a curious literary absurdity.
There is the Bishop of Calcutta too, who says, ' If indeed
they had given a hint as to some neglected point of ecclesi-
astical discipline, their voice, as coming from learned
divines in the seclusion of a University , would have been
gratefully listened to.' But it is intolerable that fellows
of College, who are notoriously out of the world, anything
but men of the world, should presume to interfere with
us who have been men of the world, practical men, hard-
working pastors and eloquent preachers, all our days.
I have taken up enough of your time with this talk. I shall
rejoice to see your pamphlet.
Ever jnrs,
John H. Newman.
J. H. Newman to Rev. W. Dodsworth
Oriel College : The Feast of St. John, 1841.
My dear Mr. Dodsworth, — I thank you much
for your Sermon. Nothing will save us but such protests
as your note in it contains. I believe a very general mis-
giving is beginning to show itself about our Church's
THE JERUSALEM BISHOPRIC 163
Catholicity — and that on the ground of those most painful
things which some of the Bishops are saying and doing.
Of course preaching the doctrine of the Holy Catholic
Church will lead men to Rome, supposing our Bishops
declare we are not part of the Catholic Church, or that
we do not hold the Catholic doctrines. I have no confidence
that the worst results will not take place, because I have
no confidence that the worst of measures or avowals may
not issue from authority. This is the beginning and the
end of the matter. The Church doctrines were not sent
into the world for nothing — if we will not use them, other
communions will.
With these feelings you may think how much I rejoiced
to see you had spoken so plainly about the Bishop of Chester's
charge. The Jerusalem matter, however, is what quite un-
nerves me. It is so wanton an innovation. But I trust that
Hope's pamphlet shows that we may weather the danger.
I am sure that they are the worst friends of the Church
who refuse to look dangers in the face. Her best friends
are those who, instead of shutting their eyes, tell us when
she is in danger. For centuries she has been wasting away,
because persons have made the best of things and palliated
serious faults. Of course directly one speaks out, one
is accused of intending to Romanise — but I would speak
out to prevent what silence would not tend a whit to prevent,
but to excuse.
As it is, I fear irremediable evil is done by the acts I
allude to. Confidence is shaken — and when once a doubt
of our Catholicity gets into the mind, it is like a seed —
it lies for years to appearance dead — but alas, it has its
hour of germinating or is ever threatening.
It should ever be borne in mind that no serious move-
ment towards Rome took place, in fact, till the year 1841,
when the authorities of the Church had more or less declared
themselves against Catholic truth.
I have written to you very freely, but, I hope, not so
that you can misunderstand my meaning.
Yours very truly,
JoH. H. Newman.
i64 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
J. H. Newman to Rev. W. Dodsworth
Oriel : October lo, 1841.
My dear Mr. Dodsworth, — I promised Parker here the
Tract translation of Bishop Andrewes' Devotions for one
of his Httle books — and he is going to put it to press at
once. He had been waiting for the translation of the
second part, but I fear it is not likely to be ready soon.
I am sorry to have delayed my answer, but he was out of
Oxford when your note came.
Believe me.
Very truly yours,
John H. Newman.
P.S. — (i) Will you kindly express to Mr. Burns my
regret — and that else I should most readily have given
him the Tract.
(2) What do you say to this hideous business of the
Jerusalem Bishoprick? Dr. Wiseman may sit still — Our
Bishops will do his work.
J. H. Newman to J. R. Hope, Esq.
December 2, 1841.
My dear H., — I have not yet had time to read carefully
your letter, but lest you should think I am turning Roman
outright, I send you last Sunday's sermon — which let me
have back (unread or read) at once — ^as people want it.^
I fully think that if this particular measure comes off,
it will all but unchurch us. I cannot help facts — it is not
my doing, it is an external fact. And if it takes place, I
think it clear that, though one might remain where one
was, oneself — ^yet we should have no argumejits to prevent
others going to Rome.
I am amused at your horror'^of our ultras — some of them
are the very persons you would like, if you knew them.
Ever your affectly,
J.^H. N.
* Apparently Sermon 21, Subjects of the Day.
CHAPTER VI
INCREASING DIFFICULTIES, 1842
Foris pugnae : intus timores.
The ' Apologia ' is divided into five chapters. The headings
of the first four are :
History of my Rehgious Opinions up to 1833.
History of my Rehgious Opinions from 1833 to 1839.
History of my Rehgious Opinions from 1839 ^^ 1841.
History of my Rehgious Opinions from 1841 to 1845.
The fifth chapter, which describes a fixed state, is entitled
'Position of My Mind after 1845/
The first four chapters correspond with four markedly
distinct stages in the history of the author's Anglican
career. During the first, at least from the time when he
came to Oxford, the ideas which inspired the Movement of
1833 were being planted and were ripening in his mind.
During the second they are in full vigour. During the
third they are decaying. In the fourth they are practically
dead. Not as a piece of cheap rhetoric, but as a service-
able peg for the memory, one might liken these four stages
to the four seasons of the year.
The end of 1841 brings us' to the final stage. This
must be subdivided into two equal periods. The first is
from the autumn of 1841 to the autumn of 1843, when
Newman resigned St. Mary's and preached his last Anglican
sermon, ' The Parting of Friends.' The second ends in the
autumn of 1845 when he was received into the Catholic
Church, and appended to his unfinished ' Essay on Develop-
ment ' the celebrated passage beginning, ' Such were the
thoughts concerning the " Blessed Vision of Peace,'' of
one whose long-continued petition had been that the
i66 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
most merciful would not despise the work of His own
Hands/ &c.
In the beginning of the fourth chapter of the ' Apologia/
Newman sums up his ' position in the view of duty/
from the autumn of 1841 to the autumn of 1843 under
nine headings :
' (i) I had given up my place in the Movement in my
letter to the Bishop of Oxford in the spring of 1841 ; but
(2) I could not give up my duties towards the many and
various minds who had more or less been brought into it
by me ; (3) I expected or intended gradually to face back
into Lay Communion ; (4) I never contemplated leaving
the Church of England ; (5) I could not hold ofhce in its
service, if I were not allowed to hold the Catholic sense of
the Articles ; (6) I could not go to Rome, while she suffered
honours to be paid to the Blessed Virgin and the Saints
which I thought in my conscience to be incompatible vnth
the Supreme, Incommunicable Glory of the One Infinite
and Eternal ; (7) I desired union with Rome under con-
ditions. Church with Church ; (8) I called Littlemore my
Torres Vedras, and thought that some day we might advance
within the Anglican Church as we had been forced to retire ;
(9) I kept back all persons who were disposed to go to
Rome with all my might/
Some remarks may be offered on the third, fourth, and
sixth of these heads.
He did not retire into Lay Communion to the extent
of putting off the clerical garb. One can be quite certain
that he never even contemplated such a step till he was
within a few weeks of becoming a Catholic. But after he
had resigned St. Mary's he held no clerical preferment,
and never preached again.
He ' never contemplated leaving the Church of
England ' ; on the contrary, as his letters show, he fought
against the suggestions and premonitions which kept
rising up in his mind that the claims of Rome might
prove irresistible. He did not give a voluntary assent
to these thoughts. He made up his mind that they
might be temptations, and that till their character was
manifest he ought to treat them as such ; giving himself
up in the meanwhile more and more to prayer and self-
discipline. It might safely be said that up till about the
INCREASING DIFFICULTIES 167
middle of 1843 he hardly recognised how things really
were with him.^
To turn now to the sixth and most important of these
headings. In his Letter to Dr. Jelf, Newman had said :
* As to the present authoritative teaching of the Church
of Rome, to judge by what we see in public, I think it
goes very far indeed to substitute another Gospel for the
true one. Instead of setting before the soul the Holy
Trinity, and hell and heaven ; it does seem to me as a
popular system, to preach the Blessed Virgin and the
Saints, and Purgatory. If ever there was a system
which required reformation, it is that of Rome at this
day,' 2 &c.
' It does seem to me as a popular system,' &c. It is
worth noting that, at the time under consideration,
Newman's difficulty was a practical, not a theoretical
one. The lawfulness or unlawfulness of invocations
addressed directly to the Saints was, in his eyes, an
open question, and not one upon which the individual
Christian ought to take the responsibility of deciding.
In consequence so long as he was an Anglican he did not
even in private use such invocations, and dissuaded others
from using them. It was perilous to use them without
the sanction of authority ; and this they certainly had not
in the Enghsh Church. But he did not stop here. He was
convinced that the cult of the Saints, as practised in the
Catholic Church, did come perilously near to superseding
the worship of God.
If he had approached the subject from the historical
point of view and argued that modern devotions to the
Saints cannot be justified by the appeal to Antiquity, he
would have been speaking as an expert, and, though experts
are far from infallible, those who disagreed with him could
not have questioned his right to his own opinion. But he
was too careful, too well informed to take upon himself
to pronounce that these devotions might not, in theory
at least, be defended as legitimate developments of principles
^ In his letter to Keble on May 4 (p. 217) he speaks of 'something
which has at last been forced upon my full consciousness,' ' something
about myself which is no longer a secret to me,' &c.
2 Via Media, ii. 368-9. In the Apologia he omits to mention
Purgatory. This may have been for the sake of brevity ; but it is more
likely that on this point his feelings were nothing like so keen as they were
in regard to the cult of the Saints.
i68 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
furnished by Antiquity. His cautiousness, however, forsook
him when he gave judgment in his heart ^ upon a practical
matter concerning a system with which he had no practi-
cal acquaintance. The great Protestant tradition fairly over-
powered him.2 He seems to have thought the facts too noto-
rious to need investigation. Against the testimony of
every Mass that is offered up, of every Sacrament that is
administered and received, in opposition to the witness of
all the catechisms that have ever been printed, he firmly
believed that the honours rendered to the Blessed Virgin
and the Saints, detract from ' the supreme Incommunicable
Glory of the One Infinite and Eternal.' It would be
almost as unreasonable and unreal to talk of the second
Precept of Charity interfering with the first.
His prejudice died hard. In fairness it must be re-
membered that it had its root in a ' zeal for God.' Some
misgivings as to his zeal being strictly * according to know-
ledge ' seem to have effected an entrance into his mind
towards the end of 1842 ; for in the November of that
year he is found promising Dr. Russell of Maynooth, that
if ever it was brought home to him that he was wrong, a
public avowal of that conviction would only be a question
of time with him. A volume of sermons by St. Alphonsus,
sent him by Dr. Russell, had impressed him favourably.
A short time afterwards he studied the Exercises of St.
Ignatius. ' Sola cum Solo ' — the one object of these
Exercises was to place the soul directly and immediately
in the Presence of its Maker. Later on Dr. Russell sent
him from Rome a bundle of penny and halfpenny Italian
books of devotion. He read them and was astonished
to find how different they were from what he had fancied.
Nevertheless he was still unconvinced. In May 1843 he
publicly retracted a number of his anti-Catholic statements.
How eagerly Dr. Russell must have searched for the ' public
avowal ' of which Newman had held out hopes ! But some
time had still to elapse before he might have said with a
good conscience :
' This I know full well now, and did not know then,
^ It was with great reluctance, after 1841, that he spoke out his mind
upon this matter.
2 One is reminded of another mighty tradition which has sprung up
in our own days, and tampers not merely with history but contemporary
events. German professors, German priests and Bishops seem to be
honestly convinced that England sought for the present war.
INCREASING DIFFICULTIES 169
that the Catholic Church allows no image of any sort,
material or immaterial, no dogmatic symbol, no rite, no
sacrament, no saint, not even the Blessed Virgin herself,
to come between the soul and its Creator. It is face to
face, " solus cum solo," in all matters between man and his
God. He alone creates. He alone has redeemed ; before
His awful eyes we go in death ; in the vision of Him is our
eternal beatitude/ 1
The Bishops had obtained the discontinuance of the
' Tracts for the Times ' ; they had got from Newman the Letter
to the Bishop of Oxford in which he recorded, without pro-
test, that in his Bishop's judgment Tract 90 was ' objection-
able ' ; in return he had been given to understand that so
far as the Bishops were concerned, the affair was terminated. ^
But this was not all. In April 1841 William Palmer (Wor-
cester) having drawn up a Declaration, for which signatures
were to be obtained, acknowledging the services which the
writers of the Tracts had rendered the Church, was induced
by the Bishop of Oxford to suppress it in the interests of
peace, though it was, as the Bishop admitted, ' very mode-
rate, and not a whit beyond the strictest justice due.' ^
In the same interests of peace the Archbishop of Canterbury
refused to receive addresses from sympathisers with the
Tracts because if he did so he would have to receive counter-
addresses. Then there was a sudden change of policy.
The Archbishop received and promised to give ' grave
consideration ' to an address from some Evangelicals at
Cheltenham, denouncing the ' Tracts for the Times, ' and asking
for an authoritative condemnation of them by the Bishops.
' Grave consideration ' might mean many things, and among
them that the Archbishop was going to foUow in the wake
of pubhc opinion. If this was the case, it would certainly
be unwise to let the Evangelicals be the only people who
made their opinions heard. Newman's friend, Mr. Bellasis,
seems to have been the first to realise the situation, and on
January i, 1842, he wrote to Newman suggesting an address
from lawyers, entreating the Archbishop to take no action,
and warning him of the danger of unsettling the minds of
many persons who accepted the views put forward in the
Tracts. The text of the proposed address (it was never
presented) can be read in ' Memorials of Serjeant Bellasis/
PP- 57. 58-
^ Apologia, p. 195. * 76 iV?. p. 90. ^ Life of Pusey, vol. ii. pp. 250 fE.
170 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
Newman was favourable to the idea. * It seems to me/
he wrote to Pusey on January 2, enclosing Mr. Bellasis's
letter, ' his project is a very desirable one, if it can be done
as he hopes. The Archbishop, observe, is taking a new line.
Last March he stifled addresses for the Tracts because they
would ehcit counter addresses. Now he receives one against
them, and that at such a moment ! As if there was not
excitement enough ! As if not violence enough on the side
he backs up ! ' To Mr. Bellasis he replied as follows :
J. H. Newman to E. Bellasis, Esq.
January 2, 1842.
My dear Mr. Bellasis, — I thank you very much for your
letter, which I will send on to Pusey begging him to write
to you. Of course I can but give that general prima facie
opinion which you ask me for. Persons like yourself alone,
who are in London and lawyers, can decide on the feasibility
of the measure. As far, however, as I have a right to give
an opinion, I like the idea of it very much, and quite go
along with your reasons.
The Archbishop's answer has grown more and more
ominous in my mind, since I read it. Perhaps I am
exaggerating, yet there are some considerations I cannot
satisfy myself about. First an answer to such an address
is a very unusual thing. Then he makes it just at this
moment, increasing the existing excitement, and suggesting
hope to the very party that is violent — there is no trimming
of the balance. And then it argues a change of policy.
Last March he put down all addresses from the Clergy for
the Tracts on the ground that otherwise he could not put
down addresses against them. Now he almost takes the
initiative and braves the discord which is likely to arise the
consequence of it. I really do not think a more serious step
has been taken all through, if viewed in the light which
forces itself upon one. The words ' grave consideration,'
unless used in the light mocking way of the hustings, must
imply a great deal.
INCREASING DIFFICULTIES 171
I have no view at all what they mean. Whether he
could effect a recognition of ' Protestantism/ or a denial
of the possibility of a better understanding than exists
between us and Rome, or a rejectio of the decrees of Trent —
or to take less mighty objects, a repudiation in detail of
any invocation of Saints, any &c., &c. It is not possible,
I suppose, that he could rule anything about the Real
Presence. Could he get a Queen's Injunction of Silence,
after the precedent of George I ? But I am rambling into
great speculations. My difficulty is how he can do any-
thing with our divines, except, indeed, express hatred of
Rome.
And now excuse the superfluities of this last page, and
with every friendly thought that the season suggests.
Believe me to be
Yours very sincerely
John H. Newman.
J. H. Newman to J. R. Hope, Esq.
January 3, 1842.
My dear Hope, — A happy new year to you and all of
us — and, what is even more needed to the English Church.
I am afraid of moving about Convocation. Not that we
should not be in safer hands than in those of the Bishops,
but, though it restrained their acts, it would abridge our
liberty. Or it might formally recognise our Protestantism,
What can we hope from a body, the best members of which,
as Hook and Palmer [of Worcester Coll.], defend and
subscribe to the Jerusalem Fund (by the bye I could not
see Gladstone's name in the last advertisement of Trustees,
but perhaps my eyes were in fault) and vote against, or not
for Williams, as Manning and S. Wilberforce ? Therefore
I do not like to be responsible for helping to call into
existence a body which may embarrass us more than we are
at present.
I think your T67ro<; about the Augsburg Confession
172 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
a very important one, and directly more men come back
will set a friend to work upon it.
I am almost in despair of keeping men together. The
only possible way is a monastery. Men want an outlet
for their devotional and penitential feelings, and if we do
not grant it, to a dead certainty they will go where they can
find it. This is the beginning and the end of the matter.
Yet the clamour is so great, and will be so much greater,
that if I persist, I expect (though I am not speaking from
anything that has occurred) that I shall be stopped. Not
that I have any intention of doing more at present than
laying the foundation of what may be.
Do you know that Keble is very much disgusted with
Gladstone in re Williams ? I have done all I can to soothe
him, but have not seen him, without which I shall not do
much.
Are we really to be beaten in this election (for the
Poetry Professorship) ? I will tell you a secret (if you care
to know it) which not above three or four persons know.
We have 480 promises. Is it then hopeless ? . . . I don't
think our enemies would beat 600 ; at least, it would be no
triumph. Do not mention this unless (as a great secret)
you think it would tend to our success.
The Bishop of Exeter has for these eight years, ever
since the commencement of the Ecclesiastical Commission,
been biding his time, and the Duke of Wellington last
spring disgusted him much. This both makes it likely that
he will now move, and also diminishes the force of the very
words you quote, for peradventure they are ordinary with
him. I have good hopes that he will.
Ever yours,
John H. Newman.
' Men want an outlet for their devotional and Penitential
feelings.' The reader should note these words, for it is a
fact which cannot be too much insisted upon, because it is
so often ignored, that the Tractarian movement was a call
to repentance, and that its spirit was a penitential one
based upon a keen realisation of the fearful character of
INCREASING DIFFICULTIES 173
post-baptismal sin. Without going into the question
whether this spirit was excessive or one-sided,^ a word of
caution may not be out of place against labelling it Novatian,
Jansenistic, or Calvinistic. The Novatians excluded the
penitent sinner from Holy Communion, the Tractarians did
not; The Jansenists discouraged, the Tractarians encour-
aged frequent communion. Works of penance were re-
pugnant to the Calvinistic system, they were an integral
part of that of the Tractarians. But it is probably useless
to protest against the misuse of these terms. If Newman
had written the exercises of St. Ignatius, traces of his early
Calvinism would have been discovered in them.
J. H. Newman to E, Bellasis, Esq.
January 5, 1842.
Dear Mr. Bellasis, — It certainly seems best to leave
out any opinion about the Tract — the effect would be quite
the same without it.
I suppose the Archbishop should be addressed as Primate,
or as President of Convocation, or with some explanation
which will remove appearance of admitting his jurisdiction
in the Diocese of London — a consideration which is
important at this time.
Nor am I quite clear about the expedience of suggesting
Convocation. If people in London feel the desirableness
of its meeting, well and good. I only mean that the words
should be used with a clear view of their importance.
There is something awkward perhaps in the form of the
Address, though I cannot quite describe what I mean. The
clause about doing nothing in this time of excitement,
though very much to the purpose, seems rather free. Hope
is at Salisbury for ten days.
Excuse these very abrupt remarks, and believe me to be,
Very sincerely yours,
John H. Newman.
1 One would have to inquire into the views of the leaders about a
covenanted pardon in the Sacrament of Penance for post-baptismal sin,
and it would have to be remembered that their views were in process of
formation: It is very likely that the result of such an inquiry would be
that Pusey went ahead of Newman. ,^
174 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
J. H. Newman to S. F. Wood, Esq.
Oriel College : January 8, 1842.
My dear Wood, — I have been thinking over your leaving
Margaret Street, and think you should not — that is, unless
your continuing there grows very irksome to you. At the
present time it is important for the sake of those who are,
or who are likely to be, there, that a person with the peculiar
views you hold, should be there. It ever will be a very
rare thing for a person to despair of our external state
as you do, and yet be content to remain in it. I think
you can be of great use to other men in directing their
thoughts to interior religion as a sufficient occupation, to
say the least, for the present — and unless you seriously
object to it on personal grounds, I would have you reflect
whether it be not your duty at the present time ; that
which Providence marks out for you. No one can tell
how much there is in sympathy, over and above the influence
one may have in withstanding. Many a man has latent
wishes to remain quiet, which are overborne by temptation,
but gather strength and become sovereign over his conduct,
when he finds another is acting upon the like. This place
is not your sphere — else I doubt not you would do much
good here to some persons. Ward you will often see at
Oakeley's — and though he is not a man to be carried away,
yet I feel sure that you would do him good by developing
his tendencies to quiet, in the way I have mentioned.
Of course I know too little of what you find suits you
and what not to say — I should say else, it might be a
soothing and tranquillizing duty as regards yourself thus
to employ yourself, without effort, but naturally. You are
older than most of the persons who are likely to be there.
Ever jnrs. affectionately,
John H. Newman.
J. H. Newman to S. F. Wood, Esq.
Oriel: January 17, 1842.
My dear Wood, — I think I quite understand your
ground. What I meant was the fact of a person of your
INCREASING DIFFICULTIES 175
views continuing in the English Church was an evidence
that it was possible to stay in it with those views — and
a grave suggestion to another whether it might not be his
own duty. I am not unwilHng to view it as a personal
matter — but what I should so fear in my own case, would
be the turning of my back (if it be reverent so to express
myself) on a Divine Presence.^ '^To whom shall we go ? ' did
I leave what is given — how know I, I should ever find it
again in another system, though that system might be in
itself better ? I know of but two reasons for changing —
(i) not having [word missing], (2) a divine intimation.
By mysticism I meant simply a neglect of Church
ordinances as such — and thinking to gain grace quite as
well from private devotion.
Let me ask you three questions, which I do very earnestly
and not idly :
1. Is G. Babington your medical man ?
2. Do you think he understands you ?
3. Have you taken any other advice ?
Ever yrs affectionately
J. H. N.
J. H. Newman to J. R. Hope, Esq.
' Oriel : January 17, 1842.
My dear Hope, — I have set a man to work at Melancthon.
As to the Act of Henry VII L, it is known here as the
Bishop of London's ground. Who ever heard of tacit Dis-
pensations ? The simple question surely is, has the Arch-
bishop acted under the Act ? The very act of declaring
a dispensation vindicates the fact of the law, according to
Exceptio probat regulam. Does the Pope give dispensations
in his sleep, or are they registered ?
Ever yrs.,
J. H. Newman.
The present generation finds it difficult to understand
the reverence in which the Reformers were held seventy
^ The word is uncertain. In the transcript of the letter there is only
a P.
176 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
and eighty years ago. They were looked upon as mirrors
of all virtue, and as teachers little short of inspired. Hurrell
Froude, who was followed by Keble and Newman, began
to pull them down from their pedestals. On this point
Tractarian opinion was not united. Pusey and Manning,
for example, judged them on the whole favourably.^ The
following is the rough draft of a letter to an unknown cor-
respondent who had apparently taken umbrage at some-
thing which Newman was reported to have said against the
Reformers.
J. H. Newman to an Unknown Correspondent
January 18, 1842.
Dear Sir, — I am sure your letter is dictated by kindly
feelings, and am sorry you should have heard so incorrect
a report of what I said in a late sermon as to ask : ' Is this
a fitting statement for an Anglican clergyman ? is this
a right instruction to give to his flock ? '
At this moment nothing that comes from me can be
taken fairly and as I mean it. If I preach sermons 17
years old, secret meanings are found in them. And, as to
other sermons, minds at ease are ill judges of the needs
of troubled ones. One man welcomes as a relief what another
can do nothing but criticize ; not that he is unsettled by
it, but he fancies that every one else wiU be. Such words
as your informant has led you to address to me, should
rather be addressed to my Bishop. You write warmly, as
one who sees and feels for a certain portion of the religious
community, and does not see another who [which] may
perhaps be engaging the attention of the parties he blames.
When you speak of my spoiling ' a good work,' you must
let me say plainly that I never proposed to myself at starting
to take another man's views of what is good and what is
bad. Each man has his own views ; one man may criticize
another's ; let us leave off this unprofitable labour, let
^ Pusey was ready to subscribe to the Martyrs' Memorial. Newman
was perfectly clear that, for his part, he could not and would not. The
memorial was intended as a trap for the Tractarians — to show to the
world at large how unfihal their dispositions were to men who, it is hardly
an exaggeration to say, were at that time popularly reputed to be the
founders of real English Christianity.
INCREASING DIFFICULTIES 177
us take each other's opinions as facts, when they are not
counter to one common profession, and learn to bear each
other. Have I nothing to bear when others praise the
Reformers ? Be sure I shall not hesitate in turn on fitting
occasions to express my own contrary judgment about
them. And should you, as you intend, think it necessary
to procure the Protest of a number of persons against me,
I should count it as adding to the distractions of our Church.
I make no apology for writing thus freely, both because
I am persuaded I am addressing a fair and candid mind, and
because I am invited to speak plainly by the example of
your own letter.
The following letter is of interest in connection with
Newman's Letter on Dr. Pusey's Tract on Holy Baptism,^
and his Lectures on Justification. It has not been thought
necessary to point out where he diverges in terminology, if
in nothing further, from the teaching he was afterwards to
receive from Father Perrone, S.J., and others at Rome.
Letter to Rev. A. Tarbutt
Oriel College : January 22, 1842.
My dear Tarbutt, — I am very glad to answer, to the
best of my knowledge, any questions you choose to ask
me. As to the particular one about which you write I
should say this :
Grace is in Scripture a word confined to Christianity —
other dispensations contain a grant or at least a presence
of God's favor and aid, but the peculiar acceptance, and
will, and power granted in the Gospel, high above all gifts
of other covenants, is Grace. Thus St. John says, ' the Law
was given by Moses, but grace and truth came ' etc. And St.
Paul, ' Where sin abounded grace did much more abound.'
I think then a State of Grace is that state ' in which we
stand by faith,' by the mercy of God in Christ ; and that
it was not vouchsafed to the world till Christ came ; and
that all these words, grace, life, righteousness, truth, light
etc. do not indeed mean the same thing, but all coincide in
one and the same subject. I mean that there is one certain
^ Reprinted in Via Media, vol. ii.
178 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
state, and that it, viewed on different sides of it, is in one
aspect grace, in another truth, in another salvation, etc.
just as you would say that God is One, and in one view of
Him Eternal, and in another Almighty etc., by which you
do not mean to say that eternity is the same as omnipotence,
but that the two coincide in one and the same subject.
I think then that a person who falls from the state of
Salvation, falls from the state of Grace, that state which
' the glory of the Lamb enlightens,' whether for peace,
acceptance, holiness, love etc., etc. But in saying that it
is plain, I do not intend to say anything so extreme as that
a person who falls from a state of Grace is therefore left
without God's aids and providential leadings. How do men
(adults) originally come for baptism ? they are not yet
justified or in a state of Grace — they are heathen — but
God, whose mercies are over all His works, draws them to
a state of Grace by assistances which He gives apart from
that state — thus when He called them He also justified,
that is, a state in which a man is helped is prior to that
which is the state of Grace. When a man falls from Grace,
he relapses into some such state.
If I understand you, the question turns on the meaning
of the word ' grace ' — ^whether it stands for any divine
help, or the help through the Spirit of Christ. Yet [Yes ?] ^
I do not think it an indifferent question — first because
Sacrifice [Scripture ?] seems to confine ' grace ' to the
Christian covenant — next because grace conveys the two
ideas of acceptance and spiritual aid — whereas the deeds
done by unjustified men, even through God's sacred aid,
are not pleasing to God, on account of original corruption
which is imputed to them, till they come within the Covenant.
Yours very truly,
John H. Newman.
P.S.— As to your case of the Prodigal Son, I quite
agree with what you say. He who has once been God's
son, never can be such as he was before. His privileges
^ This letter is copied from a transcript, not from the original.
INCREASING DIFFICULTIES 179
are not forfeited (except he commit the sin against the Holy
Ghost about which we know nothing) but suspended. He
falls out of Grace, but not into the same state as he was in
before he came into it. The analogy of friendship will
explain what I mean. A person whom we have loved and
who has turned out ill and broken from us, is not o\x£ friend ,
but he is not what he was when he was a stranger. We
have deep feelings about him — we are angry yet we love —
feel resentment yet affection — or rather resentment because
we feel affection. The Prodigal Son left the state of Grace
when he left his father's house. The father's going out
after him when a great way off means no more than what
I said above, that God's love extends beyond the Home of
His Saints and the Church of His Elect. He went out to
recover, as originally Christ came to ' seek and to save that
which was lost ' — to such then in order by bringing them
into a state of Grace to save them. So the householder,
as we have read this morning, went out to hire labourers
and bring them into his Vineyard.
J. H. Newman to J. R. Hope, Esq.
January 29, 1842.
My dear Hope, — I am told Convocation meets in the
Jerusalem Chambers next week to present an Address
to the King of Prussia. Is anything bad likely to be
done ?
Would it do good or harm, irritate or retard them, to send
my protest to both Houses ? and if so, formally or privately ?
to their President and Prolocutor ? or to some individuals
to show ? and if so, to whom ? The Bishop of Oxford has
it in the Upper House ; but the Bishop of Exeter might, I
suppose, have seen it, and be able to report it. And who
in the Lower ?
You have the means of knowing all this better than I.
If you answer at once, I shall hear to-morrow morning.
Ever yrs.,
John H. Newman.
i8o CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
J. H. Newman to J. R. Hope, Esq.
Oriel : January 31, 1842.
My dear Hope, — Thanks for the trouble you have taken.
I wrote in a very great hurry to save the post, or I would
have told you that my authority was a member of Convoca-
tion. Through Badeley's kind inquiries word has come
to me which you know yourself now, that the meeting is
on Friday next for an Address to the Queen on the birth
of the P. of W. (I was told it would be the beginning of
the week.) A clause may be smuggled in if no one is on
the look out. Of course, if I could, I would avoid giving
the Protest to any one — merely because it is very unpleasant
to bring oneself forward. It may be laziness, but I am much
inclined to let it alone. If, however, you think it any good,
or best for safety sake, I should prefer the Dean of Chichester
to Manning.
My Luther and Melancthon man has made a failure,
though he has taken a good deal of pains. I think I must
see to it myself. It would not take me much time, if I had
any. Tell me something about your controversial prospects.
I have not seen Maurice yet.
I hope you are not over-working yourself. You mind,
I hope, all that medical men would have you do. Are you
sure that you are not in too much excitement ?
Ever yrs,
John H. Newman.
J. H. Newman to E. L. Badeley, Esq.
Oriel College : January 31, 1842.
My dear Badeley, — 1 am very much obliged to you
both for your note, and your kind offer of letting me trouble
you on any like occasion. In consequence of what you said
to Mr. Bellasis, ' A member of Convocation,' who does
not wish his name mentioned, has told Oakeley that the
meeting of C. is on Friday and for the purpose of an address
to the Queen upon the birth of the Prince of Wales. I like
your idea of giving my Protest to the Dean of Chichester —
but I do not know him — do you ? At the same time I fear
INCREASING DIFFICULTIES i8i
it will make him think me gone mad. I have no objection
to let you see it, over and above this, that you will think I
have been frightened out of my proprieties. Hope has it —
if he cannot lay his hand on it, I will send it to you.
I am, my dear Badeley,
Very sincerely yours,
John H. Newman.
J. H. Newman to Rev. W. Dodsworth
Oriel College : February i, 1842.
My dear Mr. Dodsworth, — The very morning your letter
came I had mislaid my Prayer Book, and have only just
now found it. On referring I find it reads, * The Sacrifice
of Masses ' — but I have not the slightest doubt it is a mis-
print. It is one of Reeve's dated London 1811. As to
' Priests ' I think that is my Printer's fault, as the run of
the sentence ' Priest did offer ' is so fixed in my memory.
I am much obliged to you for the correction, and am glad
the mistake is not one which tells against me.
Your pamphlet pleased me very much, and promises
to be useful, though you have not been led to dwell upon
Sibthorpe's main argument. You have rightly expressed
my own meaning in Tract 90, as far as you have had occasion
to bring it out, — and I thank you for the kindness which
led you to do so.
Nothing, I trust, will come of the meeting of Convocation
on Friday — but, considering the subject, one could easily
fancy a clause smuggled in in favour of the King of Prussia.
One does not like to speak against anything so pleasing
in itself as the King of Prussia praying with the prisoners
in Newgate, but surely considering that the officiating
Minister was a Quaker and a woman, such an occurrence
is quite enough to make us suspicious of the Prussian con-
nection. Was the Ordinary present ?
Yours very truly,
John H. Newman.
Feb. 2. P.S. — In what I have said above, of course
I do not mean to enter into the question of my Tract as
between you and Mr, Sihthorpe.
i82 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
J." H. Newman to E. L. Badeley, Esq. ' '
February lo, 1842.
My dear Badeley, — Thank you for your very kind note,
which I answer now, not as if I had anything particular
to say, but lest I should seem unmindful of its friendship.
As to the Lutherans, or rather Lutheranism, I consider
that the ecclesiastical notes of an heresy are external, and
in the Protest I had given two, ' rising late,' and ' dis-
owned by East and West.' As the Church is known by
its outward marks, so is heresy. There is the more reason
to say this in this particular case, because I do not profess
to know Lutheranism as a system, or to know its history
sufficiently to undertake to define it. The main heresy,
as it appears to me, is its doctrine of justification, which
Melancthon could only defend by explaining away, but
which in spite of Melancthon has succeeded in destroying
belief in the ' Holy Church Catholic ' far and wide. Magd.
Palmer considers the heresy to lie in its doctrine of Private
judgment — which perhaps is another side of the same
substantial error. I fear many more heresies might be
mentioned as taught in Lutheranism, though it may be
difficult to name the irpoirov -v/reOSo?.
As to Melancthon, it is not uncommon in the case of
great heresies to have a milder and a more virulent type.
Such in Arianism were Eusebius on the one hand, Arius
or Eunomius on the other. Such again Dioscorus or the
Monophysites, and Eutyches. The milder form is generally
an unreal doctrine, which happily keeps individuals from
what is worse, but has no life in it and no general influence.
I am, My dear Badeley,
Very sincerely yours,
John H. Newman.
J. H. Newman to J. R. Hope, Esq.
Littlemore : February 9, 1842.
My dear Hope, — Your letters were very acceptable —
and, since silence is the best of all news in some cases,
INCREASING DIFFICULTIES 183
I am well pleased I have heard not a whisper, from any
quarter, of the result of the meeting of Convocation.
The only news in Oxford is that the Heads are con-
cocting a theological statute. Will it walk when made ?
or will it be a Frankenstein, and walk too much ? the
''Via Media ' is what is desirable — ^but how to effect it —
that is the problem.
As to Manning, about anyone I do not see, I will be
guided quite willingly by your testimony. And in like
manner about Gladstone. Thank you for your letter
about him, and for the news of his withdrawing from the
Jerusalem Trust, which I had supposed to be the case.
Every one must admire a man like Gladstone, in spite of
his Tylerizing.
Forbes has returned and been unable to procure me
any one book — which speaks well for your diligence. The
only one I regret is the ' Stapleton.' As he has mislaid
his papers, I cannot ascertain what was done about it.
I fear I begin to covet a ' Stapleton.'
Yours very sincerely,
John H. Newman
J. H. Newman to E. Bellasis, Esq.
Littlemore : February lo, 1842,
My dear Mr. Bellasis, — I quite understand what were
the reasons which led to the delay in the document which
you had projected. And I am more than disposed to think
that you are right in delaying it. It is true that the want
of sympathy is the trial of various persons up and down the
country, and is in a certain sense preying on their minds
and doing them harm — but it calls for nothing immediate,
nor would be removed by one manifestation. You lawyers
are far too powerful a gun not to be reserved for some
great occasion — ^and, with much gratitude for the personal
feeling which in the case of yourself and others is united
to an interest in the principles in jeopardy, still I sincerely
hope you may not have occasion to come forward.
i84 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
Meanwhile both parties, Ultra Protestants and R.
Catholics, consider that the Government is leaguing with
the Bishops to exterminate us ; being led by their wishes.
I do not see how it is possible.
I am, yours very truly,
John H. Newman.
J. H. Newman to E. Bellasis, Esq.
Littlemore : February i6, 1842.
My dear Mr. Bellasis, — Ward had sent me your letter
and the drafts of the addresses. I am very much obliged
by the kind consideration you show towards myself, and
assure you I feel it much. I do not know that it makes me
unhappy at all, because it somehow seems to be my lot,
but certainly hardly anything is said to me or comes to
me, even from friends, of a sympathetic character. The
truth is, I suppose it is difficult for them to put themselves
into my place. This only makes one more grateful to those
who do. When I say that it is my lot, I mean that eight
years ago just the same suspicion, coldness, nay blackness
of face was shown towards me as now, though of course
now there are in some quarters much more acrimonious
feelings. However, this too perhaps had the effect of
making me more callous than I should be. I mean, that,
as it seemed I could not please people, I have been very
little solicitous to do so. And yet in the case of individuals
I have taken vast pains in vain, as, for instance, in the
case of the Bishop of Chichester. But however habituated
one may be to bear ice and snow as one's climate, I don't
suppose it ceases to be the nature of things that sunshine
and zephyrs are the more pleasant of the two ; and I thank
you for the friendly words which have been wafted from
Bedford Square.
Pray excuse all this, which I am almost ashamed to
have written. As to your proposal, I certainly agree with
Dodsworth, that it is expedient to do nothing at present —
Omne ignotum pro magnifico will tell more with the Bishop
INCREASING DIFFICULTIES 185
of London than signatures on paper. And again, though this
perhaps is not so much with the laity, there is at this moment
an irritation against us even among our friends, which in
time will be succeeded by resignation and making the best
of things— so that many persons if left to themselves would
come round, who would start from, or be even more alienated
by a declaration in our favour. If we are able quietly to
keep our ground, there must be a re-action in our favour, and
it is well perhaps quietly to wait for it.
Yours most truly,
John H. Newman.
P.S. — What I have said of course does not apply to the
Lawyers' Manifesto on an emergency.
J. H. Newman to a Layman
Littlemore : March 6, 1842.
Dear Sir, — I willingly would say anything in my power
to relieve your mind. Perhaps Dr. Pusey's Letter to the
Archbishop, just published, will tend that way.
When it is said that persons of Catholic principles are
going or gone to Rome, I beg to ask how many persons of
so-called Evangelical sentiments, especially of the lower
classes have joined the Wesleyans or Dissenters. It is
quite notorious that their principles are quite a school of
dissent and make seceders by wholesale. They almost
profess that there is no substantial difference between their
own faith and that of the Wesleyans. It is really prepos-
terous that they should cry out against a mote in their
brother's eye with so great a beam in their own.
Next I would say that of course Church principles will
lead to Rome, if our Bishops repudiate them. Did our
whole communion solemnly and formally enact that there
was no Church, or that itself was not part of it, in so unequal
a contest between the Creed and a human decree it is quite
clear which would be worsted. ' On whomsoever it shall
fall, it will grind him to powder.' And what would be
i86 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
awfully fulfilled by a formal act, is fulfilled in its measure
by the act of individual bishops, or local parties of our
Church. They are taking part against Christ when they
speak against the Church, and will lose her children. I make
no excuse then, I do but grieve while I say that many seces-
sions will to a certainty take place, should our authorities
infringe that Apostolic Creed which is the necessary condi-
tion of their power, and warrant of their claim upon a Chris-
tian's allegiance. It is my confident trust that so deplorable
an event will not take place, but I say now, as I have always
said, that, while I will pay unlimited obedience to the Bishop
set over me while he comes in Christ's name, yet to one who
comes in the name of man, in his own name, in the name of
mere expedience, reason, national convenience and the like,
to the neglect of that Creed which speaks of the Catholic
Church, I should not be bound to pay him any at all.
Church doctrines are a powerful weapon ; they were not
sent into the world for nothing ; God's word does not return
to Him void. If we will not use them, others will instead.
If I have ever said, as I have, that the doctrines of the
' Tracts for the Times ' would build up our Church and destroy
parties, I meant, if they were used, not if they were denounced.
Else they will be as powerful against us, as they might be
powerful for us.
As to Mr. Grant I never saw him but twice. Once in
mixed society, once since his conversion. I understand
he has Roman Catholic relations, and has been in corre-
spondence with them a long while.
You will observe that Sibthorpe traces his conversion
to a study of Scripture, and expressly states that the * Tracts
for the Times ' were the only anti-Roman works which kept
him from Rome. Nor has Mr. Wackerbarth a Cambridge
man, anything to do with us.
The truth is Catholicism is, if I may so speak, in the air.
It is being breathed. A wonderful power is abroad. The
writers of the ' Tracts ' have desired that our Church should
by acting up to its Catholic principles become a home for
this Catholic Spirit. That Spirit is not quenched because
INCREASING DIFFICULTIES 187
we will not entertain it, and numbers are being moved quite
independently of any hand or tongue so weak as ours.
But over and above this, the general cry that the Church
of Rome is spreading, makes young people curious, and
incites them to take up with its doctrines and practices,
though none of us had written a word. I speak of this as
a fact. And, still to speak of myself, since you ask about
me, if people who have a liking or value for another hear
him called Roman Catholic, they will say, ' Then after all
Romanism is no such bad thing.' The charge tells two
ways — if it does not tell against him in the minds of hearers,
it tells for Rome. I am writing you a very free and homely
letter, but I do so because I feel very deeply that all these
persons, who are working this cry are fulfilling their own
prophecy. They are tending to its fulfilment in many ways :
one way is this. If all the world agrees in telling a man he
has no business in our Church, he will at length begin to
think he has none. How easy it is to convince a man of
anything when numbers affirm it — so great is the force of
the imagination. Did every one who met you in the street
look hard at you, you would think you were somehow at
fault. This is especially the case v^hen friends have remon-
strated with individuals as Romanizing. I do not know
anything so irritating, so unsettling, especially in the case
of young persons as they are going on calmly and uncon-
sciously, obeying their own Church and following its
divines, (I am speaking from facts) suddenly to their surprise
to be conjured not to take a leap, of which they have not a
dream and from which they are far removed. ^
And now will you allow me to conclude this very free
letter with a still greater freedom ? viz., by observing what
is almost superfluous to mention, that it is a comfort to
be assured that those who, when in religious perplexity,
quietly commit their souls to God in well-doing, who try
to please Him, and pray for guidance, will gain, through
His mercy, a spiritual judgment for 'trying the spirits,' and
^ He first wrote and then scratched out * not to rush into an evil qi
which they have not a dream and are not in any risk.'
i88 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
deciding between the claims of opposite arguments, quite
sufficiently for their own peace, and their own salvation.
I am, dear Sir, yours truly &c.
J. H. N.
J. H. Newman to Rev. W. Dodsworth
Littlemore : March 14, 1842.
My dear Mr. Dodsworth, — I just saw the pamphlet
you have been kind enough to send me the other day at
Oxford, and what I read of it quite bore out what I hear
everyone says of it. It seems to give very great satis-
faction to those for whom it seems principally written.
I really think that, though there would be some, there
would be very few conversions to the Church of Rome, if
people did but speak with your moderation about her, and
your sympathy towards those who are perplexed.
I saw a letter from a person at a distance about Pusey's
new publication the other day which illustrates what I
mean. I quote it from memory, but nearly verbatim.
' I have just seen Pusey's letter. It affected me much.
Persons who are troubled about our (the Anglican) state
are generally treated with nothing but roughness. I love
him for it more than ever.' This was from a person who
has had strong temptations to leave our Church, though I
trust he is safe. I do not know who is safe, if our Bishops
and Clergy disclaim Catholic principles — I do not know
who is not safe, if they will but allow them. This is not
much to ask.
Yours very truly,
John H. Newman.
P.S. — I should not like the above extract mentioned,
for though it is far enough from London, yet things get
round so strangely.
J. H. Newman to Rev. W. Dodsworth
Littlemore : March 17, 1842.
My dear Dodsworth, — The letter of your Bishop amused
me very much. He of all men to think a Church could get
INCREASING DIFFICULTIES 189
on without a centre, an ecclesiastical Commission for
instance, or a Metropolitan Board ! Let him reform
Lambeth and give up his own precedence over other Bishops,
nay more his substantial rule, and then he may with cleaner
hands come into controversy. Why it has been a saying
in people's mouths, owing to late proceedings whether
at Lambeth or London House, whether in the Jerusalem
matter, or in the Anti- Tract-Lay-Address matter, ' if we
are to have a Pope, we will not go to Lambeth/ Does not
organisation imply organs, and must not organs have a
seat?
* Bramhall ' is to make its appearance (the first volume)
in a few days — I wonder what people will think of his
general doctrine. Your extract is most satisfactory. It
is very unwise in your Bishop to quote authorities. Depend
on it, his best way is to repeat the argument he is said to
have used apropos of St. Ambrose to poor Mr. Wackerbarth,
' Bishop Bramhall is not your Bishop but C. J. London.'
I agree with you about Palmer ; and, if he means to
effect anything by his pamphlets, his tone is not good. The
first excellence of a composition is to do its work — what
is the work he proposes ? Certainly he will not keep
men from Rome.
Yours very truly,
John H. Newman
P.S. — In answer to your question, of course it does not
seem to me that you have gone too far at all — and I really
so little see what the Bishop can reply, that I cannot
anticipate new arguments for you. He will only say that
in spite of Bishop Bramhall, he thinks the concession very
dangerous. Rather Bramhall himself, totus, whole and
bodily, is dangerous.
J. H. Newman to E. Bellasis, Esq.
Littlemore : March 23, 1842.
My dear Bellasis, — Morris tells me that you have taken
your degrees in the science of Arnott Stoves. I have got
igo CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
one on trial at a room of mine here [the stove occupies both
sides of a page of ordinary sized notepaper and then the writer
turns to matters of more general interest]. Since I wrote last,
the storm from Lambeth seems blowing off, but I am out
of the way of hearing news here — and perhaps am flattering
myself unwarrantably. Or perhaps it is merely ' hushed
in grim repose/
Mr. Bellasis replied :
' The storm has apparently passed away as you say,
but some think that if the Pilots who were some time since
placed under hatches for endeavouring to change the moor-
ings of the vessel, are not again allowed to look out and track
the helm, there is great danger that she will go ashore,
or. at least that more of the crew will lose confidence and
try to make their escape/
J. H. Newman to J. R. Hope, Esq.
April 4, 1842.
My dear Hope, — A man writes to me to say he is urged
to change a district Chapel he has for some other preferment,
but he fears to commit simony, i.e. Canonical simony.
Have you, as a lawyer, anything to say on this subject ?
Canj you^tell me the legal definition of residence ? by
which I mean, does the formal cause of it lie in eating in
a place, or sleeping, or doing the Sunday duty for the week,
or what ? I mean how much may I be at Littlemore, and
yet reside in Oriel, without going to the Bishop for a licence
to reside at Littlemore, which I suppose he would give
me ?
You have got my copy of the Oriel Statutes, which
I suppose you can't want by this time — not that I want
it just now myself.
There was something else I had to say, but forget.
Tell me how you are.
Ever yrs.,
John H. Newman.
INCREASING-DIFFICULTIES 191
J. H. Newman to J. R. Hope, Esq.^
Dabam. e Domo S.M.V. apud Littlemore.
April 22, 1842.
My dear Hope, — Does not this portentous date promise
to outweigh any negative I can give to your question in
the mind of the inquirer ? for any one who could ask such
a question would think such a dating equivalent to the
answer. However, if I must answer in form, I believe it
to be one great absurdity and untruth from beginning to
end, though it is hard I must answer for every hundred men
in the whole kingdom. Negatives are dangerous : all I can
say, however, is that I don't believe, or suspect, or fear any
such occurrence, and look upon it as neither probable nor
improbable, but simply untrue.
We are all much quieter and more resigned than we
were, and are remarkably desirous of building up a position,
and proving that the English theory is tenable, or rather,
the English state of things. If the Bishops let us alone,
the fever will subside.
I hunted for your letter about my books, some time
ago, and could not find it. I thought I had put it aside for
the purpose of using it. As Stewart valued the books, could
he not tell the prices ? but I really am very much ashamed
of giving you so much trouble. I will look for the letter.
I wish you would say how you are.
Ever yrs.,
John H. Newman.
There is a legend of Newman, having been challenged
to a public theological debate, replying with a counter
proposal of a duet on the violin. The following extract
from a letter to Keble perhaps supplies the slender founda-
tion of fact upon which this story was built. The rest of
the letter can be read in ' Miss Mozley ' (vol. ii. p. 354).
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
April 29, 1842.
Mr. McGhee came up here twice last Sunday— he heard
me preach on Baptismal regeneration. Accordingly he
1 Printed by Miss Mozley, and in Memoirs of J.R. Hope-Scott,
192 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
sent me a remonstrance of three large sheets full, ending
with a challenge, to select whom I pleased, e.g. Dr. Pusey
as a friend, he would come with a friend — ' stenographists '
he must stipulate for ; we were to expound St. Paul's
Epistle to the Romans alternately ; they were to take it
down verbatim ; and it was to be published through the
country. It was a piece of simplicity in the worthy man —
/ might as well propose a duet on the violin, for I am as
little able to controvert on a platform, as, I suspect, he is
to execute a concerto.
The following is the rough draft of his reply to Mr.
McGhee.
J. H. Newman to Rev. Mr. McGhee
Littlemore : April 28, 1842.
Rev. Sir, — You will allow me, I am sure, to reply to your
frank and kind letter, just received, with equal frankness,
and with an equally kind intention. Be assured then. Dear
Sir, that I am as persuaded of my own religious views as
you can be of yours ; that I think you as wrong as you
think me ; and that my feelings concerning protestantism
are not at all less strong than your own concerning the
Church of Rome. I have before now stood on your ground ;
it was when I was a very young man.
I am only surprised you should be so late in learning
my sentiments, I have long known yours. You need not
have told me that you considered me ignorant of the way
of Salvation ; I knew you did before you said it. Such
protests waste time. So would it to accept your challenge.
You invite me to viva voce controversy with stenographists,
an exercise for which my habits and powers unfit me.
Meanwhile, no one has yet attempted a direct and manly
encounter with the categorical statement and argument of
the work I have published on Justification. Remonstrance,
Protestation, Censure, warning, denunciation are an easier
task. You will see. Dear Sir, that your trouble is lost upon
me. Alas, there are others up and down the country
INCREASING DIFFICULTIES 193
whom you may be able to terrify, but your cause is a failing
one. And surely you are too good a man to be ever taking
on you, as at present, the heavy woe of being ' An accuser
of the Brethren ' and ' making the heart of the righteous
sad ' and speaking against the work of Divine Grace. May
the Author of Grace at length open your eyes, since you
' do it yourself ' and ' know not what you do.' I am, with
sincere respect for your zeal.
Yours faithfully,
J. H. N.
J. H. Newman to Rev. W. Dodsworth
Oriel College : May ii, 1842.
My dear Dodsworth, — I am a very bad person to consult
in a case of casuistry — and still more so, when the answer
is to be given at once. I can only say what I should do
in my own case.
It seems to me very cruel that the Bishops have flung
all the responsibility on us — and I ever have been for
returning it to them. I think /should be inclined to put
it before my own Bishop and refuse to admit the parties
either as sponsors or as communicants unless he recom-
mended me. And I should tell him that I could not do it
without his recommendation. I take it for granted, from
what you say, that in the eye of the Church the marriage is
incestuous. And I should tell the parties that I wotdd act
otherwise on the Bishop's recommendation, but could not
without.
It is very easy to prescribe for another and I am ashamed
almost to send this, both for that reason and because the
advice is meagre and unsatisfactory. I can only say that
I acted on it myself some years since, on one or two occasions
— e.g. the burial of a suicide — and (as far as I could) the
marriage of an unbaptized person.
Yours very truly,
John H. Newman.
o
194 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
J. H. Newman to J. R. Hope, Esq.
Littlemore : August 28, 1842.
My dear Hope, — Your Cook's place is vacant, and it is
in the gift of the Warden. Norris, our Common Room
man, has come to me and wants me to exert my influence
with you to exert your influence with the Warden that his
son may be the new one. Having said as much as this,
I leave it to you to inquire more, supposing you see reason
to do so. Norris is a very respectable man, and I should
be very glad to find his son successful.
But I am glad of this excuse to write to you. I want
to know how you are, if you can spare five minutes — ^both
in body and mind — whether you are more or less disgusted
than you were at Whitsuntide at the state of things —
whether you are hopeful or hopeless. Your Scotch Bishops
are resolved (prudently enough) to put themselves simply
under the direction of the Archbishop of Canterbury and
the Bishop of London — and of another sort of authority
too, for when Palmer pressed them the other day on some
point, one answered * If I were to say so, I should lose half
my flock,' an arrangement [query argument] which I do
not find noticed in Lumper's ' Vitae Patrum ' or Schram's
' Analysis ' — (but I suppose it is best not to mention this)
but is a wholesome doctrine, necessary for these times.
What do you think the Americans have done ? Their
presiding Bishop, Greswold, has formally, and with an
expression of general concurrence, admitted a Nestorian
as a Nestorian to Holy Communion. I think I must screw
up, not courage, but zeal, to write to some one in America
about it. I wish you would turn it in your thoughts. I
have seen no document or account in print yet. It struck
me I might write to Dr. Jarvis, who threw out a feeler on
the subject a year or two since, and sent me his sermon.
I then wrote to him, deprecating such a course, but far too
mildly. I do not see the good of writing to him in private
though — yet if it were a thing to be published, people would
say what business has an Englishman with us.^ The
^ Palmer of Worcester is the man who is bound to take it up.
INCREASING DIFFICULTIES 195
question is full of difficulty ; since they and we have given
up Church authority. To go into the controversy, con-
sidering foreign and dead languages are concerned in it,
would be interminable — yet how appeal to a sentence of
a Council, considering the many we make no bones of ?
It is straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel. We
English, can fall back upon the act of Elizabeth — ^but our
Sister Church has no such refuge.
Ever yrs,
John H. Newman.
On September 12 Newman wrote a long letter to Keble
which has been published by Miss Mozley with the omission
of the two concluding paragraphs. Any reasons for with-
holding the first of these which may have been felt in 1890
have certainly lapsed by now. The second is merely one
of the many touching proofs which we have of the writer's
love for Pusey, and his anxious forebodings, too well justified
in the event, about the health of the young Puseys.
With you I have but subdued expectations of
the Scotch Church — Copeland first broke one's hopes.
There will be no good there or anywhere else, till the doctrine
of post-baptismal sin is recognised. N.,N.,andthe Bishop
of Exeter combine with the Cambridge Camden, in making
a fair outside, while within are dead men's bones. We shall
do nothing till we have a severer religion.
Pusey is pretty well — looks better — but has had the
influenza — children, he says, better on the whole. I don't
believe it. He is sorely harassed by a Romanising case
on which he has gone out of his way to waste his strength,
and which seems interminable.
Ever yours affectly,
J. H. N.
The following letter contains advice as much to the
purpose to-day as it was in 1842. Any one who is in the
habit of picking up second-hand copies of the ' Fathers ' will
from time to time find himself on the traces of those who have
begun to read the ' Fathers,' and then, presumably, come to
the conclusion that they were wasting their time. A few
196 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
pages cut, perhaps disfigured with pencil notes, and the rest
of the book as good as new. Newman wrote from experience.
In 1828, he tells us, ' I first began to read their writings
with attention and on system. I busied myself much in
analysing them, and in cataloguing their doctrines and
principles,' but he came to the conclusion that there was
' very httle in them. At the time I did not discover the
reason of this result, though on the retrospect it was plain
enough : I had read them simply on Protestant ideas,
analysed them and catalogued them on Protestant principles
of division, and hunted for Protestant doctrines and usages
in them. My headings ran, " Justification by faith only,"
" Sanctification " and the like. I knew not what to look
for in them ; I sought what was not there, I missed what
was there ; I laboured through the night and caught
nothing. '1
J. H. Newman to Rev. T. W. Allies
Oriel College : September 30, 1842.
My dear Mr. Allies, — I had an opportunity yesterday of
thanking you for the very kind expressions which you used
about me in your letter, and I will now proceed to the
question it contained. When I began to read the ' Fathers '
many years ago, I began at the Apostolical, and took a
great deal of pains with them and Justin Martyr — all which
I count now almost wasted — and that for this reason, that I
did not understand what was in them, what I was to look for,
what were the strong and important points, etc. 1 measured
and systematized them by the Protestant doctrines and
views, and by this sort of cross division I managed to spend
a good deal of time on them and got nothing from them.
The result was something like that described in the case
of the unobservant boy in the story of * Eyes and No Eyes/
This has ever since made me averse to persons reading
the * Fathers ' without first getting some acquaintance with
divinity ; or at least letting the study of the two proceed
together ; or again some acquaintance with Ecclesiastical
^ ' But,' he continues, * I should make one important exception : I
rose from their perusal with a vivid perception of the divine institution,
the prerogatives, and the gifts of the Episcopate ; that is, with an implicit
aversion to the Erastian principle.' — Diff. of Ang., i. 371-2.
INCREASING DIFFICULTIES 197
History. If a person's taste goes that way, Bull's ' Defensio
F.N/ is an admirable introduction to the ' Fathers,' so
I think is Hooker's ' Fifth Book ' ; or Wall on ' Infant
Baptism.' It comes pretty much to the same thing to
advise a person to get up a particular controversy in the
' Fathers,' for that involves more or less his going to theo-
logical works for information. E.g. the Donatist con-
troversy will bring him across a great deal of history, and
some very interesting Treatises of St. Augustine, as well
as Optatus. If I must name one work, however, and that
of an early Father, it must be ' Origen contra Celsum,'
and then he might go on to ' Huet.* Or again, St. Cyprian's
Epistles, getting up the dates etc. It is best to get a footing
in some one place, and then to proceed as our particular
taste or curiosity leads. Bishop Lloyd used to recommend
beginning at the beginning — I have found this in my own
case a failure. Burton pushed it too, and I cannot think
his influence sufficient to alter my opinion. He is said to
have read regularly on through four centuries — so I under-
stood Lloyd ; but has learned little from the ' Fathers '
except that they were not Socinians. Bishop Kaye, to
judge from his publications, has proceeded in the same
orderly way — accordingly, since a man must have some
system, he has natiu-ally taken his own with him, and
transforms TertuUian into the Thirty-nine Articles one
after another. I think TertuUian would be surprised to see
himself in the Bishop's pages.
The following document is described in the ' Apologia,'
where a short extract from it is quoted, as ' Notes of a letter
which I sent to Dr. Pusey.'^ The ' notes ' themselves
seem to have been sent to Pusey, and were returned, or at
least the portion of them now printed, by him with remarks
at the end. They give a vivid picture of Newman's relations
with the party of Oakeley and Ward, and the perplexity
he was often in when plied with questions which he did not
see clearly how to answer. ^ The ' Article on Rio ' spoken
of was an historical article, in the October number of the
^ Apologia, p. 171. ^ Cf. Apologia, pp. 163-171.
198 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
' British Critic/ on Rio's La Petite Chouannerie ; ou Histoire
d'un College Breton sous TEmpire.
October i6, 1842.
N.B. — It is most difficult to me to analyze the difference
between you and Ward. I have always thought it consisted
(i) in matters of history not of doctrine. (2) in questions
of expedience, propriety, piety, considerateness, etc. (3) in
the certainty or probability of certain developments. In
all these matters I have great uncertainty myself, and
I feel that much may be said on both sides ; I certainly
should be willing to tolerate both sides, except that as
regards the first head, I have no sympathy at all with the
Reformation, its agents, and leading defenders. As to the
second head I have been accustomed to say ' what is one
man's meat is another man's poison.'
As to the article on Rio, I thought it spoke of the Roman
Church and the Pope historically without going into the
question of doctrine. Surely Napoleon did fight with the
Church, and the Pope was the head and representative of
the Church as he fought with it. I did not consider that
it need mean more than this — though as to the matter of
doctrine, I certainly do think the Pope the Head of the
Church. Nay I thought all churchmen so thought ; only
they said that his doctrine, tyranny etc. suspended his just
powers here.
I did not express a wish that R. W. shd tell G. that union
with Rome was the object of the more recent development
of church principles — Such a statement implies something
— something I wished to be done. Ward told me that G.
had been in a puzzle what Oakeley was aiming at, and R. W.,
when he asked about it, seemed to be beating about the
bush — and said he ought, if he wished to state what the
difficulty was which was agitating so many minds, to have
said, that it was the question of union with Rome — G.
seemed in a maze why people could not be still — this would,
with whatever pain, have put an end to his maze. I need
not point out in how many particulars this account differs
from Oakeley's.
INCREASING DIFFICULTIES 199
As to the approving of others doing what I do not do
myself, this is hardly the case. In certain cases I have
not ^^'sapproved it. I have liked the subject of Ward's
articles — I have thought the substance remarkably good and
true — I had no reason why it should not be said — but it is
another matter whether I should have brought it into being,
as it were, could I have seen it before it was done. When
a thing is done, one must have a strong reason for advising
it to be undone. I had no such strong reason. However,
that I went so far as not to disapprove is plain from my
having seen them before publication. I must add that
I had never been myself pained at W.'s or O.'s writingSi
which I know you have been.
^As to my being entirely with Oakeley and Ward, I
think my sympathies are entirely with them ; but really
I cannot determine whether my opinions are. I do not
know the limits of my opinions. If Ward says this or that
is a development of what I have said, I cannot say yes or
no — It is plausible ; it may be true — of course the fact that
the Roman Church has so developed and maintained, adds
great weight to the antecedent plausibility — I cannot assert
that it is not true ; but I cannot with the keen perception
which some people have, appropriate it. It is a nuisance
to me to be forced beyond what I can fairly go.
I have intended ever since the Bp. of Salisbury's charge
to take the first public opportunity which occurred of saying
that I agreed with the substance of Ward and Oakeley's
articles.
I think either the whole of this or nothing should be
told to Oakeley.
G. and W. in the above must be Gladstone and Robert
WilHams respectively. What Mr. Gladstone was told about
Newman is not on record. But in July 1842 Mr. WiUiams
gave him information about ' the general view of the
ulterior section of the Oxford writers and their friends '
which astonished him. Oakeley and his friends, it seemed,
looked forward to reunion with Rome, without, however,
^ This paragraph is quoted in the Apologia, p. 171.
200 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
having any definite plans to bring it about. They could
remain in the Church of England, and render absolute
obedience to their ecclesiastical superiors, so long as they
did not think any Roman doctrine defined as de fide was
dogmatically condemned by the Church of England. ' They
expect to work on in perfect harmony with those who look
mainly to the restoration of Cathohc ideas on the founda-
tion laid by the Church of England as reformed, and who
take a different view as to reunion with Rome in particular,
though of course desiring the reunion of the whole body of
Christ. All this,' commented Mr. Gladstone, ' is matter
for serious consideration. In the meanwhile I am anxious
to put it down while fresh.' ^
One cannot, of course, be sure that Mr. Wilhams would
have fully endorsed Mr. Gladstone's account of what he
told him ; or that Oakeley and his friends would have
accepted eveiy word of Mr. Williams' description of their
views. Opinions in process of formation are hardly capable
of accurate description, and each person, as he reports
them, will almost inevitably, though quite unconsciously,
add something to them, to make them coherent and
complete. In other words, he wiU develop them. But
there is no reason to doubt the substantial accuracy of
the information as supplied to Mr. Gladstone, and put
down in writing by him.
It is easy to understand Newman's perplexity, when
eagerly plied with questions by men like Ward and Oakeley.
Nothing is harder than to discover how far one agrees
with men who approach a question from a point of view
from which one does not oneself contemplate it. Newman
may be represented as holding that England had much
to learn, and Rome much to unlearn. The New School,
on the other hand, simply regarded Rome as the living
model of Catholicity to which the Church of England must
adapt herself. Here, it may be said, was a fundamental
difference of view which would lead to opposite conclusions.
So it might have, if Newman's mind had been stationary,
and if he had still held to the Via Media as a working theory.
In ' Loss and Gain,' two young men are made to compare
* Smith ' — in whom one may recognise a faint imago of
Newman himself — and Dr. Pusey.
' " Dr. Pusey," continued Charles, " is said always to be
^ Morley's Life of Gladstone, vol. i. chap. xi.
INCREASING DIFFICULTIES 201
decisive. He says, ' This is Apostolic, that's in the Fathers ' ;
St. Cyprian says this, St. Augustine denies that ; this is
safe, that's wrong."
' " But the Puseyites are not always so distinct," said
Sheffield ; '' there's Smith — he never speaks decidedly on
difficult questions." ' ^
Why could not Newman be as decisive as Dr. Pusey ?
Because, having lost the Via Media, he had no definite theory
upon which to go ; no general principle which he could
apply to each question as it arose. Because he had begun
to suspect that there was more in the Fathers than he had
hitherto been able to see. Because the idea of development
was now lodged in his mind. But he was moving slowly
and cautiously. ' That Rome had so developed ' was
to him a presumption, but not more than a presumption,
that a particular development was a legitimate one. To
the New School ' that Rome had so developed ' afforded
more than a presumption. It was little short of an absolute
proof.
^ Loss and Gain, p. 120. The dialogue, which has been very much
curtailed, continues thus : ' "Then he won't have many followers, that's
all," said Charles. " But he has more than Dr. Pusey," answered Sheffield.
'' Well, I can't understand it," said Charles ; " he ought not ; perhaps they
won't stay." '
CHAPTER VII
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S, 1843
Retractation of Anti-Catholic Statements — Newman Reveals his
Doubts to Keble — Resigns St. Mary's
' Miseremini mei, saltern vos, amici mei, quia manus Domini tetigit me. *
The chief external events of which the reader of this
chapter should be reminded are (i) Newman's public
retractation of the fiercest of his anti-Catholic statements ;
(2) his resignation of St. Mary's ; and (3) the suspension of
Dr. Pusey.
I. The Retractation of Anti-Catholic Statements, to
give it the title it bears in the ' Via Media/ ^ where it has
been reprinted, was published in the ' Conservative Journal '
during the month of February 1843. The writer had
intended it to appear two months earlier, and dated it
December 12. As a literary document it is probably quite
unique in its style. It deals with the most personal matters
and, except for the use of the first person, is most impersonal
in form. The customary opening of a letter, ' Sir,' or
' Dear Sir,' is omitted, and so is the conventional ending.
It was merely headed To the Editor, and without a word of
explanation or introduction starts off abruptly : ' It is true
that I have at various times, in writing against the Roman
system, used not merely arguments, about which I am not
here speaking, but what reads like declamation.' Then
follow a number of instances of such declamation, ranging
from 1833 to 1837. The year of each is carefully noted,
but references to where they were to be found, except in
the case of one or two anonymous publications, are not
given. The reader was left to find all this out for himself,
^ At the end of vol. ii.
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 203
if he chanced to remember the passages, and where he had
come across them. The writer in order to aggravate his
fault, and make his confession more humihating, gave
many instances of vigorous rebukes addressed to him by
an ' intimate friend/ ^ of which the following may serve as
a specimen : ' I must enter another protest against your
cursing and swearing . . . What good can it do ? I call it
uncharitable to an excess.' And then, in words which seem
almost instinct with a spirit of prophecy, * How mistaken
we may ourselves be on many points which are only gradually
opening to us.*
Newman had intended, for the sake of his friends, that
his retractation should steal upon the world unobserved,
without creating a sensation, and only become generally
known by the time it was ancient history. The editor of
the * Conservative Journal ' did not fall in with this plan.
It could hardly be expected that he should sacrifice a
column and more of his space to closely printed matter
which was not likely to attract the attention of one in a
hundred of his readers. It was easy enough to turn an
unobtrusive communication into a sensational disclosure
by heading it Oxford and Rome and prefacing it thus :
* The following letter has been forwarded to us for publica-
tion. It is without signature ; but we dare say some of
our Oxford readers will find no difficulty in fixing upon
the name of the writer. For ourselves we give it without
note or comment.' So far the editor. On February 20
Mrs. J. Mozley wrote to her brother, ' We hear that that
letter which appeared in the "Conservative Journal," which
bears every mark of belonging to you, except your name,
is making a great hubbub in the world."
The extent and limits of the retractation are worth
noting. The passages withdrawn could only be justified
if the writer of them held that Rome had practically un-
churched, not to say unchristianised, herself. They read
like echoes of the Protestant tradition in which he had
been nurtured, viz. that Rome was the Babylon of the
Apocal5rpse.
But none of the less violent, yet still very fierce, things
which had been said in Tract 90 and the Letters to Dr. Jelf
and the Bishop of Oxford were withdrawn. Nor, how-
ever, were they repeated. People would not be slow to
^ Hurrell Froude.
204 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
conclude from this silence that the writer did not see his
way either to repeating or recanting them. Yet it may be
doubted if, as a matter of fact, the writer at all intended
this inference to be drawn. He was intent upon per-
forming, in obedience to the dictates of his conscience,
a solemn act of reparation and self-humiliation. To have
unsaid some fierce things, and repeated others, even though
these latter were in a minor key, would have been like
driving a bargain with his conscience and letting himself
down easily. But, be this as it may, the Retractation seems
universally to have been regarded as a significant and
ominous act.
(2) The resignation of St. Mary's was a step which had
been long contemplated, and calls for no remark.
(3) The story of Dr. Pusey's suspension has been fully
told in his ' Life,' where many facts which at the time were
unknown, to all except those immediately concerned, have
been brought to light. The offence was a sermon on the
Holy Eucharist ; the tribunal a court consisting of the
Vice-Chancellor and six Doctors of Divinity appointed by
him as his assessors ; the penalty inflicted was suspension
from preaching within the University for two years. The
authorities refurbished ancient weapons of defence against
false teaching, and amply proved that they were not fitted
to handle them. Among other unfairnesses they bound
their victim over to a promise of secrecy with regard to
some altogether illusory negotiations which they held with
him ; thus making it impossible for him to take the advice
of his friends.
The following letter is an acknowledgment of a present
of books from Mr. Hope. It is the first allusion to the
library which Newman was amassing out of the proceeds,
so rumour said, from the sale of Tract 90. This library
is a curious phenomenon. Newman went on adding to it
almost up to the end of his Anglican career ; yet with the
future growing more and more uncertain, it is difficult to
understand how he had the heart to burden himself with
a great collection of expensive books. Can he have felt it
would be an act of secret disloyalty to the communion of
which he was a member to take any precautions against the
time when he might have to sever his connection with it ?
Or was he till almost the end hoping against hope that he
might see his way to remaining where he was ?
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY^S 205
J. H. Newman to J. R. Hope, Esq.
Oriel : February lo, 1843.
Dear Hope, — Your splendid benefaction has arrived,
and I hope we shall make due use of it, and profit by it. I
do not quite understand about the cases going free— if
you have paid please recollect that I am your debtor, for
it does seem a shame that you should frank them down.
But anyhow I must mention it, because the people have
charged 14s. and it is not fit that they should be paid twice
over. Will you let me know ?
Ever yours,
J. H. N.
P.S. — I am going to take the liberty to send Roundell
Palmer ^ my University Sermons, since they are the least
theological book I have published. Will you just take off
the abruptness of the present ? My chief doubt is that I
have inflicted such a favour on him before — but I don't
think it likely.
J. H. Newman to an Unknown Correspondent
Littlemore : March 4, 1843
Dear Sir, — Though I have not a sufficiently vivid memory
of the contents of the ' Tracts for the Times ' to be able to say
whether this or that proposition is to be found in them, or
can be deduced from them, at least I can and will readily
give my own opinions, which, I suppose, will on the whole
agree with those of the Tracts, as being parts of the same
system of doctrine. As to the Tracts, they were not written
on certain theses, but were the spontaneous development,
as called for, of a certain view and system of religion, held
by their authors who are various. How much of that
system happened to be brought out into formal statement
in them, perhaps the authors themselves could not tell —
this is the case with every theological work.
I. I do not object to bringing forward the Atonement
explicitly and prominently in itself, but under ^ circum-
stances, i.e. when people are unfit to receive it. I think
^ Afterwards Lord Selborne. ^ This word is uncertain.
p.
i i
206 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
it should be taught all baptized children — ^that it is the
life of all true Christians — but that it is not the means of
conversion (ordinarily speaking or in the divine appointment)
of those who are not religious. I think it ought not to be
preached to infidels, immoral men, backsliders, at first, but
be reserved till they begin to feel the need of it. Conse-
quently I object to the use of it so often made in our pulpits
as the one doctrine to be addressed to all. It is but one out
of others, and not adapted to all. There are various instru-
ments of persuasion given in Scripture ; the most familiar
distinction is that of the Law and the Gospel. I consider
that at this time the mass of our congregations who have
lapsed after baptism require the Law rather than the Gospel.
They require to be brought to a sense of sin, and I do not
think the preaching of the doctrine of the Atonement is
intended to bring them to a sense of sin. Dr. Chalmers
thinks otherwise — there then we stand at issue. Dr.
Chalmers' Tron Sermons ^ are the best instance I can take of
the mode of preaching theAtonement which I would exclude —
it seems to me very irreverent. He would cast pearls before
swine — he would excite the feelings rather than mend the
heart ; that is, this is the result of his mode of preaching,
for, of course, he would wish to renew the heart, though I
think he takes the wrong way. I will add, first that in
preaching the Law, I do not mean, of course, to exclude the
preaching of Divine Love and Mercy — but the insisting
specially on the Atonement. Secondly the Atonement is
not the only doctrine which under circumstances I would
withhold — the Incarnation is another. The Apostles in
the Acts are almost silent both about the Divinity of Christ
and the Atonement. I only wish to follow their example.
St. Paul is said to preach the faith of Christ to Festus, where
he but insists on righteousness, temperance, and judg-
ment to come. Our Saviour Himself is said to preach the
Gospel, yet even His death, and much more His Atone-
ment, was a secret during His Ministry.
1 [Sermons preached at Tron Church.]
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 207
2. The ' Rule of Faith ' is an ambiguous expression, and
I cannot answer your question till I know what you mean
by it. It has been a received phrase for ' Scripture ' only
during the last 150 years, as you will see drawn out in Tract
90. Before that time it was sometimes applied to Scripture,
sometimes to the creed, sometimes to both, sometimes to
Tradition. In antiquity (as by Tertullian) it is the phrase
for Tradition. I think that in Tract 90 I have said that it is
best to avoid the phrase. The Tracts nowhere say that
anything need be believed in order to salvation which is not
contained in, or [cannot] be proved from Scripture.
3. The promises of forgiveness of sin have as full an
application after Baptism as before, but not in the same
free instantaneous way. They are regained gradually,
with fear and trembling — ^by repentance, prayer, depreca-
tion, penance, patience.
4. The Eucharist is a proper Sacrifice made by the Priest
as Christ's representative, but only as such.
5. Adherence to Episcopal ordination is the safest
course for the security of the validity of the Sacraments, and
of the existence of Church fellowship.
6. There is nothing in Scripture against invocation of
Saints. The practice is right or wrong according as the
Church allows it or not — but where it is a Church ordinance,
still it may be abused.
7. Justification by Faith without the Sacraments ^ is
the essence of sectarian and (modern) heretical doctrine.
8. No other appointed means but baptism is revealed
in Scripture for regeneration.
I beg you will excuse my penmanship, but my hand is
much tired by overwork.
Yours faithfully,
J. H. N.
The process of conversion as commonly represented by
the men whose style of preaching Newman disliked went
through the preparatory stages of conviction of sin and
^ It is not clear whether he meant to write Sacrament or Sacraments.
2o8 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
terror, before the soul was ready for the tidings of the ' free
and full salvation/ Why, then, were they so indignant
at the idea of a preacher trying to bring his hearers through
the preparatory stages, before he directed their thoughts
to the Atonement ?
In the following letter Newman consults Keble about
resigning St. Mary's. He had already done so in October
1840. The letter he then wrote can be read in the
' Apologia/ pp. 132-135-
All the letters that have been preserved, which passed
between Newman and Keble from March 1843 to October
1845, are printed in full, except for some erasures in those
of the latter made by the Cardinal towards the end of his
life, when he parted with them, and presented them to
Keble College, Oxford. He explained these erasures in the
following note.^
* In the letters which follow I have made erasures,
which may seem strange and arbitrary, unless I say some-
thing to account for them.
' Let me observe, then, that dear John Keble's heart
was too tender and his religious sense too keen, for him
not to receive serious injury to his spirits and his mental
equilibrium by the long succession of trials in which his
place in the Oxford movement involved him.
' The affair of No. 90, Williams' failure in his contest
for the Poetry Professorship, the Jerusalem Bishoprick,
Young's rejection when offering himself for Orders, Pusey's
censure by the six Doctors, the promotion of Thirlwall and
others, my own religious unsettlement and that of so many
others, the charges and hostile attitude of the Bishops,
the publication of Arnold's life and letters, and the prospect
of the future thus opened upon him (not to dwell upon
the serious illness of his wife and his brother), were too much
for him, and threw him into a state of extreme depression,
which showed itself to his intimate friends in the language
of self -accusation and even of self -abhorrence.
^ This note, together with considerable portions of Keble's letters, has
already been published in Dr. Lock's Life of Keble. Some portions of
the correspondence were also used by Miss Mozley.
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 209
' This heart-rending trial, of which perhaps I saw more
than any one, is remarked upon by Sir John Coleridge in his
" Life of Keble " (p. 283 etc., ed. i), though he has not
attempted any sufficient explanation of it. He seems to attri-
bute what was a surprise to him to the intense self-disparage-
ment which, however strange to the run of men, is natural to
a mind so religious as Keble' s. Others have supposed it was
a point of duty with Keble thus to speak and write, as
being a proper form of introducing a religious sentiment,
or what was called in a Bishop's charge some forty years
ago, a sort of ' mystic humility ' — an imputation most
untrue to Keble' s nature. It is more exact to say that the
idea had grown upon him and vividly possessed him, that
he had allowed himself for the last ten or twelve years to
be engaged in deep religious questions, and in controversy
rising out of them, without adequate preparation. He had
set off in the company or at the head of many others, on
a road which he had not explored, and as he might think,
he had been " the blind leading the blind." And, in particular
he considered himself at least indirectly, if not positively,
the cause of my own abandonment of the Church of
England.
' This impression, however, unless he had been at the
time so worried and broken in heart, as I have supposed,
would not have been enough in itself to account for the
obiter dicta, the ejaculations, the single words and half
sentences, the language so shocking to one who knew and
loved him so well as I did, in which he expressed his sense
of the difficulties of the moment and his own responsibility
in relation to them.
' To me nothing is more painful than the contrast be-
tween the cheerfulness and playfulness which runs through
his early letters and the sadness of his later. This must
remain anyhow ; it is founded on the successive circum-
stances of his history ; it is part of his life ; nor could one
expect it to be otherwise ; but I could not be so cruel to
that meek, patient and affectionate soul, to that dearly,
deeply beloved friend, as to leave to a future generation the
210 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
exhibition of those imaginary thoughts about himself which
tormented him, which grew out of grave troubles, which
were very real, and which are sufficiently recorded for
posterity, when they serve, as in a notice like this, to suggest
to a reader the weight of those troubles.'
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Littlemore : March 14, 1843.
My dear Keble, — I am sorry to trouble you with my
concerns, yet I want to write to you on a subject, which
has before led me to apply to you, and which I hardly know
how to bring out properly. It seems to me as if Lent were
a fitting time, when one has more hope than at ordinary
seasons of being guided amid perplexity.
I wrote to you on the subject of St. Mary's two years
and a half since — and my difficulty has not diminished in
the interval. The question is, as you know, about my
resigning the Living, but I am so bewildered that I don't
know right from wrong, and have no confidence of being
real in any thing I think or say.
My abiding difficulty in holding St. Mary's is the circum-
stance that the persons whom I am influencing are not my
Parishioners, but the Undergraduates with whom I have
no concern. It distresses me to think how little I am
fitted for the charge of such a Parish, and how little I do — I
dread to think the number of years I have been there, yet
how unprofitably. On the other hand persons, who are
not given me in charge, attend my Services and Sermons,
and that certainly without, perhaps against, the wish of
their proper guardians. If I felt this, as you know I did,
before the No. 90 affair, how much more must I feel it
since !
Another circumstance, which pressed on me painfully
when I wrote to you before, was, that what influence I
exert is simply and exactly, be it more or less, in the direction
of the Church of Rome — and that whether I will or no.
What men learn from me, who learn anything, is to lean
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 211
towards doctrines and practices which our Church does
not sanction. There was a time when I tried to balance
this by strong statements against Rome, which I suppose
to a certain extent effected my object. But now, when I
feel I can do this no more, how greatly is the embarrassment
of my position increased ! I am in danger of acting as a
traitor to that system, to which I must profess attachment
or I should not have the opportunity of acting at all.
But what increases my difficulty most heavily is the
gradual advance, which is making, to a unanimous con-
demnation of No. 90 on the part of the Bishops. Here
I stand on a different footing from all who agree to that
Tract on the whole, even from you. No one but myself
can be answerable for every word of it. The Bishops
condemn it, without specifying what they condemn in it.
This gives an opening to every reader who agrees with it
on the whole, to escape the force of their censure. I alone
cannot escape it. Two years have passed, and one Bishop
after another has pronounced an unmitigated sentence
against it. By October next the probability is, that hardly
a single Bishop but will have given his voice against it ;
that is, given his voice against that comment on the Articles
on which alone I can hold my Living. How can I with
any comfort, with any sense of propriety, retain it ? There
is nothing said by them in mitigation of this sentence. My
own Bishop says that by such expedients as the Tract
exhibits I may make the Articles mean anything or nothing.
The Bishop of Exeter I am told is quite violent in his
language about me. The Bishop of St. David's, the most
candid of all, says that the explanations which others have
offered of the Tract just suifice to show that I need not be
dishonest. And so on with the rest. I declare I wonder
at myself that I have remained so long without moving.
Now there are cases when a consciousness of being in thr?
right suffices to outweigh the censure even of authority;
but in this instance I cannot deny, first, that my interpre-
tation has never been drawn out, to say the least, before —
and I suspect our Catholic-minded Divines have rather
212 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
had recourse to the expedient of looking on the Articles
as Articles of Peace — and next I am conscious too, as I
have said above, that I am not advocating, that I am not
promoting, the Anglican system of doctrine, but one very
much more resembling in matter of fact, the doctrine of
the Roman Church. I have nothing to fall hack upon.
Another reason may be added which, though of very
inferior importance, at least tells as far as this, to diminish
the dread that, in retiring, I should be recklessly tossing
away influence which Providence has put into my hands —
occupation is growing on me of a different kind, and which
is likely to interfere with my duties at St. Mary's — I mean,
that of directing (as I best may) the consciences of persons.
I very much doubt, whether I should not, by relinquishing
St. Mary's, have a great deal more work than at present
of a pastoral kind, and moreover of a directly practical
nature, not strictly speaking theological.
The great objection to any such plan, (which I am
not proposing even as an hypothesis before the Autumn),
is lest it should seem to imply a great dissatisfaction with
the Church of England ; though really any sensible person
ought to see that my situation fiilly justifies, if not calls
for it. Pusey suggested, and I had thought myself, if it
were determined on, that I might manage to retain Little-
more, which, I suppose, would be a sufficient answer to
the suspicion. The College indeed, as you may recollect,
refused to separate Littlemore from St. Mary's for such a
purpose last October two years — but I think some arrange-
ment of the kind might be managed. And then I might
keep Littlemore on according to circumstances. I think
my coming to live here, my occasional periods of absence
from St. Mary's, which have now gone on for three years,
and the continual rumours of my resigning it, have prepared
people for such an event, over and above the Heads of
Houses and the Bishops.
I am very sorry so to trouble you — ^but will you kindly
bear my anxiety in mind ? and the more that really I
cannot say whether I feel a word of what I have written
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 213
and whether it is not all pretence. Of course there is no
hurry for your answer ; indeed from the nature of the
case I do not wish a speedy one.
Ever yours affectionately,
John H. Newman.
J. H. Newman to Rev. W. Dodsworth
Littlemore : March 23, 1843.
I have been trying to make out, but in vain, whether the
R. Catholics have a mission in the neighbourhood of Hong
Kong. Probably not, as one generally hears of them about
Pekin,
Yet it seems to me that this does not much alter the
case, though it would make a better show in argument,
if they had. I confess I must say, that I do not enter into
this scheme of the Hong Kong mission ; and that, upon the
broad ground which you put, and which if not possessed
of formal ecclesiastical force is at least free from the charge
of technicality, that considering what the Roman Church has
done (after all drawbacks and faults) in China, and what
it has suffered, even to martyrdom, it is most inexpedient,
with a view to the religious amelioration of the country,
to interfere with its work. This seems to me a serious
religious ground.
It is very unpleasant to be giving an opinion, which, as
far as it goes, has a very much more practical bearing on
you than on myself, since I do not expect our Bishop would
be proposing any such measure as you expect in London,
but, as my present opinion stands, I certainly could not
myself take part in it — and therefore if he does propose it,
I shall so far be in a worse position than you, that people
would consider my declining to mean more.
But, after aU, it is one of those perplexing matters, in
which you may find yourself able ultimately to make up
your mind to comply with the Bishop's wishes, even though
they are not quite your own.
I think with you, that things must come to a crisis —
214 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
but do not see any symptoms of such a misfortune imme-
diately. The Convocation, when it meets, will be a most
anxious affair — and those Nestorian and Monophysite,
not to say German, questions are full of hazard. By next
autumn I suppose nearly all, or at least the great majority
of the Bishops will have charged against No. 90. This is
a serious matter to myself, but touches no one else. I
wonder whether the Bishops think us made of squeezable
materials (to use Mr. Hume's words) and that we have been
using big words merely in terrorem.
Yours very sincerely,
John H. Newman.
J. H. Newman to J. B. Dalgairns, Esq.
Littlemore : April 26, 1843.
Carissime, — The enclosed speaks for itself. I shall
mention him in the ofhce till May 22nd, i.e., for thirty days,
which I think is the ecclesiastical time. We have now
two Littlemore patrons (for so I think they have a right to
be termed) taken from us — Froude and Wood — seven years
between them (keep the letter for me or send it me back).
I have had to entertain a Durham man — a Mr. Skinner
• — who is writing a Scotch Hierography or the like, and
is to work for us. His account of Durham is wonderful.
In spite of Mr. Faber, Mr. Townshend, the Bp. (Malt by),
the Dean (Waddington), both extreme liberals, in spite
of Mr. Gilby and of Jenkyns, who considers Bishops not
necessary for a Church, the men who turn out from the
University, he says, have taken but one, and that a High
Church course. He says that Jenkyns is regularly puzzled
and annoyed. He has been preaching against various
excesses, i.e., fasting. This Lent the University authorities
were obliged to put up a notice ordering the men to attend
dinner in Hall on Fridays. Mr. S. says that throughout
the North, where he knows the country, the younger men
are uniformly taking the high church line. Such news
as this shows how wrong it is to be impatient. It is quite
impossible such persons can stop where they are, i.e., unless
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 215
they marry, which reconciles one to any amount of in-
tellectual inconsistency.
Lockhart has decided on going away on Monday next.
Bowles is returned. I have not yet got from him any
particulars, except that Dr. Maye certainly means to put
him on a more generous regimen. Stewart talks of getting
a course of English Eccles. History for £35, but he did
not know of Cressy, and he seems contented with the old
edition of Dugdale.
Miles has been in the Record for dancing at Malta.
The Cistercian (or, as the Record says, the Sistercian)
Bazaar has come off and fetched £800 to £1000.
Coffin is returned, and came up to see us all yesterday —
he found none but Lockhart.
Mr. Mills has come back, and Henry is at a new novel
for which he says Lockhart has furnished him with the
scene and some striking points.
Ever yours affectionately,
John H. Newman.
The following is Keble's answer to Newman's letter of
March 14, and to another of later date which is missing.
It is clear from Keble's reply that this latter one was about
the ' Lives of the English Saints,' and contained a suggestion
that Keble should write the Life of Bede.
Rev. J. Keble to J. H. Newman
May 3, 1843.
My dearest and kindest Friend, — How can I ever thank
you as I ought for your charitable remembrance of me,
and I going on so long in such ungracious silence ;
and now I have to condole with you on another of your
dearest friends being taken. ^ I hope you have not felt
it too keenly : surely he was a person for whose departure
it seems almost unkind to feel anything but thankful.
Wilson teUs me he was less uneasy after he got into Yorkshire
among his friends. The rest of home, I suppose, was a sort
of ' taste and say ' ^ of the better Rest he was coming so
near to.
^ Samuel Wood, who died on April 22.
2 The MS. has ' say '; probably, Dr. Lock suggests, intended as a
provincialism for ' see.'
2i6 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
Now as concerning your two letters. I have turned the
subject of your connexion with St. Mary's every way in
my mind as well as I can ; and it seems to me that the time
is come when there will be nothing wrong in your retiring,
if your own feelings prompt you to do so, as of course they
must on many accounts.
I am not sure that I should say this, if it involved your
retiring from the exercise of the Ministry ; but, if you can
manage to keep Littlemore, there will be no appearance
of that kind, and you are yourself well able to judge whether
the loss of your sermons from St. Mary's will not be com-
pensated by your labours in giving private advice and
hearing confessions. . . .
Then, it does seem to me that there has been a most
encouraging silence, far more than could have been expected,
in respect of the sort of retractation you made of certain
phrases some months ago. I should have looked for a
storm of obloquy, but, as far as I have heard, very little
notice has been taken of it. I cannot help trusting that
people are restrained in this instance, themselves know not
how, and it gives one good hope that you will be allowed to
go on quietly in what you judge, on the whole, your duty.
I am not sure that I ought not to follow your example,
committed as I am to the very same principles ; only that
I do not think so much of Bishops' words in their Charges
as you do, and as I did myself, now that I have found out
how they might act on them and do not, thereby proving
themselves not in earnest. But without saying that it is
your duty to retire, one may very well think that it is
perfectly open to you to do so. Whichever way you resolve,
I do not see that you can do very wrongly. . . .
Touching the Lives of Saints, you know how glad I
should be to be useful, and I will try it at any rate, if you
recommend me, though I do not feel as if I was up to it
in any way. But I really fear I must ask for more
time, and a good deal more : for I am most disgracefully
ignorant, and have no books at hand. Is not his History
in Saxon ? I do not know a word of Saxon.
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 217
I have been reading your Sermons, both Plain and
University, and it is the next thing to talking with you at
Littlemore and at Oxford. Is that Ward's Article in
' British Critic ' about Confession ? it seemed to me a very
good one. Perceval was here yesterday, and said that
W. Palmer of Magdalen had been writing another (what
he called) violent pamphlet about the Bishop of Jerusalem.
I never can understand why people call his writings so
violent : they seem to me particularly calm. ... I am
seriously thinking of getting rid of the copyright of the
' Christian Year ' ; do you see any objection ? would you
alter certain passages first ?
We are tolerably well here, and our woods are getting
into high beauty. We kept Anfield Commemoration
Friday week, and thought of you and others. Perceval
told me he saw Pusey pretty well not long since ; except
this, I have not heard of him for a very long time. All
kind Easter wishes to yourself, to him, Copeland and
Marriott and Church and all such friends.
I am still sore about Arnold's memorial, but surely
we were right.
We had Archdeacon Froude here the other day, and
it was delightful to see him so well and heart whole.
Ever your grateful and affectionate,
J. K.
In the following letters Newman makes Keble acquainted
with the change which was coming over his religious opinions.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Littlemore : Thursday, May 4, 1843.
My dear Keble, — On this very day, on which I have
received your kind letter, giving me conditional leave of
retiring from St. Mary's, I have been disappointed in my
last expedient for keeping Littlemore by itself. This circum-
stance, combined with the most kind tone of your letter.
2i8 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
has strongly urged me to tell you something which has at
last been forced upon my full consciousness.
There is something about myself, which is no longer a
secret to me — and if not to me, surely it ought not to be so
to some one else ; and I think that other person should be
you, whose advice I have always wished to follow.
I have enough consciousness in me of insincerity and
double dealing, which I know you abhor, to doubt about
the correctness of what I shall tell you of myself. I really
cannot say whether I am stating my existing feelings,
motives, and views fairly, and whether my memory will not
play me false. I cannot hope but I shall seem inconsistent
to you — and whether I am or have been I cannot say. I
will but observe that it is very difficult to realize one's own
views in certain cases, at the time of acting, which is implied
in culpable inconsistency ; and difficult again, when con-
scious of them, to discriminate between passing thoughts and
permanent impressions, particularly when they are unwel-
come. Some thoughts are like hideous dreams, and we
wake from them, and think they will never return ; and
though they do return, we cannot be sure still that they are
more than vague fancies ; and till one is so sure they are
not, as to be afraid of concealing within what is at variance
with one's professions, one does not like, or rather it is
wrong, to mention them to another.
I do trust that I am not trifling with myself now, nor
am about to say what is beyond my own settled impressions.
If I am, it is most cruel to you in many ways. Any how,
you will be undergoing a most dreadful suffering at my
hands, if you read the other paper.
I do not feel distress at putting on you the necessity of
advising ; because, so that you give your best judgment,
it is all you can give, all that Divine Mercy expects from
you or me ; and by acting honestly upon it, I shall, so be
it, be pleasing Him, whatever comes of it ; but what shall
I say for the pain I shall be causing you ?
Ever yours affectionately,
John H. Newman.
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 219
Littlemore : May 4, 1843.
Oh forgive me, my dear Keble, and be merciful to me in a
matter, in which, if I have not your compassion, my faith
is so weak and I have so little sense of my own uprightness,
that I shall have no refuge in the testimony of my con-
science, such as St. Paul felt, and shall be unable to appeal
from you to a higher judgment seat. But if you do on
deliberation accuse me of insincerity, still tell me, for I shall
deserve to bear it, and your reproof will be profitable.
In June and July 1839, near four years ago, I read the
Monophysite Controversy, and it made a deep impression
on me, which I was not able to shake off, that the Pope had
a certain gift of infallibility, and that communion with the
See of Rome was the divinely intended means of grace
and illumination. I do not know how far I fully recognised
this at the moment ; but towards the end of the same Long
Vacation I considered attentively the Donatist history, and
became quite excited. It broke upon me that we were in a
state of schism. Since that, all history, particularly that
of Arianism, has appeared to me in a new light ; confir-
matory of the same doctrine.
In order to conquer this feeling, I wrote my article on
the Catholicity of the English Church, as I have written
other things since. For a while my mind was quieted ;
but from that time to this the impression, though fading
and reviving, has been on the whole becoming stronger
and deeper.
At present, I fear, as far as I can realize my own convic-
tions, I consider the Roman Catholic Communion the Church
of the Apostles, and that what grace is among us (which,
through God's mercy, is not little,) is extraordinary, and
from the overflowings of His Dispensation.
I am very far more sure that England is in schism, than
that the Roman additions to the Primitive Creed may not
be developments, arising out of a keen and vivid realizing
of the Divine Depositum of faith.
All this is so shocking to say, that I do not know whether
to wish that I am exaggerating to you my feelings or not.
220 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
You will now understand what gives edge to the Bishops'
charges, without any undue sensitiveness on my part. They
distress me in two ways ; i. as being in some sense protests
and witnesses to my conscience against my secret unfaithful-
ness to the English Church ; and 2. next, as being average
samples of her teaching and tokens how very far she is from
even aspiring to Catholicity.
I must add that Rogers, who has known, perhaps better
than any one, my opinions and their history, has for two
years past peremptorily refused to give me any advice what-
ever on Church matters, one way or the other ; and has
within the last month told me his reason ; viz. that it would
be treachery in him to the English Church, to assist one
who is conducting a movement, tending to carry over her
members to Rome.
Of course the being unfaithful to a trust is my great subject
of dread, as it has long been, as you know. Still there is
another alternative, besides that of carrying members of
our Church to Rome, viz. disposing herself that way, and so
healing a schism instead of making one. Yet, all this being
considered, it does seem to me safer to retire from a post, in
which, whether I will or no, I may be employing a sacred
authority committed to me against the giver.
However, this is the point which I am submitting to your
judgment. What ought I to do}
Whatever pain I may have on many accounts in giving up
Littlemore, and that to a person like Eden, and great as the
loss of Copeland would be to the Parish, I hope that on the
whole things would go on pretty much as usual. And I
cannot wish to be without personal pain or inconvenience
in taking a step of this kind.
Ever yours affectionately,
John H. Newman.
It must have been a few days after the frank explanation
alluded to in the previous letter that Rogers wrote as follows
to Newman :
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 221
Temple * April 3, 1843.
iMy dear Newman, — I do not like meeting you again
without having said, once for all, what I hope you will not
think hollow or false. I cannot disguise from myself how
very improbable — perhaps impossible — a recurrence to
our former terms is. But I wish, before the time has past
for such an acknowledgment, to have said how deeply and
painfully I feel — and I may say have more or less felt for
years — the greatness of what I am losing, and to thank you
for all you have done and been to me. I know that it is
in a great measure by my own act that I am losing this, and
I cannot persuade myself that I am substantially wrong,
or that I could long have avoided what has happened. But
I do believe, if I may dare say so, that God would have found
a way to preserve to me so great a blessing as your friendship
if I had been less unworthy of it. I do feel most earnestly
how much of anything which I may venture to be thankful
for in what I am is of your forming — how more than kind —
how tender you have always been to me, and how unlikely it
is that I can ever again meet with anything approaching in
value to the intimacy which you gave me ... I should
have been pained at leaving all this unsaid. But I do not
write it with an idea of forcing an answer from you — nor
does it require one — and I shall not attach any meaning
to your leaving it unanswered.
Yours affectionately,
Frederic Rogers.
The hyper-sensitive Newman of fiction ought to have
broken entirely with Rogers. The real Newman did nothing
of the kind. And Mr. Rogers, on his side, had within less
than two years the opportunity of giving public testimony to
the fact that his love for Newman had not diminished one
whit. It was on the occasion when in the beginning of
1845 a gratuitous attempt was made to get Convocation to
censure Tract 90. This is part of what he said : ' When they
see the person whom they have been accustomed to revere
as few men are revered, whose labours, whose greatness,
^ This letter has already been published in the Letters of Lord Blackford
(London, Murray, 1896), p. no, but the temptation to quote it is irresistible.
222 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
whose tenderness, whose singleness of purpose, they have
been permitted to know intimately . . . when they contrast
his merits . . with the merits, the bearing, the fortunes of
those who are doggedly pursuing him, it does become very
difficult to speak without sullying what it is a kind of
pleasure to feel is his cause by using hard words, or betraying
it by not using them.' ^
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Littlemore : May lo, 1843.
My dear Keble, — I named Bede first, thinking that it
would be a work for which his own writings would be every-
thing, since so little of him is otherwise known. And thus
you would not need a public library. Perhaps I was wrong
in mentioning Alcuin also — as the subject would be excursive.
But do as you will. If you do not take Alcuin and the schools,
I shall offer the subject to Brewer, or Haddan.
Of course I could not but be long prepared for Wood's
being taken from us. He has been failing for two years.
He has been here several times — the last time in October.
It was on his encouragement, or rather suggestion, that
I took this building in hand, two years next Whitsuntide.
Thank you for your kind anxiety.
Ward has had a good deal to do with the article you
speak of, but did not write it. The author, I don't know
why, wishes to be secret.
Bowden is in Oxford with his son and brother, and seems
very well.
Pusey is laid up with a sort of fever — he got up yesterday
at 12, which was an improvement. I sat with him an
hour on Sunday, he lying on the sofa. He seemed in
very good spirits.
Ever yours affectionately,
John H. Newman.
Rev. J. Keble to J. H. Newman
May 14, 1843.
Believe me, my very dear Newman, that any thought
1 Quoted in Church's Oxford Movement, pp. 383-4.
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 223
of wilful insincerity in you can find no place in my mind.
You have been and are in a most difficult position, and
I seem to myself in some degree able to enter into your
difficulties : and, although one sees of course how an enemy
might misrepresent your continuing in the English Priesthood
with such an impression on your mind, I have no thought
but of love and esteem and regard and gratitude for you in
this as in everything. ... I can only just say what I feel,
perfectly unequal as I know myself on every account to give
you advice on this awful matter. My feeling is
1. That your withdrawing from the English ministry
under the present circumstances will be a very ' perilous
step, not so much in itself, but because of its bringing you,
as I fear it would, in every respect nearer what I must call
the temptation of going over.
2. That this latter would indeed be a grievous event,
considering that for what is wrong without our fault in the
place where God's Providence has set us, we are not our-
selves answerable, but we are for what may be wrong in the
position we choose for ourselves.
3. That this difference in point of responsibility ought
in a matter of practice to outweigh the difference you feel
on the other side in the evidence for the claims of Rome and
against her additions to the Creed. Especially as
4. You seem to ground your impression chiefly on points
of historical evidence : you speak of it as of a ' hideous dream,'
from which you would gladly awake : it does not overpower
you with a sort of intrinsical lustre, as many divine truths,
I suppose, might.
5. You speak in one part of your letter of our Church
showing no signs of repentance, no yearning after Catholicity :
but is not the time too short for any one to be acting on this
impression ? Certainly there is a great yearning even after
Rome in many parts of the Church, which seems to be
accompanied with so much good, that one hopes, if it be
right, it will be allowed to gain strength. But from Bishops
one could hardly look at present for more than toleration,
and that I consider myself to have from my Diocesan,
224 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
much more you from yours. Are you sure that some of
your feeling on this head is not owing to a natural reaction
from having had too eager expectations at some time ?
6. I am not sure how far it is right to talk of consequences,
but I suppose, as far as we can judge of them, that no one
thing would tend more entirely to throw us back and undo
what little good may have been done of late. As to the
question itself I am really too ignorant of the parts of history
to which you refer to say a word : but can it be that the
evidence seems so overpowering as to amount to moral
certainty ? and if not, ought not but a small probability
on the other side to weigh against it practically ?
You see my deep feeling about yom: withdrawing from
your ministerial place refers almost wholly to what I fear
might come after : if I were seciure against such con-
sequences, I cannot say that I should think it wrong, gieat
as the alarm would perhaps be for a time, and the loss too
in many respects.
One thing occurs to me ; do you not think it possible
that you may have over-estimated the claims of Rome in
your later studies from a kind of feeling that your earlier
expressions had done her wrong ? and now that you have
retracted them, would it not be well to examine the
matter over again, free as you would be from that par-
ticular bias ?
And now, my dearest Newman, I have one most earnest
request to make of you, that you will not in the smallest
degree depend on my advice or opinion in this matter, for
you do not, you cannot ... in every respect but true
love (I believe) towards you. It frightens me to think how
rashly and with how small preparation I have been dealing
with these great matters, and I have all manner of imagina-
tions as to how my defects may have helped to unsettle
people, and in particular to hinder you from finding peace.
Yet do not suppose I would stop you from writing to me,
if it is the least relief to you to do so. On the contrary not
to hear from you would be a sad loss. All I want is that
you should put no sort of implicit faith in me, but take up
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 225
with what I say when you see anything in it that is reason-
able and right, not otherwise.
I still cling to the hope you taught me to entertain, that,
in the present distress, where the Succession and the Creeds
are, there is the Covenant, even without visible inter-
communion.
God forgive and bless us, and choose our burthen for
us, and help us to bear it : and, if it be His Will, may we
too never be divided in Communion.
Ever your most grateful and affectionate,
J. Keble.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Littlemore : May i8, 1843.
My dear Keble, — Thank you for your speedy as well as
compassionate letter. I feel it to be almost ungenerous
to entangle you in my troubles ; at least it would be so, were
it not a rule of the Gospel that Christians should not stand
alone or depend on themselves. And, if so, to whom can
I go, (for surely I may so speak without irreverence) but
to you who have been an instrument of good to so many,
myself inclusive ? To whom is it natural for me to go but
to you whom I have tried to follow so long and on so many
occasions ? to whom would Hurrell go, or wish me to go but
to you ? And doubt not that, if such is the will of Provi-
dence, you will in the main be able to do what is put on you.
I feel no doubt that in consulting you I am doing God's
will ; for, since I lay claim to no such infallible perception
of His leadings, as may be granted to some, and as would
oblige me to follow it, the alternative lies between selfwill
and consulting you.
Yet, after saying this, still I know that some questions
in detail to which I am coming, are so very intricate, that
it will not at all surprise me to find you dechne them.
Only then answer as much as you like ; and I will take
your answers as far as they go.
But first, in answer to some suggestions you make, I
Q
226 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
will briefly say ; i. that by a ' hideous dream ' I meant,
what surely is hideous, to begin to suspect oneself external
to the CathoHc Church, having publicly, earnestly,
frequently, insisted on the ordinary necessity of being
within it. 2. I do not think I have ever been sanguine of
success in my day or at all. The ' L3n:a,' and the beginning
of my Letter to Faussett, will, I think, show that. It is
true, however, that I have spoken very confidently about
our being in no danger from Rome ; and I doubt not with
much presumption and recklessness. But I had a full
conviction, (and have still) of the independence of the
Anglican view compared with the Roman, and the
formidableness of the former to the latter, and I had great
faith in our Divines, so as to take (I suppose) for granted,
what I had not duly examined, the irrelevancy of the charge
of schism as urged against us. If I have been very bold in
nearing the Roman system, this has risen mainly from over-
secure reliance on our position, and from a keen impression
of our great need of what the Roman system contains. I
have spoken strongly against that system itself, that I
might use it without peril. 3. Re-actions are, I suppose,
sudden ; strong opposite impulses occurring in immediate
succession ; but my present feelings have arisen naturally
and gradually, and have been resisted. It is true, that I
have now laid down my arms rather suddenly. This was
caused, I believe, by Rogers' note, which I opened a few
hours after writing to you on Easter Eve, and by Eden's
avowal to me the other day, that, were he Vicar of St.
Mary's, he would not engage even to let me read daily prayers
at Littlemore, though he did not provide any one else. But
though I have been thrown upon telling you, I hardly know
how, yet I do not think I have said anything to you beyond
the fact ; and surely when a misery is of so long standing,
anyhow you should know it.
And now I come to the main subject of my letter.
I would ask, whether I should not be sufficiently kept
in order, as you desire, by retaining a Fellowship, and the
Editorship of the ' Library of the Fathers/ though I had not
a living.
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 227
On the other hand, contemplate the great irritation of
mind to which St. Mary's exposes me continually.
I do not think I could take the Oath of Supremacy again,
though I quite know that there are fair and almost
authorized modes of undertaking ^ it in a Catholic sense ;
but, considering my opinions and the opinions of the mass
of Churchmen on the whole, I do not think it would be
safe to do so. Now then, am not I exposing myself to a
constant risk of detection, considering too the number of
eyes, friendly and hostile, which are upon me ? (I take this
Oath as a mere illustration of many things, which in fact
would press more heavily upon a beneficed Clergyman
than a Fellow.) A detection would be far more calamitous,
than a quiet withdrawal while things were so tranquil.
Might I not fairly assign the Bishops' Charges as the reason
of it ? For siurely I should feel no anxiety at all about
treachery to the Church, if they, as organs of prevailing
opinion as well as Bishops, had one and all approved and
recommended No. 90, instead of censuring it.
My office or charge at St. Mary's is not a mere state
(though that would be painful enough) but a continual
energy. People assume, and exact, certain things of me
in consequence.
With what sort of sincerity can I obey the Bishop ?
How am I to act in the frequent cases in which in one way
or other the Church of Rome comes into consideration ?
I have, to the utmost of my power and with some success,
tried to keep persons from Rome, but even a year and a
half since my arguments were of that nature, as, though
efficacious with the men aimed at and they only, to infuse
suspicions of me in the minds of lookers-on.
By retaining St. Mary's, I am an offence and stumbling
block. Persons are keen-sighted enough to make out what
I think on certain points, and then they infer that such
opinions are compatible with holding situations of trust
in the Church. This is a very great evil in matter of fact.
A number of younger men take the validity of their inter-
pretation of the Articles etc. from me on faith. Is not my
^ Al. * Understanding/
228 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
'•^
l<'i'-''i
i
present position a cruelty to them, as well as a treachery
towards the Church ?
I do not see how I can either preach or publish again,
while I hold St. Mary's, but consider the following difficulty
in such a resolution, which I must state at some length.
Last Long Vacation the idea suggested itself to me of
publishing the ' Lives of the Saints,' and I had a conversation
with Rivington about it. I thought that it would be useful,
as employing the minds of persons who were in danger of
running wild, and bringing them from doctrine to history,
from speculation to fact ; again, as giving them an interest
in the English soil and English Church, and keeping them
from seeking sympathy in Rome as she is ; and further, as
tending to promote the spread of right views.
But within the last month it has come upon me, that, if
the scheme go on, it will be a practical carrying out of No. 90,
from the character of the usages and opinions of Ante-
reformation times.
It is easy to say ' Why will you be doing any thing ? (A
note has suddenly come to me from Pusey which I will tran-
scribe, though it will give you additional pain.) why won't
you keep quiet and let things alone ? what business had you
to think of any such plan at all ? ' But I cannot leave a
number of poor fellows in the lurch ; I am bound to do the
best for a great number of people both in Oxford and else-
where. If I did not act, others would find means to do so.
Again is Mr. Taylor, etc. to abuse the Saints, and no one
to defend them ? But this is off the subject.
Well, the plan has been taken up with great eagerness
and interest. Many men are setting to work. I set down
the names of men, who are most of them engaged, the rest
half engaged or probable ; some writing. Bowden, Johnson
(Observatory), Church, Haddan, Oakeley, Tickell (Univ.),
Lewis, J. Mozley, Stanley (perhaps). Lake, Macmullen,
Faber (Univ.) Brewer, Coffin, Dalgairns, Ashworth, T.
Ryder, Pattison, A. Christie, Pritchard (Balliol) Ormsby
(Lincoln) Bridges (Oriel) Lockhart (Exeter) Harris (Magda-
len) Barrow (Queen's) Meyrick (CC.C), Chretien (Oriel),
Murray (Ch. Ch.), CoUings (Ch. Ch.), etc.
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 229
The plan has gone so far that it would create much sur-
prise and talk, were it now suddenly given over. Church,
whom I asked, agrees in this. Yet how is it compatible
with my holding St. Mary's, being what I am ? On the other
hand, is not such an engagement in itself a sort of guarantee
in addition to the Editorship of the ' Library of the Fathers '
and my Fellowship, of my remaining quiet, though I did not
retain St. Mary's for that purpose.
I have had another plan of a series of Devotional Works,
but of this I will speak at another time.
Ever yours affectionately,
J. H. N.
My dear K, — I have in the midst of my writing received
a note from Pusey which I transcribe, with his note to me.
Alll know of it is, that P. after having had a fever for
ten days and being nearly the whole of the time confined
to his bed, preached a Sermon last Sunday, (which doubtless
he had written before) on the Holy Eucharist as a means of
remission of sins. This is all I have heard about it.
Ever yours affectionately,
J. H. N.
P.S. — Keep it quite secret.
The letter from Pusey was about the proceedings
which were to be taken against him on account of his
sermon on the Holy Eucharist.
The incident alluded to in the following letter is thus
described in the * Life of Pusey.' ^ ' On Ascension Day,
May 25, the Rev. T. E. Morris, Student and Tutor of Christ
Church, preached before the University by the Dean's
appointment. In his sermon he had spoken of " Laud the
martyred Archbishop who, let us trust, still intercedes for
this Church." On the following day the Vice-Chancellor
sent for the sermon " under the provisions of the Statute
Tit. xvi, § II." 2 Mr. Morris sent the sermon together with
extracts from Anglican divines illustrating his language.
On the following Wednesday the Vice-Chancellor informed
Mr. Morris that all the notice he had to take officially of the
sermon was to require that Mr. Morris would ex animo
^ II. 337.
* The same Statute whicli was being put into force against Pusey.
230 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
express his assent to the Twenty-second Article ; a request
which was apparently based on the presumption that it is
impossible to believe in the intercession of the Saints
without invoking them. Mr. Morris of course had no
dif&culty in complying with the Vice-Chancellor's desire ;
he " did not see that what he had said involved Invocation
[of the Saints] at all." ' Here the matter ended. This
incident probably inspired the scene in Chap. X of * Loss
and Gain,' where the hero Charles Reding makes the same
distinction between Invocation and Intercession. But
he does not get off so easily as Mr. Morris. He is accused
of sheltering himself under ' a subtle distinction ' and is
informed that the terms are ' correlative.'
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
May 29, 1843.
My dear Keble, — T. Morris of Ch. Ch. has been taken
to for his Sermon at Ch. Ch. on Ascension Day for the
Dean. I inclose what will throw light on the state of the
case. We think it a very bad move of the Heads. And the
V.C. is getting frightened — and told Morris he was against
it. Also he is veering round about Pusey. And he told M. he
meant to be impartial, and receive charges on the other side.
Sewell is cast off by the Quarterly, and appears holding
out signals of distress and flags of truce to us.
George Denison has been very urgent with us here
to get up a Protest against the unecclesiastical clauses of
the Factory Bill — a subject on which he is full of fury.
I told him nothing would be done.
A stranger has given us two antique red granite columns
to make ornaments of for the altar screen and altar at
Littlemore — and another (anonymous) person £200 for the
same purpose. Also we are going to new bench the Chapels.
And we have had a new (finger) organ built and given us by
an Undergraduate.
Ever yours affectionately
J. H.
P.S. — Lucy Pusey is getting well. Pusey is much
better though hardly off his sofa. No news about his
Sermon beyond what I have said above.
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 231
Rev. J. Keble to J. H. Newman
May 30, 1843.
My dear Newman, — I have delayed writing too long,
but I believe it was in the hope of being able to see our way
more clearly and so being of more use to you. I fear I am
not worthy to be so made useful ; but I will say as well
as I can what seems best to me now.
It seems to me that, supposing a person to have no
doubt at all of the schismaticalness of the body he belongs
to, (e.g. to be as sure of it as one is of Episcopacy) and that
impression to continue after long, honest and self-denying
endeavours to get rid of it, accompanied of course by con-
scientiousness in other parts of duty — that he could not
well go on exercising a trust committed to him by that body,
every act of which would seem to imply that he does not
consider itself in schism.
But if he has still any doubt, I should then think he
might go on, though in fear and trembling, yet without sin.
I say, he might go on ; but whether he ought to do so is quite
another question, to be determined (among other very
many things) by the degree of temptation and offence, to
which he finds himself exposed : and that again not simply,
but as compared with what he may reasonably foresee will
beset him on his change of position.
I cannot yet bring myself to think that you are quite
so clear as I have described above, in your view of our
state ; and, that being so, I might imagine that you might go
on as you are without sin ; but I really do think the position
so very difficult a one, that I dare not press your retaining
St. Mary's : it does seem to involve such constant peril
of sin, and I feel that I should myself be quite unequal to it,
and should perhaps be continually hable to be urged into
some sudden step, by the sort of calls, often sudden ones,
which the situation brings with it.
You see therefore that on the whole my leaning is towards
your retiring as quietly as you can. . . .
I think those to whose opinion I should myself most
232 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
defer would say that a person of such great mental activity
as yours had of course need to be on his guard from the
very circumstance of that activity. There is a tendency
to be always going on to something further which may be
abused, and one always waiting to abuse it : and in this
sort of sense I dare say you do very often say to yourself,
' Why can't you be quiet and let things alone ? ' but I do not
see that this caution is inconsistent with such an undertaking
as your ' Lives of the English Saints/ provided that it be
bona fide made as practical as possible, and as dutiful to our
present engagements. For my own part, as I still hope that
we are not entirely cut off from the Church, and that such a
plan tends to strengthen that which remains and is ready
to die, I do not feel that I should be at all undutiful in
acting with you in this or in any like plan, if I can but be
up to it in other respects, especially as you yourself allow
that, if the tone of the Bishops, etc. was favourable to
No. 90 instead of adverse, you should not think yourself
guilty of any breach of trust in remaining. And I am not
prepared to give so much weight as you seem to do to the
un-enacted leanings and tendencies of a particular genera-
tion. Formal decisions are in my mind the providential
indications for ordinary persons in such perplexities, and
until such are produced, against me, I shall, as at present
advised, uphold No. 90 as sufficiently Anglican. It is true I
have strong and evident temptations to deceive myself in
this matter, more than you and others ; and I do not pretend
to say I am comfortable, what right have I to be so ? but one
can but do as seems best, and say God forgive me.
I shall be very anxious to hear how Pusey's matter goes
on. If the statements I see in the Times of the tenor of his
Sermon be correct, I think they will hardly dare to decide
against him ; or, if they do, the clergy very generally will
feel with him, as they did with P. Young. I fear Lucy is
very ill ; should you write again will you mention her ?
Ever your affectionate and thankful,
J. K.
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARTS 233
*J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Saturday, June 3.
My dear Keble, — They have suspended Pusey from
preaching for two years. He is making a Protest, which will
be in the Common Rooms to-day. His Sermon will be
published in a day or two.
Many thanks for your letter. I shall put aside the sub-
ject now for some time. If any thing strikes you that it
would be consistent in me to do, or not do, under such
circumstances as to my behaviour, habits, etc., I wish you
would tell me.
Ever yours affectionately,
J. H. N.
J. H. Newman to Rev. W. Dodsworth
Sunday, June 4, 1843.
My dear Dodsworth, — It is very desirable that there
should be some demonstration in favour of Pusey ; if one
thing after another is done against the holders of Catholic
doctrines, without protest from any quarter, the imagina-
tions of certain persons will be gradually affected with the
notion that the Church of England does not hold them,
and is not their place. And they will look for a place
elsewhere. This, I have great cause to say, will be the
effect of a series of such acts.
I hope that there will be some protest in Oxford against
the mode in which the present act has been done under
the Statute, which will answer the purpose of a defence of
the doctrine impugned by the six doctors.
The difficulty of your doing anything in London is very
great, considering any protest on Pusey's side would prob-
ably elicit a stronger demonstration on the side of his
opponents.
I suppose the Bishop of London could not be induced
to ask or to allow Pusey to preach in the London Diocese ?
What a mistake it is in the Bishops to suppose that silence
is neutrality ! If they do nothing, they side against hinu
234 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
You will be glad to know that Pusey does not seem put
out or annoyed by this matter. He has been treated most
unworthily. His judges have made him correspond with
them under a promise he will not tell what they say or he
says. This is even going on now. He had four full pages
from the Vice-Chancellor last night, of which he did not
tell me even the receipt. They are already bringing the
circumstances of this correspondence against his assertion
that he has had no hearing — and his promise of secrecy
hinders him explaining.
Yours very truly,
John H. Newman.
P.S. — The Sermon is to appear forthwith.
J. H. Newman to E. L. Badeley, Esq.
June II, 1843.
Dear Badeley, — I enclose you a note I had from Pusey.
He has given me leave. I think it will let you into his feel-
ings. Do you not think he should put himself entirely into
the hands of his friends ?
You lawyers in London will be best able to judge whether
he is in any inconsistency. The very anxiety which persons
like myself feel about it incapacitates us for doing so. Of
course if his proposed explanation is obscure, (which I
think it is) he can be applied to for further information.
I have been thinking over what R. Palmer has just now
said to me, and I think on the whole your meeting should
be before not after the publication of the Sermon. Allow
there are timid men who will attend, you are taking them
at no disadvantage, nor will they retract afterwards.
Seeing the Sermon has been condemned, to say nothing
of Pusey's known tone of divinity, they must already have
a suspicion it contains strong doctrine.
I think Pusey's Sermon must come out — how long after
your London meeting ?
Yours most sincerely,
John H. Newman.
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY^S 235
J. H. Newman to E. L. Badeley, Esq.
Oriel College : June i8, 1843.
My dear Badeley, — I fear it has seemed inconsiderate
in me not writing to you, but at first I had nothing to say.
Thank you much for the pains you took to write to me —
and now I can hardly collect my wits.
Pusey is much perplexed what to write, and it is very
difficult to put his mind in the position in which you see
things. He has shown me your last letter to him, in which
you write on the subject of a second Protest [written above
as an alternative word ' explanation ' ] which he has sent
you ; and I like what you say very much. One other point
I think he might bring out, viz., that all that went on in
private was for the sake of making him recant , not explain.
He wishes to get the Vice-Chancellor to agree with him
in certain propositions which he may put out — such as that
he had not a hearing — that he was not asked to explain etc. —
but first I dread having more private dealings with the
Vice Ch. — and next the Vice Ch. will say, ' I cannot unless
you retract this or that part of your Protest.' And if he
even did, those pamphlets and articles in newspapers, which
have gone on those certain parts of his Protest, will not
like to be left in the lurch.
I really do not see how he can avoid the fullest details,
when suspicion is once awakened, and the strength of his
case, or rather the weakness of the Vice Ch.'s, lies in details
— e.g. the very strong recommendation made him not to
keep copies of his letters. However, this private account he
cannot give without possessing the said letters — accordingly
I have been urging him strongly to ask the Vice Ch. for them.
He thinks you are against details. I do not profess to
have a view, indeed I am not in the way of hearing what
people say enough to have one, but I should have thought
he must at once draw out boldly the main facts of the case
which are in his favor, and also go into detail.
As to the expressions in his Protest which seem not to
agree with his further Explanation, he is so unwell, and has
236 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
been so anxious, that I do not like to press him — but I suspect
he conned over his protest before the Sentence was brought
him, i.e., before the private communications — and then
did see that it was in fact modified by those communica-
tions — nay he does not feel it even now — he says that
those communications were ' an utter nothing,' ' a mockery '
— and do not interfere with the substantial and real accuracy
of the statements in his Protest.
Persons here are getting your London Protest reprinted
and sending it about the country. People call it milk and
water, but you have said in it as much as you dare.
Yours most sincerely,
John H. Newman.
J. H. Newman to Rev. Ambrose St. John
Littlemore : June 20, 1843.
My dear St. John, — I dare say you think I ought to feel
ashamed for not answering your first kind letter — but if
you knew me better (or when, as I hope I may say) you will
pity my right wrist and fingers which through continual
weariness, for some years have been degenerating my
writing, never of very ambitious excellence, to the level of
your worthy Rector's.
I return the very pleasing letter you have permitted
me to read. What a sad thing it is that it should be a plain
duty to restrain one's sympathies, and to keep them from
boiling over — but I suppose it is a matter of common
prudence. I am very glad there is so good a chance of your
hearing something about St. Simon.i
The Library at Littlemore is very much obliged to you
for the accession you propose to make it. But let us take
charge of it, till you have a place for it somewhere yourself.
If you send the volumes to Stewarts', King William Street,
they will make their way hither some time or other.
Things are very serious here, but I should not like you
to say so, as it might do no good. The Authorities find
that by the Statutes they have more than military power —
^ Somebody, perhaps St. John, hsis added the ' Stock.'
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 237
and the general impression seems to be that they intend to
exert it and put down Catholicism at any risk. I believe
that by the Statutes they can pretty well suspend a preacher
as seditiosus, or causing dissension, without assigning their
grounds in the particular cases — may banish him, or
imprison him. If so all holders of preferment in the
University should make as quiet an exit as they can. There
is such exasperation on both sides at this moment, as I am
told, than ever there was. And I fear some entanglement
has taken place between Pusey and the Heads. An address
is going about for which you should get as many signatures
as you can — it is very important.
The title of the French Book is ' OEuvres de Tronson,
Examens Particuliers, Paris 1823.' I have the ' Memorial
of a Christian Life . . . written in Spanish R. F. Lewis de
Granada . . . translated The first Part — London 1688.'
If what you have met with is distinct from this, it will be
very welcome. It contains four of the seven books.
The fraternity here, as you call us, unite in kind wishes
to (may I use the word in its other sense ?) Fraternitati
vestrae. Anderdon is coming here to-day to take your place
in the Httle room. Mind, there is room for both of you at
any time — for we have expanded.
My kind remembrance to West.
Yours very sincerely,
John H. Newman.
J. H. Newman to Rev. W. Dodsworth
Littlemore : June 28, 1843.
My dear Dodsworth, — Pusey has left Oxford for Pusey,
and Dr. Wootten (I am told) thinks him better. I confess
I have been very uneasy about him — but more in prospect
than from anything I saw at present. I have not said all
I felt to more than one person, and that at a distance, who
wrote to me.
He has had a low fever on him these eight weeks — and
238 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
has made little or no progress. Now that was just the way
his little boy was taken four years ago. The little fellow
lay in bed a long while and no one could tell what was
coming, when the complaint seemed to determine upon his
lungs — then on other organs — and ended in the present
sad breakage of his health.
What has made me more anxious, however, in prospect
is what I recollect of Pusey years ago. I think his life for
9 or 10 years has lain in the excitement of an object, or in
a sanguine imagination about the state of things, and I
should very much dread a change to despondency. Ten
or eleven years ago he was in such a state ; said his useful-
ness was at an end, that he was near death etc. From this
state he was roused by the movement, and his health
improved strangely. Ever since his one characteristic,
contrasted with almost everyone else, has been his sanguine
view of things.
He is now (Copeland tells me) as sanguine as ever.
I see no sign of his becoming otherwise — ^but the prospect
of such a change has made me very anxious. Hitherto he
has all his life (I may say) been in authority — and at the
head of a department, e.g. Hebrew. Now he is suddenly,
or might feel himself to be, cast out of his position. Hither-
to he has been to the bottom of his heart a conservative —
but what would be his view of things when he found himself
in opposition ? This is the sort of question I have been
asking myself, and perhaps more from anxiety than good
grounds.
I hope change of air and scene will do everything for
him that we can wish. His Sermon is now off his hands.
I suppose it is very important that the Non-resident Address
should be largely signed, about which I somewhat despair —
but this is not in your way. I do not see what else can be
done.
I am, my dear Dodsworth,
Very sincerely yours,
John H. Newman.
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 239
The following letter is of considerable interest, for it
represents what was going on in many minds. In the early
days of the Oxford Movement, Newman was fond of dwelling
upon its spontaneous character. Catholic ideas were in the
air, and seemed to spring up almost simultaneously in men's
minds. In a word, the Movement was ' the result of causes
far deeper than political or other visible agencies.' ^ Per-
haps he exaggerated this feature of the original Movement,
through his repugnance to think of himself as a leader. But
the Movement within the Movement, the rise of the new
school with its ' Romanising ' tendencies, seems unquestion-
ably to have been a spontaneous growth. This is how one of
its most prominent members described it in after years :
' Of all popular errors on the subject of the Oxford con-
troversy, none is more palpable than that which supposes
a kind of confederacy, or premeditated union, among those
who ultimately ended in becoming Catholics. We had one
and all our individual peculiarities which, like so many sharp
edges, stood in the way of anything like effectual combina-
tion. Hence, on many important questions, we were found
on different sides. We had all our separate occupations,
interests, and sets ; and when the various persons who are
popularly identified with Oxford opinions met together in
company, there was an uncertainty of sympathy, and a dread
of collision, which operated any wise rather than favourably
upon intercoiu-se, and threw many of the sincerest friends
of those opinions upon societies, in which if there were
less scope for enthusiasm, there was also less danger of
differences.' ^
The following letter from Ambrose St. John to Newman
marks the beginning of the friendship immortalised in the
concluding words of the ' Apologia.' It also illustrates the
kind of isolation in which the men of the new school formed
their views. The writer apparently owed his opinions to no
one but himself. He was in advance of Newman before he
came to know him, and went to Littlemore, not to be led
forward, but to be held back.
1 'Prospects of the Anglican Church,' p. 272 {Essays Crit. and Hist.
vol. i.)-
* Oakeley, Popular Lectures, ii. pp. 6, 7.
240 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN ;
Rev. Ambrose St. John to J. H. Newman
July 13, 1843.
My dear Newman, — I have never thanked you for your
kind letter. ... I have already stayed here longer than I
thought I should, and I believe I shall still be here a week
or ten days more, as there are some candidates for
Confirmation whom I have been endeavouring to prepare
since I have been here, and West wishes me to continue them
until the Bishop comes. Until lately, when my mind has
been taken up with other things, I have been trying to see
what I ought to do when I leave this temporary duty here.
Of course one chief thing my mind runs upon is what I
mentioned to you at Littlemore — whether my views of
doctrine will permit me to sign the Articles. My feeling
about them is, I believe, this. In words they do appear
to condemr certain usages and modes of expressing doctrine
which I fully and entirely believe to be permitted and sanc-
tioned by God. I will instance two things, Transubstan-
tiation and the Invocation of Saints, (i) As far as I can see,
I believe the word Transubstantiation, as explained by
the catechism of the council of Trent, to be the clear,
perhaps the only way of expressing the doctrine of the Real
Presence, and of avoiding erroneous views of consubstantia-
tion or a presence in the believer alone and the like ; but
I believe the Church of England, when it condemns the use
of this word, means something quite different by the word
' substance ' from what the Church of Rome means, and I
have no difficulty in rejecting such a view of Transubstantia-
tion as that of which I believe the Church of England speaks.
(2) I do entirely believe that it is the will of God that we
should ask the Saints for their prayers, especially the
Blessed Virgin. This has come to me very strongly, and
I cannot doubt it. Yet I can easily conceive that this
should be dangerous to individuals, and I can also conceive
that the Church of England when condemning Invocation
of the Saints means something that is wrong and idolatrous.
Still, as there is never a hint anywhere that I know of in
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 241
any of our formularies that there is a right use of these
words, Transubstantiation and Invocation, as well as a
wrong one, I must, I think, look upon any direct unqualified
condemnation of them as highly dangerous, and tending to
keep men back from taking hold of the true doctrine of the
Catholic Church. I fear that I am distressing you by
speaking to you again on this subject, as I am aware you
believe it your duty to say little upon them, but I do not
mention my view with an intention of drawing forth an
opinion from you as to the course a person is at liberty to
take who holds such views, though I need not say how
thankfully any advice or direction will be received. I men-
tioned my difficulties to Wilberforce, and he was very kind,
as he always is, in desiring me to do just as I wished in
accompanying him to East Farleigh or not, adding that he
did not at all mind going there by himself for three or four
months ; but he expressed his unwillingness to enter upon
the subject of the articles with me, as he felt his view of
the Catholic Church to be different from mine. He thought
what he should say would only perplex me. So my conclu-
sion at present is to ask your permission to come to Little-
more, and reside there for about three months, perhaps
for a longer time, and you will let me do, I hope, as other
men do about ra avayKota. I had very little time for
study before I took orders, and in consequence I have read
very little indeed, so that leisure for reading is quite neces-
sary for me. And in more serious matters I have much
need to recollect myself ... in the bustle of caring for
others, preaching, and talking, all this is forgotten. One
gains something perhaps from seeing the realities of life,
but the impression is lost for want of time and inclination
to meditate upon them. . . . Another thing I must ask
you about, do you think a person feeling such perplexity
about signing the Articles is at liberty to take temporary
duty ? Mr. Dyson wishes me to help him when I go from
here. I have given no direct answer yet. I told Wilber-
force I thought I should like it, as it was a very quiet place
and among very nice people. But it must not be for long
243 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
— I trust you will not refuse to be troubled with my matters
in addition to your other labours,
Yours very faithfully,
Ambrose St. John.
J. H. Newman to Rev. Ambrose St. John
Oriel College : July i6, 1843.
My dear St. John, — I assure you that I feel with too
much sympathy what you say. You need not be told that
the whole subject of our position is a subject of anxiety to
others besides yourself. It is no good my attempting to
offer advice, when perhaps I might raise difficulties instead of
removing them. It seems to me quite a case in which you
should, as far as may be, make up your mind for yourself.
Come to Littlemore by all means — we shall all rejoice in your
company — and if quiet and retirement are able, as they very
likely will be, to reconcile you to things as they are, you
shall have your fill of them. How distressed poor Henry
[Wilberforce] must be that he cannot offer to discuss with
you ! Knowing how he values you, I feel for him — but
alas ! he has his own position, and every one else has his
own, and the misery of it is that no two of us have exactly
the same.
It is very kind of you to be so frank and open with me
as you are. But this is a time which throws together
persons who feel alike.
May I without taking a liberty sign myself
Yours affectionately,
John H. Newman.
Rev. J. Keble to J. H. Newman
July 29, 1843.
My dear Newman, — I have to-day got a long and kind
letter from R. Palmer, in which, replying to a question of
mine what he thought on the subject as a lawyer, he goes
at length into the matter of what Pusey ought to do. I
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 243
think it worth while to send it to you, and you may show it to
Pusey or not, as you think best. I do not send it to him
straight for fear of worrying him, as I apprehend he is not
yet strong at all. I shall be glad to know when any thing
is decided, as I am not a little anxious about the matter.
You may well believe that I have been full of thoughts
about you, the more in one sense that I feel so utterly
helpless and unable to think of any thing which I can suggest
as good for a person tried as you are, except what I am sure
you have thought of long ago. Thus sometimes I think
it would be good for one to withdraw as much as possible
for a while from theological study and correspondence, and
be as entirely taken up as ever you can with parochial
concerns : but then I am met with the recollection that you
may expect so soon to be separated from poor Littlemore.
Again, I think unreserved confidence in a some really
worthy Confessor might be a great help to you at times :
I mean the sort of submission which would make you put by
a subject, if he bid you, without his assigning any reason.
And I suppose it may be well for one to watch and pray
especially against the temptation of always being on the
move, which I suppose is the portion of some minds.
I have been looking for the second time at your * Essay
on Ecclesiastical Miracles,' where you argue from the analogy
of God's works, especially from the strangeness of certain
animals, and it has occurred to me whether an objector
might not plausibly say, ' We do not know how much of what
shocks us in God's works may be owing to the intrusion of
evil spirits since the fall, there being passages in Scripture
which look that way ; and perhaps these Church Miracles
may have the same origin.' Might not this be said ? and
might it not properly have a distinct answer ? ^ Trusting
to your constant remembrance,
Ever your affectionate,
J. K.
1 (N.B. — But I have also referred to certain Scripture miracles, and
certain histories as Samson's, as being in the same sense ' strange.' J.H.N.
June 24, 1878.)
244 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
August 3, 1843.
My dear K, — I have just received the enclosed from
Palmer. I have asked his leave, should I doubt of any of
his factSy to have recourse to your memory of the matters
spoken of.
Ever yours affectionately,
J. H. N.
P.S. — I will answer your letter and inclosure. Thank
you for it. Bowden has just come here, on his way (I
grieve to say) to the continent to get rid of a cough which
hangs about him. Else he seems very well.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Littlemore : August 20, 1843.
My dear Keble, — Copeland has explained to you my
silence hitherto ; but to-day I stay here, instead of going to
Oxford, and therefore can write — ^not to say that I have
outrun Baxter, and sent off the Plain Sermons to G. and R.
You have been continually in my thoughts since your
letters. As to the second, I wish I could say any thing to
your purpose — and am very much afraid, from my unskilful-
ness and inconsiderateness, of saying a word. I think I
feel that you should not ordinarily be under the influence
of those painful feelings which you express — nor are you,
as I trust — they belonged to the moment when you wrote,
and do not represent your habitual state of mind. O my
dear Keble, you know far better and more deeply than I,
that ' the time is short '^and that the highest blessings
are not earthly — nay, the highest are commonly purchased by
a privation of the earthly. So at least it has been with
those whom God loves best. If so, surely we ought not to
feel too acutely the absence of such blessings, in the case of
those we love best, as are not commonly allotted to the
Saints, instead of wishing for them those which the Saints
have ever received. I know I am writing only commonplaces
— and if I attempt to go beyond them, I may only be showing
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 245
my ignorance and want of sympathy — and yet if I knew
how, I think there is a way in which they might be made
useful to you. You will so make them better than any one
else, if they can be made.
As to your former letter I am very grateful to you for it.
On the receipt of it I began next morning to keep a very
minute journal of myself, which would do to show any one
in confession and give him a sort of an idea of my present
state. But then whom was I to ask to see it ? I could think
of no one but you — and I determined to ask you. So I went
on till about the loth of August, i.e. 10 days — when your
second letter came, and made me feel that you had enough
of anxiety already without my increasing it. It also struck
me that after all it would not assist any one in advising me —
but of that perhaps I am no judge.
I suppose you got your suggestion or guess about the
advantage of stopping me short from time to time in what I
might be doing, and making me change my employment
arbitrarily, from reading my Sermon on Development, under
the notion that I might be watching the progress of things
or the like. I do not think this is the case. I am commonly
very sluggish, and think it a simple bore or nuisance to
have to move or to witness movements. My great fault
is doing things in a mere literary way from the love of the
work, without the thought of God's glory. But as to
influencing people, making points, advancing and so on,
I do not think these are matters which engross or engage
or even interest me. Indeed considering how one is fettered
by existing professions and by a sense of piety towards
existing institutions, advance is, in itself, something very
distressing.
If I were to have any thing more directly practical
it should be an hospital. I fear the more parochial duty
I took, the more I should realise, and the greater temptation
I should be under to give up, our present defective system,
which seems to be without the capabilities of improvement.
I do not say this from theory about myself, but think I
feel this effect in me.
246 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN ■
If any thing strikes you to advise me, pray oblige me
with it. I will send you the journal I spoke of, if you think
it best.
Pusey seems quite well.
Ever yours affectionately,
John H. Newman.
P.S. — I forgot to add above that I am not at all my own
master as to time, as it is. E.g. having to answer letters is
an imperious external regulation of much of my time, break-
ing off my reading etc. perforce. Such in a measure too have
the Plain Sermons been this year. I do not think I am
attached to one kind of work more than another. What
I dislike is beginning any work — and what I like is having a
swing of it, when in it, which I very seldom get, but not
from any thing that is to come of it, but either from love
of the occupation, or desire to get it over.
I preached, going on for two years since, some Sermons
on our position as a Church which had the effect of quieting
some persons who felt unsettled as to Rome. Since that
various men have asked for them to lend, and they have
been useful in the same way. I have from the first been
asked to publish them — but disliked to do so without taking
time about them. I am inclined to do so now, making
them part of a volume, to be called, not Parochial Sermons,
but Sermons on subjects of the day, or the like title. Now
I want to ask you in the first place, whether it would he
consistent with my position to publish altogether ; if you
see an antecedent objection to it I will not do so — if you do
not, then I will send you (please) one or two sermons, to
have your opinion on them.
It has struck me that the fact of publishing Sermons just
now would be a sort of guarantee to people that my resigning
St. Mary's (to which I am more and more strongly drawn)
did not involve an ulterior step — for no one could suppose
that I should be publishing to-day, and leaving the Church
to-morrow. (By the bye, though this is another question,
something or other I must do in the way of assigning a
reason for resigning, and I do not see any thing better than
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 247
to give what I feel very much. What I have implied as a
reason years ago by anticipation, and have laid the ground
of, viz., the Bishops having declared themselves so strongly
against me personally. This has been brought home to
me, by the great startling the announcement gave to a
lady I do not know, whom I was obliged to tell. I thought
I might append to Tract 90 what the Bishops had said.)
As to the Sermons, I believe the main reason with me
for publishing, at least at present (I say at present because,
as time goes, secondary reasons often become primary
ones, and almost motives) is for the sake of those anti-
Roman Sermons — but subordinately I suppose I wish
(i) to commit to print a volume which I think will have
good matter in it. (2) To receive the money which I shall
get by it.
J. H. N.
August 21, 1843.
The volume of sermons contemplated in the above letter
was eventually published under the title of ' Sermons on
Subjects of the Day.' The Sermons about which he
especially consulted Keble are marked off from the rest
of the volume by a note of warning : ' The following four
Sermons, on the safety of continuance in our communion,
are not addressed, i either to those who happily are with-
out doubts on the subject, 2 or to those who have no right
to be in doubt about it.' The former should read them ' with
the caution exercised in opening the works of a Christian
Apologist, who is obliged to state painful objections, or to
make extreme admissions, in the process of refuting his
opponents.' As regards the latter class, * Doubts are often
the punishment of existing neglect of duty. Persons who
make no effort after strictness of life,' who do not attempt
' to know themselves, correct their faults ... to deny
their wills, must not be surprised if they are unsettled and
restless, and have no encouragement to seek an intellectual
remedy for difficulties which may be assigned to grave
moral deficiencies.' ^
1 Sermons on Subjects of the Day, p. 308 footnote. The titles of the
four sermons are — (i) Invisible Presence of Christ; (2) Outward and
Inward Notes of the Church; (3) Grounds for Steadfastness in our
Religious Profession ; (4) Elijah the Prophet of the Latter Days.
248 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
Rev. J. Keble to J. H. Newman
August 25, 1843.
I should think on the whole, that, unless you feel very
strongly drawn towards showing me your journal, I had
better not see it : your own feelings in such a matter must
be the only criterion. It is curious that I too had thought
whether hospital work, or something equivalent, would not
be a good sort of thing for you. But He will, I trust, guide
us, who has us in His hands.
The only objection to publishing, I suppose, would be,
from a fear of being or seeming insincere ; and this again
must depend on the nature of the Sermons. I can imagine
them so contrived, as to tend towards obviating any possible
risk of that kind ; and then it will be so much the more
desirable for yourself and many others in various degrees
to have them out. I am sure, I for one, should be very glad
of them.
It seems to me that the history of No. 90 gives quite a
sufficient reason for your resigning St. Mary's, without any
occasion for people to surmise more ; and indeed, I dare say,
most persons in your place would have done it before now.
I gather from a note of R. Palmer's this morning, that
the Law proceedings will be embarrassed, as was feared,
by Pusey's keeping no copy.
Ever yours most affectionately,
J. Keble.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Friday, August 25.
My dear Keble, — I have just had a letter from Lockhart,
one of my inmates, who has been away for three weeks,
saying that he is on the point of joining the Church of Rome
and is in retreat under Dr. Gentili of Loughborough.
Would this be a good excuse for giving up St. Mary's —
will you turn it in your mind ?
You may fancy how sick this makes me.
Ever yours affectionately,
J. H. N.
RESIGNATION OF ST, MARY'S 249
Rev. J. Keble to J. H. Newman
August 30, 1843.
I am most truly grieved on many accounts at what your
note, received on Sunday, tells me. Among other things I
am much afraid there has been some underhand unkind
behaviour towards you. If so, bad as it is for the individual,
it must strengthen the feeling of those who most sincerely
shrink from changes of this sort.
I confess I do not quite see how it smoothes matters
for your resignation. I should have thought the quieter
things were at the moment, the better for that step ; and
therefore that this, causing alarm, would rather defer it. On
the other hand it must help all candid people to enter into
the difficulty of your position.
I only wish I could say, do, or write any thing that would
do you half as much good, as you have done me.
I have a long letter from Palmer of Worcester, urging
the necessity, on the part of other people, of some such pro-
test against the 'B(ritish) C(ritic) ' etc., as he is going to
make himself. I shall very likely send it you before long
with my answer (when I have written one) but I do not
want to add to your trouble at present ; and there is no
violent hurry, I think.
Ever, dearest N.,
Your grateful and affectionate,
J.K.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Littlemore : August 31,
My dear Keble, — I have shillyshallied several days
whether I should send you any sermons as specimens or not.
This morning I determined not — since, several men, to whom
I mentioned those which were against leaving our Church
(and which they had heard or read), have been so urgent,
that I send you two on different subjects. But unless you
are very clear in favour of publishing, I shall think it safe
not to do so.
250 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
As to my Journal, I wish you honestly to say whether
you think that you will be able to advise me better by
seeing it. If so, I will send it.
Ever yours affectionately,
John H. Newman.
P.S.— I have thought it no good going on seeing Palmer's
pamphlet. 1
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Littlemore : September i, 1843.
My dear Keble, — I have just got your note. I am
ready still to keep St. Mary's, if you think best — ^will you
turn in your mind, however,
1. that a noise will be made at my resigning, whenever
I resign. It seems to me a dream to wait for a quiet time.
Will not resignation become more difficult every quarter
of a year ?
2. that L.'s affair gives a reason for my resigning —
as being a very great scandal — so great is it, that, though I
do not feel myself responsible, I do not know how I can
hold up my head again while I have St. Mary's.
3. If it did for the moment alarm people, as if something
were to come of my resigning which they did not know ;
yet a very little time would undeceive them.
Should you think it advisable for me to retain St. Mary's
awhile, would you object to my trying to get some one to
take my duty at Oxford entirely, i.e. sermons and all ?
As to L. he was all but going over a year and a half ago,
before I knew him. His friends got me to take him, by
way of steadying him — and I made him promise, as a
condition of his coming, that he would put aside all thought
of change for three years. He has gone on very well —
expressed himself several times as greatly rejoiced he had
made the promise, though I saw in him no change of opinion ;
and set himself earnestly to improving the weak points of his
^ W. Palmer of Worcester was printing his Narrative of Events
connected with the Publication of the Tracts for the Times. He had some
correspondence with Newman on the subject.
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 251
character. There could not be any one more in earnest and
who under a strong system would work better or turn out
better. He wanted something absolutely to take hold of
him, and use him : he felt the Church of Rome could do
this and nothing else. He had not any great ability ; and
whether from that or other cause he never could see that
going to Rome was a great change, a change of religion.
He said ' my vocation is to be a brother of charity, etc.
therefore my vocation is in the Church of Rome.' He had
improved so much in general since he had been here, that
people had remarked upon it. Whenever he went away,
he had taken pains, not to go where he might have found
temptation, or at least to keep a strict guard over himself.
About a month since he went away on a holiday home. His
mother moving about, he has been doing the same. We all
think he had no intention at all of any move in religion
when he left. He went to Dr. Gentili at Loughborough, on
his way to Lincolnshire (I believe). And he was fascinated
almost at once. Dr. G. did not make any overtures what-
ever to him ; and only admitted him, when (as he thought)
his duty obliged him. He does not seem to have told him
of his promise ; and some how he quite put it aside, and
he writes me word that he had a call so very strong that he
felt he dare not disobey it. He has already engaged himself
to enter on his Noviciate in the Order of Charity (Rosmin-
ian) of which Dr. G. is the head in England. He is decidedly
the greatest prize I have heard of their making.
Ever yours affectionately,
J. H. N.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Littlemore : September i, 1843.
My dear K., — I am acting the part of Job's messengers
to you 7rri[jL eirl irrj^an but SO it is, and sorry as I am to
pain you, I feel it must be so.
A long journal or rather argument in the way of reflec-
tions has just been sent me of a person more considerable
252 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
than any who have hitherto gone over to Rome, and who
has been unsettled for a considerable time — getting over
his difficulties and then falling under them again.
It is very well and powerfully written, and with a good
deal of feeling and show of conscientiousness.
The writer says that I have brought him to his present
opinions, and therefore he wants me to stop him. He is
disposed, and more than that, to obey me at this moment.
There seems to me no doubt, however, he will ultimately
secede. I state it, not to bias your judgement, but as
evidence towards forming it, that my 4 sermons I think
would be of use to him. He however, could borrow them.
I must confess, as seriously as I can, that his paper has
moved me — but that is neither here nor there. I write
for another purpose.
Viz. to show you that apparently I was right in saying
this morning, that it is useless waiting for a quiet time. I
really begin to think that unless I give up St. Mary's now,
I shall never be able — i.e. without some great disturbance.
Certainly if L.'s departure from us is a reason for remaining
still at present, this man's departure would be ten times the
reason. Not that he is very closely connected with me
personally.
Ever yours affectionately,
John H. Newman.
P.S. — Palmer has written a kind note, saying that on
my remonstrance he shall withdraw the private conversation
introduced into his pamphlet.
N.B. — Since I have gone so far in the resignation, is
it well to go back and have it all over again ? e.g. I have
got over or nearly so the pain at Derby. Am I fit to hold
preferment ?
J. H. Newman to Rev. F. W. Faber
Littlemore : Sept. 2, 1843.
My dear Faber, — I have seen your letter to your brother
dated Bologna, Aug. 22, and while I am both surprised
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 253
and put out at your very kind language about me, (of which
it is but a plain truth to say that I am quite unworthy)
yet I will not deny that I could not help being much
pleased, more perhaps than is consistent with the con-
sciousness of what I am, at being spoken of in such terms
by you.
I assure you, my dear Faber, as perhaps you can guess
without my telling you, that I go very far with you in
the matter of which your letter treats, much farther than
I like : and that my heart leaps forward when I hear
certain things said, so as to give me a good deal of anxiety.
One thing, however, I feel very strongly — that a very
great experiment, if the word may be used, is going on in
our Church — going on, not over. Let us see it out. Is it
not our happiness to follow God's Hand ? if He did not
act, we should be forced to act for ourselves : but if He
is working, if He is trying and testing the English Church,
if He is proving whether it admits or not of being Catholi-
cized, let us not anticipate His decision^: let us not be im-
patient, but look on and follow.
Have you heard of that remarkable ordination at
New York, I mean Mr. Arthur Carey's ? surely we have
no notion of what is coming. Here is a man ordained by
the Bishop of the most prominent American Diocese,
with the zealous co-operation of nearly all his Presbyters,
on his avowal that the Roman Creed so little distresses him,
that, if refused ordination in the Anglican Church, he will
not say that he may not apply to the Roman.
Is it not the ordinary way of Providence, both as a
precept and a mercy, that men should not make great
changes by themselves, or on private judgement, but
should change with the body in which they find them-
selves, or at least in company ?
Ought not, moreover, a certain term of probation to
be given to oneself, before so awful a change as that I
am alluding to ? e.g. I have sometimes thought that, were
I tempted to go to Rome, I should for three years pray,
and get my friends to pray, that I might die rather than go.
234 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
if going were wrong. Do not suppose I am recommending
this to another : nay I am not sure it would not be pre-
sumptuous in any case, but I put it down as an illustration.
Excuse this rude letter, which may disturb and annoy
you rather than anything else, though I hope not. Be sure
you have been in my prayers, such as they are, sometime,
and believe me,
My dear Faber, with great sympathy,
Most sincerely yours,
John H. Newman.
P.S, — I am led to add, what we once touched on in
conversation, how forlorn one's state would be, if any
reaction of mind came on after a change. Surely one
ought to be three years in the one purpose of changing
before venturing on it.
The Sermon spoken of in the following letter is the first
of the four enumerated a few pages back — the ' Invisible
Presence of Christ.' It was on the text, ' The Kingdom of
God Cometh not with observation ; neither shall they say,
Lo here ! or Lo there ! for behold the Kingdom of God is
within you.' It would be impossible to convey to the
reader, in a few words, any idea of the marvellously pathetic
beauty of this Sermon, but the following sentences culled
from it will, perhaps, enable him to appreciate Keble's
criticism of it. Outward tokens had failed the communion
to which the preacher belonged, there was nothing left but
to fall back upon inward experiences of Divine Grace.
* " We see not our tokens." (Psalm 74, 10). . . . Who
among us does not participate in this ancient trial ? for
who would account that to be the Church of God in which,
we are, if he went merely by sight ? Who has not cause
to appeal, and who may not appeal, and who will not find
an answer when he appeals, to the Notes of the Kingdom,
which abides as it came "without observation" . . . which
is " within us." Yes, I say, who among us may not, if he
will, lead such a life as to have these secret and truer tokens
to rest his faith on, so as to be sure, and certain, and con-
vinced, that the Church which baptised us has still the
Presence of Christ. ...?,... What are signs and tokens
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 255
... but the way to Christ ? What need of them, should it
so be, through His mercy, that we have found Him ? ' ^
In the ' Apologia ' Newman speaks of this line of argument
as ' especially abhorrent both to my nature, and to my
past professions.' Subjectivism and building upon religious
experiences was one of the chief grounds of his quarrel with
Evangelicalism ; yet now he had to fall back upon such
experiences, not indeed for the whole of his religious faith,
but to assure himself that he was a member of the Church
of Christ. 2
Rev. J. Keble to J. H. Newman
September 4, 1843.
I am ashamed to think, dearest N., that I should have
left your notes, now three in number, any time unanswered.
I wish I may not have caused you more suspense and dis-
comfort than was necessary. You know partly why I dread
writing on such subjects. However, I must now say what
seems right for the time, and hope that it will be turned
to good rather than ill.
First as to St. Mary's, I cannot say any thing against
such feelings and considerations as you allege ; and after aU,
what right have we to expect to see our way clearly in
respect of consequences ? You can but do what seems right
for the time, taking care not to act from mere impulse,
and there is Another to be trusted with the results.
As to the Sermons, I am clearly for publishing them,
with certain modifications (which I will mention presently)
and it will be a relief to me to find that you are able to do so,
some of your expressions have sounded so strong another
way.
The change I want is in that on the Kingdom of God
being within us. I think that in what you say both of the
inward and outward Notes of that Kingdom, you imply an
expectation of rather more certainty than we have a right to
^ Sermons on Subjects of the Day, pp. 318, 319.
2 For the peril of relying on feelings and experiences see Ang. Diff.
Lecture ni.
256 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
look for as to our position ; and some of your phrases seem
over bold in dispensing with the outward tokens. [Vtd.
' Apolog./ p. 157, 2nd ed., J. H. N.]
E.g. ' What are signs and tokens of any kind ' etc.
This sounds to me a little too like what one has been used
to blame in Knox or in John Valdesso. Under both these
heads I should like something more of Bishop Butler's
tone. You will say you are writing for people who have
strong feelings and pressing wants, which Butler's tone
will not satisfy ; but might they not be taught to subdue
their feelings and wait for their wants to be supplied ?
Perhaps, as Butler writes, this unsatisfied state may be the
very education intended for them. Who can tell but there
may be something of self in their longings, which the highest
strain of piety would guide them to overcome ? I would
instance even in this last case, (though I trust I have no
harsh thoughts about it,) why did Mr. L. call on Gentili ?
Was it not putting himself in a way to be unsettled ? and
how came he to forget his promise, not even seeking to be
released from it, before he committed himself ? These are
obvious questions, though of course they may be answered
satisfactorily.
I certainly should be glad to see recognised in this or
some other part of your Sermons the duty of men's remaining
where they are, not only as long as they have spiritual
consolations, but even under any degree of distress and
doubt. There should be at least a moral certainty, before
people make such a move. Then ought not all people to
suspect that it is at least as much their own fault as their
Church's, if they do not find Christ's tokens there ? And,
if there be danger of evil spirits seducing us either way,
is not the danger less on the side of patience and
acquiescence ? provided always, of course, that there be
real self-denial.
I shall try to send the Sermons back to-morrow. I
can add no more now.
Ever yours very affectionately,
J. Keble.
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 257
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Basingstoke : September 5, 1843.
My dear Keble, — I am indeed to you a Job's messenger.
Here am I, having been summoned from Oxford yesterday
on a very painful errand. Another person, still more
important, as I should say, than the last mentioned has
surprised me by telling me he must go over to Rome, and
I really cannot tell whether I have succeeded in stopping
him. At least I cannot get him to give me any promise.
Really I cannot keep St. Mary's on — and what is so very
uncomfortable, these efforts to stop others do me harm —
for I feel that the collision which drives them from Rome
drives me, as is natural, in the other direction. I know
I cannot speak in a sufficient real way about it and did
I feel ever so duly, my words would be cold upon paper,
but I much fear to-day's conversation has done me a good
deal of harm, that is, has increased my conviction of the
false position we are in, if that is harm.
I wish I felt more deeply than I do how I am paining
you. But surely I must tell you how things are.
Ever yours affectionately,
J. H. N.
Rev. J. Keble to J. H. Newman
September 5, 1843.
I mean to send back your two Sermons to-day, and I
must say a word or two more on that which I wrote about
yesterday, though perhaps not much to the purpose.
I have been looking at your Sermons in vol. 2, on the
Invisible and Visible Church, and am not quite sure whether
the views of the two are consistent ; I mean, that of this
with those former ones ; and perhaps reviewing the one
might correct the other, and preserve it from abuse.
My own feeling is to dread depending on seeming ex-
periences, and in a great degree on the goodness of others
also (though I do indeed feel that to turn one's back on a
Communion, while such a person as Pusey (e.g.) remains in it
258 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
would be a great responsibility) ; but I was going to say that
my leaning is to depend rather on the outward Notes of
the Church which remain, however obscured, such as the
Creeds, the Sacraments, and the Succession, and to hope that
they might justify remaining, and constitute a real, though
imperfect union. The parable of a Tree, or of a State, if
carried out, will present things analogous to this.
No doubt you have thought of all this, and perhaps you
have written and published it long since, but I must say
what comes into my mind, and you will bear with me.
I have answered Palmer's letter, telling him that I know
not how I could be a party to any such public disavowal of
the 'B(ritish) C(ritic) ' etc. as he wishes, being really too un-
versed in the controversy, and feeling that I had already said
or seemed to say much more than my knowledge warranted.
About my seeing your Journal, I know not what to say :
only this : If you think it but possible that it may help
me to be useful to you, do not keep it back under the notion
of not paining me. For whom ought I cheerfully to bear
a little annoyance, if not for you, who have been such a
friend to me in my need, to say nothing of other claims. So
Good-bye and believe me,
Ever your very affectionate,
J. K.
J. H. Newman to J. R. Hope, Esq.
Basingstoke : September 5, 1843.
I ought to write you a line to say that the movement
is going so fast, that some of the wheels are catching fire.
I am returning from an expedition in which I have done my
utmost to set matters right, but I doubt whether I have
succeeded even for a time.
Of course all this is very secret. Perhaps you have
heard the misfortune which has happened to me at Little-
more. Poor Lockhart, an intimate friend of Mr. Grant
of St. John's,! ^y^Yio went over a year and a half since),
' The Rev. Ignatius Grant, S.J., M.A. Oxford.
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 259
and who came to me on condition of making me a promise
that he would remain quiet for three years, leaving me for a
holiday of three weeks about a month since, wrote me word
about 10 days ago that he was conforming to the Church of
Rome. It has not got into the papers yet, I believe. He
was quite overcome by the fascination of Dr. Gentili of
Loughborough, and is going forthwith to enter the order of
Charity (Rosminian).
Unless something very extraordinary happens, I expect
to resign St. Mary's in the course of a few weeks.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Littlemore : September 6, 1843.
My dear Keble, — I shall send you all four sermons, of
which you have seen the first, and you shall say whether your
objections apply still — meanwhile I will think over them.
Somehow I cannot deny that some clear notes are promised
in Scripture to the Christian Church — doubt in its most dis-
tressing form, i.e. when there is nothing clear, is apparently
excluded by the promise of a ' city set on a hill,' our * eyes
seeing our teachers ' etc. The doubt to be borne is inci-
dental, concomitant doubt, in spite of clear notes. If
then we, as a Church, have not the outward notes, we must
look for others. And moreover as to the duty of patience,
on the other hand think of the duty of fleeing from the wrath
to come. The feeling comes on men * Light has been given
to me — / have had the suggestion, which others have not,
that our Church wants the notes of the true Church. {Of
course one should think of evil suggestions, but that is a
ground, not for patience, but caution.) If I were to die,
I should be in a state which others are not in.' This dis-
tracting feeling comes on men not unfrequently. This is
what I should Sd^y prima facie.
I suppose the Catholic theory is, that creeds, sacraments,
succession etc. are nothing without unity — vid. St. Cyprian
26o CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
of the Novatians, and St. Austin of the Donatists. The
only way I have ever attempted to answer this, is by argu-
ing that we really were, or in one sense were, in unity with
the rest of the Church — ^but, as you know^ I never have been
thoroughly satisfied with my arguments, and grew more and
more to suspect them.
Another thing I wish you would consider. I felt the
argument of the Four Sermons when I wrote them — 1
feel it now (tho* not so strongly, I suppose,^) — I think it is
mainly (whether correctly analysed in them and drawn out,
or not) what reconciles me to our position. But I don't
feel confident, judging of myself by former changes, that
I shall think it a good argument 5 years hence. Now, is
it fair, I think it is, to put forward the argument under
such circumstances ? I think it is fair to stop people in
a headlong movement, (if it be possible) — to give them
time to think — to give the English cause the advantage
of this argument — and to see what comes of it, as to myself,
so to others. A man only said to me to-day, ' You have
not an idea of the effect of those Sermons when you preach
them.' However, you shall judge whether it is trifling with
so solemn a thing as truth.
As to my journal, I will think over the matter at my
leisure. I have been much hurried lately. Letters, many
painful ones, to answer, and matters to settle. Perhaps
one or other of us may have something to say about it in
a little time. Meanwhile I will from time to time go on
with the journal.
Ever yours affectionately,
John H. Newman.
P.S. — You must bear in mind that, if I speak strongly
in various places in the Sermons against the existing state
of things, it is not wantonly, but to show I feel the difficuUies
which certain minds are distressed with.
^ These words were written over the Une — they were apparently
an afterthought.
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 261
Rev. J. Keble to J. H. Newman
September 7, 1843.
Your letters, as you may suppose, make me rather
giddy, and put me out of breath ; but I wish I felt the
distress more keenly than I do. For instance, I got your
Basingstoke note in Winchester yesterday, and brooded
over it during my walk home ; and yet I lost none of my
night's rest by it ; whereas, if one felt it more, one might
perhaps be able to say or do something that might be of
use to you.
Will you let me mention your case in general without
name or description to one or two of the persons to whom
I should most wish my own perplexities to be known for
such a purpose, that they may do what they can to help
you ? Their hearts are not hardened, as it were, against
deep sympathy with the doubts of others, by a kind of blind
feeling that themselves have too much reason to doubt
whether they are as yet the sort of persons who can be in
any Church at all, a feeling which I am sometimes afraid
is at the bottom of my coldness.
I suppose you say to yourself and others what often
occurs to me, ' Let me imagine for a moment that I had
made this change, should I be free from trouble of the same
sort ? Surely, to mention no more, the necessity of pleading
with others on the contrary side to that which is now laid
upon me, would by itself keep me unsettled.' The collision
would work then its natural effect, as it does now ; unless
we suppose a kind of miraculous peace which it may be
questioned whether we have a right to look for in this world,
I quite thirst after some other counsellor for you. Now
Pusey is better, had you not better impart somewhat at
least of the case to him ?
We are in much care about my brother, whose work
seems clearly too much for him.
Ever your most affectionate,
J. K.
262 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
Letter to the Bishop of Oxford Resigning
St. Mary's
September 7, 1843.
My dear Lord, — I shall give your Lordship much pain
I fear by the request which it is necessary for me to make of
your Lordship before I proceed to act upon a resolution,
on which I have made up my mind, for a considerable time
to act. It is to ask your Lordship's permission to resign
St. Mary's. If I intended such a step three years since,
as I have said to your Lordship in print, it is not surprising
that I should have determined on it now, when so many
Bishops have said such things of me, and no one [has]
undertaken my part in respect to that interpretation of
the Articles under which alone I can subscribe them. I
will not ask your Lordship to put yourself to the pain of
replying to this request, but shall interpret your silence as
an assent.
Were I writing to any one but your Lordship it might
be presumption to suppose I should be asked to reconsider
the request which I have been making, but kindness like
yours may lead you to suspend your permission. If so,
I may be allowed to say in a matter on which I am able to
speak, that I should much deplore such an impediment, as
probably leading to results, which would more than disap-
point your Lordship's intentions in interposing it. My
resolution is already no secret to my friends and others. Let
me heartily thank your Lordship for all your past acts of
friendship and favour to one who has been quite unworthy of
them, and believe me my Lord to be keenly alive to your
anxieties about the state of the Church, and to feel great
sorrow as far as I am the occasion of them. On the other
hand I will say on my own behalf, that I have ever felt great
love and devotion towards your Lordship, that I have ever
wished to please you, that I have honestly tried to bear in
mind that I was in a place of high trust in the Church, and
have laboured hard to uphold and strengthen her, and to
retain her members. I am not relaxing my zeal till it has
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 263
been disowned by her rulers. I have not retired from her
service till I have lost or forfeited her confidence.
That your Lordship's many good words and works for
her welfare may be a blessing in this life, and a full reward
in the next is the prayer of your Lordship's
Affectionate servant,
J. H. Newman.
The following letter contains Keble's criticism of the
Four Sermons. The MS. which was submitted to him does
not seem to have been preserved. Most of his suggestions,
judging from the printed text, seem to have been adopted.
Keble's references are, of course, to the pages of the MS.
When it was possible the corresponding page in the Uniform
Edition has been added.
Rev. J. Keble to J. H. Newman
September i8, 1843.
At last I return your Sermons. They have been kept
too long, but I could not speak of them hastily, and I
have also taken the liberty of showing them to one or two
trustworthy persons, who might assist me to judge of their
probable effect.
The result is that I wish them certainly to be published,
and shall be greatly disappointed and grieved if your subse-
quent modification of opinion should have gone so far as to
prevent this. From your letters I should judge that it had
not, and also from your having advertised the Sermons ; but
really of this point you yourself are alone competent to judge.
1 must tell you in fairness that one person who has seen
the sermons thought the first of them rather unsettling, as
having the air of a person struggling against his own con-
viction ; but from the middle of Sermon 3 and onwards the
same person thought there was no such appearance. It has
occurred to me that it might be well to have something in
your Preface like some of Jeremy Taylor's introductions,
warning persons not to take it in hand who either i. leading
good lives are without painful scruples at present or 2. have
264^ CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
cause to think that their restlessness is unhallowed. For
I suppose you mean it strictly for those who are i. trying
to be good and holy, 2. doubt whether this be a Church.
Either in the Preface or quite early in the course it seems
to me that there should be a distinct setting aside of the
case of those persons whose scruples are not accompanied
with settled strictness of life.^
Have baptised persons a right to enquire and judge about
visible notes, till they have fairly and long tried to obtain the
invisible ?
Might it be well to insert about the 12th or 13th page
of the first Sermon, where the restlessness of so many
is described, a word of distinct caution, that most of it
probably (it is hard to limit the quantity) comes of people's
own fault ? E.g. if I could hear of some thoroughly good
and obedient child of our Church, who had never heard or
read of our controversies , yet permanently disquieted at the
want of visible unity, I should think it a stronger witness
than any case I have heard of yet.
Then with respect to doubt and caution, surely if people
cannot always expect to be comfortable even about such
points as you mention in your Parochial Sermons, I. 272,
doubt about the Church tokens may also consist with a
state of salvation ; and the analogy of duty to earthly
parents, and content with one's present state and home seems
to indicate the course of conduct to be pursued while the
doubt lasts ; and the same, with regard to the misgiving
one feels, from what quarter the doubt or suggestion may
come. And if we see enough to guide our practice, ought
we to depend on more in the way of comfort ? especially
considering how most of us have lived ?
E.g. in p. 16 I should, I think, modify your expression
as follows : — ' Who among us may not, if he will lead such
a life, as to have those secret and truer tokens to rest his
faith upon, so as to be sure etc' ^
^ This advice was carried out. See footnote p. 308 in Sermons
on Subjects of the Day.
* This suggestion was acted upon, p. 3 19.
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 265
The case should be considered of those who have not yet
these inward tokens in our Church. What are they to do ?
Should not they somewhere be distinctly told to wait till
they have them, (i.e. till they are better men and worthier
communicants), before they judge against our Church ?
In p. 66 I think the proposed defence by appeal to the
Divines of the eighteenth century is imperfect,^ especially
as we are used to blame that style of divinity so much.
Perhaps it may suffice to accompany it with the prefatory
caution above suggested.
In p. 14, 15 2 ' well nigh deserted us ' ; would it not be
well to specify the signs which seem to be going ? Those
gone are, I believe, enumerated, at least exemplified after-
wards.
P. 43.^ Is there not a secret shrinking from what we are
invited to, which has part in the awful constraining force
you speak of ? a feeling ' though this were not idolatry in
others, it would be so in me ? ' and do not those persons who
seem to have most right to guide one's judgment feel this
most strongly ?
In p. 19 4 you seem to speak of the corruption of religion
as a token of the absence of Christ ; is it so simply, or of His
Presence for Judgment ? What do people say of Italy now ?
Might not some of the cautionary matter of the 3rd
Sermon (e.g. p. 54) be usefully inserted or referred to before
entering on the argument in p. 19 ?
The top of p. 17 still sounds to me a little rationalistic.
P. 25.^ Our Lord in XVI. St. John speaks to the secret
thoughts of His disciples, does He not ?
The view about Elijah strikes me particularly. I feel
as if I had there got what I have been long feeling after
myself. It seems to me curious, in reference to it that
both our Collects about St. John Baptist (which you refer
to) are of Anglican origin.
In p. 72 you speak of the perishable nature of heresies,
^ P. 356. This suggestion seems to have been acted upon. * p. 318.
3 P. 339. This suggestion was not acted upon. Keble probably
had in his mind invocations of the Saints.
'^ P» 320. ^ P. 334-
266 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
which have lasted from the 5th century ; and in p. 73
(at bottom), I suppose a Presbyterian would deny your
statement.^
And now I think I have pretty well inflicted all my
notes and marks upon you. I wish they may be of any use ;
but, as I said, it is a case in which after all you must judge
entirely for yourself. I the more wish the Sermons may
be published from the manner in which your resignation,
reported in the newspapers, is already being taken. I had a
letter from a man this morning, who considers it as equiva-
lent to the giving up of ' Catholic Anglicanism.*
I cannot recollect that I have more to say at present.
Arthur Perceval, who has been very ill, wants a curate for
six months, and it has occurred to me that, if they can get
a place to be in, it will be a nice refreshing change for my
brother, and perhaps Copeland might now take Bisley.
Will you mention it to him ? for I quite long to have some-
thing settled for Tom's relief.
We shall think of you very much, especially next week.^
Ever your grateful and affectionate,
J. Keble.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Littlemore : In fest. S. Mich., 1843.
My dear Keble, — I am so cast down by various things,
that I have hardly heart to think what I have to say to you.
What chiefly presses on me is Bowden's illness. It is
hardly right perhaps to say I despair of him. And he is
all the while so kind and quiet and happy.
I should be truly obliged and grateful if you got any
persons to remember me in the way you proposed.
As to the Sermons, it seems to me that, the more I feel
dissatisfied with the Catholicity of our Church, the more I
cannot help making much of and really accepting the view
contained in theniy if I am content to remain in it — I think
then that I may very honestly publish these, for they do
contain my present judgment.
1 p. 361.
2 (When the anniversary of the consecration of Littlemore Chapel
came round. — J. H. N.)
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 267
The only thing I feel is, distrust in the permanence of
that judgment, formed on the experience of the past.
And further it seems a sort of private judgment in Scripture,
which is unauthorized by any one ecclesiastical writer, as far
as I know. But as to the latter of these objections, our
position is our own, such as no writer can be expected to have
anticipated — and as to the chance of future change, if this
were an argument for not avowing what I now believe, it
would be an argument surely for not acting upon it, i.e. for
leaving the Church, which is absurd. If I have reasons for
being content and thankful to be where I am, why may I
not give them ? — (I dare say I may have to modify some
expressions.)
Again, have I a right to suppress a view which has been
influential with others, and may be intended to answer a
good purpose ?
And further, if the view did take a number of persons,
and that permanently, it would have, and ought to have a
great effect upon me — my only present misgiving relating
to its holding water. Solvitur ambulando.
On these grounds, if you do not think them unreal, I
propose to publish.
I think on the whole I shall send you the 10 days journal
I spoke to you of. Of course I cannot tell, but I don't
think it will over pain you — that is, I think you may perhaps
be prepared for it, on the whole, if not in detail.
Of course in detail, it is no correct specimen of me — no
10 days account could be — but it gives a general idea. I
have put down, not only infirmities, but temptations, even
when I did not feel them to be more than external to me.
Also, I have shown you how the day went — tho' of course
every ten days varies much in this respect. E.g. the next
ten days were very busy ones, in editing etc.
I have, as you may suppose, been very much concerned
about your brother.
Ever yours affectionately,
John H. Newman.
P.S. — I trust Eden will take Copeland.
268 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
The following fragment of a letter is of some importance,
for it shows how far Newman was as yet from a final decision.
In this way it serves as a corrective to the correspondence
with Archdeacon Manning of a few days later. The im-
pression which this correspondence, taken by itself, might
leave on the mind of the reader is that Newman in the
autumn of 1843 saw his way much more clearly than he
actually did.
' Keep Thou my feet : I do not ask to see
The distant scene — one step enough for me.'
These lines almost sum up the spirit in which Newman
resigned St. Mary's.
The conclusion of the letter is missing. The opening
part is so full of erasures as to be quite unintelligible.
Everything which might afford a clue to the name of the
person to whom it was addressed was in later years carefully
blotted out.
John Henry Newman to an Unknown
Correspondent
Sept. 29, 1843.
. . . First I will say that A. B. had no right to tell
what he told you about me, and I shall write to him to
beg him not to do the like to others. Next, J. has not
understood me, certainly has not quoted my words.
I do so despair of the Church of England, I am so
evidently cast off by her, and on the other hand I am so
drawn to the Church of Rome, that I think it safer as a
matter of honesty not to keep my living.
This is a very different thing from having any intention
of joining the Church of Rome. However, to avow generally
as much as I have now said, would be wrong for ten thousand
reasons, which I have not time to enter upon here, and I
hardly think you will consider necessary. People cannot
understand a state of doubt, of misgiving, of being unequal
to responsibilities, etc., but they will conclude either that
you have a clear view one way or the other. All I know
is, that I could not without hypocrisy profess myself any
longer a teacher in and champion of our Church. Very
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 269
few persons know this — hardly one person (only one, I
think) in Oxford — not any one in Oxford at present. I
think it most cruel, most unkind, most unsettling to tell
them . . .
John Henry Newman to an Unknown
Correspondent
Oct. 7, 1843,
... I don't believe you when you talk [erasures] of
your having had these opinions so long. I don't believe
it. I think you never would have gone on [erasures, pre-
sumably referring to some work undertaken by the person
addressed] with the spirit and good heart you did, after
my strong discouragement, unless at that time I had felt
much less confidence in the Church of England than you.
Now, I did not feel so little then as I do now, and you now
feel less than I do now.
Now as to yourself, surely the case of poor Sibthorpe
should be taken as a warning to all of us against sudden
moves. Our Lord tells us to count the cost, how can you
tell whether it is His voice, or that of a deceiving spirit.
It is a rule in spiritual matters to reject a suggestion at
first to anything extraordinary, from the certainty that
if it is from heaven it will return.
I should say that you should put yourself on a pro-
bation, and resolve not to move for three years — making
this exception, if you feel it necessary, that in case of the
imminent prospect of death you might conform at once,
as the safest and best you could do tmder the circumstances.
This is what we do, as to baptizing infants — administering
private baptism in cases of danger. It is borne out too
by the beliefs of the early Church about catechumens ;
the intention of baptism being equivalent to baptism.
And surely a delay which has for its sole object to ascertain
God's will, is of the same kind.
Then again, I think you should, as much as you can,
put the question out of your head — being sure that con-
viction will come in spite of that, if it is from God. You
270 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
should certainly give yourself to some direct religious
duties. You should observe what your state is in six
months time, and if then, or at any intermediate time,
you awoke out of your present feelings as out of a dream,
then, if they returned, I think you should begin your three
years again. Surely when we are told 'to try the spirits,'
we cannot be wrong in thus acting. Magna est Veritas
et prevalebit. And I cannot understand how one can have
any fear lest it be resisting grace.
Do not think I am saying this by way of getting you
off the subject altogether. I feel confident that such
rules will have no such tendency. Delay seems to me
the path in which people are led forward — most haste,
worst speed. And the older one is, the more time it takes
to learn, and to ascertain that one has a irpoOea-i^, a 7rpoaipe(Ti<^.
Young men may take a resolution, right or wrong, on
impulse, and keep to it, for their minds are supple — but
there is a grave retribution, when those who have some-
thing of a fixed character act on a sudden idea, or in a
novel frame of mind, for their habitual state of feeling
returns upon them, and they feel that they have changed
into an element in which they cannot live. I know the
gift of faith will overcome this, when it is God's call, but
only by waiting can a man either gain this gift, or be sure
that he is called.
I think you should be very much on your guard against
self-will. You should not be avTovofio^, your own master.
I have a right to say this, for I very seldom act of myself.
Now you seem to me always to act of yourself, and not to
mind others. This was your way when an undergraduate
— I almost think that I have heard you say that it was
your way at school. And certainly lately about [erasure]
you have not minded what I said one word, though now
you have come to do the very thing of yourself, which I
have been so long advising you. Now if you ought in this
matter to act for yourself, here is an additional reason
for taking time. We can be critics on our own past selves,
not on our present. If you allow yourself a year hence
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 271
to judge of your feelings now, you approximate to taking
the advice of another.
I understand you in your last letter to say you will act
deliberately, but I think it no harm to send you this.
Ever yours affectly.,
J. H. N.
The above should be compared with a letter to Pusey
of July 22, 1845 (see p. 383). In proportion as Newman
saw his own way more clearly, he was unable to recommend
to others long probationary periods.
Archdeacon Manning to J. H. Newman
October 8, 1843.
My dear Newman, — I had intended to come to Little-
more yesterday to see you : but I was in so much pain from
a cold in my face that I most unwillingly gave it up at the
moment I was getting into a fly to come here, the Bishop
of Oxford having asked me to spend Sunday at Cuddesdon.
For the last month I have been travelling about, and
have been as far as Bangor, and Hull, York and Durham,
so that you may believe I have had little quiet. But you
have been constantly in my thoughts : and all this made
me wish more than ever to see you yesterday. And yet
my chief reason for wishing to see you would be for the sake
of old kindliness : for I do not feel that I ought to volunteer
any unsought expressions on your late resignation of St.
Mary's, for which ever since you talked to me 2 or 3 years
ago I have been more or less prepared. ^ Also I feel that
one ought to know and understand far more of the interior
of each other's minds to be able to form any view of what
is right and reasonable in each one's position. I believe
the amount of all I should endeavour to express is an
affectionate regard and a real participation in all that
distresses you. I suppose it is next to impossible that
employments so distant and different as ours, if I may
venture to compare them, should not introduce differences of
1 It was in October 1840 that Newman first consulted Keble about
resigning St. Mary's. Apologia, pp. 132 fi.
272 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
view and feeling : and I have always a desire to understand
yours more clearly, and to be understood by you in turn.
I hope this may be, for Charity and confidence are the
true bonds of the Church.
I shall hope to see you at the beginning of next month,
as I shall, please God, be again in Oxford. Believe me,
My dear Newman,
Yours affecly,
H. E. Manning.
J. H. Newman to Archdeacon Manning i
Oriel College : October 14, 1843.
My dear Manning, — I thank you very warmly for your
most kind letter — and would tell you in a few words why
I have resigned St. Mary's, as you seem to wish, were it
possible to do so. But it is most difficult to bring out in
brief — or even in extenso — any just view of my feelings
and reasons.
The nearest approach I can give to a general account
of them is to say that it has been caused by the general
repudiation of the view contained in No. 90 on the part of
the Church. I could not stand against such an unanimous
expression of opinion from the Bishops, supported as it
has been by the concurrence, or at least silence, of all classes
in the Church lay and clerical. If there ever was a cause in
which an individual teacher has been put aside, and virtu-
ally put away by a community, mine is one. No decency
has been observed in the attacks upon me from authority :
no protests have appeared against them. It is felt, I am
far from denying, justly felt, that I am a foreign material
— and cannot assimilate with the Church of England
Even my own Bishop has said that my very mode of
interpreting the Articles makes them mean anything or
nothing. When I heard this delivered I did not believe
my ears. I denied to others that it was said. Pusey and
^ This and the two next letters of Newman's were published in the
Apologia.
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY^S 273
I asked the Bishop and were satisfied by his answer — when
out came the Charge^ and the words could not be mistaken.
This astonished me the more, because I published that letter
to him (how unwillingly you know) on the understanding
that / was to deliver his judgment on No. 90 instead of him.
A year elapses, and a second and heavier judgment came
forth. I did not bargain for this. Nor did he, but the
tide was too strong for him.
I fear I must confess that in proportion as I think the
English Church is showing herself intrinsically and radically
alien from Catholic principles, so do I feel the difficulties
in defending her claims to be a branch of the Catholic Church.
It seems a dream to call a communion Catholic, when one
can neither appeal to any clear statement of Catholic doctrine
in its formularies, nor interpret ambiguous formularies
by the received and living sense past or present. Men of
Catholic views are too truly but a party in our Church. I
cannot deny that other independent circumstances, which it
is not worth while entering into, have led me to the same
conclusion. I do not say all this to everybody, as you may
suppose — ^but I do not like to make a secret of it to you.
affectly 5a-s,
John H. Newman.
Manning forwarded Newman's letter to Mr. Gladstone,
with a letter of his own which, unfortunately, has not yet
been published. Gladstone replied on October 24.^ He
was considerably alarmed by Newman's letter. He thought
that Newman was unduly depressed by the strictures on
Tract 90. 'I confess,' he said, * that his uneasiness at
the time of the Jerusalem adventure appeared to me more
intelhgible. But as you truly say, so far is the English
Church, the subjective Enghsh Church, from showing
herself by a series of progressive acts to be " intrinsically
and radically ahen from Cathohc principles " that the
progression is all the other way,' &c.
1 The date is worth noting. Manning did not wait till he heard from
Gladstone before writing his second letter to Newman. Gladstone's
letter is printed in full in Lathbury's Correspondence on Church and Religion
of W. E. Gladstone, vol. i. p. 281.
T
274 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
Archdeacon Manning to J. H. Newman
Lavington : October 23, 1843.
My dear Newman, — I received your letter with very great
interest and thank you sincerely for writing so fully to me.
It seems to me hardly right for me to form any view
on a case so complicated as yours. One ought to know so
much more than any but one or two, or perhaps the principal
alone can know. However your letter suggests to me some
things which I should like just to say and leave them.
Surely you cannot feel that the Church of England
regards you as a foreign ingredient. With whose writings
has it so strongly and widely sympathized ? For years, who
has been more loved and revered ? Individuals have opposed
you always, and latterly, since No. 90, ersons bearing
office in the Church — but what has the Church as such —
or any great mass of the Church expressed ? Without
entering upon No. 90 in detail, could you expect the living
generation to change the opinions, prejudices, and habits
of a whole life in a few years at one bidding ? Has not God
prospered you in the last ten years in a measure which
makes it — may I venture to say — impatience something
like Jonah's to ask or look for more ? Indeed, my dear
Newman, I feel this strongly and am sure that the adversary
both of the Church and of your self would compass his own
ends in casting over you such an illusion as that you should
believe yourself to be a foreign ingredient — You will not
take it ill of me if I even go on to say that I cannot conceive
any man under the conditions of our erring humanity to
escape mixing into ten years of such work as yours matters
which may be reasonably excepted against things ' quas
aut incuria fudit etc'
I entirely disbelieve the impression you have is true —
and am persuaded that patience and quietness will reassure
all that are to be reassured ; for some must always oppose
themselves so long as the Church standeth.
Another thing suggested by your letter is this. Surely if
one compares the English Church now with what it was ten
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 275
years back it cannot be said truly that it is showing itself
intrinsically alien from Catholic principles. That the
Church has passed under a fearful influence for 150 years
is sadly true ; but surely the last ten years have dispelled
much and brought the living church back again in a wonder-
ful way — to be explained no otherwise than by a belief in
God's mercy to us — to a preparation of heart for Catholicity
when it can be seen and known as such. May we not be too
hasty ? — patience and love of one another is what we want
most. What may not be the state of the English Church
ten years hence when the last century is passed, and a
generation born and trained in better things has arisen ?
Is not your painful feeling ' a judging before the time ' ?
I feel almost unwilling to go on for it seems unfit in me
to write to you in this way — But let me add one more thing.
You feel that men of Catholic views are but a party in our
church. Must we not say the same of every church in the
world ? Is the popular belief in any part of Christendom of
such a kind that Catholic minds are not esoteric everywhere,
e.g. Can we say that minds possessed with the popular views
prevalent in Roman CathoHc countries are ' Catholic ' in
the sense we are now intending : and are not instructed
Roman Catholics a school in their own communion ? Indeed
must it not always be so : is it not the condition of the
Church in all ages ?
After all, even if Catholic minds are no more than a party
in the English Church, it is plain that they have always
existed in it, and therefore that they are not foreign ingre-
dients, but such as the Church has ever retained, and fostered,
and drawn large measures of blessing from. Indeed I would
say they are her true sons faintly sustaining, and repre-
senting her real character in the midst of the many who
sink below her tone, and rule, and are foreign to her.
As I have written all this I must send it, if only to express
my regard, and thanks to you. You perhaps may think me
too hopeful : but I am full of good hope arising out of living
facts which I see daily : and I beheve a few years will
ripen them into things you desire to see. I know there is
276 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
such a thing as vain hopes, but there is also such a thing as
hva-e\in<7Tia which sadly relaxes one's efforts and fulfils
its own forebodings.
Believe me, my dear Newman,
Yours affectly,
H. E. Manning.
J. H. Newman to Archdeacon Manning
Derby : October 25, 1843.
My dear Manning, — Your letter is a most kind one, but
you have engaged in a most dangerous correspondence.
I am deeply sorry for the pain I must give you.
I must tell you then frankly, unless I combat arguments
which to me, alas, are shadows, that it is from no disappoint-
ment, irritation, or impatience, that I have, whether rightly
or wrongly, resigned St. Mary's — but because I think the
Church of Rome the Catholic Church, and ours not a part
of the Catholic Church, because not in communion with
Rome, and I felt I could not honestly be a teacher in it any
longer.
This conviction came upon me last summer four years.
I mentioned it to two friends in the autumn of that year, 1839.
And for a while I was in a state of excitement.
It arose in the first instance from reading the Monophysite
and Donatist controversies ; in the former of which I was
engaged in that course of theological study to which I had
given myself.
This was at a time, when no Bishop, I believe, had
declared against us, and when all was progress and hope. I
do not think I have ever felt, certainly not then, disappoint-
ment or impatience, or the like ; for I have never looked
forward to the future, nor do I realize it now.
My first effort was to write that article on the Catholicity
of the English Church in the ' British Critic,' and for two
years it quieted me. But since the summer of 1839 I have
written nothing on modern controversy. My Lectures on
Romanism and Justification were in 1836-38. My writings
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 277
in the ' Tracts for the Times ' end with 1838, except Bishop
Andrewes's Devotions and Tract 90, which was forced on me.
You know how unwilhngly I wrote my letter to the Bishop
of Oxford, in which (as the safest course under circum-
stances) I committed myself again. My University Sermons
were a course begun ; I did not finish them. The Sermon
on Development was a subject intended for years. And I
think its view quite necessary in justification of the Athana-
sian Creed.
The article I speak of quieted me till the end of 1841,
over the affair of Tract 90, when that wretched Jerusalem
Bishoprick affair, no personal matter, revived all my alarms.
They have increased up to this moment.
You see then, that the various ecclesiastical and quasi-
ecclesiastical acts, which have taken place in the course of
the last two years and a half, are not the cause of my state
of opinion ; but are keen stimulants and weighty confir-
mations of a conviction forced on me, while engaged in the
course of duty, viz. the theological reading which I had given
myself. And this last mentioned circumstance is a fact
which has never, I think, come before me till now that I
write to you.
It is three years since, on account of my state of opinion,
I urged the Provost in vain to let St. Mary's be separated
from Littlemore, thinking I might with a safe conscience
serve the latter, though I could not comfortably continue
in so public a place as a University. This was before
No. 90.
Finally I have acted under advice and that not of my
own choosing but which came to me in the way of duty, nor
of those only who agree with me, but of new friends who
differ from me.
I have nothing to reproach myself with, as far as I see in
the matter of importance, i.e. practically — or in conduct.
And I trust that He who has kept me in the slow course
of changes hitherto, may keep me still from hasty acts or
resolves with a doubtful conscience.
This I am sure of, that such interposition as yours
278 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
kind as it is, only does what you would consider harm. It
makes me realize my views to myself, it makes me see their
consistency, it assures me of my own deliberateness — it
suggests to me the traces of a Providential Hand. It takes
away the pain of disclosures, it relieves me of a heavy secret.
You may make what use of my letters you think right.
Yours etc.
J. H. N.
The above letter was also sent to Gladstone. Gladstone
replied on the 28th, and again on the 30th, in a state of
great excitement. ' My first thought is, " I stagger to and
fro, like a drunken man, and am at my wits' end.'' ' He
jumped to the conclusion that when Newman spoke of the
reluctance with which, in the Letter to the Bishop of Oxford,
he had committed himself for a second time, he was practically
avowing that he had said things which he did not believe.
No doubt he could give a satisfactory explanation, but
the world at large would not believe him. If his letters
to Manning were divulged he would be a disgraced man,
and the cause which he had advocated would be hopelessly
discredited.!
Archdeacon Manning to J. H. Newman
October 27, 1843.
My dear Newman, — It is impossible for me to refrain from
writing to you. If I were, you might misunderstand my
not writing, but I have no intention of saying any thing
more than that the kind and affectionate feelings of years
seemed to come altogether as I read your letter. By what-
soever path may we be led home to the rest where there is
no more going out.
Numberless things keep me from saying a word more
than my thanks for your openness.
^ See p. 18. The letter was written at the time when Newman's
doubts were in abeyance, and when the obstacles to communion with
Rome, which he brought forward in it, seemed to him insurmountable.
What he kept back from the world was the doubts which had assailed
him in 1839, and the haunting possibility that they might return. To
have revealed this would have been ' scattering firebrands,' and an act
of disloyalty to the convictions which at the time were predominant in
his mind.
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 279
Never think that I judged you in my last letter. But
ignorant of the one master key of all I was led to shallow
thoughts of the matter. May God ever bless and keep you,
my dear Newman. You know all I feel, when I say that I
am as ever
Yours affectionately,
H. E. Manning.
It is well to add that your letter will be seen by only two,
perhaps by only one person : but one or both they with
myself will never be the channel through which your heavy
secret shall be known. ^
H. E. M.
J. H. Newman to Archdeacon Manning
October 31, 1843.
My dear Manning, — Your letter, which I got on my return
here last night, has made my heart ache more and caused
more and deeper sighs than any I have had a long while —
tho' I assure you there is much on all sides of me to cause
sighing and heart aches — on all sides ; I am quite hampered
by the one dreadful whisper repeated from so many quarters
and causing the keenest distress to friends. You know
but a part of my present trial, in knowing that I am un-
settled myself.
Since the beginning of this year I have been obliged to tell
the state of my mind to some others ; but never I think
without being in a way obliged, as from friends writing to
me as you did, or guessing how matters stood. No one in
Oxford knows it or here, but one near friend whom I felt I
could not help telling the other day. But I suppose many
more suspect it.
Though I am fully conscious of many sins which deserve
any trouble, and fully think that this trouble is a direct
1 Manning sent Newman's letters to Dr. Pusey, who wrote to Gladstone :
' Knowing Newman intimately, I do not think that the portentous ex-
pressions in his letters (forwarded to me by Manning) have a necessary
or immediate bearing upon certain steps of outward conduct.' — Purcell's
Life of Manning, vol. i. p. 352.
28o CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
punishment on definite sins, though not in the way of cause
and effect, yet I do seem to find a comfort in the feeling that
we didn't make our present circumstances.
Ever yours affectly.,
J. H. N.
Manning was now thoroughly alarmed. He had written
to Pusey an extraordinarily vehement letter in which he
announced that he was ' reduced to the painful, saddening,
sickening necessity of saying what ' he ' felt about Rome.' i
He did so in his celebrated 5th of November sermon. The
next day he went to see Newman at Littlemore. This is
how Froude described what happened :
' When I was at Littlemore with Newman, Manning
came up to Oxford to preach the 5th of November sermon.
He preached in so Protestant a tone, that Newman said,
** If Manning comes to Littlemore I shall not see him."
Mark Pattison and I were sitting with Newman when he
was told that Manning had come. Newman said to me,
" You must go and tell him, Froude, that I will not see
him." I went and told Manning, who was greatly dis-
tressed, and I walked along the road some way with him,
to give him what comfort I could.' ^
In the following letter Newman discusses the projected
* Lives of the English Saints.'
J. H. Newman to J. R. Hope, Esq.
Littlemore : November 2, 1843.
I am led to write to you about several things. First,
I find that Pusey has mentioned to you, what he had not an
opportunity of saying to me, that the ' Lives of the Saints '
would cause a sensation. I wish I had something like a
^ Purcell's Life of Manning, vol. i. pp. 251, 252.
' Recollections of Dean Boyle, p. 238. The late Father William Neville
used to tell the story rather differently. According to him, Newman
was out when Manning called. He never professed to have got his in-
formation from Newman himself, but even if he did, it would only prove
that Newman's memory was at fault. For him the incident was over
in a few seconds, and he may never have given it a thought afterwards.
It was otherwise with Froude, who had come between the hammer and
the anvil. His walk bareheaded along the road would fix every detail
in his memory.
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 281
view, what was best to do about them. However, you
misunderstand him in thinking that the tone was, ' None
can doubt so and so, etc., etc., but a mere Protestant,'
etc. (How could you fancy I should allow this ?) No —
the objection to the tone is liking for Rome. What P.
has said has thrown me into great perplexity. I entered
into the scheme, after the delay of months, for the sake of
others ; and I have reason to fear that stopping it may in
various ways tend to precipitate certain persons (readers,
if you will) towards Rome. Yet it is plain what he feels,
will be felt far more by others.
I did not explain to you sufficiently the state of mind of
those who are in danger, I only spoke of those who are
convinced that our Church was external to the Church
Catholic, though they felt it unsafe to trust their own
private convictions. And you seemed to put the dilemma,
* Either men are in doubt or not : if in doubt, they ought
to be quiet ; if not in doubt, how is it that they stay with
us ? ' But there are two other states of mind which might
be mentioned, (i) Those who are unconsciously near
Rome, and whose despair about our Chiu'ch, if anyhow
caused, would at once develop into a state of conscious
approximation and ^^(S^s^'-resolution to go over. (2) Those
who feel they can with a safe conscience remain with us,
while they are allowed to testify in behalf of Catholicism,
and to promote its interests ; i e. as if by such acts they
were putting our Church, or at least a portion of it, in which
they are included, in the position of catechumens. They
think they may stay, while they are moving themselves,
others, nay, say the whole Church, towards Rome. Is not
this an intelligible ground ? I should like your opinion of it.
While I am writing, I will add a word about myself.
You may come near a person or two, who, owing to circum-
stances, know more exactly my state of feeling than you do,
tho' they would not tell you. Now I do not like that you
should not be aware of this, though I see no reason why you
should know what they happen to know. Your wishing it
otherwise would he a reason.
282 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
To THE Same
Littlemore : November 6, 1843.
I do not mean to bore you, as you have quite enough to
do without me ; but you shall answer me when you have
time. I am drawing up my query in the manner of a case
if I can manage it, for it was a curious point of casuistry,
on which I am often in one shape or other called to give an
opinion — but meantime I will speak about myself and the
'Lives.'
You have not gone to the bottom of the difficulty. It is
very easy to say. Give facts without comment ; but in the
first place, what can be so dry as mere facts ? the books won't
sell, nor deserve to sell. It must be ethical ; but to be
ethical is merely to colour a narrative with one's own mind,
and to give a tone to it. Now this is the difficulty, altering
this or that passage, leaving out this or that expression will
not alter the case. I will not answer for being aware of
the tone in myself. Pusey put his finger on passages
which I had not thought about. Is he to be ever
marking passages ? if so, he has the real trouble of being
editor, not I.
Naturam expellas furca, &c. Is the Pope's supremacy
the only point on which no opinion is to be expressed ? if
so, why ? It is not more against the Articles to desire
it than to desire monachism. Will it offend more than
others ? I will not limit certainly the degree of disgust
which some people will feel towards it, but do they feel
less towards the notion of monks, or, again, of miracles ?
Now Church History is made up of these three elements — ■
miracles, monkery. Popery. If any sympathetic feeling is
expressed on behalf of the persons and events of Church
history, it is a feeling in favour of miracles, or monkery,
or Popery, one or all. It is quite a theory to talk of being
ethical, yet not concur in these elements of the narrative —
unless, indeed, one adopts Milner's or Neander's device of
dropping part of the history, praising what one has a
fancy for, and thus putting a theory and dream in the
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 283
place of facts. But it is bad enough to be eclectic in
doctrine.
Next it must be recollected how very much depends
on the disposition, relative prominence, &c., of facts, it is
quite impossible that' a leaning to Rome, a strong offensive
leaning should be hidden.
And then still more it must be recollected that a vast
number of questions, and most important ones, are decided
this way or that on antecedent probabilities, according to a
person's views, e.g. the question between St. Augustine and
the British Bishops — of Easter — of King Lucius, &c., &c.
Opinion comes in at every step of the history.
From what I have said you will see that I consider it
impossible to choose easy ' Lives ' for the first of the series ;
there are none such, or if there be a few, when can I promise
to have them ready ? I suppose Bede must be pretty easy.
Keble has it. I do not expect him to send it to me for
several years, with his engagements. Take missions, take
Bishops, the Pope comes in everywhere. Go to Aldheim
and his schools ; you have most strange miracles. Try to
retire into the country, you do but meet with hermits.
No ; miracles, monkery. Popery, are too much for you, if
you have any stomach.
It seems to me that this talk about * beginning easily '
(which Sir F. P. [Francis Palgrave ?] has been eager in) is just
like the fuss made, when we began the ' Fathers,' of taking
easy Fathers. Some wished to begin chronologically, &c. &c.
If we had gone on any such theory, we should have done none
at all. And so I say about these ' Lives,' you may indefinitely
postpone them by such precautions — you may show that
they ought not to come out at all by your objections —
but if they are to be pubhshed, they will make a sensation.
The Life P. looked at, St. Stephen's, was taken as having
hardly, if at all, any miracle in it, and if he thinks it will
give offence, doubtless the others will still more.
You see, in saying all this, I am not deciding the question
whether the work is to be done at all. On that point I
have had great doubt since P.'s objection. Only to do it
284 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
without offence, is impossible. And the more so, because,
in part at least, it is likely to be a very taking work.
At first I was more than desirous to rid myself of it
altogether — and Rivington is looking over the sheets to
decide whether he will take it or give it up. And I think
he will give it up. But a number of intricate questions
come in.
Men have written, hoping for a fair emolument, and
putting aside other means of gaining a livelihood. It seems
very unfair to disappoint them. I know myself, when I was
much younger, how very annoying such a disappointment
is ; the more so, because it cannot be, or is not, hinted at.
And then so many Lives are in progress or preparation,
that it is most unlikely the work will be stopped ; others
will conduct it instead of me who will go farther ; and
though this is a bad reason for doing oneself what one feels
a misgiving in doing, it is a good reason when one feels none
at all.
And then comes a question, whether, if I have no mis-
giving, it is not a duty. What right have I to be quiet,
having the means of making a protest, when there is so
great an effort on the other side to put down the Pope !
May it not be our mission to do what we cannot choose our
time for doing ? I have been quiet now for three years
nearly, as being under authority, and with a Bishop's censure
against me. Am I never to move ?
These are the kind of questions which come across me.
On the other hand there is a question whether it is not
infra dig. to go to another publisher, Rivington rejecting —
and whether well-wishers will not think I am losing myself
in being party to any such publication. But other things
might be mentioned in which they would consider I should
be losing myself.
You see by all things I am in perplexity — but I suppose
a little time may make things clearer.
If the plan is abandoned, the significant question will
be, nay is already asked, — ' What then, cannot the Anglican
Church bear the Lives of her Saints ! '
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 285
To THE Same
Littlemore : November 26, 1843.
I am very much obliged by your kind letter — and
sincerely am I sorry to have kept you, as I find, in
suspense.
The truth is, I am so undecided, or was, what was best
to do, that I began to write to you, and did not pursue it.
And so far from your not having written to the purpose,
you laid down one proposition, in which I quite acquiesce ;
that the subject of the supremacy of Rome should be moved
argumentatively if at all. I felt I had gained something
here, and rested upon it and gave up answering you, as it
turns out, selfishly.
But now I must say that when I came again to look at
what Pusey was frightened at, I could touch nothing. There
was no insinuation, no allusion to supremacy at all. It
related a plain historical fact that St. Stephen went to
Rome, as was customary — and the two reasons assigned
had nothing to do with supremacy : — ist. that the Coliseum
was there ! quoting Bede's saying. 2. that Rome was our
Mother Church.
Yet, though I feel I could alter nothing, I am sure most
people would say there was an insinuation. Why ? because
people know our ^ wishes and then the mere stating a fact
is approving of it. The only way to satisfy people would
be a plain protest the other way — silence gives consent.
This has been seen in the case of Rivington, who, between
ourselves, has read, has condemned, has given up the under-
taking — and now I am quite at sea with a quantity of matter
part printed, part written, part preparing, part promised, —
and though the pecuniary loss would be serious, if I stopped,
that is the least part of the difficulty — and I do not see but
I must go on — though I suppose there will be some delay.
There is no doubt that Rivington is taking a line. Pass
a few months, and we shall better be able to see how things
^ In the transcript there is a mark of interrogation over the word
' our ' as if it was not quite legible.
286 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
stand — but I suppose we shall lose the season. Meanwhile
we shall accumulate matter.
I do not see, do all I can, but the work will have a strong
Roman effect — the times were Roman — (nor can we be
protesting) and I fear in some writers the tone will be such
too, do what I will. Altering will but mar, not undo. Now
will you give me your opinion — ^which I always value very
much.
As to myself, I don't like talking. When we meet, we
shall see how we feel about it.
P.S. — I am much concerned to hear you talk of indis-
position.
To THE Same
Oriel College : December 5, 1843.
I have just got your and Gladstone's letters, for which,
and the promptitude which you and he have shown, I am
very much obliged indeed. As to your very kind offer at
the end, I cannot speak of it in such terms as I feel about
it — but I do not think that the work can stop, nor do I indeed
see what great advantage will come of much delay.
Your remarks I shall truly be obliged by your giving
me — and I send you back the sheets for that purpose.
I am sure no intentional attack on things as they are ^^^as
in the wish of the writer.
G.'s remarks have shown me the hopelessness by delay,
or any other means of escaping the disapprobation of a
number of persons whom I very much respect.
P.S. — May I keep G.'s letter ? I will not, unless you
fully allow me. I am very much obliged to him.
To THE Same
Oriel College : December 11, 1843.
I got your letter last night and proceeded at once to act
upon it. I altered nearly all the passages, though I ac-
quiesced far more in your ecclesiastical than your theological
objections. It seemed to me, that, considering the tone of
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 287
the whole composition, an alteration of the word (e.g.)
' merit ' was like giving milk and water for a fit of the
gout, while it destroyed its integrity, vigor, in a word
its go.
This feeling so grew upon me this morning, in conjunc-
tion with what you reported of Gladstone's apprehensions,
that I came to a resolve of abandoning the scheme in
toto — and have acted upon it. I think I have a view,
and have been happier than I have been about it for a
long time.
Now don't you be hasty, and think that this is a great
sacrifice, and that I am knocking under to people in authority,
or to such men as Gladstone ; no such thing. I can take
no such credit to myself. I assure you, to find that the
English Church cannot bear the Lives of her Saints (for so
I will maintain, in spite of Gladstone, is the fact) does not
tend to increase my faith and confidence in her. Nor am I
abandoning publication because I abandon this particular
measure. Rather, I consider I have been silent now for
several years on subjects of the day, and need not fear now
to speak.
I mean to publish now such Lives as are in type, or are
written, but as separate works. If these gradually mount
up towards the fulness of such an idea as the ' Lives of the
Saints ' contemplated, in progress of time, well and good.
And now, as publishing them separately I have thought I
might act more on my own judgement — and consequently,
while I have thankfully kept the alterations on the point
of ' exceptions ' and ' impropriations,' which you have led
me to make, I have put back again ' merit ' &c. &c., altera-
tions to which I submitted with a bad grace. I am con-
vinced that those passages are not flying in persons' faces,
but are parts of a whole, and express ideas which cannot
otherwise be expressed. I have altered the first page about
' hopes for the future.'
Further I have serious thoughts of giving in to the idea
which some people have, of setting up a review or something
of the kind, and supporting it as well as I can. And I should
288 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
not be loth to discuss in it such questions as the Pope's
supremacy.
Now the question is, what you have to say generally
to such a course. I should like to know how it strikes you.
And could you give me any hint about publishers ? I
suppose not. What strikes me at first, is to make overtures
to some such man as Toovey, and bring him forward in our
line. We want a man in our line.
Thanks for all the trouble you have taken.
To THE Same
Oriel College : December i6, 1843.
You have not understood me about Gladstone, doubtless
through my own fault. The truth is, I am making a great
concession — not to him, but to my respectful feelings towards
him. I thought you could see it, and only feared you would
think it greater than it really was. So I tried to put you
on your guard.
1. I withdrew my name from any plan. This is no slight
thing. I have frequent letters from people I do not know
on the subject of the Lives of Saints, and doubt not it is
raising much talk and interest. A name always gives point
to an undertaking — considering my connection with the
'Tracts for the Times,' it would especially do this. You
yourself and Badeley (whom please, thank, for some kind
trouble he has been at about a book for me) said, ' Delay
the plan, for you will be putting yourself at the head of the
extreme party — the '' B(ritish) C(ritic) '' having stopped : '
now, I am more than delaying, I am withdrawing my name.
I am sure this is a great thing, even though my initials
occurred to this or that life.
2. I have given up continuity, and that certain and
promised. 128 pp. were to come out every month, and the
work was to go on to the end, except as unforeseen accidents
interfered (as they have). Now we know how difficult
it is to keep people up to their work. The work is now left
to the unpledged zeal of individuals. And there will be
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 289
nothing methodical or periodical in it to force itself upon
people.
I do consider, then, I have given up a great deal. But
what I have not given up is the wish that the work should
be done ; only I have put it under great disadvantages —
so great that I think it never will be done — at the utmost
fragments will be done — and that without method, precision,
unity, and a name.
And why have I done this ? i. Sincerely because I
thought both by heading it and by giving it system I should
be administering a continual blister to the kind feelings
toward me, and the conscientious views of persons I respect
as I do G. I assure you it is no pleasant thing to me to
lose their good opinion, though I can't expect much to keep
it. 2. I fear to put up something the Bishops may aim at.
I may be charged at, as the Tracts have been. Then I
should be in a very false position. I must move forward
or backward, and I dread compulsory moves. 3. What
is the most immediate and practical point, I don't thiuk
I could get a publisher to take on him the expenses of a
series, but few people would dread the risk of a single life
of one or two hundred pages. Accordingly, I thiak I shall
publish the one of which you saw a bit, at once, to see
whether it sells. That I shall to a certain extent be con-
nected with it, and that I shall aim at making it a series,
is certain ; and this, as I said, was my reason for warning
you that I was not giving way to G. so fully as I appeared
to be.
I will add as to yourself, that my distinction between
your ecclesiastical and theological remarks were not a
principle, with which I started. It was a reflection which
came upon me on making an induction after I had thought
on your objections one by one.
P.S.— I hope the danger of the ' Dublin ' is passing away.
What set me most urgently on my present notice, was
that / could not help it. Tho' I gave up the series, which
I wished to do. Lives remained written or printed or promised,
which would appear anyhow, or scarcely could not. '
u
290 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
«
To THE Same
December 19, 1843.
Do you know whether I have ever, that is, whether I
have lately, for I suppose they are synonymous, taken the
liberty of asking Gladstone's acceptance of any of my
books ? If you know nothing, and I think you would know
if I had, will you send the inclosed to Rivington, (being so
kind as to seal it) and make some speech to Gladstone for
me ?
P.S. — I have written very badly. The inclosed is to
tell Rivington to send G. a copy of my Sermons ' from the
Author/
Archdeacon Manning to J. H. Newman
Lavington : Feast of St. Thomas [December 21], 1843.
My dear Newman, — Until an hour before I left London
on Saturday I had intended to stay Monday in Oxford
chiefly for the purpose of coming to Littlemore. I was
obliged to go to London to meet a person whom I was
preparing for confirmation the next day.
I have been reading your last volume of Sermons. What
I felt in reading the 21st to the end of the book, I will not
try to say. There are only two things I will notice. The
end of Sermon XXIV. p. 430 ^ is what I have been trying
to say to others and to myself. You have said it in a way
to which I can add nothing. If only this were ever kept
alive I should feel that there is a hope of all good before us :
whatever be the chastisements and humiliation through
which we reach it. I send you the enclosed, though I
know you will find much to censure, because I do not wish
you to think me other than I am, and because your words
referred to above are what I was trying to say at p. 15 at
the bottom. I know that I have omitted the adverse and
counter view of our state — as I did the other day : and I
have done so designedly because it seemed to me that so
^ Sermons on Subjects of the Day, p. 380. Uniform Edition.
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 291
many were labouring that side, and so few of those who
acknowledge, and feel the evils were even alluding to the
other. Men seemed to me to be growing slack and soured
from a feeling of hopelessness, and to be irritated rather
than stirred up to work. The other thing is what you say
of Orpah at the bottom of p. 455.1 x felt it bitterly from
the thought that you might think my words the smooth
words of one that would leave you for the world. I will
use no professions of attachment to you, or of my own
intentions and desires for myself. I had rather submit
to any thoughts in your heart, or in others. You have a
hard Hfe and an empty home before you, and so have I,
and I trust we shall walk together long enough to trust the
singleness of each other's eye and to love each other as
friends.
What I have gone through since I received your last
letter you will know better than I can tell you. I have
been overthrown by all manner of feelings : among which
the thought that you have been grieved at me, or dis-
appointed by me has made me have the saddest days I
have known a long time.
My dear Newman, do not suspect me as an empty
pretender if I say that the only thing that has kept me up
in the last six years and more of trial, and the only thing
I look for until death is to save the Church in which I was
bom again. Doubtful thoughts about it are dreadful —
and seem to take all things from me.
I could not help writing this to you, for it has been in
my mind day after day : and yet I have shrunk from
doing it, until I read, your words about Orpah. And after
all I feel that all this may seem to you no better than
her kiss.
May we be guided and kept from and against ourselves.
Believe me, my dear Newman,
Ever yours affectionately,
H. E. Manning.
1 Ibid.^-p.^402,
292 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
The Sermons spoken of are ' Sermons Bearing on Subjects
of the Day/ Sermon XXIV is entitled ' Ehjah the Prophet
of the Latter Days.' The passage alluded to by Manning
is the concluding paragraph. ' What want we then but
faith in our church ? .... If we have a secret misgiving
about her, all is lost. . . . Let it not be so with us . . . let
us accept her as God's gift and our portion ; let us imitate
him who, when he was " by the bank of Jordan " took
the mantle of Elijah, that fell from him, and smote the
waters, and said, " Where is the Lord God of Elijah ? " She
is like the mantle of Elijah, a relic from Him who is gone
up on high.' In the last phase of his Anglicanism
Newman dwelt much on Elijah, the prophet sent to the
schismatical kingdom of Israel (see ' Apologia,' pp. 152-154).
In a visitation charge delivered the previous July Arch-
deacon Manning had said, ' The first condition of our use-
fulness at this day is this, — a steadfast and thorough faith
in the life and truth of the Church of England,' &:c.
J. H. Newman to Archdeacon Manning
December 24, 1843.
My dear Manning, — How can I thank you enough for
your most kind letter received last night ? — and what can
have led you to entertain the thought that I could ever be
crossed by the idea which you consider may have been
suggested to me by the name of Orpah ? Really, unless
it were so sad a matter, I should smile ; the thought is as
far from me as the Antipodes. Rather I am the person who
to myself always seem, and reasonably, the criminal ; I
cannot afford to have hard thoughts which can more
plausibly be exercised against myself. And yet to speak
of myself, how could I have done otherwise than I have
done or better ? I own indeed to great presumption and
recklessness in my work of writing on ecclesiastical subjects,
on various occasions, yet still I have honestly trusted our
Church and wished to defend her as she wishes to be
defended. I wasn't surely wrong in defending her on that
basis which our divines have ever built and on which alone
they can pretend to build. And how could I foresee that
when I examined that basis I should feel it to require a
RESIGNATION OF ST. MARY'S 293
system different from hers and that the Fathers to which
she led me would lead me from her ? I do not see then
that I have been to blame ; yet it would be strange if I had
heart to blame others who are honest in maintaining what
I am abandoning.
It is no pleasure to me to differ from friends — no comfort
to be estranged from them — no satisfaction or boast to
have said things which I must unsay. Surely I will remain
where I am as long as I can. I think it right to do so. If
my misgivings are from above, I shall be carried on in spite
of my resistance. I cannot regret in time to come having
struggled to remain where I found myself placed. And
believe me, the circumstance of such men as yourself being
contented to remain is the strongest argument in favour
of my own remaining. It is my constant prayer, that if
others are right I may be drawn back — that nothing may
part us.
Thank you for your charge and the passage you point
out. I was pleased to see the coincidence between us.
I am, my dear Manning,
Ever yours affectionately,
John H. Newman.
This letter was also sent to Gladstone, who made the
following suggestions in a letter to Manning dated Dec-
ember 31.^ Could Manning by a discreet use of his know-
ledge influence some of the Bishops in the direction of
being more moderate in their charges ? ' Are there any
Bishops — I think there must be many — who believe that
the event we know to be possible would be, to the Church,
an inexpressible calamity ? These are the men whom to
contemplate in any practical measure.' Newman might
be warned ' of the immense consequences that may hang
upon his movements.' ' Cords of silk should one by one
be thrown over him to bind him to the Church. Every
manifestation of sympathy and confidence in him, as a
man, must have some small effect.' This last suggestion
shows that Gladstone had got rid of the unfavourable
impression made upon his mind by his misunderstanding
of the second of Newman's letters to Manning.
^ Lathbury, Letters and Correspondence on Church and Religion of
W, E. Gladstone, vol. i. pp. 290 fi.
CHAPTER VIII
IN RETIREMENT
' I come, O mighty Mother ! I come, but I am far from home. Spare
me a little ; I come with what speed I may, but I am slow of foot, and
not as others, O mighty Mother ! '
During the year 1844 Newman was still busy with his St.
Athanasius. The brief introductory note to the second
volume of the ' Select Treatises ' &c., merely saying, ' The
Preliminary Matter is unavoidably postponed/ is dated
December 6. In regard to his doubts, he seems almost
to have given up struggling against them, but he did nothing
to bring them to an issue till the beginning of 1845, when he
set to work upon his Essay on Development. He was
contented to wait, looking on, it might almost be said like
a passive spectator, at the workings of his own mind.
Meanwhile he was glad that his state of unsettlement should
gradually become known, for he did not wish that people
should go on pinning their faith to him, or that there should
be any panic and confusion if eventually he did leave the
Church of England. In July a Bishop announced gleefully
that ' The adherents of Mr. Newman are few in number. A
short time will now sufhce to prove this fact. It is well known
that he is preparing for secession ; and, when that event
takes place, it will be seen how few will go with him.' Sumus
homines mortales . . . lutea vasa portantes, quae faciunt
invicem angustias. Sed si angustiantur vasa carnis, dila-
tentur spatia caritatis — the spaces of charity in the Bishop's
breast might have been widened had there been someone
to tell him that if Mr. Newman's adherents were few in
number, it was so by Mr. Newman's deliberate choice and
act. The distress he was causing his friends, the discomfiture
of those who had loyally stood by him in the matter of
Tract 90, pierced Newman to the heart ; and he was not
wholly insensible to a feeling of personal humiliation at
having to admit that he had changed his opinions. But all
IN RETIREMENT
295
this was nothing compared with the thought that he was
doing the very thing which of all others he most hated —
unsettling men's religious convictions. The theory of
the Via Media elaborated in the Prophetical Office of the
Church and others of his writiags, had satisfied , the reason
and conscience of thousands who before were without
much definite religious belief. Now he was telling them
that it was untenable. Who could estimate the effect of
such a shock upon their minds ? How many, their first
great venture of faith having been brought to naught, must
be led to despair of ever finding religious truth, and even
though they made no change of profession would have their
spiritual life numbed by uncertainty and doubt ?
The reader will probably like to know how Newman's
days were passed during these times of perplexity. Some
interesting documents concerning his life at Littlemore
have fortunately been preserved. One is a time-table
jotted down on a half -sheet of notepaper in 1842 :
5-64 Matins and Lauds ^
6J-7 Breakfast.
']-']\ Prime.
7J-10 Study, etc., with
Tierce,
lo-ii Morning Prayers —
Chapel.^
1 1-2 Study, etc., with
Sext.
2-3 Recreation.
3-3! Evening Prayers —
Chapel. 2
3I-4I Recreation.
4J-6 Study, etc., with None.
6-6 J Supper.
^\~l\ Recreation.
7^-9 J Study, etc.
9^-10 Vespers.
10-10 J Compline.
10^5 Sleep, etc.
No talking except between 2 and 7J.
Summary
Devotions
. \\ hrs
Study . . . .
. 9
Meals
. I
Recreation
. . 2i
Sleep
, . 6|
24
1 For the Divine Office the Roman Breviary was used ; but the Anti-
phons of our Lady were conscientiously omitted as containing direct
Invocation; which was not sanctioned by the Enghsh Church.
3 I.e. the AngUcan Service at the pubhc chapel.
296 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
This is how Lent was kept at Littlemore in 1844. It
was ' lighter this year/
' I. We have eaten no flesh meat (including suet) on
Sundays or week-days.
' 2. We have not broken fast till 12.
'3. At 12 we have taken a slice of bread. The full meal
at 5 — ^but we had the choice (which perhaps we never used)
of taking the full meal at 12, and the bread at 5.
' 4. There was no restriction on tea at any hour early
or late.
* 5. Nor [at the full meal] on butter, sugar, salt, fish, etc.
Wine on Sundays.'
' I have not/ he added, * felt any rule so light since I
have attempted anything. This I attribute to drinking
very freely of tea, as early as 8 or 9 a.m. with sugar in it.
I am told I do not look ill.'
It must be remembered that Newman and his friends
were reviving the discipline of fasting. They had to ascer-
tain what was practicable by actual experience.
They went into retreat twice a year, in Lent and in
Advent, for seven days.^ Newman made notes of the various
meditations, how he had got on with them, what thoughts
and practical resolutions they suggested to him, &c. He
kept his mind rigidly fixed on the subject of the meditation.
Only once, and then it was quite in order, does the subject
of his religious doubts come up. 'I renewed my surrender
of myself in all things to God, to do with me what He
would at any cost. Various great trials struck me.' He
enumerated four, and added, ' I considered that God is
used to accept offers, but, I trust, he will not exact such.'
One of these ' great trials ' was ' having to join the Church
of Rome.' ^
Rev. J. Keble to J. H. Newman
January 22, 1844.
My very dear Newman, — It is a longful time since we
had any communication, and something within me tells
1 They used the Exercises of St. Ignatius, or books based upon them.
* The reader who is puzzled at the frame of mind which made such a
prayer possible should study Sermons XXI-XXIV, in the volume Sermons
on Subjects of the Day, especially the one entitled ' Elijah the Prophet of
the Latter Days,' where much is made of the fact that the Prophet did not
bid the ten schismatical tribes return to their allegiance to Judah, and
worship God in Jerusalem. While he was still in perplexity, Newman
seems almost unconsciously to have looked upon a call to join the Church
as something like a special vocation.
IN RETIREMENT 297
me, it is a heartless thing to let a Christmas and New Year
come and go, and not say one word to you, to whom under
God one is indebted for so very much of the comfort and
hope which they have been allowed to bring with them.
Whether one is deceiving one's self or not, who can tell ?
. . . but, still, so it is, that, in spite of perplexities, I do
not know when a year has passed over my head, on the
whole, with so much of peace, as this last. May it only
not prove a delusion !
And you, dear friend, in the meantime, what have
you not been undergoing, and little have I felt for you in
comparison of what you felt and did for me ; and even now
I very much fear, from two or three sadly toned sentences
in Pusey's last letters (though he neither names nor describes
anyone) that your troubles are unassuaged. ... I think and
think, it seems all to no purpose ; for when I come to set
it down, it will be only telling you over again what you
have yourself told me and others. These, however, are some
of my impressions : —
First, I feel more strongly with every month's, week's,
day's experience, the danger of tempting God, and the deep
responsibility I should have to bear, were I to forsake this
communion ; and yet with the same lapse of time one seems
to feel more and more the truth and beauty and majesty of
so much which they have and we seem at least to have not.
Secondly, one is at times very, very strongly impressed
with the thought of the Evil One, how surely he would
endeavour to ruin the good work, supposing it begun, in the
English Church, by laying hold of any undiscerned weakness
or ill tendency in the agents to entice or drive them out of it.
Such tendencies one can imagine in your case ; among the
rest a certain restlessness, a longing after something more,
something analogous to a very exquisite ear in music, which
would keep you, I should think, in spite of yourself, intel-
lectually and morally dissatisfied wherever you were. If
you were in a convent, you would be forced to subdue it,
and, as it were, swallow it down ; may it not perhaps be
your calling now to do the same, though under no such
definite rule, for others' sake as well as your own ? May it
298 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
not be your duty, according to your own line of argument
just made public, to suppress your misgivings, nay what
seem your intellectual convictions, as you would any other
bad thoughts, making up your mind that the conclusion
is undutiful, and therefore there must be some delusion in
the premisses ?
Another thought one has is of the utter confusion and
perplexity, the astounding prostration of heart and mind,
into which so many would be thrown, were their guide
and comforter to forsake them all at once, in the very act,
as it would seem to them, of giving them dii*ections which
they most needed. I really suppose that it would be to
thousands quite an indescribable shock, a trial almost too
hard to be borne, making them sceptical about everything
and everybody.
Surely, when it is a person's duty (as St. Paul's) to take
such a step as that, the tokens from above will be such (one
naturally expects,) as no one could mistake ; and may we
not piously believe, that, where it is the will of Divine
Providence that such persons as Pusey (for example) should
leave their present communion, something equivalent to
the Voice will occur, such as an unequivocal act of heresy
on the part of our Church, leaving no doubt on the mind ;
and that, till such tokens are given, it is His will men
should stay where they are. I am running on, I fear, not
very wisely ; and I wish I may not be distressing you ;
but, if I could express myself better, I believe I really
mean what I have learned from yourself.
And another thought, which has been much on my mind
lately, and which I mentioned to Oakeley the other day in
reference to his plan about St. Bernard, is, If the Medieval
system is really the intended development of Primitive
CathoHcity, is it not the most natural way for the EngHsh
Church to recover it through Primitive CathoHcity, instead
of being urged directly to it ; and therefore even on medieval
principles are we not doing the best in confining ourselves
for the present to those things in which the earher Church
is unquestionably with us ? I do not know whether this is
IN RETIREMENT 299
worth anything ; but I put down whatever occurs to me ;
and as far as I see at present, this would be a safe and dutiful
rule with regard to the Enghsh Church, yet ample and large
enough for far more improvement than the most sanguine
dare expect in our time.
I am writing in great ignorance, and very Hkely quite
beside the mark. If I pain or disturb you, forgive me.
Somehow or other I was almost forced to write. You know
I see you looking at me day after day, and I must speak to
you now and then ; and, when I speak, I must say what is
in my head. May it do no harm, if it does no good. I am
sure my account is heavy enough without that.
Wilson seems steadily better ; and I am in great hopes
that he will be able to stay with us comfortably. Do not
trouble yourself to write to me, except, when you can do it
conveniently and without irksomeness, and do not speak
of things which perhaps you had rather not. I wish you
may be able to report well of your sister and of Bowden.
My brother is better than he was — ^but yet I fear decidedly
not quite well.
Ever and ever I hope,
Your affectionate and grateful,
J. K.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Littlemore : January 23, 1844.
My dear Keble, — It is not for want of thinking of you
and meaning to write to you that I keep silent, but I have so
great a reluctance to take up my pen, though I have long
owed you a letter — and I do not know how to talk about
myself, even for fear of saying not [what ?] is not exact about
my feehngs, of saying what is unreal and the hke. Yet I
do owe you a letter and mean some time to pay it.
More thanks to you than I can give, for your present most
kind letter, which is just like you. Thanks for what you
tell me about yourself, and thanks for your kind anxiety
about me.
300 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
I am in no distress of mind at present — that is, whatever
is truth, and whatever is not, I do not feel called to do any-
thing but go on where I am, and this must be peace and
quietness — and whatever is before us, in this one may
rej oice, and not take thought for the morrow. I fear I must
say I have a steadily growing conviction about the Enghsh
Church — you will understand what I mean — and this I
think without any effort of mine. The early Church has
all along been my Hne of study — and I am still occupied
upon it. For some time, I suppose, I shall be upon ' the
Arians ' and the second part of the volume of St. Athanasius.
It is this hne of reading, and no other, which has led me
Romeward. Not that I read it with that view.
I wish to resist, as I always have — and think it a duty.
I am sure, if it be right to go forward, I shall be forced
on in spite of myself. Somehow I cannot feel the question
of dutifulness so strongly as it is sometimes put. Was
it undutifulness to the Mosaic Law, to be led on to the
Gospel ? was not the Law from God ? How could a Jew,
formerly or now, ever become a Christian, if he must at
all hazards resist convictions and for ever ? How could
a Nestorian or Monophysite join the Catholic Church but
by a similar undutifulness ?
What I wish is, not to go by my own judgment, but
by something external, like the pillar of the cloud in the
desert. Such is the united movement of many. The
publishing those Sermons is like Gideon's fleece. If it
were permanently to stop people, this would have a great
influence on me. I should think there was something
real in the view. What I fear is, that they are only inge-
nious ; but the event alone can show this, and it seemed
to me right to make the experiment, that is, rather, burying
what might be a talent not to publish them [sic\. A simple-
hearted and clever young woman, who had been per-
plexed with doubts about Rome, on reading my University
Sermons, suddenly rose from her chair and said * This
is what I wanted, this satisfies me.' How they satisfied
her I have no notion, or whether they will eventually.
IN RETIREMENT 301
But still if this kind of effect did follow from what I had
written, (or from what anyone else wrote) it would tend
greatly to convince me that my duty was where I am.
On the other hand I must not conceal, that letters, which
I receive continually from persons whom I know and
whom I know not, show me that a movement is going on
in cases which are little suspected and in minds which
are struggling against it.
Ever3rthing is hid from us as to the effect of things.
People are unsettled as it is. As years go on, they either
will become settled, or they will be gradually more and
more unsettled. If my thoughts had been led through
the early Church to Rome, why should not others ? We
know nothing of the effects of one's own hypothetical
acts. There have been events ten thousand times more
unsettling than the change of individuals now. St. Paul
must have unsettled all the good and conscientious people
in the Jewish Church. Unsettling may be a blessing, even
where minds are not already unsettled.
I hope I am not wrong, but I have lately been praying
that ' if / am right, Pusey, Manning etc. may be brought
forward ; but if Pusey, Manning etc. are right, I may
be brought back — ^that nothing, if it be possible, may
separate us.'
One thing I will add — I sometimes have uncomfort-
able feelings as if I should not like to die in the English
Church. It seems to me that, while Providence gives one
time, it is even a call upon one to make use of it in deliber-
ateness and waiting — ^but that, did He cut short one's
hours of grace, this would be a call to make up one's mind
on what seemed most probable.
I have written all this, as it occurred to me, only that
you might see my state of mind — not in the way of argument.
I wish I could sufficiently thank you for, or duly feel,
the kindness of your letter. May God bless you for it.
What you told me about Wilson was a great relief
— Bowden, thank God, is certainly better. It looks as if
a crisis were passed, but we must be cautious in speaking.
302 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
1 wish my sister were really better, but her recovery will
be very slow.
Ever yours most affectionately,
John H. Newman.
Rev. J. Keble to J. H. Newman
February 21, 1844.
I must write one line to you this day, because it is
the 2ist of February, 1 and who is more bound than I to
remember you with all manner of good wishes ? May
this Lent be blessed and peaceful to you, and to the many
who more or less have been caused by Providence to
depend on you.
I have hardly time to say more ; but, as a second
edition of your new Sermons is advertised, I will mention an
erratum which my wife has observed ; in p. 150 line 16
* The flood of God's grace keeps it level.' Should it not be
' its level ' ? It is a little thing to be sure.
Another thought which has come into my mind on
reading your 15th Sermon ^ is about the application of the
second commandment, which one would expect to be as
literal as that of the fourth. And, if it be so, is it not a
caution against the authorised practice of the greater
part of Christendom ? And, if this be so, would it now
be well to mention it somewhere in the Sermon or in a
note ?
Ever your thankful and affectionate,
J. Keble.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Littlemore : Feb. 26/44.
My dear Keble, — Thanks for your kind remembrance
and thoughts of me on the 21st.
The second Edition of my Sermons has been out some
^ Newman's birthday.
2 In Sermons on Subjects of the Day.
IN RETIREMENT 303
time. I am vexed that the misprint you notice should be
in two Editions.
As to the second Commandment, with reference to
Sermon 15, I have been accustomed to think that in the
words ' Thou shalt not make to thyself ' the force of the
sentence lies in * to thyself.' The sin was not in bowing
down to a created emblem of the Creator, but to a self-
devised emblem. In Exodus xxxiii. 10, the people fall
down before the cloudy pillar as the token of the unseen
God. They were told in like manner to look upon the
Brazen Serpent in order that they might live. On the other
hand that the fault lay in the ' making to themselves '
emblems is implied in Amos v. 26 (so also Acts vii. 43) where
vid. St. Jerome's comment, and in Deut. iv. 15-18 the fault
is making to themselves a likeness which they had no means
divinely provided of making ; * Ye saw no similitude.'
And so Jeroboam sacrificed ' unto the calves which he had
made ' ' in the month which he had devised of his own heart.'
The same emphasis occurs in Judges xviii. I should say
then, if asked, that the sin denounced in the second Com-
mandment is unauthorised worship. That Protestants are
in many ways guilty of this sin is evident ; indeed they
would confess that they act of their own minds, and would
count it a part of their Christian freedom, liberty of con-
science etc. to do so. Whether the Greek and Latin
Churches are guilty of it or not, at least they deny it, and
say that the Church has the divinely granted right of in-
novating or adding in matters of ceremony and worship,
(whether this is true or not). From what Palmer of Mag-
dalen says, one should fear that the Russian lower classes
do almost worship graven images. I suppose they are much
lower and more ignorant than the R. Catholics — except
indeed in places half heathen, as in South America.
What has been argued above about the words ' to thy-
self ' seems to fit in to what forms one main part of the
Sermon in question ; the principle that Scripture prohibi-
tions are not simple prohibitions but secundum quid. The
Sabbath is done away, not simpliciter, but as a carnal
304 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
ordinance. I recollect as long ago as 1834, long before
I felt the force of the argument for Rome, being perplexed
at seeing that the same distinction which enabled us to
condemn circumcision as a carnal ordinance yet to maintain
baptism, would avail for the cultus imaginum, as if it was
forbidden to the Jews because the heathen images were
carnal, likenesses of devils, etc. etc., which is not the case
with the images of Saints. But enough of this.
Ever yours very affectionately,
John H. Newman.
Rev. J. Keble to J. H. Newman
February 29, 1844.
I have had several letters lately from and to-day
met him at Winchester at his request, and (this is in confid-
ence) I fear it is too plain . . . that his mind is seriously
affected. ... He is likely enough to be attacking you . . .
... I dare say you are sufficiently pestered with
remarks on your publications, but I will mention what
occurs to me without scruple, because I know you will not
be affronted at them, and I shall not be affronted, if you
take no notice of them.
I will just say then i. that I should like the passage to be
a little more guarded, in which you speak of our Lord eating
and drinking in appearance at least, p. 32,^ because it is a
passage which sets persons thinking ' What possibly can
he mean ? ' And some will think irreverently, some with a
perplexed fear of irreverence ; while you, I dare say, with
a word or two could make the whole matter comparatively
clear.
Thank you for your reply to my question about the
second Commandment. I should not doubt the correctness
of the view, as being at least a great part of the meaning of
the Commandment. Still, if we make it the meaning, will
it not strike most persons as partaking very much of the
^ p. 28 in Uniform Edition, where the clause ' in His own words ' is
substituted to meet Keble's objection.
IN RETIREMENT 305
same kind of subtlety which you complain of in some
expositions of the fourth ?
I think I ought to add, that I have had it remarked to
me by one whose opinion on these matters I think you
would value, that the tone of this your last volume is in
general, from whatever cause, more positive and dogmatic
than the former ones ; sometimes, it was hinted, quite
startling, from the determinate way in which so and so
is laid down to be the only possible sense of Scripture in
such and such places. This was what I understood to be
meant, and I thought it on the whole as well that you
should know that such a thought came into the mind of a
considerate person, and one greatly disposed to defer to
every word of yours. ^
I am very sorry to understand from letters of Pusey^s,
that he is greatly pained at the unreserved way in which some
of our friends are going on to recommend the whole of the
Roman devotional system, especially as regards St. Mary.
Surely, they can hardly know how much he suffers by it :
else, it is indeed a heavy responsibility they take on them.
The thought will always recur that I have no right to
write like this on these matters ; but, however, I have
written, and you will kindly bear with me, I am sure of
that. Therefore do not tax yourself to write any sooner
than is quite convenient. There seems a chance of my
coming up before long about this Divinity Statute.
Ever your thankful and affectionate,
J. Keble.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Littlemore : March 2, 744 .
My dear K., — Your remark about A. P. P. quite confirms
what, alas, I guessed. I am truly grieved at it.
Thank you for your question about my positiveness.
It is meant for my own consideration, I know ; and I should
1 In the copy which he made of Keble's letters before he parted with
the originals, Newman wrote in the margin of this paragraph, ' Vid. letter
of Sept. 4, 1843, about Knox.'
3o6 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
not speak about it, except that I am so little conscious of it,
and for other reasons think it so far from the case, that I
wish you to get some instances specified which I may think
about. I have observed, that whenever a reader agrees or
is not startled, he sees nothing positive in what he would
call positive, were it new to him or questionable. Not
that I mean to say that I am not positive in this last volume
— but I think I am positive in the others quite as much
i.e. sententious. The ' other reason ' I allude to is this — •
that the Sermons have been written at very different times
in the course of the last twelve years, and have not much
been altered for publication — one was written in 1832,
two 1836, two in 1838, ten in 1840-41 — only seven out of
twenty-six in 1843. And they were written among other
sermons. I do not think then they are likely to be marked
by any character of mind which does not attach to z}X mv
Sermons.
Thank you also for what you say about p. 32. I have
looked at it — but you must kindly state more definitely
what you mean when you next write, since at present I do
not get into your idea enough to alter the passage by it.
If you allude to R. WiUiams and his Breviary plan
as paining Pusey, I really know very Httle about it. I
beheve he is content to wait any time, but does not Hke
to pubhsh it with alterations or what he would call muti-
lations — and that from reverence for the Breviary. Per-
haps I ought to add, though it will pain you, that for
myself I have no difficulty in the Breviary in toto, though
you are the first person to whom I say so.
It comes into my head you may mean Oakeley's plan
of translating St. Bernard. I wish I had had any idea
that P's feeling was what you represent, since I would not
have subscribed to it. As it is, my name, I beheve, is in
print. My opinion about the pubhcation was not asked —
and since I saw the Prospectus, what I have said has been
to throw cold water upon it.
Ever yours affectionately,
J. H. N.
IN RETIREMENT 307
P.S. — I am tempted to quote your own words about
my p. 32 * What possibly can he mean ? ' I have not a
dream of what you are alluding to or think I had in mind.
By ' in appearance at least ' I mean our Lord's saying
that He ' came eating and drinking/ or if not, yet this was
what people thought of Him, as He did not come with St.
John's visible austerity. I neither meant more than this,
nor can I conceive what or why people should think I
meant more.
Sunday. — I have just seen the ' B. Mag.' which also alludes
to these words. Nothing but the extreme sensitiveness
and nervousness of people (which I cannot of course wonder
at) could so extort a hidden meaning out of plain words.
I suppose my best course in another edition is to leave
out ' at least in outward appearance.' I put them in,
as feehng it irreverent to say our Lord came ' eating and
drinking ' as if it impHed that He was a ' wine-bibber.'
Rev. J. Keble to J. H. Newman
March 3, 1844.
I shall not be able to reply to all your note this evening,
but I will say a word or two.
With regard to the words in p. 32, my saying people
would say * What can he mean ? ' (which I am sorry for,
fearing that it has pained you) I merely meant that they
would be perplexed to know what the meaning was — not
that they would put a bad meaning, as the ' B(ritish) M(aga-
zine) ' probably has, and as another journal, first cousin
to it, I know has. I myself put the same meaning to the
words which you do, but I do not think this would strike
every reader, because, the words which are qualified being
our Saviour's own, it would not strike them that they
needed quaUfication, and they would be looking out for
some other meaning.
Pusey is certainly perplexed by what R. Williams
has lately written about the Breviary, because it seems
3o8 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
to him and to me also not quite to agree with what he
wrote to me before ; but I think his, R. Ws', feehng very
natural and would not on any account press him against
it. Pray tell P. this, if the subject is started between you,
for I have just been writing to him and have not sufficiently
expressed this. Of course Williams' drawing back is about
as great a check to us as we could have, but it would be
exceedingly painful, had he given way and repented after-
wards. I don't think P. in what he wrote to me was think-
ing either of him or of Oakeley's St. Bernard, but rather
of a plan which he hears Mr. Christie (Albany) has of pub-
hshing the ' Paradisus Animae ' entire (I conclude in EngHsh)
as also the 'Horae Diumae.'
For my own part, until I could be convinced that this
Church has no authority, I seem to see my way clearly
thus far, that I ought to lay myself out upon those additions
to her system and ritual which I am sure are in Antiquity,
such as Monasticism, Prayers for the Dead, etc., rather than
upon those which by consent of all parties were not de-
veloped till afterwards.
I should have been pained, I dare say, at what you say
of your feeling about the Breviary, had I not supposed
from former letters that you had laid aside your objections.
My grand swallow of pain on the subject was perhaps three
quarters of a year ago, when I received a long letter of
yours and retired into a deserted old chalk pit to read it. I
cannot tell you with what sort of fancy I look at the place now.
About the positiveness I cannot say much just now.
The impression was that in the manner of quoting Scripture
this sort of form occurred continually, ' Such a text cannot
mean anything but so and so.' It had not struck the
person before, and was not now connected with any par-
ticular difference of opinion. I will apply for instances.*
Ever your affectionate and grateful,
J. K.
* (I never got any — and don't think they were to be found. The
instances ought to have gone originally with the charge. It illustrates
how coloured from this time the views were of me, and my words and
deeds.— J. H. N.)
IN RETIREMENT 309
Newman was continually being asked to contradict
reports that he had left the Church of England.
; A Clergyman to J. H. Newman
March ii, 1844.
Reverend Sir, — A Revd. H. Stowell, perhaps unknown
to you, ' President of the Manchester and Salford Protestant
and Reformation Society,' has publicly and distinctly stated
that ' Mr. Newman has been obliged to leave the Church of
England and go over to Rome.' I enclose the extract from
his speech. Would you be kind enough to say for your own
sake, and for our satisfaction, whether this be so. Whether
or not you hold the ' Cure of Souls ' at Littlemore in the
Diocese of Oxford. This would be a sufficient answer. As
the statement has been publicly made at the Annual Meeting
of the Reformation Society, I trust, if it is untrue, you will
allow me to give it a pubhc contradiction through the same
medium in which it has been circulated. I know this may
be painful to you, but the case requires such a procedure.
Yours most respectfully, etc.
' J. H. Newman to a Clergyman
March 12/44.
Dear Sir, — I beg to thank you for your note just received,
and the extract enclosed in it from a speech ascribed to a
clergyman who is President of the Manchester and Salford
Protestant and Reformation Society.
In answer to your question whether I do not * hold and
serve the Cure of Souls at Littlemore in the Diocese of
Oxford,' I have to inform you that I am not in the discharge
of any duties whatsoever in the Church of England.
And in answer to your request that I would publicly
contradict the statement contained in the speech above
referred to, that ' Mr. Newman has been obliged to leave the
Church of England, and go over to Rome,' I observe that
this statement has no foundation whatever in fact.
Thanking you for the kindness which has prompted
your note,
I am, etc.
310 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
J. H. Newman to J. R. Hope, Esq.
Littlemore : March 14th, 1844.
My dear Hope, — I ought to have answered your question
before now. As to our Guest Chamber, it is quite at your
service — but your question has somewhat fidgetted me,
lest you should expect more than you actually ask about.
Pray do not fancy us in such a state that we can profess
a retreat, or anyone here able to conduct one. It has
been our object among ourselves to attempt something
of the sort several times, but (what may make you smile
from its absurdity) without a director because we did not
know where to go for one. And as to Passion week, we
were obliged to take it last year from circumstances, and
found it not fitted for anything so exhausting as a series
of meditations — i.e. we rather overdid matters. I cannot
then promise anything but a room where you may be your
own master and have no one interfering with you — ^but
so much I will gladly promise. Or if you wish a lodging
in Littlemore, as being more quiet than Oxford, that I can
easily get you.
I have nothing to tell you about my own concerns.
St. Stephen is liked much, and thought moderate. The
Family of St. Richard, our next, is somewhat stronger and
not so interesting, but very practical. I am rather anxious
about it. We have several good ones coming afterwards,
none very strong, but I shall not know much about them,
as time goes on. I am glad that Gladstone is pleased with
what I did. I did all I could under my then engagements
and promises. Had such opinions as his and Pusey's
happened to come sooner, I should have given up the whole
plan. At the same time I do not think I have more than
thrown it back, and when it revives, of course it will be
in less safe hands than mine. Also, G. ought to be aware,
as I daresay he is, that a series of thwartings such as I have
experienced, (I do not mean, creates, which logically they
cannot do) but realizes, verifies, substantizes, a (pavrao-ua
of the English Church very unfavourable to her Catholicity.
IN RETIREMENT 311
If a person is deeply convinced in his reason that her claims
to Catholicity are untenable, but fears to trust his reason,
such events, when they come upon him again and again,
seem to do just what is wanting, corroborate his reason
experimentally. They force upon his imagination and
familiarize his moral perception with the conclusions of
his intellect. Propositions become facts.
J. H. Newman to Rev. W. Dodsworth
Littlemore : March i8, 1844.
It is not easy to return an answer to your question.
In matter of fact we are full here, but I suppose we might
make more room — ^but under the circumstances great
caution is necessary for the sake of all parties in forming
such relations as you speak of with anyone. I say under
the circiunstances, for I suppose, had we any right to be
considered what we are aiming at, we should be wrong
to consult personal feelings and likings, or to be guided by
knowledge of individuals, &c. I suppose a religious house
ought frankly to receive anyone who shows himself in earnest,
without respect of persons. But this presupposes a state
of things very different from that under which we find
ourselves. The principle of obedience does not exist in our
Church — i.e. (as regards a religious House) the principle of
assimilation, or a digestive power. We have no head to
whom obedience is due. We have no ecclesiastical autho-
rity, no episcopal blessing. We have no vows, obliging
persons to be resigned, when the spirit or flesh rebels. We
have no sacramental services, compensating for hardships,
relieving the dreariness or monotony (as some would find
it) of a retreat. For all these reasons it seems allowable or
necessary to pick and choose our associates, and to make
personal attachment the principle of admission. Else the
whole attempt would be overset. Nor am I speaking
merely theoretically. You see then I can return no answer
to your question.
312 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
One thing, I think, we seem to be agreed upon — though
I should not like it mentioned — to make sacramental con-
fession a sine qua non among those who belong to us — and
as there is more than one priest here, this does not involve
any general subjection to one person.
Perceval called on me here. He had sent me a letter
in the beginning of February, from which I inferred too
truly how it was with him. He since has asked for it back
— so I suppose means to publish it. It will not strike others
however.
J. H. Newman to J. R. Hope, Esq.
Oriel : May 14th, 1844.
Your change of intention surprised, and did not quite
please me, I mean I could not help fearing it might in part
be owing to something I told you about myself.
Yet I do not know how I can repent of having spoken to
you. To have kept silence for five years, is giving oneself
a long probation. If my confidence in myself bore any
proportion to the strength of my persuasion, I should not be
where I am, but I know that, the more free I may be (if so)
from the influence of ordinary wrong motives, so I may be
warped without knowing it by some more subtle bias.
I thought over the question you put to me, and the only
additional remark I had to make, was one I should have
mentioned to you the first time I wrote, though it did not
alter my conclusion, viz. I thought there might be this
danger in your accepting the offices you have declined : —
It seems to me that your tendency is to view things as a
great scheme or game, and that when you once were in
it, the fact that you were engaged in a game would have
exerted a bias to keep you in it, even when reason &c.
spoke differently.
And now, in mentioning this peculiarity which I think
I partly see in you, you will ujiderstaud what I mean above
IN RETIREMENT 313
by alluding to the possibility of unknown biases in myself,
which, if they exist, I would fain detect. I am not conscious
of the one I have just mentioned.
Ever yours sincerely,
John H. Newman.
J. H. Newman to Mr. Serjeant Bellasis
Littlemore : June 8, 1844.
I am much provoked with myself that, when I saw you
yesterday morning, I did not thank you for your kind note
sometime since about the Life of St. Stephen. At this time
I meant to have written to you — then, I resolved to thank
you the first opportunity ; that opportunity having slipt
me, I now write. Your letter was the first opinion I had
had upon it, and very acceptable it was. The second edition
is now almost running out — and there is appearance of a
third being probable.
Had I any leisure when I was in London, I should have
attempted the pleasure of calling on you, but I went up on a
sort of business, and was kept to my work, such as it was.
Do not think me rude to direct to you ' Esqr.' — I do not
know what the etiquette is.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Littlemore : June 8, 744 .
My dear Keble, — Pattison wishes me to tell you that
friends of his, a lady and daughter, are going into your
Parish. So far you must know — at least you know them,
and have been civil to them already — ^but what you do not
know, and he wishes you to know, is, that they have come
to Hursley to be * under your superintendence.' I do not
know what the phrase means, but when he and I had
repeated it several times, and no light seemed thrown
upon it, I dropped the subject. Perhaps he does not know
either. If you wish, I can inquire.
I ought to take this opportunity of writing to you a
314 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
long letter, to which I have a great repugnance because it
is about myself — not to say that writing intelligibly makes
my hand ache. But you should know my state of mind —
and though the disgust of writing, and the thought of the
worry and worse that my letters give you, almost deter
me, and I don't know how I shall get on, I will attempt
to do it.
I have thought much lately of the words in Bishop
Andrewes' Morning Prayer — ' Despise not the work of Thine
own hands ' — he repeats it in various forms, as addressed
to Each of the Persons of the Most Holy Trinity. May I
not take comfort in this plea which they contain ? ' Thine
Hands have made me and fashioned me.' I look back to
past years, or rather to all my years since I was a boy,
and I say, ' Is it come to this ? has God forgotten to be
gracious ? would He have led me on so far to cast me off ?
what have I done to be given over, if it be such, to a spirit
of delusion ? where is my fault ? which has been the false
step, if such there be ? '
I know He taketh up and setteth down — and of course
I know that I have done enough to provoke Him to give me
over and to deserve all that is evil. But still such is not
His way, and I cannot get myself to believe that He means
evil towards me, yet month by month my convictions
grow in one direction.
When I was a boy of fifteen, and living a life of sin, with
a very dark conscience and a very profane spirit, He merci-
fully touched my heart ; and, with innumerable sins, yet
I have not forsaken Him from that time, nor He me. He
has upheld me to this hour, and I have called myself His
servant. When I came up to reside at Trinity, this verse
of the Psalms, which was most in my heart and on my lips,
and it has brought tears into my eyes to think of it, was
'Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel,' etc. He then
brought me through numberless trials safely and happily
on the whole — and why should He now leave me to a blinded
mind ? I know I have done enough to provoke Him ; but
will He ?
IN RETIREMENT 315
He led me forward by a series of Providences from the
age of nineteen till twenty-seven. I was * the work of His
hands/ for He repeatedly and variously chastised me and
at last to win me from the world, He took from me a dear
sister — and just at the same time He gave me kind friends
to teach me His way more perfectly.
Time went on, and various things happened by which
He went on training me — ^but what most impresses itself
upon me, is the strange feelings and convictions about His
will towards me which came on me, when I was abroad.
When I went down to Sicily by myself, I had a strong idea
that He was going to effect some purpose by me. And
from Rome I wrote to some one, I think Christie, saying
I thought I was to be made something of in His Hands,
* though, if not, the happier for me.' And when I was in
Sicily by myself, it seemed as if some one were battling
against me, and the idea has long been in my mind, though
I cannot say when it came on, that my enemy was then
attempting to destroy me. A number of sins were com-
mitted ^ in the very act of my going down by myself — ^to say
nothing else, I was wilful, and neglected warnings — from
that time ever5d:hing went wrong. As I lay ill at Leonforte,
before I got to Castro Giovanni, while I was laid up, I felt
this strongly. My servant thought I was dying — ^but I
expected to recover, and kept saying, as giving the reason,
' I have not sinned against light.' I had the fullest per-
suasion I should recover, and think I then gave as the reason,
that some work was in store for me. But any how when I
was getting up again, after it was over, this f eehng was strong
upon me, I recoUect, when travelling down the country
from Castro G. to Palermo, (the ecclesiastical year was on
the same days as this year, and as the year of my get-
ting in to Oriel, so that Rogers and I were both elected on
the I2th of April) it must have been Whitsunday or Monday
morning, sitting on my bed as I was dressing, and cr3dng
profusely. My servant, who was obliged to help me from
my great weakness (for I could not walk by myself) of course
* ' Involved ' is written over ' committed.'
3i6 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
could not think the meaning of it — and I could but say to
him, what was quite as unintelligible as my tears, that I
thought God had some work for me. And then when I
got to England, the very first Sunday after my arrival
(July 14) you preached your sermon on National Apostasy,
which was the beginning of the movement.
And now at the end of eleven years from that time,
was [what] is my own state ? why, that for the last five years
(almost) of it, I have had a strong feehng, often rising to an
habitual conviction, though in the early portion of it after
a while dormant, but very active now for two years and a
half, and growing more urgent and imperative continually,
that the Roman Communion is the only true Church. And
this conviction came upon me while I was reading the
Fathers and from the Fathers — and when I was reading them
theologically, not ecclesiastically, in that particular line of
study, that of the ancient heresies, to which circumstances,
external to myself, had led me fourteen years ago, before
the movement began.
And when this trial came upon me, I told only two
persons with whom I happened to be at the time — and
set myself to resist the impression. As you know, I wrote
against it, and I am not aware in what respect I have in-
dulged it. And I have attempted to live a stricter life.
Every Lent since it first came on me I have spent up here,
except such necessary returns to Oxford in the course
of the week as Oxford duties made necessary — and for the
last two years I have been here almost entirely. And I have
made great efforts to keep others from moving in the
direction of Rome also.
Of course there is no fear of your supposing me not to be
conscious of innumerable weaknesses and errors in my heart
and conduct — but I cannot help trusting they need not come
into account here. Or, even though there has been at times
sin more than ordinary, I trust it is not being laid to my
charge.
Moreover I certainly think I may say, that in many
respects my heart and conduct have improved in the course
IN RETIREMENT 317
of this five years, and that in respects in which I have prayed
for improvement. Then the question comes upon me, why
should Providence have granted my prayers in these respects,
and not when I have prayed for hght and guidance ?
And then, as far as I see, all inducements and tempta-
tions are for remaining quiet, and against moving. The
loss of friends what a great evil is this ! the loss of position,
of name, of esteem — such a stultification of myself — such a
triumph to others. It is no proud thing to unsay what I
have said, to pull down what I have attempted to build
up. And again, what quite pierces me, the disturbance of
mind which a change on my part would cause to so many
— the casting adrift, to the loss both of rehgious stability
and comfort — the temptation to which many would be
exposed of scepticism, indifference, and even infidelity.
These last considerations are so serious, in the standard
of reason as well as in the way of inducement, that, if it
were not for antagonist difficulties, I don't see how I could
ever overcome them. But it does strike me on the other
side, * What if you are the cause of souls dying out of the
Commimion of Rome, who have had a call to join it, which
you have repressed ? what, if this has happened already ? '
Surely time enough has been allowed me for wavering and
preparation — I have fought against these feehngs in myself
and others long enough. And then another terrible thought
strikes me. We hear of physicians thinking they have
cured a complaint, when they have but thrown their patient
into a contrary one — and enough has happened to make
me fear greatly lest a sort of latitudinarianism and liberalism
may be the end of them (though forbid it !) whom I am
keeping from Rome. I am quite sure there is this danger.
I dread it in particular persons. The time may even come,
when I shall beg them to j oin the Church of Rome and they
wiU refuse. Indeed I sometimes feel uncomfortable about
myself — a sceptical, unrealizing temper is far from unnatural
to me — and I may be suffered to relapse into it as a judgment.
What then is the will of Providence about me ? The
time for argument is passed. I have been in one settled
3i8 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
conviction for so long a time, which every new thought
seems to strengthen. When I fall in with friends who think
differently, the temptation to remain quiet becomes stronger,
very strong — but I really do not think my conviction is
a bit shaken. So then I end as I began — Am I in a delusion,
given over to believe a lie ? Am I deceiving myself and
thinking myself convinced when I am not ? Does any
subtle feehng or temptation, which I cannot detect, govern
me, and bias my judgment ? But is it possible that Divine
Mercy should not wish me, if so, to discover and escape
it ? Has He led me thus far to destroy me in the wilderness ?
Really I dread what would be the consequence if any
intimate friend of mine j oined the Church of Rome. Might
I not feel it impossible to disobey what seemed a warning
to me, whatever trial and pain of mind it involved ?
How this letter will distress you ! I am ever thinking
of you, My dear Keble.
Yours affectionately,
J. H. N.
Rev. J. Keble to J. H. Newman *
June II, 1844.
I have been saying for several days past, that, if I had
not grown almost inconceivably callous, this pubHcation
of Arnold's ' Remains ' would almost break my heart, so very
distressing does it appear to me, when I think of it with my
cool understanding ; and yet I go on as usual, though some-
times wondering at myself — and now your letter has come,
not unexpected, yet very much like a clap of thunder,
which one has been waiting for ; and I did not lose my
night's rest, though I keep saying to myself. What shall
I and thousands more do ? And where shall we go ?
You will readily understand what is the bitterest part
of one's feehngs in the whole matter, both in respect of
Arnold and of your change — not that I mean to compare
the two subjects in the least degree in point of distressful-
IN RETIREMENT 319
ness — but in both one has a sad depressing thought, that,
if one were or had been other than one is, the anguish
might have been averted or mitigated. To think that you
remember me continually is indeed a most consohng thought
— may it always be so, and may I be more worthy of it.
So far as your letter may be considered as stating a
case, I really hardly know what to say to it. I feel as if I
had suggested on former occasions all that I could now say ;
but I still shrink from the thought of committing myself
to Rome, as it is. Had Providence committed me, the
case were quite different ; and it is not for such a one as
I am to determine how far the history of your own mind
amounts to such a providential indication. I wish you
knew enough of my old friend, John Miller, to lay the case
before him, or, (which I suppose is impossible) that it
could be laid before him, without his guessing the person.
However, I hope you will not be deterred from writing to
me by the uselessness of my rephes, so long as it is the least
rehef to you to write on such things.
In any case surely you will be guided, and, if others are
guided differently, may not both in some sense be right ?
Ever yours affectionately,
J. K.
Rev. J. Keble to J. H. Newman
June 12, 1844.
You will easily imagine how dissatisfied I am with
every word I write to you, and will excuse one's fidgetting
and continually adding 'more last words.' I want now to
speak to you about two things.
One, the idea which seems to pervade your letter, that,
if after all you should be allowed to be erroneous in this
your judgment, it is equivalent to judicial blindness or
something of that sort.
I do not exactly see why you should assume this, unless
the error were supposed deadly or fundamental. I can
320 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
imagine there might be providential purposes in allowing
even a Saint to mistake the degree of harm in communi-
cating or separating from a particular portion of Christ's
people, or the necessity or sacredness of such and such
an institution : so that, even if after a time he found him-
self to have been in error, he need not of course assume
that the error was judicial. If your present view is right,
Pusey's I suppose is wrong : should one therefore infer that
his prayers for light and guidance are not heard ?
Do you not think it possible (I dare say I borrowed the
view from yourself) that the whole Church may be so lowered
by sin, as to hinder one's finding on earth anything which
seems really to answer to the Church of the Scriptures ?
and will it not be well to prepare yourself for disappointment,
lest you fall into something like scepticism ? You know
I have always fancied that perhaps you were over sanguine
in making things square, and did not quite allow enough
for Bishop Butler's notion of doubt and intellectual difficulty
being some men's intended element and appropriate trial.
The other thing I wanted to say to you, or rather to
make you feel, was, that one of your friends at least, hopes
(and he believes a great many would be of the same mind)
that nothing which may happen will make any kind of
separation or hinder confidence. It is so utterly different
from a change in the other direction ; but of course one
fears how it may be on yom' part ; I mean, what Duty
may suggest to you.
Ever dearest Friend,
Your grateful and loving,
J.'K.
P.S. — Of course you make allowance for the longing
to be at rest as a secondary influence possible in your case.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Oriel College : June 13/44.
My dear Keble, — If the pain I am causing you is fault
of mine, and so far as it is my fault, how much I have to
IN RETIREMENT 321
answer for, and how cruel am I ! And really I must feel
without any hesitation or doubt that, unless I had in ways
I could name offended Him in whose Hands are the direction
as well as the issue of all events, this pain might in great
measure or altogether have been spared you. It might
have come on you gradually, or naturally, or in some way
or other have been destroyed. I distinctly think that the
course of events during these last years (I am not speaking
of their termination which is still in the unknown future)
has been complicated by offences of mine which I could
specify.
However let me, almost in self-defence, beg and pray
you not to be sorry that you can be cheerful. What should
either you or I do, if things oppressed us as they might ?
I hope it is not wrong to be cheerful, for I cannot help
being so. Surely to keep in an equable frame of mind is
the only way to be able to view things healthily and rightly,
and to lose heart and spirits is the way to get excited, or in
some way or other to lose the gift, or to hinder the bestowal
of a ' right judgment in all things.' Do not lament that
you do not lose your sleep. I think sleep is the greatest
of our ordinary blessings. Nothing goes well with the
mind without it ; it heals all trouble.
As to Arnold's ' Remains,' I cannot put myself enough
in your place to know the precise points which pain you
so acutely — but for myself, there seems much to take
comfort in things as they are. I do not think that the
book will produce any great effect in a wrong direction.
Of course there is a great deal in it to touch people — but
there is so httle consistency in his intellectual basis, that
I cannot think he will affect readers permanently. And
then it is very pleasant to think that his work has been
so good a one — the reformation of public schools — this
seems to have been blessed and will survive him, and forms
the principal or one of the two principal subjects of the
book. And further, if it is right to speculate on such
serious matters, there is something quite of comfort to be
gathered from his removal from this scene of action, at
322 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
the time it took place ; as if so good a man should not
be suffered to commit himself cominus against truths,
which he so little understood. I wish I was in a better
humour for bringing out what I mean.
Ever yours. My dear Keble,
Most affectionately,
J. H. N.
P.S. — I should add that my own state is this, not as
if I felt at this moment any strong distress at still remain-
ing quiet, but that I cannot tell how soon my feelings
may change, or external circumstances interpose. And
it comes upon me that when persons are on the brink of
serious actions and afraid to plunge into the stream. Pro-
vidence in mercy takes them by surprise.
Since I began this letter. Church came into the room,
and began to talk on what he and others fear to be the case
in Oxford, the growth of scepticism. He gave me instances.
It seems to me certainly likely to be more and more a
pressing evil.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Littlemore : June 20/44.
My dear Keble, — I don't think I can be wrong in sending
you the enclosed. It missed me, and I went to Roehampton
the day before yesterday, after wavering about, whether to
go or wait. Johnson said B. was low — which, as it turns
out, arose from the abscess. I stayed there the night, and
came away yesterday.
I found him very weak, but able to move about on a
crutch, and to dine downstairs. He is most wonderfully
calm and cheerful — ^you cannot understand it unless you
saw him. It is difficult to believe he is so ill. As I sat by
him, he could not help half laughing again and again, and
could only say ' It is your face — ^it reminds me of old times.'
His fidget, which he brings out again and again in the most
simple manner, is that he can do nothing. He has been
IN RETIREMENT 323
writing a memorandum of certain particulars of the building
of Roehampton Chapel, and, if he comes to Oxford, as
they propose in August, he wants to be reading in our
Library here for St. Boniface's Life. He and she both
realize entirely his very pitiful state — ^but when one sees him
so placid and equable, it is hard to believe that he does.
For myself, I have given up all hope since last October.
People say in various ways that I am desponding — ^but the
question, alas, is, whether I come right or not.
Ever yours affectionately,
J. H. N,
P.S. — Mrs. Harrington (of BN.C.) died suddenly on
Tuesday morning. The Principal had been dining out the
evening before. She had been in a very anxious state of
health for half a year — and he seemed to think ill of her.
She was Dean Smith's daughter ; she and he have been
very attentive to me ever since they came to Oxford.
Rev. J. Keble to J. H. Newman
June 23, 1844.
I thank you again and again for sending me the account
of Bowden. I have never ceased to think of him, and to
be in care about his illness, since I first heard of it.
I should fear the account of him was a very bad one
in a temporal sense : but surely it is one in which one
scarce dares grieve for the person's own sake ; though
what to augur pubhcly and ecclesiastically from such
bereavements one hardly knows. I am glad to see that
you think Mrs. B. prepared. I should hardly have guessed
it from her letter.
You know not the good which your former note did me :
though I am afraid I had made myself out a greater sufferer
than I really was. But it never will do for me to be talking
of myself. . . .
It is true that J. Miller, years ago, when the Berens
TOTTo^ was first started,^ expressed an opinion that the
1 The allusion must be to some forgotten controversy. There was an
Archdeacon Berens in the 'thirties.
324 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
Creed of St. Athanasius would perhaps be better in the
Church's Archives, instead of coming into the service.
I had forgotten this, when I mentioned him to you. My
reason for thinking of him, I beheve, was my recollecting
that, as long ago as when the article came out on the
Catholicity of the Enghsh Church, I had or saw a letter
from him, in which he expressed his feeUng about the drift
of that article in such a way as makes me now think that
he had detected your state of mind in writing it. And
this, I thought, might indicate a power of sympathizing
with you, which might make him a good adviser, had cir-
cumstances thrown him more in your way. I speak from
memory, for I cannot now refer to the letter.
I am very sorry for poor Dr. Harrington, whom I have
respected ever since he was Principal for the hne I heard
he was taking.
You, I believe, as well as Pusey and Oakeley, have with-
drawn from the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge-
I am getting up a Memorial against the Bishop of Chester's
Lutheranism, which I think will end in my withdrawing — ■
Moberly and Wordsworth have signed it : but I suppose it
will be re-written before it goes up.
I am now in hopes of getting something done in Hursley
Church, which is really a scandal, and more so every year.
I never thanked you for your kind letter when I sent you
the Lectures.
About Arnold perhaps I shall write again. There is
certainly much comfort in what you say.
Your ever affectionate,
J. K.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Roehampton : July 3, 1844.
My dear Keble, — You will like to hear about Bowden,
though you must not expect any very cheerful account from
me — so much so, that I should not like what I say repeated.
IN RETIREMENT 323
Mrs. B. has been most kindly open to me to-day — and
told me all she thinks and knows. My report last time about
her was from Miss Swinburne. She has now spoken to me
herself in a way which quite confirms what I then told you.
The medical man here says that he did not expect B. to get
through last winter. And his bad symptoms have in no
respect yielded from that time. Every medicine has failed.
It is quite cruel to see him lie inhaling medicated air — it
seems such a mockery. Sir John S. told me that from the
end of January his expectoration has been continual, daily
— and the medical man says, which is worst of all, that
though, if things take their course, the progress of the com-
plaint will be very slow, yet he may easily break a vessel
in coughing, which would be fatal. It is, as you may fancy,
more than I can describe, to see Mrs. B. sitting by him in
these fits of coughing, she knowing this. His calmness is
most wonderful — and hers too. His Father was buried
yesterday ; of course he could not attend.
I am to administer the Holy Communion to him to-
morrow morning — and reaUy I do hope I may be able to
come here, to do the same, again and again, while they are
here — but do not know how this will be. They leave in
August, their lease being out, and talk of going to Malvern.
To their great comfort no one thinks of his going abroad.
As I write this in my room before going to bed, I hear him
coughing — and know it went through all last night.
Oxford news was gloomy when I left — or rather Oxford
anticipations — yet I cannot fall into them. Ogilvie was
with the Archbishop about Ward's book. Though he is
Visitor of Balliol, he cannot interfere, it seems — because
he must act in court of Master and three senior Fellows, one
vote sufficing for a negative on proceedings. Yet people
are in dread of some act from authority — but the Arch-
bishop is said to be so very unwiUing to enter upon new
measures, and to be so fond of delaying and evading great
questions, that I cannot think he will refuse to Wardism
what has before now been granted in our Church to
Wesleyans, SabeUians, Socinians and Swedenborgians.
326 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
The Master has been ill of his emotion, or what the
Itahans, I believe call arrabiato. He sent for Wootten.
He has sent down seven men who were to have read
with their Tutor in Oxford during the Vacation— taking
care to mention Coffin's Sermons as among the causes of
their dismissal.
I am so sleepy I can hardly hold a pen. As to my own
matters, I should be much obhged by your telling John
Miller my case, or any one else, who, you think, would be
of service to me, mentioning my name or anything else
you please.
Ever yours affectionately,
J. H. N.
July 4, Morning. — That coughing last night was a bad
discharge — but what it means we cannot tell till the doctor
comes.
J. H. Newman to E. L. Badeley, Esq.
Littlemore : Aug. 23, 1844.
My dear Badeley, — Though I foresee this will not go
till Sunday, I begin writing. It would please me very
much to accept your hospitahty again in London, but I
shall not go to Richmond for some while, as Wilberforce
does not press. I should Hke to see you, not only for the
pleasure, but because, seeing you and Hope seldom, I
always have a feeling, which in part must be well founded,
that I do not express my meaning and state of mind correctly
to you. It always seems to me that I am talking in an
unreal way — I can't master and bring out my real feehngs
at a moment — and Hope on the other hand, though perhaps
he is not aware of it, is not entirely at his ease and familiar,
and therefore not in the way either perfectly to take in my
meaning or to give me his own. And then, when, conscious
of this, I attempt to explain myself, I only seem to myself
to make matters worse.
I do not know quite why I should say all this ; for con-
sidering my own position now and henceforth, there does
IN RETIREMENT 327
not seem any reason why I should wish you to know my
meaning, when I am sure I can do no good to any Church
cause — but it is a natural impatience — and a not unnatural
wish to be not misimderstood by men Hke you and Hope.
And all this prose has come of your asking about Richmond ;
(Sunday, Aug. 25) yet it bears on what I would say, if I
could, about Pusey's matter.
As you know, I fully acquiesce in the conclusion to
which even you have come now. I do not see how it
could be avoided. Yet it is impossible to disguise from
oneself the very serious consequences it involves. Here
is a solemn University Act in condemnation of a sermon,
which is an understatement of a doctrine which must
be called CathoUc — and now, (as the distance since it
took place obhges one to say) accepted by the silence of
the Church and her Bishops. The only attempt at protest
has had reference to the formahty of the Act. Bishops
can charge against other errors, but even when they have
that opportimity and call to speak, they can be silent
here.
No acts at this time of the day surely can unchurch
us, if we have not been unchurched by the^ events of the
Reformation — but they may bring out, they may force
on the mind, the fact we are, that we long have been
unchurched. The Jerusalem Bishoprick three years ago
disturbed me in a way very few people know, inflicting
on my imagination what my reason had been unable to
withstand some years before that. And now comes this
formidable transaction whispering the same thing into
my ear, or rather to my heart. Every form of heresy is
tolerated, but there is an instinctive irritation, or shudder,
at anything too CathoHc. Six hundred clergymen can
condense a legion of heresies into a manifesto, and the
Bishops (one exception, if so, is not much) can be quite
silent — and when a University has stigmatized a true
doctrine, it is thought a great thing, if one Bishop, without
committing himself, teUs this or that clergyman in private
that he does not mean to initiate proceedings in his own
328 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
Diocese — A clergyman of popular celebrity can in print
deny a theological phrase which a General Council imposed,
and not a word is said. Our leading religious Society
recognises (I think) the heretical Churches in the East
founded on its denial, and places £1000 into the hands
of our Bishops for their benefit — and remonstrance is
vain. What do such facts, (true in substance though
perhaps I have not expressed myself accurately in detail,)
what do they show, but that we are not ' built upon the
foundation of the Apostles and Prophets ' ? These are
very fearful thoughts, which have long, very long, crowded
upon my mind, and oppressed it, and which really do
seem Hkely one day to come to something, I feel I should
[be] almost a hypocrite, if I went on much longer without
giving utterance to them. I did not mean thus broadly
to have expressed them when I began my letter last Friday,
but they have come out.
Excuse me, if I am taking a liberty, but I don't think
you will think so.
Yours very sincerely,
J. H. N.
The following letter probably refers to the opposition
which was attempted against the election of Dr. Symons to
the Vice-Chancellorship.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
My dear Keble, — The enclosed will explain them-
selves. I have nothing to add. I determined to do just
what Badeley, J. Mozley, Rogers etc. did — and I suppose
the enclosed shows that they mean to take it up.
I have a good account of your brother, which is com-
fortable. Bowden is getting weaker and weaker. He
is at CHfton. I have not seen him this three weeks. I
go to him next week.
Ever yours affectionately,
J. H. N.
Littlemore : Sep. 5 (1844).
IN RETIREMENT 329
J. H. Newman to E. L. Badeley, Esq."
Oriel : Sept. 9, 1844.
Dear Badeley, — I have been too busy to answer you
before now : and indeed I do not know that strictly speak-
ing I have anything to say, but to thank you for the kind-
ness which your letter showed. Convictions are things
which cannot be transferred — one would not wish they
could be. As well could persons change hands as opinions,
which are worth anything. I never then like talking to
another on matters of doctrine on principle ; what right
has one to do so ? He is he, and I am I. It seems an
impertinence.
Yet not to do so seems like reserve and unfriendliness —
so I will say something. Yet not in the way of argument,
but to let you into my own feelings on the subject in question.
My own convictions about it are of very long standing.
For years I have been engaged in overcoming them, under
the idea that possibly they were unfounded. I have acted
like persons who pinch themselves to be sure that they
are not asleep and dreaming. That I had one and one
only view was certain, but then was it a delusion ? Was
it the accident of an excitement ? I cannot think I was
wrong in repelling it, and trying to shake it off from me.
Nor does it seem to be wrong after many years of patient
waiting, to begin to listen to it.
It is not this or that event which causes it ; they do
but remind me of it. To show that they may possibly
be otherwise explained, as you kindly do, is to my feelings
like the conduct of a patient in a consumption and of
his friends, who satisfactorily show that not one of his
symptoms but may be referred to some cause short of
the fatal malady, not one which involves the necessity
of death. Yet a bystander or physician has a view, though
he cannot out-argue ; and the event justifies it. We are
naturally friends, for we are children, of this dying or dead
system in which we have lived all our days. We cannot,
we will not, believe what the real state of the case is. We
330 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
cannot be persuaded to open our eyes. Every ominous
fact admits of an explanation, and in it we take refuge.
Consider the shock with which child, parent, or wife hears
of the inevitable blow. It is like a dream. Nothing would
convince but the actual sight of the calamity which cannot
be explained away. No such positive, visible, tangible
evidence is attainable in a moral matter. There is no
bier and funeral of a Church. The fact then escapes un-
willing minds : yet it may be as certain to others, as the
prospective termination of a fatal malady is to the physician.
I do not say I have that certainty, but I am approxi-
mating to it. To judge from the course of my thoughts for
five years, I am certain of reaching it some time or other.
I cannot tell whether sooner or later. This is an abrupt
odious letter — ^but it is on an odious subject.
Yours most sincerely,
J, H. N.
Rev. J. Keble to J. H. Newman
September 13, 1844.
I never have thanked you as I ought for sending me
those accounts of Bowden. Besides the sweet calmness
and resignation which they describe, it is a peculiar com-
fort to such a one as I am to find himself remembered at
such times and in such places. From something 1 accident-
ally heard, I had fully expected to hear of his being taken
from us before now. Who knows how much help his being
so long spared under such circumstances may bring to
many who need to learn calmness and resignation ?
I return James Mozley's letters, for which I much thank
you. It was in some degree a mistake about my wishing
for this move. I argued the point with Jeffreys that there
was nothing in it undutiful, but I greatly questioned the
expediency of it, and do so still, and so I told Mozley in a
letter which I wrote before I heard from you. But I shaU
be guided by Marriott in the matter. If he still wishes it
to proceed, I shall surely try and come up. I don't think
IN RETIREMENT 331
Wilson will ; but Peter Young probably will. I have not
seen Moberly, though I have tried.
My brother is certainly better, thank you ; though
still not quite as one could wish. We were all very much
pleased to meet Dodsworth, whom we had never seen
before. And there were other things also about our journey
far more comfortable than one could have deserved or
expected. I was very glad to meet Mr. Meyrick at Bisley.
I did not think Isaac looking very well, and I wish
I may not have made him lower than he was. But it is
a part of what people like me bring on themselves, that,
if they speak any truth, they sadden their friends, and, if
they go on as if nothing was the matter, they feel like
hypocrites. But enough of this and too much.
Pray give my love to Copeland, and ask him when
he is coming here ; and be sure, my dear N., that, if
I seem uncomfortable, it is no more than is good for me,
and, if it had not been for you, (under God) it might have
been more.
Always very affectionately yours,
J. K.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Littlemore : Sept. 14, 1844,
My dear Keble, — I have been going to write to you for
some days, to tell you what there was to be told about
dear Bowden, and your letter has just come.
I was at Clifton on Wednesday and Thursday last,
not having seen him for a month. He was sadly altered.
Fever has come on and perspirations. He certainly would
not get from Clifton, except that he has in a way set his
heart on waiting God's time at St. Leonard's, where he
was all last winter and has a house now ready for him.
It so happens he has no home, though he has just come
into property by his father's death, Roehampton having
gone out of his hands last month. Perhaps I may stay
332 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
with him when he gets to St. Leonard's, for he seemed to
wish it, I thought — ^but I shall hear more in a day or two.
He gave me an account how he got through the day.
Sept. 15. He does not like not to come down stairs while
he can, though it is a great effort to him, particularly
dressing. He lies on his sofa with Bible, Prayer Book,
Breviary, and ' Paradisus Animae ' on a little desk before
him; but his thoughts are so unsteady now, that he has
wished much, but sought in vain in Bristol, some sacred
emblem or picture which may meet his eyes without effort.
I took him the ' Paradisus ' by accident for another purpose
two months ago, and he has seized upon it with great
delight, and says it is a great comfort to him. He made
me read Compline, Terce and Sext with him. Besides
that he manages to get through the Morning and Evening
Prayer, I believe — and sometimes the Penitential Psalms
in the Breviary. Morning is his best time for eating, and
he takes his principal meal then. His worst time is between
six and eight in the evening. He gets out, or did, but a
day makes a change now, in a Bath Chair — ^but he cannot
bear the beautiful scenery at Clifton — it tries him. At
length the hours have passed away, and no more expedients
are needed. Evening comes, and he seems to have some
quiet sleep of a night which recruits him, and he lies very tran-
quilly in bed. So he is lifted upstairs by his two servants,
making a sort of low interjection, not of pain but of relief,
* lo, lo, lo,' or the like, and says, as he told me, ' Well,
another crest has been topped, another billow is over,'
calling the days his billows, with an allusion to * Who would
count the billows past ? ' He made me come and see
what he called his ' procession ' — his wife first with the
candle, then he in the arms of the two men. While going
up, he turned about his head, to be sure I was looking.
One forgets past feelings, else I would say that I had
never had pain before like the present. I thought so
yesterday, and said so ; but I suppose it is not so. Yet I
am in very great distress, and do trust I shall be kept from
gloom and ill temper. I have given him up since October
IN RETIREMENT 333
last, yet have not realized his loss till now, if now. He
is my oldest friend. I have been most intimate with him
for above twenty-seven years. He was sent to call on me
the day after I came into residence — he introduced me
to College and University — he is the link between me and
Oxford. I have ever known Oxford in him. In losing
him I seem to lose Oxford. We used to live in each other's
rooms as Undergraduates, and men used to mistake our
names and call us by each other's. When he married, he
used to make a similar mistake himself, and call me Elizabeth
and her Newman. And now for several years past, though
loving him with all my heart, I have shrunk from him,
feeling that I had opinions that I dared not tell him, and
that I must be constrained or almost hypocritical if I was
with him.
Lewis has come up to tell me the news that dear Bowden
is gone — I suppose this morning. I am going off at once
to Clifton. I have heard no particulars. But it distresses
me to have parted so suddenly with him on Thursday when
he wished me to stay and did not know I was going.
Ever yours affectionately,
J. H. N.
J. H. Newman to Rev. Ambrose St. John
17 Grosvenor Place, London : Sept. i6, 1844.
...CM. (Charles Marriott) told me something from
Lewis, which cleared up everything : viz. that dear J. W. B.
died in London. Everything was plain then ; the physician
had recommended his instant removal, and he had died
on the way.
So it proved to be, but nothing could be happier or more
peaceful than all the circumstances. He sunk rapidly ever
since I saw him. On the Wednesday he talked to me of
going to St. Leonard's for a fortnight — on Thursday he
talked of my coming to Chfton as on this day, that he
might go off sooner [to London]. By Friday night he had
limited his hopes to getting ^to his Father's house in London.
334 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
Dr. Bernard thought that his desire ought to be granted,
that he was sure of getting to London, that the change might
even for a day or two retard the complaint — but that no time
was to be lost, and that he could not last many days. This
he said on Saturday morning at eleven, and said ' why not
by the next train ? ' he offered to come up with them. They
were off by twelve ; got to the station by a quarter past one
— ^The train was just gone. He had to wait two or three
hours in his carriage till the next. What a trial for her ! but
he was most calm and happy, and showed not the slightest
disappointment or trouble. He was peaceful all through the
journey, and they put him to bed directly he got here. At
four o'clock next morning (yesterday) he had a little cough-
ing, could not get rid of the matter, gave over the struggle
and was gone almost at once. She saw it directly. Nothing
was to be done. I am full of wrong and miserable feelings,
which it is useless to detail — so grudging and sullen when I
should be so thankful. Of course when one sees so blessed an
end, and that at the termination of so blameless a hfe, of
one who really fed on our ordinances and got strength from
them — and see the same continued in a whole family, the
httle children finding quite a solace of their pain in the Daily
Prayer, it is impossible not to feel more at ease in our Church,
as at least a sort of Zoar, a place of refuge and temporary
rest because of the steepness of the way. Only may we
be kept from unlawful security, lest we have Moab and
Ammon for our progeny, the enemies of Israel.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
17 Grosvenor Place : Sept. 17, 1844.
My dear Keble, — As you saw, I was writing my note,
and the unexpected news came. I did not know where it
had taken place, and I left home, at Mrs. B's wish, not
knowing where I was going.
It seems that he died, I mast not say on his road to St.
Leonard's, but at home at his Father's house here, where his
IN RETIREMENT 335
Father had died not three months before. Indeed, he had
given up the idea of getting to his winter quarters when he
started. On Wednesday last he talked of moving in a
fortnight — on Thursday morning in a week. On Friday
when his brother came he talked of no more than getting to
London. Dr. Bernard had a talk with Henry B. on Satur-
day morning, and said he might last a week or fortnight,
that moving could not hurt and might be of service to him,
and that there was no reason for resisting his strong wish.
But, he said, no time is to be lost — why not go to-day ?
why not by the next train ? This was at eleven. They
were off by twelve. Got to the station — were just too late
for the train. Had to wait for two to three hours ; what a
trial for her ! However, he was most calm and happy, and
showed not any disappointment, which was very unlike
his usual way — for on journeys he had always been over-
punctual and eager. He sat in his carriage the whole
time — and when she came to him for some reason, put his
head out to her and said ' Wish not, dear friends, my pain
away.' He was happy all through the journey — and made
allusion to some things which had amused him some days
previously. When he got here, he was put to bed at once,
Dr. B. then thinking he would last a week. At four o'clock
on Sunday morning, he had a little coughing, could not
expectorate. She saw at once what was coming and it
was over at once. (It is a great comfort to all parties that
he is here and not at Clifton.)
He died, and he lies, in a room I have known these
twenty-four years — ^the principal drawing-room. So many
persons have I seen there, so kind to me — they are all
gore. The furniture is all the same — the ornaments on the
mantelpiece — and there lies now my oldest friend, so dear
to me — and I with so little of faith or hope, as dead as a
stone, and detesting myself.
I shall remain here over the funeral, but I suppose no
longer.
They have a pictinre here I had not seen for a number of
years by Hoppner — of J. W. B. a boy of four years and
336 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
his younger sister. He was asked how he should like to
be painted — and he said ' drawing a Church ' — so Fulham
Church is in the background, and he with a pencil and
paper.
Ever yours affectionately,
John H. Newman.
P.S. — Mrs. B. is quite an heroic person — her whole
bearing is quite out of the way. It forces itself upon one
at a time when one has not much heart to be thinking of
such things.
Rev. J. Keble to J. H. Newman
September 19, 1844.
You are very kind to send me so many particulars —
so many which, I hope and beheve, will soon begin and
always continue to be a great comfort to you. Just now
you are stunned with the blow, but, as to being hard-hearted,
I have too sad and shameful experience how soft-hearted
people who cry easily may soon let go the good thoughts
which come to them from such death beds, and have their
hearts hardened in another sort of manner. But really
and truly may not one accept such a calm departure as this
as a pledge of mercy and comfort in one's own cares and
perplexities ? The gleam has gone behind the cloud, but
we know it is still there, and are permitted and encouraged
to hope for a sight of it again at no very long distance.
This is a sort of sacred time to us, or at least ought to be
so ; for my youngest sister was taken away from us the 20th
of September 1826. And on the same day, I conjecture, this
year, your dear Bowden will be buried. I hope Mrs. Bowden
will not droop too much when that is over. It is a great thing
having her children to think of, and also his most remark-
able calmness will no doubt help her in memory almost as
much as when he was in sight.
Altogether, it seems very much to reahze George Her-
bert's notion, of going from earth to paradise as from one
room to another. . . .
IN RETIREMENT 337
J. H. Newman to E. L. Badeley, Esq.
Littlemore : Nov. i, 1844.
My Dear Badeley, — Thank you very much for your
answer about Formby, to which you gave me a great deal
more time and consideration than I had any right, intention,
or hope to gain from you. I hope he will be the better for it.
Perhaps I ought to tell you all about the £100. My
most dear friend Bowden wished me to lay it out in some
memorial of him. So I have thought of books. I want
them both handsome and useful — and I thought, since the
binding cannot be the same, of putting his arms upon them,
as a College does upon its prize books, unless this seemed
very unreasonable. Doing so would also overcome a diffi-
culty I have hitherto felt in getting books on two subjects —
but anyhow I should prefer one subject. I have Muratori,
Gavanti, &c., in the Liturgical hne, though only part of
Catalini — and I have also a smaller sum of money to spend
in a like way, which I think I shall give to books of that
kind — so that on the whole I shall put the Liturgical line
aside.
I thought of the Bollandists — but Southey's copy was
£130. And common copies would not be handsome. I
certainly do want handsome books, and this turned my
thought to classics — especially as classics are cheaper than
old EngHsh historians, and I want them more.
I have Tanner, Dugdale, Browne Willis (in part), Hearne
(in part), Twysden, ' Script ores post Bedam,' Alford, Cressy,
Du Chesne's ' Script. Norm.,' the ' Gesta Dei per Francos,' Le
Cointe, &c., I have not Gale, or Du Chesne's ' Script. Franc'
But I doubt whether I could make up a set, and that is
what I want — not to fill up gaps.
I am very scanty in classics. There is a handsome set
(not complete) of ' Variorum ' in Kerslake's last catalogue,
in Russia, 119 vols., or thereabouts, for £36. This is cheap,
but of the authors contained in it I have about forty volumes
— and eighty volumes for £z^ is perhaps not cheap. Valpy's
classics are said not to be handsome, except the large paper.
Willis had lately a set complete (small paper) for I think
338 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
£'^2 in calf. What I think I should prefer would be a hand-
some set of all the Latin in Octo., and then certain Greek
classics, such as those I mentioned to you which are with
comments as Plutarch, Strabo &c., in folio and quarto.
What is your opinion of this plan ? What is your opinion
of going to men like Kerslake ? Payne and Foss are so
extravagantly dear. How is Pickering ?
And now don't let me be unreasonable in my demands
upon your time. You see there is no hurry. I should
value your advice very much, and any information you
could get without trouble.
Perhaps you have heard that on St. Simon and St. Jude's
Day the Master stopped Ward ^ (without disturbance)
from reading the epistle — and read it with such wonderful
emphasis that every soul in the Chapel saw its meaning
* crept in unawares ' * despise dominion and speak 'Evil '
(eeee-vil) 'of dignities,' &c.
Then followed the Gospel which some persons thought
told the other way, viz. about loving each other. He is
said to intend to go on this principle (though his display
as above does not seem like it) to forget or not to know
Ward's existence as Fellow, and on this principle it is
supposed he will act as regards Holy Communion — but I
do think the whole University will feel so strongly against
him that Ward need do nothing. I do not think going to
the Visitor will do — that is rather the game of the other
party — and I suppose they would be glad of Ward's doing
so. Ward has the most intense feeling about the Visitor's
unfairness on other occasions.
All this is to be considered secret — and so is this (though
I daresay you have heard it all by this time, for Ward is
in London) that the Master has pitched upon a provision
in the statutes which allows him in difficult cases to go to
the Visitor proprio motu — and the Visitor or his deputy
can punish with any degree of severity short of expulsion.
^ For a full account of the scene see W. G. Ward and the Oxford
Movement, p. 325. The heavy drops preceding the storm over Ward's
* Ideal ' were beginning to fall.
IN RETIREMENT 339
I fear the Fellows of Balliol will not stand by Ward —
but this must not be mentioned — not on doctrinal grounds,
but because his ill odour abroad hurts the College.
Pater mi I Pater mi ! cur r us Israel et auriga ejiis. —
Rumours and reports that Newman was to be lost to the
Anglican communion were springing up everywhere. In
consequence, letters came from different kinds of persons,
some well, some not well expressed, but each in its way a
cry of anguish. Some specimens of these letters will help
to reanimate the past.
A Friend to J. H. Newman
Nov. 4, 1844.
My dear Newman, — I have received information this
morning, upon which I fear I must rely, which has pained
and perplexed me to a degree that I could hardly express
to you. The information was that you have intimated to
your friends your intention of joining the Church of Rome.
Now as to offering you any arguments, I am fully
persuaded that I am not the person to do that. But if
on the strength of old associations, and the unvarying kind-
ness which you have shown me for so many years, I may
make any suggestion to you, I do so most earnestly, and
(allow me to say) most affectionately implore you to pause
before you take this most fearful step. Not yourself alone,
but many, many others will be involved in it.
I have long prayed for you ; and. Providence permitting,
I shall continue to do so. And whether you remain in our
communion or not, you will always be remembered by me
with unfeigned regard, and with a lively sense of the kind-
ness which I have received from you.
Do not trouble yourself to reply to this. Enough, 1
feel persuaded, must be upon your mind, and your hands ;
and it will be more than sufficient to me, if this has any
effect towards making you suspend your intention.
Should I have written without cause, you know how
340 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
sincerely and amply I would apologise to you : but you
also know that had I conceived there would be room for
an apology, I had not written to you.
J. H. Newman to E. L. Badeley, Esq.
Littlemore : Nov. 5/44-
My dear Badeley, — I sent your letter to Formby but
not your name. It is hardly worth while sending you his
answer, yet you may like to see it. 1 do not doubt you
have done a service. Please burn it after you have read it.
I see in Willis's catalogue just out Wyttenbach's ' Plutarch '
in Russia for £'^. This seems to me cheap. Also there is
Dean Rennell's ' Montfaucon's Antiquite ' which I saw when
I was in town — I mention these, first as coming into the
question, is it well, if I determined on classics, to pick up
books anywhere or buy them of one person ? and next
by way of saying that the ' Plutarch ' does seem a bargain,
and asking your opinion. But really I am almost frightened
lest I should be rudely encroaching upon the time of a busy
man like you.
Yours very sincerely,
John H. Newman.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Littlemore : Nov. 6/44.
My dear Keble, — I write you just a line in consequence
of reports about me which are afloat, and which may make
you anxious. They are altogether unfounded. The letter
of Isaac [WilHams] is a mere myth — I have not been writing
to him a Une.
You should make Copeland give a volume to the ' Plain
Sermons.' He has been preaching very nice Sermons for
a long while. They want curtailing however.
I went at last to take advice for my drowsiness and
unsteadiness of handwriting — At first my medical friend.
IN RETIREMENT 341
Mr. Babington, spoke very seriously — but when he saw me
he relented. He says I ought to take tonics — but the
difficulty is to give them me without throwing too much
blood into my head. I am at St. Athanasius, which is
very trying — but the translations wiU come to an end in a
few weeks.
Ever yours affectionately,
J. H.N.
A Stranger (apparently) to J. H. Newman
Nov. 7, 1844.
Reverend Sir, — I sincerely trust that I may be pardoned
the liberty of addressing you, but my extreme anxiety
must plead for me. Your published Parochial Sermons
have been, under God, the means of rousing me from spiritual
sleep, and I have from them, and from their operation upon
my mind, been led to regard your opinions with a reverence
greater than I can express. From your Lectures on Roman-
ism also I have been taught the errors which that system,
if I may so express myself, contains. May I then venture
to ask the truth or otherwise of the report, now in the news-
papers, of your having quitted the communion of the
Church of England — I can only repeat that my intense
anxiety must plead in palliation of this apparently un-
warrantable request, but I feel assured that your good and
kind heart will pardon me and relieve me from the distress
of suspense.
An old Schoolfellow to J. H. Newman
Nov. II, 1844.
My dear Newman, — I turn from solemn scenes in which
I have been engaged — the deathbed of a near relation, and
the dangerous illness of a schoolfellow of us both — to put
into execution what, I assure you, has been on my mind
even in the midst of so much sorrow and anxiety. It is
to send you a line of entreaty on the step that you are
342 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
reported to have announced your intention of taking.
O my very dear friend, to whom I am so deeply and eternally
obliged, not so much for private acts of friendship, but for
the reality and consistency which your writings with others
have imparted to my religious views — can you think of
leaving us, so many as we are that have benefited by your
exertions ? I entreat you not to forsake us — ^we shall be
left a scorn and derision to those that are round about us —
already pointed at enough for endeavouring to restore
Church principles in our own little sphere, we shall be made
powerless altogether if a master of our Israel forsakes our
communion. . . . There are so many that love you and
revere your character, and have been formed by your works,
who will be utterly cast down, if you take this step, who
will not know where to turn, that I conjure you not to
do it, unless conscience makes it altogether unavoidable. jMy
dear friend Clarke, an Ealing boy, is perhaps d3rLng, and,
if he is taken away, it will be an unspeakable loss to me,
but that separation would be as nothing to my hearing that
NewTQan, who rescued me from low views and such as now
seem scarcely belie\dng \'iews, had ceased to call himself
my brother, and declared me to be in heresy. Oh ! Ne^vman,
do do stop with us — what shall we do without you !
On November lo a great friend of Newman's, the Rev.
Edward Coleridge of Eton, sent him a letter from Seh^yn,
the Bishop of New Zealand, and an extract from a letter
of the Bishop of Newfoundland. They were to be sho\Mi
to Pusey and Pusey only. He asked NewTiian to present
Sehvyn and two other ' Antipodal Bishops ' with copies
of ' Sermons on Subjects of the Day.' The letter concluded
with earnest wishes that NewTnan might be ' kept with us
and for us in the Anglican Branch of the Catholic Church.'
J. H. New^ian to Rev. E. Coleridge
Littlemore : Nov. 12th, 1844.
I shall send 3^our most precious enclosures to Pusey to-
morrow by a safe hand with yoin: directions about their
IN RETIREMENT 343
return to you. How to thank you for the kindness and
confidence which you have shown in sending them to me, I do
not know. The Bishop certainly is a rare person — and his
being where he is, is a singular mercy to that country and
makes one muse about its future fortunes in the purposes
of Providence.
I had intended in answering you to have said a word on
the subject, personal to me, with which you close your
letter — indeed I began writing with this intention — but
now when it comes to the point, it seems so miserable
a return for your kindness, that I cannot get myself to do
it. Nor do I know how to send the Volumes you speak of,
I have no business to be sending volumes on such an errand.
The pain I feel at the distress I am causing others, at
the great unsettlement of mind I am causing, and the ties
I am rending, is keener than I can say. On Saturday for
some time my heart literally ached, and is still uneasy.
And I have the griefs, not of one, but of so many upon me.
And all this in addition to the original and principal
trial itself, which has been a secret anxiety upon me for
years. Everyone must see at a glance how many and strong
natural feelings and motives I have against committing
myself to such acts, as nevertheless seem likely to be urged
on me as imperative to my salvation — but none can know
the dismal thing it is to me to trouble and unsettle and
wound so many quiet, kind, and happy minds. What is it
I say to myself, short of duty, which propels me to the
thought of such [an] act ? I cannot find anything.
Pray accept my best thanks for your kind sympathy.
J. H. Newman to E. L. Badeley, Esq.
Littlemore : Nov, 13th, 1844.
I actually have taken your hint and written to Leslie
to enquire what he would give me for my Bollandists if
I take his. It has grown upon me that such a set, while
it is a whole, is more suitable as a memorial of B. than
344 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
the Classics. And he had always a great liking for Southey.
And then you report that it is a handsome copy which was
my difficulty about medieval books in general.
You may have heard the last Oxford news — that a
Committee of Heads is appointed to consider what ought
to be done, or if anything, about Ward's book.
J. H. Newman to E. L. Badeley, Esq.
Littlemore : Nov. 16/44.
I told Pusey the other day that I did not think his
succeeding in his suit would be worth the weight of a feather
in retarding certain persons from Rome — and this, in answer
to his saying that he wished to be ruled entirely by my feel-
ing in the matter, and had no wish to move on his own
account. Yet I think he will still cherish hopes that if he
does succeed, he will be detaining men. I do heartily wish
he were not so sanguine, unless indeed (which may be the
case) such sanguineness carries him over all difficulties.
I am unwilling to speak more strongly than I have, but
I seem to be ruining his position, when he might right
himself and be in the University and Church all he has
been.
A Committee certainly is vigorously at work on Ward.
I hear the names of our Provost, Cramer and Gaisford
(who is most fierce), but Harrington and Richards are not
on it. They evidently mean to do something very strong
— and are said to rely on Convocation, the prestige in our
favor being broken in the last meeting. There is a report
that St. Stephen is to be brought before them too. If they
advance beyond J. H. N. i.e. the two first numbers, I suppose
Toovey will have an action in law against them for Hbel.
And all the pubhshers in London will be for him.
Your report of the hundred and odd seceders is good.
It is the first I have heard of it. I wonder where such
portents are created — are they real births of the brain, or
equivocal generations, or do they form in the air ?
IN RETIREMENT 345
If it is not troubling you, I should be glad of your
buying for me any Classics in the following Hst — accord-
ing to your discretion. As to the ' Acta,' I am sorry to hear
where it is gone, but I ought not to be sorry I lost it, for
my delay was not shiUy shallying.
P.S. — I find Hope has been heard of at Milan.
• •' Edward Coleridge's reply to Newman's letter of the
I2th was a long and earnest appeal to him not to leave the
Church of England unless absolutely compelled by his
conscience to do so. He entreated him to think of the
effect his secession would have upon those who had relied
upon him, and assured him that there were many persons,
far more numerous than Newman's modesty would allow
him to believe, who rested so implicitly upon his guidance
that, go whither he would, they would follow him, actually
' against their conscience.'
J. H. Newman to Rev. E. Coleridge
Littlemore : Nov. i6th, 1844.
My Dear Coleridge, — What possible reason of mere
' preference ' can I have for the Roman Church above our
own ? I hardly ever, even abroad, was at any of their
services. I was scarcely ever for an hour in the same room
with a Roman Catholic in my life. I have had no corre-
spondence with anyone. I know absolutely nothing of
them except that external aspect that is so uninviting. In
the ' Tablet ' and ' Dublin Review,' in radical combinations
and liberal meetings, this is how I know them. My habits,
tastes, feelings are as different as can well be conceived
from theirs, as they show outwardly.
No — as far as I know myself the one single over-powering
feeling is that our Church is in schism — and that there is
no salvation in it for one who is convinced of this. It is now
more than five years since a consideration of the Mono-
physite and Donatist controversies wrought in me a clear
conviction that we were now, what those heretics were
then. Two persons alone, whom I was with at the time,
346 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
knew what had happened to me — and I instantly addressed
myself to overcome the feeling. I think I was quite right
in attempting it — I should have been wrong not to have
done so. And I succeeded — for two years I was satisfied
it was my duty to remain quiet, whatever change in actual
opinion had taken place in me. I dwelt upon the Roman
corruptions, as we consider them, and balanced them against
our difficulties. But this time three years the conviction
came on me again, and now for that long time it has been
clear and unbroken under all change of circumstance,
place, and spirits. Through this time my own question
has been * Is it a delusion ? ' and I have waited, not because
my conviction was not clear, but because I doubted whether
it was a duty to trust it. I am still waiting on that con-
sideration.
That our Lord is present in our Eucharist, if we have
the Apostolical succession, and the right form of consecration,
is acknowledged even by Roman Catholics — and that the
Gift is, not sealed up, but actually imparted, though our
Church be in schism, to those who are in involuntary
ignorance, this again is even acknowledged by them. And
that in fact it is bountifully imparted I have proof on every
side of me — but still, it is imparted to those who are in
involuntary ignorance, not to those who are according to
this mysterious Providence enlightened to discern what
the real state of the Church is. If I once am absolutely
convinced that our Church is in schism, there is, according
to the doctrine (I believe) of every age, no safety for me
in it.
This, my dear Coleridge, though not intended argu-
mentatively, but merely drawn out by your letter to show
you my view of the matter, will, I know well, pain you much
— but anyhow you must be pained ; and I can but trust
that each minute of sorrow, as it passes, is so much gone
and over, and is getting rid of what must be, and will be
thus exhausted.
As to the persons you speak of, I do earnestly trust,
and think, that, when it comes to the point, they will be
IN RETIREMENT 347
wiser and more sober, than to take a headlong step merely
because another has moved before them. That I shall
perplex and unsettle them, I know full well — that some
may eventually be persuaded to take the same course is
not improbable — but I do not fear that religious persons
will be thrown off their balance — I trust them too well —
I have a greater confidence in the love for them of Him
who has made them what they are, to fear that He wilJ
abandon them.
John H. Newman.
Rev. J. Keble to J. H. Newman
November i8, 1844.
I ought to have thanked you sooner for your kindness
in writing to me about that report. I had made up my
mind that there was nothing in it, thinking it very unlikely
that Isaac Williams should put a confidence in the Editor
of the ' Morning Chronicle ' or his informant which he denies
to my brother and to me : and feeling on other grounds
sure that it could not be true.
I wish I could hope that all my dear friends were in
some way approximating more to each other on those
awful subjects ; or rather I should say, I wish I could see
this : for hope it I most assuredly do and shall do, as long
as one sees on both sides such unquestionable endeavour
to please God and practise a submissive mind in all things.
I do not, and cannot expect to see my way in the controversy,
as a controversy : but I seem more and more clearly to
feel that the want of approximation in those whom we are
bound to believe really good persons on both sides is a
providential indication that such as I am at least should
stay to be true penitents where they are.
Pusey asks me for my impression as to the Hne which he
should take about preaching, when his suspension expires.
My impression is, that he should proceed nearly as if no-
thing had happened, recapitulating the substance of his last
348 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
Sermon, as he must do for clearness' sake in going on with
his course. In so doing he will re-state the obnoxious
points, and give occasion, though without any challenge,
to the Heads to repeat their censure. If they do not, his
point wiU be so far gained that the Eucharistic Sacrifice
and the Real Presence may be preached at St. Mary's, and
the doctrinal scandal caused by his suspension wiU be
removed. If they censure him, the matter will be fairly
mooted without any questionable forwardness on his part,
and, having had warning, he will give them no such ad-
vantage as he did last time. Do tell me, if you think that
this course will be objectionable in respect of those who
doubt the Catholicity of the Enghsh Church.
I hope I shall not annoy you, if I copy out for you part
of a letter which I had the other day from Judge Coleridge.
' I am struck with part of a letter from . . . of . . .
expressing a wish that Newman should know how warmly
he was loved, honoured, and sympathized with by large
numbers of Churchmen, so that he might not feel soUtary,
or, as it were, cast out. What think you of a private address,
carefully guarded against the appearance of making him
the head of a party, but only assuring him of gratitude,
veneration, and love, as one whose teaching had been
eminently useful,' etc. etc. and he adds : ' It is my hasty
thought of the moment.'
I don't suppose this will come to anything : it seems to
me a thing rather to be discouraged on some accounts,
but I thought I would just let you understand how such a
person as Coleridge feels, and I don't think he mistakes
you. It seemed to me, from what he said when I was
staying with him the other day, that he quite entered into
your feelings, though he would not agree with you in aU
opinions ; of course, he would not think himself capable
of judging. Therefore, my dear Newman, do not in any
case imagine, that you have not hundreds, not to say
thousands, sympathizing with you and feeUng indeed that
they owe their very selves to you.
I can only speak for one, of certain knowledge. Your
IN RETIREMENT 349
sermons put me in the way, and your healing ministration
helped me beyond measure. This is certain knowledge of
mine ; and here is Wilson sitting opposite with just the
same feehngs ; and Yoimg next door, and Moberly at
Winchester, and Ryder a few miles off, and EUison whom
I saw the other day ; and in short, wherever I go, there
is some one to whom you have been a channel of untold
blessing. You must not be angry, for I feel as if I could
not help saying it, and I am sure the very air of England
around you would say the same, if it could be made vocal.
They have had unspeakable help from you, and it is now
their turn to help you with their prayers and good wishes,
now that you seem to be called for a while to be patient in
comparative silence and inactivity.
We shall be anxious to hear about your health. How
I wish it might agree with your plans to come here, if it
were but for a day or two, and let us try if we could not mend
your handwriting, in which art, as you see, we greatly excel.
. . . Medley has been here to consult whether he shall
accept the Bishoprick of New Brunswick. . . .
This is a sad rigmarole — but you will forgive it, from
yours ever very affectionately,
J. K.
I suppose that in the ' Christian Remembrancer ' about
Arnold is James Mozley's. How beautiful the part about
R. H. F. in some respects.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Littlemore : Nov. 21, 1844.
My dear Keble, — I feel Judge Coleridge's great kind-
ness and consideration, but do not find myself able to
come into his proposal, or rather the proposal he throws
out. It is difficult perhaps to give my reasons. I am
afraid of a vefxeau^. What I feel most at present as to
the attacks made on me, or rather the only thing which
I feel, is the charge of dishonesty. Really no one but
O'Connell is called so distinctly and so ordinarily a liar.
350 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
as I am. I think nothing tends to hurt my spirits but
this. I am not treated merely as a gentleman, and that
by educated people. Now as far as any such expression
as Sir J. C.'s went to protest against this, I should value
it much — but then it strikes me I should be removing
a cross from me, and I might have a heavier one put on
me. If there is a cross which is blessed from those who
have borne it from our Lord's own time, it is this — and
it is safest to be content with it.
His letter went far beyond this, however — and such
words as ' veneration, love ' etc. I really could not bear.
I am not used to them. I never have heard them. I hope
there is nothing wrong and ungrateful in shrinking from
them. I am not sure there is not something of pride.
But I really could not bear them. And though I say this,
yet, inconsistent as it is, while I should be pained at them,
I really do think I could be elated too — and, please, do keep
me from this.
And then I do think they would increase, not diminish,
my greatest grief of all — which is the unsettlement of
people's minds. For the more I realized that people
sympathized in me, the more acutely I should feel the
pain I was giving them. Is this selfish ?
I am making too much of this, you wiU say — yet I
will add one thing — I should fear that some persons at
least, who took part in such an expression of kindness,
would think that my present tendencies arose from the
want of such expressions, and would hope to stop them
by means of it. Now I have had extremely kind letters
from Manning, Gladstone, Blowell ^ and others, but they
have not operated ever so little in shaking the deep con-
fidence I have at present that Christianity and the Roman
Catholic system are convertible terms, or in reviving more
hopeful or comfortable feelings about our present state.
I hope you will not think I am writing a cold reasoning
answer to your so very kind letter. I wrote one first
of all thanking you etc. — and then it struck me that all
^ Perhaps ' Browell.'
IN RETIREMENT 351
this was unnecessary between us, so I have burnt it, and
begun again.
While I am on the subject of myself, 1 will say one or
two things more.
When I was first taught the doctrine of Baptismal
Regeneration by Hawkins on my getting into Oriel, of
' the Church ' by Whately in 1825, and of Apostolic Suc-
cession by Hurrell seven years later in 1829 (alter James
on ' Episcopacy ' in 1823), I began to profess them and
commit myself by definite acts to the profession, with far
less of intellectual conviction and feeling of certainty than
I now have of Papal Supremacy and Catholic com-
munion. I doubt whether I should ever have held those
doctrines, if I had gone on in the shilly shally way in which
I am going on (rightly or wrongly) about the last mentioned.
I doubt whether I can have clearer conviction than
I have without a miracle, if then. And Bishop Butler
warns us against expecting too clear evidence in moral
questions.
For three full years I have been in a state of unbroken
certainty. Against this certainty I have acted, under the
notion that it might be a dream, and that I might break it
as a dream by acting — bat I cannot.
In that time I have had no ups and downs — no strong
temptations to move, and relapses again — though of course
at particular moments the (if so be) truth has often flashed
upon me with unusual force.
I scarcely ever was present at a Roman service even
abroad. I knew no Roman CathoHcs. I have no sym-
pathies towards them as an existing body. (I should ob-
serve, however, that I have certainly been touched by
hearing some were praying for me.) I am setting my face
absolutely towards the wilderness.
I am not conscious to myself of being set upon moving.
What I try to preserve is what divines call the state of
' indifferentia/ Touched and grateful as one must be for
the prayers of one's own friends, I have tried to make out
whether there is any feehng of impatience on my mind, as
352 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
if they were keeping me back — any fear of their prayers —
any unwillingness to contemplate {Domine, si vis) my re-
maining where I am. I cannot detect any.
The only feehng I am at all suspicious of, is one which
for an instant I have felt once or twice, but which has not
remained to my consciousness on my mind, a feehng of
intellectual contempt for the paralogisms of our ecclesiastical
and theological theory. That I do think it full of paralo-
gisms is quite certain — that I could, if I chose, indulge my-
self in extreme contempt of it, I know ; — and that nothing
passes in my mind of this consciously, I know also — and I
trust I have no latent feehng of this kind, i.e. anything
to bias, to influence me. What I have asked myself is,
* Are you not perhaps ashamed to hold a system which is
so inconsistent, so untenable ? ' I cannot deny I should be
eishamed of having to profess it — yet I think the feehng,
whatever be its strength, is not at all able to do so great a
thing as to make me tear myself from my friends, from their
good opinion, from my reputation for consistency, from my
habitual associations, from all that is naturally dear to me.
You must not suppose, I am fancying that I know why
or on what, on what motive, I am acting. I cannot. I do
not feel love, or faith. I feel myseK very unreal. I can
only say negatively, what I think does not influence me.
But I cannot analyse my mind, and, I suppose, should do
no good if I tried.
Now I earnestly trust, and think, I may be able to
preserve my present position till I have something to deter-
mine me, in spite of what I have said : but still one or two
things must be said.
Think of my age. Have I not, if any one, a right to
judge and decide ?
Then, it is near four years or much past them, since I
have pubhshed either Tract or Review or other writing on
ecclesiastical questions.
My last two professions of opinion, I think, were in 1838,
in my letter to Faussett — and (the constrained one) to the
Bishop in the beginning of 1841.
IN RETIREMENT 353
For more than five years I have been employed in retreat-
ing from my position.
I have been silent for a year past.
My sole ascertainable reason for moving is a feeling of
indefinite risk to my soul in staying. This, I seem to ascer-
tain in the following manner. I don't think I could die
in our Communion. Then the question comes upon one, is
not death the test ? shall one bear to five, where die one
cannot ?
I am kept first from deference to my friends — next by
the fear of some dreadful delusion being over me.
A sorrowful and unthankful reply this to yours — ^which,
I will but add, cheered me as far, as with such dreadful
questions before me, I can be cheered.
Ever yours affectionately,
J. H. N.
P.S. — Don't suppose I am asking for an answer — I
don't think it can really add to your pain, but rather reheve
it, to know just where I stand.
The following letter will be read with interest for its own
sake, and because of the allusions to a conversation which
the writer had held with Newman a few days before. It
also illustrates the strange mixture of famifiarity and
reverence with which Newman was treated by his friends.
A Layman to J. H. Newman
21 November, 1844.
My dear Newman, — ^The idea has been haunting me that
in the course of our conversation on Saturday I may have
said something improper, or which may have given you
pain. If so I am very sorry for it, pray forgive me, and
be assured that nothing could be further from my intention.
The subject indeed was one of such intense interest, and
overwhelming importance to my mind, that I may very
possibly have been betrayed into saying things to you which
2 A
354 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
I should otherwise have shrunk from saying — indeed I now
feel conscious to myself of having been somewhat too bold
and presumptuous. And yet, inconsistent as it may appear,
somehow or other I can scarcely bring myself to be sorry
for what I said (except so far as it may have given you
pain) for God is sometimes pleased to make use of the
meanest and most contemptible instruments for the
accomplishment of His inscrutable purposes.
O that it might be so in this instance ! that any words
of mine might have weight enough to assist in setting at
rest the painful and agitating doubts with which your
mind is harassed on this most absorbing question !
Yet how can I presume to entertain any such hope ?
As if you had not most maturely and deeply weighed the
matter over and over again in all its bearings.
And yet it may be, as I ventured to hint to you before,
that your peculiar position may render you less apt than
some others to see the full extent of the consequences to
be apprehended from such a step as you contemplate.
I confess that to my mind they are so fearfully alarming
both as regards the peace and welfare of individuals and
of the Church at large that I cannot think of them without
dismay. 1
Here at home in our own communion, what confusion
to our friends, what triumph to our enemies ! and to Rome
what an argument to confirm her in her errors and abuses !
What hope, humanly speaking, can remain to our poor
humbled Church, after such a blow ? And now that she
is beginning to show signs of life and raise her drooping
head, to find herself all at once despaired of and deserted
by her best champion ; one who, under Providence, has
been the chief instrument in raising her from her degraded
state, and, as it were, breathing into her afresh the breath
of life ! Surely the bare thought of this is enough to make
the whole head sick, the whole heart faint. But I cannot,
I will not believe that such a fearful calamity is in store
1 [Everyone took it for granted that Newman did not realise how
much people depended upon him.]
IN RETIREMENT 355
for us. I take heart from your own words, from expressions
in your own writings, which seem absolutely to forbid it,
especially in your letter to the Bishop of Oxford (I think
it is), where you say that till Rome moves towards us, it
is quite impossible that we should move towards Rome.
From this and many other passages of the same tendency
coupled with your assiurance that nothing had occurred
within the last three or four years materially to affect your
sentiments on the question at issue ^ — from all this I cannot
but gather much hope and comfort. I am encouraged
too by the apprehension you expressed that your present
doubts might arise from some delusion ; and that in such
a state of things, and upon a matter of such unspeakable
importance you might indulge a hope that God in His mercy
would vouchsafe to you some more immediate and certain
intimation of His will. And indeed, if I may presume to
judge, this does seem to be a case, if ever there was one,
in which such extraordinary direction might be humbly
hoped for.
I earnestly pray that God may be graciously pleased to
grant you such light as may be needful to guide your steps
in this dark and doubtful way ; that He may give you
strength to wait in quietness and confidence to see what
He will do for His Church — * O tarry thou the Lord's leisure,
be strong and He shall comfort thine heart.'
I can say no more, indeed I fear I may have said too
much already ; if so pray forgive me, and Believe me, as
much as ever,
Your grateful and devoted friend,
N.
P.S. — I am tempted to cry out (indeed the words have
been haunting me ever since I saw you last, and I must
say them)
Tu Patronus es, tu Parens,
Si deseris tu, periimus.
1 Newman had the greatest di£&culty in making his friends under-
stand that it was not external events which were influencing him.
356 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
On November 28 Faber, who had placed himself under
Newman's guidance, wrote as follows :
' I want you to revoke your prohibition, laid on me last
October year, of invoking our Blessed Lady, the Saints,
and angels. Really I do not know whether I ask this in a
lower or less spiritual mood than usual, or whether the mere
pain I feel in not speaking to the Blessed Mother of God
drives me to it. . . . Oret has become almost intolerable/
He goes on to say that he will do what Newman bids him —
' obedience will do me more good than invocation/ He
then speaks of his state of mind ; he had recoiled from the
idea of change more than before, yet he could give no good
grounds for staying where he was.^
J. H. Newman to Rev. F. W. Faber
Littlemore : Advent Sunday [Dec. i], 1844.
My dear Faber, — I find it very difficult to answer you,
both on your own account, and from diffidence which you
will easily understand, in my own judgement. Perhaps
it will be best for me to put some of my reasons before you,
as far as I can.
I can understand certainly that Oret may be intolerably
cold. It does not strike me that you infringed your rule by
using the Confiteor ; — ^but now as to direct and habitual
invocations.
Really I have a great repugnance at mixing religions or
worships together, it is like sowing the field with mingled
seed. A system is a whole ; one cannot tell the effect of
one part disjoined from the rest. All this you know better
than I can state it. Observances which may be very right
in Saints, or in a Church which creates saints, in a communion
in which the aids of grace are such and such, may be
dangerous in a communion which has them not. I do not
like decanting Rome into England ; the bottles may break.
Indeed I look with much anxiety to what is doing now in
many quarters — ^not the least to the inculcation of extra-
1 The letter is printed in full in Bowden's Life and Letters of F. W
Faber,
IN RETIREMENT 337
ordinary degrees of asceticism ; extreme strictness about
indifferent matters, heights of devotion and meditation,
self-forgetfulness and self-abandonment, and the like.
What is natural in Saints and in a saintly system, becomes
a mere form in others. Of course the Invocations you
write about would be no form in you, but others evils
might come of them.
Again, I am not sure there is not danger of presumption
in taking what belongs to another system at will. Private
judgement comes in, and eclecticism. There is an absence
of submission to religion as a rule. And I am not satisfied
that our Church has not a claim in such observances on the
obedience of her members to her directions. And when a
man is holding ofhce in the Church, so to speak, as you are,
I think there is a still greater difficulty in the adoption of
such observances.
You will understand without a word of mine, that I am
saying all this by way of showing you the grounds of my
opinion, and not as forcing it upon you. I am far too much
perplexed myself in various ways, to feel it pleasant to give
advice at all — ^much more to suffer what I say to be taken
as a decision on the point. I hope you will but use what
I have said as suggestions for your guidance.
I cannot think that Oakeley's arguments in the E. Ch.
will stand, more than you, and I shall be surprised if the
Bishop of L. likes to be told that O. considers that the Pope
has a prior claim on his obedience.
Ward has been had up — and Romanizing propositions
submitted to him to deny. He has got till Tuesday to
answer.
I hear people speak with great commendation of Sir
Launcelot and hope soon to have time to read it. I hope
you have recovered the fatigue of St. Wilfred.
Yours most sincerely,
John H. Newman.
' I look with much anxiety to what is doing now in many
quarters — not the least to the inculcation of extraordinary
358 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
degrees of asceticism J &c. These words recall one of the
most penetrating of Newman's sermons, * Dangers to the
Penitent/ the fourth in ' Sermons on Subjects of the Day/
preached on October 30, 1842. That this sermon should
have been called for is an amazing testimony to the depth
and intensity of the religious spirit aroused by the Oxford
Movement. A few passages from it, pieced together, may
serve to recall it to the memory of those who have read it,
and to stimulate the curiosity of those who have not.^
No state is more dreary than that of the repentant
sinner. A man finds that he has a great work to do, and
does not know how to do it, and his impatience and restless-
ness are as great as his conscious ignorance.
First Danger. — Repentant sinners are often impatient
to put themselves upon some new line of action. Their
heart yearns towards humiliation, and bums with a godly
indignation against themselves, as if nothing were too bad
for them ; they look about for some state of life to engage in,
some task or servile office to engage in. But it commonly
happens that God does not disclose His will to them at once,
and for that will they ought to wait. * O tarry thou the
Lord's leisure.'
Second Danger. — Be on your guard against excess.
Persons do not know what they can bear, and what they
cannot, till they have tried it. It is a great fault to be am-
bitious, and men may easily aim at praying more than they
can, or at having a clearer faith and deeper humility than
at present they can have. All things are done by degrees.
Let them also remember that a slight penance, if long, is
far more trying than a severe one, if short, for it outlasts
their present agitated state of mind.
Third Danger. — Rash vows or promises are to be avoided.
If men desire to be of little account in the world, let them
not at once make any engagement or profession to that
effect. Instead, let them daily pray that they may never
be rich, that their dwelling be ever lowly, their home
solitary ; that others may have precedence over them,
others speak while they are silent, others receive deference,
and they neglect, others have handsome houses, pleasant
gardens, etc. Will not such a prayer be a sort of recurrent
1 The words of the preacher have been kept to, as far as possible, in
what follows, but it has not been thought necessary to use inverted commas
or marks of omission.
IN RETIREMENT 359
vow, yet without that dangerous boldness which a private,
self-devised resolution implies ? Who can go on day by
day thus praying, yet not imbibe somewhat of the spirit
for which he prays ? Yet, let no one rashly pray thus, lest,
before he wish it, he gain his prayer.
Fourth Danger. — Men should be careful not to act without
advice. What an inconsistent age is this ! Every depart-
ment of things that are, is pronounced to be capable of
science, to rest upon principles, to require teaching, except
self-discipline. This is left to take its chance.
The sermon concludes with an appeal, made doubly
effective by the coimsels of prudence which preceded it.
' Let us excite each other to seek that good part which shall
not be taken away from us. Let us labour to be really in
earnest, and to view things in the way in which God views
them. Then it will be but a little thing to give up the
world ; only an easy thing to reconcile the mind to what
it at first shrinks from. . . ..'All will in time become natural
to us, which at present we do but own to be good and
true. We shall covet what at present we do but admire.'
The reader will have observed that the dangers of which
the preacher speaks could only beset men who were eager
for a hidden life of self-denial. There is not a word which
suggests those outward manifestations of intemperate
zeal which might have their source in hidden springs of
self-love, as, for example, a hankering after notoriety, a
secret wish to be thought well of, or even the desire to be
identified with a great cause. What must have been the
anguish of the man who had stirred up in others the yearning
after holiness, which every line of this sermon implies, when
he felt bound to dissipate the work of his hands ! He had
no illusions as to the comparative fewness of those who
would follow him ; and feared much for the stability of
those who did not.^
The reader's attention may alSo be called to another
sermon, the ninth in the same volume, which is equally
an historical monument. Its title is * Indulgence in
Religious Privileges,' and it is a warning to those who were
attracted by the beauty of the Catholic ideal, as set forth
by the Movement, but turned away from its severer side.
^ In Loss and Gain at the end of chap. v. he makes Reding say : ' I
fear so very much that all you who do not come forward will go back.
You cannot stand where you are,' &c.
36o CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
The preacher almost speaks as if the Church of England
was being transformed ! ' A more primitive, Catholic,
devout, ardent spirit is abroad . . . the piercing, and
thrilling, and kindling, and enrapturing glories of the
Kingdom of Christ are felt in their degree by many. Men
are beginning to understand that influence, which in the
beginning made the philosopher leave his school, and the
soldier beat his spear into a pruning-hook. They are
beginning to understand that the Gospel is not a mere
scheme or doctrine, but a reality and a life,' ^ &c.
The end of the sermon is well worth attention. The
preacher had evidently been brought face to face with
the question, if our lives are to be shaped after the pattern
of the Apostles and the first Christians, must all God's
temporal blessings, ' all the beauty of nature . . . the
advantages of civilised life, and the presence of friends and
intimates,' be given up ? The reader must find out for
himself how this question was answered. The best way
of inducing him to read the sermon, is to stimulate without
satisfying his curiosity.
J, H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Littlemore : December i6 744,
My dear Keble, — You will like to know, if you do not,
the state of dear Robert Williams. He is on the point of
a severe operation, and is under a good deal of anxiety of
mind — very much so — I am going to London to him to be
with him during it. I shall stay but a short time. A
tedious and disagreeable illness awaits him after it, I hear.
For myself I am just recovering from a severe influenza,
which wonderfully pulled me down — and I cannot properly
stand and walk, as it is. The principal sjrmptom was
extreme prostration of strength.
How singular, as it appears to me, is the progress of
things in Oxford, considering it is quite external to myself,
and while concurring does but concur with my state of
mind. I have had nothing to do with Ward's book. I
objected at the time to many things in his articles and said
^ Sermons on Subjects of the Day, p. 115,
IN RETIREMENT 361
I did not see the good of them. I took no part of any kind
in the publication of the Ideal itself, nor was asked to do
so. And, since it came out, I have told him and others,
that much as there was valuable in it, I would not entertain
the main theory on which it is written that a man may hold
all that the Church of Rome holds yet remain under sub-
scription to our formularies, or (which is the same thing
stated without reference to the particular case) that a
Church could have the Sacraments without the doctrines of
the gospel, or could impart grace yet not possess authority.
And next I was against the move of October against the
Vice Chancellor as its authors knew — though I took no
active part against it, and followed where others followed.
From these two facts, the provocation given by Ward's
book and the hopes excited by the overwhelming majority
for the Vice Chancellor, has arisen the proposition for a
test which now lies before Convocation. It may indeed
be rejected, — but at present it certainly does seem as if
external events were taking matters into their own hands.
Ever yours affectionately,
J. H. N.
Rev. J. Keble to J. H. Newman
December 27, 1844.
St. John's Day.
... I want very much to thank you for your two kind
letters, and for thinking so much of me in all your per-
plexities. . . . Certainly it is a sad unsettled world : the
two lessons out of Isaiah for Christmas Eve struck me as
a melancholy contrast between what this part of Christen-
dom is and what it might be ; but is it better elsewhere ?
As to the Heads I think it very likely that they were
put up to this, as you say, by Ward's Book, and by their
great majority for the V.C. but then I also think that the
same things have emboldened them to ride their horse too
hard, to propose a penalty which Law will set aside, and
a test which will not be carried.
362 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
In respect of Ward, I am quite resolved to vote against
the censure, and almost to give some reasons which will
entirely avoid the theological question ; as the doubtful-
ness whether they have a right to degrade him, the unfair-
ness of treating him so rigidly in respect of the Articles,
while they let other people do as they like by the Prayer
Book, the folly and irrelevance of most of their quotations,
and of their reasoning upon them, the positive excellence
of his book in general, and very particularly, the falsehood
and uncharitableness of charging him with dishonesty, and
that in a formal and abiding document.
I suppose there is something in these reasons, as I hear
people continually starting one or other of them. The
Test seems to excite great disgust, I cannot help fearing
that they will withdraw it and carry the other measure,
which seems to me a most undesirable issue.
I trust you continue better. The cold pinches my wife
sadly. Wilson is tolerable.
Am I right in thinking that Ward's view of the English
Church is the same as yours in the ' Subjects for the Day,'
only that you speak doubtfully, he more or less positively ?
Forgive this very stupid letter.
Ever yours very affectionate
J. K.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
December 29, 1844.
My dear Keble, — R. W. is going on well but with a
great deal of pain and discomfort. How surprising that
his long course of health and spirits should be thus reversed !
They expect he will not get out of doors till the end of
February — his confinement began in the middle of November.
A sad Christmas he has had — distressed by the state of
Church matters as well as by his personal sufferings. It
must be intended for some good end.
W. Froude has been here to-day for a few hours, and
confirms your account of the dissatisfaction which the
IN RETIREMENT 363
Test creates. It will be a remarkable fact if it is rejected —
for that will be an indirect assertion of No. 90. On this
Ward rehes as an illustration of the expedience of his Hne
of acting. He says that Convocation would to a certainty
have condemned No. 90 four years ago, had it been sum-
moned — i.e. to talk is to persuade. Say things, and
people will get accustomed to them and admit them. I
have always thought this, but I cannot go with Ward in
his particular apphcation of the principle — because I do not
think it ought to be admitted, even though it he admitted.
I mean, I think it shocks common sense to say that
the Articles are compatible with a maintenance of the
whole circle of Roman doctrine. Again, it is a great para-
dox to say that a Church has the gifts of grace yet no
authority in teaching ; is priest, yet not prophet. And
further, I think he would go beyond my * Sermons on the
Day,' thus ; — that he would deny that we are at all part
of the CathoHc Church. He has not said so, and I should
not wish it repeated, but since you wish to know, I suspect
he holds that we are simply external to the Church. Now,
it is one thing to say (as I have said) that our Church has
lost its external notes of Catholicity, another to say that
she has no CathoHcity at all. I do not say he is always
consistent in implying the view I am imputing to him —
and for this reason, if for no other, it would be wrong to
charge him with it. Yet if he holds it, I cannot but think
it very dangerous. To remain knowingly out of the Church
seems next door to maintaining some bad heresy. I mean,
I should not wonder at a person so acting falling any day
into any error. It is quite another thing to be in doubt.
I have said all this, because you seem to contemplate
writing in his defence, and therefore you should know,
as you wish, what he holds. I do not know how to say
I wish you to write, for it is bringing you into trouble ;
yet certainly your writing would be very serviceable to
him. I doubt however whether a pamphlet would not
be of more use three weeks hence than now — and indeed
probably you will not get out yours till the end of that
364 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
time. I mean that, it may be a mere finesse, I cannot
tell, but it seems to me as if our friends must begin, not by
defending Ward, but by securing an opposition to the test.
When this point is well worked, persons who have pledged
to oppose the Test may be led on to what they would have
shrunk from at first, the defence of Ward. W. F. reports
that Pusey's Letter has done good — and I doubt whether
it would, had he not confined himself to what was personal
to himself. By waiting too, you will see what Ward is
going to say — for he is at a pamphlet.
All good Christmas wishes to you and Mrs. Keble
I hope she is better for the change of weather — though
W. F. says, contrary to my hopes, that we shall have
some more cold.
Ever yours affectionately,
John H. Newman.
P.S. — No one can have a more unfavourable view
than I of the present state of the Roman CathoHcs — so
much so, that any who join them would be Hke the Cister-
cians of Fountains, hving under trees till their house was
built. If I must account for it, I should say that the want
of unity has injured both them and us.
Dec. 30. — They suppose in Oxford to-day strongly
that the Test will be rejected and Ward condemned.
CHAPTER IX
THE END
' Ad vesperum demorabitur fletus : et ad matutinum laetitia.'
The chief topics upon which the letters in this last chapter
touch, are (i) the * Essay on Development' ; (2) Mr. Ward's
condemnation ; (3) the action brought against Mr. Oakeley
by the Bishop of London.
(i) Some interesting particulars concerning the writing
of the ' Essay on Development ' will be found in the letters.
They complete the account given of it in the 'Apologia/
In this last-named work Newman speaks of his object as an
immediately personal one. * At the end of 1844/ ^^ says,
* I came to the resolution of writing an essay on Doctrinal
Development ; and then, if at the end of it, I found my
convictions in favour of the Roman church were not weaker,
of taking the necessary steps for admission into her fold.' ^
The results on his own mind were not, as he seems to have
anticipated, merely negative. ' As I advanced,' he goes on
to say, 'my difficulties so cleared away that I ceased to
speak of the " Roman Catholics," and boldly called them
Catholics. Before I got to the end I resolved to be received,
and the book remains in the state in which it was then,
unfinished.' ^
In his correspondence he speaks of another and perhaps
more urgent motive, viz. the duty he felt that he owed to
others of explaining the reasons for the great change which
had come over his opinions. There were two ways in which
this duty might be performed. The one was by putting
forth something which would immediately excite interest*^
1 Apologia, p. 228. ^ Ibid. p. 234.
8 If, for example, he had written something in the manner of his
Lectures on Anglican Difficulties. It is a mistake to regard these lectures
as a brilliant piece of impromptu work. Like the Essay on Development,
they are full of the thoughts which had been seething in Newman's mind
since the autumn of 1839,
366 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
The other was by writing a severe philosophical treatise,
which, instead of creating a sensation, would take time
before it made its way. In his letters he gives his reasons
for adopting the latter course.
The writing of a book like the ' Development' in the space
of nine months was an extraordinary achievement, and our
wonder is increased when we learn from the author's corre-
spondence how many of these months slipped by before he
could be said to have got fairly under weigh. When he
began to write, the exact form his work was to take had not
as yet shaped itself in his mind. One thing in particular
must strike all readers, who bear in mind the limited
amount of time which from the first he intended to devote
to the book, and that is the immense labour expended upon
details. When a building is run up in a hurry, care may be
taken to make it weather-proof and suitable for the purpose
it is intended to serve, but upon details not strictly necessary
time and labour will not be lavished. In the ' Essay on
Development ' there are no such marks of parsimony of time
and labour. To take an example almost at random. In
the third section ^ of the fifth chapter of the original edition
the author is discussing the use and the abuse of hypothesis
and antecedent probabilities in historical inquiries. For
purposes of illustration he first turns to Giesler's text-book
of ecclesiastical history, and gives a number of instances
where this author colours, distorts, and interprets facts by
tacit assumptions of his own. He then dissects Gibbon's
account of the Paulicians, and shows how the historian, with
the air of one engaged in marshalling indisputable facts,
constructs it on a somewhat slender likelihood. Next he
turns to Thirlwall and Heeren, giving instances where
they had to eke out scanty records with antecedent prob-
abilities. He ends with a specimen of a covert assumption
made by Mosheim. Congenial as this kind of work was
to Newman, it must have taken up a good deal of time,
and was not urgently necessary for the object which he
had in view.^
(2) On February 13, 1845, the Hebdomadal Board at
Oxford proposed three measures to Convocation. The
^ Omitted in later editions.
2 Compare chap. ix. s. 3 of the Grammar of Assent, where he
handles in the same fashion some half-dozen works on Greek and Roman
history.
THE END 367
first was a condemnation of IVl . Ward's ' Ideal ' ; this was
passed by 777 votes to 386. The second was to deprive
Mr. Ward of his University degrees ; this was carried by
569 to 511 votes. The third was a censure on Tract 90.
This was not put to the vote : ' the Proctors, and the senior
Proctor, Mr. Guillemard of Trinity, stopped it in the words,
Nobis Procuratoribus non placet.' ^
(3) Frederick Oakeley, who, besides being in charge of
the Margaret Street Chapel, retained his Fellowship at
Balliol, felt his position would be an unsatisfactory one
if he did not give the University authorities an opportunity
of taking proceedings against him, for his own views
concerning the Thirty-nine Articles were the same as those
of Mr. Ward. In consequence, he published a letter to
the Vice-Chancellor defining his position. The challenge
was not taken up ; but later on he published a pamphlet
which gave the Bishop of London an opportunity for
attacking him. The Bishop required him to resign the
Margaret Street Chapel, and on his refusal instituted a
suit against him in the Court of Arches. Oakeley had a
powerful backing, for the congregation at Margaret Street
was wealthy, influential, and enthusiastic. Among his
most strenuous supporters were Hope, Bellasis, and Badeley.
His prospects, according to the estimate of his advisers,
were as follows. He might escape in the Court of Arches
on technical grounds, but if the prosecution raised the
doctrinal question, he was almost certain to be condemned.
If this happened, they would advise him to appeal to the
Privy Council, which would be very likely to upset the
judgment of the Court of Arches. When Oakeley refused
to resign the Margaret Street Chapel, his mind was not
unsettled, but before the trial came off, it became clear
to himself and others that, whether it went for or against
him, he would sooner or later leave the Church of England.
When Newman learned this, he was very urgent that Oakeley
1 Church's Oxford Movement, p. 382. The second Proctor was Church
himself. Nearly a quarter of a century later, Newman recalled the service
he had then rendered him in the following words : ' I cannot forget, how, in
February 1841, you suffered me day after day to open to you my anxieties,
and plans, as events successively elicited them ; and much less can I lose
memory of your great act of friendship, as well as of justice and courage,
in the February of 1845, your Proctor's year, when you, with another
now departed, shielded me from the ** civium ardor prava jubentium," by
the interposition of a prerogative belonging to your academical position.' —
Dedicatory Letter to new edition of the Oxford University Sermons,
368 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
should place his resignation in the Bishop's hands. He
wrote to this effect to two of Oakeley's advisers — Hope and
Bellasis. The letter to the former will be found below.
It has not seemed worth while to print the letter to Bellasis,
which, by the way, was written at Oakeley's request^ for
it adds little or nothing to the letter to Hope.
Eventually Oakeley placed his resignation in the hands
of the Bishop, but proceedings were not stayed. Judgment
went by default, and the court gave sentence of perpetual
suspension unless the defendant should retract his errors
to the satisfaction of the Bishop. In later years he con-
templated with some amusement the more lenient treat-
ment meted out by the same court to one of the writers
in ' Essays and Reviews ' who had tampered with some
of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. This gentle-
man was sentenced to suspension for a year, and no recanta-
tion was demanded. ' His Lordship thought it would be
wrong to suspend the defendant until he retracted, as that
judgment might cause a retractation which did not come
from the heart.' ^
Among Cardinal Newman's papers is a packet of
letters from Oakeley relating to his lawsuit. Unfortunately
Newman's part in the correspondence has not been found.
One point of some interest comes out casually in Oakeley 's
letters. Like Newman, he did not anticipate that the break-
up of 1845 would be followed by a great number of persons
leaving the Church of England, but he did fear that many
would discard or water down the principles of the Move-
ment, and sink back to the low dogmatic level from which
it had raised them. In 1865 he seems to have thought
that his fears had been in a great measure realised.^
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
" Jan. 5/45.
My dear K., — I have been much hurt at seeing an article
in the ' Quarterly ' against Ward, said to be Gladstone's.
^ See Times of December 11, 1862, quoted in Oakeley 's Tractanan
Movement, p. 97,
* P. 113 in Historical Notes on the Tvactarian Movement, Longmans,
Green, & Co., 1865. The ' Notes ' should not be confused with the Popular
Lectures which were published in 1855. It is a great pity that both works
are out of print.
THE END 369
Really the author seems to write to compass his degradation.
I don't deny the force of his arguments, but think it (not only
unfair as an ex 'parte account of the book), but cruel just
now, when he has every one upon him, and when heretics,
so that they be Protestant are unmolested by Bishop or
Vice-Chancellor. No one can be expected to do any thing
till W/s pamphlet appears — but it certainly strengthens my
inclination that you should make a protest, if there be
no other objection to it.
Ever yours affectionately,
J. H. N.
All good wishes to you and yours for the New Year.
I was much concerned to hear how ill Mrs. K. had been.
When Gladstone heard that Newman disapproved of
his article he wrote him a long letter in explanation.^
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Littlemore : January 10/45.
My dear K., — I have little to say to your paper, except
that I think it very good indeed, as far as you have drawn
it out. I say ' as far ' — because you do not seem to have
finished the third head. I should really hope that the
various points you have mentioned will suggest profitable
matter for Members of Convocation. They say Gladstone
means to vote against the degradation — if so, I wish he had
delayed his article three months.
Perhaps it would not be a good rhetorical argument,
but it strikes me forcibly how unjust it is to degrade Ward
on the grounds specified, for this reason — hardly one or two
persons agree with him — hardly one or two think all Roman
doctrine compatible with the letter of the 39 Articles. If so,
it is a mere wanton, meaningless, pointless attack almost on
an individual. When Pusey was struck, at least he repre-
sented a party — but whom does Ward represent ? is Con-
1 It can be read in Letters on Church and Religion &c. vol. i. p, 312 ff.
2 B
370 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
vocation an ordinary judge, to come forward whenever any
private member of Convocation does wrong, or an extra-
ordinary for great occasions ? A great thing indeed will
be done, if Ward is degraded ! hardly any one else is
touched — ^no party is repressed — no principle is affirmed.
The only excuse, if they condescended to think about
excuses, which the Hebdomadal Board can make for not
touching Sabellianisers is, that they are so few (I am not
granting the fact). Milman again might escape because he
is not dangerous. So painful a matter as a formal punish-
ment is not to be inflicted except of necessity, for great
evils — ^what is the great end in degrading Ward, etc., etc.
I go on Tuesday to R. Williams, and on Thursday
to H. Wilberforce in my way to Mrs. Bowden at St. Leonards.
Lent falls so early, that my holiday will be very much
curtailed.
Ever yours affectionately,
J. H. N.
Rev. J. Keble to J. H. Newman
February lo, 1845.
My very dear Newman, — It seems uncomfortable not to
be speaking a word to you at such a time as this, when so
many are thinking of you all day long with anxiety and
even tenderness, whose words and thoughts, if they could be
conveyed to you, would be a comfort to you indeed — and
surely they will be conveyed to you in effect ; sooner or
later, in one shape or another, the dew of Hermon will fall
on the hill of Sion (I trust it is not wrong so to apply the
words) .
If you are more hardly used by some persons, and
liberties taken with your name, such as you feel, I fear, but
too keenly, yet do not doubt nor forget how dearly beyond
common examples that name is cherished by very many
others — ^to whom you have been made the instrument of
good, partly perhaps with this very providential purpose,
that so sore a trial might be tempered to you. I just wanted
I . THE END ■ 371
to say this much, for, though dangerous to dwell on in a
common way, it seems to me just the sort of help which one's
infirmity might need and thankfully receive when the sense
of being calumniated comes over bitterly upon us. You
will forgive it, should it be altogether out of place ; as,
coming from me, it may very well be.
This move of the Heads has caused me to review the
argument of my letter to Coleridge, and I think I see clearly
that the case I there contemplated will not really have
occurred, let the voting on Thursday be what it may. For
that argument went entirely on the hypothesis that the
University is the imponens of Academical Subscription, the
contrary of which seems now to be ruled. I suppose it,
therefore, to be the special duty of each person whom they
censure to show by retaining his place among them that
he considers their censiure null and void. I have written
a short letter to this effect, and sent it to R. Palmer, to be
sent to the next ' English Churchman,' if P. thinks proper,
because the ' E.C has been quoting that opinion of mine.
God be with you in storm and in sunshine, and make
me fitter to be
Your very affectionate Friend,
J. K.
My wife is pretty well now. Wilson seems to me much
more comfortable. How clever Ward's last pamphlet
seems — but his rough, rude way makes him lose in rhetoric
quite as much as he gains in logic.
Rev. J. Keble to J. H. Newman
February 20, 1845.
I have nothing to say to you, dearest Newman, that is
at all to the purpose, and yet I want to say a word to you
just to say that I remember your birthday, and long to be
able to keep it as I ought ; but it is to be hoped there are
others who will make up for one's deficiencies in that way-
One thing I should like to do would be to choose out
372 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
some one of the old days, when we most enjoyed ourselves
together, either with dear H. F., or in thought and talk of
him, and live over it again for an hour or two — if such in-
dulgences are not unfit for this season : and to me they
ought not to be altogether unfit, for surely they would
bring with them bitter recollections of thoughts and fancies
very unfit to have been where I was allowed to be. But
I am not going to talk of myself.
I was going to say that, if I might choose a pleasant day
to think of, perhaps the day of [laying] the first stone at
Littlemore might be it. Many places and times, it seems
to me, may well have taken a sort of colouring from that
day, and surely it brings with it sweet and hopeful thoughts,
and many of them, and the past and the future, and the
living and the departed, and times of faith and times of
decay, seem blended, as one thinks of it, in a way which
must (by His blessing, may we not forfeit it !) issue in
comfort at last.
I remember too another day, when we walked up with
old Christie [J. F. C], and there was talk of how each
word of our Lord's is, as it were, a sort of Church Canon,
and Christie said the talk ought to be printed, this was long
after the other, but I cannot exactly remember when.
Will you bear with me in sending you this talk, which
surely is worth very little ?— but it will not be quite worth-
less, if it does but amuse you a little on your birthday.
I should like to try my memory a little further, but the
post-horn is announced, and this letter will not keep, what-
ever another might do.
So believe me always in all times.
Your very affectionate and wishing-to-be-worthier
friend,
J. Keble.
I will not have you trouble yourself to answer effusions
like this.
THE END 373
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. Keble
Littlemore : February 28, 1845.
My dear Keble, — I must write to you a line on this day
to thank you for your two letters— though I shall not do it
as they claim or I should wish. How much has opinions,
in nine years, yet how short a time it seems since we had
dear R. H. F. with us.
How came you to know my birthday ? and all you said
was very kind and more than I deserve.
This last affair did not annoy me at all. I took no sort
of interest in it. I could not, with such real subjects of
pain already on my mind. I rather looked on it with hope,
as leading perhaps to something.
Oakeley has been somewhat cast down by opinions,
among others I suppose of yourself, against his Letter to
the Bishop. I suppose no one but himself is a judge quite
under his feelings and views, for they are so much his own.
He is coming here, I believe, for a day or two's rest. He
knows us all so well.
Ever yours, My dear Keble,
Most affectionately,
J. H. Newman.
P.S. — Mrs. Bowden has got over the measles — ^but
Johnny Bowden is still an invalid.
J. H. Newman to Rev. J. F. Christie
Littlemore : April 8/45.
My dear Christie, — When 1 reflect upon it, I ought
not to be so much surprised at the report contained in your
kind note just received, as I was on reading it. Generally
1 am careless about reports, but I cannot let this pass
without at once contradicting it.
It is totally, utterly, false — I thank God so dreadful
a calamity as you speak of is quite foreign to me. My
mind is quite pure from it. I suppose indeed there are
374 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
few persons of education to whom sceptical thoughts do
not occur, that is from without, e.g. words of sceptical
import present themselves to their eyes bodily in a printed
book. But beyond that, I have no confession whatever
to make. I never have felt the temptation for an instant
from within.
Very likely I have said to some persons, indeed I know
I have, that I thought the English system was so incon-
sistent, that a careful thinker would find himself obliged
to believe more than it contains or less, and that if on
perceiving this he did not go forward, he might, as a judg-
ment, be left to fall behind. And perhaps I may have said
that of course it was a matter of great anxiety to me lest
such a judgment might come upon me unless I made right
use of what light was given me. This is the only way in
which so dreadful an anticipation has ever occurred to my
mind. But to fear a temptation is not to feel it.
I do not mind any one seeing this note who is anxious
on the subject, but of course it should not be shown un-
necessarily.
I do not forget I owe you a letter.
Ever yours affectionately,
John H. Newman.
I said ' no ' about the Hospinian — ^but I shall be very
glad to have it.
The following letter, which has already been published
in Mr. Lathbury's ' Letters on Church and Religion of
W. E. Gladstone,' and Viscount Morley's ' Life of Glad-
stone,' can hardly be spared from a collection of Newman
Letters. Preoccupied as Newman was with his own diffi-
culties and his ' Essay on Development,' he was able to
take a keen interest in what was going on in the outside
world, and recognised in anything but a state of hopeless
and helpless despair that the ' old order ' was not only
passing, but had passed.^ For the circumstances to which
^ He gave a vivid account, nearly thirty years later, of the ' old order '
(' when I was young ' and ' the State had a conscience ') for Mr. Gladstone's
benefit, in his letter to the Duke of Norfolk {Anglican Difficulties, vol. ii.
pp. 264 ff.).
THE END 375
the letter refers, the reader must be referred to the pages
of Mr. Gladstone's biographers. Stated very summarily,
they amount to this. When Sir Robert Peel proposed to
increase the grant made to Maynooth, Mr. Gladstone,
who was a member of the Cabinet, resigned. After he had
thus regained his liberty he voted for the measure. He
was not able to support it as a Cabinet Minister, because
it was against the principles with which he was identified
by his book on * The State in its Relations with the Church.'
Although he saw that these principles were for practical
purposes obsolete, he could determine nothing till he was
inwardly and outwardly in a position of perfect inde-
pendence.
J. H. Newman to Mr. Gladstone
April 1 8, 1845.
My dear Mr. Gladstone, — I should not venture to en-
croach upon your time with this note of mine, but for your
letters to me last autumn, which make me read with great
interest, of course, everything which is in the papers about
you, and encourage me to think that you will not think me
intrusive.
As various persons ask me what I understand is your
present position, I will put down what I conceive it to be ;
and I will beg you to correct my account of it just as much
or just as little as you please, and to determine, as you think
best, whether I shall say I have your authority for any
statements you may kindly make in your answer or not.
Useless words always look cold and formal on paper.
1 should not think of saying (what I really hope it will not
even come into your passing thoughts to doubt) how great
interest I feel in the line of thought which is at present
engaging your mind, and how sure I am you will be con-
ducted to right conclusions. Nor is there anything to
startle or distress me in what you are reported to have said
in the House.
I say then : ' Mr. Gladstone has said the State ought
to have a conscience — ^but it has not a conscience. Can he
give it a conscience ? Is he to impose his own conscience
376 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
on the State ? He would be very glad to do so, if it thereby
would become the State's conscience. But that is absurd.
He must deal with facts. It has a thousand consciences, as
being in its legislative and executive capacities, the aggregate
of a hundred minds — that is, it has no conscience.
'You will say, ''Well, the obvious thing would be, if
the State has not a conscience, that he should cease to be
answerable for it." So he has — he has retired from the
Ministry. While he thought he could believe it had a
conscience — till he was forced to give up, what it was his
duty to cherish as long as ever he could, the notion that the
British Empire was a subject and servant of the Kingdom
of Christ — ^he served the State. Now that he finds this to
be a mere dream, much as it ought to be otherwise, much as
it once was otherwise, he has said, '' I cannot serve such a
mistress."
* But really,' I continue, ' do you in your heart mean to
say that he should absolutely and for ever give up the State
and the country ? I hope not — I do not think he has so
committed himself. That the conclusion he has come to is
a very grave one, and not consistent with his going on
blindl}^ in the din and hurry of business, without having
principles to guide him, I admit ; and this I conceive is his
reason for at once retiring from the Ministry, that he may
contemplate the state of things calmly and from without.
But I really cannot pronounce, nor can you, nor can he
perhaps at once, what is a Christian's duty under these new
circumstances — ^whether to remain in retirement from public
affairs or not. Retirement, however, could not be done by
halves. If he is absolutely to give up all management of
public affairs, he must retire not only from the Ministry,
but from Parliament.
* I see another reason for his retiring from the Ministry.
The public thought they had in his book a pledge that the
Government would not take such a step with respect to
Maynooth as is now before the country. Had he continued
in the Ministry, he would, to a certain extent, have been
misleading the country.
THE END 377
' You say, " He made some show of seeing his way in
future, for he gave advice. He said it would be well for all
parties to yield something. To see his way and to give
advice is as if he had found some principle to go on." I
did not so understand him. I thought he distinctly stated
that he had not yet found a principle, but he gave that
advice which facts, or what he called circumstances, made
necessary, and which, if followed out, will, it is to be hoped,
lead to some basis of principle which we do not see at
present.'
This letter has run to a greater length than I had
expected, but I thought I would do my best to bring out
the impression which your speech has given me of your
meaning.
I am. My dear Mr. Gladstone,
Very truly yours,
John H. Newman.
Mr. Gladstone replied in a letter nearly half as long
again as Newman's. * I do not know,' he said, * that I
should have the least difficulty in subscribing to your
letter as it stands ; and I could much rather say ditto to
you than do your work over again in my own language.' ^
J. H. Newman to Mrs. William Froude
April 20, 1845.
My dear Mrs. Froude — I have long been thinking of
writing to you, both as wishing it, and thinking you might
be anxious.
It is a melancholy thing to report progress — ^melancholy,
that is, to the hearers. Were it not for the pain I am giving,
I seem to myself to be likely to have no pain. I do not
know, but so it seems to me, as if I had no doubt or difficulty.
My mind certainly is in a very different state from what
it was this time [word illegible, possibly it is year]. It
is so made up. . . . Do you recollect the instance of L[ock-
1 Letters on Church and Religion , vol. i. p. 73.
378 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
hart], one of our inmates here, who suddenly joined the
Church of Rome, not in the best way ? It annoyed us
all. He joined at once the Order of Charity, and has
lately, after an absence of a year and a half, been to see his
mother. She has sent a friend of mine a letter, of which
I have got his leave to transcribe the following extract,
which I think you may like to see. Of course it is very
private.
' The only mischief he may do is showing the advantage
of being at rest, and nothing can be more so than he is —
all his old natural cheerfulness is restored, and he is as
merry as a boy, not at all like the melancholy notion gained
from novels and tales of a gloomy monk ; and more
interested in us and our doings than he has been for years,
and loving us better than he ever did. I wish your mother
could see him, and many more who are dreading, with so
much misery and little faith, all I dreaded this time two
years ago. He has never been so much to me in his life
before.' With love to W. etc.,
J. H. N.
J. H. Newman to Mrs. William Froude
June I, 1845.
My dear Mrs. Froude — Your very kind letter was most
welcome. . . . Did I tell you I was preparing a book of
some sort to advertise people how things stood with me ?
I think I am bound to do this, if I can — ^but you may so
suppose, how difficult a thing it is to do. And I have been
for some time overworked — when I had finished the transla-
tion and notes of ' St. Athanasius,' at the end of last year,
I said I would give myself six months' rest, for really I
required it. And then I found all of a sudden this new
work come before me, and I could not deny its claim on
me. 1 have been thinking about some work or other
since last March year, and turning the subject in my mind
at odd times. Yet in spite of that, I have lost, if that is
THE END 379
the word when it could not be helped, or rather consumed
several months this spring upon it in ways which will not
turn to any direct account. I have had to remodel my
plan, and what it will be at last I cannot yet foretell. All
I know is that body and mind are getting wearied together,
and the book not yet written through for the first time.
This then is my occupation at present, with many
interruptions which hardly serve as reliefs. It will be a
sort of obscure philosophical work, if I manage to do it,
with little to interest, and much to disappoint. But I hate
making a splash and, of course, I hate unsettling people ;
if I could do so I would rather write something which
would sink into their minds. . , . Thank you for what you
say about my own comparative composure at present.
Certainly I am not, except at times, in the state of distress
I was last autumn. My mind is a great deal more made
up. . . .
J. H. Newman to J. R. Hope, Esq.
May 14/45.
My dear Hope, — I hope I have not been imprudent
in not waiting for your letter, or that I have not committed
you more than I ought. Last night I was led to have a
talk with Oakeley — I could hardly help it.
I said that I thought he ought to face the question
whether he had not a moral conviction that he should
join the Church of Rome — that, from what I had heard
him say, I doubted whether there was the prospect of
such an event when he let the suit begin, but that his state
of mind seemed different now, and that it affected, as I
thought, the question of the suit.
He said that it was so certain that the suit would be
decided in his favour on technicalities, that he did not
think that it was a practical question.
In reply I did not venture to urge, what you said, that
you thought it would have a very bad effect on the Anglo-
38o CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
Catholic cause (I can't think of a better word) and be a
disadvantage to it in public opinion, and with the Bishops,
if he resigned or went over on acquittal, for I did not feel
at home with it, and it was new to me, and I thought it
would be new to him, and I did not think I could do justice
to it, or could persuade him by it. That it would be an
absurdity I quite see.
So I said that it did not seem to me certain that his case
would go on technicalities — that his lawyers sending down
for passages from authors etc. looked as if they anticipated
something more ; further that if the arguments did run into
doctrine I thought his was a bad case to try it upon ; that
his view was an extreme one.
* Therefore,' I said, * since the continuance of the suit
involves a risky in which many persons are involved, the
question is, what is there that calls for that risk. If its
favourable issue will have the effect of keeping you in the
Church of England, this is a reason for it, but if it will
produce no great effect one way or the other, whether you
succeed or not, the risk is for nothing. You have then to
make up your mind how you feel towards the Church of
Rome,' etc.
As far as I recollect this is what I said — and I put it
down that you may correct anything I said wrong. I
don't think I committed you except generally.
P.S. — You are quite right in saying I do not take Ward
and Oakeley's grounds that all Roman doctrine may be
held in our Church and that as Roman. I have always and
everywhere resisted it.
J. H. Newman to Mrs. William Froude
June lo, 1845.
My dear Mrs. Froude, — If I write in a different tone at one
time and another, it is not that I write in different frames of
mind, but that it is difficult to bring out all one would say
at once. The case with me, I think, is of this kind — I
THE END 381
am very much more made up both in steady conviction and
preparation of my feeUngs, to change my place — ^but am
suffering from fatigue of mind, partly from former distress,
partly from other causes. (It is very uncomfortable to
go on in this way about myself, but I suppose I must.)
Last year was a very trying time to me. I lost my most
intimate friend, whom you did not know, Mr. Bowden.
Then in the autumn was all the anxiety of breaking this
matter to people, and altogether it brought me so low that
I have had a succession of attacks of influenza through the
winter, and am not right even now. Then, to tell the truth,
I have been so many years thinking and writing, that I
am fairly tired. Three years ago my essay on Miracles
nearly knocked me up. And last year my ' Notes on St.
Athanasius * fairly did so. I always determined when they
were done, to give myself a respite for some months, and a
medical friend, on whom I have long relied, spoke very
strong things on the necessity of it. Well, hardly was St.
Athanasius over when it broke upon me that I must write
a book on the subject I mentioned to you, and never has
anything cost me (I think) so much hard thought and
anxiety, though when I got to the end of my ' Arians '
thirteen years ago, I had no sleep for a week, and was
fainting away or something like it, day after day. Then
I went abroad and that set me up. At present I have been
four months and more at my new work, and found I had
vastly more materials than I knew how to employ. The
difficulty was to bring them into shape, as well as to work
out in my mind the principles on which they were to run.
I spent two months in reading and writing which came to
nothing, at least for my present purpose. I really have no
hope that it will be finished before the autumn, if then. I
have not written a sentence, I suppose, which will stand
or hardly so. Perhaps one gets over-sensitive even about
style, as one gets on in life. My utmost ambition in point
of recreation, is to lay aside the actual writing for three
weeks or so in the course of the time, and take to reading
and hunting about. Our time is so divided here, that I have
382 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
not above six or seven hours at it, and it is so exhausting,
I doubt whether I could give more. I am now writing it
for the first time, and have done three chapters out of four
or five. Besides re-writing, every part has to be worked
out and defined as in moulding a statue. I get on, as a
person walks with a lame ankle, who does get on, and gets
to his journey's end, but not comfortably. Now, after
all this you will expect the work to be something out of the
way — alack, that is the worst of it — it is much cry and little
wool. However, I must do my best, and then leave it.
As hitherto I have never taken to heart what people said
of my writings, I trust I shall not on this occasion. I was
much interested and obliged by what you said about reports
and how they were taken.
The following letter requires some explanation, and
for this recourse must be had to Dr. Pusey's biographer.
' When at last it was forced upon him [i.e. Pusey] that
Newman would become a Roman Catholic, he endeavoured
to reconcile his own unswerving love of and deference for
Newman with his absolute faith in the Presence of Christ
with the English Church, by the supposition that Newman
was, at any rate for a time, the subject of a special call or
dispensation, having for its object the promotion of some
great blessing or improvement in the Roman Church ;
and therefore that his secession was no more entitled to
general imitation than was the mission of the Prophet
Jonah to Nineveh. He could not bring himself to allow
that Newman was doing wrong, though he held that it
would have been wrong indeed in himself or any other
member of the English Church to follow his example/ ^
Such a strong hold did this idea get on his mind that he
came to think Newman must share it, and wrote to ask his
advice about a lady who was, as he would have regarded it,
tempted to join the Church of Rome. * Your case,' he said,
1 Life of Pusey, vol. ii. p. 465. ' Such a position,' continues the
biographer, * is open to obvious criticisms ; but the heart has a logic of
its own, which is often, in point of courage and generosity, more than a
match for that of the bare understandmg.' This logic of the heart enabled
Pusey, seven days after Newman's conversion, to pubUsh in the English
Churchman a letter which is a magnificent monument both of his love for
Newman, and of his fortitude and generosity {ibid. pp. 400-403).
THE END 383
' if so it is to be, I look upon as a special dispensation. I
suppose, of course, that, if it is so, Almighty God is pleased
to draw you for some office which He has for you/
J. H. Newman to Rev. E. B. Pusey
July 22, 1S45.
My dear Pusey, — . . . As to the anxious matter which
forms the second subject of your letter, perhaps I am a
bad adviser for you — for one of my own tokens of firmness
of conviction to myself has been the wish that others should
do the same. Very unwilling indeed am I and distressed
that they should act because I act, but if it is right for me,
it is right for others. It is no special dispensation with me,
certainly. One person is moved differently from another —
some have been before me, others may be after me — in
that sense every one is under a special dispensation — but in
no other sense can I contemplate it as special. Were I in a
system which I am not, and saw so clearly that it was salva-
tion, and then foimd that another out of it were desirous to
enter it, I should not ask if she had a warrant to enter, but
whether there was anything against her entering, and I do
not think I should consider any duty violated by her entering.
At present, ' Physician, heal thyself,* is what sounds in my
ears, and without going to longer questions, one is con-
tented to give cautions against precipitancy, restlessness,
etc., which indeed at no time can be out of place, but
would be less prominent, did I see more than I can see
just now.
Really I am just the worst person you could ask — for
though nothing can be more axiomatic than that where
persons have confidence in our Church they are safe, I have
the greatest perplexity about the estate of those who have
not that confidence, and think they may wait indeed on
many accounts, but have no right to put aside what may be,
what probably is a call.
You will see that I had better not answer your specific
questions at all — and you may give easily as a reason that
384 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
it would be inconsistent in a person in my case giving any
advice. I wrote the like to a lady a day or two ago.
The letter you send is a most impressive and distressing
one to me. I dare not keep back my feeling about it, in
spite of what I have said, and knowing too how it will pain
you. I should really fear to be acting against the Truth
in keeping her from what seems so to be intended for her.
She gives a hint about rationalism — this perhaps is my weak
point — but it frightens me.
Miss Lenthall departed last evening — I have just heard
it — it has affected me much — she is my last link with
St. Mary's.
Ever yours affectionately,
J. H. N.
Rev. J. Keble to J. H. Newman
October 3, 1845,
I feel as if I had something to say to you, although
I don't very well know what it will be ; but Charlotte's
illness having for the present at least abated, I find that I
am better able than I have been for near a fortnight past
to think and speak coherently of other things, and what
can I think of so much as you, dear friend, and the dycovia
which awaits us with regard to you : except, indeed, when
my thoughts travel on to Bisley, to Tom's bedside, for there,
as well as here, every thing almost seems to have been,
perhaps to be, hanging by a thread.
At such times one seems in a way to see deeper into
realities, and I must own to you that the impression on my
own mind of the reality of the things I have been brought
up among, and of its being my own fault not theirs, wherein-
soever I am foimd wanting, — this impression seems to deepen
in me as Death draws nearer, and I find it harder and harder
to imagine that persons such as I have seen and heard of
lately should be permitted to live and die deceiving them-
selves in such a point, as whether they are aliens to the grace
of God's Sacraments or no.
THE END 385
October 11, midnight.^ I had written thus far about a
week ago, and then left off for very weariness, and, now that
I was thinking of going on with my writing, I find that the
thunderbolt has actually fallen upon us, and you have
actually taken the step which we greatly feared.
I will not plague you, then, with what I might otherwise
have set down — -something which passed directly relating
to yourself in what fell from my dear wife on this day fort-
night, when in perfect tranquillity and self-possession,
having received the Holy Communion, she took leave of us
all, expecting hourly to sink away. By God's great mercy
she revived, and still continues among us, with, I trust,
increasing hopes of recovery ; but the words which she
spoke were such that I must always think of them as of the
last words of a saint. Some of them I had thought of
reporting to you, but this, at any rate, is not the time.
Wilson has told me how kindly you have been remember-
ing us in oiu: troubles ; it was very kind, when you must
have so much upon your own mind. Who knows how much
good your prayers and those of other absent friends may
have done us both here and at Bisley ? For there too, as
I dare say you know, has been a favourable change, and
a more decided one, I imagine, than here — at least their
doctor has told them they may make themselves comfort-
able, which is far beyond anything that has yet been said to
us. But his recovery is very, very slow. There too, as well
as here, everything has fallen out so as to foster the delusion,
if delusion it be, that we are not quite aliens, not living
among unrealities. Yet you have no doubt the other way.
It is very mysterious, very bewildering indeed ; but, being
so, one's duty seems clearly pointed out : to abide where
one is, till some new call come upon one. If this were
merely my own reason or feeling, I should mistrust it
altogether, knowing, alas ! that I am far indeed from the
person to whom guidance is promised, but when I see the
faith of others, such as I know them to be, and so very near
1 After he had received the news that Newman had left the Anghcan
Communion.
2 c
386 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
to me as God has set them, I am sure that it would be a
kind of impiety but to dream of separating from them.
Besides the deep grief of losing you for a guide and
helper, and scarce knowing which way to look, (though I
trust, thanks (in good part), to your kindness in many ways
I am not in so wretched a condition as I was), you may guess
what uncomfortable feelings haunt me, as if I, more than
any one else, was answerable for whatever of distress and
scandal may occur. I keep on thinking, ' If I had been
different, perhaps N. would have been guided to see things
differently, and we might have been spared so many broken
hearts and bewildered spirits.' To be sure, that cold hard
way of going on, which I have mentioned to you before,
stands my friend at such times, and hinders me, I suppose,
from being really distressed ; but this is how I feel that
I ought to feel, and ... I tell you . . . and how I wish
you to help me. That way of help, at any rate, is not
forbidden you in respect of any one of us.
My dearest Newman, you have been a kind and helpful
friend to me in a way in which scarce any one else could have
been, and you are so mixed up in my mind with old and
dear and sacred thoughts, that I cannot well bear to part
with you, most unworthy as I know myself to be ; and yet
I cannot go along with you. I must cling to the belief
that we are not really parted — you have taught me so,
and I scarce think you can unteach me — and, having
relieved my mind with this little word, I will only say God
bless you and reward you a thousandfold all your help
in every way to me unworthy, and to so many others.
May you have peace where you are gone, and help us in
some way to get peace ; but somehow I scarce think it
will be in the way of controversy. And so, with somewhat
of a feeling as if the Spring had been taken out of my year,
I am, always, your affectionate and grateful,
J. Keble.
THE END 387
J. H. Newman to Rev. E. B. Pusey
My dear Pusey,— I have written to the Provost to-day
to resign my fellowship. Anything may happen to me now
any day< Anyhow, believe me,
My dear Pusey,
Yours most affectionately ever,
J. H. N.
The Provost, Dr. Hawkins, did not receive Newman's
letter till the 6th, for he was away from Oxford. His
reply was, as might be expected, kind and courteous.
Professions of regret were out of the question. He had
repeatedly shown in the most aggressive fashion that in
his opinion Newman had no right to the position which he
held.i But he managed delicately to suggest that there
was still time for him to reconsider his resignation.
Dr. Hawkins to J. H. Newman
Stoke's Bay Cottage,
Alverstoke, Hants,
October 6, 1845.
My dear Newman, — Your letter of the 3rd enclosing
the Resignation of your Fellowship, and desiring me to
withdraw your name, has only reached me this evening.
The form of Resignation is quite correct ; and, if I hear
nothing further from you to the contrary, I must of course
comply with your desire and withdraw your name from our
books upon my return to Oriel.
You say nothing of your present position or intentions.
Possibly you are thinking of retiring into Lay Communion ;
^ The following is a piece of contemporary evidence which seems worth
preserving. It is from a pamphlet entitled * A Short Appeal to Members of
Convocation upon the proposed Censure of Tract 90. By Frederic Rogers,
Fellow of Oriel (London, 1845).' ' Dr. Hawkins, one of the leading pro-
moters of these measures, cannot object to my alluding to the fact that he
certainly endeavours to render its [i.e. Tract 90] abjuration a condition of
admission to Holy Orders — to Fellowships — to Preferments — to employ-
ment in the University ; and this on the alleged ground of its condemnation
by the Hebdomadal Board, and in Bishops' Charges. If the attempt is
not always successful, it is, in some measure, from want of authority.'
388 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
and against this, if you hold the opinions which I suppose,
I could say nothing. But your letter is so strong a confirma-
tion of the rumours I have heard of your intention to join
the Church of Rome, that I venture to write to you as if
it were so. And indeed in any other case, where I could
speak officially or as a friend, I should do what I could to
dissuade any member, much more any minister, of the
Church of England, from what you know I cannot but
regard as very grievous error. It is not from want of
regard for you, if I forbear to say anything in your case,
but only because I despair of doing any good, when you
have been so long studying all questions of this kind ; and
indeed much more, and more anxiously, no doubt, than I
have myself.
And yet I cannot forbear expressing the most earnest
hope (in all sincerity and with feelings of real kindness),
that whatever course you may have resolved upon, you
may still at least be saved from some of the worst errors
of the Church of Rome, such as praying to human Mediators
or falling down before images — because in you, with all the
great advantages with which God has blessed and tried
you, I must believe such errors to be most deeply sinful.
But may He protect you !
Believe me always. My dear Newman,
Sincerely yours,
Edwd. Hawkins.
Newman always thought of Dr. Hawkins with affection
and gratitude. He dwells in the ' Apologia ' upon his
indebtedness to him. ' He was the first who taught me
to weigh my words, and to be cautious in my statements ' ;
and in a higher order, ' As to doctrine he was the means
of great additions to my belief.' ' I can say with a full
heart that I love him and have never ceased to love him.' ^
On Wednesday, October 8, Father Dominic came to
Littlemore. On the following day, Newman entered in his
journal : ' Father Dominic, Dalgairns, and St. John went
to Oxford to mass — completed my confession— admitted
^ Apologia, p, 8.
THE END 389
into the Catholic Church with Bowles and Stanton — [wrote]
to J.,1 Mrs. Wood, H. B[owden], Woodgate, Badeley, E.
Coleridge, I. Williams, Wilson, Dr. Russell, Faber, Belaney,
F.,2 M. R. G.,3 AUies, Mrs. W. F[roude], Rogers, Rivington,
Pusey, Anderdon, Manning, Barter, H. Wplberforce],
Miss Parker, Dodsworth, Mrs. Bowden, Watts Russell,
R. WiUiams, Church, Capes, Dear.'
To the world at large his valedictory words, eloquent
of the deep calm which had settled upon his mind, were the
sentence appended to the uncompleted ' Essay on Develop-
ment ' :
' Such were the thoughts concerning the '' Blessed Vision
of Peace/' of one whose long-continued petitionhad been that
the Most Merciful would not despise the work of His own
Hands, nor leave him to himself ; — while yet his eyes were
dim, and his breast laden, and he could but employ Reason
in the things of Faith. And now, dear Reader, time is
short, eternity is long. Put not from you what you have
here found ; regard it not as mere matter of present con-
troversy ; set not out resolved to refute it, and looking out
for the best way of doing so ; seduce not yourself with the
imagination that it comes of disappointment, or disgust,
or restlessness, or wounded feeling, or undue sensibility, or
other weakness. Wrap not yourself round in the associa-
tions of years past ; nor determine that to be truth which
you wish to be so, nor make an idol of cherished anticipa-
tions. Time is short, eternity is long.
Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine,
Secundum verbum tuum in pace ;
Quia viderunt oculi mei salutare tuum.*
And those whom Newman left, and who never followed
him — gratitude and love seemed to overcome all sense of
the injury he had done to their cause by abandoning it.
The greater number of them, if they had survived him,
would, we may be sure, have gladly subscribed to the noble
and courageous tribute paid to his memory, immediately
after his death, by the Guardian :
' Cardinal Newman is dead, and we lose in him not only
one of the very greatest masters of Enghsh style, not only a
man of singular beauty and purity of character, not only an
1 His sister, Mrs. J. Mozley (her Christian name was Jemima).
* Probably his brother, Francis Newman. ^ Miss Gibeme.
390 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
eminent example of personal sanctity, but the founder, we
may almost say, of the Church of England as we see it.
What the Church of England would have become without
the Tractarian movement we can faintly guess, and of the
Tractarian movement Newman was the hving soul and the
inspiring genius. Great as his services have been to the
communion in which he died, they are as nothing by the
side of those he rendered to the communion in which the
most eventful years of his life were spent. All that was best
in Tractarianism came from him — its reaHty, its depth, its
low estimate of externals, its keen sense of the importance
of religion to the individual soul. The conclusions to which
it led him were different from those to which it led his
most devoted followers, but the premisses from which they
started and the temper in which they worked were identical,
and whatever solid success the High Church party have
obtained since Cardinal Newman's departure has been due
to their fidehty to his method and spirit. He will be mourned
by many in the Roman Church, but their sorrow will be
less than ours, because they have not the same paramount
reason to be grateful to him.' ^
What was the source of the influence Newman had upon
those who came in contact with him during his Oxford
days ? This is the answer given by one who lived with
him at Littlemore, the late Father WiUiam Lockhart.
Unfortunately we cannot give his actual words, but only a
report of them : ^
' To put into one sentence what struck him as the char-
acter of Newman's whole teaching and influence, it was to
make them use their reasoning powers, to seek after the
last satisfactory reason one could reach of everything, and
this led them to the last reason of all, and they formed a
religious personal behef in God the Creator, our Lord and
Master. This was the first thing that Newman did for
those young men under his care. He rooted in their hearts
and minds a personal conviction of the Hving God. And he
for one could say he never had that feehng of God before
he was brought into contact with Cardinal Newman. . . .
It was when Newman read the Scriptures from the lectern
^ The Guardian^ August 13, 1890.
* Quoted from Cardinal Newman, a monograph, by John Oldcastle
(London : John Simkins, n«d,).
THE END 391
in St. Mary's Church at Oxford that one felt more than ever
that his words were those of a seer who saw God and the
things of God. Many men were impressive readers, but
they did not reach the soul. They played on the senses
and imagination, they were good actors, they did not forget
themselves, and one did not forget them. But Newman had
the power of so impressing the soul as to efface himself ;
you thought only of the majestic soul that saw God. It
was God speaking to you as He speaks through creation ;
but in a deeper way by the articulate voice of man made to
the image of God and raised to His Hkeness by grace, com-
municating to your intelligence and sense and imagination,
by words which were the signs of ideas, a transcript of the
work and private thoughts which were in God.'
APPENDIX
I (p. 8i)
The greater part of the following letter, which is in Keble
College Library, was pubHshed in the Guardian of December 7,
191 6, by the Rev. Dr. Lock, Warden of Keble College. Through
the kindness of Dr. Lock we are able to print the entire letter :
My dear Perceval, — Many thanks for your kind note just
received. I certainly am at this instant in a pretty considerable
scrape, but am only surprised at the long run of luck we have
had.
The Tract was necessary to keep people either from Rome
or schism or an uncomfortable conscience. It was necessary
for my own peace so much as this, that I felt people did not
know me, and were trusting me when otherwise they would not.
I really cannot repent having done it. As to the newspapers,
it is a curious coincidence — ^but all these things will turn to good.
The Tract was in print, not to say published, before the papers
opened the subject.
I did not think it would have made a noise. I expected it
to come in quietly — and it would, but for two things — ^first
GoHghtly, who is the Fire -the -Faggot of the affair, and who
would be pleased to know I felt him to be so — and secondly,
Lord Morpeth's speech in the House the other night.
Repeating my thanks, I am.
My dear Perceval,
Yrs. affectionately.
Oriel : March 12/41. J. H. NEWMAN.
p.S. — Mr. Pauli is a Christian and has been Pusey's
assistant in Hebrew and takes Pupils here. He is well thought
of, I believe.
Palmer, I am glad to say, quite sanctions the Tract.
II
There was no trace of Calvinistic teaching in Newman's home.
We are able to make this statement on the authority of the
394 CORRESPONDENCE OF J. H. NEWMAN
Cardinal's nephew, Mr. J. B. Mozley, who has kindly allowed us
to refer to him by name. ' You are at Hberty,' he writes, ' to
refer to me as giving my mother's evidence that the teaching in
the Cardinal's home was not either Calvinistic or Evangelical ; I
think it was soon after the publication of the "Apologia" that she
said this to me.' Mr. Mozley and his brother, Mr. Frank Mozley,
have also given us the following statement made by Francis
Newman to the latter, and noted down by him while it was fresh
in his memory :
'My father was somewhat free -thought ed, fond of seeing what
different people had to say for their opinions. A reader and
admirer of the works of Barclay the Quaker, he could not bear
John Newton, in whose parish, St. Benet Fink,he lived, on account
of his connection with the slave trade, and perhaps his Calvinism.
He was a W^g, despised the city companies, and never cared
to take up his freedom, though it might have done him some little
good in his bank. He was of independent mind, and looked at
things from his own point of view, but, having no political in-
fluence, did not say much. My mother and grandmother (New-
man) taught us simple piety, the non-controversial points of
Christianity on which all agreed. They would never have taught
Calvinism.' ^
There is also evidence in some private memoranda of the
Cardinal's, written when his Evangelicalism was at its height,
that his mother did not share his views.
To Mr. Mozley we are also indebted for the following refer-
ence to the first page of Francis Newman's ' Phases of Faith,'
from which it would seem that (i) Mr. Mayers was an exception
among the masters at Ealing, and that (2) the tone of the boys
there was not markedly rehgious :
' I first began to read rehgious books at school, and especially
the Bible, when I was eleven years old ; * and almost immediately
contracted a habit of secret prayer. But it was not until I was
fourteen that I gained any definite idea of a " scheme of doctrine,"
or could have been called " a converted person " by one of the
^ Compare the account given by the Cardinal in the Apologia of his
home training : ' I was brought up from a child to take a great delight in
reading the Bible. , , , Of course I had a perfect knowledge of my
Catechism.'
* Francis Newman was bom in June 1805 ; his brother, the future
Cardinal, in February 1801. ' When I was fifteen (in the Autumn of 1816)/
writes the latter, ' a great change of thought took place in me. I fell
under the influences of a definite creed ' {Apologia, p. 4). This would have
been when his brother Francis was eleven.
APPENDIX 395
Evangelical school. My religion then certainly exerted a general
influence over my conduct ; for I soon underwent various per-
secutions from my schoolfellows on account of it. . . . An
Evangelical clerg5anan at the school gained my affections, and
from him I imbibed more and more distinctly the full creed
which distinguishes that body of men.'
It only remains to add that the conversion of individual
members of a family to Evangelicalism, as happened in the
case of the two Newmans, was not an unusual event in the early
part of the last century.
INDEX
ACLAND, T. D., 142
Alexander, Bishop, 145.
Allies, Mr., 159, 196
American Church : admission of
Nestorians to communion, 23,
194 ; Mr. Carey's ordination, 253
Anderdon, 237
Andrewes, Bishop, 164, 314
Anglican Church : —
Articles of reUgion — their un-
catholic animus : the thesis
of Tract XC, 72 ; critical
principles of the tract sum-
marised, 75 ; relation to the
Via Media, 76 ; Newman main-
tains legitimacy of his inter-
pretation, 76 ; Pusey's sugges-
tions to Newman, 82 ; New-
man's note to Pusey's letter,
85 ; Hook's letter to Newman,
87 ; Newman's letter to the
Times in 1863 repudiating Mr.
Maurice's accusations, 109 ;
Newman's correspondence with
Keble on Catholic subscription,
138 ; Rev. Ambrose St. John's
correspondence with Newman,
240 ; Newman's letter resign-
ing St. Mary's, 262 ; corre-
spondence with Manning, 272 ;
incompatible with Roman
doctrine : Newman's corre-
spondence with Keble, 360 et
seq. ; Newman on Ward's
' Ideal,' 361 et seq. ", corre-
spondence with J. R. Hope,
380 ; test at Oxford, the pro-
posed, see Oxford University —
Test
Catholicity — efiect of Newman's
study of the Monophysite Con-
troversy on his opinions, i et
seq. ; his early contentions, 8 ;
the reply to Dr. Wiseman, 15 ;
his change of view, 21, 26 ;
Tractarian position, 74 ; Dr.
Russell's correspondence with
Newman, 126, 128 ; effect of
Newman's studies of Arian
controversy, 133 ; his letter to
Mrs. J. Mozley, 153 ; corre-
spondence with Hope, 157 ;
Hope's letter to Gladstone,
157 ; Newman's letters to Rev.
W. Dodsworth, 162, 188 ; the
letter to a layman, 185 5
correspondence with Keble on
his changed opinions, 217, 222,
225, 231, 242, 255, 259, 266 ;
correspondence with Manning,
271 et seq. ; correspondence
with J. R. Hope, 281 ; Keble's
suggestion re recovery through
Primitive Catholicity, 298 ;
Newman's letter to J. R.
Hope : his experiences un-
favourable to her Catholicity,
310 ; letter to E. L. Badeley,
326 ; Newman's correspond-
ence with Keble on Ward's
' Ideal,' 362
Donatists, Dr. Wiseman's parallel
with, 13, 26, 34-5, 38, 49
Four theological schools, Tait's
account of, 95
Heretical character, 21, 26, 133 ;
Newman's correspondence with
Keble, 138 ; with E. L.
Badeley, 327 ; with Rev. E.
Coleridge, 345
Rome, secessions to — fears con-
cerning the Oxford Movement,
30, 53 ; Newman's corre-
spondence on the Oxford
Movement, 147-8, 152 et seq. ;
with J. R. Hope, 157, 164 ;
with S. F. Wood, 161 ; with
Rev. W. Dodsworth, 162, 188 ;
letter to a layman, 185 ; cor-
respondence with Keble re
resignation of St. Mary's (refer-
ences to his influence in direc-
397
398
INDEX
tion of Rome), 210, 216 ' on
changed religious opinions, 217,
222, 227, 231, 242 ; Rev. Am-
brose St. John's correspondence
with Newman, 240 ; Lockhart's
and other secessions, 248, 250,
252, 256, 257, 258 ; Newman's
letter to Rev. F. W. Faber, 253 ;
to an unknown correspondent,
on his own position, 268 ; New-
man's correspondence with
J. R. Hope on the ' Lives
of the English Saints,' 281 ;
unsettlement of others by
Newman's changing views,
294-5. 317. 343, 346, 354, 359 ;
correspondence with Keble,
296 et seq., 316 et seq. ', effect
of his sermons on a young
lady, 300 ; Newman's corre-
spondence with a clergyman :
contradicts statement that he
had gone over to Rome, 309 ;
rumours of Newman's intended
secession, 339 ; subsequent
correspondence, 339 et seq. ;
correspondence with Badeley,
344 ; Lockhart's mother on
her son's restful state, 378 ;
Newman urges Oakeley to con-
sider question : letter to J. R.
Hope, 379 ; correspondence
with Pusey on case of a young
lady, 383 ; Keble's letter to
Newman on learning of his
secession, 384 ; Newman's
diary references to his con-
version, 388
Tokens — Newman's correspon-
dence with Keble on ' Sermons
on Subjects of the Day,' 252,
256, 257, 259, 264
Anglican and Roman Churches,
differences between — the root
of divergence, 7, 11 ; motive
of Tract XC discussed, 72 et
seq. ; correspondence between
Dr. Russell and Newman, 118-
129; between Dr. Wiseman
and Newman, 129-132
Reunion — Ward and Oakeley *s
aspirations : Newman's note
to Pusey, 197
Anglican Difficulties, Lectures on,
368
Anglican theology — Newman on
the objective view of Truth, 11 ;
difficulty respecting the General
Councils, 12-13
Anglo -Catholics, 95
Anti-Catholic statements, i ; re-
tractation of, 202
Anti-Christ — Newman and Dr.
Todd's discourses, 49, 50
Antinomianism, iii
Antioch, Great Council of, 25
' A.P.P.,' 305
' Apologia ' — the five chapters of
Newman's religious opinions, 165
Apostolic succession, 27, 96, 351
Arian controversy and Arianism,
24, 133, 182, 219
Arius, 182
Arminianism — Thomas Scott ac-
cused of. III
Arnold, Dr., 22, 216, 318, 321, 324,
349
Articles of religion, Anglican.
See Anglican Church — Articles
Asceticism, 356
Ashworth, 228
Atkinson, Mr., 52
Atonement — Newman's letter to a
correspondent, 205-7
Augsburg Confession, 171
Authority, 7-8, 11, 102, 162-3,
194-5. See also Pope — Authority
Babington, G., 175, 341
Badeley, Edward Lowth (New-
man's friend and legal adviser),
68, 180, 288, 367 ; Newman's
correspondence with, on the
sermon on ' Implicit and Ex-
plicit Reason,' 69 ; consoling
him on recent misfortune, 138 ;
on Convocation and the King
of Prussia, 180 ; on Lutheranism
and heresy, 182 ; Pusey's sermon
and suspension, 234, 326 ; lenient
attitude of Church authorities
towards Low Churchmen, 327 ;
Newman's religious convictions,
329 ; requesting him to purchase
books, 337, 340, 344; the
Master's action against Ward,
338
Bagot, Rt. Rev. Dr., Bishop of
Oxford — correspondence with
Newman on Mr. Bloxam's in-
discretion, 42-47 ; on Tract XC,
88-9 ; proposes cessation of the
Tracts and suppression of Tract
XC, 99 ; yields over Tract XC ;
Newman undertakes to discon-
tinue Tracts, 102 ; acknowledg-
ment of Newman's letter, 103 ;
Nswman'g letter resigning St.
INDEX
399
Mary's, 262 ; Newmsin's corre-
spondence with Manning on his
Charge, 272
Balguy, 126
Bandinel, 59
Baptism, 83, 86, 93, 96 ; Pusey's
Tract, 177; Newman on adult
baptism, 178 ; McGhee and
Newman's sermon, 191 ; bap-
tismal regeneration, 191, 207,
551
Barclay the Quaker, 394
Barrow, 228
Bath clergyman, a, on Tract XC,
106
Bede — Newman's proposal that
Keble should write his Ufe, 215,
216, 222, 283 ; ' Rome the
Mother Church,' 285
Bellarmine, 120
Bellasis, Serjeant Edward —
memorandum reference to Robert
WiUiams, 36 ; on Tract XC, 97 ;
on the Evangehcal address
against the Tracts, 169 et seq.,
173 ; the suggested legal action,
183-5 ; the troubles at Lambeth,
189 ; Newman thanks him for
note on Life of St. Stephen, 313 ;
supports Oakeley in Court of
Arches, 367
Berengarius, abjuration and re-
tractation of, 120
Berens, Archdeacon, 323
Bernard, Dr., 334, 335
Beveridge, Bishop — ' Private
Thoughts,' 1 1 5-1 7
Bishop, the invisible — St, Ignatius
on, 147
Bishops : —
Authority — Newman's view of,
102
Gifts of the episcopate — Newman
on his studies of the Fathers,
196
Grace, episcopal, 139
Bishops, Anglican, and the
Tractarians, 90 et seq., 138, 162,
164, 171, 184 ; growing una-
nimity against Tract XC, 211,
214 ; Keble on their charges,
216 ; Newman's reply, 227 ;
Newman's correspondence with
Manning, 272 ; Newman's fears
concerning ' Lives of the English
Saints,' 289 ; Gladstone's sug-
gestions to Manning re New-
man, 293 ; a bishop's claim that
Newman's adherents are dwin-
dling, 294 ; Newman's letter
to Badeley on the condemnation
of Pusey's sermon, 327
Blomfield, Bishop of London, 52,
90-1, 147, 184 ; correspondence
with Hook on Tract XC, 90 ;
and Pusey, 233
Bio well, 350
Bloxam, Mr. John Rouse, 40, 61 ;
' Bloxam's escapade * : New-
man's correspondence with Rev.
W. Dodsworth and Bishop of
Oxford, 40-47 ; Newman's ac-
counts to Bowden, 47, 53
Bossuet, 124, 126
Bowden, Mr. J. W. — ill-health, 33,
222, 244, 266, 299, 301 ; New-
man's letters to, 36, 47, 51, 53,
66 ; engaged on ' Lives of the
English Saints,' 227 ; Newman's
correspondence with Keble on
his condition, 322, 324, 328,
330, 331 ; death, 333
Bowden, Mrs. 323, 325^- 332, 334,
336, 370. 373
Bowles, 215
Bowyer, 160
Bramhall, Bishop, 189
Breviary, Roman — used at Little-
more, 295; R. Williams' plan,
306-7
Brewer, 222, 228
Bridges, 228
Bright, Dr. — tribute to Newman's
work on St. Athanasius, 152
British Critic — Thomas Mozley's
editorship : Newman's corre-
spondence with Keble, 134-7 ;
R. Palmer's (of Worcester) pro-
test, 249, 258 ; reference to it
having stopped, 288
British Magazine and the ' Sermons
on Subjects of the Day,' 307
Broad Churchmen. See Low
Churchmen
Brougham, Lord, 142
Buchanan — discovery of a Mono-
physite creed anathematising
Chalcedonians, 10
Bull's ' Defensio F.N.,' 197
Bunsen, M., 142 et seq. ; judgment
on Newman's ' Arians,' 143 ;
Jerusalem Bishopric scheme, 142
et seq.
Burnet, on the AngUcan Articles,
72, 84
Burns, Mr., 164
Burton, 197
Butler, Bishop, 256, 320, 351
400
INDEX
Calcutta, Bishop of — attitude
towards Tractarians, 162
Calvinism — ^no trace in Newman's
home, 115, 393 ; position of
Evangelicals, 115; Newman's
later acknowledgment of ac-
ceptance of its doctrine, 116 ; Cal-
vinists and penances, 173
Cambridgeshire clergyman, a —
letter to Newman on Tract XC,
' 104
Camden Society, the Cambridge,
195
Canons of 1603, 161
Canterbury, Archbishop of — atti-
tude towards Tractarians, 169 ;
receives Evangelical address de-
fiT nouncing ' Tracts for the Times,'
b' 169 ; and Ward's ' Ideal,' 325
' Caphamaite ' conception of the
Eucharist, 121
Cardwell, 37
Carey, Mr. Arthur — Newman on
his ordination, 253
Carlyle, 96
Catechism, Church — movement
against compulsory teaching in
National Schools, 37
Catholic Church. See Roman
Catholic Church, and Anglican
Church — Catholicity
' Catholicity of the Anglican
Church,' 15, 219, 276, 324
Catholic subscription to the Thirty-
nine Articles. See under Angli-
can Church — Articles of religion
Catiiolicus — Newman's letters to
The Times on Sir Robert Peel's
Tamworth address, 142
Celibacy, 29, 49, 65
Chalcedon, Council of (a.d. 451),
3 ; Newman on the definition
of the Two Natures, 10 ; Angli-
can Church and, 22 ; Newman's
letter to a friend (April 5, 1844),
24
Chalcedonians, 10, 24
Chalmers, Dr. — the Tron sermons,
206
Cheltenham EvangeUcals. See
EvangeUcals
Chester, Bishop of — charge in 1841 :
Newman's letter to Keble, 147 ;
to Rev. W. Dodsworth, 163 ;
Keble 's memorial against his
Lutheranism, 324
Chichester, Bishop of. See Shuttle-
worth, Rt. Rev. P. N.
Chichester, Dean of, 180
China, work of Roman Church in,
213
Chretien, 228
Christ : —
Real Presence, doctrine of. See
under Eucharist
Two natures, doctrine of the —
Tome of St. Leo, 3 ; proceed-
ings at Councils of Ephesus
and Chalcedon, 3 ; the Mono-
physite attitude, 6 ; Newman
on the definition of the Council
of Chalcedon, 10
Christian faith — irreconcilable ideas
of Anglican and Roman Churches,
8, II ; Anglican notion of the
objectiveness of Truth, 11
' Christian Year,' 217
Christie, 39, 53, 308, 315, 372
Christie, Rev. J. F. — Newman's
letter contradicting report as
to scepticism, 373
Church, Dean (R. W.), 77-80, 217,
228, 322 ; on Newman's ser-
mons at St. Mary's, 28 ; corre-
spondence with Newman on
Tract XC, 77-80 ; '
ment ' quoted, 367
Church of England.
Church
Church of Rome.
Catholic Church.
' Church of the Fathers,' 49, 55 ;
Newman's reply to a corre-
spondent who took exception to
certain passages, 63
Churton, Mr. T. T. (one of the Four
Senior Tutors), 93
Churton, E., loi
Cistercians of the Fountains, 364
' Clergyman, A ' — correspondence
with Newman on his position in
Anglican Church, 309
Close, Mr., 38, 52
Cof6jQ, R. A., 215, 228 ; sermons, 326
Coleridge, Rev. Edward — New-
man's letter respecting Bishop
of New Zealand and his own
changed rehgious views, 342, 345
Coleridge, Sir John — ' Life of Keble,'
209 ; proposed address of grati-
tude to Newman, 348-9
Collings, 228
Commandment, the Second —
Newman's correspondence with
Keble, 302-4
Confession, 217 ; sacramentarcon-
fession a sine qud non at Little-
more, 312
Oxford Move-
See Anglican
See Roman
INDEX
401
Conservative Journal, 202
' Consubstantial,' the term, 25
Conversion — Newman Eind the
EvangeUstic view, 114; his
letter to a correspondent on the
Atonement, 205-7
Convocation — Newman's attitude :
letters to Keble, 138 ; to Mrs. J.
Mozley, 153; to J. R. Hope,
171 ; to Serjeant Bellasis, 173 ;
apprehensions as to the address
to the King of Prussia, 179, 183
Copeland, Rev. W. J., 52, 54, 195,
217, 220, 238, 244, 266-7, 331,
340
Copleston, Reginald, 52
Cork, Bishop of, 92
Cornish, Rev. C. L., and Tract XC,
78
Councils, the General — their author-
ity, 12 ; Anglican Church and,
22
Country clergyman, a — letters to
Newman on Tract XC, 86, 107
Covenant, the Christian, 178
Covetousness, 131
Cramer, 344
Cranmer, 139
Dalgairns, J. B., 214, 228, 388
Daman, Rev. C, and Tract XC, 78,
80, 102
Davenport, 123
Dayman, 79
Denison, George, 230
Development, the Essay on,"" 152,
294 ; its origin and motives,
365 et seq. ; writing it determines
Newman to enter Roman Church,
365 ; Newman's letters to Mrs.
Froude, 377-8, 380 ; concluding
passage quoted, 389
Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria,
2 et seq., 15, 182
Dispensations, 175
Dissenters — Newman on Anglican
defections, 185
Doddridge's ' Rise and Progress,'
115
Dodsworth, Rev. W., 40, 184, 331 ;
Newman's correspondence with :
on Bloxam's escapade, 40-1 ;
misgivings concerning Anglican
Catholicity, 162 ; controversy
with Sibthorpe, 181 ; defections
to Rome, 188 ; action of Dods-
worth's Bishop, 189 ; marriage
question, 193 ; Hong Kong mis-
sion scheme, 213 ; Puscy's ser-
mon and suspension, 233 ;
Pusey's health, 237 ; the retreat
at Littlemore, 311
Dominic, Father, 388
Donatists, 13, 25, 34-5, 38, 49, 54»
219, 260, 276
Doubt, religious (scepticism) —
Newman's correspondence — ^with
Keble on the Sermons, 259, 264 ;
with an unknown correspondent,
268 ; with J. R. Hope, 281 ; his
fears as to effect of his changed
views on others, 317 ; Keble's
suggestion re Bishop Butler's
notion, 320 ; growth of scepti-
cism at Oxford, 322 ; Newman's
letter to J. F. Christie, 373
Down, Bishop of, 92
Durham, Bishop of. See Malt by,
Bishop
Durham University — High Church
tendencies, 214
Dyson, Mr., 241
Ealing School — religious atmo-
sphere, 116
Eden, 80, 220, 226, 267
Egyptian bishops — refusal to ad-
here to Tome of St. Leo at Council
of Chalcedon, 4
Elijah, 265 ; reference in ' Sermons
on Subjects of the Day,' 292
Elhott, Rev. E. B. — work on Pro-
phecy influences Mr. Robert
Williams, 36
EUison, 349
Elphin, Bishop of, 92
England, Church of. See AngUcan
Church
Ephesus, Council of (449 a.d.), 3
Episcopacy. See Bishops
Epistola Dogmatica ad Flavianum.
See Tome of St. Leo
Estius, the quotation from, 81
Eucharist : —
Real Presence, doctrine of. See
Real Presence, doctrine of
Transubstantiation. See Tran-
substantiation
Eunomius, 182
Eusebians, 25
Eusebius, 182
Eutyches, 2 et seq., 10, 182
Eutychians. See Monophysite con-
troversy
EvangeUcals, the — attitude on
Baptismal Service, Visitation of
2 D
403
INDEX
Sick, and Absolution, 93 ; Tait's
views, 96 ; and the Oxford
movement, 112 ; Newman op-
posed to their system, 114 ; and
Calvinism, 115 ; attitude to Jeru-
salem Bishopric scheme, 147 ;
Cheltenham address to Arch-
bishop of Canterbury denouncing
Tracts for the Times, 169 ; New-
man on the defections to Non-
conformists, 185 ; Newman on
subjectivism in religion, 253 ;
early position of John Henry and
Francis Newman, 394
Exeter, Bishop of, 172, 179, 195,
211
Faber, Mr., 214
Faber, Rev. F. W. — Newman's cor-
respondence with : on secessions
to Rome, 253 ; on Invocation,
356
Faber of Magdalen, 39
Faber of University CoUege, 227
Faith, the Rule of, 207
Faussett, Dr., Lady Margaret Pro-
fessor of Divinity, 49, 134-7,
226 ; Thomas Mozley's reply to
his attack on Tract XC, 134-7
Forbes, 183
Forgiveness of sins, 29, 207
Formby, Mr., 158, 337, 340
Friend, a — letter to Newman on his
reported intention of joining
Roman Church, 339
Froude — account of Newman's
refusal to see Manning, 280
Froude, Archdeacon, 140, 217
Froude, James Anthony, 32
Froude, R. Hurrell, 11, 49, 67, 176,
203, 214, 224, 351, 372-3
Froude, W., 362
Froude, Mrs. William — correspon-
dence with Newman : on letter
to Bishop of Oxford agreeing
to discontinue Tracts, 103 ; New-
man's progress, Lockhart, and
the Essay on Development, 377,
380
Fundamentals, the doctrine of, 11
Gaisford, 344
Geddes, 22
Gentili, Dr., 248, 250, 259
Gibbon, 366
Giesler's text-book of ecclesiastical
history, 366
Gilbert, 37
Gil by, Mr., 214
Gladstone, W. E., and the
Jerusalem Bishopric, 157, 162,
1 71-2, 183 ; and the Tractarian
aspirations for reunion with
Rome, 198 et seq. ; on New-
man's correspondence with
Manning, 273, 278 ; Newman's
letters to J. R. Hope concern-
ing the ' Lives of the English
Saints,' 286, 288 et seq., 310 ;
suggests influences should be
exerted to keep Newman in
the Anglican Church, 293 ; fails
to shake Newman's convictions
concerning Rome, 350 ; article
in the Quarterly against Ward,
368 ; attitude towards the grant
to Maynooth : correspondence
with Newman, 375
Gloucestershire Rector, a, on Tract
XC, and Newman's letter to
Bishop of Oxford, 105
GoUghtly, 79, 86, 393
Gorham case, the, 68
Government, the, and the Jerusa-
lem Bishopric : league with
Bishops against Tractarians, 184 ;
Newman on State conscience, 375
Grace — Newman's letter to Rev.
A. Tarbutt, 177
Grant, Rev. Ignatius, 186, 258-9
Greswold, Bishop, 194
Griffiths, Mr. (one of the Four
Senior Tutors), 93
Guardian, Newman's obituary notice
in, 389
Guillemard, Mr., 367
Haddan, 222, 228
Hallam, Mr., 162
Harrington, Dr., 324, 344
Harrington, Mrs., 323
Harris, 228
Hawkins, Dr., the Provost of Oriel,
79, 351 ; letter to Newman on
his resignation and secession to
Roman Church, 387 ; F. Rogers
on his attitude towards Tract
XC, 387
Hebdomadal Board, See under
Oxford University
Heeren, 366
Henoticon of Zeno, the, 5
Henry VIII, the Act of, 175
Heresy — heretical character of
Anglican Church. See Anglican
INDEX
403
Church — Heretical character.
Newman's correspondence : with
Keble on Catholic subscription,
138; with Mrs. S. F. Wood,
159 ; with Badeley on Luther-
anism, 182
Hermesianer, 97
High Church party — attitude to-
wards Jerusalem Bishopric
scheme, 147
Hoadley, 126
Homilies^ the, Tract XC, and,
75
Hong-Kong mission scheme, 213
Honinghaus' ' Wanderings through
the Domain of Protestant Liter-
ature,' 128
Hook, Dr. W. F., 30, 53, 81, 171 ;
on Oxford Movement and the
danger of defections to Rome,
30 ; attitude towards Jersualem
Bishopric, 147 ; Newman's cor-
respondence with, on Tract XC,
87, 90, 99
Hooker's ' Fifth Book,' 197
Hope, Mr. J. R., 56, 58-61, 67, 326,
367; attitude on Jerusalem Bishop-
ric scheme, 144 ; pamphlet, 145 ;
letter to Gladstone, 157; New-
man's correspondence with, on
Magdalen Statutes, 58-61 ;
Catholicity of AngUcan Church,
157; Jerusalem bishopric, 161,
183 ; Roman tendencies, 164 ;
Convocation and the Poetry
Professorship, 172 ; dispensa-
tions, 175 ; address to King of
Prussia, 179; residence, 190;
position of Tractarians, 191 ;
Scotch Church, American Church,
and Nestorians, 194 ; Newman
thanks him for sending books,
204 ; secessions to Rome, 258 ;
the ' Lives of the English Saints,'
280 et seq., 311 ; doubts of
Cathohcity of EngUsh Church,
311 ; bias, 312 ; Newman's
suggestion to Oakeley re Roman
Church, 380
' House ' or ' Hall,' the, 39
Idolatrous usages. See Images
Images and relics, honours and
reverence to — Tract XC and,
76, 123-4 r Hook's letter to
Newman, 88 ; Newman's corre-
spondence, with Dr. Russell,
123-4 ' with Dr. Wiseman, 131 ;
his admission in 1843, 169 ;
correspondence with Keble on the
Second Commandment, 303, 304
Incumbents — responsibility to their
bishop : Bishop of Oxford's
correspondence with Newman on
Mr. Bloxam's indiscretion, 45-7
Indulgences, 76, 123-4
Infidelity — Newman's fears as to
effect of his changed views on
others, 317
Ireland, the Primate of, 92
Jansenists, 173
Jarvis, Dr., 194
Jeffreys, H., 38, 52, 330
Jelf, Dr., Newman's letter vin-
dicating Tract XC, 71, 80, 86, 147,
167 ; Pusey and, 82 ; the post-
script, 90 ; attitude of Heads of
Houses, 90 ; Newman's assur-
ances to Dr. Wiseman, 129, 132 ;
anti-Catholic statements re-
tracted, 203
Jenkyns, 214
Jerusalem Bishopric scheme, 9, 70,
133-164 ; Mr. Walter informs
Newman of the project, 141 ;
Newman's letter to Keble, 142 ;
Pusey 's attitude, 143 ; Samuel
Wilberforce's attitude, 144 ; New-
man's correspondence, 142, 144
et seq.y 151, 157, 158, 159, 163 ;
attitude of British Government,
146 ; attitude of Evangelicals and
High Churchmen, 147 ; New-
man's unpubhshed letter to The
Times, 149; J. R. Hope's letter
to Gladstone, 157 ; Convocation
and the Address to the King of
Prussia, 179, 183 ; Gladstone's
withdrawal from the Trust, 183 ;
W. Palmer and, 217
Protest, Newman's, 144, 156,
159, 179, 180
Jewel, Bishop — Oakeley's article in
the British Critic , 135
Jewish Church — St. Paul's unsett-
ling effect on, 301
Jews, Conversion of — the Jerusalem
Bishopric scheme, 143
Johnson, 228
Julius I, Pope, 25
Justification, 116, 139, 177, 182,
192, 196, 207
Justin Martyr, 196
404
INDEX
Kaye, Bishop, 197
Keble, John, 35, 49, 79, 176 ; re-
lations with Bishop over Rev. P.
Young, 134, 136-7, 140 ; position
tn regard to Bishop of Winches-
ter's charge, 156 ; disgusted with
Gladstone over WilUams and
the Poetry professorship, 172 ;
Newman on his character, 209 ; —
Newman's correspondence with :
.>n Bishop, of Oxford's proposal to
discontinue Tracts, 100 ; editor-
ship of British Critic^ 134 ; Jeru-
salem bishopric, 142, 147 ; Scotch
Church and Pusey's family, 195 ;
Newman's explanations of era-
sures in Keble's letters, 208 ;
)n Newman's proposed resig-
nation from St. Mary's and
Ids changing religious views,
210, 215, 217, 222, 225, 231,
242, 244, 248, 250, 252,
254, 259-60 ; death of Wood,
215 ; the secessions to Rome,
237, 248-9, 250, 251 ; Sermons on
Subjects of the Day, 246, 249,
255, 257, 259, 263, 266, 301 et
seq. ; on Newman's resignation
from St. Mary's, 266 ; on New-
man's doubts as to duty to con-
tinue in Anglican communion,
296 et seq., 313 et seq., 347 et
seq. ; Bowden's ill -health, 322-31
passim ; Bowden's death, 334 et
seq. ; Newman contradicts rumour
as to his intention to join Roman
Church, 340 ; Keble's reply, 347 ;
on Ward's ' Ideal ' and the action
of the authorities, 361 et seq.,
368 et seq. ; birthday felicita-
tions, 372 ; Keble's letter on
learning of Newman's secession,
384
' ' Catholic subscription to the
Thirty-nine Articles," letter
on — Newman's letter to him
as to heresy, 138
Keble, Mrs, John, 362, 364, 371,
384-5
Keble, Thomas, 261, 266, 299,
331. 384
Kildare, Bishop of, 92
Knox, 256
Lake, 22 C
Lambeth, tne troubles at (1842),
189, 190
Latrocinium. See Ephesus, Council
of, 3
Lauda St on, 118
Law's ' Serious Call,' 115
Layman, a — Newman's letter on
the danger of Anglican defections
to Rome, 185 ; letter to New-
man on his religious doubts, 353
Leibnitz, 117, 124, 126
Lenthall, Miss, 384
Lewis, Mr., 38, 228, 333
Lisle, Phillipps de, 40, 132
Littlemore — Newman reorganises
school, 61 ; Newman's desire to
retain Littlemore, 212, 216 ; ex-
presses disappointment to Keble,
217 ; gifts to the Church at, 230 ;
Newman's life at : time table,
295 ; observance o± Lent (1844),
296 ; Newman's letter to J. R.
Hope and Dodsworth on the re-
treat, 310, 311
' Lives of the English Saints,' 215,
216, 228, 231 ; Pusey and, 280 ;
Newman's correspondence with
J. R. Hope, 280 et seq., 310
Lloyd, Bishop, 197
Lloyd, Mr., 91
Lockhart, William (afterwards
Father WiUiam Lockhart), 215,
228 ; secession to Rome, 248,
250, 256, 258 ; subsequent rest-
ful state : mother's letter to
Newman, 377-8 ; on Newman's
influence at Oxford, 390
London, Bishop of. See Blom-
field. Bishop of London
' Loss and Gain,' quoted, 200, 230,
359 >^.
Low Church party, Tait on, 96 ;
defections to dissenting bodies,
185 ; authorities and, 327, See
also EvangeUcals
Lushington, Dr. — judgment in
Court of Arches on ' passing by,*
93
Luther, 180
Lutheranism, Newman on heresy of,
182
Macdonald, 87
McGhee, Mr. — Newman and his
challenge to a public disputa-
tion, 191
MacMuUen, 228 '
Magdalen College — the contr versy
over the Statutes, 56-61
Maitland, Dean, 50
Malta, the proposed bishopric at,
54
INDEX
405
Maltby, Rt. Rev, E., Bishop of
Durham, 214
Manchester and Salford Protestant
Reformation Society, 309
Manning, Archdeacon, 49, 85, 102,
171, 176, 180, 183, 301, 350;
correspondence with Newman,
on the resignation of St. Mary's,
271 et seq. ; on ' Sermons on
Subjects of the Day,' 290 et seq. ;
the sermon of Nov. 5, and New-
man's refusal to see him, 280
Marcian, Emperor, 3
Marriage — mixed marriage question
in Russia, 38 ; Newman's letter
to Rev. W. Dodsworth, 193
Marriott, Charles, 141, 217, 330, 333
Martyrs' Memorial, the, 176
Masses, the Sacrifice of, 181
Matthison, 37
Maurice, Mr. — Newman's letter to
The Times repudiating accusa-
tions concerning Tract XC, 109
Maye, Dr., 215
Mayers, Rev. Walter, 113, 394 ; his
influence on Newman, 11^ et seq.
Maynooth grant, the, 375
Medley, 349
Melancthon, 175, 180, 182
Meyrick, 228, 331
Miles, 215
Mill, Dr., 147, 156
Miller, John, 319, 323, 326
Mills, Mr., 215
Milman, 370
Miracles, 243 ; the ' Essay on Ecclesi-
astical Miracles," 243 ; Newman's
correspondence with Hope, 282-3
Moberly, Rev. G. (later Bishop
of Salisbury), 80, 324, 349 ;
letter to Rev. R. W. Church on
Tract XC, 80
Mohler, 97
Monastery, Newman's suggestion
for a, 172. See also Littlemore
Monasticism, 308
Monophysite controversy — New-
man's studies in 1839, i, 9; the
controversy outHned, 2 ; pro-
ceedings at Ephesus and Chalce-
don, 3 et seq. ; the two types
of dissidents, Eutychians and
Monophysites, 5 ; difficulty over
the term Physis, 6 ; Newman
recognises the difficulty of the
Via Media, 9 ; his comment
on the definition of Chalcedon,
10, 24 ; the parallel 'to modem
controversy, 13, 24 ; Newman
admits effect of his studies on
his views, 17-26, 276 ; Newman's
references in letters on the
Jerusalem Bishopric scheme, 151,
156 ; on Lutheranism, 182 ; cor-
respondence with Keble, 219
Morpeth, Lord, 87, 393
Morris, Mr., of Exeter — Newman
on his extravagances at St.
Mary's, 36-7, 39, 348
Morris, Rev. T. E. — in the sermon
referring to ' Laud, the martyred
Archbishop,' 189, 229 i^a
Mosheim, 366 " _ ,^^
Mozley, Mr. Frank, 394
Mozley, Mr. J., 35, 52, 228, 330, 349
Mozley, Mrs. J. — Newman's corre-
spondence with : on discontinu-
ance of Tracts, 108 ; the Jerusalem
Bishopric scheme, 151 ; retracta-
tion of anti-Catholic statements,
203
Mozley, J. B., 39 '
Mozley, Mr. J. B. (Newman's
nephew) on Newman's home
teaching, 394
Mozley, Thomas, 68 ; editorship of
British Critic : the article casti-
gating Faussett, 134 ; Newman's
correspondence with Keble, 134-7
Mozley, Mrs. Thomas (Newman's
sister), 135, 141
Mules, 80
Murray, 228
Mysticism, 30, 175
' N ' — letter to Newman urging
hesitation ere seceding to Rome,
355 »
Nestorians and Nestorian doctrine
— the monk Theodosius' allega-
tions, 5 ; the Monophysites and,
6 ; Newman's references on Jeru-
salem Bishopric project, 156 ;
American Church and, 194
Neville, Father William, 146, 280 ;
account of Newman's refusal to
see Manning, 280
Newfoundland, Bishop of, 342
Newman, John Henry — studies
concerning Monophysite con-
troversy : their effect on theory
of Via Media, 1-9 ; recognises
historical position of Roman
Church and authority of Pope,
7 ; contentions as to Cathohcity
of English Church, 8 ; comment
4o6
INDEX
on the definition at Chalcedon,
lo ; on Anglican theology and
subjective view of truth, ii ; ex-
plains his doubts to Rogers and
H. Wilberforce, 14 ; reply to
Dr. Wiseman and the ' Catho-
licity of Enghsh Church,'
15 ; change in rehgious views :
explanatory memoranda, 16;
draft letter to friend, 19 ; un-
dated fragment tracing views
during 1839-41, 23 ; letter to
friend on Council of Chalcedon,
24 ; effect of sermons at St.
Mary's, 28 ; attitude of authori-
ties towards his adherents, 31 ;
correspondence with Rev. W.
Dodsworth and Bishop of Oxford
re Mr. Bloxam's indiscretion,
41-7 ; the rise of the Tractarian
movement, 27-69 ; the contro-
versy over Tract XC, 70-110 ;
Newman's obhgations to Dr.
Russell and Rev. T. Scott, m ;
to Rev. W. Mayers, 113 ; never
experienced conventional Evan-
gelical conversion, 114; early
religious influences, 115, 393;
comparison with St. Phihp Neri,
117; correspondence with Dr.
Russell re Tract XC and Roman
doctrine, 118, 129; correspond-
ence with Dr. Wiseman on
Anglican and Romish differences,
129-32 ; his three difficulties
after termination of Tract XC
affair, 133 ; correspondence with
Keble on T. Mozley's editorship
of British Critic, 134-7 '> ^^
Keble's difficulties over Rev. P.
Young, 136-140 ; on Keble's
letter on ' Catholic Subscription '
to the Articles, 138 ; Catholicus
letters to The Times on Sir
R. Peel's Tamworth address,
142; controversy over the Jeru-
salem bishopric, 141-64 ; unpub-
hshed letter to The Times, 149 ;
letter to S. F. Wood correcting
an account of a sermon, 160 ;
growing difficulties, 165-201 ;
the five periods of religious devel-
opment evidenced in Apologia,
165; his position (1841-3), 166;
fears claims of Rome may prove
irresistible, 166; attitude towards
Roman doctrine {1841-3), 166 et
seq. ; retracts anti-Cathohc state-
ments (1843), 168, 202 et seq. ;
and the Martyrs' memorial, 176 ;
contemplates resignation of St.
Mary's, 204 ; correspondence
with Keble (admits influence in
direction of Rome and changing
views), 208 et seq., 215, 217, 222,
225, 234, 243, 244, 248, 255, 259,
261 ; letter to unknown corre-
spondent on his position as
regards AngHcan and Roman
Churches, 268 ; correspondence
with Manning, 271 et seq. ;
letters to Hope on ' Lives of Eng-
lish Saints,' 280 et seq. ; fife at
Littlemore (1844) : time table,
294-5 ; position in 1844, 294 et
seq . ; effect of his changed views on
others, 294-5, 317, 343, 346, 354,
359 ; one of his trials in Lent 1 844 ;
the prospect of having to join
Church of Rome, 296 ; corre-
spondence with Keble as to his
doubts, 296 et seq., 313 et seq.,
347 et seq. ; correspondence with
a clergyman : contradicts report
that he had gone over to Rome,
309 ; his growing conviction that
Roman communion is the true
Church, 316; recalls experiencesin
Sicily, 315 ; letter to E. L. Bade-
ley, 329 ; rumours of his seces-
sion to Rome, 339 et seq. ; a
friend's letter, 339 ; letter to
Keble contradicting rumours,
340 ; letters from a stranger and
an old schoolfellow, 341 ; cor-
respondence with Rev. E. Cole-
ridge, 342, 345 ; correspondence
with E. L. Badeley, 344 ; his deep
conviction that Christianity and
the Roman system are convert-
ible terms, 350 ; freedom from
Roman influences, 345, 351 ;
layman's letter urging hesitation
ere seceding, 353 ; correspond-
ence with Keble on Ward's
* Ideal ' : Anglican articles in-
compatible with Catholic doc-
trine, 360 et seq. ; unfavourable
view of present state of Roman
Catholics, 364 ; determines on
secession : effect of writing Essay
on Development, 365 ; letters to
Mrs. Froude, 378, 380 ; urges
Oakeley to consider secession
(letter to Keble), 379 ; Pusey and
Newman's intended secession,
382 ; Newman's letter to Pusey
on the case of a young lady, 383 ;
INDEX
407
Keble's letter on learning of New-
man's intention, 384 ; admission
into Roman Catholic Church, 388
Journal — proposal to show it to
Keble, 245 et seq.j 258, 260,
267
Letters— to Rev. T. W. Allies,
196 ; to E. L. Badeley, 69, 137,
180, 234, 326, 329, 337> 340, 343;
Serjeant Bellasis, 170, 173, 183
-4) 189, 313 ; J- W. Bowden,
36, 47 et seq.y 66 ; Rev. J.
F. Christie, 373 ; a Clergyman,
309; Rev. E. Coleridge, 342,
345; a Correspondent, 62 et
seq. ; J. B Dalgaims, 213 ;
Rev. W. Dodsworth, 41, 162,
181, 188, 193, 213, 233, 237,
311 ; Rev. F. W. Faber, 252,
356 ; a Friend (rough draft),
19 ; (extracts), 24 ; Mrs. W.
Froude, 377, 380 ; W. E. Glad-
stone, 375 ; Rev. W. F. Hook,
90, 99; J. R- Hope, 58 et seq.,
144, 158, 161, 164, 171, 175,
179, 182, 190, 205, 258, 280
et seq., 310, 312, 379 ; Dr.
Jelf, 84, 86, 167; Rev. J.
Keble, 134, 138, 142, 147, 191,
195, 208, 217, 222, 225, 244,
257» 259, 266, 299, 313, 328,
331, 334, 340, 349, 360, 368 ; a
Layman, 185; Rev. Mr. Mc-
Ghee, 192 ; Archdeacon Man-
ning, 272, 292 ; Mrs. J. Mozley,
152 ; Bishop of Oxford, 42 et
seq., 262 ; Perceval, 393 ;
Rev. E. B. Pusey, 383, 387 ;
Rev, C. Russell, 122 ; Rev. A.
St. John, 236, 242, 333 ; Rev.
A. Tarbutt, 177 ; The Times,
109, (unpublished, 149) ; un-
known correspondents, 176,
205, 268 et seq. ; Mr. Walter,
148 ; Dr. Wiseman, 129 et seq. ;
Mr. S. F. Wood, 33 et seq.,
38,61,67, 146, 158, 174
Library, 204, 334, 340, 344
Sermons — effect of sermons at
St. Mary's on the Oxford Move-
ment, 28 ; explanatory letter
re ' Secret Faults,' 62 ; ' Paro-
chial Sermons,' 69 ; on ' Im-
plicit and Explicit Reason,' 69 ;
on Development, 245, 277 ;
' Subjects of the Day ' : cor-
respondence with Keble, 246
et seq., 263, 266, 302 et seq. ;
extracts from the Sermon on the
' Invisible Presence of Christ,'
252-3 ; Keble's criticism, 263 ;
Manning's correspondence with
Newman, 290 ; effect on a
young lady, 300 ; friend of
Keble notes new dogmatic
note, 305, 308 ; the reference
to ' our Lord eating and drink-
ing,' 304, 307 ; extracts from
' Dangers to the Penitent,*
358 ; • Indulgence in Religious
Privileges,' 359
Newman's father, 394
Newman, Francis, 394
Newton, Bishop, 51
Newton, John, iii, 394
New Zealand, Bishop of. See
Selwyn, Rt. Rev. G. A.
Nonconformists. See Dissenters
Norris, the Common Room man,
194
Novatians, 173, 260
Oakeley, Mr. Frederick, 159, 160,
174, 180, 197, 198, 227, 324, 357 ;
on the precipitancy of the author-
ities concerning Tract XC, 72 ;
letter to Pusey, 85 ; article on
Jewel, 135 ; Newman and his
aspirations for reunion with
Rome, 198-9 ; translation of St.
Bernard, 298, 306, 308 ; Bishop of
London's action and his resigna-
tion, 365 et seq., 373, 379 ; New-
man suggests he should consider
question of entering Roman
Church : correspondence with
J. R. Hope, 379
Oath of Supremacy, Newman and,
227
O'Connell, 132, 350
Ogilvie, 325
Oldcastle. John — monograph on
Newman quoted, 390
Ordination, Episcopal, 207
Oret, 356
' Origen contra Celsum,' 197
Ormsby, 228
Orpah — reference in ' Sermons on
Subjects of the Day ' : Manning
and, 291-2
Oxford, Bishop of. See Bagot, Dr.
Oxford Movement, the — emergence
of the new school of Tractarians,
27 ; effect of Newman's sermons at
St. Mary's, 28; attitude of authori-
ties towards followers of Newman
and Pusey. 31 ; the controversy
40 8
INDEX
over Tract XC, 70-110 ; dis-
continuance of the Tracts, 99-
102 ; Dr. Wiseman's attitude,
it8 ; correspondence between Dr.
Russell and Newman, 118, 129;
Oakeley's article on Jewel marks
parting of old and new school
of Tractarians, 135 ; Newman's
fear of movement to expel
Tractarians from University :
letter to Mrs. Mozley, 153 ; the
Archbishop of Canterbury and
the Cheltenham Evangelicals'
address denouncing the Tracts,
169 et seq. ; penitential spirit
of the movement, 172 ; alleged
league of Government and Bishops
against, 184 ; Newman's letter
to Bellasis on his difficult position,
184 ; letter to a layman on
Catholic tendencies, 185 ; letter
to Mr. J. R. Hope, 191 ; note to
Pusey on Oakeley and Ward :
the aspiration for reunion with
Rome, 199 ; rise of the new
school with Romanising ten-
dencies, 239 et seq. ; the secessions
to Rome, 248-9, 250, 257 ; a
Bishop's claim respecting New-
man's dwindling adherents, 294 ;
intensity of religious spirit, 358 ;
Oakeley's fears as result of
break-up in 1845, 368 ; New-
man's obituary in the Guardian
quoted, 390
AngUcan defections to Rome.
See under Anglican Church.
Evangelicals — difference in ''^] re-
ligious spirit, 112
Tait's views, 95-6
Oxford University : —
Chancellorship question, 60-1
Hebdomadal Board — attitude to-
wards Tract XC, 71 ; pro-
posals concerning W. G. Ward's
' Ideal of a Christian Church,*
94
Poetry professorship, the election
for, 134, 153, 159, 171
Test, the proposed — The Heb-
domadal Board's proposal, 94 ;
Archibald Tait and, 94 et seq. ;
Newman confesses fears to
Mrs. J. Mozley, 153
Theological Statute — Newman
advises Mr. Hope of the
drafting of, 183
Vice-Chancellor. See Wynter,
Dr.
Palgrave, Sir Francis, 283
Palmer, R. (of Magdalen), 50, 51,
59, 81, 156, 189, 233, 242, 248 ;
Protest against the Jerusalem
Bishopric, 156 ; on Pusey's sus-
pension, 242
Palmer, Mr. Roundell. See Sel-
bome. Lord
Palmer, Rev. William (of Worcester)
— Treatise on the Church, New-
man's review of, 10 ; View of
Faith and Unity, 12 ; appre-
ciation of Tract XC, 76-7 ;
proposed public Declaration, 105 ;
and the Jerusalem Bishopric
scheme, 147, 171, 217 ; and the
services of the Tractarians, 169 ;
pamphlet on the Tracte, 250,
252
Parker, 164
Pattison, Mark, 32, 39, 52, 228,
280, 313
Pauli, Mr., 393
Peel, Sir Robert, 140 ; Newman's
letters to The Times on the
Tarn worth address, 142 ; the
Maynooth grant, 375
Penance, 172-3
Perceval, Rev. A., 217, 266, 312 ;
letter to Newman on Tract XC,
81 ; and the Jerusalem Bishopric
scheme, 147 ; Newman's letter
on Tract XC, 393
Perrone, Father, 177
Petavius on Eutyches, 2
Peter the Tanner, 5
Phantasaists, 5
Phillipps, Mr. See Lisle
Physis, the term — attitude of tie
Monophysites, 6
Pope — authority, infallibility, and
supremacy : effect of Newman's
studies of the Early Church,
7 ; not the point of divergence
between England and Rome, 8,
II ; reference in rough draft
of letter to a friend, 22 ; New-
man's note to Pusey, 198 ;
letters to Keble, 218, 351 ;
correspondence with Hope, 285,
287 ; Newman's certainty on the
supremacy question, 351
Prayers for the dead, 22, 308
Predestination, 115, 116
Pritchard, 228
Prodigal Son, the Parable of the, 178
Prophetical office, the, 12
Proterius, Patriarch, 5
Protestants and Protestantism —
INDEX
409
Newman's views as a result of
study of Monophysite contro-
versy, I ; Dr. Russell on danger
of lapsing from Anglicanism,
129 ; references in Newman's
letters on the Jerusalem
Bishopric scheme, 145, 148, 150,
155, 171 ; Mr. Hope's letter to
Mr. Gladstone, 157 ; Tractarians
and the Reformers, 175 et seq. ;
Newman and Reformers, 177,
198 ; his letters to Badeley, 182,
327
Protestant league, supposed plan
for universal, 155
Prussia, King of — the proposed
address, 179 et seq. ; prayers
with Newgate prisoners, 181
Prussian Church — question of re-
lations with Anglican Church
raised over Jerusalem Bishopric
project, 143 et seq., 151, 158
Purgatory, Tract XC and. 76 ;
Pusey on, 83 ; Newman's letter
to a correspondent explaining
passage in sermon on ' Secret
Faults,' 62 ; the letter to Dr.
Jelf, 167
Pusey, Edward Bouverie, 102, 135,
139, 147, 170, 176, 195, 228,
257, 271, 280, 297, 301, 320,
324, 342, 369 ; authorities'
attitude towards his disciples,
32 ; note to Bishop of Oxford
re Bloxam, 45 ; proposed in-
stitution of Sisters of Mercy, 54 ;
opposes Bishop of Salisbury for
the Chancellorship, 61 ; criticises
S. F. Wood's sketch, 67 ; on
the precipitancy of the authorities
regarding Tract XC, 71 ; letter
to Dr. Wynter defending Tract
XC, 81 ; letter to Newman on
the letter to Dr. Jelf, 82 ; Bishop
of Oxford's letter suggesting
pubh cation of explanations, 88 ;
Newman's letter to The Times
in 1863, no ; Newman's letter to
Keble on state of health of Pusey 's
family, 141 ; attitude on the
Jerusalem Bishopric, 143 ; con-
sulted by Newman re Evangelical
address denouncing the Tracts,
170 ; and the Martyrs' Memorial,
176 ; letter to the Archbishop,
185, 188 ; Newman's love for,
195 ; his note to Pusey on
Oakeley and Ward's aspirations
for reunion with Rome, 197-9 ;
the reference in ' Loss and
Gain,' 200 ; suggests Newman
should retain Littlemore, 212 ;
ill-health, 222, 229, 230, 237 ;
Newman's account of his health
to Rev. W. Dodsworth, 237 ;
Keble advises Newman to con-
sult him on changed opinions,
261 ; letter to Gladstone on
Newman's correspondence with
Manning, 279 ; and the ' Lives
of the Saints,' 280, 282 ; and the
Roman devotional system, 306--
307 J Newman's letter to Badeley
on the significance of Pusey 's
suit, 344 ; view of Newman's
intention to enter Roman Church,
382 ; Newman's letters to
Pusey on the case of a young
lady disposed to join Roman
Church, 383 ; announcing resig-
nation of fellowship, 387
Baptism, Tract on, Newman
and, 177
Suspension for the sermon on
the Eucharist, 204, 208, 228-9,
232 et seq., 242 ; Newman's
letter to Badeley, 327 ; Keble's
suggestion as to his conduct
on expiry, 347
Pusey, Mrs., ill-health, 33
Pusey, Lady Lucy, 141
Pusey, Lucy, 230, 232
QuiN,^87
Rambler, the essay in the, 12
Rationahsm, 150, 157
Real Presence, doctrine of the,
139, 171, 240, 348
Reason and behef, 23
Reding, Charles, the character in
* Loss and Gain,' 29, 230
Reformation and Reformers. See
Protestants and Protestantism
ReUgion, subject! veness in, New-
man on, 112, 114, 253
Rehgious privileges, indulgence in-—
extracts from Newman's sermon,
359
Repentance — -the sermon on dangers
to the penitent, 358
Residence — Newman's letter to Mr.
J. R. Hope, 190
Review, Newman proposes to estab-
lish a, 287
410
INDEX
Richards, Dr., Rector of Exeter, and
Tract XC, 78
Ridley — advice to his father-in-law
over Rev. P. Young, 140
Rio's La Petite Chouanerie, the
article on, 197
Rivington, 228, 284-5, 290
Rock, Dr., 40, 50
Rogers, Frederic, 14, 34-5, 60, 220,
315 ; correspondence with New-
man over changed religious views,
14, 220-1, 226 ; his defence of
Newman in Convocation, 221 ;
on Dr. Hawkins' attitude to-
wards Tract XC, 387
* Roman Catholic Church ' — New-
man's recognition of its historical
position, 6; Newman's correspond-
ence with Keble : acknowledges
Roman Church as the Church of
the Apostles, 219 ; Keble 's reply,
222 ; Newman explains his
position to an unknown corre-
spondent, 268 ; growing convic-
tion that Roman communion
is the true Church, 316 ; New-
man's unfavourable view of
present state of Roman CathoUcs,
364
Anghcan Church, differences
with. See Anglican and Roman
Churches, differences between
Anghcan secessions. See under
Anglican Church
Belief in her teaching as the
teaching of God imperative —
Newman's letter of Oct. 11,
1879. 31
Catholicity — Dr. Russell's cor-
respondence with Newman,
127 ; Manning's correspond-
ence with Newman, 275 et seq. ;
Newman's correspondence with
J. R. Hope, 281
China, work in, 213
Devotions, Dr. Russell on, 125
Doctrine — Tract XC and, 72 et
seq. ; Pusey's suggestions to
Newman respecting the letter
to Dr. Jelf, 82 ; correspond-
ence between Newman and
Russell, 118-29; and Wise-
man, 129-32 ; Newman's atti-
tude in 1841-3, 166 et seq.
Faith, alleged additions to the —
Newman's accusation, 8 ; his
doubts, 16, 21 ; Dr. Russell's
correspondence with Newman,
129 ; Newman's changed views:
correspondence with Keble,
219, 223
Romish, the term — distinction from
Tridentine, 73
Rosary, Dr. Russell on the, 125
Rule of Faith. See Faith, Rule of
Russell, Dr. C, of Maynooth, 73,
III, 117, 168 ; biographical note,
117; and Tract XC, 73 ; cor-
respondence with Newman re-
specting reference to Transub-
stantiation in Tract XC and
Roman doctrine, 118-29
Russia — ^mixed marriages question,
38
Ryder, T., 228, 349
Sabellianisers, 370
Sacrament, the Blessed. See
Eucharist
St. Aldhelm, 283
St. Alphonsus, sermons of, 168
St. Athanasius, 21, 22, 24, 25,
26 ; Newman's work, 133, 140,
151, 158, 294, 300, 341
St. Augustine, 13, 21, 197, 260
St. Augustine of Canterbury, 283
St. Bernard, 125 ; Oakeley's work,
298, 306, 308
St. Cyprian, 21, 197, 260
St. Cyril of Alexandria, Epistles of,
4, 6, 24
St. David's, Bishop of, 211
St. Flavian, Patriarch of Constanti-
nople, 2
St. Francis Xavier, 125
St. Gregory — the address to St.
Basil, 65
St. Hilary, 22
St. Ignatius the Martyr, 21, 147
St. Ignatius of Loyola, ' Exercises,*
168, 296
St. John — on Grace, 177
St. John Baptist, 265
St. John Chrysostom, extracts from,
121
St. John, Rev. Ambrose — corre-
spondence with Newman on his
religious opinions, 236, 240 ; on
death of Bowden, 334 ; and
Newman's secession, 388
St. Leo the Great, Pope, 2, 7, 14,
21, 24
Tome. See Tome of St. Leo
St. Mary's, Oxford : —
Newman contemplates resigna-
tion, 204 ; correspondence
with Keble, 208 et seq., 215,
INDEX
411
217, 222, 225, 231, 246, 248,
250, 252, 255, 257 ; letter
to Mr. J. R. Hope, 259 ;
Newman's letter of resigna-
tion, 262 ; subsequent corre-
spondence with Keble, 266 ;
correspondence with unknown
correspondent, 268 ; with Man-
ning, 271 et seq.
St. Paul — on Grace, 177 ; unsettling
effect on the Jewish Church, 301
St. Phihp Neri, Newman compared
to, 117
St. Stephen, 283, 285
St. Vincent of Paul, 125
Saints, intercession and invocation
of, 65, 123-4, 171, 207; Tract
XC and, 76 ; Newman and, 167 ;
Rev. T. E. Morris's sermon on
Laud, 228 ; distinction between
intercession and invocation, 229 ;
Newman's correspondence with
Rev. Ambrose St. John, 240 ;
with Rev. F. W. Faber, 356
SaUsbury, Bishop of — suggested for
Chancellorship of Oxford Uni-
versity, 60-1 ; charge, 199
Sancta Clara, 123
Scepticism. See Doubt.
Schleiermacher, 96
' Schoolfellow, an old ' — letter to
Newman on his reported in-
tention to jom Roman Church,
341
Scotch Church, 194 et seq.
Scott, Rev. Thomas, of Aston
Sandford, 41 ; his influence on
Newman, 111 et seq.
' Securus judicat orbis terrarum,' 13,
35
Selbome, Lord (Mr. Roundell
Palmer), 105, 205
Selwyn, Right Rev, G. A., Bishop of
New Zealand, 342
Sermons. See under Newman,
John Henry
Sewell, Mr., of Exeter, 79
Sewell, Mr., of Magdalen, 55, 230
Sewell — criticism in Dublin Review ^
Short, 80
Shuttleworth, Right Rev. P. N.,
Bishop of Chichester, 68, 184
Sibthorpe, 149, 181, 186, 269 ;
Rev. W. Dodsworth's contro-
versy with, 181
Sicily — Newman recalls experiences
during visit : letter to Keble,
315
Simony, canonical, 190
Sin — character, 29 ; post-baptismal,
173, 206 ; forgiveness. See For-
giveness of sin
Skinner, Mr,, 214
' Smith,* the character (' Loss and
Gain *), 200
Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge, 324
Society for Promoting Christianity
among the Jews, 146
Socinianism, 150
Spencer, Mr., the R.C. priest, 50,
51, 55
Spranger, 79
Standard, The, Newman suggests
action against, 145, 159
Stanley, 228
State conscience — Newman's letter
to Gladstone 375
Stewart, 215
Stillingfleet, 22
Stowell, Rev. H., 309
' Stranger,' a — on Newman's re-
ported secession to Roman
Church, 341
Symons.Dr, — attempted opposition
to election as Vice -Chancellor,
328
Synodites, 10
Tait, Archibald (future Arch-
bishop of Canterbury) — and Tract
XC, 77, 94 ; one of the four
Senior Tutors, 94 ; his attitude
towards the proposed Test at
Oxford, 94
Tarbutt, Rev. A. — Newman's letter
on Grace, 177
Taylor, Bishop Jeremy, Dr. Russell
on his references to Transub-
stantiation, 120, 263
Taylor, Mr., 49, 227
Tertullian, 197
Theodosius II, Emperor, 2, 3
Theodosius, the monk, 5
Thirlwall, Connop (Bishop of St.
David's), 208, 366
Thirty-nine Articles. See Anglican
Church ; Articles of Rehgion
Tickell, 228
Times, The — and Tract XC, 80 ;
Newman's letter (1863), 109 ;
attitude towards the Tractarians,
141 ; attitude towards Jerusalem
bishopric, 141 ; Newman's im-
published letter, 149
Timothy the Cat, 5
412
INDEX
Todd, Dr. J. H. — Discourses on the
Prophecy 'relating to anti-Christ,
50 ; letter to Newman on Tract
XC, 91
Tome of St. Leo (Epistola Dog-
matica ad Flavian um), 3, 4
Toovey, 288, 344
Townshend, Mr., 214
Tracts — the doctrinal side of the
Oxford movement, 28 ; table of
sales in Newman's letter to
Bowden, 67 ; discontinuance,
99-102 ; spontaneous develop-
ment ; Newman's letter to
correspondent, 205
LXXI — extract referring to the
controversy with the Roman
Catholics, 28
XC, 2, 70-106 ; apprehensions
of the four Senior Tutors, 70 ;
Newman's letter to Dr. Jelf
in vindication, 71, 82 ; pre-
cipitate action of the author-
ities, 71 ; thesis of the Tract,
72 ; distinction between
Romish and Tridentine, 73 ;
relation to the idea of a CathoHc
Church, 74 ; critical principles
summarised, 75 ; objects, 76 ;
the controversy over, 76 et seq. ;
Pusey's suggestions, 82-4 ;
Newman's note to Pusey's
letter, 85 ; Dr. Hook's letter to
Newman, 87 ; Bishop of Oxford
suggests pubhcation of ex-
planations, 88-9 ; suppression
proposed, 99 ; Newman's cor-
respondence with Dr. Hook,
99 ; with Keble, 100 ; Newman's
letter to Bishop of Oxford,
102 ; letter to The Times in
1863 repudiating Mr, Maurice's
accusations, 109 ; correspond-
ence with Dr. Russell, 118-29 ',
Archbishop of Canterbury re-
ceives Cheltenham Evangeli-
cals' address denouncing, 169 ;
the Retractation of anti-Catho-
lic Statements, 203 ; unanimous
condemnation by Bishops, 211,
214 ; Keble upholds it as
sufficiently AngUcan, 231 ;
Newman's explanation to
Manning concerning his resign-
ation of St. Mary's, 272 ;
Newman's correspondence with
Keble on Ward's ' Ideal,' 362
et seq. ; the proposed censure
by Convocation, 367 ; F.
Rogers on Dr. Hawkins' atti-
tude, 387 ; Newman's letter
to Perceval, 393
Tractarians. See Oxford Movement
Tradition, 207
Transubstantiation, 25 ; reference
in Tract XC : correspondence
between Dr. Russell and New-
man, 118-29; between Rev.
Ambrose St. John and Newman,
240
Trent, Council of — AngHcan ob-
jections considered, 22 ; New-
man's correspondence with Dr.
Wiseman, 131
Decrees, Tract XC and, 73 et seq.
Tridentine, theterm — ^its distinction
from Romish, 73
Tridentines, 24
Tutors, Four Senior — letter to New-
man on Tract XC, 70, 76 ;
identity, 93
Unknown correspondents — New-
man's correspondence with : on
the Reformers, 176 ; his position
as regards Anghcan and Roman
Churches, 268
Valdesso, John, 256
Veron's ' Regula Fidei,' 120, 123,
127
Vigilius of Thapsus, Bishop, on the
Monophysites, 6, 9
Virgin Mary, reverence to the,
123, 124, 167
Wackerbarth, Mr., 186, 189
Waddington, Dean, 214
Wall on ' Infant Baptism,' 197
Walter, Mr., of The Times —
correspondence with Newman on
the Jerusalem Bishopric, 141, 148
Ward, Mr. W. G., of BaUiol College,
14, 57 ; and Tract XC, 77 ; and
the British Critic, 135 ; and
Canons of 1603, 161 ; Newman's
letter to Wood, 174 ; Newman's
relations with, 197 ; Newman's
note to Pusey on differences
with the extreme Tractarians,
198 ; and the article on con-
fession, 217, 222
' Ideal of a Christian Church,'
— proposals of Hebdomadal
INDEX
413
Board concerning, 94;' Tait
and, 95; the authorities and,
325, 338. 344. 357. 360; incident
with the Master over reading
the lessons, 338 ; Newman's
correspondence with Keble,
360 et seq., 368 et seq. ; the Test,
361 et seq., 364-5 ; the * Ideal '
condemned and Ward deprived
of University degrees, 367 ;
Newman and Gladstone's
article in the Quarterly,
368
Ward, G. R. M., of Trinity College,
55-57. 58
Watson, 126
Wellington, Duke of, 55, 172
Wesleyans, Newman on Anglican
defections to, 185
Whately, 351
Wilberforce, Henry, 14, 35, 59,
241-2, 370; account of New-
man's doubts in 1839, 14 ; and
Ambrose St. John's difficulties,
241-2
Wilberforce, Robert, 106, 144, 160 ;
on Tract XC and Newman's
letter to Bishop of Oxford, 106
Wilberforce, Samuel, Archdeacon
of Surrey — wife's death, 80 ; on
Bunsen and the Jerusalem Bishop-
ric scheme, 144, 171
WiUiams, Isaac, 79, 331, 340 ;
candidature for Poetry Pro-
fessorship, 134, 153, 159, 171
WiUiams, Robert, 34-5, 36, 38,
67, 161, 198, 306, 307, 360, 362,
370
WUson, 38, 137, 215, 299, 301,
349. 371 » suggested collaboration
with Mozley in editorship of
British Critic, 137
Wilson, Mr. (one of the FourjSenior
Tutors), 93
Winchester, Bishop of — charge, 156
Wiseman, Dr. — Dublin Review,
article drawing parallel between
Anghcans and Donatists, 13,
25 ; and Tract XC, 73 ; favour-
able attitude towards Tractarians,
118 ; correspondence with New-
man on Anghcan and Roman
difierences, 129-132 ; letter to
Mr. Philhpps complaining of New-
man's attitude towards O'Connell,
132
Wood, Mr. S. F., 33 ; Newman's
letters to, 33-4, 38, 61, 67 ;
Pusey's criticism of his sketch,
68 ; Newman's correspondence
on the Jerusalem Bishopric
scheme, 146, 159 ; correcting
account of his sermon, and
touching on the subject of Rome,
160 ; advising him to remain in
the Anghcan Church, 174-5 ;
death, 215, 222
Wootten, Dr., 237, 326
Wordsworth, 324
Wynter, Dr., Vice-Chancellor, 36,
56, 71. 79, 81, 228, 234-5
Young, Rev. Peter, 134 etseq., 231,
331, 349 ; Keble 's difierences
with Bishop over refusal of
priest's orders, 134, 136-7, 140
Zeno, the Emperor, 5
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