J. H. Newman
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John Henry Newman (21 February 1801 – 11 August 1890) was an
English Catholic The Catholic Church in England and Wales (; ) is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See. Its origins date from the 6th century, when Pope Gregory I through a Roman missionary and Benedictine monk, Augustine, ...
theologian, academic, philosopher, historian, writer, and poet. He was previously an
Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
priest and after his conversion became a
cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...
. He was an important and controversial figure in the religious history of
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
in the 19th century and was known nationally by the mid-1830s. He was canonised as a Catholic saint in 2019. He was a member of the
Oratory of St. Philip Neri The Confederation of Oratories of Saint Philip Neri (), abbreviated C.O. and commonly known as the Oratorians, is a Catholic society of apostolic life of pontifical right for men (priests and religious brothers) who live together in a commun ...
. Originally an
evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...
academic at the
University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
and priest in the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
, Newman was drawn to the
high church A ''high church'' is a Christian Church whose beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, Christian liturgy, liturgy, and Christian theology, theology emphasize "ritual, priestly authority, ndsacraments," and a standard liturgy. Although ...
tradition of Anglicanism. He became one of the more notable leaders of the
Oxford Movement The Oxford Movement was a theological movement of high-church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the Un ...
, an influential and controversial grouping of Anglicans who wished to restore to the Church of England many Catholic beliefs and liturgical rituals from before the
English Reformation The English Reformation began in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away first from the authority of the pope and bishops Oath_of_Supremacy, over the King and then from some doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church ...
. In this, the movement had some success. After publishing his controversial
Tract 90 ''Remarks on Certain Passages in the Thirty-Nine Articles'', better known as Tract 90, was a theological pamphlet written by the English theologian and churchman John Henry Newman and published 25 January 1841. It is the most famous and the most c ...
in 1841, Newman later wrote: "I was on my death-bed, as regards my membership with the Anglican Church." In 1845, Newman resigned his teaching post at Oxford University, and, joined by some but not all of his followers, officially left the Church of England and was received into the
Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
. He was quickly ordained as a priest and continued as an influential religious leader, based in Birmingham. In 1879, he was created a cardinal by
Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII (; born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2March 181020July 1903) was head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 until his death in July 1903. He had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of Peter the Ap ...
in recognition of his services to the cause of the Catholic Church in England. He was instrumental in the founding of the
Catholic University of Ireland The Catholic University of Ireland (CUI; ) was a private Catholic Church, Catholic university in Dublin, Ireland. It was founded in 1851 following the Synod of Thurles in 1850, and in response to the Queen's University of Ireland and its assoc ...
in 1854, which later became
University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...
. Newman was also a literary figure: his major writings include the ''
Tracts for the Times The Tracts for the Times were a series of 90 theological publications, varying in length from a few pages to book-length, produced by members of the English Oxford Movement, an Anglo-Catholic revival group, from 1833 to 1841. There were about a do ...
'' (1833–1841), his autobiography ''
Apologia Pro Vita Sua () is John Henry Newman's history of his religious opinions, showing how his opinions had been formed and how they had led him from Anglicanism to the Catholic Church. It was originally published as a series of pamphlets in 1864 in response to an ...
'' (1864), the ''
Grammar of Assent ''An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent'' (commonly abbreviated to the last three words) is John Henry Newman's seminal book on the philosophy of faith."NEWMAN, John Henry", in ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'' (1990), Edinburgh: Chambers. ...
'' (1870), and the poem ''
The Dream of Gerontius ''The Dream of Gerontius'', Opus number, Op. 38, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from The Dream of Gerontius (poem), the poem by John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man' ...
'' (1865), which was
set to music ''Set to Music'' is a musical revue with sketches, music and lyrics by Noël Coward. Produced by John C. Wilson, the Broadway production opened on January 15, 1939 at the Music Box Theatre, where it ran for 129 performances. Directed by Coward ...
in 1900 by
Edward Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...
. He wrote the popular hymns "
Lead, Kindly Light "Lead, Kindly Light, Amid the encircling gloom" is a hymn with words written in 1833 by John Henry Newman as a poem titled "the Pillar of the Cloud", which was first published in the '' British Magazine'' in 1834'','' and republished in ''Lyra Ap ...
", "Firmly I believe, and truly", and "Praise to the Holiest in the Height" (the latter two taken from ''Gerontius''). Newman's
beatification Beatification (from Latin , "blessed" and , "to make") is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. ''Beati'' is the p ...
was proclaimed by
Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...
on 19 September 2010 during his visit to the United Kingdom. His
canonisation Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of sai ...
was officially approved by
Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...
on 12 February 2019, and took place on 13 October 2019. He is the fifth saint of the
City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...
, after
Thomas Becket Thomas Becket (), also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London and later Thomas à Becket (21 December 1119 or 1120 – 29 December 1170), served as Lord Chancellor from 1155 to 1162, and then as Archbishop of Canterbury fr ...
(born in Cheapside),
Thomas More Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, theologian, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VII ...
(born on Milk Street),
Edmund Campion Edmund Campion, SJ (25 January 15401 December 1581) was an English Jesuit priest and martyr. While conducting an underground ministry in officially Anglican England, Campion was arrested by priest hunters. Convicted of high treason, he was ...
(son of a London bookseller) and
Polydore Plasden Polydore Plasden (1563–1591) was one of the Catholic Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. A native of London, he studied for the priesthood at Rheims and Rome, and was ordained in 1586 before being sent back to England soon after. Life P ...
(of Fleet Street).


Early life and education

Newman was born on 21 February 1801 in the
City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...
, the eldest of a family of three sons and three daughters. His father, John Newman, was a banker with Ramsbottom, Newman and Company in Lombard Street. His mother, Jemima (née Fourdrinier), was descended from a notable family of
Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...
refugees in England, founded by the engraver, printer and stationer
Paul Fourdrinier Paul Fourdrinier (20 December 1698 – 18 February 1758), sometimes referred to as Peter or Pierre Fourdrinier,Chatterton 1967, p.85 was an 18th-century engraver in England. Biography Paul Fourdrinier, engraver and printseller, was born on 20 De ...
.
Francis William Newman Francis William Newman (27 June 1805 – 4 October 1897) was an English classical scholar and moral philosopher, prolific miscellaneous writer and activist for vegetarianism and other causes. He was the younger brother of John Henry Newman. Th ...
was a younger brother. His younger sister, Harriet Elizabeth, married
Thomas Mozley Thomas Mozley (180617 June 1893) was an English clergyman and writer associated with the Oxford Movement. Early life Mozley was born at Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, the son of a bookseller and publisher. His brother, James Bowling Mozley, would ...
, also prominent in the Oxford Movement. The family lived in Southampton Street (now Southampton Place) in
Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London, part of the London Borough of Camden in England. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural institution, cultural, intellectual, and educational ...
and bought a country retreat in
Ham Ham is pork from a leg cut that has been preserved by wet or dry curing, with or without smoking."Bacon: Bacon and Ham Curing" in '' Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 39. As a processed meat, the term '' ...
, near
Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...
, in the early 1800s. At the age of seven Newman was sent to
Great Ealing School Great Ealing School was situated on St Mary's Road, Ealing W5 London and was founded in 1698. In its heyday of the 19th century, it was as famous as Eton or Harrow, being considered "the best private school in England". History The school f ...
conducted by George Nicholas. There George Huxley, father of
Thomas Henry Huxley Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist who specialized in comparative anatomy. He has become known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. The stor ...
, taught mathematics, and Walter Mayers taught classics. Newman took no part in the casual school games. He was a great reader of the novels of
Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...
, then in course of publication, and of
Robert Southey Robert Southey (; 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic poetry, Romantic school, and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William Wordsworth an ...
. Aged 14, he read sceptical works by
Thomas Paine Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In ...
,
David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist who was best known for his highly influential system of empiricism, philosophical scepticism and metaphysical naturalism. Beg ...
and perhaps
Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit ...
.


Evangelical

At the age of 15, during his last year at school, Newman converted to
Evangelical Christianity Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...
, an incident of which he wrote in his ''Apologia'' that it was "more certain than that I have hands or feet". Almost at the same time (March 1816) the bank Ramsbottom, Newman and Co. crashed, though it paid its creditors, and his father left to manage a brewery. Mayers, who had himself undergone a conversion in 1814, lent Newman books from the English
Calvinist Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...
tradition. "It was in the autumn of 1816 that Newman fell under the influence of a definite creed and received into his intellect impressions of
dogma Dogma, in its broadest sense, is any belief held definitively and without the possibility of reform. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Judaism, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, or Islam ...
never afterwards effaced." He became an evangelical Calvinist and held the typical belief that the Pope was the
antichrist In Christian eschatology, Antichrist (or in broader eschatology, Anti-Messiah) refers to a kind of entity prophesied by the Bible to oppose Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ and falsely substitute themselves as a savior in Christ's place before ...
under the influence of the writings of
Thomas Newton Thomas Newton (1 January 1704 – 14 February 1782) was an English cleric, biblical scholar and author. He served as the Bishop of Bristol from 1761 to 1782. Biography Newton was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and was subsequently elec ...
, as well as his reading of Joseph Milner's ''History of the Church of Christ''. Mayers is described as a moderate,
Clapham Sect The Clapham Sect, or Clapham Saints, were a group of social reformers associated with Holy Trinity Clapham in the period from the 1780s to the 1840s. Despite the label "sect", most members remained in the Established Church, established (and do ...
Calvinist, and Newman read
William Law William Law (16869 April 1761) was a Church of England priest who lost his position at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, when his conscience would not allow him to take the required oath of allegiance to the first Hanoverian monarch, George I of Grea ...
as well as
William Beveridge William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron Beveridge, (5 March 1879 – 16 March 1963) was a British economist and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician who was a Progressivism, progressive, social reformer, and eugenicist who played a central role ...
in devotional literature. He also read ''The Force of Truth'' by Thomas Scott. Although to the end of his life, Newman looked back on his conversion to Evangelical Christianity in 1816 as the saving of his soul, he began to shift away from his early Calvinism. As
Eamon Duffy Eamon Duffy (born 9 February 1947) is an Irish historian. He is the emeritus professor of the History of Christianity at the University of Cambridge, and a fellow and former president of Magdalene College. Early life Duffy was born on 9 Februa ...
puts it, "He came to see Evangelicalism, with its emphasis on religious feeling and on the Reformation doctrine of justification by faith alone, as a Trojan horse for an undogmatic religious
individualism Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, and social outlook that emphasizes the intrinsic worth of the individual. Individualists promote realizing one's goals and desires, valuing independence and self-reliance, and a ...
that ignored the Church's role in the transmission of
revealed truth Revelation, or divine revelation, is the disclosing of some form of truth or knowledge through communication with a deity (god) or other supernatural entity or entities in the view of religion and theology. Types Individual revelation Thomas A ...
, and that must lead inexorably to
subjectivism Subjectivism is the doctrine that "our own mental activity is the only unquestionable fact of our experience", instead of shared or communal, and that there is no external or objective truth. While Thomas Hobbes was an early proponent of subjecti ...
and
skepticism Skepticism ( US) or scepticism ( UK) is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the p ...
."Eamon Duff
"A Hero of the Church"
. ''New York Times Review of Books'', 23 December 2010; John Anthony Berry, "Il-Herqa ghall-Verità f'John Henry Newman (1801–1890)" rticle in Maltese on John Henry Newman's Yearning for Truth Teresa: Rivista Enċiklopedika ta' Spiritwalità 7 (2010): 289–306.


At university

Newman's name was entered at
Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, commonly known as Lincoln's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for Barrister, barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister ...
. He was, however, sent shortly to
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
,
Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
, where he studied widely. His anxiety to do well in the final schools produced the opposite result; he broke down in the examination, under
Thomas Vowler Short Thomas Vowler Short (16 September 1790 – 13 April 1872) was an English academic and clergyman, successively Bishop of Sodor and Man and Bishop of St Asaph. Life He was the eldest son of William Short, Archdeacon of Cornwall, with Elizabeth Ho ...
, and so graduated as a BA "under the line" (with lower second class honours in Classics, and having failed classification in the Mathematical Papers). Desiring to remain in Oxford, Newman then took private pupils and read for a
fellowship A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned or professional societies, the term refers ...
at
Oriel College Oriel College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford (a title formerly claimed by University College, ...
, then "the acknowledged centre of Oxford intellectualism". He was elected a fellow at Oriel on 12 April 1822.
Edward Bouverie Pusey Edward Bouverie Pusey (; 22 August 180016 September 1882) was an English Anglican cleric, for more than fifty years Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Oxford. He was one of the leading figures in the Oxford Movement, with interest ...
was elected a fellow of the same college in 1823.


Anglican ministry

On 13 June 1824, Newman was made an Anglican
deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Cathol ...
at
Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford Christ Church Cathedral is a cathedral of the Church of England in Oxford, England. It is the seat of the bishop of Oxford and the principal church of the diocese of Oxford. It is also the chapel of Christ Church, Oxford, Christ Church, a colle ...
. Ten days later he preached his first sermon at Holy Trinity Church in
Over Worton Over Worton is a Hamlet (place), hamlet in the civil parish of Worton (civil parish), Oxfordshire, Worton, in the West Oxfordshire district, in the county of Oxfordshire, England, about south of Banbury and east of Chipping Norton. In 1931 the ...
(near
Banbury Banbury is an historic market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. The parish had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding ...
, Oxfordshire), where his former teacher, the Reverend Walter Mayers, was curate. On Trinity Sunday, 29 May 1825, he was ordained a priest at Christ Church Cathedral by the Bishop of Oxford, Edward Legge. He became, at Pusey's suggestion, curate of
St Clement's Church, Oxford St Clement's Church is an evangelical Church of England parish church situated just to the east of central Oxford, England. History The present church dates from the 1820s, but replaced a much older building, which was demolished in 1829. Th ...
. Here, for two years, he was engaged in parochial work and wrote articles on "
Apollonius of Tyana Apollonius of Tyana (; ; ) was a Greek philosopher and religious leader from the town of Tyana, Cappadocia in Roman Anatolia, who spent his life travelling and teaching in the Middle East, North Africa and India. He is a central figure in Ne ...
", "
Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...
" and "
Miracle A miracle is an event that is inexplicable by natural or scientific lawsOne dictionary define"Miracle"as: "A surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divi ...
s" for the ''
Encyclopædia Metropolitana ''The Encyclopædia Metropolitana'' was an encyclopedic work published in London, from 1817 to 1845, by part publication. In all it came to quarto, 30 vols., having been issued in 59 parts (22,426 pages, 565 plates). Origins Initially the pro ...
''.
Richard Whately Richard Whately (1 February 1787 – 8 October 1863) was an English academic, rhetorician, logician, philosopher, economist, and theologian who also served as a reforming Archbishop of Dublin (Church of Ireland), Church of Ireland Archbishop of ...
and
Edward Copleston Edward Copleston (2 February 177614 October 1849) was an English churchman and academic, Provost of Oriel College, Oxford, from 1814 till 1828 and Bishop of Llandaff from 1827. Life Born into an ancient West Country family, Copleston was born ...
,
Provost Provost may refer to: Officials Ecclesiastic * Provost (religion), a high-ranking church official * Prince-provost, a high-ranking church official Government * Provost (civil), an officer of local government, including the equivalent ...
of Oriel, were leaders in the group of
Oriel Noetics The Oriel Noetics is a term now applied to a group of early 19th-century dons of the University of Oxford closely associated with Oriel College. John Tulloch in 1885 wrote about them as the "early Oriel school" of theologians, the contrast being ...
, a group of independently thinking dons with a strong belief in free debate. In 1825, at Whately's request, Newman became vice-principal of
St Alban Hall St Alban Hall, sometimes known as St Alban's Hall or Stubbins, was one of the academic halls of the University of Oxford, medieval halls of the University of Oxford, and one of the longest-surviving. It was established in the 13th century, acqu ...
, but he held this post for only one year. He attributed much of his "mental improvement" and partial conquest of his shyness at this time to Whately. In 1826 Newman returned as a tutor to Oriel, and the same year
Richard Hurrell Froude Richard Hurrell Froude (; 25 March 1803 – 28 February 1836) was an Anglican priest and an early leader of the Oxford Movement. Life He was born in Dartington, Devon, the eldest son of Robert Froude ( Archdeacon of Totnes) and the elder brot ...
, described by Newman as "one of the acutest, cleverest and deepest men" he ever met, was elected fellow there. The two formed a high ideal of the tutorial office as clerical and pastoral rather than secular, which led to tensions in the college. Newman assisted Whately in his popular work ''Elements of Logic'' (1826, initially for the ''Encyclopædia Metropolitana''), and from him gained a definite idea of the
Christian Church In ecclesiology, the Christian Church is what different Christian denominations conceive of as being the true body of Christians or the original institution established by Jesus Christ. "Christian Church" has also been used in academia as a syn ...
as institution: "a Divine appointment, and as a substantive body, independent of the State, and endowed with rights, prerogatives and powers of its own". Newman broke with Whately in 1827 on the occasion of the re-election of
Robert Peel Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet (5 February 1788 – 2 July 1850), was a British Conservative statesman who twice was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–1835, 1841–1846), and simultaneously was Chancellor of the Exchequer (1834–183 ...
as Member of Parliament for the university: Newman opposed Peel on personal grounds. In 1827 Newman was a preacher at
Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London, England. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It ...
.


Oxford Movement

In 1828, Newman supported and secured the election of
Edward Hawkins Edward Hawkins (27 February 1789 – 18 November 1882) was an English churchman and academic, a long-serving Provost of Oriel College, Oxford known as a committed opponent of the Oxford Movement from its beginnings in his college. Life He was bo ...
as Provost of Oriel over
John Keble John Keble (25 April 1792 – 29 March 1866) was an English Anglican priest and poet who was one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement. Keble College, Oxford, is named after him. Early life Keble was born on 25 April 1792 in Fairford, Glouces ...
. In the same year Newman was appointed vicar of St Mary's University Church, to which the
benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...
of
Littlemore Littlemore is a district and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Oxford, England. The civil parish includes part of Rose Hill, Oxfordshire, Rose Hill. It is about southeast of the city centre of Oxford, between Rose Hill, Blackbird Ley ...
(to the south of the city of Oxford) was attached, and Pusey was made Regius Professor of Hebrew. At this date, though Newman was still nominally associated with the Evangelicals, his views were gradually assuming a higher ecclesiastical tone. George Herring considers that the death of his sister Mary in January had a major impact on Newman. In the middle part of the year he worked to read the
Church Fathers The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical peri ...
thoroughly. While local secretary of the
Church Missionary Society The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British Anglican mission society working with Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as ...
, Newman circulated an anonymous letter suggesting a method by which Anglican clergy might practically oust Nonconformists from all control of the society. This resulted in his being dismissed from the post on 8 March 1830; and three months later Newman withdrew from the
Bible Society A Bible society is a non-profit organization, usually nondenominational in makeup, devoted to translating, publishing, and distributing the Bible at affordable prices. In recent years they also are increasingly involved in advocating its credi ...
, completing his move away from the
low church In Anglican Christianity, the term ''low church'' refers to those who give little emphasis to ritual, often having an emphasis on preaching, individual salvation, and personal conversion. The term is most often used in a liturgical sense, denot ...
group. In 1831–1832, Newman became the "Select Preacher" before the university. In 1832 his difference with Hawkins as to the "substantially religious nature" of a college tutorship became acute and prompted his resignation.


Mediterranean travels

In December 1832, Newman accompanied
Archdeacon An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denomina ...
Robert Froude Robert Hurrell Froude (1771–1859) was Archdeacon of Totnes in Devon, from 1820 to 1859. From 1799 to his death he was rector of Denbury and of Dartington in Devon. Origins Froude was born at Wakeham Farm in the parish of Aveton Gifford n ...
and his son Hurrell on a tour in southern Europe on account of the latter's health. On board the mail steamship ''Hermes'' they visited
Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...
, Malta, the
Ionian Islands The Ionian Islands (Modern Greek: , ; Ancient Greek, Katharevousa: , ) are a archipelago, group of islands in the Ionian Sea, west of mainland Greece. They are traditionally called the Heptanese ("Seven Islands"; , ''Heptanēsa'' or , ''Heptanē ...
and, subsequently,
Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...
,
Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
and Rome, where Newman made the acquaintance of
Nicholas Wiseman Nicholas Patrick Stephen Wiseman (3 August 1802 – 15 February 1865) was an English Roman Catholic prelate who served as the first Archbishop of Westminster upon the re-establishment of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales in 1 ...
. In a letter home he described Rome as "the most wonderful place on Earth", but the Roman Catholic Church as "
polytheistic Polytheism is the belief in or worship of more than one Deity, god. According to Oxford Reference, it is not easy to count gods, and so not always obvious whether an apparently polytheistic religion, such as Chinese folk religions, is really so, ...
, degrading and
idolatrous Idolatry is the worship of an idol as though it were a deity. In Abrahamic religions (namely Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity, Islam, and the Baháʼí Faith) idolatry connotes the worship of something or someone other than the Abrahamic G ...
". During the course of this tour, Newman wrote most of the short poems which a year later were printed in the ''Lyra Apostolica''. From Rome, instead of accompanying the Froudes home in April, Newman returned to Sicily alone. He fell dangerously ill with gastric or typhoid fever at
Leonforte Leonforte () is an Italian ''comune'' with a population of 14,046 in the Province of Enna, Sicily. The town is situated 22 km from Enna, in the centre of the Erean Mountains at 600 metres a.s.l. History The ancient settlement of Tabas ...
, but recovered, with the conviction that God still had work for him to do in England. Newman saw this as his third providential illness. In June 1833 he left Palermo for Marseille in an orange boat, which was becalmed in the
Strait of Bonifacio The Strait of Bonifacio (; ; ; ; ; ; ) is the strait between Corsica and Sardinia, named after the Corsican town Bonifacio. It is wide and divides the Tyrrhenian Sea from the western Mediterranean Sea. The strait is notorious among sailors for i ...
. Here, Newman wrote the verses "
Lead, Kindly Light "Lead, Kindly Light, Amid the encircling gloom" is a hymn with words written in 1833 by John Henry Newman as a poem titled "the Pillar of the Cloud", which was first published in the '' British Magazine'' in 1834'','' and republished in ''Lyra Ap ...
" which later became popular as a hymn.


''Tracts for the Times''

Newman was at home again in Oxford on 9 July 1833 and, on 14 July, Keble preached at St Mary's an assize sermon on " National Apostasy", which Newman afterwards regarded as the inauguration of the Oxford Movement. In the words of
Richard William Church Richard William Church (25 April 1815 – 6 December 1890) was an English cleric and writer, known latterly as Dean Church. He was a close friend of John Henry Newman and allied with the Tractarian movement. Later he moved from Oxford academic li ...
, it was "Keble who inspired, Froude who gave the impetus, and Newman who took up the work"; but the first organisation of it was due to
Hugh James Rose Hugh James Rose (9 June 1795 – 22 December 1838) was an English Anglican priest and theologian who served as the second Principal of King's College, London. Life Rose was born at Little Horsted in Sussex on 9 June 1795 and educated at Uckfie ...
, editor of the ''British Magazine'', who has been styled "the
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
originator of the
Oxford Movement The Oxford Movement was a theological movement of high-church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the Un ...
". Rose met Oxford Movement figures on a visit to Oxford looking for magazine contributors, and it was in his rectory house at
Hadleigh, Suffolk Hadleigh () is an ancient market town and civil parish in the Babergh district of Suffolk, England. The town is situated next to the River Brett, between the larger towns of Sudbury and Ipswich. It had a population of 8,253 at the 2011 censu ...
, that a meeting of
High Church A ''high church'' is a Christian Church whose beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, Christian liturgy, liturgy, and Christian theology, theology emphasize "ritual, priestly authority, ndsacraments," and a standard liturgy. Although ...
clergy was held over 25–26 July (Newman was not present, but Hurrell Froude,
Arthur Philip Perceval Arthur Philip Perceval (22 November 1799 – 11 June 1853) was an English high church Anglican cleric, royal chaplain and theological writer. Life Born on 22 November 1799, he was the fifth and youngest son of Charles George Perceval, 2nd Baron ...
, and William Palmer had gone to visit Rose), at which it was resolved to fight for "the apostolical succession and the integrity of the
Prayer Book A prayer book is a book containing prayers and perhaps devotional readings, for private or communal use, or in some cases, outlining the liturgy of religious services. Books containing mainly orders of religious services, or readings for them are ...
". A few weeks later Newman started, apparently on his own initiative, the ''
Tracts for the Times The Tracts for the Times were a series of 90 theological publications, varying in length from a few pages to book-length, produced by members of the English Oxford Movement, an Anglo-Catholic revival group, from 1833 to 1841. There were about a do ...
'', from which the movement was subsequently named "Tractarian". Its aim was to secure for the Church of England a definite basis of doctrine and discipline. At the time the state's financial stance towards the
Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland (, ; , ) is a Christian church in Ireland, and an autonomy, autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the Christianity in Ireland, second-largest Christian church on the ...
had raised the spectres of disestablishment, or an exit of high churchmen. The teaching of the
tracts Tract may refer to: Geography and real estate * Housing tract, an area of land that is subdivided into smaller individual lots * Land lot or tract, a section of land * Census tract, a geographic region defined for the purpose of taking a census ...
was supplemented by Newman's Sunday afternoon sermons at St Mary's, the influence of which, especially over the junior members of the university, was increasingly marked during a period of eight years. Through Francis Rivington, the tracts were published by the
Rivington Rivington is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish of the Borough of Chorley, Lancashire, England, occupying . It is about southeast of Chorley and about northwest of Bolton. Rivington is a rural area consisting primarily of ...
house in London. In 1835 professor
Edward Pusey Edward Bouverie Pusey (; 22 August 180016 September 1882) was an English Anglican cleric, for more than fifty years Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Oxford. He was one of the leading figures in the Oxford Movement, with interest ...
joined the
Oxford Movement The Oxford Movement was a theological movement of high-church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the Un ...
and contributed
tracts Tract may refer to: Geography and real estate * Housing tract, an area of land that is subdivided into smaller individual lots * Land lot or tract, a section of land * Census tract, a geographic region defined for the purpose of taking a census ...
on Baptism and the Eucharist, and the wider movement became known as the so-called "Puseyites", a term soon generally applied to Anglican ritualists. In 1836 the Tractarians appeared as an activist group, in united opposition to the appointment of
Renn Dickson Hampden Renn Dickson Hampden (29 March 1793 – 23 April 1868) was an English Anglican clergyman. His liberal tendencies led to conflict with traditionalist clergy in general and the supporters of Tractarianism during the years he taught at the Univ ...
as
Regius Professor of Divinity The Regius Professorships of Divinity are amongst the oldest professorships at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. A third chair existed for a period at Trinity College Dublin. The Oxford and Cambridge chairs were founded by ...
. Hampden's 1832
Bampton Lectures The Bampton Lectures at the University of Oxford, England, were founded by a bequest of John Bampton. They have taken place since 1780. They were a series of annual lectures; since the turn of the 20th century they have sometimes been biennial ...
, in the preparation of which
Joseph Blanco White Joseph Blanco White, born José María Blanco y Crespo (11 July 1775 – 20 May 1841), was an Anglo-Spanish political thinker, theologian, and poet. Life Blanco White was born in Seville, Spain. He had Irish ancestry and was the son of the mer ...
assisted, were suspected of
heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Heresy in Christian ...
; and this suspicion was accentuated by a pamphlet put forth by Newman, ''Elucidations of Dr Hampden's Theological Statements''. At this date, Newman became editor of the ''
British Critic The ''British Critic: A New Review'' was a quarterly publication, established in 1793 as a conservative and high-church review journal riding the tide of British reaction against the French Revolution. The headquarters was in London. The journa ...
''. He also gave courses of lectures in a side chapel of St Mary's in defence of the ''
via media ''Via media'' is a Latin phrase meaning "the middle road" or the "way between (and avoiding or reconciling) two extremes". Its use in English is highly associated with Anglican self-characterization, or as a philosophical maxim for life akin to t ...
'' ("middle way") of Anglicanism between Roman Catholicism and popular Protestantism.


Doubts and opposition

Newman's influence in Oxford was supreme about the year 1839. Just then, however, his study of
monophysitism Monophysitism ( ) or monophysism ( ; from Greek , "solitary" and , "nature") is a Christological doctrine that states that there was only one nature—the divine—in the person of Jesus Christ, who was the incarnated Word. It is rejected as he ...
caused him to doubt whether Anglican theology was consistent with the principles of ecclesiastical authority which he had come to accept. He read
Nicholas Wiseman Nicholas Patrick Stephen Wiseman (3 August 1802 – 15 February 1865) was an English Roman Catholic prelate who served as the first Archbishop of Westminster upon the re-establishment of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales in 1 ...
's article in the '' Dublin Review'' on "The Anglican Claim", which quoted
Augustine of Hippo Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosop ...
against the
Donatists Donatism was a schism from the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Carthage from the fourth to the sixth centuries. Donatists argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and their prayers and sacraments to ...
, "''securus judicat orbis terrarum''" ("the verdict of the world is conclusive"). Newman later wrote of his reaction: After a furore in which the eccentric
John Brande Morris John Brande Morris, known to friends as Jack Morris (born at Brentford, Middlesex, 4 September 1812; died at Hammersmith, London, 9 April 1880) was an English Anglican theologian, later a Roman Catholic priest. He was a noted academic eccentric, b ...
preached for him in St Mary's in September 1839, Newman began to think of moving away from Oxford. One plan that surfaced was to set up a religious community in Littlemore, outside the city of Oxford. Since accepting his post at St Mary's, Newman had a chapel ( dedicated to Sts Nicholas and Mary) and a school built in the parish's neglected area. Newman's mother had laid the foundation stone in 1835, based on a half-acre plot and £100 given by Oriel College. Newman planned to appoint Charles Pourtales Golightly, an Oriel man, as curate at Littlemore in 1836. However, Golightly had taken offence at one of Newman's sermons and joined a group of aggressive anti-Catholics. Isaac Williams became Littlemore's curate instead, succeeded by John Rouse Bloxam from 1837 to 1840, during which the school opened. William John Copeland acted as curate from 1840. Newman continued as a High Anglican controversialist until 1841, when he published
Tract 90 ''Remarks on Certain Passages in the Thirty-Nine Articles'', better known as Tract 90, was a theological pamphlet written by the English theologian and churchman John Henry Newman and published 25 January 1841. It is the most famous and the most c ...
, which proved the last of the series. This detailed examination of the Thirty-Nine Articles suggested that their framers directed their negations not against Catholicism's authorised creed, but only against popular errors and exaggerations. Though this was not altogether new,
Archibald Campbell Tait Archibald Campbell Tait (21 December 18113 December 1882) is an Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England and theologian. He was the first Scottish Archbishop of Canterbury and thus, head of the Church of England. Life Tait was born ...
, with three other senior tutors, denounced it as "suggesting and opening a way by which men might violate their solemn engagements to the university". Other heads of houses and others in authority joined in the alarm. At the request of Richard Bagot, the
Bishop of Oxford The Bishop of Oxford is the diocesan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Oxford in the Province of Canterbury; his seat is at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. The current bishop is Steven Croft (bishop), Steven Croft, following the Confirm ...
, the publication of the ''Tracts'' came to an end.


Retreat to Littlemore

Newman also resigned the editorship of the ''British Critic'' and was thenceforth, as he later described it, "on his deathbed as regards membership with the Anglican Church". He now considered the position of Anglicans to be similar to that of the semi-Arians in the
Arian Arianism (, ) is a Christological doctrine which rejects the traditional notion of the Trinity and considers Jesus to be a creation of God, and therefore distinct from God. It is named after its major proponent, Arius (). It is considered he ...
controversy. The joint Anglican-Lutheran bishopric set up in
Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
was to him further evidence that the Church of England was not apostolic. In 1842 Newman withdrew to Littlemore with a small band of followers, and lived in semi-monastic conditions. The first to join him there was John Dobree Dalgairns. Others were William Lockhart on the advice of Henry Manning,
Ambrose St John Ambrose St John (29 June 1815 – 24 May 1875) was a convert to Catholicism and an English Oratorian. He was a classical scholar and a linguist both in Oriental and European tongues. He is best known as a lifelong friend of Cardinal John Henr ...
in 1843,
Frederick Oakeley Frederick Oakeley (5 September 1802 – 30 January 1880) was an English Roman Catholic convert, priest, and author. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1828 and in 1845 converted to the Church of Rome, becoming Canon of the Westminster ...
and
Albany James Christie Albany James Christie (18 December 1817 – 2 May 1891) was an English academic and Jesuit priest. Life His father was Albany Henry Christie of Chelsea, London, and he was related to the auction house family founded by James Christie. In 1835 he ...
in 1845. The group adapted buildings in what is now College Lane, Littlemore, opposite the inn, including stables and a granary for stage coaches. Newman called it "the house of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Littlemore" (now Newman College). This "Anglican monastery" attracted publicity, and much curiosity in Oxford, which Newman tried to downplay, but some nicknamed it Newmanooth (from
Maynooth College St Patrick's Pontifical University, Maynooth (), is a pontifical Catholic university in the town of Maynooth near Dublin, Ireland. The college and national seminary on its grounds are often referred to as Maynooth College. The college was of ...
). Some Newman
disciples A disciple is a follower and student of a mentor, teacher, or other figure. It can refer to: Religion * Disciple (Christianity), a student of Jesus Christ * Twelve Apostles of Jesus, sometimes called the Twelve Disciples * Seventy disciples in t ...
wrote about English saints, while Newman himself worked to complete an ''Essay'' on the
development of doctrine Development of doctrine is a term used by John Henry Newman and other theologians influenced by him to describe the way Catholic teaching has become more detailed and explicit over the centuries, while later statements of doctrine remain consist ...
. In February 1843, Newman published, as an advertisement in the ''Oxford Conservative Journal'', an anonymous but otherwise formal retractation of all the hard things he had said against Roman Catholicism. Lockhart became the first in the group to convert formally to Catholicism. Newman preached his last Anglican sermon at Littlemore, the valedictory "The parting of friends" on 25 September, and resigned the living of St Mary's, although he did not leave Littlemore for two more years, until his own formal reception into the Catholic Church.


Conversion to Catholicism

An interval of two years then elapsed before Newman was received into the Catholic Church on 9 October 1845 by
Dominic Barberi Dominic Barberi, C.P. (22 June 1792 – 27 August 1849) was an Italian theologian and Passionist priest who was prominent in spreading Catholicism in England. He contributed to the conversion of John Henry Newman. In 1963, he was beatified ...
, an Italian
Passionist The Passionists, officially named the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ (), abbreviated CP, are a Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right for men, founded by Paul of the Cross in 1720, with a special emphasis on a ...
, at the college in
Littlemore Littlemore is a district and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Oxford, England. The civil parish includes part of Rose Hill, Oxfordshire, Rose Hill. It is about southeast of the city centre of Oxford, between Rose Hill, Blackbird Ley ...
. The personal consequences for Newman of his conversion were great: he suffered broken relationships with family and friends, and attitudes toward him within his Oxford circle became polarised. The effect on the wider Tractarian movement is still debated since Newman's leading role is regarded by some scholars as overstated, as is Oxford's domination of the movement as a whole. Tractarian writings had a wide and continuing circulation after 1845, well beyond the range of personal contacts with the main Oxford figures, and Tractarian clergy continued to be recruited into the Church of England in numbers.


Oratorian

In February 1846, Newman left Oxford for St. Mary's College, Oscott, where
Nicholas Wiseman Nicholas Patrick Stephen Wiseman (3 August 1802 – 15 February 1865) was an English Roman Catholic prelate who served as the first Archbishop of Westminster upon the re-establishment of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales in 1 ...
, then vicar-apostolic of the Midland district, resided; and in October he went to Rome, where he was ordained priest by Cardinal Giacomo Filippo Fransoni and awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity by Pope Pius IX. At the close of 1847, Newman returned to England as an Oratory of Saint Philip Neri, Oratorian and resided first at Maryvale (near Old Oscott, now the site of Maryvale Institute, a college of Theology, Philosophy and Religious Education); then at Cotton College, St Wilfrid's College, Cheadle, Staffordshire, Cheadle; and then at St Anne's Church, Birmingham, St Anne's, Alcester Street, Birmingham. Finally, he settled at Edgbaston, where spacious premises were built for the community, and where (except for four years in Ireland) he lived a secluded life for nearly forty years. Before the house at Edgbaston was occupied, Newman established the London Oratory, with Father Frederick William Faber as its superior.


''Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England''

Anti-Catholicism in the United Kingdom, Anti-Catholicism had been central to British culture since the 16th-century English Reformation. According to D. G. Paz, anti-Catholicism was "an integral part of what it meant to be a Victorian". Popular anti-Catholic feeling ran high at this time, partly in consequence of the papal bull ''Universalis Ecclesiae'' by which Pope Pius IX re-established the Catholic diocesan hierarchy in England on 29 September 1850. New episcopal sees were created and Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman was to be the first Archbishop of Westminster. Wiseman announced the restoration of the hierarchy in England on 7 October in a pastoral letter dated "from out of the Flaminian Gate". Led by ''The Times'' and ''Punch (magazine), Punch'', the British press saw this as being an attempt by the papacy to reclaim jurisdiction over England. This was dubbed the "Papal Aggression". The prime minister, John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, John Russell, wrote a public letter to the Bishop of Durham and denounced this "attempt to impose a foreign yoke upon our minds and consciences". Russell's stirring up of anti-Catholicism led to a national outcry. This "No Popery" uproar led to violence with Catholic priests being pelted in the streets and Catholic churches being attacked. Newman was keen for lay people to be at the forefront of any public apologetics, writing that Catholics should "make the excuse of this persecution for getting up a great organization, going round the towns giving lectures, or making speeches".Newman, John Henry ''The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman'', Vol. XIV (London, 1963), p. 214. He supported John Capes in the committee he was organising for public lectures in February 1851. Due to ill health, Capes had to stop them halfway through. Newman took the initiative and booked the Birmingham Corn Exchange for a series of public lectures. He decided to make their tone popular and provide cheap off-prints to those who attended. These lectures were his ''Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England'' and they were delivered weekly, beginning on 30 June and published on 1 September 1851. In total, there were nine lectures: # Protestant view of the Catholic Church # Tradition the sustaining power of the Protestant view # Fable the basis of the Protestant view # True testimony insufficient for the Protestant view # Logical inconsistency of the Protestant view # Prejudice the life of the Protestant view # Assumed principles of the intellectual ground of the Protestant view # Ignorance concerning Catholics the protection of the Protestant view # Duties of Catholics towards the Protestant view which form the nine chapters of the published book. Following the first edition, a number of paragraphs were removed following the #Achilli trial, Achilli trial as "they were decided by a jury to constitute a libel, June 24, 1852." Andrew Nash describes the ''Lectures'' as "an analysis of this [anti-Catholic] ideology, satirising it, demonstrating the false traditions on which it was based and advising Catholics how they should respond to it. They were the first of their kind in English literature." John Wolffe assesses the ''Lectures'' as:
an interesting treatment of the problem of anti-Catholicism from an observer whose partisan commitment did not cause him to slide into mere polemic and who had the advantage of viewing the religious battlefield from both sides of the tortured no man's land of Littlemore.
The response to the ''Lectures'' was split between Catholics and Protestants. Generally, Catholics greeted them with enthusiasm. A review in ''The Rambler (Catholic periodical), The Rambler'', a Catholic periodical, saw them as "furnishing a key to the whole mystery of anti-Catholic hostility and as shewing the special point of attack upon which our controversial energies should be concentrated." However, some Catholic theologians, principally John Gillow, president of Ushaw College, perceived Newman's language as ascribing too much to the role of the laity. Gillow accused Newman of giving the impression that the church's infallibility resides in a partnership between the hierarchy and the faithful, rather than falling exclusively in the teaching office of the church, a concept described by Pope Pius IX as the "ordinary magisterium" of the church. The Protestant response was less positive. Archdeacon Julius Hare said that Newman "is determined to say whatever he chooses, in spite of facts and reason". Wilfrid Ward, Newman's first biographer, describes the ''Lectures'' as follows:
We have the very curious spectacle of a grave religious apologist giving rein for the first time at the age of fifty to a sense of rollicking fun and gifts of humorous writing, which if expended on other subjects would naturally have adorned the pages of Thackeray's ''Punch (magazine), Punch''.
Ian Ker has raised the profile of Newman's satire. Ker notes that Newman's imagery has a "savage, Swiftian flavour" and can be "grotesque in the Dickens manner". Newman himself described the ''Lectures'' as his "best-written book".


Achilli trial

One of the features of English anti-Catholicism was the holding of public meetings at which ex-Catholics, including former priests, denounced their prior beliefs and gave detailed accounts of the alleged "horrors" of Catholic life. Giacinto Achilli (1803–1860), an ex-Dominican friar, was one such speaker.Gilley, S., "Achilli, (Giovanni) Giacinto (b. c.1803)
, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', OUP, (2004)
In 1841, the Roman Inquisition had suspended Achilli's priestly faculties for sexual misconduct and sentenced Achilli to three years of penance in a Dominican house. Achilli left the house in 1842, becoming Protestant and asking for political asylum in Corfu. In 1850, he was brought to England by the Evangelical Alliance, which portrayed him as a victim, to speak against the Catholic Church. In July 1850, Wiseman wrote a detailed exposé of him in ''The Dublin Review'' which listed all of his offences. Newman therefore assumed, after seeking legal advice, that he would be able to repeat the facts in his fifth lecture in his ''Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England''. The section of the lecture that was decided by jury to constitute a libel was:
I have been a Catholic and an infidel; I have been a Roman priest and a hypocrite; I have been a profligate under a cowl. I am that Father Achilli, who as early as 1826, was deprived of my faculty to lecture, for an offence which my superiors did their best to conceal; and who in 1827 had already earned the reputation of a scandalous friar. I am that Achilli, who in the diocese of Viterbo in February 1831, robbed of her honour a young woman of eighteen; who in September 1833, was found guilty of a second such crime, in the case of a person of twenty-eight; and who perpetrated a third in July 1834, in the case of another aged twenty-four. I am he, who afterwards was found guilty of sins, similar or worse, in other towns of the neighbourhood. I am that son of St. Dominic who is known to have repeated the offence at Capua, in 1834 or 1835; and at Naples again, in 1840, in the case of a child of fi[f]teen. I am he who chose the sacristy of the church for one of these crimes, and Good Friday for another. Look on me, ye mothers of England, a confessor against Popery, for ye 'ne'er may look upon my like again.' I am that veritable priest, who, after all this, began to speak against, not only the Catholic faith, but the moral law, and perverted others by my teaching. I am the Cavaliere Achilli, who then went to Corfu, made the wife of a tailor faithless to her husband, and lived publicly and travelled about with the wife of a chorus-singer. I am that Professor of the Protestant College at Malta, who with two others was dismissed from my post for offences which the authorities cannot get themselves to describe. And now attend to me, such as I am, and you shall see what you shall see about the barbarity and profligacy of the Inquisitors of Rome.
You speak truly, O Achilli, and we cannot answer you a word. You are a Priest; you have been a Friar; you are, it is undeniable, the scandal of Catholicism, and the palmary argument of Protestants, by your extraordinary depravity. You have been, it is true, a profligate, an unbeliever, and a hypocrite. Not many years passed of your conventual life, and you were never in the choir, always in private houses, so that the laity observed you. You were deprived of your professorship, we own it; you were prohibited from preaching and hearing confessions; you were obliged to give hush-money to the father of one of your victims, as we learned from an official document of the Neapolitan Police to be 'known for habitual incontinency;' your name came before the civil tribunal at Corfu for your crime of adultery. You have put the crown on your offences, by as long as you could, denying them all; you have professed to seek after truth, when you were ravening after sin.
The libel charge was officially laid against Newman in November. Under English law, Newman needed to prove every single charge he had made against Achilli. Newman requested the documents that Wiseman had used for his article in the ''Dublin Review'' but he had mislaid them. He eventually found them but it was too late to prevent the trial. Newman and his defence committee needed to locate the victims and return them to England. A number of the victims were found and Maria Giberne, a friend of Newman, went to Italy to return with them to England. Achilli, on hearing that witnesses were being brought, arranged for the trial to be delayed. This put Newman under great strain as he had been invited to be the founding rector of the proposed Catholic University in Dublin and was composing and delivering the lectures that would become ''The Idea of a University''. On 21 June 1852, the libel trial started and lasted three days. Despite the evidence of the victims and witnesses, Achilli denied that any of it had happened; the jury believed him and found Newman guilty of libel. ''The Times'' said in response that "a great blow has been given to the administration of justice in this country". A second trial was not granted and sentencing was postponed. When sentencing occurred, Newman did not get the prison sentence expected but got a fine of £100 and a long lecture from Judge John Taylor Coleridge about his moral deterioration since he had become a Catholic. Coleridge later wrote to Keble: "It is a very painful matter for us who must hail this libel as false, believing it is in great part true—or at least that it may be." The fine was paid on the spot and while his expenses as defendant amounted to about £14,000, they were paid out of a fund organised by this defence committee to which Catholics at home and abroad had contributed; there was £2,000 left over which was spent on the purchase of a small property in Rednal, on the Lickey Hills, with a chapel and cemetery, where Newman was eventually buried. Newman removed the libellous section of the fifth lecture and replaced it with the inscription:
''De illis quae sequebantur'' / ''posterorum judicium sit'' – About those things which had followed / let posterity be the judge.


Educator

In 1854, at the request of the Irish Catholic bishops, Newman went to Dublin as Rector (academia), rector of the newly established
Catholic University of Ireland The Catholic University of Ireland (CUI; ) was a private Catholic Church, Catholic university in Dublin, Ireland. It was founded in 1851 following the Synod of Thurles in 1850, and in response to the Queen's University of Ireland and its assoc ...
, now
University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...
. It was during this time that he founded the Literary and Historical Society (University College Dublin), Literary and Historical Society. After four years, he retired. He published a volume of lectures entitled ''The Idea of a University'', which explained his philosophy of education. Newman believed in a middle way between free thinking and moral authority—one that would respect the rights of knowledge as well as the rights of revelation. His purpose was to build a Catholic university, in a world where the major Catholic universities on the European continent had recently been secularised, and most universities in the English-speaking world were Protestant. For a university to claim legitimacy in the larger world, it would have to support research and publication free from church censorship; however, for a university to be a safe place for the education of Catholic youth, it would have to be a place in which the teachings of the Catholic church were respected and promoted.
The University ... has this object and this mission; it contemplates neither moral impression nor mechanical production; it professes to exercise the mind neither in art nor in duty; its function is intellectual culture; here it may leave its scholars, and it has done its work when it has done as much as this. It educates the intellect to reason well in all matters, to reach out towards truth, and to grasp it.
This philosophy encountered opposition within the Catholic Church, at least in Ireland, as evidenced by the opinion of bishop Paul Cullen (bishop), Paul Cullen. In 1854 Cullen wrote a letter to the Vatican's Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (now called the Dicastery for Evangelization), criticising Newman's liberal exercise of authority within the new university:
The discipline introduced is unsuitable, certainly to this country. The young men are allowed to go out at all hours, to smoke, etc., and there has not been any fixed time for study. All this makes it clear that Father Newman does not give enough attention to details.
The university as envisaged by Newman encountered too much opposition to prosper. However, his book did have a wide influence. In 1858, Newman projected a branch house of the Oratory at Oxford; but this project was opposed by Father (later Cardinal) Henry Edward Manning, another influential convert from Anglicanism, and others. It was thought that the creation of a Catholic body within the heart of Oxford was likely to induce Catholics to send their sons to that university, rather than to newly formed Catholic universities. The scheme was abandoned. When Catholics did begin to attend Oxford from the 1860s onwards, a Catholic club was formed and, in 1888, it was renamed the Oxford University Newman Society in recognition of Newman's efforts on behalf of Catholicism in that university city. The Oxford Oratory was eventually founded over 100 years later in 1993. In 1859, Newman established, in connection with the Birmingham Oratory, a school for the education of the sons of gentlemen along lines similar to those of English public schools. The Oratory School flourished as a boys' boarding school, and was one of a number which were to be dubbed "The Catholic Eton College, Eton". Newman's published writings and sermons had a profound influence on one of the greatest of American educators, William Augustus Muhlenberg (1796-1877). At his model schools on Long Island (1828, 1836), Muhlenberg would sometimes read Newman's sermons to the boys. Muhlenberg, pioneer of a new kind of education in America, and a staunch Protestant, distanced himself from Newman when the latter converted to the Roman Church in 1845. But the influence went deep, nonetheless, as can be seen in the literary remains of Muhlenberg's former pupils, especially in those of the missionary school-maker Lloyd Breck (1818-1876) and John Barrett Kerfoot (1816-1881), founder of Saint James School of Maryland.


Relationships with other converts

Newman had a special concern in the publisher Burns & Oates; the owner, James Burns (publisher), James Burns, had published some of the Tractarians, and Burns had himself converted to Catholicism in 1847. Newman published several books with the company, effectively saving it. There is even a story that Newman's novel ''Loss and Gain'' was written specifically to assist Burns. In 1863, in a response to Thomas William Allies, while agreeing that slavery was bad, Newman would not publicly condemn it as "intrinsically evil" on the grounds that it had been tolerated by St Paul—thus asserting that slavery is "a condition of life ordained by God in the same sense that other conditions of life are". Newman and Henry Edward Manning both became significant figures in the late 19th-century Catholic Church in England: both were Anglican converts and both were elevated to the dignity of cardinal. Despite these similarities, there was a lack of sympathy between the two men who were different in character and experience, and they clashed on a number of issues, in particular the foundation of an Oratory in Oxford. On theological issues, Newman had reservations about the declaration of papal infallibility (Manning favoured the formal declaration of the doctrine). Newman, while personally convinced, as a matter of theological opinion, of papal infallibility, opposed its definition as dogma, fearing that the definition might be expressed in over-broad terms open to misunderstanding. George W. E. Russell recorded that:
When Newman died there appeared in a monthly magazine a series of very unflattering sketches by one who had lived under his roof. I ventured to ask Cardinal Manning if he had seen these sketches. He replied that he had and thought them very shocking; the writer must have a very unenviable mind, &c., and then, having thus sacrificed to propriety, after a moment's pause he added: "But if you ask me if they are like poor Newman, I am bound to say—''a photograph''."


''Apologia''

In 1862 Newman began to prepare autobiographical and other memoranda to vindicate his career. The occasion came when, in the January 1864 issue of ''Macmillan's Magazine'', Charles Kingsley, reviewing James Anthony Froude's ''History of England'', incidentally asserted that "Truth, for its own sake, had never been a virtue with the Roman clergy. Father Newman informs us that it need not, and on the whole ought not to be." Edward Lowth Badeley, who had been a close legal adviser to Newman since the Achilli trial, encouraged him to make a robust rebuttal. After some preliminary sparring between the two, in which Kingsley refused to admit any fault, Newman published a pamphlet, ''Mr Kingsley and Dr Newman: a Correspondence on the Question whether Dr Newman teaches that Truth is no Virtue'', (published in 1864 and not reprinted until 1913). The pamphlet has been described as "unsurpassed in the English language for the vigour of its satire". However, the anger displayed was later, in a letter to Sir William Cope, admitted to have been largely feigned. After the debate went public, Kingsley attempted to defend his assertion in a lengthy pamphlet entitled ''What then does Dr Newman mean?'', described by a historian as "one of the most momentous rhetorical and polemical failures of the Victorian age". In answer to Kingsley Newman published his ''
Apologia Pro Vita Sua () is John Henry Newman's history of his religious opinions, showing how his opinions had been formed and how they had led him from Anglicanism to the Catholic Church. It was originally published as a series of pamphlets in 1864 in response to an ...
'', a religious autobiography, in seven weekly parts starting on 21 April, followed by an appendix two weeks after the seventh part. Its tone changed the popular estimate of its author, by explaining the convictions which had led him into the Catholic Church. Kingsley's general accusation against the Catholic clergy is dealt with in the seventh part in the work; his specific accusations are addressed in an appendix. Newman maintains that English Catholic priests are at least as truthful as English Catholic laymen. Newman published a revision of the series of pamphlets in book form in 1865; in 1913 a combined critical edition, edited by Wilfrid Ward, was published. In the book, Newman wrote, "[T]here are but two alternatives, the way to Rome, and the way to Atheism." In the conclusion of the ''Apologia'', Newman expressed sympathy for the Liberal Catholicism of Charles de Montalembert and Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire: "In their general line of thought and conduct I enthusiastically concur, and consider them to be before their age."


Later years and death

In 1870, Newman published his ''
Grammar of Assent ''An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent'' (commonly abbreviated to the last three words) is John Henry Newman's seminal book on the philosophy of faith."NEWMAN, John Henry", in ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'' (1990), Edinburgh: Chambers. ...
'', a closely reasoned work in which the case for religious belief is maintained by arguments somewhat different from those commonly used by Catholic theologians of the time. In 1877, in the republication of his Anglican works, he added to the two volumes containing his defence of the ''via media'', a long preface in which he criticised and replied to anti-Catholic arguments of his own which were contained in the original works. At the time of the First Vatican Council (1869–1870), Newman was uneasy about the dogmatic definition, formal definition of the doctrine of papal infallibility, believing that the time was "inopportune". In a private letter to his bishop (William Bernard Ullathorne), surreptitiously published, he denounced the "insolent and aggressive faction" that had pushed the matter forward. Newman gave no sign of disapproval when the doctrine was finally defined, but was an advocate of the "principle of minimising", that included very few papal declarations within the scope of infallibility. Subsequently, in a letter nominally addressed to the Henry Fitzalan-Howard, 15th Duke of Norfolk, Duke of Norfolk when William Ewart Gladstone, Gladstone accused the Roman church of having "equally repudiated modern thought and ancient history", Newman affirmed that he had always believed in the doctrine, and had only feared the deterrent effect of its definition on conversions on account of acknowledged historical difficulties. In this letter, and especially in the postscript to the second edition, Newman answered the charge that he was not at ease within the Catholic Church.


Cardinalate

In 1878, Newman's old college elected him an honorary fellow, and he revisited Oxford after an interval of thirty-two years, on the same day Pope Pius IX died. Pius had mistrusted Newman but his successor,
Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII (; born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2March 181020July 1903) was head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 until his death in July 1903. He had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of Peter the Ap ...
, was encouraged by the Duke of Norfolk and other English Catholic laymen to make Newman a Cardinal (Catholic), cardinal, despite the fact that he was neither a bishop nor resident in Rome. Cardinal Manning seems not to have been interested in having Newman become a cardinal and remained silent when the Pope asked him about it. Ullathorne, as Newman's immediate superior, sent word to Pope Leo that he would welcome the honour. The offer was made by Rome in February 1879. Newman accepted the gesture as a vindication of his work, but made two requests: that he not be consecrated a bishop on receiving the cardinalate, as was usual at that time; and that he might remain in Birmingham. Newman was elevated to the rank of cardinal in the consistory of 12 May 1879 by Pope Leo XIII, who assigned him the Cardinal-Deacon, Deaconry of ''San Giorgio al Velabro''. While in Rome, Newman insisted on the lifelong consistency of his opposition to "liberalism in religion"; he argued it would lead to complete relativism.


Death

After an illness, Newman returned to England and lived at the Birmingham Oratory until his death, making occasional visits to London and chiefly to his old friend Richard William Church, R. W. Church, now Dean of St Paul's. As a cardinal, Newman published nothing beyond a preface to a work by Arthur Wollaston Hutton on the Anglican ministry (1879) and an article, "On the Inspiration of Scripture", in ''The Nineteenth Century'' (February 1884). In 1880, Newman confessed to an "extreme joy" that Conservative Benjamin Disraeli was no longer in power, and expressed the hope that Disraeli would be gone permanently. From the latter half of 1886, Newman's health began to fail. He celebrated Mass for the last time on Christmas Day in 1889. On 11 August 1890 he died of pneumonia at the Birmingham Oratory. Eight days later his body was buried alongside Ambrose St. John in the cemetery at Rednal Hill, Birmingham, at the country house of the oratory. In accordance with his express wishes, Newman was buried in the grave of his lifelong friend Ambrose St. John. The pall over the coffin bore the motto that Newman adopted for use as a cardinal, ''Cor ad cor loquitur'' ("Heart speaks to heart"), which William Barry, writing in the ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' (1913), traces to Francis de Sales and sees as revealing the secret of Newman's "eloquence, unaffected, graceful, tender, and penetrating". Ambrose St. John had become a Roman Catholic at around the same time as Newman, and the two men have a joint memorial stone inscribed with the motto Newman had chosen, ''Ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem'' ("Out of shadows and phantasms into the truth"), which Barry traces to Plato's allegory of the cave. On 27 February 1891, Newman's estate was probated at £4,206.


Remains

Newman's grave was opened on 2 October 2008, with the intention of moving any remains to a tomb inside Birmingham Oratory for their more convenient veneration as relics during Newman's consideration for sainthood; however, his wooden coffin was found to have disintegrated and no bones were found. A representative of the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory alleged that this was because the coffin was wooden and the burial took place at a damp site. Contemporary sources show that the coffin was covered with a softer type of soil than the clay marl of the grave site. Forensic expert John Hunter, from the University of Birmingham, tested soil samples from near the grave and said that total disappearance of a body was unlikely over that timescale. He said that extreme conditions which could remove bone would also have removed the coffin handles, which were extant.


Writer

Some of Newman's short and earlier poems are described by Richard Holt Hutton, R. H. Hutton as "unequalled for grandeur of outline, purity of taste and radiance of total effect"; while his latest and longest, ''
The Dream of Gerontius ''The Dream of Gerontius'', Opus number, Op. 38, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from The Dream of Gerontius (poem), the poem by John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man' ...
'', attempts to represent the unseen world along the same lines as Dante Alighieri, Dante. His prose style, especially in his Catholic days, is fresh and vigorous and is attractive to many who do not sympathise with his conclusions, from the apparent candour with which difficulties are admitted and grappled; while in his private correspondence, there is charm. James Joyce had a lifelong admiration for Newman's writing style and in a letter to his patron Harriet Shaw Weaver remarked about Newman that "nobody has ever written English prose that can be compared with that of a tiresome footling little Anglican parson who afterwards became a prince of the only true church".


Theologian

Newman defined theology as "the Science of God, or the truths we know about God, put into a system, just as we have a science of the stars and call it astronomy, or of the crust of the earth and call it geology". Around 1830, Newman developed a distinction between natural religion and revealed religion. Revealed religion is the Christian revelation which finds its fulfilment in Jesus Christ. Natural religion refers to the knowledge of God and divine things that has been acquired outside the Christian revelation. For Newman, this knowledge of God is not the result of unaided reason but of reason aided by divine grace, grace, and so he speaks of natural religion as containing a revelation, even though it is an incomplete revelation. Newman's view of natural religion gives rise to passages in his writings in which he appears to sympathise with a broader theology. Both as an Anglican and as a Catholic, he put forward the notion of a universal revelation. As an Anglican, Newman subscribed to this notion in various works, among them the 1830 University Sermon entitled "The Influence of Natural and Revealed Religion Respectively", the 1833 poem "Heathenism", and the book ''The Arians of the Fourth Century'', also 1833, where he admits that there was "something true and divinely revealed in every religion". As a Catholic, he included the idea in ''A Grammar of Assent'': "As far as we know, there never was a time when ... revelation was not a revelation continuous and systematic, with distinct representatives and an orderly succession." Newman held that "freedom from symbols and articles is abstractedly the highest state of Christian communion", but was "the peculiar privilege of the primitive Church". In 1877 he allowed that "in a religion that embraces large and separate classes of adherents there always is of necessity to a certain extent an exoteric and an esoteric doctrine". Newman was worried about the new dogma of papal infallibility advocated by an "aggressive and insolent faction", fearing that the definition might be expressed in over-broad terms open to misunderstanding and would pit religious authority against physical science. He was relieved about the moderate tone of the eventual definition, which "affirmed the pope's infallibility only within a strictly limited province: the doctrine of faith and morals initially given to the apostolic Church and handed down in Scripture and tradition."


Character and relationships

A 2001 biography of Newman notes that since his death in 1890, he has suffered almost as much misrepresentation as he did during his lifetime. In the ''Apologia'' he had exorcised the phantom which, as he said, "gibbers instead of me"—the phantom of the secret Romanist, corrupting the youth of Oxford, devious and dissimulating. But he raised another phantom—that of the oversensitive, self-absorbed recluseMeriol Trevor and Léonie Caldecott. ''John Henry Newman: Apostle to the Doubtful''. London: CTS, 2001, p. 54. . who never did anything but think and write.Trevor and Caldecott, p. 57. Unwary readers took the ''Apologia'' as autobiography, but it is strictly what Newman called its first parts—"A History of My Religious Opinions". In Newman's letters and memoranda and those of his friends, a more outgoing and humorous character is revealed. Newman lived in the world of his time, travelling by train as soon as engines were built and rail lines laid, and writing amusing letters about his adventures on railwaysTrevor and Caldecott, p. 56. and ships, and during his travels in Scotland and Ireland. He was an indefatigable walker, and as a young don at Oriel he often went out riding with Hurrell Froude and other friends. At Oxford he had an active pastoral life as an Anglican priest, though nothing of it appears in the ''Apologia''. Later he was active as a Catholic priest. His parishioners at the Oratory, apart from a few professional men and their families, were mainly factory workers, Irish immigrants, and tradespeople. He was a caring pastor, and their recorded reminiscences show that they held him in affection. Newman, who was only a few years younger than Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley, Shelley, was born into the Romanticism, Romantic generation when Englishmen still wept in moments of emotion. But he lived on into the age of the stiff upper lip, with the result that later generations, hearing of his tears on a visit to his mother's grave or at the funerals of old friends such as Henry Wilberforce, thought him not only sensitive but melancholy. The "sensitive recluse of legend" had a wide currency, appearing, for instance, in Lytton Strachey's description, in his famously debunking set of portraits ''Eminent Victorians,'' as Newman's "soft, spectacled, Oxford manner, with its half-effeminate diffidence". Geoffrey Faber, whose own account of Newman in ''Oxford Apostles'' was far from hagiographic, found Strachey's portrait a distasteful caricature, bearing scant likeness to the Newman of history and designed solely "to tickle the self-conceit of a cynical and beliefless generation". In Strachey's account, however, the true villain is Cardinal Manning, who is accused of secretly briefing the Press with the false story that Newman would turn down the Cardinalate, and who privately said of his late "friend": "Poor Newman! He was a great hater!". Strachey was only ten when Newman died and never met him. In contrast to Strachey's account, James Anthony Froude, Hurrell Froude's brother, who knew Newman at Oxford, saw him as a Heroes and Hero-Worship, Carlylean hero.James Eli Adams. ''Dandies and Desert Saints: Styles of Victorian Masculinity''. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995, p. 82. . Compared with Newman, Froude wrote, Keble, Pusey, and the other Tractarians "were all but as Names for the number 0 in English, ciphers, and he the indicating number". Newman's face was "remarkably like that of Julius Caesar. ...I have often thought of the resemblance, and believed that it extended to the temperament. In both there was an original force of character which refused to be moulded by circumstances, which was to make its own way, and become a power in the world; a clearness of intellectual perception, a disdain for conventionalities, a temper imperious and wilful, but along with it a most attaching gentleness, sweetness, singleness of heart and purpose. Both were formed by nature to command others, both had the faculty of attracting to themselves the passionate devotion of their friends and followers. ... For hundreds of young men ''Credo in Newmannum'' was the veritable symbol of faith."


Celibacy

Newman's Clerical celibacy, celibacy, which he embraced at the age of 15, also contributed to negative representations of his character, laying him open to what he called "slurs". To exponents of muscular Christianity such as Charles Kingsley, celibacy was synonymous with unmanliness. Kingsley, who interpreted the Biblical story of Adam and Eve as expressing a "binary law of man's being; the want of a complementum, a 'help meet', without whom it is not good for him to be", feared and hated vowed sexual abstinence, considering it, in Laura Fasick's words, "a distinct and separate perversion". The charge of effeminacy was aimed not just at Newman but at Tractarians and Roman Catholics in general. "In all that school", wrote Kingsley in 1851, "there is an element of foppery—even in dress and manner; a fastidious, maundering, die-away effeminacy, which is mistaken for purity and refinement". John Cornwell (writer), John Cornwell comments that "the notion of Newman's effeminacy tells us more about the reaction of others to him at the time than [about] any tendency in his own nature". To many members of the Oxford Movement, Newman included, it was Kingsley's ideal of domesticity that seemed unmanly. As Richard William Church, R. W. Church put it, "To shrink from [celibacy] was a mark of want of strength or intelligence, of an unmanly preference for English home life, of insensibility to the generous devotion and purity of the saints". Defending his decision to remain single, Charles Reding, the hero of Newman's novel ''Loss and Gain'', argues that "surely the idea of an Apostle, unmarried, pure, in fast and nakedness, and at length a martyr, is a higher idea than that of one of the old Israelites sitting under his vine and fig-tree, full of temporal goods, and surrounded by sons and grandsons?" James Eli Adams remarks that if manliness is equated with physical and psychological toughness, then perhaps "manhood cannot be ''sustained'' within domesticity, since the ideal is incompatible with ease". A "common antagonism to domesticity" links "Tractarian discipline to Carlylean heroism".


Friendships

Although Newman's deepest relationships were with men, he had many affectionate friendships with women. One of the most important was with Maria Giberne, who knew him in his youth and followed him into the Catholic Church. She was a noted beauty, who at age fifty was described by one admirer as "the handsomest woman I ever saw in my life". A gifted amateur artist, she painted many portraits of Newman at various periods, as well as several of the pictures hanging in the Birmingham Oratory. Newman had a photographic portrait of her in his room and was still corresponding with her into their eighties. Emily Bowles, who first met Newman at Littlemore, was the recipient of some of his most outspoken letters on what he felt to be the mistaken course of the extreme infallibilists and his reasons for not "speaking out" as many begged him to do. When she visited Newman at the Birmingham Oratory in 1861, she was welcomed by him "as only he can welcome"; she would never forget "the brightness that lit up his worn face as he received me at the door, carrying in several packages himself". Newman also experienced close male friendships, the first with
Richard Hurrell Froude Richard Hurrell Froude (; 25 March 1803 – 28 February 1836) was an Anglican priest and an early leader of the Oxford Movement. Life He was born in Dartington, Devon, the eldest son of Robert Froude ( Archdeacon of Totnes) and the elder brot ...
(1803–1836), the longest with
Ambrose St John Ambrose St John (29 June 1815 – 24 May 1875) was a convert to Catholicism and an English Oratorian. He was a classical scholar and a linguist both in Oriental and European tongues. He is best known as a lifelong friend of Cardinal John Henr ...
(1815–1875), who shared communitarian life with Newman for 32 years starting in 1843 (when St John was 28). Newman wrote after St John's death: "I have ever thought no bereavement was equal to that of a husband's or a wife's, but I feel it difficult to believe that any can be greater, or any one's sorrow greater, than mine". He directed that he be buried in the same grave as St John: "I wish, with all my heart, to be buried in Fr Ambrose St John's grave—and I give this as my last, my imperative will". Newman spelt out his theology of friendship in a sermon he preached on the Feast of St John the Evangelist, "whom Jesus loved". In the sermon, Newman said: "There have been men before now, who have supposed Christian love was so diffuse as not to admit of concentration upon individuals; so that we ought to love all men equally. ... Now I shall maintain here, in opposition to such notions of Christian love, and with our Saviour's pattern before me, that the best preparation for loving the world at large, and loving it duly and wisely, is to cultivate our intimate friendship and affection towards those who are immediately about us". For Newman, friendship is an intimation of a greater love, a foretaste of heaven. In friendship, two intimate friends gain a glimpse of the life that awaits them in God.Mark Vernon
"One Soul, Two Bodies"
''The Tablet'', 3 April 2010.
Juan R. Vélez writes that someday Newman "may well earn a new title, that of ''Doctor amicitiae'': Doctor of the Church on Friendship. His biography is a treatise on the human and supernatural virtues that make up friendship".


Discussion about potential homosexuality

David Hilliard characterises Geoffrey Faber's description of Newman, in his 1933 book ''Oxford Apostles'', as a "portrait of Newman as a sublimation (psychology), sublimated homosexual (though the word itself was not used)". On Newman's relations with Hurrell Froude, Faber wrote: "Of all his friends Froude filled the deepest place in his heart, and I'm not the first to point out that his occasional notions of marrying definitely ceased with the beginning of his real intimacy with Froude". However, while Faber's theory has had considerable popular influence, scholars of the Oxford Movement tend either to dismiss it entirely or to view it with great scepticism, with even scholars specifically concerned with same-sex desire hesitating to endorse it. Ellis Hanson, for instance, writes that Newman and Froude clearly "presented a challenge to Victorian gender norms", but "Faber's reading of Newman's sexlessness and Hurrell Froude's guilt as evidence of homosexuality" seems "strained". When John Campbell Shairp combines masculine and feminine imagery in his highly poetic description of Newman's preaching style at Oxford in the early 1840s, Frederick S. Roden is put in mind of "the late Victorian definition of a male invert, the homosexual: his (Newman's) homiletics suggest a woman's soul in a man's body". Roden, however, does not argue that Newman was homosexual, seeing him rather—particularly in his Profession (religious), professed celibacy—as a "cultural dissident" or "queer". Roden uses the term "Queer theory, queer" in a very general sense "to include any dissonant behaviours, discourses or claimed identities" in relation to Victorian norms. In this sense, "Victorian Roman and Anglo-Catholicism were culturally queer". In Newman's case, Roden writes, "homoaffectivity" (found in heterosexuals and homosexuals alike) "is contained in friendships, in relationships that are not overtly sexual". In a September 2010 television documentary, ''The Trouble with the Pope'', Peter Tatchell discussed Newman's underlying sexuality, citing his close friendship with Ambrose St John and entries in Newman's diaries describing their fond love for each other. Alan Bray, however, in his 2003 book ''The Friend'', saw the bond between the two men as "entirely spiritual",Alan Bray
"Wedded Friendships"
''The Tablet'', 8 August 2001.
noting that Newman, when speaking of St John, echoes the language of Gospel of John, John's gospel. Shortly after St John's death, Bray adds, Newman recorded "a conversation between them before St John lost his speech in those final days. He expressed his hope, Newman wrote, that during his whole priestly life he had not committed one mortal sin. For men of their time and culture that statement is definitive. ... Newman's burial with Ambrose St John cannot be detached from his understanding of the place of friendship in Christian belief or its long history". Bray cites numerous examples of friends being buried together. Newman's burial with St John was not unusual at the time and did not draw contemporary comment. David Hilliard writes that relationships such as Newman's with Froude and St John "were not regarded by contemporaries as unnatural. ... Nor is it possible, on the basis of passionate words uttered by mid-Victorians, to make a clear distinction between male affection and homosexual feeling. Theirs was a generation prepared to accept romantic friendships between men simply as friendships without sexual significance. Only with the emergence in the late nineteenth century of the doctrine of the stiff upper lip and the concept of homosexuality as an identifiable condition, did open expressions of love between men become suspect and regarded in a new light as morally undesirable". Men born in the first decades of the nineteenth century had a capacity, which did not survive into later generations, for intense male friendships. The friendship of Alfred Tennyson and Arthur Hallam, immortalised in ''In Memoriam A.H.H.'', is a famous example. Less well-known is that of Charles Kingsley and his closest friend at Cambridge, Charles Mansfield. When Ian Ker reissued his biography of Newman in 2009, he added an afterword in which he put forward evidence that Newman was a heterosexual. He cited journal entries from December 1816 in which the 15-year-old Newman prayed to be preserved from the temptations awaiting him when he returned from boarding school and met girls at Christmas dances and parties. As an adult, Newman wrote about the deep pain of the "sacrifice" of the life of celibacy. Ker comments: "The only 'sacrifice' that he could possibly be referring to was that of marriage. And he readily acknowledges that from time to time he continued to feel the natural attraction for marriage that any heterosexual man would." In 1833, Newman wrote that, despite having "willingly" accepted the call to celibacy, he felt "not the less ... the need" of "the sort of interest [sympathy] which a wife takes and none but she—it is a woman's interest".


Influence and legacy

Within both the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches, Newman's influence was great in
dogma Dogma, in its broadest sense, is any belief held definitively and without the possibility of reform. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Judaism, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, or Islam ...
. For the Roman Catholic Church in Britain, Newman's conversion secured prestige. On Catholics, his influence was mainly in the direction of a broader spirit and of a recognition of the part played by Development of doctrine, development, in doctrine and in church government. He is also remembered for his famous quote "To be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant." If his teaching on the church was less widely followed, it was because of doubts as to the thoroughness of his knowledge of history and as to his freedom from bias as a critic. Catholic Cardinal Marc Ouellet, then Prefect of the then Congregation for Bishops, has said that Newman qualifies to be a Doctor of the Church, ranking with Athanasius and Augustine.


Tertiary education

Newman founded the independent school for boys Catholic University School, Dublin, and the
Catholic University of Ireland The Catholic University of Ireland (CUI; ) was a private Catholic Church, Catholic university in Dublin, Ireland. It was founded in 1851 following the Synod of Thurles in 1850, and in response to the Queen's University of Ireland and its assoc ...
which evolved into
University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...
, a college of Ireland's largest university, the National University of Ireland. A number of Newman Societies (or Newman Centers in the United States) in Newman's honour have been established throughout the world, in the mould of the Oxford University Newman Society. They provide pastoral services and ministries to Catholics at non-Catholic universities; at various times this type of "campus ministry" (the distinction and definition being flexible) has been known to Catholics as the Newman Apostolate or "Newman movement". Additionally, colleges have been named for him in Newman University, Birmingham, Birmingham, England; Newman College (University of Melbourne), Melbourne, Australia; Newman Theological College, Edmonton, Canada; Newman College, Thodupuzha, Thodupuzha, India, and Newman University, Wichita, Wichita, United States. Newman's Dublin lecture series ''The Idea of a University Defined and Illustrated'' is thought to have become "the basis of a characteristic British belief that education should aim at producing generalists rather than narrow specialists, and that non-vocational subjects—in arts or pure science—could train the mind in ways applicable to a wide range of jobs".


Cause for canonisation

In 1991, Newman was proclaimed venerable by Pope John Paul II after a thorough examination of his life and work by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. In 2001, Jack Sullivan, an American deacon from Marshfield in Massachusetts, attributed his recovery from a spinal cord disorder to the intercession of Newman. The miracle was accepted by the Holy See for Newman's
beatification Beatification (from Latin , "blessed" and , "to make") is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. ''Beati'' is the p ...
, which Pope Benedict XVI announced on 19 September 2010 during State visit by Pope Benedict XVI to the United Kingdom, a visit to Britain. The approval of a further miracle at the intercession of Newman was reported in November 2018: the healing of a pregnant woman from a grave illness. The decree approving this miracle was authorised to be promulgated on 12 February 2019. On 1 July 2019, with an affirmative vote, Newman's canonisation was authorised and the date for the canonisation ceremony was set for 13 October 2019. Newman was canonised on 13 October 2019, by
Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...
, in St. Peter's Square. The ceremony was attended by the Prince of Wales (now Charles III), representing the United Kingdom.


Feast day

The general rule among Roman Catholics is to celebrate canonised or beatified persons on the date of their ''dies natalis'', the day on which they died and are considered born into heaven. However, Newman's ''dies natalis'' is 11 August, the same day as the obligatory memorial of Saint Clare of Assisi in the General Roman Calendar which would take precedence. Thus, once Newman was beatified, the Congregation of the Oratory and the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales opted to place Newman's optional memorial on 9 October, the date of his conversion to Catholicism. This date was chosen because "it falls at the beginning of the University year; an area in which Newman had a particular interest". John Henry Newman is Calendar of saints (Church of England), remembered in the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
with a Commemoration (observance), commemoration on 11 August. He is Calendar of saints (Episcopal Church), remembered in the Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopal Church on 21 February.


Works


Anglican Period


''The Arians of the Fourth Century''
New York: Longmans, Green, and Co. (1911). * ''Tracts for the Times'' (1833–1841) * ''British Critic'' (1836–1842) *
Lyra Apostolica
' (poems mostly by Newman and Keble, collected 1836) * ''On the Prophetical Office of the Church'' (1837)
''Lectures on Justification''
London: J.G. & F. Rivington, (1838) * ''Parochial and Plain Sermons'' (1834–1843) * ''Select Treatises of St. Athanasius'' (1842, 1844) * ''Essays on Miracles'' (1826, 1843) * ''Oxford University Sermons'' (1843)
''Sermons on Subjects of the Day''
London: J.G.F. & J. Rivington, (1843) * ''Lives of the Saints'' *
''Volume 1''
London: James Toovey, (1845) *
''Volume 2''
London: James Toovey, (1845) *
''Volume 3''
London: James Toovey, (1845) *
''Volume 4''
London: James Toovey, (1844) *
''Volume 5''
London: James Toovey, (1845) *
''Volume 6''
London: James Toovey, (1845) *
''Volume 7''
London: James Toovey, (1845)


Catholic Period


''Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine''
New York: D. Appleton and Company (1845). * ''Retractation of Anti-Catholic Statements'' (1845) * ''Loss and Gain

London: James Burns, (novel – 1848) * ''Faith and Prejudice and Other Unpublished Sermons'' (1848–1873; collected 1956)
''Discourses to Mixed Congregations''
London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, (1849)
''Lectures on Certain Difficulties Felt by Anglicans in Submitting to the Catholic Church''
London: Burns & Lambert, (1850)
''Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England : Addressed to the Brothers of the Oratory''
London: Burns & Lambert, (1851) *
The Idea of a University
' (1852 and 1858) * ''Cathedra Sempiterna'' (1852) * ''Callista (novel), Callista

London: Burns and Lambert (novel – 1855) * ''On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Christian Doctrine'' (1859) * ''The Rambler (Catholic periodical), The Rambler'' (editor) (1859–1860) * ''
Apologia Pro Vita Sua () is John Henry Newman's history of his religious opinions, showing how his opinions had been formed and how they had led him from Anglicanism to the Catholic Church. It was originally published as a series of pamphlets in 1864 in response to an ...
'' (religious autobiography – 1864; revised edition, 1865) * ''Letter to Dr. Pusey'' (1865) * ''
The Dream of Gerontius ''The Dream of Gerontius'', Opus number, Op. 38, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from The Dream of Gerontius (poem), the poem by John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man' ...
'' (1865) * ''Grammar of Assent, An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent'' (1870) * ''Sermons Preached on Various Occasions'' (various/1874) * ''Letter to the Duke of Norfolk'' (1875) * ''Five Letters'' (1875) * ''Sermon Notes'' (1849–1878)
''Select Treatises of St. Athanasius''
London: Pickering, (1881).
''On the Inspiration of Scripture''
London: K. Paul, (1884).
''Development of Religious Error''
London: Isbister, (1885).
''The Second Spring: A Sermon''
New York: Longmans, Green, and Co. (1911).


Other Miscellaneous Works


''Historical Tracts of St. Athanasius''
Oxford: John Henry Parker, (1843).
Achilli v. Newman: A Full and Authentic Report of the Above Prosecution for Libel, Tried Before Lord Campbell and a Special Jury, in the Court of Queen's Bench, Westminster, June, 1852
London: W. Strange, (1852).
''Lectures and Essays on University Subjects''
London: Longman, Brown, Green. Longmans, and Roberts, (1859).
''Essays Critical and Historical''
London: B.M. Pickering, (various/1871).
''Tracts Theological and Ecclesiastical''
London: B.M. Pickering, (1874).
''Discussions and Arguments''
London: Pickering, (1872). * ''Historical Sketches'' (various/1872) * ''Addresses to Cardinal Newman and His Replies'', with ''Biglietto Speech'' (1879)


Selections

* ''Realizations: Newman's Own Selection of His Sermons'' (edited by Vincent Ferrer Blehl, S.J., 1964). Liturgical Press, 2009. * ''Mary the Second Eve'' (compiled by Sister Eileen Breen, F.M.A., 1969). TAN Books, 2009. *


See also

* Cardinal Newman Society * Newman Center * The Newman Society * ''Newman Studies Journal'' * Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham


References


Works cited

* * * * Attribution *


Further reading

* Aguzzi, Steven (2010). "John Henry Newman's Anglican Views on Judaism", ''Newman Studies Journal,'' Vol. VII, No. 1, pp. 56–72. * * Bellasis, Edward (1892)
''Cardinal Newman as a Musician''
London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. * Owen Chadwick, Chadwick, Owen (1987). ''The Victorian Church: Part One 1829–1859''. London: SCM. * Connolly, John R. (2005). ''John Henry Newman: A View of Catholic Faith for the New Millennium''. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. * * Faught, C. Brad (2003). ''The Oxford Movement: A Thematic History of the Tractarians and Their Times.'' University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press. . * Gates, Lewis E. (1889),
Three studies in literature
', the second on Cardinal Newman. * Herring, George (2002). ''What Was the Oxford Movement?'' London: Continuum. * Heuser, Herman J. (1890)
"Cardinal Newman,"
''The American Catholic Quarterly Review'', Vol. XV, pp. 774–94. * Jost, Walter (1989). ''Rhetorical Thought in John Henry Newman''. U. of South Carolina Press. * Ker, Ian and Merrigan, Terrence (eds) (2009).
The Cambridge Companion to John Henry Newman
'. Cambridge University Press. * Graham Kings, Kings, Graham (2010)
"The Ambiguous Legacy of John Henry Newman: Reflections on the Papal Visit 2010"
* * Newsome, David (1993). ''The Convert Cardinals: Newman and Manning''. London: John Murray. . * Rowlands, John Henry Lewis (1989). ''Church, State, and Society, 1827–1845: the Attitudes of John Keble, Richard Hurrell Froude, and John Henry Newman''. Worthing, Eng.: P. Smith [of] Churchman Publishing; Folkestone, Eng.: distr. ... by Bailey Book Distribution. * Lytton Strachey, Strachey, Lytton (1918)
''Eminent Victorians''
London: Chatto & Windus. * Meriol Trevor, Trevor, Meriol (1962). ''Newman: The Pillar of the Cloud'' & ''Newman: Light in Winter'' (two-volume biography). London: Macmillan Co. * Frank M Turner, Turner, Frank M (2002).
John Henry Newman: The Challenge to Evangelical Religion
'. New Haven: Yale University Press. * Zeno, Dr (1987). ''John Henry Newman: His Inner Life.'' San Francisco: Ignatius Press. . * ''John Henry Newman. Una biografía''. Ian Ker. (Spanish edition.) Ediciones Palabra 2010.


External links

* * * *

(in Latin (language), Latin)
Pope Benedict XVI's homily 19.09.2010
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