Arthur Wollaston Hutton

“ In his own case these views did not lead to scepticism, because he had always possessed the necessary interior conviction; and in writing Tract 85 his only doubt would have been where the true Church is to be found. But, so far as the rest of the world is concerned, his teaching amounts to this: that the man who has not this interior conviction has no choice but to remain an agnostic, while the man who has it is bound sooner or later to become a Roman Catholic. ”

“ In July 1852 he presided at Oscott over the first provincial synod of Westminster, at which Newman preached his sermon on the “Second Spring”; and at this date Wiseman's dream of the rapid conversion of England to the ancient faith seemed not incapable of realization. But many difficulties with his own people shortly beset his path, due largely to the suspicions aroused by his evident preference for the ardent Roman zeal of the converts, and especially of Manning, to the dull and cautious formalism of the old Catholics. ”

“ In 1863, addressing the Catholic Congress at Malines, he stated that since 1830 the number of priests in England had increased from 434 to 1242, and of convents of women from 16 to 162, while there were 55 religious houses of men in 1863 and none in 1830. The last two years of his life were troubled by illness and by controversies in which he found himself, under Manning’s influence, compelled to adopt a policy less liberal than that which had been his in earlier years. ”

“ In a letter home he described Rome as “the most wonderful place on earth,” but the Roman Catholic religion as “polytheistic, degrading and idolatrous.” It was during the course of this tour that he wrote most of the short poems which a year later were printed in the Lyra Apostolica. From Rome Newman returned to Sicily alone, and was dangerously ill with fever at Leonforte, recovering from it with the conviction that he had a work to do in England. ”

“ Oscott, under his presidency, became a centre for Englisb Catholics, where he was also visited by many distinguished men, including foreigners and non-Catholics. The Oxford converts (1845 and later) added considerably to Wiseman's responsibilities, as many of them found themselves wholly without means, while the old Catholic body looked on the newcomers with distrust. It was by his advice that Newman and his companions spent some time in Rome before undertaking clerical work in England. ”

“ Its aim was to secure for the Church of England a definite basis of doctrine and discipline, in case either of disestablishment or of a determination of High Churchmen to quit the establishment, an eventuality that was thought not impossible in view of the States’ recent high-handed dealings with the sister established Church of Ireland. The teaching of the tracts 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. ”

“ But his accomplishments and ability were such as would have secured for him influence and prominence in any age of the Church; and besides being highly gifted intellectually and morally, he was marked by those specially human qualities which command the interest of all students of life and character. ”

“ The “creation” took place on 12th May, with the title of St George in Velabro, Newman taking occasion while in Rome to insist on the lifelong consistency of his opposition to “liberalism in religion.” After an illness that excited apprehension he returned to England, and thenceforward resided at the Oratory until his death, 1 1th August 1890, making occasional visits to London, and chiefly to his old friend, R. W. Church, dean of St Paul’s, who as proctor had vetoed the condemnation of Tract 90 in 1841. ”

“ At this date Newman became editor of the British Critic, and he also gave courses of lectures in a side-chapel of St Mary’s in defence of the via media of the Anglican Church as between Romanism and popular Protestantism. His influence in Oxford was supreme about the year 1839, when, however, his study of the monophysite heresy first raised in his mind a doubt as to whether the Anglican position was really tenable on those principles of ecclesiastical authority which he had accepted ”

“ In the same year he was appointed vicar of St Mary’s, to which the chapelry of Littlemore was attached, and Pusey was made regius professor of Hebrew. At this date, though still nominally associated with the Evangelicals, NeWman’s views were gradually assuming a higher ecclesiastical tone, and while local secretary of the Church Missionary Society he circulated an anonymous letter suggesting a method by which Churchmen might practically oust Nonconformists from all control of the society. ”

“ At the time of the Vatican Council (1869–1870) he was known to be opposed to the definition of Papal infallibility, and in a private letter to his bishop (Ullathorne) , surreptitiously published, he denounced the “insolent and aggressive faction” that had pushed the matter forward. ”

“ Within it his influence was mainly in the direction of a broader spirit and of a recognition of the important part played by development both in doctrine and in Church government. And although he never called himself a mystic, he showed that in his judgment spiritual truth is apprehended by direct intuition, as an antecedent necessity to the professedly purely rational basis of the Roman Catholic creed. Within the Anglican Church, and even within the more strictly Protestant Churches, his influence was greater, but in a different direction, viz. ”