John Henry Newman

English religious leader

• Born: February 21, 1801
• Birthplace: London, England
• Died: August 11, 1890
• Place of death: Birmingham, England

Newman was a leading figure in the Oxford Movement, which brought religious issues to the forefront of the Victorian consciousness. After his conversion to Roman Catholicism, he became the leading Catholic figure in Great Britain, writing eloquently about religion and education and influencing the course of theological and administrative practices within the Catholic Church in Great Britain and throughout the world.

Early Life

The eldest of six children, John Henry Newman grew up in a close-knit family and was educated at Dr. Nicolas’s school at Ealing, near London. At the age of fifteen, shortly before he matriculated at Oxford, Newman underwent a period of extreme mental crisis, which he later described as his conversion, and became deeply religious, convinced that God had destined him for a high calling. His reading during this period led him to appreciate the early church fathers and to fear the Roman Catholic Church’s influence in the modern world.

In the fall of 1816, Newman’s father took his son to Oxford and enrolled him at Trinity College. Newman did not actually move to the university until the following summer, when he began a period of intense study in the classics and mathematics. His performance during his first year earned for him a prestigious scholarship, but he was bitterly disappointed in 1820 when he failed to gain a coveted first in either classics or mathematics.

Believing that his performance at Trinity did not truly represent his abilities, Newman applied for a fellowship at Oriel College. The examiners found him clearly the best applicant, and in April, 1822, he joined the college, where he was to achieve fame and then notoriety. At Oriel, he became acquainted first with Edward Pusey, Edward Copleston, Richard Whately, and Edward Hawkins, and later with Richard Hurrell Froude and John Keble. In 1825, Newman was ordained an Anglican priest. For the next several years he combined duties as an educator at the college and at Alban Hall, with priestly functions as vicar of St. Mary’s Church, Oxford.

An extended trip through Sicily led to a serious illness, which forced Newman into a lengthy period of convalescence on the Continent. He returned to Oxford in time for his friend John Keble’s famous sermon on national apostasy, which initiated what came to be known as the Oxford Movement.

Life’s Work

Newman and his Oxford colleagues took advantage of the outcry generated by Keble’s sermon to bring before the public their thoughts on the proper role of the Church. In September, 1833, Newman published his thoughts on Apostolic Succession in a small pamphlet, or tract, which he had delivered all over Great Britain. This first pamphlet was followed by dozens of others during the next eight years, written by various Tractarians, as Newman’s group was called. Intended to establish the right of the Anglican Church to the title of “catholic,” Tracts for the Times eventually led many to believe that the Church of Rome, not that of Canterbury, was the only body to preserve the true spirit of early Christianity.

Newman’s polemical Tract Ninety , in which he argued that even Roman Catholics could subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles, caused such a stir that the tracts were terminated. Newman himself had grown to believe that the Anglican Church was not a “via media,” as he had once argued so eloquently. In 1841, he left Oxford to reside at the parish house in nearby Littlemore, where he spent four years agonizing over his own religious future. Finally, he broke openly with the Church of England: On October 9, 1845, he was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church.

The Anglican Church hierarchy was shaken by this move; the Roman Catholic community was elated. Within two years, Newman completed his studies in Rome and was ordained a priest, receiving from the pope a commission to establish in Great Britain an Oratory like those of Saint Philip Neri. Newman established his community in 1848, in Birmingham, bringing into it several men who had converted at or about the same time.

The move into the bosom of Rome had ironic consequences. In the Anglican Church, Newman had been one of the chief spokespersons for conservative values; as a Roman Catholic, he found himself immediately cast as the champion of liberalism. Newman’s belief in individual intellectual inquiry and in participation by the laity in the government of the Church set him at odds with numerous bishops and priests who viewed centralization of all authority as essential to the health of the “one true Church.”

These differences of opinion caused Newman considerable difficulty for almost two decades. Even within his own community at Birmingham he faced controversy. Several of the Oratorians, recent converts to Roman Catholicism, had found great solace in practicing the extreme forms of worship common in Italian churches. These men were disillusioned with Newman’s moderate tone toward non-Catholics. Eventually, the community split, with a group establishing a separate Oratory in London under Frederick William Faber, one of Newman’s most trusted friends and followers.

Newman was not eager to challenge openly the Church of England; rather, he wanted to lead British Catholics to the Church of Rome through conciliatory measures. That plan was made especially difficult almost from the outset when, in 1850, the pope decided to reestablish bishops in residence in Great Britain; since the sixteenth century, the country had been a “mission” for the Roman Catholic Church, without a designated diocesan headquarters. To make matters worse, Nicholas Wiseman, first archbishop of Westminster, inflamed public opinion by suggesting that the Catholic Church was “reclaiming” England. Protestants rallied against this “papal aggression,” and Newman found himself explaining to both Catholics and Protestants that the Church had no temporal aims.

During the early 1850’s, the Irish bishops, wanting to establish an independent university to provide Catholics with an education not influenced by the Protestant institutions of higher learning, sought out Newman to found a Catholic university in Dublin. Initial efforts were promising. In 1852, Newman delivered a series of lectures in Ireland, outlining his plans for the school, which were later collected under the title The Idea of a University Defined and Illustrated (1852). Newman wanted to build a university on the model of Oxford, where classical and scientific learning were the cornerstones of education. The bishops wanted little of such independent thinking; instead, they had hoped that the new colleges would indoctrinate students in Catholicism. Newman tried for several years to compromise and bring the school into existence; the effort eventually failed, and in 1858 he resigned.

During this period, Newman found himself embroiled in a lawsuit, brought against him by a former priest, Giacinto Achilli. Having fled to Great Britain, Achilli entertained Protestants by railing against the Church of Rome; in response, Newman, knowing Achilli to be a philanderer, castigated him in print. When Achilli sued, Newman was unable to obtain from Rome or from Archbishop Wiseman the documents he needed for a defense. Though a friend went to Rome and brought back witnesses against Achilli, Newman was still found guilty and ordered to pay a fine. Public outcry against what appeared to be Protestant injustice brought Newman considerable support, financial as well as moral; with the excess funds that were sent to him by well-wishers Newman was able to build a church for the university in Dublin.

Almost immediately after he resigned from his position at the University in Dublin, Newman found himself at the center of another controversy over the Rambler, a monthly Catholic lay magazine that often questioned church authorities. To quell growing dissatisfaction, Newman agreed to become the editor, but his own practices were not acceptable to the bishops, who had originally objected. Newman was forced to resign almost immediately after he had assumed the editorship, but not before he published an influential article, “On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine.” His liberal ideas on the role of the laity—ideas based on his study of the Church and its early history—caused him to be accused of heresy and left him under a cloud with those in Rome.

Vindication for Newman came slowly and began not within the church he had adopted but rather within his country. The publication of an article by Charles Kingsley in 1864, in which Kingsley accused Newman of condoning lies as a means of promoting the Catholic faith, forced Newman to clear his reputation by explaining his conversion. The series of letters Newman published in the spring of 1864 were collected into a volume that became the most important religious autobiography of the century: Apologia Pro Vita Sua . The work was praised by both Protestants and Catholics for its sincere presentation of a man’s search for truth. After its publication, Newman became reconciled with several of the friends whom he had abandoned when he converted two decades earlier. Apologia Pro Vita Sua was followed in 1870 by An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent , which explains how one can find assurances in faith that go beyond the merely intellectual.

In 1870, Newman was invited to the First Vatican Council to help determine an important and controversial issue: papal infallibility. He declined. He believed in the doctrine but feared that the council would declare the pope infallible in all of his pronouncements. He need not have been concerned. The council adopted a more circumscribed definition, that the pope spoke infallibly only on matters of faith and morals.

In 1878, Oxford honored Newman when officials of Trinity College elected him as the first Honorary Fellow. Not until Leo XIII became pope, however, did Newman gain the ecclesiastical recognition he deserved. One of the new pope’s first acts was to make Newman a cardinal. After some initial concern, and an attempt by Henry, Cardinal Manning, of Westminster to thwart the appointment, Newman eventually accepted the honor, and he was elevated to the cardinalate in May, 1879. The pope allowed Newman to retain his residence at the Oratory in Birmingham, where he died on August 11, 1890.

Significance

John Henry Newman’s influence on the Catholic Church in England during the nineteenth century cannot be overestimated. His own conversion was the catalyst that led dozens of others to adopt the Roman rule. Within the Church, he served as a constant voice for liberalism, stressing the dignity of individuals and the importance of the laity. Many of his ideas about the role of the laity formed the basis for later decisions of the Second Vatican Council in 1965, seven decades after his death.

Similarly, Catholic education has accepted a number of Newman’s ideas. His influence on Catholic colleges and universities both in Great Britain and in America has been significant. As Newman had urged, while most Catholic institutions of higher learning offer a liberal education that includes the study of theology, they also teach secular subjects and allow students to confront the evils of the world directly, offering guidance rather than trying to isolate students from life’s challenges.

Though Newman was a poet of some merit, his major contributions to British letters are his volumes of prose, especially his spiritual autobiography, his analysis of the nature of belief, and his writings on education. In an eloquent yet accessible style, he explored his subjects with great erudition and sincerity. His works continue to be read as examples of the essay at its best.

Bibliography

Blehl, Vincent Ferrer. Pilgrim Journey: John Henry Newman, 1801-1845. New York: Paulist Press, 2001. A study of Newman’s religious development, focusing on the Oxford Movement.

Bouyer, Louis. Newman: His Life and Spirituality. Translated by J. L. May. New York: Meridian Books, 1965. Detailed biography illuminating the complex psychology of its subject. Excellent analysis of Newman’s motives for his conversion, his belief in the importance of the laity, and his insistence on the need for intellectual inquiry for all Catholics. Makes extensive use of Newman’s diaries and letters.

Culler, A. Dwight. The Imperial Intellect: A Study of Newman’s Educational Ideal. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1955. Well-researched study of Newman’s life, focusing primarily on his thinking, writing, and action concerning education. Excellent discussions of The Idea of a University, and of Newman’s efforts to found such an institution.

Dessain, Charles Stephen. John Henry Newman. 2d ed. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1971. Brief biography by the editor of Newman’s letters. Concentrates on Newman’s religious life and the controversies surrounding his conversion and his dealings with the hierarchy in Rome. Excellent analysis of Newman’s lifelong quest to understand and propagate the notion of revealed religion.

Hollis, Christopher. Newman and the Modern World. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1968. Biographical sketch that examines Newman’s ideas and contributions to religion as they affected his contemporaries and the subsequent actions and pronouncements of the Roman Catholic Church. Good source of information about both the major events of Newman’s life and the impact his writings have had on the changes brought about by the Second Vatican Council.

Martin, Brian. John Henry Newman: His Life and Work. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. Brief, highly readable biographical sketch, profusely illustrated. Provides short analyses of Newman’s major works, including his novels. Stresses the difficulties Newman had in dealing with the conservative party within the Catholic Church.

Trevor, Meriol. Newman. Vol. 1, The Pillar of the Cloud; Vol. 2, Light in Winter. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1962. The standard biography. Provides well-documented sources, illustrations, and an extensive index.

Turner, Frank M. John Henry Newman: The Challenge to Evangelical Religion. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2002. Examines Newman’s early years at Oxford and in the Church of England to trace his religious development and eventual conversion to Roman Catholicism.

Ward, Wilfrid. The Life of John Henry Cardinal Newman. 2 vols. London: Longmans, Green, 1912. First major biography of Newman; makes extensive use of personal correspondence and private papers, as well as anecdotes from those who knew him. Despite the title, deals almost exclusively with the years Newman spent as a member of the Roman Catholic Church.

Yearley, Lee H. The Ideas of Newman: Christianity and Human Religiosity. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1978. Scholarly study that analyzes Newman’s attitudes toward humankind’s innate need for religion. Contains a good bibliography.