St. John Henry Newman, CO (21 February 1801 - 11 August 1890) was an English theologian, philosopher, academic, and poet who first served as an Anglican priest until 1845, when he left the Church of England to be received into the Catholic Church, for which he became a cardinal. He was an important and controversial figure in the religious history of Victorian England. His major works include An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845), Loss and Gain (1848), The Idea of a University (1852 and 1858), Apologia Pro Vita Sua (1864, revised 1865), and The Dream of Gerontius (1865).
Newman was born on 21 February 1801 in London, the eldest of six children. 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 refugees in England. He had a brother, Francis William Newman, who grew up to be a classical scholar and a vegetarianism advocate. The Newmans were Anglicans, and John Henry was exposed to the Bible at an early age, being an avid reader of it. He was later sent to study at Great Ealing School.
Although Newman took great delight in reading the Bible, he had no serious religious convictions until 1816, when he converted to Evangelical Christianity. He also embraced celibacy, a move which led a couple of his contemporaries to ridicule him for being "effeminate". On December 1816, Newman enrolled in Trinity College, Oxford, where he broke down from working too hard for his degree; he only graduated in 1821 with third-class honours, but he was elected to a fellowship at Oriel College, the leading college of the university at the time, in 1822.
The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge were at the time a part of the Anglican 'Establishment' and provided the formation of Anglican clergymen; Newman, desiring to be a 'minister of Christ', pursued Anglican orders. He was ordained a deacon on 13 June 1824 and then a priest on 29 May 1825, in Christ Church Cathedral by Edward Legge, the Bishop of Oxford. Rev. Newman also became curate of St. Clement's Church, where he became known for visiting his parishioners, especially the sick and poor.
In 1826, Rev. Newman became a tutor at Oriel College and took it as a religious duty to teach the students the Christian faith, but the college leadership accused Rev. Newman of playing favourites, so they barred him from getting new students from 1830 onwards. This, however, gave him additional time to study, and it was during this time that he discovered the Church Fathers, the teachers of early Christianity. In 1828, Newman was also made Vicar of St. Mary's, where he preached with a great understanding of the human condition while also commanding a great knowledge of scripture.
Rev. Newman was on a trip to Sicily in 1833 but became seriously ill for ten days, deliriously repeating 'I have a work to do in England'. When he recovered, he took it as a sign to surrender himself even more to God, and it awoke in him a desire to reform the Church of England. On his return, he banded together with a group of like-minded friends, namely John Keble and Edward Bouverie Pusey, and embarked on what would become known as the 'Oxford Movement', a theological movement that sought to reinstate some of the pre-Reformation Christian practices, like those of the Church Fathers, into the Church of England. These views were disseminated through a series of pamphlets, published between 1833-41, titled 'Tracts for the Times'. The frequency of these tracts gave the Oxford Movement the second name of 'The Tractarian Movement'. All the pamphlets were authored by a nameless 'Presbyter'; Newman was its biggest contributor and authored 28 of them, but his best method was his sermons and public lectures.
As Rev. Newman studied Church history and especially apostolic succession, he began to reconsider his stance towards the Catholic Church. In 1841, he published Tract 90, arguing that the Church of England was Catholic rather than Protestant in ecclesiological identity and that the Thirty-Nine Articles, the doctrinal standard for the Church of England, are to be interpreted that way. This easily became the most controversial pamphlet from the series, and Rev. Newman was quickly denounced as a traitor; Anglican clerics frequently criticised the Oxford Movement for being a mere 'Romanising' tendency, but Rev. Newman's proposal of a more Catholic reading of the Thirty-Nine Articles was more than enough to draw their ire. Tract 90 also became the last pamphlet from 'Tracts for the Times' as Richard Bagot, Bishop of Oxford, intervened and ordered Rev. Newman to end the series, despite his sympathies for the Oxford Movement. This stirred Rev. Newman into leaving Oxford, but it gave him a lot of time to reevaluate his religious convictions. By 1843, he resigned from St. Mary's Church.
Rev. Newman moved to Littlemore, a village three miles outside Oxford. There, he became increasingly convinced that the Church of Rome, the Catholic Church, was nearest the spirit of early Christianity, so he wrote and published An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845), one of his most famous theological works showing how the Church grows in understanding doctrine while remaining consistent with its earlier formulations.
On 9 October 1845, during a period of excited action at Oxford, Newman was received into the Catholic Church by Fr Dominic Barberi, an Italian Passionist priest on missionary work in England. This event greatly outraged and scandalised Newman's countrymen, costing him his fellowship at Oxford and the goodwill of his Anglican friends and family. Despite all this, Newman remained undeterred in professing the Catholic faith, and in 1846, he was sent to Rome to further his study for the priesthood. There, he discovered the Congregation of St. Philip Neri, a Catholic society of apostolic life. Finding the community life similar to those of the Colleges in the Anglican Universities, he expressed his desire to become an Oratorian. He was ordained on 30 May 1847 and joined the Congregation by the end of June.
On 1 February 1848, with the approval of Pope Pius IX, Fr. Newman established, in Birmingham, the first Congregation of St. Philip Neri in the English-speaking world; he established another Congregation in London a year later. During these years, Fr. Newman took up ministering to the English Catholic Christians. He also addressed a couple of peers formerly involved in the Oxford Movement and encouraged them to convert to the Catholic Church as well.
In 1852, Fr. Newman was invited to Dublin, Ireland, to give a series of lectures about the principles and benefits of university education and found a Catholic university there. These lectures formed the basis of what would become The Idea of a University (1852, 1858), and he would draw from these lectures in founding the Catholic University of Ireland (now University College Dublin), for which he was appointed Rector, in 1854. In addition to ministerial duties, Fr. Newman oversaw many projects, like the construction of campus buildings, the publication of periodicals, and the recruitment of staff. He also sought to show that being educated or cultured, or being a 'gentleman', does not guarantee sanctity or conscientiousness, stating that 'Knowledge is one thing, virtue is another', suggesting the importance of the Catholic Christian religion in acquiring virtue. Fr. Newman would serve as Rector for four years, but at the same time, he was greatly preoccupied with his still newly-founded Congregation in Birmingham, to which he could no longer give his time. In 1858, Fr. Newman decided to resign as Rector and returned to his Birmingham Oratory.
The following two decades of Fr. Newman's life subjected him to numerous controversies. For one thing, some Catholic Christian clergymen accused him of being critical of Pope Pius IX and advocating that the faithful be consulted on the definition of dogmas. Despite Fr. Newman's attempt to clarify himself, some bishops viewed him as problematic; one even reported him to Rome for heresy. In addition, in 1864, an Anglican clergyman and Cambridge Professor, Charles Kingsley, attacked Fr. Newman and accused him of never honestly being an Anglican and effeminacy due to his vow of celibacy. This prompted Fr. Newman to write Apologia Pro Vita Sua (1864, 1865), an autobiography showing how his religious convictions developed and changed over time. The work was praised for its integrity and did much to restore his reputation in England, Anglicans and Catholic Christians alike. In mid-to-late 1866, Fr. Newman met Gerard Manley Hopkins, then an Oxford undergraduate who was also struggling with doubts about the Church of England. He eventually received Hopkins into the Catholic Church on 21 October 1866.
When the First Vatican Council was called in 1868, many bishops asked Fr. Newman to serve as their theological adviser. Despite his interest in the topic of Papal Infallibility, which the Council was due to discuss, he declined these invitations to complete An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent (1870), which explores how man reaches convictions. In 1874, Fr. Newman was drawn to respond to the attacks of Prime Minister William Gladstone, who, outraged by the Vatican Council's affirmation of papal infallibility, claimed that Catholic Christians, owing their allegiance to the Pope, could never be loyal subjects to the Queen. Fr. Newman penned an open letter, responding that Catholic Christians 'do not deserve this injurious reproach that we are captives and slaves of the Pope'.
In 1877, Fr. Newman returned to Oxford for the first time in thirty-four years, receiving the first honourary fellowship of Trinity College. When Pope Pius IX died on 7 February 1878, Pope Leo XIII succeeded him thirteen days later, and he appointed Fr. Newman a cardinal in 1879, to great acclaim from his countrymen, Anglicans and Catholic Christians alike. Newman chose as his motto 'Cor ad cor loquitur' (Heart speaks unto heart), and upon being made a cardinal, he specifically requested not to be consecrated as a bishop (cardinals are typically drawn from the ranks of bishops) and that he remain in Birmingham to watch over the Birmingham Oratory. Both requests were granted, and Newman continued to live as a cardinal, still writing, at the Oratory.
In his final years, Cardinal Newman continued to correspond with and give spiritual guidance to many, eventually dying on 11 August 1890; tens of thousands lined the streets of Birmingham for the passing of his funeral cortege. Cardinal Newman was buried in the Oratory's cemetery, with the inscription on a plaque in the Oratory reading: 'Ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem' (From the shadows and images into truth).
Cardinal John Henry Newman was canonised as a saint on 13 October 2019, with Charles III, then-Prince of Wales, attending the canonisation ceremony as a representative of the United Kingdom.
Major Works
- Tracts for the Times (1833-1841): A series of 90 theological pamphlets expounding the views of the Oxford Movement. All the pamphlets were authored by a nameless 'Presbyter'; Newman was its biggest contributor, writing 28 of them. Interestingly, the series began and ended with a pamphlet written by Newman.
- Parochial and Plain Sermons (1834-1843): A collection of 191 sermons that Newman wrote during his Anglican years.
- Oxford University Sermons (1843): Short for Fifteen Sermons Preached Before the University of Oxford Between A.D. 1826 and 1843. These are fifteen sermons in which Newman explores the relationship between faith and reason. This gets explored in more detail with his later work, An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent, and Newman himself thinks that these sermons are "as a whole, the best things [he] has written".
- An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845): A book in which Newman examines (surprise!) the development of doctrine. Likening doctrine to a creature, he shows that it is rooted in the principle of development, with the Church growing in its understanding of the doctrine, though its later understandings are consistent with those of earlier understandings.
- Loss and Gain (1848): A novel examining the intellectual and spiritual development of Charles Reding, a student at Oxford who is caught up in the controversies heatedly debated at the university. The novel is commonly thought to be semi-autobiographical, but Newman insisted otherwise. This is also the first work that Newman wrote as a Catholic Christian.
- The Idea of a University (1852 and 1858): A book in which Newman explains the principles and benefits of university education and defends liberal education. He stated that a Catholic university, to claim legitimacy in the larger world, should support research and publication free from ecclesiastical censorship. At the same time, the university has to be a place in which the teachings of the Catholic Church are promoted and respected.
- Callista (1855): A novel set in mid-3rd century Sicca Veneria, focusing on the persecution of the Christian community under Emperor Decius. It is about Callista, a young beautiful Greek girl who, despite her gifts at carving statues of the pagan gods, is unhappy with her life. She meets a troubled and lovesick Christian of Roman descent named Agellius, who is torn between being a Christian and adhering to the practices of his pagan family: Juba, his brother; Gurta, his mother and a witch; and Jucundus, his uncle and Callista's employer. Soon, Agellius meets a mysterious Christian priest, Caecillius, who becomes his father figure and reinforces his faith.
- Apologia Pro Vita Sua (1864, revised 1865): Perhaps Newman's most famous work, written in response to the defamatory accusations of Charles Kingsley. It is a spiritual autobiography in which he chronicles his religious convictions and how they changed over time.
- The Dream of Gerontius (1865): A poem consisting of the prayer of Gerontius, a dying man, and angelic and demonic responses. The poem, rich in Catholic Christian eschatology, explores the soul's journey from death through Purgatory, thence to Paradise, and then to God. Famously, it was set to music by Edward Elgar.
- An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent (1870): A philosophical work by Newman, wherein he explores how man reaches convictions. Fr Gerard Manley Hopkins offered to write a commentary on the work, but Newman declined on the grounds that he saw it as unnecessary labour; he was planning on providing notes for the work himself.
- "Ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem."— Epitaph
